Every afternoon I post a photo of the day here on the blog. Some of the reasons I do this include:

• I like sharing my photos especially the ones of the city where I live.
• It motivates me to keep taking pictures on a regular basis.
• It also motivates me to try to get better at taking photographs.
• I think it adds something to this blog to have visuals like that.

But this blog isn’t just here for me. It’s here for my readers too. So I’m curious, what do you think of the photo of the day? Should I keep doing it? Should I be doing anything differently with it?

Tags: Photos, photos of the day, smartchick

My review of The Dangerous Passion (a terrific book about the biology of jealousy) was included in a really awesome Book Review blog carnival. I’ve never seen a blog carnival that was done so well. Instead of mere links, it shows you images of the book and the author with a short snippet of the review. Very well done. There were two dozen books featured in the carnival so there are a lot of great recommendations. Check it out!

Tags: blog carnival, book review, books

This was one of the first things that I ever sewed together. It’s a beach towel that was converted into a tote bag. I actually did quite a poor job since I didn’t have the right tools to cut it and sew it properly. However, I was quite proud of this project at the time. And in the end, it turned out that I really liked this particular picture I took of it hanging on a door.

Tags: bag, Photos, tote

I love the buildings in San Francisco that sit on a corner and so are shaped in a funny rounded traingular way.

Tags: building, corner building, financial district san francisco, Photos, skyscraper

Imagine standing next to a set of active wind chimes measuring 3 times your own size in height. I can’t even begin to picture what that experience would be like but it’s something that I’d like to try out sometime. If I ever get the chance to purchase a set of Music of the Spheres Wind Chimes then that would be possible because they have a set of wind chimes in their collection that measures 14′ in height. (Okay, so that’s not quite three times my height but at under 5’0″ it’s pretty darn close).

I just feel like the experience of being amidst wind chimes that were so large would be something that you couldn’t experience in any other way. Wind chimes of all sizes tend to impress me. They feel magical. They bring the sensation of sound into your life in a way that you don’t normally get to feel it. Sure, you hear noise and music around you all of the time but you rarely hear the tone and pitch of wind chimes. I would love to find out what it would be like to actually be immersed in beneath the massive Music of the Spheres Wind Chimes.

Of course, this is an entire line of wind chimes. They have smaller options as well for people who don’t have the space or the funds for the massive wind chimes. Even their small ones are pretty large, though. The smallest of the Music of the Spheres Wind Chimes is still over one foot in height so that’s bigger than the majority of the wind chimes that you’re probably used to experiencing. I know it’s bigger than the ones that I am used to.

I actually am really only familiar with small wind chimes. I remember that I used to have a massage therapist who wore a necklace with tiny windchimes on it. It created a beautiful sound when she moved which made the massage sessions so much more magical. Yes, that’s the word that I keep coming back to – magical. There is magic in the sound of wind chimes, no matter what their size. I can only guess that wind chimes of a greater size would allow for even more magic to be present around them.

Has anyone out there experienced these wind chimes? What was it like?

Tags: music of the spheres wind chimes, wind chimes

Yesterday’s photo was of the big cross on Mt. Davidson. What I didn’t mention was that the cross is in the middle of a eucalyptus grove. So pretty:

Tags: eucalytpus, mt. davidson, nature, photography, Photos, trees

I’m working on changing my apartment. I’m trying to get it to the point where all of the things that I own are things that I truly love. That means getting rid of all of the secondhand junk and things that I’ve outgrown and replacing it with truly lovable stuff. I’m not planning to spend tons of money or to make huge dramatic changes. I’m just tweaking things here and there to create a space that really means something to me.

Most of the house is a mess while it undergoes these changes. However, I’ve finally gotten to the point where at least one room in my apartment is filled with things I love. It’s my bathroom. Hey, you have to start somewhere right.

Ten things I love in my bathroom are:

1. My flower girl vase. You’ve seen it pictured here before. I found it a thrift store in Ohio last year and totally love it. It’s an old Gibson girl vase that I keep fresh flowers in on the sink in the bathroom.
2. Vintage mouthwash bottle. I just added this to the sink’s countertop as well. It’s silly but I hated the big Listerine bottle that doesn’t fit quite right in the medicine cabinet. My new vintage mouthwash holder is small and cute.
3. Pretty soap dispenser. For the first three years that I lived here, I used throw-away plastic dispensers from the store. Now I have a pretty grey-and-white soap dispenser that’s so much nicerh.
4. Lips shower curtain. I have a totally flirty, fun shower curtain. See it in the picture of my bathroom shown above.
5. Pin-up girl towels. I love the new towels that from Sin in Linen that I bought. They’re grey with pinup girls on them. Pricey for towels but totally worth it since I love them so very much.
6. Pin-up girl pictures. Sticking to a theme here, I have a few cheap framed pinup girl photos in the bathroom as well. They were one of the first things I changed to make the bathroom more lovable.
7. Bathmat and toilet seat cover. They’re a pretty purple pink color that matches the shower curtain. I do wish the bathmat was bigger and more comfy than it is though.
8. Sugar body scrub. I don’t use fancy soaps but I found this sugar body scrub from Trader Joe’s that smells like tangerine and I adore it.
9. Space heater. I like to use a space heater to keep warm when I get out of the shower.
10. Bathrobe. And I like to cuddle up in a big warm black bathrobe when I leave this room so it hangs right on the door at all times.

Tags: bathroom, decor, home, house, kathryn vercillo

When I learned that there’s a peak in San Francisco where a huge concrete cross towers over the city, I had to go check it out. It’s not that I’m particularly interested in the cross itself but was curious about how I’d never heard it existed. It’s on Mt. Davidson … interesting place.

Tags: cross, mt. davidson, Photos, San Francisco

I’ve been doing some blogging for Maverick Hammers, a really cool company that creates hydraulic hammers for the demolition industry. I’m happy to say that two of my posts for them were included in blog carnivals recently.

First, I wrote a post for them about being green in this industry. It’s not an industry that’s focused on green issues at all so it’s been interesting for me to learn about how they stay green and continue to get greener even though it’s not an industry focus. This post was included in the All Things Eco blog carnival. That carnival is filled with tons of great green links to check it out if being green interests you.

Another interesting thing about this company is how it considers itself to be part of a chain of businesses. Maverick Hammers believes in a job well done because the company knows that failure at that results in problems for many other businesses as well. The post I did about this topic was included in the Muse on Everything carnival.

Tags: Blog, blog carnival, busines, green, links, maverick hammers

A close-up photo of a berry that I saw while hiking. I like the berry part but don’t like how the leaf in front came out so blurry. How do you avoid that when taking close-up photos like this?

Tags: berry, close-up photography, photo