I Left My Heart In San Francisco and a Pink Honeysuckle

The week is almost over. Whew! It's been a busy and hectic week so now it is time to relax and go sightseeing. If you want to join me on this weekly meme, let me know by Friday and I can add your travel link. I am so excited because Chandy of http://whatnowtablescapes.blogspot.com/ is participating again so I get to enjoy another sightseeing.

You know, we do not have to travel to Europe or to the Caribbean to see beautiful sceneries. We have great sceneries right in our good ol' USA backyard! Today, I will take you to one of my favorite cities, the city of San Francisco in California, where the air is crisp and the view of the bay is refreshing. Everytime we go there, I leave part of my heart and I want to keep coming back.

Of course you have seen this famous neighborhood! They show it on TV commercials all the time.

This is Danielle Steel's house. You probably love reading her novels or watch them portrayed on the Lifetime movie channel. This very talented author has over 580 million copies of her books printed and every one of them are best sellers.
The famous TransAmerica pyramid building sticks out.

Look at the streets of San Francisco, nothing boring about it, steep hills, trolley tracks and beautiful view of the bay.
I tried doing Tai Chi with the Asian people in front of the church early morning. The air was cool and crisp and was very refreshing.
John had a meeting here at Westin Saint Francis Hotel, on the very top floor and we had to take a clear glass elevator located on the exterior wall of the building. It was so creepy going up because we were so high. But the ride was worth it to get to these scrumptious desserts! LOL! But of course, everytime we go to San Francisco, we always have to visit the crookedest street. I cannot count how many times I have seen it.

This is the house on top of the street. Wouldn't you like to sit in that patio and enjoy the view. Aaaaah! Simply breathtaking!

We took a cruise on the Bay and these seals were one of the first things we saw. Kinda smelly but interesting to look at. There were so many of them and all of them were sunbathing and so noisy!

And of course, you have to see the Golden Gate Bridge when you go there. After all, it is one of the icons of the city.

Probably not a lot of people see this view of the bridge. We were on a boat and went right under it so I was able to take a pic. Check out the flying sea gull.

Alcatraz, which you all know was used as a prison.

A closer view

There is always something fun going on at the Fisherman's Wharf.

We went to the Asian Museum of Fine Arts. I wanted to take everything that was displayed there but I was only allowed to take this head home. LOL!

I met with Yvonne, who I boarded with when we were in College and who I have not seen for so many years and what do women do when they get together? Shopping, of course!

Look at the blue crabs in China Town, one of the places that we like to visit.

We always like to eat there too. I hope you enjoyed the tour today. I had to post this is advance cause I am out of town. I apologize if I am not able to comment for a while. I'll catch up when I get back.

It's also Pink Saturday, which is hosted by Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Please visit her blog and check out the list of participants for all the lovely pinks posted today.

For my contribution, I would like to show you my Goldflame Honeysuckle. I don't know why it is called goldflame cause I think it is pink and not gold. I guess there is a little gold in the center.

I think it is a wonderful climbing plant and the flowers smell so good.

Thanks Beverly and thank you all for swinging by today! You all have a great week!

Fit For Royalty

It's Thursday and we get to play with our tables. How exciting! Tablescape Thursday is hosted by Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/. We all need to visit Susan's blog and check out all the creative tablescapes going on in Blogland. She has a complete list of participants.

Today, I decided to create a more formal table setting, using our Vogue China dinnerware, which has a 22K gold filigree accents, featuring a Colonial couple in the center. I only set a table for 2 since there are only 2 of us here. I will just imagine the servants serving us the food:-)

I picked the flowers in the tall Meissen vases from our garden. I thought these candelabra looks good for a royal setting. I got the idea from the Russian palaces that we visited.

I have so many plates and needed more storage so we bought this little cabinet which holds the Vogue dinnerware.

That French cabinet against the wall also holds a lot of our dishes.

A Sevres centerpiece.

Three sets of dishes are stored in the corner china cabinet.

I bought the wooden baroque gold plate chargers from Horchow.

I placed short vases with faux flowers on either side of the centerpiece. Don't worry, I have fresh flowers too. LOL!

I bought the tablecloth from Rhodes, Greece 2 years ago. I really like the crinkly material and the gold embroidery along the borders and the center. Here's a close up of the embroidery.

The flatware are bronze with mahogany handles. They were made in Thailand. My cousin who owns a pawn shop in the Philippines gave them to me. Someone had pawned them and never picked them up so their loss is my gain. She gave me a complete service for 12 with lots of extra pieces. I really like them so I went searching on Ebay and found another service for 12 that I won so now, I have a complete set for 24 people. Click and check out the details on the carving on the handles, really cool and it says "Siam" on them.

The forks, spoons and knives come in so many sizes.

Crystal stemware, the liquor and wine glasses are Mikasa in a tulip pattern, can't remember the pattern of the goblet.

I hope you enjoyed my tablescape. I enjoyed making believe it's for the king and queen. LOL! Thank you, Susan, for allowing us to play every Thursday!

A Triple Post! Green Everywhere and Home Office Walls

Wednesday is one of the busiest day in Blogland, at least it is for me. Why? Cause I don't want to miss any of these events so I am joining all 3 of them. Outdoor Wed. is hosted by Susan at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/. I love seeing everybody's outdoor pictures and maybe you might too, so let's all go visit Susan's site, ok?

After checking out the outdoor pics, please stay around to see what's on our office walls and what's on my Wordless Wed. post.

For this week, I just went around our yard and started clicking on the camera. It's green all over with a few colorful flowers. Isn't the cardinal so pretty on our iron post?
We have 3 Japanese red maples and they really stand out against the green trees. This one's in front of the house.

Here's the other one on the front side of the house.

And here is the third one in the back sideyard by the driveway.

The pink roses are in full bloom.

And look at the cute peaches! This one's a small tree. We just planted it last year. I am surprised it is already bearing fruits.

And here is one of our 2 big peach trees. Do you see all the little peaches? You can click to enlarge the pic to get a better view.

We are working on 2 big projects. We put up an arbor with 2 benches in the area where the yard is sloping down into the creek. I bought 2 colorful bench cushions but will wait till we are done before I lay them down.

I planted 4 climbing Jazmine plants and I can't wait for them to cover the arbor. We are laying down bricks on the ground in b/w the benches and one step down. And then we will just lay stepping stones all the way down.

The second project we are working on is right behind the house. You can see the sloping yard here too. We laid some railroad ties down and I started planting on the terraces. I am not quite done yet....still have a lot to do. Planting is not as hard as digging out the grass. Maybe if I stop blogging, I can finish the project sooner, but what fun would that be? LOL! I have always been a multitasker and life will be too boring for me if I only did one thing at a time.

And lastly, I would like to share with you the progress on our baby bird eggs.

They've hatched and the babies sure look hungry. I did not see them cause I was afraid to climb up on a chair, afraid the mama bird will fly out suddenly again and startle me, so I just raised the camera and snapped a picture. Aren't they precious?

Just as I said, I am also participating in What's on your Wall Wed. hosted by our southern hospitable and glamorous Barb of http://gritsglamour.blogspot.com/. Please visit her site and check out what everybody has on their walls today.

I have also posted just 2 pictures for Wordless Wed. hosted by Dixie at http://frenchlique.blogspot.com/. Today's theme is Earth Day.

But first, let's see what's on the wall. This room is our home office which is right outside the master bedroom. I bought this tile frame for John with ("dottore") written on it, on my first trip to Italy a long time ago. It's a signed hand painted piece and I really like it. It is hanging above the black Asian file cabinet/shelves combo.

This stamp plaque was bought from Kirkland's and is hanging on the other side of the sliding door wall.

These 3 frames are on the left wall of the wall office unit. The first one is a reversed painting on glass of a University of Michigan building, the school where John graduated. The second one is an oil painting from the Philippines and the third is a display of insects we bought from Belize.

I gave this egg frame to John last Christmas. A lot of you probably already know that he collects eggs. Next to it is a trio of lizards I won from Ebay. They are hanging behind his chair and desk.

And these are what is hanging on the wall behind my chair, above another Asian file cabinet, a lateral one. The small one on top is my favorite bonding picture of me and AJ, below it is an Indonesian plaque I bought from a Pier One outlet store in Florida and the big frame is an oil painting I bought from a local shop here. I love the vivid colors on it.

Here is the close up of the photograph showing me and AJ oil painting when she was only 6 years old. I wish I could show you what she painted but my youngest daughter kept it because it was a painting of her wedding complete with the church, bride and groom and the attendants in an abstract finish.

Here are just 2 frames, the top one is a presidential stamp and coin collection and the one below it is an Asian bird plaque.

Last but not least, here is my contribution for Dixie's Earth Day Wordless Wednesday!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope I did not bore you too much with this long post. Hope you all have a nice Wednesday!