Bay Area Adventures | December, 2018
Here we are with the final monthly recap of 2018. It was a wonderful month on the quiet side, filled with gatherings of friends and family and lots of time at home finishing up my work for the year.
First, a gorgeous sunset scene from the Marin Headlands.
A little lunch break in the middle of my five shoots in two days. The deYoung was coincidentally having a free day, so I popped in for a quick visit.
And then, as I was wrapping up my last session and starting to drive home, I saw Cassie and Michael walking down the street! They invited me to join them and Courtney & Jackson for dinner. Love this wonderful serendipity.
On Sunday, I stopped by the Temescal holiday fair to visit two of our Paint Club artists who were showing their work! Here’s Pam with all her cute illustrations.
And here’s Fernanda with her cool pattern work. You can buy her notebooks at Anthropologie!
My friend Paul came along and we had to go pet the alpaca and assorted animals in the free petting zoo, naturally.
Look at that silly face.
Afterwards, I met up with my cousin Theresa to tour the Camron Stanford House, which is right on Lake Merritt. I pass it all the time but have never looked inside.
Very cute Christmas display, and we got gingersnap cookies at the end!
Then it was time for our Office of Accountability friendsgiving. We were doing a secret santa this year, and my giftee was Meg. I decided to create a ‘resilience box’ for her with a book of beautiful poems by Rupi Kaur; a ‘resilient’ enamel pin; and a custom oil painting I made for her, inspired by one of her instagram posts. You can read more about the painting and watch a timelapse of it being made here.
Friendsgiving prep! Thank you so much to Jackson and Courtney for hosting us for the second year now!
You know it’s a good party when Eileen shows up with an entire laundry hamper of her cocktail supplies.
Gift opening time!
I got tears from Meg. ;) Love you girl!
Chelsea gifted me a beautiful ceramic dish and a gift card to Baleen, my new favorite jewelry shop.
Gentle hand pose.
Tuesdays Together Oakland goes tiki.
Office of Accountability meets at Bri’s house! I love all the enamel pins she’s made, and I added one more to my collection.
Here’s my full enamel pin collection, which I only started this summer! So many great little memories with each pin.
“Take up space!”
Lunch + boba date with Tiffany.
Then, hotpot at Courtney & Jackson’s. Two dinners at their place in one month! So lucky! Also, Courtney’s cousin brought a dog she was dogsitting. So cute.
Two different meetups: ramen with Whitney and avocado toast with Carrie, who’s new to the area from Michigan!
Fireside Paint Club meeting at Pam’s. She pulled some of her vintage reference books and I thought this one on the Southwest was perfect since I had just come back from Arizona.
Haha, I think Emma & Sadie did an awesome job drawing each other!
Steph worked on her Christmas gifts: custom animal ornaments for their pet lovers. And Pam worked on a Berkeley house portrait.
So cozy!
Then it was time for secret santa with the Design Your Life ladies.
Hooray!
Lunch with Joyce at Nyum Bai. Delicious!
And a lunch break at Kitava in the middle of a work day with Do-Hee & Cassie.
Later that night, hotpot at Annie & David’s…. where they have a photobooth in their house, haha.
More art from our Paint Club members! Lizzie had her very first gallery showing for her watercolors. So beautiful!
Lester and Grant are in town! TAFers gather at Alamo Square.
And we made our way over to Hayes Valley.
Christmas Day brunch at my aunt’s house.
And then a hike with my cousins.
So much nature so close by. This was over in Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland hills.
And finally, a Nature Journal Club field trip in Novato. So many people!
My final day of 2018 will be its own post, yet to come. But farewell to a very full year!
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
