Bay Area Adventures | January, 2019
It’s time for my first monthly recap of 2019! We rewind to the first day of the year, when I met up with family for dinner at Rivoli at the end of my solo New Year’s retreat.
Opening the year with a tarot workshop with Stephanie, who created the Fleurot Deck.
So thankful for our community! This was the therapy we didn’t even know we needed.
Here’s a glimpse at my spread I pulled for the year.
Next, I met up with Nancy and Ryan to visit closing weekend for the Contemporary Muslim Fashions exhibit at the de Young.
So many beautiful garments!
And a delight to see my Duke classmate Ibtihaj Muhammad up on the wall, sporting her Nike Hijab.
We squeezed in one more Lean In/ Design Your Life meeting before Kait gave birth later that month.
Accountability meeting, setting goals for the month and the year.
I went ribbon sourcing at Lacis for my birthday party and walked away with some gorgeous golden velvet ribbon.
We welcomed Pamela to San Francisco with some drinks at Anina.
And after my birthday party, I decided to do a full photoshoot with my gifts in order to send out thank you cards to each of my generous friends! Thank you Dan and Jeri for the incredible llama basket and Lean In ladies for my awesome double-stacker tea set and creative book Your Brightest Life.
Do-Hee sewed me an incredible linen robe! And Tiffany & Greg gifted me a Glassybaby votive titled “goodness,” for more goodness in my 2019.
Here’s a delightful pile of gifts mailed from my momma. And some bubbly from Rachael.
Tokyo Banana from Amy. And some greeting cards from the artist herself, Pamela.
Plus many others that I didn’t show here. Thank you, all. <3
The birthday celebrations continued with drinks at Charmaine’s in the Proper Hotel.
Yes. And with fellow birthday girl Lindsey! Love these ladies.
Look! I match the couch! And afterwards, I headed downstairs to the restaurant for dinner with Amy.
Next, we had a craft night at Do-Hee’s home. Needlepoint for Kayla.
Calligraphy practice for Rachael. Cross stitch for Brianne… some others worked on embroidery from my party or other embroidery projects, and I worked on adding pockets to three of my dresses! Which I later completed and think was the best decision ever.
And then we were fed shrimp tacos, and it was the best.
Over the weekend, I met up with Timothy who was visiting from San Diego, and we headed to SFMOMA. Here’s the new Sea Ranch exhibit — I started my year passing through actual Sea Ranch, and I’ve shot many a wedding at the lodge there.
Mark and Timothy on the oculus bridge.
Contemplating a giant comb. And look at this globe, which wouldn’t seem all that special but for the fact that it was all crafted and drawn by hand.
A little walk through the Palace Hotel just for kicks.
I don’t normally make it to the movie theater very often. The last three movies I had watched in the theater were all Crazy Rich Asians, three times. But my friend Paul tries to watch as many of the Oscar best picture nominees as he can each year, so I tagged along for a couple. We watched A Star Is Born (why is Bradley Cooper’s character so creepy?) and Bohemian Rhapsody (great until I read about how inaccurate the entire storyline was). Here’s our pre-movie dinner of Uighur food, as Dan performs ‘getting the lamb off the skewer’.
Last year, I signed up to participate in The Sketchbook Project, whereby they mail you a sketchbook, you fill it, and it becomes part of the collection at the Brooklyn Art Library. I waited until the last minute to actually start filling my sketchbook, but I finished it off before I left for my travels this month! Here’s a little preview at a couple watercolor illustrations I made… and later tore up and gilded with gold. You’ll have to visit my actual sketchbook (call number 366.3-7) or wait for it to be scanned into the online collection in order to see the end result!
Our January paint club meeting was over happy hour at the Claremont Hotel!
Another peek at my sketchbook!
Carrie joined us for the first time and worked on some colorful abstract patterns.
Pamela worked on some reptiles.
Fernanda with her bold abstract florals!
And with the whole group, wonderful company and beautiful views.
Look at that sunset!
Last but not least, my mom arrived and we checked out Daughter Thai in Montclair, Oakland. Very delicious. And soon after, we embarked on our adventures in Asia! So stay tuned for more on that.
Bye January, you already seem so long ago.
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.
