Saturday Brunch

Saturdays make me really happy for two reasons:

1. I get to play soccer.

2. I get to see my wonderfulgenerousinspirational grandmother (who takes me to all of my games).

This particular Saturday was especially good because before my game I got to have brunch with one of my lovely bridesmaids, and after my game I had a book club "gathering" with some smartfuneasygoing girls. And by gathering I mean we mostly sit around and eat baguette and various cheeses and crackers and fruit and cupcakes and drink iced tea and sangria and talk a lot about all kinds of girly things and talk a little about the book we're reading (right now it's Tolstoy's Anna Karenina).

Back to brunch. Marina (my grandmother) asked me what she could bring. I said flowers. She brought a fragrant and beautiful multicolor bunch of roses from her garden, the first of the year.

I got baguettes from Thoroughbread Bakery, the best in the city, and eggs from the farmer's market and made french toast and fried eggs and smoothies.

Jessica and I met working at Crossroads when we were still teenagers in our first years of college at SFSU. We both loved fashion and were each developing our own personal style. We have always been able to talk about anything and everything. She has since moved back to Sacramento to finish school, but has fallen in love with a boy that happens to live directly across the street from me in San Francisco. She was here for the weekend, and we had brunch.

 Kitty wanted some too.

"Cool arms of flowers and a lap of rose" Neruda

in

My friend (and maid of honor) Katie is taking a floral design class, and a couple of weeks ago I accompanied her to the San Francisco Flower Mart. She was making centerpieces for Easter with her family and I was hosting a pasta night and needed something to spruce up my tiny apartment and vegetarian menu.

Peonies at $25 a bunch, yikes!

I ended up with mixed ranunculus and white sweet peas, enough for two arrangements. They lasted for a whole week.

Perfection.

I love having fresh flowers in the house. Growing up, my mother the gardener (quilter, teacher, pastry chef, farmer, the list goes on) had fresh flowers in every room. I don't think I appreciated it enough when I was young, but now that I live in the city and I see how hard inexpensive fresh flowers are to come by, I realize that it is one of the things I loved most about growing up in the country. I swoon every time I walk by a cherry tree in bloom, or a yard bursting with growth. I think all the concrete makes me crave it. Fortunately, Jeff likes to garden, and I envision a lot of flowers in our future.

High of 81°

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Jeffery and I have Wednesdays off together, and we knew today was going to be a hot one. So we planned on getting up early, having breakfast, making our farmer's market run, packing a picnic, and heading to Dolores Park. We did just that.

Artichokes 3 for $5 at the Civic Center Farmer's Market

Gerbera Daisies at the Civic Center Farmer's Market

Church Street Flowers

I make couscous with onions, garlic, zucchini, corn, and dried cranberries. We bought a baguette on the way and brought a chilled bottle of Lambrusco. And I made sure to bring my sun hat, thrifted for $3.

We arrived at about 1:30 and stayed until the sun disappeared behind the hill around 6. It was still packed when we left.

One Man's Trash

Jeffery brought a rubber tree home from work, one that someone had the audacity to return. It blows me away that some people feel the need to return used clothing, but plants too?

Kitty thinks he's in the jungle.

Cat Dreams

It has been beautiful out the past few days, and when it warms up I come home and find my sweet kitty sleeping in the sun.

Batman asleep on the quilt I made.

And so I take his photo, because I can't resist such cuteness. Batman turned nine in April. I've had him since I was in 8th grade. But the story actually starts when I was two and my brother was five and we got our first pet, Mighty Mouse.

Mighty and I were best friends for 17 years. But when I was in 8th grade, his age started to show, and I wanted a younger model. I asked my parents if we could get a kitten, and they said no, that getting another cat would probably make Mighty depressed and he would go off and die somewhere. But I didn't believe them. I did what any 13-year-old would do: I tricked them into getting one anyways.

A friend of mine was dating a guy that lived on a farm and drove a Camero. His six-toed tabby got knocked up by the crazy barn cat and had a litter. The runt of the litter had six claws on each paw, a tiny little face and massive ears. I was in love.

We devised a scheme. And all I had to do was go home and act normal and wait. It was torturous. I counted down the hours. Eight o'clock finally came along, and I strained my ears for a sound, but all I could hear was my heart beating in my chest. Finally, there was a knock on the door. My dad got up from the couch and walked to the door. He opened it. He picked up a cardboard box and brought it inside. Out crawled a little kitten with a heart-shaped sign around his neck that said "Love me."

Batman as a kitten on the first quilt my mom and I made together.

Of course we kept him. The best part is that Mighty Mouse and Batman were best friends and lovers. They played and slept together and Mighty was young again. They had five years together, and then everyone moved away and we left Mighty with the neighbors. He passed away at age nineteen.

Batman moved with us to the city and the rest is history. He's really more like a dog than a cat. When we're home, he's always right there, waiting for something.

Introductions are in order.

For a while now I have wanted to start a blog to share all of the pretty things in my world, the things that make me smile and excite me. There is a lot of beauty out there, and I would like to contain some of it for our collective viewing pleasure. I have wanted to write about food and fashion and travel and art and kitties, and now I am doing it. So welcome! And thank you for being here.

About me:

My name is Roseann.

I am a twenty-something girl with my degree in poetry, a bride-to-be planning her wedding to her high school sweetheart.

I live in San Francisco, the city that sparkles by the bay.

I help manage a recycled clothing store, and I love fashion.

I play soccer on Saturdays.

My family lives on the Big Island of Hawai'i, but I was born and raised in a small town in northern California.

I spent the fourth year of my undergrad studying English Literature in England and traveling throughout Europe.

I have a cat named Batman, but we call him Kitty.

I love to cook, dress up and host dinner parties, and take photographs of flowers.

This is the first ranunculus to bloom on my fire escape.