Sewing 101

So I got a call from mon petit cousin a couple of weeks ago inviting me to attend a class at CraftGym here in the city. It's pretty cool... check them out at craftgym.com. Here's what I made:

you can't really tell, but the dark brown stripe is actually a tiny windowpane check. I liked the contrast of the floral print against the menswear print. Overall... it was really simple. The hardest part of the whole class was learning how to thread the freakin' machine! I'm definitely going back to take some other classes.

Too busy shopping... not much time to blog

Awhile back I decided that it would be a good idea to blog my shopping. I thought it would help curb my little excursions to downtown SF and Hayes Valley if I listed my purchases. Well, it seems that I was too busy shopping to bother to blog. I'm catching up now. I'm sure I've left stuff off... but here goes:

aren't these fun? John Varvatos for Converse/Jack Purcell. They're camo print suede. Amazingly comfortable. No, they did NOT come with shoe laces.
I loved those so much, I got these too:

And while I was getting the black ones, I picked these up... not only are the laces a bit crazy, they're elastic, so i can just pull them on. Brill.
For some odd reason, I've decided to let my hair grow. I'm not quite sure why... maybe so I can buy baseball caps like this:

It's Rugby by Ralph Lauren... they're calling it a "new" concept store. Looks like old Double RL to me. That's not necessarily a bad thing - I loved Double RL and was really sad to see it go. I'd describe it as Double RL with a definite Varsity/Collegiate feel. I'm keeping my eye on them. The only store around here is at Stanford Shopping Center...
Last week was kinda' shitty... so on Friday I left about an hour early and swung by hayes valley where I picked this up:

I just thought it was a fresh new take on camo... it's by Fred Perry. Nice to see an old school company like them updating their designs.
About a month ago, I had a yet another icky week and I swung by hayes valley to get a little treat for myself... I picked up a Black cuff from Lava 9 (I can't find it right now, or I would have included the photo). When I was paying for it, the nice owner lady gave me this:
she said, "you are in here so often... I thought you'd like ziss... I thought of you when it arrived yezterday". (she's this really funky, fun, German lady. I think it's hysterical!
Oh! here's a shot of that Dries Van Noten Jacket that I got for the conference!

And finally, here's the latest addition to my Jack Spade Collection.
really yummy.
Anyhow... I'm kinda' caught up now. Funny... as I'm finishing up this post, there are about 4 or 5 things that I've missed popping into my head... whatever. you get the point. I've got issues.

This is where I'm from

http://www.kevingardiner.com/westlake.html

It looks so cool now. Could Henry Dolger be the new Joseph Eichler? Wouldn't that be interesting...

My new adventure...

I've been feeling pretty exhausted/stressed/sleep deprived/run down as of late. So much so that I took this week off of work to recuperate. I do this every 7 or 8 months... I just go, go, go until I can't anymore, then I end up making myself sick. During my week off, I usually just hang out at home and sleep most of the day. After a week of that, I'm usually rejuvenated enough to go for another 7 or 8 months.
My regular doctors could never really figure out what to do other than give me a note to hand to my boss after a week of calling in sick. Well, I finally figured that after about 6 years of this that enough was enough. Time to try something new. So I jumped on the mac and did a search for acupuncture. I discovered that The College for Traditional Chinese Medicine is right here in Potrero Hill!
I had my first appointment this morning. I met with my intern, Juan Carlos (not very "Traditionally Chinese")... he asked me all kinds of questions and then "listened to my 'chi'". At this point, it was all I could do to keep from laughing. I mean, it was just too "ding-ding" for me... anyhow, he made a few notes, then ran out to talk to his "master". Next thing you know, I'm being introduced to "Master Wang" or something like that... he was straight out of Central Casting. He listened to my "Chi" then asked to look at my tongue. Next came the guessing game... "Do you have pain in your neck? Do you have tension in your shoulders? Do you have headache? etc. I answered all of his questions and then he let me know that they could "help me". Okay. Whatever.
They decided to concentrate on my sleep apnea. It seemed to be the core of my problems... fatigue, lethargy, lack of energy, etc.
The master left and it was time for Juan Carlos to start my "treatment". This consisted of sticking needles in the following places:
one between my eyebrows
one at the top of my head (kinda' towards the back)
one in each of my wrists
one in each of my forearms
one between my thumb and pointer on each of my hands
one on the inside of each of my ankles
and one on the top of each of my feet kinda' between the big toe and the, um, next (?) toe
The needle between my eyebrows and the one on the top of my head were connected with wires and an electrical impulse was sent through them. THAT was lovely. I felt like my eyes were bleeding. I was a bit alarmed when, as I was laying there, the one between my eyebrows started to kinda' buzz, then popped out. I buzzed for Juan Carlos and he replaced it... then 10 minutes later it did it again. He came back and decided not to replace it since, "my body was rejecting it". Neat.
Now I know I'm making this sound like torture, but it really wasn't. I actually dozed off a couple of times. Juan Carlos warned me that I would probably fall asleep and that that was actually a good thing. My treatment lasted about an hour and a half. I was relieved to have the needles pulled out of me, but I honestly could've lasted all day if I had to.
I paid my 55 bucks and left there with more energy than I've had in a long time. On my way home, I stopped and picked up some lunch. After lunch I had the best nap I've ever had in my life. I think I'm sold. I'm going back tomorrow and Saturday... I'll keep you posted on my progress.