Hi everyone! Hope you’re all having a great night and start to your weekend!

My weekend started a little early when we surprised my co-worker with an impromptu baby shower. (Nothing says classy like a conference room!)

We all enjoyed some home-made cupcakes, a champagne toast (the momma-to-be had sparkling water!) and some piping hot, fresh out of the oven SPECIALTYS COOKIES.

This bakery/deli/cafe has locations all over downtown San Francisco and even sends out “Warm Cookie Alerts” to their e-mail subscribers when a fresh batch of cookies is ready! They are HUGE, buttery and unbelievable. My favorite kind is hands down the Snickerdoodle (I’m instantly drawn to anything with cinnamon).

From there my co-workers and I all headed down the street to a bar/restaurant called Sens for a going-away happy hour for our manager. He’s moving to the Mid West so we wanted to send him off in style. They have this amazing tented patio that let in just enough of the breeze from the Bay, and they also had a DJ playing music, which never hurts in my opinion! I had never been to Sens (SFers please don’t disown me!) for happy hour before and it did not disappoint!

Since the whole day had felt really summer-y, I opted for a Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc that was very crisp and refreshing. I’d never had Cakebread before but I am definitely a fan! I’m not normally one for white one but sitting “outdoors” on a warm summer day and it just seemed like the right choice!

After chit-chatting with co-workers and saying goodbye to my manager I headed to my parents house to enjoy a family dinner for Father’s Day. My little brother is home for the weekend before summer school starts for him (he’s almost a college grad, YAY!) and my mom whipped up a delicious dinner of Steamed Stuffed Artichokes (mine was gone in about 3 minutes), Marinated Grilled Tri-Tip, and Giada’s Herbed Quinoa (hands down my favorite Food Network chef!) that was SO flavorful – I will definitely be replicating.

Clearly you can tell what my favorite part of the meal was.

I’m laying low tonight (getting at 5am really does a girl in!) and looking forward to an early morning workout, and a weekend of relaxing and sun! Hope your Friday – busy or relaxing- was a great one!

Do you happy hour often? What is your favorite type of cookie?  Who’s your favorite Food Network chef?

Since I went to bed later than usual last night (Hunger Games I blame you entirely) and woke up earlier than usual today, I’d been feeling a little bit like this all morning:

My “someday” dog will be exactly like Shasta – cuddly, perfect and able to run and fetch for miles!

Since the sun is shining and I had a couple of errands to run before some work festivities later on, I decided to take a walk on my lunch break. It’s SO beautiful in San Francisco today that I strolled over to the Ferry Building to grab some goodies for a co-workers baby shower this afternoon.

Foodie Heaven awaits inside!

My mission was to get some goodies to put something together for the momma-to-be, but while wandering around the Ferry Building, these little beauties caught my eye. Miette makes the BEST macarons this side of Ladurée in Paris. They are soft and chewy and irresistible. Thankfully the line was about 25 people long and that I could resist

On my way back to the office there was the usual nice-day Arts, Crafts, and Jewelry stands.

They sell everything from paintings to photographs to beaded necklaces and bracelets, earrings made from sea glass, children’s toys – a lot of really cool stuff, a lot of why-would-anyone-ever-spend-money-on-that stuff. My personal favorite stand is always the flattened wine bottles!

They are made from recycled wine and liquor bottles, flattened and then sold as decor, or as glass cheese boards (I really want one!) How fun would that be to serve cheese and crackers off of a flattened wine bottle? I’m sensing a dinner party in the works!

After picking up some goodies and a card, I was STARVING. Lunch was 1/2 of one of my favorite TJ’s meals (other 1/2 was consumed yesterday but I was too hungry to photo graph it – I’m terrible, I know.)

Rounding out the meal were some fresh, Organic Strawberries (Fun Fact: I actually “didn’t like” strawberries until just recently. Yes, I was very, very late to the party. My taste-buds are still pissed at me for all they missed.)

I bring my lunch, breakfast and snacks to work with me almost every day and I’m sure a lot of you do to – not only does it save a ton of money, but eating food that I cook and prepare always makes me just feel better all day – no grease, oils, or heartburn!

I recently discovered Bella Bags by Toss Designs but they can also be found online here. They are adorable lunch bags – very sturdy, you can personalize them, they come in a variety of colors and patterns and best of all… they’re insulated! (Good-bye Lululemon lunch shopping bag).

I use mine every day and I LOVE it!

Hope your Friday is going great so far (East Coasters it’s your weekend already!)

I’m off to prep the conference room for some baby fun!

Do you bring or buy your lunch? What is your favorite lunch to pack for work?  Do you like to buy unique items from arts and crafts fairs in your area?

TGIF!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Friday morning! I awoke bright and early to the sun shining, and… could it be…. some summer HEAT! (OK so it was mayyybe a very low 70).

Since it’s Friday and all, my morning stared with my favorite skinny vanilla latte

For ONCE they even spelled my name right. Today is a good day.

To spare you from the boring details, my breakfast looked a lot (ok it was identical) to this:

• 0% Chobani (YES!) Greek Yogurt
• Organic Blueberries
• Sliced up banana (the lady at Starbucks asked me not once, not twice, but three times if I was really going to only get a drink. To put an end to that I stammered, stuttered and finally grabbed the banana. Watch out! Getting’ crazy on Friday!)
• The last of my stash of Julie’s PB Granola (which I foresee making a LOT of repeats!)

So here in the Bay Area we have a little place of greatness called Sports Basement.

It’s an old grocery store converted into a sporting goods store and it is HUGE! (Everything they carry is supposedly discounted – but in my opinion it’s still pretty pricey! Sports Authority is my go-to for Nike gear – better prices!)

They have sections for just about every sport and outdoor (and indoor!) activity imaginable but my favorite part is hands-down the bars/gels/snacks section.

They have EVERY flavor of EVERY energy bar ever created

That would be 6 different types of Z Bars – I didn’t even know they made those!

Obviously indoor decor was not what they were after

Above would be the mother lode – Justin’s packets in every imaginable flavor, more varieties of Kind Bars and Lara Bars than I knew existed ! How. do. I. choose.

While I leave you drooling over my personal treasure trove, it’s probably time to get some job-work done!

But before I go, check out yesterday’s $24 purchase!

I mayyy have popped into Forever 21 for .2 seconds yesterday, immediately spotted the 2 things I’ve been searching for forever – lace top and “turquoise” necklace (it was $5,  I’ll take what I can get!)   at a STEAL… and whipped out the plastic. My name is Kristine and I’m a shop-a-holic.

TGIF Friends!

What’s your favorite kind of energy/protein bar? Where’s your favorite spot to get deals on clothes/jewelry? What is your go-to coffee drink at Starbucks/Peets/whathaveyou?