Savvy in San Francisco is Moving

For those of you who know me personally, know that I have been working on redoing the design of SAVVY IN SAN FRANCISCO for quite a long time now.  But you know what...life gets in the way and things get put off.  But I have finally pulled the trigger and SAVVY IN SAN FRANCISCO has a new look and a new location.

I'm switching from Blogger to WordPress and changing my domain name from savvyinsanfrancisco.blogspot.com to SAVVYINSANFRANCISCO.CO!  I'm pretty excited to have the domain name without the blogspot in it.  I'm a little nervous about switching over and the traffic following me over to the new site, so crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.  So head on over to the NEW SITE and leave me a comment on what you think about it!

Cheers,

What will your verse be?

I'm sorry to be so MIA lately.  Ever since the New Year, I seem to be in a rut and I can't get back into the groove of things - especially related to the blog.  Anyone else have this problem?  It was so nice to have that time off over the holidays with the family.  It has really made me try to look at all of my priorities and try to figure out the best way to balance all of the balls I have up in the air.  

The last couple of weeks I have had all of these things really touch me and make me try to assess what is important and what direction I want to head.  If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen that I had a little bit of an emotional epiphanie after watching the movie, About Time.  Here is a quote from the end of the movie that really spoke to me: 

"The truth is, now I don't travel back at all, not even for the day. I just try to live everyday as if I've deliberately come back to this one day. To enjoy it. As if it was the full final day. Of my extraordinary, ordinary life!"

I just want to make sure that I'm living each day to the fullest and appreciating all the little things especially with Charlotte, Tatum and Landon.  They seem to be growing up so fast and I want to make sure that I'm there for them and soaking up all the adorable moments.

I feel like my blogsite (combining my photography & blog in one place on WordPress) has been put on pause.  I'm so close to completing it.  I just need to push myself to do it and then hope that is the motivation and inspiration that I need to get back into the swing of things.  I want to make sure if I'm taking time away from the kids, that the content I put out there is worth that time.  

I've also really connected to (funny enough) the iPad Air commercial that uses beautiful images along with a quote from John Keating, a character from Dead Poet's Society.  

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"

So what I'm asking myself and asking all of you, "What will your verse be?"

Cheers,

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

I can't believe it is already 2014!  This last year flew by so fast and so did the last two holiday weeks. It's time to get back into the swing of things, but I'm having trouble doing that.  Anyone else feeling that way?  

The kids go back to school tomorrow, so that might help me feel like things are moving again.  I don't know about any of you, but I have barely been on my laptop for the last two weeks and I kind of checked out a little bit from the social media world.  It was so nice just to focus on my family and friends and really enjoy the holidays.  But now I need to get my motivation back and get things moving over here at Savvy in San Francisco and in the Sanchez household.

My immediate to-do list:

1. Finish blogger to WP transition and photography/blog site redesign (was supposed to happen over the holidays, but I chose family instead).
2. Set up an editorial calendar
3. Organize our bedroom (which should include some major hauls to Goodwill).
4. Have the kids go through all of their toys and fill up three bags to donate them.
5. Get back on a healthy eating habit and a consistent workout schedule.  I definitely overindulged over the holidays and need to take back the control.  

How are you starting off your New Year? 

SpitfireMom Society

I'm excited and honored to be added to a fantastic list of SpitfireMoms in the SpitfireMom Society on The Spitfire Girl Design blog!  Make sure you head over to Heidi's site to hear more about how being a Mom influences my work and more! 

Trying to Find Balance

Tatum with two of her girlfriends. They have no idea how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful place!

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend.  Mine was packed full of family time, a fun date night in Napa with Carlos and a pretty fabulous spa day at Nob Hill Spa with some of my besties.   

Things have been a little crazy over here at Savvy in San Francisco and I wanted to thank you for all hanging in with me while I figure things out and let some things settle down.  I wanted to share with you what has been keeping me busy and less attentive to the blog. 

With the holidays rapidly approaching (how did that happen), I have been busy with family photoshoots.  Photography has been a top priority to ensure everyone can get their pictures in time to order their holiday cards.

Brands have been kicking the events into overdrive because of the holidays and I've been trying to be better about not filling my entire week with events.  But sometimes it's really hard to turn down some of these fun evenings.   

Specifically related to the blog, I've been working on two exciting things. One - Savvy in San Francisco is moving from Blogger to Wordpress.  Two - the blog is getting a redesign.  I'm combining my blog and photography site into one place.  I can't wait to share the redesign with you!  While we are talking about it - anything you would like to see more of on the new site? Features, etc.?

Most importantly, my three children have been keeping me busy, as they should be!  It's always a constant internal struggle with myself on whether I am giving them enough of me and balancing all of my priorities out in the right way.  But, I think that is something that every parent struggles with on a daily basis. 

Anyone have any fabulous tips/tricks on finding balance? 

Thank you for being patient with me and I hope to bring you a much more new and improved Savvy in San Francisco soon!  

Cheers,

*image via my iPhone. 

Google Reader is Gone - What Now?

What is your reader of choice when you read your blogs?  I was using Google Reader and was so sad to find out that Google was discontinuing it.  I have two alternatives that I have switched my long list of blogs that I read over to.  I'm going to compare the two (Feedly and Bloglovin) and see which one I like best.  If you were following me on Google Reader - they've made it easy to download your blog roll into a downloadable file and then both Feedly and Bloglovin have an easy upload process from Google Reader.

Today is the last day for Google Reader, so make sure you switch over sometime today!  If you want to add me to your Bloglovin list you can go here!

Cheers,

Cheers to 2013

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had an amazing holiday with loved ones!  I know I've enjoyed the last two weeks with the family and if I'm honest it was nice not to worry about getting a post out before going to bed.  It was pretty fabulous to just focus on our not so little family and enjoy these three little munchkins that seem to be growing up so fast! 

I, of course, had a huge list of do's and honey do's for the time that we had off and I feel like we barely made a dent in the list.  But sometimes you have to let go of that list and focus on being together.  But my biggest goal for the month of January is to finally make our way through that list.  It ranges from hanging art on the wall (yes we moved back in March and still half of our art and photographs have not been hung), organizing the kids' playroom, organizing our master bedroom and even small little things that never seem to be done like buying and replacing light bulbs (why is this such a hard task).

I wanted to share some of my goals for 2013 with all of you.  I thought if I put them out to the universe they might have a higher chance of being accomplished!

LOSE THIS BABY WEIGHT

I actually started working on this goal in the beginning of December (which a lot of people thought was crazy right before the holidays, but I figured that it would give me a better mindset at all of the Christmas celebrations - and it did).  Charlotte is 18 months old and I've had the hardest time trying to lose this extra baby weight due to all kinds of factors - she's my third child, I'm older than I was with my first, I have a hard time finding time to workout when I am driving kids to and from school, activities, etc and last but not least - I LOVE TO EAT AND DRINK good food and wine!  So far things have been going great (I've lost 10 pounds already), but I still have a lot more to go.  I've upped my presence at the gym and I have some fun things to share with all of you (more about that this week) that will hopefully aid me in this weight loss process.  I'm just excited to finally get my body back after being pregnant and nursing for SIX SOLID YEARS (WHAT!!!). 

OFFICIALLY LAUNCH MY PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE

Many of you probably don't know, but I created a website for my photography business over a YEAR AGO!  I went to ALT Summit and swore I would finish it when I got back.  But the problem is that I never gave it enough time.  I always felt too busy working on the blog or editing photos to devote enough time to update the pictures that I had previously uploaded onto it.  All I need to do and it seems pretty simple when I type it out, but has seemed pretty impossible over the last year, is take ONE DAY to just focus on the website and it will be ready to "officially" launch.

GROW MY BLOG WHILE PROVIDING QUALITY CONTENT

I'm still working hard on finding a balance between family, photography, my blog and most importantly ME!  But I do want to continue to grow Savvy in San Francisco and make sure that I am bringing and sharing quality content with you.  This includes being better about setting an editorial schedule and trying to partner up with fabulous brands and companies (more on one of these this week) that can help us out in our daily hectic lives!  I also want to hear more from all of you about what you would like to hear more about from me - San Francisco, restaurants, cool products, shopping, things that help Moms out, travel, etc?  What do you want to talk about? 

I have a lot more items on my resolution list, but these are a couple of my top resolutions that I wanted to share with you!  What are yours? Do you like setting resolutions for yourself?  Do you feel like January 1st is a clean slate?                              

image via 

Cheers,

Cheers to the Weekend

I was just at Nordstrom and found these in the kids shoe section! STOP IT!  The perfect way to start your littlest one's addiction to shoes!  Doesn't every girl deserve her first pair of shoes to be Stuart Weitzman? 

This weekend is kind of a mellow weekend - which I am really looking forward to.  Landon has his soccer practice on Saturday and I have a family photo shoot in the Presidio on Sunday.  But other than that, we don't have any obligations.  Sometimes it's nice to have a low key weekend ahead of you! 

Next week is a pretty busy week with a lot of fun events to attend!  I'm beyond thrilled to be interviewing Trina Turk in person next week!  She is going to be at Neiman Marcus in Walnut Creek showing her Fall Collection 2012 and previewing her holiday collection from 2-3pm on Thursday, September 20th.  Any questions that you would like me to ask her when I interview her?  Let me know!

What are your plans for the weekend? Busy or low-key? '

P.S. I pre-ordered my iPhone 5 last night at midnight!!!!!! The photographer in me has been patiently waiting for this new release to replace my iPhone 4 with it's lackluster camera. EXCITED!!! Anyone else order the iPhone 5?

CHEERS!

Fashion Night Out - Recap

Pre-cocktail media party for FNO at Neiman Marcus Rotunda Room

The ladies and their gift bags from Neiman Marcus!

Rotunda Room, Michelle & Crystal, on our way to Saks - Michelle, Jeanne, Crystal, Gigi, Abby & myself, Heidi Says FNO sign

Party scene at Saks Fifth Avenue, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Alice & Olivia, Jennifer, Lindsay & Gigi at Marc Jacobs.

Abby, Gigi, Robert of Black Fleece, Lindsay & myself at Black Fleece

Sorry that I have been MIA the last couple of days!  Still working on getting this back to school routine down pat and currently feeling like a taxi service.  

Fashion Night Out in San Francisco was such a fun night and what made it even better was that we were gifted with gorgeous weather.  We started out the evening at a pre-FNO cocktail party hosted by Neiman Marcus in The Rotunda Room.  We went all over the city to visit Neiman Marcus, Kurt Geiger, Saks Fifth Avenue, Marc Jacobs, Alice & Olivia, Black Fleece & Roberta Freymann.  The Tieks were whipped out by the time we got over to Fillmore Street! I hope everyone had a fun night checking out all of the latest fall fashions!

Did you guys go anywhere for FNO?

images 1 via and 2-5 from my iPhone (which I'm hoping I will be able to pre-order a new iPhone 5 tomorrow in order to get MUCH better photos from my phone)

One of Those Days......

I procrastinated doing a blog post all day and opted to do a lot more playing instead.  Reading books to Tatum at the bookstore, checking out the creek, swimming in the pool with all three of the babies and playing Play-Doh while dinner is cooking.  Do you have those days when blogging is very last on the list?  Do you ever feel like you are so busy trying to capture the moment, that you aren't really experiencing the moment? 

Savvy Intern

Did I mention that I hired an intern?  She is still in her trial period though.  She takes a lot of snack breaks and is constantly trying to get me to read stories to her.  Crossing my fingers that her productivity level will increase and she will be writing blog posts and editing photoshoots in no time flat! 

Serena & Lily - Toast to Summer

Buying this Fresco Beverage Bowl for all of the summer parties I want to have! 

Jeanne of Shop Sweet Things,  Crystal of Rue Magazine, Erin of Apartment 34, Caitlin of Sacramento Street

Heidi of The Spitfiregirl Design, Lily of Serena and Lily, Caitlin, Erin and myself.

Lily and Serena of Serena and Lily!

I had the honor of attending Serena and Lily's Toast to Summer party at LILY's house (I was a little starstruck) last week! They wanted to introduce their outdoor, bedding and bath collections for the summer and what a better way to do it than at Lily's house showcasing all of their fabulous collection.

I have always been a fan of Serena and Lily's amazing patterns and fabric choices.  But I have also been in awe of these two amazing women that had a vision and got together to build this fabulous and successful company.  It's been exciting to see them build it from a baby bedding collection to what it is now today!

Take a sneak peek of the party at Lily's house with all of the fabulous pieces from the outdoor, bedding and bath collections for summer.  As you can see from the pictures, Lily's house is gorgeous, just as you would expect!  If you hurry, you can get an additional 20% off anything you order through the end of today, Tuesday, May 29th!!

Happy shopping!

Cat Seto: Mom, Inc Book Launch Party

Cat's boutique/studio on Polk Street in San Francisco.

Melissa Davis and Katie Hill of Ruby Press and myself (dressed for the rain). image via Stylenik

Cat's bright and cheerful office space in her boutique.

Cat's boutique with design studio in the back.

Cat Seto and Kristin Philipkoski of Style Nik.

Kristen demonstrating how to do a fishtail braid on Becca Blanco of Ruby Press. 

Amazing donuts that I was unable to taste because I was on my three day cleanse.

Cat & Meg Mateo Ilasco's new book! 

Come stop by and meet Cat and Meg in person along with some other local design moms that will be showing their collections!

I was invited to the book launch party that Cat Seto had at her boutique/studio on Polk Street a couple of weeks ago for her new book that she co-wrote with Meg Mateo Ilasco, Mom, Inc.  I met Cat at a spa event at Bay Club the month prior but didn't realize that not only was she a blogger but a designer, illustrator, writer and mother! 

Cat's studio on Polk Street in Russian Hill also serves as a boutique for her gorgeous stationary and products (clothing, candles, jewelry, kids clothes, etc) that she adores.  

Cat just co-wrote a book with Meg Mateo Ilasco (Creative Director behind Anthology Magazine, Craft, Inc., Creative, Inc. and Crafting a Meaningful Home) about how a Mom can run a successful business from home!  Hoping this will give me some good insight into balancing my photography business, blog and family.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday, May 9th) Cat and Meg will be having a release party at West Elm in Emeryville from 6-9pm.  It gives you a chance to meet them in person and also meet some other Mom entrepreneurs that will be showing off their collections.  

I'm hoping to be there on the earlier side, who will I see there?