valentine's day Book Signing Event at Gump’s: Orlando Diaz-Azcuy

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Counterclockwise from bottom right: Diane Dorrans Saeks(author of Orlando Diaz-Azcuy from Rizzoli Books), Orlando Diaz-Azcuy (iconic Architect and Designer), Marta Benson (CEO of Gumps), and me.

I was so lucky to be invited to the book debut party at Orlando Diaz-Azcuy by Diane Dorrans Saeks in San Francisco last Thursday! The book is wonderful, and I am a long time admirer of Mr. Diaz-Azcuy, so was so happy to be able to have my copy signed by both this brilliant architect/designer and the book’s author.

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Beautiful Lilacs at the signing table

We drove from Sacramento that afternoon to downtown San Francisco, and hurriedly walked over to Gumps from the parking garage, and who should I spy immediately upon walking in? Designer, Scot Meacham Wood from Tartanscot blog! We had made a plan to meet, but had never met before. I could spot this very handsome blogger right away. He is as charming in person as he is on his blog.

The party was in full swing when we arrived, but we were very happy to wait in line while looking at all of the spectacular creations of Andrew Fisher of Fisher Weisman . The coffee table in the photo below is just one example:

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Another piece with bronze legs and exotic wood veneer:

valentine's day I am sure I spotted Grant Gibson, designer and blogger in line ahead of us, but alas, missed meeting him. (We have since touched base and will try to meet up after his trip to Venice!) After getting our books signed we had to tour Gumps to see what beautiful new treasures had been added since our last visit. We found this gorgeous table setting upstairs: valentine's day

I loved the black lacquer chairs! The smoky glass wine and water glasses were perfect with the pewter linen table cloth and place settings.

Another table with striking candelabras:

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And the new furniture vignettes definitely give one design ideas to dream about:

After our upstairs looksee, it was back downstairs for more sightseeing. While I was looking at the newest from John Derian:

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I ran into my old friend David Duncan Livingston, amazingly talented photographer and one of the main photo contributors to the Orlando Diaz-Azcuy book. Please do check out his website. You will no doubt recognize many of his photos from some of your favorite magazines. Oh! And he also has a blog here. (Great music too!)

David snapped this shot of me and my friend Lise who came with me. He also took the picture of Diane Dorrans Saeks, Marta Benson, CEO of Gumps, Orlando Diaz-Azcuy and me up at the top of the post. (It seems I have a thing or two to learn from David.)

valentine's day The event was so much fun and it was an honor to meet one of my design heroes: Mr. Diaz-Azcuy. Thank you so very much to the gracious Diane Dorrans Saeks and Marta Benson for the most kind invitation. It was a wonderfully memorable evening!

valentine's day Beautiful Day for......

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, one block away from Academy of Art

......walking around San Francisco. As I mentioned, we drove to SF on Monday to visit the Academy of Art University. My oldest daughter is going to start applying for colleges in the Fall....so the college crawl is on! My impression of AA was generally quite good! The classes, faculty and the facilities seem amazing. The "campus" is really the city itself with AA buildings scattered throughout SF. The university has their own bus system that transports kids to all of the various buildings. We toured through alot of the various buildings and departments: film, animation, fine art, photography, and visited one of the dorm buildings. There are even more tours you can go on, but we had a pretty good idea of what the school was about after three hours. I must say after touring another SoCal university, this tour was amazingly thorough. The atmosphere was very urban and edgy....very creative, but with a well thought out plan for employment opportunities. I liked it very much. The down side is that it is private, expensive, and lacks the overall education you might find at a State University. If your teen is interested in exploring other fields such as language, writing, sciences, music, etc., this might not be a good fit. But the fact that it is in a city with all of the opportunities that city provides: cultural, jobs, entertainment, beaches, shopping, etc....not a bad "campus"!

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Yerba Buena Gardens out side of the Metreon building

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Waterfall at Yerba Buena Gardens

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We sat outside enjoying tea at the Samovar Tea Lounge to fortify ourselves after our long tour.

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More of the Gardens and the sights of the ever expanding city

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We always like to fit in a visit to China Town (the largest outside of Asia BTW) whenever we are in the city, so a quick cab ride and here we were. The Gate at Bush and Grant is very close to the Academy of Art Dorm buildings. Their bus goes right past it. Always a fun diversion.

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I had to take a few photos of some of the things that caught my eye. Just a sampling:

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Carved ivory tusk.

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Carved wood column

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Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory

If you are ever in China Town, ask for directions to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. It is located down a small alley and not easy to find on your own, but all of the shop keepers know where to direct you. The "factory" is really this very sweet woman who sits and folds the delicious smelling cookies as they come off the "presses" picking up a fortune and tucking it in. This tiny space off a tiny alley is always full of onlookers. And there is a man, who I think is her husband, that passes out warm cookie samples. You won't be able to leave without buying a bag. I love the sign behind the woman!

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Grant Street, China Town

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One of the many colorfully decked out buildings

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My daughter loves this bakery where we always get candied ginger and Lotus cakes.

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After dinner at a Chinese restaurant of course...we decided to walk back to where the car was parked. It just so happened that we walked through the Union Square shopping district. We passed Gumps....one of my favorite stores, and even though it was closed, I had to stop and stare at these fabulous light fixtures in the window by one of very favorite designers, Andrew Fisher of Fisher Weisman:

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There were many more pieces, sculpture, accessories, etc. These were a couple of quick pictures I was able to take as my husband and daughter just kept walking down the block. I could have stood there for quite awhile longer!

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To find out a little more about this brilliant exhibit, click here. And blogger Grant Gibson got to see alot more up close and personal here.