Old Fashioned Sign Painter's Work Popping Up in San Francisco

Do you know how it is when something catches your eye and then you start to see it everywhere?  I started to notice these beautiful handpainted signs in various spots in San Francisco .......and they're something  you don't see too often, because they really are paint to the brush, brush to the board, kind of signs. I still see this in Mexico but not so much in the States.  Plus double love the typography and colorways too.

 

Apparently, "He's a sign painter in the Mission" - which narrows it down ever so slightly. 

I am intrigued.

More Posts from the Golden Gate

 

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, bells going off in my head, in love with the Marketplace at the Ferry Street Bldg in San Francisco.  It's one long walkway of food fantasticness- one great big homage to the small, local, (even slightly obsessed) artisan vendors who lines its halls. 

 

 Honeys, cheese, wines, lavenders,truffles, salami, fish, oils, syrups, and oyster shooters, each booth  a singular vision joined up in a larger whole.  If I wax poetic, it's because, it's pretty wonderful to see a place thrive that supports lots of  people doing one thing and doing it really well.

It's also a huge commuter hub where people go to catch ferries that go all over the San Francisco Bay.  So it's beautiful in that way too because it's by the water.  And they have a farmer's market outside the building three times a week.  I bet that's something.  But I was happy to be able to kind of have it all to myself at a not very busy time of day.  It was so fun to explore.  The mushroom booth was my favorite.

Johnny Was Clothing at Passionflower

Jamie & I were just down in San Francisco .  Did we just find you the most beautiful shirts for, say wearing with a pair of jeans?  Indigo or denim? I'm dreaming about these.  Asian peonies, pussywillow, and hellebore prints -   coming Soon to your favorite Passionflower store!

Field Trip to San Francisco and the Fancy Food Show

 I went to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco to find you some sweet little things - some honeys for your tea and fizzies for your drinks and salts and caramels and  bonbons to tie on packages and pretty little tins and cartons of sweets.

It was so much fun even if it was mobbed.  Busy in a good kind of way.  Everyone was having fun and  sampling and talking food.  (I consider myself a pretty hard core uber buyer, but if I were, say , a cheese buyer, I am not sure how I would have navigated through that show.  There were probably thousands of  cheeses of every shape, size, color, and origin you might imagine...and that was just the cheese world part.)

It was pretty sweet!

New Linen Pillow Line at Passionflower

 

The ever talented Christy Bishop has started a pillow line  called

Opal at Home....('oh' for short).....

  Beautiful, witty, and locally made (!!!!) with linen and down, they're just what we needed to inspire our natural history corner....

Do you have a perfect place in your home for one of these creatures?

Staying Warm on a Cold Winter Day

Bestus, cutest, warmest socks ever.  New, over the knee cashmere socks, in three lovely shades chez Passionflower.

Plus made in the USA! 

 And who wouldn't love a pair for Valentine's Day?

 

 

Middle of Nowhere Treasure Trove

 

If you're like me, when you travel, you will stop in the most forlorn, tacky, junk shop around, just because, well, you never know what you might find. Unless, of course, you are travelling somewhere that has amazing wonderful antique stores everywhere, in which case you stop there. Sadly, this is not the case on the Oregon Coast.  Which is how I found myself in a very wierd "antique" mall in Newport, Oregon and the shopkeep told me that in Toledo, a mere 8 miles from where we stood, there was a main street lined with antique stores.  "There is?" , I said. (slight uptick in heart rate)

 

 

And so off I found myself on the road to Toledo, which is a whole ethnographic wonderland unto itself.    It's an old lumber town and, surprisingly, still is .  Plus it used to be the county seat so it has a little bit of that beat up backcountry charm with an old hotel and some charming storefronts mixed in with lumbertown grunge. 

 

 

I found a quilt shop and a couple of oddball art galleries, a thrift store that might pass for something old and then, down at the very end of the street, I spied a little something that made my heart go pitter patter.

 

 

Hello best junk shop I've been in in a long, long while and it's out in the middle of nowhere. 

It is the perfect mix of hoarder meets obsessive compulsive disorder. (Notice how the pool balls are all lined up in numerical order!)  Oh and I forgot to mention that half the store is like a steampunk jewelry/art gallery.

 

 

And yes, Becky Tonkin, he does have an entire printer's tray full of various glass, doll eyeballs.

And not to worry, I left them there for you.  :)