It’s been 51 weeks since I posted here. My son was born January 31, 2011. We’ve had a great year getting to know each other. Arlo, the platform I use for this blog will be closing on 8/8/12 as the team shifts their attention to other projects. So…

WHAT’S NEXT:

A Rockridge Life will remain here and in the Internet ether, as I shift my attention to new and exciting projects, including a new blog. If you are interested in keeping in touch, please email me at arockridgelife@gmail.com and I will add your contact information to my address book and will notify you of new work.

THANKS:

Many thanks to all the people who read, inspired, and supported this blog, including but not limited to: my brother Richard Parks (who made me start on Wordpress all those years ago), my family and close friends for reading and responding, Dylan Fareed for getting the site onto Arlo, and last but certainly not least my blog friends:

Amanda of Anticipation
Joan and Fatima of Flowers by Bornay
Kimberly of La Martine
Ruth and Amanda of Quatre Coeur
Dafna of Inna Jam
Tim of Lottie + Doof
Bob and his team at Oliveto Community Journal
Andrew of Good Jobbb
Chad of A Hawk from a Handsaw
Jane of Home and Oats
the women of Witch Party
Jackson of Superforest
Peter of A Man Named Me

¡¡¡PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH!!!

December has just flown by.

Oliveto lost the lovely Paul Canales, and gained a great new chef Jonah Rhodehamel. The restaurant is looking beautiful for the holidays. NYE there should be a great time.

My brother has started production on his documentary on Music Man Murray. He is a fabulously talented journalist and MMM is a worthy subject not just for his collection but for his story — what does a man see when he looks back at his life from the perspective of 88 years old? I want to see Richard raise 5K. Maybe you’re interested in helping? Every penny helps…literally! So if he gets as many pennies as this post gets hits, I’m a happy woman. Wink wink.

I wanted to do so many Christmas-related things this year: get a great advent calendar, celebrate St. Nicholas Day, and make candy among other things, but pregnancy kind of got in the way. There’s always next year…

Peko Peko is doing their annual New Year’s Osechi Bento! It looks even better than the previous years. (is that possible?) This time it comes in a 3-level cedar box and includes sweets from the inimitable Toraya.

I admit it. I’m a sucker for consumer Christmas. Which means I might — MIGHT — go to American Girl Place today to buy a present for my niece. Yikes.

More notes soon I hope. In the mean time—enjoy your merriness where ever you can get it!

I know everyone is thinking about Christmas these days (shop! shop! SHOP!), but a few weeks back I made this Hanukkah Arrangement of hydrangea, sea holly, ranunculous, green hanging amaranth, and lavender. Here it is:

After a long holiday everyone needs a good vacation. This year I got one to Kona thanks to great deals from the Oakland Airport on Alaska Airlines. I wanted to try Kona since I’d never been. It’s almost a little odd after only understanding Hawaii as Maui—Kona is so different—all volcanic rock and desert. And very soothing all the same. Just a few random shots:

In the little town of Kapaau:

A lovable little gecko (always easier to appreciate when viewed outside in HI, as opposed to inside your house rental):

Beach shots:

The little cocoon style chaises really soothed me.

I squeezed three little arrangements for the family and me out of leftovers from the big guy I posted yesterday.

And I remembered I had these dried eucalyptus beads and pussywilllow, and craspedia lying around, which helped lend a little flare.

I made this for someone’s Thanksgiving dinner and I like it.

I think I’m really into reds these days. I found these dark dusty red football mums and love them. I don’t love mums, but I have a secret love for certain colors of football mums.

This is the back—or the front—I’m not sure. The arrangement will be on a bar that divides two rooms and will be seen from all sides. I couldn’t decide which side I liked better.

The callas. It was a challenge, but I had to get something bright in there. I don’t like a lot of traditional “fall” colors, but it’s a fine line between sophisticated and severe and this is Thanksgiving after all. (NB: I was particularly impressed by some non-traditional takes on fall/Thanksgiving florals that came up on my Google Reader in the last few days, in particular this one, this one, this one, and this one)

I just love this image/color combination:

Have a great T-day.

I made this yesterday:

It is: amaranth, echinacea, castor bean, roses, and dusty miller.

On Friday night I went to the opening of a show of Justin Olerud’s paintings at The Common on Mission and 7th. I usually really dislike art openings for similar reasons to why some people dislike dinner theater, or live music played while you eat; it causes inner dissonance like: “I’m here to do one thing but I am socially expected to do something else in addition to that? And how do I balance these confusing demands on my attention???” Usually I want to be looking at the art and feel awkward about being in equally awkward conversations that are the result of everyone’s mutual ambivalence about the purpose of an art opening.

But I digress. I just loved this art opening. My feeling about it was a result of the work on display, the beautiful space, and the generally laid back attitude of others in attendance. Justin in a friend, a painter, and a fellow Oaklander and the show was a great way to get to engage in his work in a different way than I had before.

Out front:

The work:

A few favorites; Check Up:

Tug-O-War! (left) and Tug-O-War! 2 (right):

Again, Tug-O-War!:

And Tug-O-War! 2:

People hanging out at the bar:

And back to the paintings; this one is called Vintage Man Painting!

Justin’s choice of colors and the high saturation he uses in the last three pieces pictured here are particularly seductive.

The artist with his work:

The people behind The Common did a great job making everyone feel welcome as they poured amazing cocktails featuring ROOT liqueur (which is totally intriguing and deserves its own post) and root beer floats made with Virgil’s (I had one of those).

Now I know what you’re thinking: an art opening with root beer floats? I know, it was that fabulous.

That’s so cheesy, but I can’t resist. Here’s some hebe I picked up for myself. It looks so perfectly evergreen and suited to winter it’s surprising to learn that it’s so widespread in New Zealand. I love hebe so much I want to join the Hebe Society.

It’s definitely feeling California fall/winter around here, or as my mother described in this morning’s email: “COOL AND SUNNY AND CLEAR.” (emphasis hers) There are white cotton-y clouds moving more quickly than they look—I know because I had to reset my camera about fifty times when taking these pictures.

Cool and sunny and clear is a great description for narcissus and I just got this season’s first paperwhites. I can’t believe it’s that time of year again. They were my wedding flower, so it’s always particularly striking to see and smell them again.

And the sun comes out:

And goes behind a cloud:

All right, that’s all for today. Back to work.

Window shopping and afternoon tea in Venice. I know that macaron fatigue has begun, but the fact they’re a tired trend doesn’t make them less delicious to me (see also: cupcakes mmmm…). Spent about an hour in Ms Vintage too—possibly one of my favorite vintage shops of all time (you’re going to have to trust me on this—I’m going to go out on a limb and say their website doesn’t exactly do their shop justice). I’m DYING for the slightly draped-neck drop-waisted black Chanel on their wall behind the desk.

A few macarons and some amazing Trahison Byzantine tea in the courtyard of Jin Patisserie really hit the spot.

A nice sky presented itself after threatening to rain all day too.