Pigs in a basket for mid-autumn festival!

The Mission #2 on Forbes.com's Best Hipster Neighborhoods

A neighborhood ranking based on walkability, number of coffee shops per capita, assortment of local food trucks, number & frequency of farmers markets, locally-owned bars & restaurants and percentage of residents who work in artistic occupations -- what's not to love?

Sad but true: The criteria above basically sums up what I look for in a neighborhood, besides it being dog-friendly, easy transportation and a park but heck, one can't always have everything. And yes, I do consider myself as someone who works in an "artistic occupation." So there.

I like the Mission but the rent is utterly insane -- one dude was asking for $3,000 a month for a one-bedroom with no parking and no on-site laundry! Check out the full list, with Silver Lake in LA claiming the top spot, Mission in second (go California!) and Williamsburg in Brooklyn (which I also love!) at Forbes.com America's Best Hipster Neighborhoods. If anything, the list makes for a good travel guide for our next road trip!

Besides the Mission, Noe Valley's another one of my neighborhood faves, but it sometimes feels like there are too many baby prams per capita, so not for us. So we chose the next best thing on our list: NoPa, or North of Panhandle closer to Divisidero. Although my new neighborhood didn't make it on the list, I'm still uber excited when the new Bi-Rite Market and Four Barrel Coffee opens next year to join already cool spots like Rare Device and Workshop. 

It'll be interesting to what the new Four Barrel Coffee spot will be called, as founder Jeremy Tooker talks about naming it something "completely obscure" and "nothing to do with coffee or bread" in the American Hipster Presents series  below. Take a sneak peek at the renovations work in the video.

 

I love the closing thought from Tooker in the video and completely agree with him: "I don't have any aspirations to change the world, I'm just one person, but if we can do something better, we should."

Posted via email from I am Audrey.

How we spend our Sat nights: Deciding on dining table sizes.

Love ZipCar marketing! Need a car to get to a family reunion or a road trip to Tahoe?

Taken at Zipcar Fox Apartments Garage

The Curiosity Shoppe x Target: Mark your calendars Sept 9!

 

 

I drove the boyf nuts when I kept referring to Target as "Tar-jay" and with the new Target store opening at the Metreon Center in October (San Francisco's first store), guess he better have his anti-annoyance shield on because I'm going to be referring to it a lot more!

I'm not a fan of big box stores but when you've outgrown Ikea (I still love building my own furniture though and who doesn't love their word-free instruction booklets!) and you toss and turn for days thinking of whether you should splurge $500 on a reclaimed wood bench, you have to do a happy dance when designers collaborate with stores like Target. I can deal with the fact that the item is mass produced and likely found in many, many other homes but heck, if it looks good and unique and doesn't break the bank, count me in.

So I know what I'm doing on Sept 9 -- online shopping at Target.com for pieces from The Curiosity Shoppe and Patch NYC, as part of The Shops at Target! I'm totally in love with the modern Americana look from The Curiosity Shoppe and they're from San Franciso, yay! I like one or two things from Patch NYC, but I'm still a little undecided on how much I love the masculine-metrosexual hunting lodge look.

My favorite picks in photo gallery above and the best part is, nothing is above $50! For better photos of The Curiosity Shoppe items "in action," head over to Anthology for photos of the launch party. One of the best things about moving into a completely new house -- it gives me an excuse to buy stuff because we have nothing!

Check out Target's Press Room for the full lookbooks:

• The Curiosity Shoppe x Target
• Patch NYC x Target

Posted via email from I am Audrey.