farewell movember!

Today is the last day of Movember. Finn has been growing out a scraggly moustache all month so I feel that today calls for some celebration, at least for my sake. The whole affair would be less repugnant if the moustache could be joined by a beard but the rules don't allow that. Just a lone, squalid moustache. And tomorrow it all comes off. Away with you unsightly (though comedic) facial hair! See you next year!

The moustached members of the SF TwitSpark office. 

The cartoony one is Tandy, who is female.

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a sword & some bear spray: how to catch a thief.

San Francisco resident Sonya Yoo took matters into her own hands earlier this week after several packages were stolen from her front porch in Noe Valley. Setting a "bait" package this past Thursday, she waited for the perpetrator to show. When he did just 30 minutes later, Yoo doused him with bear spray, then chased him down with a bokken (Japanese wooden sword). Although the package thief got away, police easily identified him shortly thereafter, as bear spray leaves a bright orange residue on its victim. 

Best of all, Yoo live tweeted the entire fiasco:

Read more tweets and the full article here. 

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Pocket Clothing: 10 Questions & a Special Discount!

Readers of finnfolk, I am pleased to introduce Pocket Clothing.

This Tennessee based clothing company takes cozy staples and customizes them with awesome pockets made from upcycled fabrics. They sew each pocket with love themselves and have everything from tanks and totes to hoodies and onesies for little ones. You choose your clothing, pick your pocket, and it's as easy as that! I have one of their henleys and love it (see below). Their top-notch clothes are starting to make their way into boutiques (and people's hearts, obviously). Best of all, they are really great people!

The stately gentlemen pictured above are founders and pocketeers, 

Luke Rutherford and Evan Story. Get to know them below!

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1. Describe your company in a sentence.
Luke: Limited quantities of fabric meets unlimited opportunity for joy.
Evan: Life's better with a pocket.

2. Where are you based / Where do you make your products?
Luke: We are in Knoxville, TN, and everything is handmade there. Locally owned, locally sewn baby!

Evan: Our base of operations in a wonderful place called the Pocket Lab located in a secret locaiton in Knoxville. We spent many hours in the lab experimenting on new creations and planning out next adventures.

3. Where do you find your awesome fabrics?
Luke: We get our fabrics everywhere! Currently, we've gathered pockets from Tennesssee, South Carolina, Virginia, New York, California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Colarado and we're constantly searching. Our fabrics come from thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, your grandmothers attic (those are the  hardest to get) - anything goes. Going on fabric hunts is something I enjoy the most about working on Pocket Clothing.

We use the conecpt of upcylcing these fabrics by giving them value once again as pockets on our shirts. Some fabrics can make 50 pockets, and some could only make 2, giving it the limited edition aspect to get one while it's still in stock. I would say that's the biggest appeal to our product - you could be one of only a few, if not the only one with the exact shirt and pocket combination in the UNIVERSE!

4. How was the concept for Pocket Clothing born?

Evan: The concept was born out of many late night talks from mega bed - a fusion of three queen sized beds into one large mega bed. We both wanted to create things other people would want.
Luke: One day after class, I showed up to the house with a 80s neon wallet from a thrift store - pretty normal. That lead to a conversation about the idea of creating apparel that people would enjoy as much as we would. Most likely we were watching an episode of Boy Meets World, which would have only benefited to our creativity. Once we started making shirts, we got some great feedback and knew others would want in on the pocket mayhem.

5. The company is now over a year old. Any big takeaways or important lessons learned from your first year of business?
Evan: The biggest part of doing big things is executing. Finishing. We have so many ideas all the time, but actually doing something with them is the challenge. Finishing the small things leads to finishing big things. Also. Starting our own company was the coolest thing we've ever done! I recommend this to everyone.

6. What's your favorite part about being an entrepreneur?
Luke: I love that we are able to create something that people seem to enjoy and want to be a part of. We said from the beginning that if we just saw a couple of people wearing our shirts on campus then it would be a success. It never gets old for us to see someone wearing a shirt, or to see a picture on Instagram of someone who just recieved their order and are pumped about their Pocket. It's the most encouraging aspect. That's probably what I love the most, seeing people wear our shirts because they like them. Insert smiley emoticon. 

7. If there was one celebrity you could pick to wear your clothes, who would it be? (Cartoons and fictional characters obviously fair game).
Evan: Dallas Clayton is first choice. He is a children's book author turned super hero.
Luke: I'm currently watching a show about BigFoot, so I would have to say, BigFoot. I would make him wear a cardigan.

8. Who is the one celebrity you would never want to wear your clothes? (Same rules apply).
Evan: I would never let Nickleback wear it.
Luke: The guy who created Myspace.

9. What's the next frontier for Pocket Clothing? Please say footie pajamas.
Luke: I can't say exactly what's next, but all I'll say is that no (real) animals will be harmed in the process.

10. Anything you want to say to finnfolk readers?
Evan: Sew hard or go home!
Luke: Don't let cursive handwriting die!

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This is my henley, which I wear all the time. It's their Unisex Baby Thermal Long Sleeve Henley in Asphalt with a Partly Cloudy pocket. It also matches my favorite pillow. 

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The Pocket Clothing team is generously offering 3 finnfolk readers 25% off their entire order!! This is literally their best deal to date. Be one of the first 3 to place an order and use the code finnfolk at checkout for the discount. 

PLEASE NOTE: the space to enter the code will appear after you enter
 payment information. After 3 people use the code, it will be gone.

UPDATE: all 3 coupons have been used! 


I hope this deal gets some of you amped. I kind of want to cheat and use it myself. 
Thank you Pocket Clothing!


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( You can connect with Pocket Clothing by signing up for their Newsletter on the lower right side of their website. Also check them out Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest. They are lots of fun, you won't regret it! )

milestone.

Today is my last day with Lululemon, the yoga clothing company I've been working for over the past few months. I'm transitioning to a new and very exciting job with ZeroCater, an awesome startup in the city that focuses on people and good food (literally two of my favorite things). I'll be working in a people-centric role, which is exactly what I've been looking for and they have an office dog, which is a pretty gigantic bonus in my opinion. Everyone I've met there is intelligent and warm and their office space rules. I start next week!

Kelp, the office dog!

I am thankful for my time with Lululemon. The relationships I made while there have made the city feel so much more like home, which has been invaluable. And this new position actually came as a result of a happenstance conversation and connection with someone at Lululemon. It's crazy how often treasures lay in unexpected places. My timeline of finding a full time position like this did not look at all how I expected (remember this?), but isn't that always how the good things come to us? Not like we imagined at all.

I'm getting my weekends back you guys! Hooray!

. . .

4 things.

1. We were yesterday's Sunday Edition on Snippet and Ink! 

2. Our friends at The Pocket Clothing are offering 20% off today with the code ROBOTISMYMIDDLENAME. You should check them out, I love their stuff. As a little hint, you'll all be getting to know them more later this week. Wink.

3. Thanksgiving was a great success. We had 10 people in our one bedroom apartment with a proper feast. Photos to come soon.

4. These baby foxes!

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to outgrow an office.

We spent last weekend running errands and building tons of furniture for TwitSpark's new office in the Financial District. They've outgrown their current one, which makes me feel slightly like a proud parent. On Saturday night, we were at their new space with Davy, Fe, and Sam assembling shelves and chairs until 1 am, getting everything ready for the team to move in (it was actually really fun, we ordered in Chinese and listened to music while everyone worked). 

There were so many boxes!

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Last night, the team came to see the space for the first time. We had beer & snacks and played with the nerf guns & Sega Genesis (!!!) that Davy & Finn got for the office. They were intentional in making it a fun and comfortable place for everyone to work and hang out. They even have a stocked fridge and mini cereal bar. 

The view from Finn's window.

Laughing at his own expense.

That's Katie Tandy, the genius writer for TwitSpark. She could be a stand-up comedian. I love her.

Office essentials.

This is from the Jambulance in Allen Mask's music video Right Now!. I'm gonna sell it for $20k one day.

The TwitShark. 

Afterwards, I got dinner with these 5 fine people at House of Nanking, which is dangerously close to the office.

I am so proud of this team. They are a bunch of intelligent and good-natured individuals and all get along really well. And they work very hard. When Finn and I moved to SF 7 months ago, TwitSpark was just him and Davy in a single office. This move makes me realize just how much they've grown since then.

. . .

my second brother's birthday.

Happy Birthday Matthew.

Today is Matthew's birthday. He is my sister's husband and was the first spouse / extra sibling to be added to our family when they were married 3 years ago. He has become such a part of our family that now when I envision holidays in my head, he is always in the room. He's the type of impressive individual who knows something about everything but can also listen as well as he can teach. He can build just about anything, knows how to make bullets, is kind to children, gentle with animals, and loves my sister very well. He's a man of his word and a gentleman through and through. I wish I lived near him, I know he would take me canoeing or teach me why I don't need to be afraid of snakes. We love you Matthew, Happy Birthday!

. . .

shrek the sheep.

I learned about this today and am immediately sharing because I love it that much.

There was a sheep in New Zealand who, by hiding in caves, successfully avoided being shorn for 6 consecutive years. When he was finally caught in 2004, his fleece weighed 60 lbs and contained enough wool to make suits for 20 men. He was shorn on national television and became a national icon, even meeting the NZ prime minister. I can't look at these photos without laughing. What a champ!

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lake tahoe: 3/3

Aside from our drive around the lake, an evening at the movies (seeing Wreck-It Ralph), and a fancy dinner date, not much was planned or scheduled for our time away. We tried to see the sunset every night and other than that, our days were wide open for time on the porch and hanging out by the fire. We spent time talking about all that's come to be since our last anniversary (quite a lot we realized) and wondering what might change by next year. Life with Finn is an unknowable adventure. I love it. I look forward to our anniversary trips down the line and all the changes and refinement that will happen in the years between them.

Sidenotes:

1. Sadly we did not see a bear, though I certainly tried.

2. Is that pinecone impressive or what?

3. The house we stayed in was amazing. A friend of TwitSpark lent us his vacation home for the weekend and it was ballin, for lack of better words. Leather sofas, a huge bathtub, a TV (!!!), and a king sized bed! Their living room and kitchen were easily bigger than our whole apartment. If this house hadn't been lent to us, our trip to Tahoe probably wouldn't have happened so we are very thankful. I hereby declare that if we ever have a vacation home, we will lend it to young couples to pay it forward. 

. . .

lake tahoe: 2/3

We spent one of our days driving the entire way around Lake Tahoe, which takes about 3 hours. My most favorite of all our various stops was the beautiful Emerald Bay. It's known for its vibrant colors and it has the only island in all of Lake Tahoe, in case you were wondering.

We had lunch high above the bay on some sunny boulders and although we just had bread, jam, and BBQ chips, I felt like a king! What a view. After lunch, we hiked down a windy trail to the edge of the water so we could see its "emerald" color up close. I think we stayed down there for an hour and a half, just looking around. It's of the most naturally beautiful places I've ever been. 

Several people warned us about the steep hike back up the trail but it turns out that San Francisco hills have basically made American Gladiators out of our lungs and we strolled up casually and actually had a conversation the whole way up. We felt very proud of ourselves at the top - the grueling SF landscape has apparently paid off.

. . .

lake tahoe: 1/3

Our anniversary trip in Lake Tahoe was the best. We spent 3 nights away in an area called Incline Village on the northeast side of the lake. It was our first California excursion since living here and spending a few days out the city was refreshing and fun. I love nature and miss its presence in our city life. Getting away for weekend trips is more of a challenge since we don't have a car and our generous friend Jeff was kind enough to lend us his for the whole weekend. Thank you Jeff! Our time away was filled with relaxing by the fire, watching sunsets, playing frisbee, napping (that one was mainly me), and generally enjoying the incredible natural beauty by being outside. The whole weekend felt like one giant exhale and I'm so thankful we were able to visit, especially at such a beautiful time of year.

There was a also a very nice frisbee golf course (what providence!) half a mile from our house so we played a few times over the weekend. I wish I could say I totally smoked my competition, but that would be a bold lie.

It turns out my frisbee skills have diminished over the past few years. This kept happening....dang bushes.

On one hole, I temporarily got my act together and we tied. Our reactions are pretty telling.

More photos coming soon!

. . .

playful homes.

I really love the playful elements of these homes. I hope that if/when we have a home, we can include some fun things like the great ideas pictured below. Slides, secret passageways, a huge hammock. Even a trap door! It would be great for bringing out the kid in everyone and making day to day life a little more fun.

I'm sorry it's been almost a week since I've checked in. Our schedules have been 

full these past few days but I really will share photos of our Lake Tahoe trip soon!

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