- In July, the San Francisco Chronicle ran Mission District stocks up on local, unique, a story I wrote covering some of the best new shops in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. It includes a nice map and guide to local retailers. If you’re planning on visiting the area, it will send you to some great, eclectic shops specializing in vintage and independent designers’ work.

- In early August, Rena Ramirez of 6th Generation Media and I teamed up to offer Market U, a one-night seminar offering media outreach and public relations tips to local small business owners. It was a great success – we sold out the event and met a lot of great people running terrific local businesses. We plan to do another one of these events in the future, likely in the winter or early spring.

- Also in August, I began copy writing for Mineral Fusion cosmetics, a mineral makeup brand based out of Denver. I’ve enjoyed creating tips for using the company’s all natural cosmetics and will post more about them once the current projects become available online.

- And as always, I continued blogging each week for Kayak.com, 7×7.com, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Unzipped blog and SF Indie Fashion.

- I’ll be taking some time off in September and October to be with my new son, Walker (due Aug. 30). That said, SF Indie Fashion will continue running, so don’t hesitate to be in touch about that or any other freelance requests.

- I was recently honored to be selected as a fellow in the Knight Digital Media Center’s Journalism Entrepreneurship program, held in May at the University of Southern California.

- Three times a week, you can find my fashion coverage on 7×7.com’s Glamwatch.

- Once a week, you’ll find my writing about the San Francisco fashion scene on the San Francisco Chronicle’s SF Unzipped blog.

- Every weekday (and some weekends), you’ll find my coverage of the San Francisco independent fashion community on SF Indie Fashion.

- And every single day of the week, you’ll find my travel writing, news, tips and advice on KAYAK’s Kayak Traveler blog.

- I also still occasionally write for KQED’s Spark program and freelance for various other publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle.

- In August, I’ll be leading a seminar with local public relations pro Rena Ramirez of 6th Gen Media to help local designers and small businesses take charge of their marketing, public relations and social media efforts. Stay tuned for more information on that…

You can read more of the travel news and advice I write each day on the Kayak Traveler.

My posts on recent travel news and advice appear daily on the Kayak Traveler blog…

The TravelPost Insider blog that I’ve done most of the writing for since it launched in 2005 recently officially became the Kayak Traveler, a new travel blog from TravelPost’s parent company Kayak.

It’s exciting – a new blog with a new look and feel. I really like how streamlined and clean it is – much like all of the Kayak site.

Check it out for the latest travel news, hotel openings, deals and destination ideas.