My Virgin Mobile wireless card has been failing me on my past two commutes. So tonight, rather than a design that incorporates an image from my commute, here are a few images from my weekend.

Saturday evening we had dinner at a gastropub called Urban Tavern. A definite must if you’re ever in the Lower Nob Hill / SOMA area.

Sunday consisted of a 6+ mile walk around the east side of San Francisco. We found so many neat areas, and even stumbled upon the offices of Turner Duckworth. I was starstruck.

Images in order of appearance: Turner Duckworth, Urban Tarvern atmosphere, Urban Tavern Sausage and Pretzel appetizer (a must try), Bay Bridge

It’s Monday and that means Strike My Fancy, your weekly sneak peak into my inbox is here. Beautiful things happen when Diesel and Banana Republic collide. Wouldn’t you agree?

Image credits go to Banana Republic, Paul Smith, Diesel, Threadless, and Etsy.

To kick off the new Places I Go theme for my Commute Design Project, I thought it would be a fun challenge to create a video. Challenge? Yes. Fun? Jury’s still out.

Let’s be clear, I’m not a videographer by any means. I took a class on Adobe Premier in college, but that was a long time ago. Now, the only tool I have in my arsenal is iMovie, and for most amateurs iMovie is great. But being used having much more control in Premier, I spent the most part of 2 evenings just trying to figure it out.

That being said, I’ve had so many comments from friends and family wanting to see more of my new San Francisco world that however unprofessionally done it may be, I think Tracing My Steps is a great way to show that.

Music credit goes to Dusty Brown: This City is Killing Me — (It’s not by the way)

And if it isn’t obvious, the video was filmed entirely by my iPhone 3GS. I know. It’s shocking but true. Old technology really does work.

If you’re on a mobile device, go here: Tracing My Steps

Tracing My Steps from Brooke Francesi on Vimeo.

While we’re all waiting on my Commute Project design from yesterday to finish up (I’m keeping it a secret, but it’s out of my hands at this point), I thought I’d share some images from the Alexander Wang Fall/Winter 2011 Runway show. It stopped me in my tracks.

Not only does he have a glorious mix of texture, I can’t stop drooling over the inky blacks and silky ivory color palette.

Go here for more images.

Okay, so I left things hanging yesterday and didn’t announce my new Commute Design challenge. While I didn’t have a chance to actually create my first design, I’ll give you a sneak peak.

Until this evening then?

This evening I was planning to announce my new Commute Design challenge for the month ahead, but sadly, I forgot my trusty Virgin Mobile wireless card, which meant no world wide web on the train for me. And no www means no blog post.

Rather than no post at all, I’ve decided to start a new weekly column called Strike my Fancy. You may remember that last week I created an email collage from emails that I’d been collecting over the past week.

I receive sooo many emails that I’ve decided it might be fun to give you a peak into my inbox each week. Here’s week 2 of Strike my Fancy.

Images you see here are from Net-a-Porter, Apple, SWSX, Design Story, Uniqlo, Piperlime, Erdem: The Interview by Net-a-Porter, and Threadless

After a short, unannounced hiatus on the Commute Design Project, I’m ready to go again. Admittedly, last week and most of this week I’ve been tired and uninspired on the commute home. Maybe it had something to do with the cold rainy weather?

But that’s so yesterday. Today the sun is shining, I’m bursting with motivation, and am loving me some bright color.

Today is a quirky leftover from my Sketchbook Project drawings, then next week, I’ll be announcing my new challenge for March. If you have any challenge ideas, I’m taking suggestions!

I’ve been collecting random bits and images from my email over the past few weeks and thought I’d share. Email marketing and strategy is for work. Email collages are for fun. Sometimes they collide.

Go Bold image by Piperlime, Brooklyn Art Library from The Sketchbook Project, Mon Amour in Aphrodite Slim from Hype for Type, background of books by Counter Print