I took a day trip with the family over the weekend to Block Island — one of my favorite places in the world. It had been almost 6 years since I had last visited so I had a fun time rediscovering the picturesque Victorian main street and taking in the harbor views. I was happy to see that while some things had changed since my last visit, the charm of the island remained the same.
My long weekend hiatus turned into a full week off from blogging; sometimes you just need to step away from the computer to recharge. The past few days have been filled with relaxing, swimming, kayaking, and few cocktails for good measure. I’ve been snapping pics along the way, how have you been relaxing this summer?
Earlier this week I took a cupcake decorating class with my friend at Isabelle’s CurlyCakes in Beacon Hill. I learned invaluable skills like how to fill cupcakes with mousse, how to pipe icing, and how to speed eat cupcake scraps left on the counter.
We made Oreo cupcakes (with Oreo bits baked into the cake! and Oreo icing!), red velvet cupcakes, peanut butter cupcakes, oh and triple chocolate cupcakes that were filled with chocolate mousse, iced with chocolate frosting, drizzled with chocolate ganache, and dipped in cocoa puffs. Hungry yet? You will be after you see how decadent they look:
And if you’re not in sugar shock yet, click over to 101 Things I Love and read my guest post about baking Oreo treats!
PPS: Have you entered the Coral and Pearl earring giveaway? Click here to enter.
I’m back from Blogfest and am almost fully recovered; chatting with so many amazing bloggers and designers can really wear a girl out! But I have lots to share and thought I would start with first part of conference held at Hearst Tower. The opening lunch hosted by House Beautiful was gorgeous — peonies were the unofficial flower of the event, everyone was taking advantage of their short season. And do you see those giant bags on the chairs? These were the swag bags of all swag — magazines for days and my favorite freebie, a copy of the new book, House Beautiful Blue: 360 Ways To Decorate With Blue. I already started to pick through it on my train ride back and it’s beautiful.
Following the delicious welcome lunch and after making lots of new friends (whose blogs I’ll share later in the week) we listened in on a panel discussion with Hearst editors Newell Turner of House Beautiful, Dara Caponigro of Veranda, and Mark Rozzo of Town & Country. All three were incredibly gracious and very open when talking about magazines’ relationship with blogs, they all agreed that there’s a place for both mediums in the space. In fact, they called on bloggers for being the beat editors that find trends and sources in the places that big magazines don’t have the time or staff to cover. My favorite moment of the day was when Newell Turner proclaimed he maintained a no-diva policy at House Beautiful, he doesn’t waste his time on that — which is probably why the magazine has such a down to earth feel to it.
Then we capped off the day with some champagne before we were whisked off to the ELLE Decor Modern Life Concept House … more on that tomorrow!
I had a mini-viewing party with one of my best girls — we woke up and started watching at 5am with a spot of bubbly and then topped off the morning with some official “Royal Wedding Donuts” from Dunkin Donuts. It was so fun to watch! I can’t imagine how amazing it must be to view in London today. I’m a sucker for weddings so I thought it was incredibly romantic, I especially loved the moment when you could read Prince William’s lips mouthing “you look beautiful” to his bride to be. And I loved the dress, it was perfectly timeless. So tell me, did you watch the Royal Wedding this morning? The dress? The kiss? Let me know what you thought!
With the holiday on Monday in Boston, it seems like the week has gotten away from me — I’ve barely had a chance to download all of the shots I snapped over last weekend. I enjoyed warmer weather and took an impromptu trip down to New York where I caught a baseball game, shopped, visited with friends and family, and enjoyed a stay at the Thompson Hotel.
I also made a long-awaited trip to Fishs Eddy while in the city. Major sensory overload from all of the amazing glassware and china gave me a buyer’s-freeze; I wanted one of everything and thus didn’t choose anything; another trip back is a must! And just like that, it’s practically the weekend again.
I finally finished upholstering the arm-chair in my living room, and I really mean “finally” — I started this project in the Fall and got frustrated with it and came up with an excuse to not work on it every weekend after that. But now that it’s done I’m so happy with the final look!
Here’s what the chair looked like before, I pulled back the sun-faded navy fabric and found crazy psychedelic flowers underneath:
And here’s another look at what it looks like after some blood sweat and tears:
Sometimes I get bored with how things look in my apartment and I have to rearrange. I shifted around some artwork and created a little gallery wall in the hallway recently and it’s making me quite happy every time I walk by it now. Do you rearrange in your house?
I took my gazillion recipe cards and print outs and tears from magazines and finally organized them all in clear sheet protectors in a binder that matches my kitchen. It feels good to be organized and makes the “what am I going to make for dinner” nightly dilemma a bit more manageable after a long day of work.
I put this off for a long time because I had a lofty goal of writing all of my recipes out on pretty letterpress recipe cards and storing them in a recipe box. But this was a much more practical solution and is protecting my recipes from the splatters and crumbs in the cooking process. How do you organize your recipes?
Last night my lovely boyfriend gifted me cookies and sharpies for Valentine’s Day — boy he knows me well! I spent the rest of the night geeking out and rearranging them in the Sharpie carrying-case. How did you celebrate?
