feathers...

i can't tell you how happy handmade stuff makes me. i love it, i love it, i love it. and one of my favorite spots in worcester for finding such handmade goodness is compton collective, where i bought this satined glass feather by sarah brueck williams. it's my goal to have an entire collection of these feathers to fill my kitchen window with...

currently reading...

not going to lie, i've been seriously slacking on reading this spring/summer... lacking in my blog posts as well too. a few weeks ago the movie black mass, based on the book about the infamous boston mobster james 'whitey' bugler, with jonny depp as the leading character, was filming around the corner from my office and i decided our book group needed to read this since half our members live in southie, the hometown of bulger...

the polish american club of cambridge is one block from my office 

they transformed the club into the famous southie bar, triple o's, for the movie

depp as bulger

i've got to tell you, aside from enjoying the fact that i'm reading about a place i've come to know pretty well in my 14 years living in boston, i am fascinated/obsessed with the relationships between these fbi agents and their informants. being the mega-dork that i am, i've also got a little cheat sheet of what mobsters belonged with what gangs, it's a lot to keep straight...and i've googled the shit out of every single person, every single death, related to this story. there's some f@*ked up shit that happened in the neighborhood i've grown to love and have so many friends living in. 

if you know southie at all, this is a must read.

new patio...

not sure if you remember what our backyard looked like before, but it was not that great (oh, and the house was green and yellow, yuck). when i first moved in the entire back yard was filled with wood chips, no grass. there was no where to sit and enjoy the small patch of outdoor space we had...

we eventually pulled up the woodchips and tried out hand at growing some grass (and painted the house), but with 3 dogs the grass never really lasted very long...

enter the newest renovation to our house, the patio. we had a mason that i use for work (and love) come do the work for us...took them only 4 days. instead of using natural stone, to save money we used Pavers by Ideal, theYankee Cobble in the Vineyard Blend color. i love the way it came out, the pavers match the color of the natural stone foundation we have.

for my birthday my mom bought me an outdoor patio set, and we had some adirondack chairs we bought last year so I just dressed them up with some cushions. i love all our planters and the spot for the grill.

and we're trying our hand at growing some more grass...

and my newest favorite part of our backyard is the raspberry plants chris gave me for my birthday (GREAT gift for me). i am a raspberry fanatic, i'll eat a dry pint in one sitting. but these aren't just any old raspberries, these are prelude raspberries from my favorite place ever...geneva, new york, home of our college! we built our little raised bed and trellis and put these babies in the ground a few weeks ago... i can't wait until they start producing fruit! side note, chris dug out an entire tree stump in the very spot where we planted these, it was a massive undertaking, but he prevailed!...

a modern island...

when we were in paris walking home from dinner one night we passed by a storefront for boffi. i'm not typically one for modern decor, but i loved the simplicity of this kitchen island.  The vertical wood on the doors/drawers combined with the stainless steel gave it just enough rustic for me to become infatuated with it...