girls' weekend in boston

just wrapped up another wonderful weekend with family.  my aunt, uncle and nana came to visit for a few days and we had a lot of great food (ate here & here and made this) and just as many laughs :).  didn't take any pictures though, so instead i'm going to recap another awesome weekend...last weekend in boston with my mom and sista...where i also took zero pictures, but luckily K had her camera handy!!

got into boston much later than expected last friday night, due to terrible rain storms, but still managed to have a great evening at local 149.  it was such a bustling place and the food was delicious!!  plus there was an awesome pumpkin beer (pumking) on tap that tasted like heaven.

the next day, mom drove up to meet up with us and brave the windy streets of beantown.  we put on our walking shoes and headed to the open loft event that kara had read about (she had everything planned and made up a cute agenda(er) for us! so thoughtful!!).  we went to the Fort Point Open Studios event which was really neat...after we got over the initial shock that 'open studios' truly meant what it said...that artists (young and old) were opening their studios (i.e. their homes in many cases!) to the public.  Totally fascinating to see some of the loft spaces and how people transform them in such different ways based on their art.  so glad we didn't chicken out and actually went into a bunch of the lofts!

we also spent some time in the firefighter's museum in the fort point area and got a whole lotta history about firefighting and the great boston fire (maybe a little too much from the man who had little to do ;-) ) before heading over to the Mothers' Walk and Faneuil hall where we were nearly boiled alive and then through a movie scene that was completely littered with busted car parts!

saturday night we had a scrumptious morrocan-esque dinner while listening to some live jazz at The Beehive!

love these ladies!!

on sunday we went to the most wonderful place of all...the SoWa market!! kara and mom had been and i was pretty jealous when i heard about it, so i was thrilled that they were willing to go back when i was in town!  so much to see (and eat), we could've been there all day!!  we all left with unique recycled silverware bracelets (by John Atkinson) that i can't get enough of...he sells in boston, ri, vt and then fl in the winter months...send him an email to track his jewelry down, you'll be glad you did!  thank goodness we did so much walking that weekend because we also ate at the south end buttery for brunch as well as here and here...and the food was decadent!  such a fun weekend, so sad when they fly by so quickly!

more pictures here!

let the fall festivities begin!

last weekend was so perfect!! filled with all of the fun that comes with fall, but the weather was nicer than most of the summer days we had with temps in the 80s and bright sun.  add in some apples, pumpkins, brunch and shopping and you've got an award winning weekend!  we also saw the movie 50/50 on saturday night and LOVED it, super funny and just a touch of sadness.  go see it if you get a chance!!


Pictures from our adventures at Linvilla.  The place was mobbed, but unfortunately the apple trees were not quite so densely populated...many of the apples had rotted before ripening due to all of the recent rain.

RIP Mr. Jobs

Lookin' good Ab :)

Oh ya know, just chillin' with a neck pumpkin.  NBD.

It was just a tad bit crowded but didn't stop us from filling that cart to the brim with lovely pumpkins!

can't wait for boston this coming weekend...i know it's going to be another winner!! :)

you're never too old for Elmo

thank goodness for The Coterie Blog!  without it i would never have seen this sweet preview:



who doesn't love elmo?!  i'm absolutely going to see this...who's with me?!
check here to see if Being Elmo is coming to a city near you!

shows you should be watching

okay so i know that the majority of people aren't watching much more than baseball playoffs these days...but there is other stuff on tv people!! and it's really good!  and that's what DVR is for after all!

if you saw my entire tv line-up you might be disgusted...and/or think i'm a big chubby lady that never leaves the couch.  maybe i'm just making up for the many nights i wasn't allowed to watch tv...like, oh i dunno, every night of my school life...no joke, even through high school, there was very limited telly watching allowed in my house.  that's a-okay, because now that i'm a big kid i get to watch whatever i want...and many nights i go to bed kicking myself for being so lazy and for watching tv instead of cleaning up my room.  i guess mom knew best after all...but there weren't nearly as many awesome shows available back in the day so my clothes strewn allover the bedroom floor will have to stay there for one more day! :)

new favorite of the season is New Girl.  hands down hilarious.  i've been waiting for months...the previews looked so darn good that i made mz stop fast forwarding through the commercials and watch it every.single.time.  part of the reason i'm hooked on this show, even though there have only been 3 episodes, is that it's pretty much me.  like all of the crazy things that jess (zooey deschanel) does in the show are precisely how i act, so it holds a special place in my heart, haha.  most the time i can't tell if mz is laughing at the show or laughing at me laughing at the show...or laughing at the show because he's thinking about how it's basically his life.  here's a little clip...which you'll probably watch and think 'uhm, really, i don't get it, she thinks THAT'S funny!?'.  but trust me, just watch the show and you'll get it...maybe.
other shows you should be watching:
*Dexter!  the new season just started, can't wait to see what it has in store! fyi, you can always watch dexter online for free instead of signing up for showtime (if you don't mind slightly lousy quality) here.
*Breaking Bad - my absolute favorite.  there have only been a few seasons, you can catch up in a jiff, it's AMAZING.

i've got about 13 more that i could list, but those are my faves and you're really missing out if you don't have them on your dvr schedule already!

OCNJ 2011: a day at the beach...

...is better than a day just about anywhere else! even if it's gray and rainy and the ocean looks like it could eat me alive.  i love everything about being at the beach...listening to the crash of the waves in the morning, smelling the salt air, attempting to tame my hair that gets fluffier by the second, the beach can do no wrong in my eyes!

mz's family rents a house in ocean city, nj just about every year after the summer season is over.  it's a great time to be at the beach without all of the traffic and tourists.  we were lucky enough to take a few days off from work and spend 5 days down there this year...i did a whole lot of reading on my kindle, which was so nice and relaxing:

while mz and his brothers did a whole lot of this:

talking/debating about the most foolish things on earth...like how to properly stuff an olive with blue cheese.

we did get some pockets of sun and we took advantage of those days the best we could!  lots of beach walking and even spent some time on the boardwalk watching the ocean city air show - complete with wing walkers!

the waves were crazy and created so much foam...kinda looked like abby was out for a stroll in the snow!

perfect day for kiteboarding, there were about 30 of them out on sunday. i really want to try this next year!! who's with me?!

 view from the house on 45th street.

it helps to act like a bird in order to get the best pictures of them...or i just like to do weird things. :)

a few more pictures are hiding here.