Looking, Playing, Wasting

Making: Excellent use of our new island - it makes our kitchen such a happy place to hang out in
Cooking: This perfectly autumnal mushroom lasagna
Drinking: A splash of wine nearly every night after Lizzy goes down for the night
Reading: This should say "slogging" since I've been working on this since August, but Longbourn
Wanting: Track pants, real bad
Looking: Oh so tired these days - I need an industrial strength eye cream or something :)
Playing: On my new iPad (I've become one teeny tiny percent more hip!) 
Wasting: Time searching for the perfect baby Halloween costume
Sewing: A new valance for my kitchen window (a total cheat answer because my Mom actually did the sewing for me!)
Wishing: I felt more clear headed
Enjoying: The evening routine we've worked out, which involves playing with Lizzy for a few hours when I get home, then her bath, stories, and bed, followed by dinner, a TV show, and dessert - always dessert - for Peter and me
Waiting: Until the October madness calms down in Salem before checking out this lovely looking exhibit
Liking: How settled our house is feeling these days, even as I make plans for a few more adjustments
Wondering: If we'll be able to pull off a big trip in 2015
Loving: My little clan more and more each day
Hoping: To make a batch of this in very near future
Marveling: At these awesome floating babies in Houston
Needing: To get some dates on the books with friends - we've been somewhat hermetic 
Smelling: Lizzy's head every night at 5:00 p.m.
Wearing: Ballet flats as much as possible before the endless season of boots begins
Following: The new-to-me blog Aspiring Kennedy
Noticing: How beautiful Boston looks this fall - the leaves have exploded in color in the last week
Knowing: Some Top 40 songs for the first time since college, thanks to a lingering Sirius XM subscription in our new-to-us second car (my current fave)
Thinking: That our new normal is starting to feel just that
Feeling: So excited to tag along with my sister to do some wedding dress shopping tomorrow
Bookmarking: Tons of recipes from Jamie Oliver's magazine - it's been a treasure trove of inspiration 
Opening: The windows just a smidge to get some of that delightfully crisp fall air in the house
Giggling: Over Lizzy's seemingly deep voice - it's seriously just like this when she laughs
Feeling: Lucky, lucky, lucky 

This post was inspired by Meet Me at Mikes!

North Fork Weekend

Last month we were invited to join friends for a weekend on the North Fork of Long Island. The other couples we were with both have children, too, and it was so neat to see our friends as parents and get to know two kiddos that are a year and two years older than Lizzy. We have lots of chasing to look forward to in our future!

It was a low key trip with dinners at home and lots of chatting and wine, but we did explore the area a bit. We had lunch at First and South in Greenport and also the Lunch Truck at North Fork Table and Inn - both were delicious and had outdoor space for the littles to run around.

One afternoon, the ladies left the babies at home with our husbands and went to Konokosta Winery, where all these pictures were taken. The setting is unbelievable, and the wine is good, too (though other reviewers seem to think it's not as good as other options in the area - we weren't feeling too picky!). On the way out, we stopped at one of the many farm stands in the area to pick up all kinds of goodies before taking the ferry home, which made it a really easy trip to do from Boston.

Summer, I'm missing you already.

11 Questions Answered

A few pictures of life lately! The most delicious lamb ragu with feta and peas; Lizzy suffering through tummy time; a walk in the wood; and a photo my sister took of Lizzy and me on Mother's Day.

Melissa invited me to answer a few questions she posted to her blog, and while my answers are far from riveting, it was fun to put together. You should totally play along!

1. What has been your most favorite vacation to date? 
Paris! It's hard to beat Paris. 

2. Do you prefer big city life, suburban life, or a life in the country? 
I love that I have a quasi-suburban life right now. We are still super close to the city (10 minutes to Cambridge, and just a bit further from Boston), but I love our little house and neighborhood and yard. 

3. What is your favorite type of food?
This sounds boring because I like to think of myself to be kind of an adventurous eater, but I think my favorite would be classified as American! But maybe fancy-ish American?! Ha. My favorite type of recipe is basically everything on Food 52. 

4. How would you typically dress for a night out? 
Fun patterned shirt (like so) and hot pink flats (like so). Though it's been far too long since these items have left my closet!

5. What are you go-to accessories?
Scarves, earrings, necklaces, sunglasses.

6. How do you fix your hair?
Lately it's been air dried, but typically I give it a quick blow dry and smooth it out with a big round brush. I'm useless with hair products, so I tend to skip them all together. 

7. What make-up do you wear on a daily basis? Do you have preferred brands?
I wear tinted moisturizer, mascara, and blush every day, and sometimes add eye shadow and eye liner to the mix, as well. And always (always!) Vaseline on my lips!

8. What is your preferred workout?
I'm terrible about working out in the formal sense, but I like walking a lot, and will occasionally do some yoga at home.

9. Where is your favorite place to shop online?
Oh gosh. Predictable, but probably Amazon. I also buy things from Lilly Pulitzer online when they have big sales, and like Terrain a lot for gifts. 

10. Do you enjoy entertaining guests in your home or would you prefer to be a guest? 
I LOVE hosting people here - it's one of my favorite things. But because I know how much goes into it, I also really appreciate how wonderful it is to be a guest in someone else's home. I always pick up tricks that I want to steal from our friends who are also fantastic hosts! (The trick I'm always trying to relearn is "just relax and everyone will have fun," ha.)

11. What quality do you really value in your significant other?
Goodness, this is tricky, because is truly a very long list. Peter and I have opposite personalities in many ways (similar values, though, which I think is the key). He is patient, even-keeled, focused, and is an exceptional listener - all qualities I lack, and value very much!

Hooray for the end

(cute onesie)

Hope everyone had a lovely spring weekend! It was beautiful here, but Peter and I were trapped (kind of by choice...) inside, finishing up the floor and trim downstairs. I'll share some pictures soon! Our contractor very, very nicely had been letting us borrow his power tools for this project, but he is coming by today to pick them up. Hooray for the end of dust!!!

Our counter is taking longer than we hoped to come - we're currently scheduled for next Tuesday, and then appliances go in after that. Last week, I called and tried to give them a bit of a sob story about how I'm having my first baby any day now (kind of), and if there was any way they could move us up, we could be available at a moment's notice. The woman was unmoved. "Umm, I'll make a note..."

In between all that sawing and gluing, we went on a super fun date to State Park on Friday night, and then met friends for dinner at Russell House on Saturday. At Russell House, we were able to sit upstairs where the windows were wide open and it was breezy and still light out when we sat down at 7:30. Glorious. We'd already paid for parking (something we're usually allergic to, but it was a lovely concession to celebrate working all weekend/being 37 weeks pregnant) so we extended the evening a bit to sit outside in Harvard Square and share a concrete from Shake Shack. All in all, an excellent eating weekend.

I had my ultrasound on Friday, which sadly confirmed that the baby is still breech. It also looks like a frog in a jar at this point, it's face all mushed up against the top of my stomach. Poor baby. I'm doing all kinds of weirdo things from Spinning Babies, but we also have an external version scheduled for Thursday. I honestly had no idea how involved that procedure was, so I'm having some second thoughts. (If you had it, or have any stories about someone who did, I'd love to hear! The only things I've come across are tales of woe about it not working and inducing labor early, so...not really what I'm hoping to hear).

My mind has been spinning out of control, imagining an emergency c-section on Thursday while my house is in ruins and all my baby stuff is still at my parent's house in Connecticut. But the end is here (ish), whether I'm ready or not. And it truly doesn't matter if that second coat of paint makes it onto the dining room trim or not. My parents are coming up this weekend to drop off all the baby stuff regardless, so it will be in my cozy nesting fingers soon enough.

And, of course, I could still be pregnant a month of now! I have a feeling this stubborn child will be born a Taurus, so I think I've got until at least next week until we say "hi ;)"

Bits and pieces

Happy Friday, my friends! I hope you've all had a nice week. Our renovations have been chugging right along, though I've been fairly terrible about documenting any of it (hence this random, totally unrelated, but much more visually appealing pic of flowers!). Yesterday we had all of our new cabinets delivered, along with our dishwasher and stove. They were all piled into the kitchen when we left this morning, but I'm hoping that the base cabinets will be installed when I get home.

Since we opened up the wall between the kitchen and dining room, I knew that those rooms would be painted the same color. They're off of our living room, which is revere pewter, and I brought home silver mist (both Benjamin Moore). After painting the ceilings, I started cutting in with it last weekend, but immediately got nervous that it was too dark and similar in saturation to the revere pewter. This was, embarrassingly, keeping me up at night. Now that the cabinets are in, though, and I know how much white the rooms will have, I'm feeling better about it. AND, it's just paint, so I should really chill out. I definitely had less hemming and hawing about the floors/cabinets/counter tops, ha ha. (But if you'd like to weigh in, please feel free...)

Tomorrow is my baby shower, which I am so very excited for. Peter's staying home to work on laying down our new floors, which is a significantly worse way to spend a Saturday. Bits and pieces of incredibly sweet gifts for the baby from family and friends have trickled in this week, which is almost as fun as coming home to wedding gifts. We received one of those playmat thingies that are all crazy colors and flashy toys dangling from above. It's so easy for me to imagine a baby lying there, looking up at it, but it's still mind blowing to me that my baby will be using it shortly.

In other baby related news, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and they think the baby might be breech. Of course, I've been furiously googling "how to tell breech baby" and "make breech baby flip." I have an ultrasound in two weeks to check, but that feels so very far away. I feel like I can't do much of anything, just in case the baby's in the right place now? (And of course, I know that breech isn't the end of the world by any means, and that the baby still has time to flip on its own, etc., etc.). I should probably go back to worrying about paint.

I thought this post would be a quick bullet list when I started off, but I guess I had a lot of sharing to do! The only other thing I wanted to tell you was that I finally started The Goldfinch, and gosh it's good so far (though I still believe it's fairly audacious to make any book this long).

Hope you all have wonderful springy weekends ahead!

The dusty house will wait

I took these lovely photos last spring of the blooming tree outside our old apartment. Like everyone else, I'm so desperate for these sunny, springy skies to return. Hopefully it doesn't feel too cruel to share them while we're still suffering below freezing temps in the northeast. They are giving me hope as we turn the calendar over to March this weekend!

This weekend is packed to the brim with fun stuff, and I'm so excited. Tonight we're going to a play, tomorrow night a party, and then Sunday to dinner at a friend's! We'll also be doing some house stuff - painting the bathroom vanity upstairs, maybe experimenting with taking down some paneling off the bedroom walls (Peter doesn't know about that plan yet, though!), and shopping for new floors. Whew!

Our house is a disaster zone - the entire kitchen was gutted down to the studs this week, and the dust levels are insane (though our contractor is doing his very best to keep it all contained as much as possible!). Next week I'll try to share some pictures of the craziness! It will be good to get out and about.

I've been thinking a lot about how we should be spending these last few weeks before parenthood duties officially kick-off. We're doing so much work around the house (and spending so much money!) that it's tempting to just hunker down and focus all our attention there. But this week I've been emailing with a girlfriend who had the most darling baby a few months ago. She gives great advice (about literally everything), so I desperately asked her what I should be doing during this weird time period, thinking I might be failing to accomplish something important like pre-washing bottles and baby clothes (which I don't even own yet).

But no. She had much better - much saner - advice. Go out to dinner. Take care of yourself. Have adventures. That's been spinning around in my mind all week. So I booked a weekend away to our beloved Portland, ME, and I've also put together a short mental list of local stuff I'd love to do, like going back to the Gardner and trying this fun looking new spot.

That advice really works for almost all of us, no matter what our lives look like at the moment, right? The dusty house will wait, but we need to make space to enjoy the fleeting blooms on the trees.

Vacation Days

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you had a lovely close to 2013.

For the last few days, I've been thinking about how very different my life is now compared to this time last year. I desperately wanted to be pregnant, and we were desperately searching for a house to buy. Both were more difficult to achieve than anticipated! There is something strange - and wonderful, of course, so, so wonderful - about getting the things you want most. Things felt somewhat lonely and sad last winter, wishing for these things to come into my life that turned out to be quite out of my control.

I can't say that I'm grateful for that time, or that I learned lots of profound lessons. Really, I just wish I could go back and tell myself to be a bit more zen about everything. I'm trying to carry that message into this year, and have been thinking a lot about patience, and how much I'll need to cultivate it in the coming months. Patience with our slowly evolving house, with myself during the rest of pregnancy and new motherhood, with finding my footing professionally during all this change, with Peter and our new baby.

Last night, we went to our dear friends' apartment in the South End for a small New Years party, just like last year. The food was incredible, we played games right up until the ball drop, and then we toasted each other at midnight with Champagne. Today, I'm making corn bread and hoppin' john while forging ahead on back issues of the New Yorker and my big stack of library books, just like last year.

But everything looks different in this bright new light.

Holiday Cookie Bonanza on Butter Poached

When Laura of the lovely blog Butter Poached put out a call for readers to contribute to a virtual holiday cookie bonanza based on the Washington Post's annual cookie feature, I could not say yes fast enough. I wound up making two from the list - one fantastic and decently attractive, one fantastic but unfortunately reminiscent of boobs. I'll trust you to figure out which was which on your own, but do head over there for confirmation :) There are tons of fantastic reviews of many of the cookies from the list included in their post.

P.S. I know things have a been a bit photo collage crazy over here, but I recently discovered this site, and I am in love. It's crazy easy to use, there are lots of different templates, and (I might be just telling myself this?) I feel like it makes mediocre pictures look better. Anyways, passing along just in case you'd like feel tech-savvy without actually learning how to do anything technical!

All Golden and Sunny

We are going to Burlington, VT this weekend to celebrate our friends' wedding. I hope it looks just like this, all golden and sunny. I've been reading oodles of critical theory for class, so I brought nothing but magazines to catch up on for the entire weekend. This Old House, Real Simple, and New Yorker,  I'm coming for you.

Guess what, today marks four weeks since we've been living in our house! It feels much longer than that, though - I guess because so much is happening there. I love coming home every night during the week to see what's been done that day, but kind of hate being surrounded by everything gross on the weekends. Thank goodness we have lots of weddings coming up this fall to escape to :)

Hope you have a fantastic weekend with apple cider and magazines and colorful leaves!

Summer Dinner: Pork Chops and Grilled Chard

On Friday afternoon, my friend Sam came into town from D.C. and we got to meet up for an amazing cheese and meat filled celebratory lunch since she's moving to Africa next month to start an amazing fellowship! Afterwards we took a walk around the Copley farmer's market. She's just visiting, so I bought enough at the farmers market for both of us. It all looked so amazing! A huge bunch of swiss chard, beets, radishes, and pork chops (Sam, I ran back to buy those after we parted and barely made my train, ha!).

The next night, after a long day of paper writing and house hunting (Oh, the panelling! The linolium! The cracked ceilings!!!), Peter whipped up that lovely drink - a dark and story sunset! Basically, it's a dark and stormy with some hot pink grenadine at the bottom. It was awesome.

For the pork chops, Peter just put a little salt, pepper, and smoked paprika on top before grilling them. I made a little pesto with beet and radish greens (blanch them for a minute first to get the sand out), pistachios and feta, and mixed that in with jasmine rice - surprisingly good.

But weirdly, the star of this dinner was the grilled swiss chard salad. I grilled kale last summer, and I guess it was fine, but I barely remember it, which tells you something. But grilled chard! Who knew. Keep the pieces very big, and don't worry about removing the rib in the center of the leaves. I put all the leaves in a bowl and tossed them with salt and a good amount of olive oil - the leaves should be pretty shiny. Put them in a grill basket and flip them once after a minute or two.

Summer Sunday Saturday Dinner: Pork Chops and Grilled Chard

• Dark and stormy sunsets
• Grilled swiss chard salad with sliced radishes and feta
• Rice with beet and radish greens pesto
• Grilled pork chops
• Cabot's coffee toffee heath sundae (it was Saturday night, after all!)

Derby Day Party!

(via Life)

I thought it would be fun to invite a few people over to watch the Derby this weekend, and it's expanded into quite a fun group! Here's my menu I'm planning on:

• Mint juleps & honeymoon punch
• Cheeseball, deviled eggs, bacon wrapped dates
• Dill and sweet corn salad
• Radish and grain salad
• Pulled pork & fried chicken (bought fried chicken - I'm not totally insane), with biscuits

I'm not worrying about sweet stuff since a few people have offered to bring desserts (though of course, I always have "emergency" candy on hand, just in case...).

We'll definitely plan on organizing the first betting game listed here, and possibly the second one, too - after that, the math gets confusing. Aaaand I really hope my Target is stocking these cute straws.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Neurotic Bloggers

(Via the New Yorker)

*I fought the urge to close comments on this post!

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer

(Getty Images)

Big weekend! We're going to get our Christmas tree and attend the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus concert tomorrow night. Our friend Greg is performing in it, and I'm so excited to cheer him on! Ladies, he is single and wonderful. (I know very few single people in Boston, which is too bad because I harbor a deep desire to set people up and then have them go on an amazing date and then have them live happily ever after. Are you a single lady in Boston who loves history teachers?! Email me.)

As for the tree trimming, I always have grand plans for Peter and I to sing along to Christmas carols, lovingly looking into each others eyes, exclaiming that this is the most wonderful time of the year. In reality, I end up doing most of the ornament hanging while he watches football/tracks his fantasy football players/trash-talks his fellow fantasy football league members. And I am all, "Don't you CARE where this sparkly bauble goes?! DON'T YOU CARE."

So! Last year, I got a bottle of Prosecco and set up a big antipasto plate with lots of cheese, salumi, olives, and pickles. And even though we were both just in the same room, doing our own thing, we came together for cheese and to fill up the wine glasses. It was (slightly) more magical than in years past, and I intend to do it again.

Speaking of managing holiday expectations, I loved these two posts on that very subject. Happy reading, and happy, happy weekend!

The Year of Enjoy: Home Stretch

In early January, I declared this to be the "year of enjoy." The final half of 2011 was stressful, and I was longing to impose some pleasure into our lives in an official way. It doesn't quite work that way, of course, but I'm happy to have made the effort.

The things on that list did bring me joy - I love vacations and making new friends as much as the next person - perhaps even more so. But even a year filled with goodness has many moments of stress and sadness and frustration. At times I wonder about my extreme commitment to all-things-fun. Is it shallow? Completely self-absorbed? I tend to maintain that it's a tough world out there, and you need to fight for as much happiness as you can get. It's my responsibility to make things in my life as good as possible. But sometimes I think my focus should shift more toward kindness, hospitality, forgiveness.

Oh, I don't know. Let's awkwardly transition back to my catch-up on the list, shall we? For the most part, I successfully did everything I set out to do. I still need to make pate - hopefully this weekend. We have an adventurous couple coming over for dinner on Saturday night, and I think they'll be up for trying my experimentation. We're also short one weekend trip. That should happen over Christmas break, though we are vacillating wildly between being brave and doing a long road trip down to Charleston and Savannah, or just going to...Maine. I know. We need to just decide.

I'm going to try to fully embrace this last month of the year with a full and happy heart. I want to watch Elf, do lots of yoga, drink a little too much Prosecco, and go to Christmas concerts. And I want to finish up all my shopping in the next few days. For the past few years, our list of people to shop for has grown (a happy problem to have, all things considered!), but all the angst of finding the perfect thing at the perfect price point was bringing me down. This year, I started shopping in August (!), picking up the pretty great thing at the good-enough price. I know most people were clued into this trick ages ago, but I'm thrilled it finally sunk in for me. I love actually giving people their gifts, but I'm very happy that the acquiring process is nearly done. It's cleared the decks for more Prosecco!

As we turn the page onto December, I wish you all a very happy weekend. Let's all try to enjoy it.

Dinner Party Times Two

(Studio Oh tea towel)

Peter and I are hosting two large dinner parties over the weekend. One for eight on Friday night, and another for a different eight on Saturday night. Oh my!

For Friday, we've settled on cottage pie and a giant salad. On Saturday, we'll serve cassoulet and a giant salad. I'm going to make two homemade ice creams this week, and serve those at both. No matter how many people we have coming over for dinner, I always do the same basic thing for appetizers - a platter with cheese, salumi, nuts, olives, and crackers.

In a strange way, it feels almost easier to do them both back to back, buying and making everything times two and then swapping out the main dish! We'll see if I'm singing the same tune in the aftermath next week :)

Anybody hosting Thanksgiving next week? We get to be guests on Thanksgiving, but I feel like I'm getting my fix of cooking for a crowd over the weekend!

High on the Hilltop

I have more to say about our trip to North Carolina! You probably thought I was finished since I already showed you 29 photos of cute Asheville, but I was a prolific photographer that weekend! And North Carolina was just so photogenic.

On our drive out to Asheville (after the most wonderful visit with our dear friends in Charlotte!) Peter convinced me that we should make a quick stop for barbecue at Bill's Spoon. North Carolina BBQ and I are BFFs since vinegar base = no tomatoes! Yay for fabulous pork, mustard slaw, hush puppies, and sweet tea.

Everyone kept saying, "Oh, it's going to be so beautiful out in the mountains this weekend!" And I will admit to you that I was a snobby-snob about it and didn't really believe them. I mean, New England in the fall is pretttttttty spectacular, know what I'm saying?

But they were right. Asheville was gorgeous - much more red and orange than my local leaves. I didn't do a great job capturing how crazy colorful it was, so you'll just have to go next October to see for yourself :)

Marissa and Adam got married on a lovely hill top. Their ceremony was one of our favorites - they absolutely radiated joy. Afterwards, we drove down the mountain a bit to a lovely tent set up alongside a stream. There was a fire pit and fantastic wine, cupcakes and a DJ who knew how to play the songs everyone would dance to. My heart is still so happy! And I want to do it all again next weekend.

Home Cooking + Butter Poached

(Source)

A few weeks ago, my friend Jess and I were chatting about Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking. I had included it on my autumn reading list, and she told me she was re-reading it before bed. Well, I finally started a few days ago. It's short and I'm trying my best to savor every page. Colwin is so warm and funny and charming - I just adore her. Perfect chilly evening reading.

And speaking of Jess! She and her friend Laura have recently started blogging together at the decadently named Butter Poached.

Jess is the kind of person you always hope you end up sitting next to at dinner, know what I mean? She's warm and quick and insanely cool. And the writing these ladies are doing is just lovely. Laurie Colwin-esque, if you will. It's a delicious new thing to add to your blog reading rotation :)

Note to Self

(20 years old, and very nervous about life :)

I am in a bit of a funk these days.

Cooking doesn't seem that fun, though I am still making good things for dinner most nights. I cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago, and I'm left feeling like I don't like what I got rid of, but I also don't really like what I kept. I am reading (and reading and reading!), but nothing that's making me feel totally "yay!" There are a few little things I'd like to do around the house, but...eh. Part of this stems from some Bigger Life things that feel a bit out of my control.

We are thinking more seriously about buying a house. But will a not-scary house that we can actually afford come on the market? Will we like being home owners? We've seen a few, and they left me with this feeling:

Embrace the lovely life you have right at this moment.

Because right now, even though parts of my life feel a bit out of control, or just plain ho-hum, I want to ditch this funk and remember my clean, bright, pretty home now. The good dinners I can make each night now. The hours that stretch before me to read and think and see friends and do yoga. The ordinary nights at home with Peter and wine and a favorite show we can watch all together in one big gulp.

*   *   * 

I recently read through an old journal that I've kept very infrequently since I was in college. I usually only write there when I'm upset or mad, which happily isn't too often. Since it's mostly used during tough-ish times, it's certainly a skewed snapshot, but I was stuck by early entries that are filled with worries about being lonely and having a lame life. I was never going to meet anyone fantastic, my friends would realize I was boring, I wouldn't get a fun job.

If I could have told myself that I was going to meet Peter a month before I collected my college diploma, that I would keep all of my dear friends very close, that I would have a series of mostly fun jobs, I would have been shocked and relieved at how beautiful my life is. How lucky I am.

Right now, I'm going to try to tell myself that there are many surprises in store for these next years. But if I could get a preview for how they would turn out, I hope to be shocked and relieved at how happy - how lucky - I continued to be.

Saying "Hi!" to the Old 'Hood

We were in New Jersey over the weekend for a baby shower and going away party. On Sunday, I was lucky enough to meet up with some of my dear NYC girlfriends (plus the sweetest little three month old baby!) for brunch. Oh, how I miss them!

When I met up with Peter, we couldn't help but make a little detour and take a quick walk around our old neighborhood.

We obviously needed a coffee fix. We have coffee in Boston, of course, but nothing as good as Gorilla :)

The whole thing made me miss New York very much, but not miss the actual living there part at all. I must go back very soon and get a good, strong fix of the city and all the good food and friends it contains.

Autumn Manifesto

* Work my way through my autumn reading list * Sew something * Dive into a new creative project * Make paté * Host a game night with friends * Take a hike * Eat too much at the Big E * Celebrate friends' new marriages and new babies and new houses * Go to the beach one last time * Perfect my apple cheddar crisp * Toast the season with Italian Manhattans *