Springy Stuff I Want to Buy

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Happy Monday, friends!

Here are a few springy items on my wish list. Sometimes you just need do a little fake shopping, no? I actually did buy the top - Real Simple declared it the best striped shirt, and when Martha speaks, I listen. And I spent this gorgeous weekend inside, working on my final paper for my children's literature class, so I felt like I needed a prize for that. Ha! Maybe the bag will be my prize when I get my final grade? I think I could potentially drag this out for a while...

P.S. You know you live in Boston when your spring wish list includes a jacket, scarf, and pants!

Charleston and Savannah Exteriors

I snapped so many pictures of the pretty houses, doors, and window boxes in Savannah and Charleston that I just had to do a separate, picture-heavy post to share them all! The flowers, the colors, wrought iron - I love it so. 

Low Country Trip Notes

This is a completely frivolous post, in light of what's happening in our backyard this morning. But it was a nice distraction to put all my notes together from our recent vacation. Maybe this will serve as a nice distraction to you, too. Thanks to so many of you for calling and writing and texting - we are completely fine, but jittery, like everyone else in the area. XO!

After Nemo struck in February, I was desperate for a vacation. I scoured travel sites looking for an inexpensive flight somewhere - anywhere! - south. Austin, Nashville, and New Orleans were all on my short list, but then I found an incredibly cheap flight to Charleston. Sold!

We flew down to Charleston early Sunday morning, and decided to rent a car and see Savannah, too. We got to Savannah around noon, and met right up with Savannah Bike Tours. The tour was about three hours long, and we got such a great introduction to the city. Highly recommended. Seeing a city by bike is so pleasant and vacation-ish!

We had a quick drink at Moon River Brewing Co. (pretty patio with lights!), and then went to Cotton Exchange Tavern. We had a few fancier meals planned for Charleston, so we wanted something easy and fun. The peel and eat shrimp and fried oysters were fab - actually one of my favorite things we ate the whole trip! After dinner, we went to the Olde Pink House Tavern for a fun drink and listened to the live piano player. Next time we're in the town, I want to come here for a snacky dinner.

The next morning, we headed over to wait in line at a Savannah institution - Mrs. Wilkes. We arrived around 10:45 a.m. and were seated at about 12:30 p.m. - totally worth it! The fried chicken was wonderful, but what really stands out are all the sides. It's almost like Thanksgiving (if your family was able to make the most incredible sweet potatoes, squash casserole, potato salad, corn bread, etc.). We walked around a bit more - pretty squares and gardens around every corner! - then hopped back in the car and drove up to Charleston.

Charleston was love at first site for me. We walked down to the Charleston Waterfront Park, and it was so sunny and warm - after months of winter, it was heavenly. Then we headed to The Gin Joint. Do I need to tell you that this was a serious favorite?! Fantastic cocktails, a great happy hour deal ($5 drinks and a special $5 snack), and a lovely patio space underneath a kumquat (?) tree. LOVE.

Monday was Peter's 30th birthday, and I had made reservations at FIG about a month before. They were so wonderful to us! Every thing was delightful, from the first sip of prosecco to the last bite of sorghum cake (with a candle!). If you want a fancy dinner in Charleston, this is a great pick. After dinner we went to Blind Tiger to hear a bit of music.

The next morning, we grabbed coffee at Gaulart & Maliclet (French pressed coffee to go!), and did a self-guided walking tour through town, popping into churches and graveyards and shops along the way.

We popped over to Husk just to check it out, and were happily able to walk-in for lunch. The dining room is lovely and airy, and it was great to be able to try the amazing food here. Peter had a shrimp and grits dish, and I had a smoked meat sandwich (sort of a Southern-style Reuben) - yum.

Peter needed to earn his history teacher gold star with a trip out to Fort Sumter. The ferry ride is really fun - great views of the city from the water, and then you're on the island for about an hour before it goes back again. It was nicely done, and I learned a lot, but I might recommend something else if you aren't really into Civil War history ;) We had dinner in the window bar at Pearlz, and ended the night with a drink at the Rooftop Bar.

The next morning, Peter indulged my strange college visiting habit with a trek up to the College of Charleston. Such a beautiful campus! We walked down King Street, and then went back to the waterfront to visit the Edmondston-Alston House. The photo above is in the gorgeous courtyard. I loved this place - it was amazing to see inside one of the beautiful old homes after walking by so many.

For our last vacation meal, we popped into Magnolias - another beautiful spot. This is hardly a novel travel tip, but going to the best restaurants in town is far more doable for lunch instead of dinner! This time I got seafood and grits, and Peter had a fried green tomato BLT. I went to Charleston Cooks for a bag of grits to take home and stopped at River Street Sweets for a praline before we headed to the airport. 

Low country, I miss you already!

Loving Lately

Mad Men has happily been welcomed back in our lives, but if you're looking for an additional period drama in your rotation, I highly recomend The Hour. There are only two short seasons (it was tragically cancelled, with major cliffhangers!), but it's absolutely still worth a viewing. Inconventiently, it's not on Netflix instant, so I rented it out from the library.

In October, I could have bought an adorable pair of boat shoes just like these for $25. I am still kicking myself for passing them up! These are still reasonable - I might have to go for it.

I am in travel research-mode these days because next week, we're heading down to Savannah and Charleston! We're going to be celebrating Peter's 30th birthday on Monday at this fun looking spot, and have a few other restaurants on our to-try list. But the rest of the itinerary is pretty open, and I know a lot of you have travelled to these cute cities lately. If you have anything to recommend, I'd love to hear!

A few other tidbits:

• Lois Lowry's Newbury acceptance speech for The Giver
• Ashley's selling a bunch of great furniture this week on her blog!
• And lastly, a moment of hot pink appreciation for Lilly Pulitzer

Hope you all have a lovely week!

A dark cloud

(Outside the Gardner, where we went to temporarily escape our funk)

A dark cloud is hanging over us. In the last month, we've lost two bids on houses - the second one just yesterday. It was a darling house, cuter than cute. We would have loved to live in it. Inventory is incredibly low in the Boston suburbs these days, and it's easy to find yourself wanting to bid way too much for a darling but small house that needs a lot in the way of updating. It can start to feel like your playing with Monopoly money.

Everyone who has a house always says these things happen for a reason - that the right house for you comes along at the right time. But it's so hard to be patient, and then have to swing into action incredibly quickly.

Enough about that, though. Tonight we're going to improv night at Peter's school (I love getting to spy on his students!), and this weekend we have a 30th birthday party to attend, and maybe some golf balls to hit. I also need to wrap up a paper on historical fiction, which I've come to be very critical of indeed! Remember when you're older brother came home from his first semester at college after he received a B- in Psych 101? And he was totally into explaining how psychologically flawed your whole family was? I'm at that annoying place, too - I've got just enough children's lit knowledge to be dangerous :) Ha!

Hope it is sufficiently April-like in your locale! (I was going to complain about our abyssmal weather here, but I stopped myself. You're welcome!!!)

Five things

This posts feels more self-indulgent than usual. As a blogger, isn't most of you write inconsequential little tidbits about yourself? But I've so enjoyed reading other people's posts, so I'm happy to play along (albeit belatedly!), thanks to Rachael's invitation.

1. You could possibly tell this already, but I am a bit of a goody-two-shoes. I was voted Class Angel in high school, programs like D.A.R.E. really worked on me, and I hardly ever swear. I'm still scandalized to learn about things Peter did in high school that really weren't so scandalous at all. It's terrifying to imagine having teenage children someday for these very reasons.

2. Goody-two shoes tendencies aside, I am sort of a terrible driver. Speeding, tailgating, rolling stops; this is also when the occasional swearing takes place. Don't be too scared, though, because I hardly ever drive.

3. I love personality tests, horoscopes, team building activities, and ice breakers. Hence, I can easily rattle off that I'm an ENFP, 7, Cancer, Virgo rising, air hands, and otter :)

4. Finding a photo to accompany this post was a strange process - I so rarely share photos here, it feels like a statement when I do (I realize that's crazy). I've been thinking a lot about personal photos since reading this. Not sure where I've landed, but Gabrielle poses some interesting questions about confidence and being comfortable enough to snap (and share!) photos of yourself.

5. Let's end with a bang! I have an impressive ability to cross my eyes, then ping pong them back and forth independent of one other, like a pendulum. This drives Peter insane! So, obviously, I do it way too much. Ha!

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you have a lovely first spring weekend (though we're still firmly in winter's grasp here in Boston). I'm going to buy asparagus anyways - I'm past caring that it's from Peru.

Also, I think you all should post your own five things! I'd love to read them. Or just take some personality tests from the links above and tell me what you are - perfect Friday afternoon activity, right?!

Berkshires Bedroom: Before and After

We spend tons of time in the Berkshires, but I don't think I've ever posted photos of my parent's place there!

They bought their condo 12 years ago, and we decorated it during the height of Trading Spaces. Bright colors, accent walls, stencils - if Paige Davis was into it, so were we. A prime example of this was my bedroom - pale pink walls, crazy hot pink floral stencils. Yowzers! I've been ready for a change for a while - especially since for the last seven years this has been Peter's room, too - but it's so hard to spend a would-be fun weekend in the Berkshires painting, you know what I mean?

We finally bit the bullet last weekend. It was soooooo worth it.

We painted the walls pale grey, and flip-flopped the bed and the dresser (I like it best when you walk into a room and see the bed, rather than the dresser). The bedding is stuff I've had for a while - an old Pottery Barn pattern that's pretty close to this one they're selling now. We picked up those lamps at Home Goods, and the striped throw pillow and bed skirt came from the Pine Cone Hill Outlet.

It's obviously not completely finished - we're missing some art work over the bed and window treatments. But I just couldn't resist sharing it! It goes to show what a huge difference a coat of paint can make - especially when that paint is covering up hot pink floral stencils :)

The Secrets of Happy Families

The Secrets of Happy Families is certainly designed for people with children - tips include having a long series of sex talks with your kids throughout their childhood (I had this in my own family, and I'm a big fan) and not worrying so much about the much-praised family dinner. I like researching and planning, so I loved thinking about how we'll do these things with our kiddos when that time comes (this is not an announcement!). However, I'm also a firm believer that Peter and I are already a family unit, and it was nice to think concretely about ways to improve our family's happiness now.

One of my favorite tips that we're able to implement is about creating a family mission statement. We haven't gone so far as distilling it down to a single core sentence (yet?!), but we think and talk about what we value quite a bit. This includes hosting family and friends in our home, traveling and doing new things, spending time together in the evening and cooking dinner, being able to give some money to causes we believe in, and then saving as much as we can without sacrificing all that fun stuff.

This exercise is especially interesting when you think about what gets left out, right? To me, it's fun to think about how your time + money are working toward (or against) the things you've decided you value most. Travel and new adventures can sometimes be hard to invest in, but for us, those things mean so much. Other stuff - like shopping or new gadgets - can easily be left behind because we don't really value those.

All this to say, I highly recommend this book. Bruce is a very likable dad - evidence here - and this is chock full of tips for families of all shapes and sizes. If you'd be interested in receiving a copy of your own, leave a comment below and one will be sent to the winner!

This is part of a blog tour by TLC Book Tours.  I received a copy of the book to read and review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are mine.

Gnocchi with Lentils and Prosciutto

When we were in Montreal, we had the most decadent, duck-fat filled creation at Au Pied de Cochon with gnocchi, lentils, and all kinds of meat. We tried to re-create it at my parent's house about a month ago, and it was delicious, but I wanted to see if I could do again with an even more humble interpretation since we used an amazing duck liver mousse the first time around.

I'm know I just said I'm desperate for spring flavors, but as we hunker down for yet another snow storm (!), this kind of comforting, stick to your ribs food still feels right. The ingredient list is a little long, but you could sub out anything on it (except the gnocchi and lentils!). Celery, cauliflower, broccoli, and kale could all be nice additions, and I think a vegetarian version would be just lovely.

I've done my best with the directions, but this loose recipe is bound to frustrate you rule-followers in our midst :) If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

Gnocchi with Lentils and Prosciutto

Serves 4
You will need:

1 package potato gnocchi
1/2 cup lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced and halved
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms (we used oyster)
3 slices prosciutto, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 cup liquid - water, stock, wine, and cream (I used some of each)

The original dish had pickled beets - divine. In place of that, I used a small bundle of broccoli rabe for some bitterness. Also, a warning: regular beets will turn the dish pink :) The original was also meatier - feel free to add sausage, duck, chicken, or pate of some kind if you're feeling fancy!
Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Boil the lentils for a bit, just to get them going in the cooking process - maybe 15 minutes. You don't want to turn them into mush since they cook in the oven, too. While those are cooking, saute the vegetables in a bit of butter until soft, about 10 minutes. In a casserole dish, combine the uncooked gnocchi, lentils, and vegetables. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add liquid until you can see it come up the sides, but don't submerge everything - I'd guess you need about a cup total. Place the torn pieces of prosciutto on top - the liquid you added shouldn't really make these wet at all.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the gnocchi is soft and the prosciutto is crispy.

Forcing Spring

OMG. Happy March 1st!!! The forecast called for a rainy/snowy mix today, but the weather gods could clearly see that we've been pushed to the limit in Boston - the sun is shining, and all looks much better than it did before we turned the page on the calendar.

This is the time of year when I get very itchy to wear my plethora of pink clothing. I'm tired of piling mountains of blankets on the bed, and I'm desperate for some asparagus. However! These things won't be viable options for about six more weeks. It's time to force spring in my life. 

I'm already on my second pot of daffodils - they're only $2.50 at Trader Joe's, and they are so happy and cheerful. I might need one for every room in the house. I've also got my little Easter tree up (with branches I stole - spy-style - from our neighbors at dusk!). These will be replaced with forsythia or some other floral thing as soon as I can get my hands on it from the grocery store.  

And speaking of the grocery store! I can't eat another parsnip or butternut squash. In this funny interim stage, I buy frozen artichokes, asparagus, and peas, lots of the those plastic packets of fresh herbs (mint and parsley feel especially good right now), and big bags of lemons. The dish above is based on this recipe, but I added feta and olives - delicious additions that I highly recommend. 

For fun stuff, I would absolutely love to make it to the Bulb Show at Smith this year, and I sort of feel like I need this shirt to celebrate spring's impending arrival. Is anyone else as desperate for spring as I am?!