heather & olive

This past weekend I headed up to Maine for some pre-birthday celebrations. My parents and I had a low-key Friday, and Saturday my sister came up. We headed to Portsmouth where we had a delicious lunch at Martingale Wharf (such a good menu), did some shopping, had drinks at Rudi's and then dinner at the YHI. On Sunday we stopped at our club for a quick lunch and I proceeded to get a little sunkissed while sitting outside on my parents' Adirondack chairs. It was such a great weekend, and I was sorry to see it end...and then I had my WTF moment.

On Sunday I was pretty wiped from all of the overindulging, so I went to bed early. At around 9:45 I heard a loud noise, but I was so out of it that nothing really registered and I went back to sleep. 15 minutes later, I woke up to blue flashing lights outside my window and a giant police searchlight streaming across my backyard. I got up, threw on a sweatshirt and my glasses and went outside to check things out and saw my neighbors running down the street and a police car next to my garage. I was in such a daze that it took a minute for me to realize that my car wasn't where I parked it: I had pulled into the space in front of the right bay of my detached garage (because I really don't put it inside unless the weather is crappy) and it was now in a complete 180 degree position adjacent to where it had been parked. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that my car was completely f'ed up--the back was smashed beyond recognition.

A real gem of a human being* had come barreling down my road, slammed into my car and then smashed into my mailbox (which I eventually located 50 feet away in a bush) before driving into an intersection and taking off on foot (hence the searchlights in my backyard). The police eventually found him and he was arrested and my car was deemed a total loss. So now I am in the process of dealing with multiple insurance companies to a) get a new car and b) redo my front yard which is littered with the sad remains of my beloved previous vehicle.**

Eventually I will do a post on the magic that is turning 34, but for now, I'm cleaning up the collateral damage of 33.

Happy weekend!

*A serious gem: he had 4 outstanding arrest warrants and was driving with a suspended license, which deserves a long rant that I don't currently have the energy for.

**I am fully aware that this incident is a mere inconvenience, and while it sucks, in the grand scheme of things it's really not a big deal: no one was hurt and there are far bigger problems in the world. I'm just really pissed (see * above). 

I've been living in my house for almost a year and a half now, and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm "finished" with some rooms. When I moved in, I knew that I wanted a home office--I work from home full-time so I needed a space dedicated only to work so I could be productive (and with four bedrooms and just me and Olive, I figured this would be a good use of space instead of creating a wrapping paper room á la Candy Spelling).

The before (taken from the original real estate listing online, so not the best quality/detail):



The room has dark floors that are a little banged up, and the walls were painted a dark gray/brown color with a kind of muted white trim--I initially didn't mind the color but the previous inhabitants did a rather crappy paint job and I wanted something a little more crisp.

The after:









I painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy and redid the trim in Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White--I ended up getting a new desk (from IKEA) because my old one was way too cramped for a second computer monitor, but I switched out the hardware with knobs from Anthropologie. I got the desk chair from Amazon and the rug came from Lulu and Georgia.

I'm really happy with the way it came out--I know the floors need some serious touchups but it just isn't in the budget right now. Chipped floors or not, it's great to have a dedicated workspace (and cross one room of my list!).

This weekend was completely low-key, and it was exactly what I needed. I started reading 11/22/63 and both nights consisted of going to bed early to get some chapters in. Friday night I had Chinese with my parents and Saturday I had rum swizzles (courtesy of my mom from her recent jaunt to Bermuda) and sushi with my sister. Sunday meant brunch and "It's Complicated" (one of those movies I can watch over and over and never get sick of) and Olive had some quality time with her bone in her Pipolli teepee. I'm not super pumped about the frigid temps and snow (it's April!!!) but I have some fun things coming up--I need to keep my eyes on the prize (while bundled up).

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I had a rather uneventful weekend (aside from watching my sister run the half marathon, which she crushed) and then this week got a little crazy--this has been both good and an adjustment, as most of my weekdays usually consist of work and wine and DVR recordings of shows I'm too tired to stay up for.

On my radar:

• I had dinner with my old boss and friend here, and I can't recommend it enough for those outside metro Boston--the bolognese is always delicious, and we did an impromptu rosé tasting that was so good. 
• I really hesitated reading Fates and Furies because I had read some mixed reviews, but I'm over halfway through and I'm loving it--it's definitely heavy on Greek mythology, but not to the point where you can't enjoy it if you don't have that background (which I do not).
• I think every girl needs a pair of Jack Rogers, and I'm so close to pulling the trigger on these for my niece. 
• The warmer weather is making me want to get some popsicle molds so I can make every single one of these boozy popsicles.

After having those incredible spring-like temps this past weekend, Monday was cold and rainy and sleety and gross. I was craving something comforting for dinner last night, so I quickly whipped up some ravioli with balsamic brown butter and toasted walnuts using this recipe. I halved it since I only had one package of ravioli, and I used Trader Joe's Porcini Mushroom and Truffle Triangoli which was okay, but not my favorite. This sauce was super easy though, and it felt a little fancy for a Monday--it would be good on any variety of ravioli...I'm thinking butternut squash next time.

perfect spray roses from Whole Foods

a delicious blood orange mimosa

popover from Judie's with shrimp, avocado and a side salad

pizza from my favorite Western Massachusetts establishment

backgammon on the sunny deck with Olive and my mom

This weekend was a good one--Friday was super low key and I had sushi and wine with my dad. Saturday my sister and I headed west to go visit our grandparents. We stopped at Whole Foods and picked up flowers for them (and they were having a 3 for $12 tulip sale so we stocked up on those as well). We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and grabbed pizza to bring home.

Sunday I did 3 miles with my mom and we celebrated by having nachos and beer--then we spent the rest of the afternoon on my deck drinking wine and playing backgammon which was such a treat. I keep thinking back to last year with all of the snow that didn't melt until well into April, so I'm going to enjoy every sunny day we get. Here's to a good week.