An afternoon in Marblehead

I had an entire day off on Saturday. Well almost, I did a brief photo shoot for the Melrose Chamber of Commerce. Then I was free as a bird. I had lunch with my sister in Reading and then off I went to spend a little time in the lovely seaside town of Marblehead.

I drove straight to the beach. A few people had the same idea and I saw kids playing volleyball and people walking their dogs. The sunshine felt good and the smell of the ocean, well I love it!

The day was beautiful, a warm Spring day. It was rather chilly by the ocean so I didn't stay long.

These cuties were enjoying the day outside a florist shop. I just noticed the dog on the right could pass for a rabbit.

 Oh yes finally, it really feels like Spring! And everything is starting to bloom too. The seaside gardens were gorgeous.
                             

I snapped a few shots outside the florist shop Flores Mantilla. The owner came out to greet me. Probably because I had been talking to the dogs. She gave me a beautiful magazine about weddings. She had an ad in the magazine and she wanted to show it to me.

I love old typewriters so this one on display outside the florist shop caught my eye.

O'Rama's had  blingy jewelry that caught the sunlight.

I had a great time speaking with the owners of MacKimmie's. They sold scarfs, throws, blankets, and gifts in their shop.

I loved the entrance to their store. The front door was framed by apple blossoms. It was really lovely.

I love cozy blankets and throws. I have throws throughout my home. I usually buy inexpensive ones because of the cats. The kitties of course, take over the throws.

I have never seen such perfectly folded blankets! They certainly don't look like that in my linen closet! I bought a few gifty items but no blankets or throws. Kitty claws would ruin blankets such as these.

The owner of  MacKimmie's told me Haley's Market was a good place to eat but I was really just looking for coffee. Ideally I wanted to take a break ,and sit in a coffee shop by the ocean. Haley's was closed but I liked the sign in their window. I gave up on the coffee, most places closed at 5:00.

This house was pretty. The houses are close together in the historic section of town. Some are quite colorful and some have been updated considerably.

Many of the historic homes have signs like these displayed outside their doors. The original homeowner's name, date of construction, and occupation were listed.

I had a great time in just a few hours in Marblehead. I will return when I have more time to spend exploring.

My next post will be about another little daytrip I took, this time to Exeter, New Hampshire. Have a great week.

The Things I'll Never Forget

A little more than a week has passed since the bombings at the Boston Marathon. And there are so many things I will never forget.

I overdosed on television coverage. From the minute I heard about the bombings to the night of suspect #2's capture, I had been glued to my TV. Flipping channels on my remote from the local stations to CNN and Fox News. I had to know every detail.

The real time coverage of the shootout with police in Watertown was the height of my addiction. I stayed up until 3:30 AM Friday morning watching it. It was the closest thing to a real life episode of 24 I'd ever seen. Bombs and bullets in a sleepy suburb.

In the first few days after the attack, I noticed how quiet it was everywhere. People were watching the TV silently in coffee shops. People on the street not making a sound. Really what was there to say?

Until today, I did not even know who won the race. I wasn't even sure there was a women's winner. The race was stopped shortly after 2:50PM. The winners' victories had been stolen.

The heroic stories. Such goodness in this city. People running towards the explosions in order to help the gravely injured. The runners running straight to the hospitals to give blood. The volunteers who saved lives with their quick actions. And the hospital workers who took over where they left off.

The tributes at the Red Sox game and the National Anthem being sung by the crowd at the Bruins game. They sure brought me to tears.

The lockdown in the City of Boston- no subway, no trains, no taxis. A virtual ghost town for a day.
My own credit union had to close some of it's branches.

The beautiful town of Watertown which will be forever linked to terrorists. It was just unbelievable what went down there on Thursday night. As one news reporter said, "This is not Baghdad, we're in Watertown!"

A fallen officer's funeral which took place at my hometown church, the sight of my first communion and confirmation.

Five victims of the attack were from my hometown and they were all seriously injured. One grew up on the street where I live and I worked with his mother. Another is a realtor I know.

All of the dead were young people. Less than 30 years old including an 8 year old. I will never forget their faces. 2 beautiful women, an adorable child, a brave young policeman.

The tireless work of the local police, state police, SWAT teams, FBI etc. They worked around the clock to hunt down the suspects and keep everyone safe.

Mayor Menino who was recuperating from surgery on Marathon Monday, checked himself out of the hospital so he could be there for the city.

The governor who was always calm when reporting updates.  And the same for the Boston Police Commissioner. I love that man. He was so cool and professional.

The support from the entire country including personal emails to me from blog readers. It was very much appreciated.

I will never forget how anxious, sad, and terrified I felt. I know the sadness will last for a very long time. It will be hard to walk Boylston Street, knowing what terrible events took place there. It seems like ir was not that long ago that I had afternoon tea with friends at the Boston  Public Library.. Happier more innocent times. 

Today the funerals are over, the injured continue to recover and cope with their devastating injuries, Boylston Street is open again, the remaining suspects has been caught, and the rest of us try to move on. And we will, with time.

Boston, the day after

This is the cover of Sports Illustrated, the photo taken at yesterday's marathon. It's powerful and ugly and it makes me sad. I read a comment on a blog that said Bostonians are members of the terror attack club. NYC, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Boston. I hate it.

All was quiet today as the events of yesterday sank in. It's surreal. Everywhere I went I noticed the quiet. Really what is there to say? We don't know who or why.

I think we are all finding comfort in hearing the stories of all the good that was done yesterday. And there was a lot of good done yesterday. We should focus on that. There were some real heroes on Boylston Street yesterday. Yes, we shall focus on that.

Percy the poser

The sun was streaming in the living room windows Sunday morning and Percy was all cozy in his favorite chair. He looked so handsome I just had to do an impromptu photo shoot.

But then he got all shy on me. That's so rare, he's usually quite the poser. I guess he was just enjoying the warmth of that sheepskin rug.

Looks like the photo shoot has ended. What a brief session! Til next time, sweet dreams!

Dinner at Jolie's

My sister and I were invited for dinner at Jolie's house Thursday night. You may remember Jolie as the woman who throws fabulous Christmas parties. She graduated from high school with my sister and because of her connection with my sister,  Jolie has invited me to a few of her parties. Now we have become friends too.

I have to admit I was a little nervous about attending this dinner as Jolie very recently lost her sister Lori to cancer. I thought it might be uncomfortable. Let's just say I am the world's worst at comforting people who are grieving.

I remember Lori as a joyful, positive person who brought music to Jolie's parties. She was a gifted pianist and I always enjoyed listening to Lori's inhouse concerts at the holidays. Lori had many talented friends who entertained at Jolie's parties.

The above photo of Lori and my sister was taken in December 2011 at Jolie's Christmas party.

Well, the evening was actually amazing. Jolie, who said she wasn't on her game, certainly was very much on her game. She prepared an absolutely fantastic meal. It was beyond delicious and something I could not achieve on my very best cooking day.

We started with a mixed green salad with feta cheese and there was also fruit salad. Of course, I had both. In fact, I ate everything offered to me!

Then we had pecan encrusted chicken breasts. I am not sure what the sauce was but it was not a heavy cream sauce, It was deliciously light. We also had harvest grains, green beans and garlic bread.

Here's a closer look at the chicken. The dishes were so pretty too. Jolie thinks serving family style is not that pretty but I do.

My sister and I brought some Easter Petit Fours from la Patisserie bakery for dessert. Aren't they cute?

Jolie made cream puffs and she made the whipped cream immediately before serving them. They were so fresh and yummy. I had one but I clearly could have eaten more. I want these at my next party. Jolie sent us home with some of these beauties.

I should have mentioned that when we entered the house we were greeted by this little guy. Meet Buddy. He is a funny little guy. At first, we could not even look at him. If we did, he would run away. He was so frightened. It didn't take long before we gained his trust and he was sleeping at our feet.

Buddy was fostered by Jolie and her daughter Casey and then he went on to what was thought to be his forever home. The forever family had to give him up and now he is back with Jolie. He sleeps on Casey's bed at night, chews and steals her socks, rips up the bathroom rug and pesters his older brother, English Mastiff Morgan who is at least 8 times his size.

Despite his quirks, Buddy is a sweet, young dog and he is happy now. He has only been back a few weeks but he has settled in nicely.

Casey loves her puppy. She may act like he annoys her but you can tell when you seem them together that they love each other.

While Buddy was sitting in Casey's lap, my sister commented that she wondered if Buddy could fit in Casey's bag.

Casey brought out a bigger bag and sure enough Buddy fit in it and seemed to like it.  Don't worry no dogs were harmed  during this exercise.

We ended the evening with some chocolat. Casey made us a hot chocolate not unlike the drinking chocolate you find in patisseries in France. It was that good.

We had a wonderful evening. We had interesting conversations, we reminisced and we hatched some plans for the future. 

Thank you to Jolie, Casey, Morgan and Buddy. My sister and I had a delightful evening!

A vintage clothing auction

About three weeks ago, I received an email from Ryan Auctions announcing their next vintage clothing and textile auction. I checked out some of their online photos and I cleared my schedule.
the auction was today.

The object of my desire was a French folding screen. I've been looking for an antique fabric screen for a while but they're either too big or not my style. This one was smaller and definitely my style.
It had beautiful fabric front and back and beveled glass. It was perfect.

Someone had left a bid of $475. so I was already out of the bidding before it ever really started. I couldn't justify spending that much money on it. It ended up going for $525. It was beautiful and it went home with someone else. I was very disappointed.

I met some very nice ladies at the auction. We ended up sitting together and chatting. Jen has a store in Haverhill and she also sells on Ebay and Etsy. She is a blogger too.

Jana travelled all the way from Nantucket and it was her first auction. Jen was a pro at auctions so she was coaching Jana.

Paula works for Home Goods. She travelled about an hour to the auction.  She bought the dress in the photo above. It was really lovely and an excellent choice. I hope she has a wonderful event to wear it to. She is tall and blonde and I am sure she will look gorgeous in it.  She made some very nice selections in the items she bid on. She purchased a few vintage beaded evening bags, perfume bottles, a piano shawl, opera glasses and another lovely dress.

Jana bid on some vintage Hungarian peasant tops. The embroidery was phenomenal on them. She said she would not be denied! She won the bid. 6 lovely tops went home with her.

 

I thought this set was really pretty but I did not bid on it.  Two men were bidding on all sterling silver dresser sets. I think they won them all.

Of course I bid on these little beauties and I was the high bidder! These will look great on my bookshelf.

 

There were lots filled with hats, some interesting and some just plain ugly.

 

 

 

I, too, bid on evening bags. This one was a favorite but I didn't bid on it. I will show you the ones I bought later. I ended up with two vintage evening bags. Who knew I was a collector?

 

In addition to the cameras and vintage evening bags, I left the auction with a ladies linen coat, a French footstool, a vintage suitcase, and one very unique tea strainer. I will post photos of all of them in a future post.

 

Guess what brought in the highest bid at the auction? You'll never guess, It was an old leather football uniform. The winning bid? $2,100.

 

If you love vintage fashion or just unique items from the past, I encourage you to check out an auction. Bidding can really get the heart rate up. Does that count as exercise?

 

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right

So I have been continuing with my random acts and I love seeing the reactions of people when they receive a simple gesture of kindness. F. Scott Fitzgerald said it perfectly.

Since my last post I did a few more of the 26 acts. Again I was waiting until an opportunity presented itself. I read a story that really touched me and there it was my opportunity to help a perfect stranger.

I read online about Brandy Jones, a woman who had a fire in her apartment building in Manchester, New Hampshire. On February 5th, she was in the shower when smoke filled her apartment. She got out of the shower and immediately tried to find her pets. She grabbed her dog Sadie and put the leash on her and got out of the building. Sadie, a 2 year old pit bull mix, was so panicked she slipped her collar and was off and running. Sadie was nowhere to be found for days and then there were some sightings. Brandy searched for her even during the blizzard which was a few days later.

Brandy lost everything in the fire,her home, all her belongings. 3 cats, a bird, and a hamster. There were some sightings of Sadie and volunteers continued to search for her. Then the most devastating of news, Sadie's body was found in the wreckage of the building. She had apparently run back into the building and into the fire. The sighting were not of Sadie. She had been killed in the fire.

I cried when I read about Sadie and Brandy. The paper said donations of clothing and gift cards were being accepted so I sent a Target gift card to her along with a handwritten note. There is a fund in Sadie's name as well. I hope my gift card brought a smile to Brandy's face, she certainly deserves it. Act #6.

I was at the gas station the other day and the weather was just miserable, cold and rainy. It was a full service station so I didn't have to pump my own gas. The attendant works all hours of the day and in the worst of weather conditions and always greets me with a smile. He is such a positive sweet man. So when I paid for the gas I gave him a Dunkin Donuts gift card so he could get himself something warm to drink. He was thrilled and it was so nice to see the smile I brought to his face. Act #7.

On Twitter, I follow a woman named Nicole Martin who writes a tea blog called Tea for Me Please. She tweeted about an organization called Kiva and she said she made a loan to a tea farmer. Kiva gives loans to people all over the world by collecting donations. It is a cool concept. They were having a free trial and the other Kiva members donated money so new members would join. So I loaned Percy $25. It went to his bathroom fund and didn't cost me anything. When I joined Kiva I selected Nicole's team so Nicole was awarded another $25 and she made a loan to a second tea farmer since that is her interest.

I checked out all the possible borrowers and  I decided to pick a loan recipient who needed a house loan.  After all, I work as a mortgage originator so housing is my thing.  I looked at all the housing loan possibilities. I wanted to find someone who had an achievable goal. There was a person who was at 37% of his goal. So meet Percy, he lives in Peru. He needs to build a bathroom in his house. I was able to donate $25 towards the $675. he needs. And how cool is that? His name is Percy! My little Percy cat would be proud. Act #8

The last act of the week was at a Starbucks in Reading, MA. I had 5 gift cards of $5 each. I wanted to hand them out but there was always a line of more than 5 people. I want to make people happy not tick them off.

I ordered my drink and suddenly just 3 people in line. 3 men of different ages. I said to each one, " I am buying your coffee today" as I handed them the card. They were shocked. Then they smiled and the last guy said, "You really don't have to". I said, "I know but I want to".  He had the biggest smile on his face as I walked past him and out the door. Mission accomplished. Act #9

What an adrenaline rush! I get such a high from each one of these acts.  After I complete the 26 acts I will continue my acts of kindness for sure! And if you want to be kind and donate to Brandy or Sadie's fund please email me and I will send you the info.