lifestyle

You are currently browsing articles tagged lifestyle.

Good morning! I wish I could say it is a bright and beautiful Monday here in Boston, but it is not. No more snow please! It’s starting to mess everything up, from work to social activities to getting anywhere. Having trash day delays? Also a major problem. I feel like we have way more trash than ever these days, or maybe I am just noticing it more now that it’s so difficult to get rid of? At any rate, I am hoping for a bright, warm, sunny day sometime soon.

One thing that recently made my day in a stretch of gloom was being nominated for a Liebster Award by a blog I love, Boston Chic Party. The Liebster Award is dedicated to sharing blogs you love, all with 3,000 or fewer followers. The questions are a fun little glimpse into the blogger’s thoughts. My answers are below. I nominate Made in Sonoma, Pop Bop Shop, and the Jogging Concierge.

I’d love to hear from all of you though; feel free to answer a couple of the questions in the comments if you would like!

Q: What is your blogging process?

I have a running list of blog topics. It’s always the most fun when I have been busy, whether when I return from a big trip, have been cooking a lot, or have been going to a bunch of events. I try to keep the list a mix of wine reviews, travel posts, restaurant recaps, and my own cooking adventures both to keep it interesting for me and to appeal to readers’ interests. I hope it’s working; it’s been fun for me!

Q: What was the best thing to happen to you this week?

Our new, semi-feral kitten Poppy has started to let me pet her. She was born outside and never had human contact until we rescued her, so she is skittish and afraid. It’s taken a lot of patience, but it’s amazing to see how far she’s come.

Q: If you had one super power what would it be?

I would definitely choose teleportation. I love to visit new places and to see family often, but I hate the whole process of getting there.

Q: Are you a cat person, a dog person or neither?

Both! We’ve had our original cats, Smuckers and Scout, for 10 years. Then, as fate would have it, this past summer, a sweet young cat had four kittens in our yard, so we now have the mama cat and one of her babies. I never imagined having four cats, but these two just happened into our lives, and what is life about, if not making space in your heart for those who need it most?  I do want to adopt a dog someday soon too, probably once the cats are all settled. Above all, I am for adoption of pets ONLY. I volunteered at the MSPCA for years, and there are amazing pets of all ages, sizes, breeds who need loving homes.

Q: What was the last song you listened to?

Waterfalls by TLC! My friend and I just bought tickets to the NKOTB/TLC concert at the Garden in June, and I am SO excited!

Q: Do you prefer morning, afternoon or night?

I am a morning person for work. Any big projects, especially anything analytics-related or content creation/writing-related is best done in morning. I am an afternoon person for working out. My ideal schedule would allow me to run at 2 or 3, then head back to work for a few hours.

Q: Are you extroverted, introverted or a mix of both?

I think I am a mix of both, but more introvert-leaning. I think  I am pretty outgoing a lot of the time, but I am also very much in my head.

Q: What fashion trend can you completely not stand?

Tights as pants. There is a time and place for leggings, but I have seen too many inappropriately worn, thin pairs of tights masquerading as pants. Fabric is your friend!

Q: Name one thing you can’t live without and why.

I take this question to mean inanimate object (as opposed to say, a person), so I definitely would say my iPhone. I love to be connected/am addicted to being connected.

Q: Finally, if you could achieve one thing from blogging, what would it be?

It’s already happened! Blogging for almost six years has connected me with some of the best people I know, both professionally and personally. I honestly can’t imagine my life without all of the opportunities that have come from blogging, whether it be blogger events, meet ups, or travel.

Tags: blogging, life, lifestyle

There are so many more than 10 things I want to do in our beautiful Commonwealth, but I thought a list of 40 might be too much! This list is mostly Eastern Massachusetts based; I have a ton of love for the Western part of the state too, perhaps that’s a list all on its own? A few weeks ago we were trying to decide what to do for the weekend when I started thinking about all there is to do here. Since we’re soon going on a very big adventure, we’re sticking close to home and on budget the rest of the time. Below is a list of 10 things I want to experience sometime in the next couple of years. Have you done any of the below? Or do you have a list of things you want to do in the place you call home? I would love to hear them in the comments!

Mt Greylock

1) Visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – I have lived in Boston since 2002. Wow. Typing that makes me feel old! I have sent journalists on FAM tours to the museum, but somehow I have never gotten there. This is one I hope to accomplish this winter.

2) Climb Mount Greylock again, but this time spend the night at the top at Bascom Lodge with friends and great food and wine.

3) Run a race on Spectacle Island – We’ve taken the boat to Spectacle so many times and have even spent the night. I would love to run the island sometime.

4) Tea at Bond at the Langham and the Four Seasons and the TajI love afternoon Champagne tea, and I would love to explore some of the elegant and luxurious teas in Boston.

5) Spend a lazy week on Martha’s Vineyard – We spent the day on the Vineyard a couple of summers ago, and we have been talking about going back ever since. I would love to swim, cook seafood, and explore on bikes and on foot. How relaxing does that sound?

6) Take dance lessons at the Boston Ballet – I was obsessed with ballet growing up, and though I am old and inflexible and out of shape, I would LOVE to take classes again.

7) Visit the Boston Public Library courtyard on a regular basis – I used to do this when I worked in the area. That space is so beautiful, and I would love to spend more time there.

8) Take classes at Harvard Extension – I took a PR writing class there years ago and it was great. It really helped to launch my career

9) Visit the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States SenateI love the JFK Library, and I will actually cross this item off my list when I attend a GBCVB event at the soon-to-be-opened addition next month.

10) Go out to an oyster farm and get fresh oysters, learn about the process, etc. – I learned about East Dennis Oyster Farm when I worked for an agency that had the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism as a client, and I have wanted to go out with them since.

Tags: Boston, Food, hiking, lifestyle, Massachusetts, outdoors, oysters, tea, things to do, Travel, vacation

Finding the Light

candle

It is a season of darkness, this time of year. This week I haven’t seen daylight much at all, what with the late sunrise and early sunset and dark, rainy afternoons. It affects me deeply, and I am counting the days until we are seeing more daylight each day. At the end of the day, a dark sky isn’t much of anything; I have so much to be grateful for, so much comfort and joy.

This time of year is full of festivity and gifts and food and loved ones, yet it can be such a hard and lonely time for so many people, for so many reasons. Perhaps it’s seasonal blues, the loss of a job or a relationship or a loved one that has one feeling alone. Or maybe it’s a general loneliness, being away from home or not having a home at all; the joy we’re surrounded by often magnifies the pain and creates confusion on how we are supposed to feel.

Even in my own excitement about the season, grief creeps in. The smell of sap as we decorated our tree instantly brought me back to being a kid and longing for that feeling of having a whole family around me. And forget about the Night Before Christmas; my father read that every Christmas Eve until the year he died, and I cant even be in the room to hear  it now.

When Santa reads it this Sunday at our Breakfast with Santa event for work, I’ll be biting my lip hard to keep the tears back. I love this time of year, but it can be so very hard and I know that my own hard, compared to that of others, is so very easy.

With all that said, finding the light is something I vow to do during these dark days. I am helped by the ability to help others, to donate to charities or to check in with those I know who are feeling blue. I know I find more joy in buying gifts for children in a shelter than I do receiving things for myself.

I’m inspired by movements like 26 Acts of Kindness, which for the 26 days leading up to the anniversary of that horrifying, dark  day in Newtown, features one of the people who were killed that day and simply asks followers to perform an act of kindness in memory of each person. Little beacons of light all gathered together can make a light as bright as the sun, I know it’s true.

Simple pleasures like cups of tea, the light of a candle, a little bit of yoga, or a favorite song help to help light those candles in our hearts. . . The season isn’t about piles of gifts or who can cook the most food, but more about love and appreciation and reaching out to those who need it most, whether they ask for it or not.

Tags: charity, giving, holidays, lifestyle, light

« Older entries § Newer entries »

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera