Take A Walk With Us: A Return To Grandeur

Our Boston Hotel

So, here I am, a week later and I'm still sharing pictures of my overnight in Boston (post 1, post 2, post 3).  We packed a lot into a little more than a day.

Our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard on Tremont Street was in the midst of some renovations, that I think will be well worth while.

This historic 1925 hotel has lived 9 lives and then some since it was built, and Marriott was smart to recognize that restoring this beautiful building to its former grandeur would speak volumes. I mean, who can argue with the architectural detail of the era? Amazing.

The lobby was blocked off for the most part as they are working on the very beautiful ceiling fretwork.

Giving it a fresh coat of white is making all the difference. In areas where you could see the previous beige color, it was obvious that the brighter white was the way to go.

The floor of the hotel that holds common spaces and where breakfast is served, was nearly complete.  When you step out of the elevator you are greeted by the most charming showgirl, a picture that takes up a good part of the wall. I just love her.

The new rug is both subtle with a gray plaid design, and bold with a bright purple swirl design in the center, which draws your attention to a foyer table where funky sculptures mimic the swirls in the rug and highlight the purples in the showgirl picture.

Beautiful chandeliers, the bright new rug, and lamps and furniture that added a pop of color accented the most gorgeous arched hallway.

 

The charcoal color walls added to the drama.

The best thing about the hotel renovation was the mix of old and new.   This bank of phone booths was kept intact, so that people talking on their cell phones could step in for privacy.  A pretty good idea if you ask me. Why do people think just because they can talk on their cell phones in public places, that they should?

In side they had pictures of the hotel during its former lives and newspaper clippings of entertainers who had performed there in days past, including Tony Bennett (who I adore).

More glory of days gone by, this amazing letterbox, from when mailing a letter was an event.

I can't wait to see the hotel when it's done because the renovation looks great so far.  I'm so glad that things like the telephone booths, the arches, the mail-chute and the ceiling fretwork have survived.  You don't always see that level of detail today and I think it's something to be remembered and appreciated.


Had a great weekend with a little youtube singing and dancing with the neighborhoodlum guys on Friday night, the girls had other plans so I was flying solo with the men.  Saturday we were over to neighbors' for dinner.  Tourtierre, Canadian meat pie, was on the menu and I highly suggest you try making it (the pictures in the previous post are awful, but the toutierre recipe is divine).  We followed that up with a game of Pictionary which we hadn't played in about 20 years. The guys won. Bummer. We all won on the laughter front though. I laughed so hard at one point I had mascara running down my face.  Painful. We will be playing again, for sure.  Yesterday we stayed close to home. No Sunday drives as G is fighting a bit of a cold. So I worked at my desk, got new initial designs and branding boards complete for one of my clients who emailed me last night and made my day with this:

"I got them. You are so wonderful! Love the second one!" (which happened to be my favorite too).  It's the second logo design project I'm working on with this client from Raleigh, North Carolina, who has one business and is the midst of launching another.  Helping people brand their businesses for success can be an awful lot of fun!  

More of the  same is what is on my plate today. What's happening in your world? Did you do anything out of the ordinary this weekend or did you just keep it low-key?

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us

A Good Stretch of The Legs

Hey gang. How was your weekend? Ours was good. Low key. A little youtubing Friday night, Saturday I finished up the closet cleaning/winter clothes in/summer clothes to the attic, topped the day of attending our niece's birthday party in Dublin via Skype, and yesterday we just worked around the house and I got caught up on my Blogging You Way homework.  Then enjoyed cocktail hour at my parents to celebrate my sister Dianne's birthday.

I also fit a couple of walks in there. Saturday was glorious. I'd say it was around 60ish, so walk was a must. Yesterday, woke to fog, but that didn't stop us.

There was not only fog yesterday morning, but with that came the turkeys. Like a gang of marauders in the neighborhood. They have been very active the last couple of weeks. I caught a couple who were lagging behind the rest of the gang at the top of the field.  Heads down and pecking away.

When Lucan and I went over to the field for a walk later, he was too busy sniffing around to even notice the Winnicutt Road Gang at the bottom of the hill.  A bunch had already made it into the woods and the others were quietly (not always how it is with turkeys) following their lead.

Busy birds.

What about you? Busy weekend? Low key and relaxing? Special event? Nothing special? 

How'd you spend your time?

Like the birds, I've a busy week on tap that involves a ton of design work.  I'll be sharing the fun projects I'm working on as I make progress. Lots of logo design work for customers from Ontario to L.A.

Hope you have a great Monday. The rain is coming in here now and we're supposed to have a morning windstorm so I'm up early posting this.  We'll see how all that shakes out considering the destruction this storm caused coming across the country. We've been assured that it has weakened, and quite frankly, that suits me just fine.

Ciao for now,

Monday Mission

Starting Right

How was your weekend? Mine was great, but too short. Friday we hung out with the neighborhoodlums round the campfire. Beautiful night out with a big, full Harvest Moon.  Saturday turned out to be lovely, and even though I got to work on mega bookwork catch up, I jumped in the pool at the end of the day.

Oh. Yes. I. Did.

It was the last day of summer and I was getting in while the getting was good. It was brisk, shall we say, but thoroughly enjoyable. It was probably my last swim of the year as fall is setting in temperature wise. Waaahhhhhhhhh. Can you hear me crying from there? I'm holding out hope for a few days of indian summer in the next two weeks that will allow me another splash.

After the pooltime, we had another campfire.

Then on Sunday, more bookwork and more laundry. The thrills never cease.

This is why it wasn't long enough. The weekend = time to catch up on everything.

I did take time last night to sit in my adirondack and watch the sun go down.  This morning I awoke to pink skies and the moon still out.

I have a lot to do this week and I am on a mission to get it all done.  How will I do that? Focus. 

I pulled out my yoga mat last week. It's been a long time since we've spent some time together. I got two days of practice in. Not bad, but not where I need to be.  When I was actively practicing yoga I lost weight, was stronger, was in tune with my body, had less stress........the list goes on. I was also more focused. So this week I am upping my quota to at least 4 days because I need it and I know it will help me clear my mind so I can tackle all there is to tackle.

I need to work it back into my daily habits, along with other movement. My short walks with the old hound are not 'calorie' burning by any means.  Anybody else have problems fitting exercise into their daily routine?  It used to be a given, but I have let myself and my exercise go. It's time to change that.

It takes time to create new habits. If I get the 4 practices in this week, I'll look at that as a good thing. 

Baby steps people, baby steps. (Anybody else picturing Bill Murray torturing Richard Dreyfus in What About Bob?).

 

Did I tell you that we have baby bunnies? Well, we do. Lucan discovered them Thursday night and brought one in like a gift to G, who wasn't even sure if it was a bunny as it was so small. He promptly brought said bunny out to the garden wrapped in some tissue so it didn't get too cold. The dog was very gentle with the bunny. He doesn't chew his stuffed animal friends and he treated the bunny just as nice. He just thought it was a new friend. We think momma probably found it because we couldn't find it the next day, and the garden isn't far from where the nest ended up being, and they do a little bit of squeaking. We watched the dog the next morning and the nest is about 6 feet from the front door! Dear Mommy Bunny, you could have picked a better spot. So now, I have the nest blocked off  with tomato cages so Lucan doesn't keep investigating. They're growing and looking good so I'll assume mommy has been coming back twice a day to feed them, as she is supposed to. It's hard to get a good picture, but here they are all snuggled up in the nest.

Beyond the bunnies getting bigger..............so is my Godson Harry. Happy Birthday Harry Man!  He got a new baby brother Charlie for his birthday. How sweet is this pic?

That's it from here. What's happening in your corner of the world? 

Fall is in the air today, but the sun is shining and I'm ready to tackle it all!

Ciao for now,

Thrift Takes & Weekend Wrap

Learn Something New Every Day

I snuck away on Saturday to do a sweep through Goodwill and Salvation Army. I wasn't up and at it early, so I beat the morning rush by missing it....yippee for that.  Sure, I probably missed some things I might have had to have, but I was pretty happy with what I did find.

My thrift take included the sweetest little nippon dessert plate. I've opted not to put it up for sale in Bates Mercantile Co.'s vintage selection and instead I'm going to include in the next giveaway. In case you're wondering, I'm currently pulling together the giveaway, have some awesome stuff already and it should be set to begin next week.

For now a sneak peak of one of the prizes.

See what I mean about sweet? Some of you may remember me mentioning this before, but see that first picture? The one where you can see my hand through the plate? That's how you can tell bone china. It's translucent when you hold it up to light.

I also found a piece of ironstone I couldn't leave behind.  This will be going into our shop.

Beyond the floral design, I lave the pretty pattern and crimped edges.  It does have a spot or two of discoloration but I find this happens a lot with ironstone. I think it adds to it's charm.  It shows a piece has been used the way it should be.

I also scored this lovely Rorstrand porcelain bone china serving bowl. I had never heard of Rorstrand and had to look it up to find out some info.  Rorstrand has been manufacturing china in Sweden for more than 300 years, and continues to do so to this day.  They have some romantic patterns like the one I found, but also some really great midcentury patterns that really fun.

Once I picked this up, and felt how soft and silky it was I knew it was coming home. I'm planning on putting this in the shop as well, though it might be a tough call.  It's so very lovely.

So as usual, while researching a vintage piece, I did in fact learn something new. Am I the only one who had never heard of Rorstrand? 

My mother found a pretty little sugar/jam bowl last week, but I'll save that for the next Thrift Takes.  Oh the things you can find.

The Weekend Round These Parts

We didn't get the campfire in on Friday night, but we did on Saturday.  Friday was a pool fest at the end of the day with our pal Charlie bringing his granddaughter Makenna over to swim with our visitors Leah and Harry.  We had a ball. Then neighborhoodlums Tom and Joan showed up with lobster appetizers to share. Honestly, I don't know who they think they are to just show up with lobster like that. (Insert sarcastic tone). 

We let brother in law Niall, aka Chef Bates, cook dinner for us which included stuff portabellos.

We did get a little youtube dancing and singing in later, well at least Gar and Niall and I. We're still not sure how the kiddos and sil Caragh slept through it, but they did. Solid as a rock.

Saturday we did enjoy a campfire. Caragh opted for lobsters while the rest of us enjoyed some swordfish kabobs and chicken kabobs. The brothers worked on World Peace at the campfire.

My husband looks like a lobster in this picture, but he's not really that red.

We had a good view of the Blue Moon. I liked this shot even though the moon isn't as crisp as I'd like. It looks like it's emanating a blue force field of sorts.

Enjoyed more pooltime.  Just ignore the tilted picnic table with the umbrella balancing on it in the background (it has to get moved when Gar mows), my hairclip on the pool edge, the styrofoam box that has no reason to be sitting next to the pool. Life can be messy.

Picked our first tomatoes. Yay. Isn't that a beautiful yellow color?

The chitlins even got in a little Mommy & Me time.

Yesterday we were across the street to Tom and Joan's annual Labor Day Cookout. Missed a family cookout, but you can't be at two places at once, can you?  We obviously need an appointment secretary.

Sunset Meadows

The sun continues to dazzle us with its Summer show.

I hope your weekend was as chock full as ours. Today, even though I'm not 'working per se' I am sneaking in a little time at my desk.  The plans for later include more pooltime --- who would have guessed?  Picking some green beans and getting them into the freezer. I think there's more tomatoes that need picking too.  Generally speaking, the afternoon is reserved for some chill-axin'. How are you spending this Labor Day? Hope you're getting some downtime.

Ciao for now,

Weekend Wrap Up

The Back 40

As predicted, we spent the entire weekend working in the yard. We finished planting the vegetable garden. Finally. We raked and shoveled and hauled our butts off. We may have been able to finish the weedwhacking had the weedwhackers been more cooperative. We finally gave up when one was on the charger and the other (yes, the other) ran out of string.

That was the end of the day yesterday. We were toast.

I hit the pool while Gar chilled on the back steps.  He started to go downhill and now officially has a summer cold.  Bummer.

Here's a little peek at our weekend.

Hope you enjoyed your weekends. You guys had lots of different stuff going on from junking and laundry, to organizing and skateboard parks. Throw in our yardwork and I'd say we all accomplished quite a bit this weekend. Plans for the week are: get the work on my desk done so I can take three days off and enjoy them thoroughly; 4th of July groceries; finish weedwhacking (ha!); a tiny bit more yardwork; maybe burgers on the grill tonight. What about you?

To all my friends north of the border, I hope you enjoyed a fabulous Canada Day!

Ciao for now,