let's find some time...

it's early and i didn't get much sleep.  but the sun is shinning on a beautiful new day.  i'm moving along believing summer is here and not wanting to rush it.  just a few days ago it was cold and rainy and now its going to be 90. i am getting really geared up for summer. i planted tomatoes and cucumbers and basil and eggplant... i am very excited about this project.  another weekend is here filled with lots to do.  i just want the whole nine yards.  then i get anxious that it will all go to fast. and it does - today is already the last day of may. how is that?
last night i was lucky enough to have dinner with a friend. someone i really enjoy spending time with. i guess i proved that because when i looked at my watch it was 11:00 - 5 hours had flown by. everyday it feels like no one has time for anything. but sometimes the best gift you can give yourself is time with someone. time with someone you can laugh with, and share stories with, and be enlightened by. someone you can get inspiration from.....and of course someone you can drink the first strawberry mojito of the season with!!
thanks Bob!

hope you can find some time today for an extra long lunch with someone who will make you feel it was worth it.  maybe you will eat tacos and drink margaritas.  don't forget to soak up the sunshine.

enjoy!!

love sent, xo

point and shoot...

wake up.  don't press snooze.  make today a great day.  put on some music,  music that lifts your spirits.   grab an outfit that makes you smile then jump right into today.

ordinary moments are happening all the time–do your  best to pay attention to them, and record them in some form, there’s no way to truly capture them all. i think of them like fireflies–marvel and appreciate the glow while it’s here; then let them go…photographs are one way to preserve the moment, to make it last. 

the weekend seems far away but it was a good one. the weather might not have been the best but the end of the weekend blessed us with a beautiful sunny day.  we prepared the yard for our exciting attempt at a vegetable garden.  i'll keep you posted on how it goes. i'm counting on it going really well :)

i will be painting the fence white and adding a little gate.  maybe even plant flowers around the outside.

how sweet would that be?

we did lots of shopping and tons of eating ( i know that is a surprise) and even a little exercise was thrown in for good measure.  we raised our glasses in celebration of the graduation of an amazing girl.  a hard working, never giving up, go for the gold kind of person. someone who makes the most of what she has and believes life is good.  i can't believe what she has accomplished this year.  congrats kelliann,  we are really proud of you. xo

love these girls.  we have celebrated so much good and lots of hard together.

missing janie...

     michaela finally arrived home from new york and we finally got to share some love for her 21st birthday. 

                                                                    love. love. love.  

memorial day is typically spent hosting and attending BBQ's but it is also a time of reflection and thanks for those that gave so much. 

i wiped away a tear when i saw my friend at fenway park with a bouquet of flowers being honored as the mom of a veteran,  a beautiful tribute to ladies that truly know the price of freedom. irene you are a beautiful person.  thank you red sox you are a class act.  

                 you always have to kick off summer with some lobster, some drinks and some s'mores.

                                                hope your start to summer was a good one.

love sent, xo

let's welcome summer weekend.

after a nutty week we can hardly wait to relax, enjoy friends and make the most of the next three days!!!!

hope your weekend is filled with some down time, some loved ones  and some surprises....

love sent,x o

for the chef in you...

preserved lemons.

these can be chopped and mixed in with pasta and rice dishes, added to salads, mixed in with vegetables, and used in sandwiches.  there are a million and one ways to incorporate these into your cooking!

ingredients:
7-9 small meyer lemons (regular lemons will also do but i prefer meyer when possible!)
roughly 1/4 cup of sea salt

method:
- thoroughly scrub, clean and dry lemons, preferably organic and the freshest you can find
- slice the lemons as thinly as you can manage, saving the ends to squeeze into the jar later.  remove any seeds that come along
- layer the sliced lemons in a wide mouth mason jar (1 pint), covering with sea salt as you go
 be generous with the salt, you'll rinse it off when you're ready to eat them! pack them in as tightly as possible.
- squeeze juice from lemon ends into the jar, filling up any extra air space with juice. (leave a little bit of breathing room at the top!)
- store lemons in a cool dark place for one week.
- lemons are ready to eat when the peels are soft.  rinse off before using.
this is definitely more time consuming than quartering the lemons, but totally worth it in my opinion to cut down on the time it will take to get to the eating part!!!
i'm not sure exactly how long these will last but it should be at least 6 months. i read two years but i would be leary of that.

love sent, xo

god bless oklahoma...

last night on the voice, blake shelton & miranda lambert performed a beautiful
acoustic version of over you in tribute to the victims of the devastating Oklahoma tornado.




i love the way he looks at her.

our heartfelt prayers to all the people in oklahoma.


love sent, xo

a favorite pasta...

I LOVE LIFE and i savour all the beautiful things life has to offer. i like to start with this approach:  i believe that if you think in a multi-dimensional way you start to see all the wonderful hues of the spectrum of color and your taste buds awaken too!  i know lots of people don't like blue cheese and i  had my doubts myself, but this is really, creamy,  dreamy goodness.  if you still aren't convinced you can replace it with another cheese you would prefer.

ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, peeled and chopped

1 can tomatoes (14.5 ounces), drained and chopped into small pieces

1 stick butter, room temperature

8 ounces blue cheese, room temperature

12 ounces pasta (campagnelle, ziti, rotini or other short pasta)

1 cup sliced fresh basil, plus a few small leaves for garnish

freshly ground pepper

directions

1. bring a large pot of water to a boil. salt it generously and cook pasta until done according to package directions and drain.

2. as soon as you put the pot of water on to boil, start the sauce by heating the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. add the shallots and stir for 2-3 minutes until they start to soften. add the tomatoes and cook over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes.

3. mash the butter and cheese together with a fork until combined. add it to the sauce and stir until the butter and cheese are melted into everything.

4. add the drained pasta to the sauce and toss well. add the chopped basil and toss again.

5. divide the pasta among your dinner plates, grind some pepper on top, garnish with basil leaves and serve!

this is perfect for a week night or even if you have company for dinner.  pare it with a chianti and voila
perfection. 

love sent, xo

weekend lens...

i know time is constant but it sure speeds by when you take time to think about it.  weren't we just ringing in the new year?  gosh it's past the middle of may  -  2013 is almost half over. this past weekend we tried to make the most of every minute.  we took a quick trip up north and,  as always once we got there
i was so glad we took the ride.  these were my favorite five things of the weekend.

wishing my baby girl a happy, happy 21st birthday.  once she gets home from her new york tour we
will celebrate like there is no tomorrow.  love you sweet one, to the moon and back. 
again, not sure where this time has gone.

looking through old pictures and finding this sweet face.  cake and all.  melts my heart.

the lilacs up north were just amazing.  they are my favorite flower and they were spectacular this weekend.

this amazing spot.  our favorite place, perfect picnic location.

dinner at stone manor,  a great little b&b.  the view is just beautiful and the atmosphere is so welcoming.
it was even still chilly enough for the fire place to be on...

the bruins winning the second game of the series!!   

love sent, xo

on friendship...

honestly,  it has been a crazy couple of weeks.  i may never get back into the regular swing of things.
or ever get back to regular blogging. 
but i read a post in the past few days regarding friendship and it really struck a cord in me.  so i thought I would write my own observations.

i have always valued friendship.  i have most always been surrounded by an extensive circle of woman that i love.  because of this i've had an irrational sense of self confidence in my ability to keep all my friends forever. 
most of my entire life i have made and kept all of my friends.  i never really felt that it was any sort
of an accomplishment,  it was just always very important to me. when i got married and then had children my friendships increased.   there were more friends to be made through my children and even less time for ourselves but i always managed to keep everyone close to my heart. even if it was a quick dinner or a short email.  i am social so that was always the easy part.
i am even lucky enough to have a couple of special friends that have been part of my life forever.
we may not see each other all the time but we can pick up the phone in an instant and we can reconnect like we talked yesterday.  we have that connection that will be forever ours.

during this past year one of my very dearest friendships began to fray and finally snap.  one day i received a heart breaking email that stated i had not been the kind of friend she expected me to be and i had disappointed her on many occasions.  i was heart broken and so surprised as i had never known what signs i had missed or what i had done to hurt her.  i called to no avail,  i emailed her and begged for a time to get together and discuss her thoughts in person. i told her how important her friendship was to me, but she never replied.
i held on for as long as i could but it became clear that both of us were suffering -  perhaps from distance, disconnection, who knows what.  i guess even old friendships aren't immune to the ravages of time, changing values, children's issues, job changes, marriage changes and so on.
i reeled with sadness and hurt for a long time. i felt betrayed and a bit confused.  i poured through emails looking for something that would tell me where i went wrong.  i never found it.  i will never truly understand it.  but i can say this,  i have finally come to the realization that not all things are meant to last forever.  you can really be happy and lucky for the time you had.  you can remind yourself that sometimes qualities that are important to people when they are in their 20's aren't always the same things they value when they are in their 40's or 50's. 
i know i will always feel the loss,  but i have so many amazing friends, friends with such grace and kindness  that i know i must be doing something right.  we have neighbors that gather in each others yards to  have beers around a fire pit.  friends that make me laugh so hard i cry, friends that have moved away and we have never missed a beat.  friends that are fighting for their life and never stop  for a minute to feel sorry for themselves.  later tonight we will attend an engagement party to
toast one of the children of a group of friends that all met when our children were still in grade school. we have gone through so much together.  we will sit around and remember old times, talk about current times, share our stories and all of our love. it reminds me how very blessed i am. and that sounds like enough for me.

love sent, xo

love this book...

i want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in.  i want to survive my life without becoming numb.  i want to speak and comprehend words of the wounding without having these words become the landscape where i dwell.  i want to possess a light touch that can elevate darkness to the realm of the stars…..
once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy.  the birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.

- Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds

italy.

i have been off the grid for a couple of weeks.  off on a dreamy vacation that was in the making for years and the timing was perfect.  all the stars lined up on this one.     our vacation was truly life changing.  each special moment will be one i will  hold onto forever.   i am full of the feeling of goodness of all that there is.    italy captured my heart and made me realize how much life opens up when you let it.  just how much there is to see and do in this world.   the people, the food , the wine, the culture, we embraced it all.  each day held it's own special memory.  i am still a little trapped in my vacation state of mind and so very grateful for having this beautiful memory to hold in my heart forever.

arriving in venice.

the spectacular amalfi coast.  the weather was amazing, 80 degrees and perfect sunshine.

farmhouse dinner in tuscany.  this same family has owned the winery for hundreds of years.

lunch in positano, a teeny seaside town on the amalfi coast, the most magnificent and charming place in the world. even though it's a popular destination, it still feels like an authentic small town.

 

 

we loved venice and our beautiful gondola ride.

 

 

midnight cocktails over looking the grand canal.

the isle of capri was so beautiful.

 

the blue grotto left us speechless

 

 

 

 

wine overlooking the mediterranean sea

 

 

st peter's basilica

 

rooftop sunset in rome.

the incredible history

making pizza in sorrento

 florence.

 italy's glorious food

                                            sorrento

all magic.

maybe you can afford to wait. maybe for you there's a tomorrow. maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through your fingers. so much time you can waste it. but for some of us there's only today. and the truth is, you never really know.
— Lauren Oliver

don't wait. 


  love sent, xo

today

simply amazing.

a traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to rome.
                                                        i have thrown several in. 

we will most certainly return to this beautiful country.