Friday Favorites (46)

Summer has officially started for our family and we’re all so happy about that. It’s our favorite time of year in Scituate and I’m grateful we can now sleep in a little longer during the week 🙂 Although, I am truly a morning person and will probably get up at 6am without the alarm to remind me. It’s time for Friday Favorites and I have lots to share this month!

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Favorite View

You all know how much I LOVE hydrangeas. I love them so much I wrote this Hydrangea guide all about them. They are just starting to bloom in our yard and I’m loving every moment.

I get asked a lot about how to make hydrangeas blue. Our soil is naturally acidic so our hydrangeas grow this color, but you can amend your soil with this to make your hydrangeas blue.

Favorite Books

Right now I’m reading two books. One John gave me for my birthday by Amy Tan. It’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles and she did all the illustrations as well. It’s a really beautiful book.

A friend recommended Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski which I also got for my birthday and it’s a great summer read. It centers on a mystery in a small seaside town in New England and there are many mentions of local places – Mullaney’s Fish Market, Village Market, and a mention of the Abigail and Rebecca Bates story so it has me wondering if the inspiration was Scituate. This book is so well written. Great for the beach or lounging in a hammock! The other day I was listening to Books, Beach and Beyond Podcast and they were interviewing Sarah Jessica Parker. It was a fabulous interview – listen here, but her imprint, SJP Lit, published this book.

Favorite Event

Over the weekend we hosted an Open Studio in our garden and it was so much fun. The weather was perfect! John did some charcoal portraits and I shared how to paint watercolor bookmarks. A bunch of followers and readers stopped by. I know many of you live too far away to visit but thought I’d share a little peek.

John is offering commissions this summer before he goes to RISD to try and save up some money for school. If you’re interested you can reach out to him at [email protected] or connect with him on his NEW instagram account.

Favorite Films & TV

Ooooh, lots of good films to share!

The Idea of You – on Prime Video – this stars Anne Hathaway and is based on a novel which I haven’t read. It’s about a divorced mom who just turned 40 and took her teen daugher to a meet and greet with a boy band. I think that’s really all I should say because I don’t want to give too much away, but I really loved this film for so many reasons. I actually watched it twice!

Purple Hearts – Here’s another one I watched twice. Once by myself and once with Conor. It’s quite a story about a Marine and songwriter / musician he marries so she can get health insurance. So well done. It’s on Netflix.

Unfrosted – This film was directed by Jerry Seinfeld and it’s on Netflix. It has a star-studded cast and is very humorous. It’s about Kellogg and Post competing to make a breakfast snack food. Very funny.

Mother of the Bride – Another Netflix film. This stars Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt. It’s so funny and a bit a romantic comedy perfect for a date night in.

2 Hearts – On Netflix. We expected this to be light and a rom com, but it’s actually a more serious film based on a true story. I cried a lot.

The Accountant – also on Netflix, starring Ben Affleck. Very well done and action packed. This came out back in 2016 so I’m not sure how we missed it.

I haven’t been watching loads of TV shows, but did enjoy Chip and Joanna’s 10 year anniversary series.

The Lake House – If you like mid century modern I think you’ll love the design choices they made on this show.

Favorite Exhibit

I LOVE going to art exhibits and we have family memberships to the ICA and MFA. For a belated Mother’s Day / Birthday celebration we went the ICA to see the Firelei Báez exhibit. It was wonderful. So powerful and full of color.

I love how she uses motifs and maps in her work.

Favorite New Product

Okay, and a little shout out to some of our favorite new products. We just launched a summer collection and I’m loving our new stickers!

My work is also available over on Spoonflower as fabric and wallpaper. They are adding lots of new fabric and wallpaper choices and I love the new silver paper especially with Minot Lighthouse. Here’s a peek:

Isn’t that shimmer pretty? See all my patterns on Spoonflower here.

Well, I think that covers all my favorites! Hope you enjoyed this installment of Friday Favorites! You can see all of them here. Now, it’s your turn! What are the things you’re loving right now?

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