Friday Favorites (15)

Friday Favorites – a series where I share all my favorites from home decor, to clothing, to TV shows and movies we’re loving.

You may remember that I started this series to feature a few of my favorite things from clothes, to paints, to food, and things to do with the kids. If you missed any you can see them here.

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Since this is the first Friday Favorites for 2021. I thought I would start out by sharing some of my all time favorite things as a way for some newer readers to get to know me a bit better.

Favorite Way to spend my free time.

I love starting my day walking with my husband, Luke, and our two rescue dogs, Poppy and Max. We used to walk the boys to school but now their schools aren’t close enough to walk them and besides that they’re getting too old for us to walk them to school. I think they’d be embarressed.

I love exercising in the morning before I start writing / designing. I rotate between Vinyasa Yoga, Barre, and Pilates.

I also enjoy painting furniture, you can see some tutorials here and my eBook here. Painting watercolors, you can see free printables here and some in my shop here. I also shared my must have watercolor supplies if you want to start a watercolor practice.

We live in Scituate Harbor so we love walking to our local beaches to search for beach treasures – we collect driftwood, sea glass, and rocks.

All Time Favorite Books.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I joke that reading Jane Austen made me want to study in England where I met my husband. I also love Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Each year I read A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, it’s a beautiful book and timeless despite being written 50 years ago. Other books I love are: Patina Farm, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Dutch House by Anne Patchett. I’ve probably forgotten so many here. I love to read!

All Time Favorite Films.

I love going to the movies. When Luke and I were first married we had monthly passes to the cinema and we’d see multiple films a month. I actually did my masters in Film and TV production in Bristol. There are so many films I love. Some sad, some funny but in no particular order here are some I love: Dirty Dancing, Grease, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Intern, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, any documentary by Fredrick Wiseman, Daddy’s Home, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, the new Wonder Woman movies. I love any film by Nancy Meyers – I usually love the set and production design as well as love the storylines.

Favorite Travel Destination.

We had quite a fabulous family vacation to California 2 1/2 years ago. We spent three weeks there and drove from San Diego to Wine Country. It was fabulous to share so much with our boys. In fact, I have something fun I’m working on inspired by this trip! You can see our full trip here.

We also had a wonderful time in Spain with Luke’s family. I especially loved Cadiz.

Of course, I can’t mention travel and not talk about my second home – England! We’ve had so many wonderful visits to Cornwall, Bristol and London.

Places We’d Love to Go

This pandemic has made me miss travel soooooo much. We were supposed to go to Isla Holbox in Mexico last April. We, of course, cancelled our trip. We’d love to go there still. We also would like to go to Hawaii, another visit to California (to see Joshua Tree, Wine Country again), Alaska, France, Sicily (I went with my mom but would love to go with Luke and the boys), Australia to visit family, and Greece. Part of me thinks it would be wonderful to have a little house in the French countryside.

Daily Uniform.

Jeans. I love bootcut jeans. I’m obsessed with these and love the dark wash. I love pairing these with classic cashmere tops or cozy sweatshirts. I often wear Scituate sweatshirts from our local grocery store 😊 In summer, I live in bathing suits, sundresses, and flip flops.

Favorite Recipe.

My absolute favorite from when I was growing up was my mom’s homemade cutlets and meatballs with spaghetti. I make this dish for our boys and often give them a small cutlet while I’m cooking them (just like my mom did when I was little). They taste the best hot out of the frying pan wrapped in a paper towel.

Top 10 Things I Can’t Live Without.

1. Boot Cut Jeans
2. Yoga Pants
3. Aviator Sunglasses
4. Ugg Slippers
5. Coffee
6. Jo Malone Perfume – this is my favorite but also love this one
7. My camera
8. My journal to write down ideas
9. Note Cards – I love writing notes
10. House Plants – they just make a home feel so much cozier and warm.

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Okay! That was fun to share my all time favorites. Now, for our usual favorites for the month. We took some time off between Christmas and New Year’s to spend time together so thought I’d share some of our favorites form the holiday.

Favorite Films

We all loved the new Wonder Woman film – Wonder Woman 1984. It brought back memories of my childhood in the 80s. Soul is beautifully illustrated and has a nice message. Our son, Conor, loves watching historical films set in wars. We watched The Monuments Men, which is a remarkable story of men saving art and artifacts that were taken by the Nazis.

Favorite Books

I’m finishing Everything I Never Told You by Celest Ng . It’s a fascinating look at an American family with a focus on expectations and dreams unfulfilled. It also explores race, gender, and the meaning of family.

I enjoyed reading Timeless by architect Patrick Ahern. I had the honor and priviledge of touring the HGTV Dream Home in Martha’s Vineyard he designed. I love his designs and his work and it was fun to see his many projects in book form. You’ll love this book if you love classic New England style.

I love Kathryn M. Ireland’s approachable and liveable interiors. It was fun to at Timeless Interiors. I especially loved the farmhouse she designed in France.

Favorite Tech

Since last year, Luke and I have been eating healthy and exercising quite regularly. Luke’s actually lost 28 pounds and I’ve lost 10. I, of course, would like to lose more but trying to do this in a sensible way. I have the Fitbit Versa 2 and Luke has Fitbit Sense. They both are great for tracking fitness, sleep, and calorie burning.

We bought an early Christmas present for eachother and LOVED this over the holidays. The Ninja Coffeemaker. It actually brews a whole pot, half a pot, one cup, and carafes. Really a great coffee maker if you’re looking for one.

Favorite Homewares

My husband gets very hot at night but I found the most unbelievable sheets at Target. These Casaluna sheets have cooling built in and they can fit extra deep mattresses. I ended up getting a second set as Target is having a bed and bath sale right now. I also got a cool loft pillow by the same company and he loves it.

Well, I think that covers all our current favorites. Now, it’s your turn! Would love to hear what your current favorites are. What are you watching and reading?

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Oh, and if you’re around this weekend… Luke and I will be doing an Instagram LIVE chat. So come by and ask us anything.