Time to stretch the eyes

I've been spending a lot of time hunched over the dining room table painting away. It's great but exhausting and rough on the ol' eyeballs. So on Saturday, after dropping off some donated school supplies from C's mom to a dear teacher friend of mine, Curtis and I headed up to one of my most treasured childhood memory places.

Mount Blue Job (which apparently other people call "Blue Job Mountain") is in Farmington/Strafford in Southern NH and it's an easy 1,357 foot elevation hike. I climbed this little mountain (which seemed HUGE at the time) with my brother and dad and various family friends over the years.





Curtis and I had actually planned to hike Blue on the day before our wedding with my brother and his girlfriend but scheduling and nerves and a funny tummy prevented that visit. So instead of right before our wedding, we went up right before our honeymoon (we leave in 2 weeks)!





The trail of roots and sandy, mica-flecked soil brought me right back to our childhood hikes - though I think we went up a different trail. The top was just as I remembered it (but maybe the fire tower was a little LESS rickety). Perfect.






(Click to see bigger!)

It was a spectacular day weather-wise and a fun and much-needed outing. Curtis was happy to see a place I have been talking about since we met and I was so happy to show him. Eyes have been sufficiently stretched (to all edges of NH in fact). Now, back to painting!


A little sweaty but pretty pleased. :)

xo
Sarah

If you are going to go hike Blue Job - and I suggest you do!: Make sure you continue on past the first summit with the fire tower to get to 'Little Blue Job' which is another 20-30 min or so. You'll hike down to a little lake and then up again to a big rocky tree-less plateau with an amazing view (where most of my photos above were taken).

A (Big) Wedding Post - about the people that made it happen!

Well, we got hitched. It was an amazing day. Perfect really. No disasters, no dramatics, no crazy mix-ups. It was great.

The beauty of a day was thanks in no small part to the incredible people we worked with! I want to tell you all about them, internet!

PRE-WEDDING LODGING: Silver Fountain Inn




I don't know if you have any upcoming business in Dover, NH but if you do (or if you just want to take the train there and stay a while) you should consider staying at the Silver Fountain Inn! It's a beautiful little place. Lucky for us, it was the only place with vacancy when we were booking our stay. As soon as we checked in and saw our room and the multiple common rooms I said "I wish we could stay a week!"



We were greeted and offered freshly baked cookies. You had me at 'Hello, cookie?' The place is quaint and quiet and just a little bit fussy (perfect for an 1800s building). We stayed in the Oak Room. The inn was so cozy and welcoming, we are planning to go back with friends sometime during the winter!

PHOTOGRAPHY: Lindsay Metivier Photography
(full disclosure: Lindsay is a dear friend of mine!)



Lindsay is the greatest. (All photos in this post were taken by her except the first three and one other below.) She is sweet and friendly and the photos she took - amazing. Multiple people got in touch after the event and said "the photographer was great!" She made everyone feel super comfortable in front of the lens even if normally they weren't photo fans. Lindsay caught all the moments we missed as we were buzzing around on the day of and the photos she took of us and our families are treasures.



VENUE: Rivermill at Dover Landing


The Rivermill is a big empty room. It's the perfect blank slate for any kind of wedding. It worked perfectly for the light springy daytime wedding we wanted to host. Big windows, wood floors and a million colors of napkin. We worked with Brit and Kirt and they were so helpful. The day rolled by so smoothly and that was due in huge part to how great they were to work with.



FLOWERS: Petal & Stem Creations
(full disclosure: Casey is a dear friend of mine!)



Casey is so good. She's one of my dearest, longest-running friends and she is amazing with flowers. We had a pretty small budget for the whole wedding and although I LOVE plants and had a very specific idea for the florals, our flower budget was pretty tiny as far as weddings go. Well, I told Casey and she didn't bat an eye. She made my green and white vision come to life without a problem!



And look at my bouquet! Totally dreamy.

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ACCESSORIES: MARGRAVINE
(full disclosure: Jen is a dear friend of mine!)



I asked Jen to create a couple of accessories for my wedding to make my grey dress (from J. Crew) a little more bridal. She made me a chiffon sash/belt and a little white capelet that I wore a little at the reception but had planned to really wear it for outdoor photos if the day had been rainy.

Jen also made my crown the morning of!



JEWELRY: K. O'Brien Jewelry



I special ordered one of Kim's beautiful necklaces in colors to match my dress and shoes. The colors are perfect matches to the swatches I sent her and the new two dot design was perfect. Kim was a dream to work with and made my piece SO FAST. (And I've already worn it on other occasions since the wedding. It's sweet and pretty and so versatile.)

DECOR: Megan Mary Creamer
(full disclosure: Megan is a dear friend of mine!)



Megan is an incredible papercut artist. I asked her to make a backdrop for our 'alter' during the ceremony. I gave her complete freedom and she did NOT disappoint. During the reception it became a photobooth-like backdrop for our guests!


(This photo by our friend Ginger!)



CAKES: Fiores Bakery (Jamaica Plain, MA)



Look at that cake! We ordered two giant cakes from Fiores. We had eaten meals and treats from the local bakery on multiple occasions and trusted them completely to make desserts for our big day. The cakes were done exactly when expected and the quality was phenomenal. The flourless chocolate cake is my most favorite and the carrot was delicious too!

CATERING: Flavor Concepts



Evan from Flavor concepts helped create the perfect brunch buffet menu for our morning reception. Pancakes, french toast, waffles, custom egg station, bacon, homefries, yogurt - all the good stuff. I wish I'd had time to eat more!

SOUND: 1130ft studios (Rollinsford, NH)
(full disclosure: Chris is a dear friend of mine!)



Chris has a recording studio but occasionally works 'out of the office' to bring sound to events. I've known Chris since high school and he's awesome. And his speakers sound pretty awesome too.

See how many times I had to write "full disclosure"? This wedding was truly a labor of love. We were so lucky to be able to exploit the incredible talents of our incredible friends to make our day truly unique!



xo
The Luckiest Lady in the World

All Kinds Of Things

Hello Friends!
All kinds of things are going on lately.
I'm still unemployed but interviewing and painting and keeping busy with Egg-A-Go-Go for sure.

Thanksgiving was yesterday. I'm still full.

Curtis and I went to NH to spend time with my mom's side of the family.





We ate so much good food and took a few good walks.





My folks' new house is a short stroll from downtown Portsmouth but they have a little backyard and a HUGE back non-yard (traintracks and woods) full of trees. Lots of birds came to visit their back porch in the short time we were visiting... Downy Woodpecker, Purple Finch, Blue Jay, Crow, Sparrow, Nuthatch - all such cuties!

As soon as we got back to our neighborhood (via bus and train and a stop at the airport to deliver my brother and his lady to their plane to Baltimore) a friendly cat came down off his porch to say hello. "Welcome Home!" My own cats seemed pleased enough to see me as well.



xo
Sarah

Camp Camping 2012

And more photos here.

Oh, hello there.

Hi Internet! I just got back from a restful weekend in New Hampshire visiting with my family. The folks are moving soon so my brother flew up from Baltimore and we spent a couple of days just hanging out. We saw their new 'hood and ate some amazing food. The new place will be wonderful and cozy but I'm going to miss the window-filled house surrounded by trees they've been in for the past 18 years.




Anyway, now I'm back here and back to reality. We have a Bazaar Bizarre meeting tonight for final discussions prior to Union Made coming up and a short few weeks. Then tomorrow I'm spending the day with my beloved Ryan. The rest of the week needs to involve some after-work-painting and other planning.

Here's a dress..

And some yarn-in-progress...

And look at the garden! (I need to get back there this week to see how the downpours we've been having lately have been treating my seedlings.)



I love that place so much!

In shoppy news, I bought myself an assortment of things from Jen Collins's Etsy shop. So many good things. As you know, I'm a fiend for illustrated travels and these three zines are a wonderful addition to my growing collection of travel writing. HIGHLY recommended. (This terrible nighttime photo doesn't do the prints any justice so go look in her shop.)



That's just about everything over here. How are things with you?
xo
Sarah