New year new goals

Every January I always have big plans and a few months later my resolve begins to lessen. I mean lets face it, I didn’t even take the time to make this post happen in January (better late than never right?).

I have been really into goal setting and bettering myself for the last few years sometimes I spend so much time on the goals, I don’t put any thought into the action it takes to achieve them. I love the idea of setting a big hairy scary goal for the year and breaking it down into what I need to do each month. The more I think about it the more I KNOW I enjoy that process more than the actions later on.

1. Blog more often: It makes me happy, it takes time, but I feel so good when I am doing it. So make time.

2. Be present: focus on work at work, focus on my friends when I am with them and with my man friend when I am with him. I too often find myself multi tasking resulting in 1/2 ass work (which I am never proud of).

3. Hit the gym: well isn’t this one on everyones list. I have to say last year around this time when Bona Clara closed, I found myself with quite a bit of free time and I put that to good use. I started going to yoga 3x a week and made sure to do something to sweat each and every day. I felt SO good. I don’t think I was actually that thin, but I felt so much better. Since starting this job I have put fitness on a back burner… the WAYY back burner. Last week I joined a Barre Studio near my office and they have different classes like this surfset class I can’t wait to try.

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4. Simplify: Purge. Cleanse. Minimize.  I have a tendency to keep things, to save perfume for a special occasion, which really just leads to products spilling out of shelves, clothes that don’t fit, and me constantly searching for something I can’t find. I think if I eliminate some of the physical clutter I can eliminate the clutter in my brain. Last week I was en

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5. Work on brand cheerleader for small clients: I want to do this, badly, I want to work with small businesses and take them to the next step, introduce them to practices they can implement to drive traffic to their stores or websites and increase profits. It takes work and focus and dedication and time blocking. All things I need to focus on 1st. I think if I can get those things in order I can then take steps in taking on a few small clients.

6. Learn Photoshop, Indesign and Video Editing: They say writing your goals and sharing them make you more likely to keep them. So here it is. Stay tuned for posts on the follow through.

xo

-F

 

screw the chocolate + flowers

Call me the killer of romance but flowers and chocolate do nothing for me on Valentines day (and every other day for that matter). It feels like a waste of money, so for what it would cost to get dinner, flowers delivered and chocolate, I have a few suggestions:

spa time: a massage, facial, mani/pedi, anything to just  relax and take care of myself. This is SO much better than any kind of chocolate or flowers (to me).

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personalized jewelry: I am obviously partial to stella and dot, not just because I am a stylist, but because I honestly think they are killing it in this area!

 

monthly wine subscription from bright cellars: the gift that keeps on giving, I like this idea because each month you are set up for a date night in to taste the wines etc. You select options through a quiz based on your taste preferences, then algorithm developed by two MIT grads determines what wines to send you + it gets better each month as you rate the wines you get. Its the pandora of wine, you can select that you want more like this or skip to the next song/bottle.

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 what says “i love you” to you?

-F

my weekend in review

I had a busy weekend that reminded me over and over again just how blessed I am.

Saturday morning I participated in the walk to end lupus with my 6 closest friends… We raised over $3,000 in a few weeks and can’t wait to make it an annual event. Stay tuned for more on this.

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Then I jumped in the car and we drove to Mohegan Sun for the Eric Church concert to surprise one of my guy’s closest friends. Spending the weekend with people who adore him so much just reconfirms to me how lucky I am to have such a great guy.

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We stopped at the Honeypot Hill Orchards in Stow for fresh apples, pears and some delicious cider donuts on the way home.

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How did you spend your weekend?

xo

-F

The Art of Lettering

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Last week I had the pleasure of taking my first calligraphy class with the uber talented Liz of Calligraphy Boston. I arrived at her South Street studio to a table set up with individual place settings, instruction cards, pens,  name cards and goodie bags for each student. Her adorable office felt like a real life Pinterest board, she had examples of her work all over her walls, I couldn’t wait to get started! After a brief overview and show and tell we got right to work on – with small class sizes you get the perfect amour of 1-1 attention and work time.

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I learned so much I couldn’t possibly tell you all of it without being boring and certainly not doing the class justice.

She explained:

  • each letter has hairlines and — lines (thick and thin) and they are created by using different amounts of pressure on the pen
  • you must sit with the paper at 45 degree angel and your elbow on the table
  • its hard, you have to practice, a ton

Liz was such a good teacher, she had us trace the letters on the worksheets and told us the more you do this the better you will get for more than the obvious for muscle memory and equipped us with take home papers with numbered strokes. One of the best parts I just have to mention is the ridiculous amount if goodies you get to take home and practice with – the pen, ink, paper, pre cut cards to make things with – none of which I knew about before! If you want to take Liz class just click over to her website and pick a date – its as easy as that!

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Weekend Wonderful: Lazy Sunday

Sunday I spent the day downtown – we started with brunch at Stephanie’s on Newbury where we sat at the bar (which I LOVE the closeness yet informality of) and I enjoyed a bloody mary – they have the most amazing selection that you can customize a delicious Eggs Benedict and some friendly company surrounding us.


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It was a rainy weekend here in Boston so we venture too far, went a few stores along the popular downtown Boston street, stopped into LUSH cosmetics – which I have heard so much about but never taken the time to stop in. It was SO cool and the staff was SO helpful and not at all pushy. They have handmade soaps, bath balls, handmade face masks that are SO NATURAL they only last a week and you have to keep them in the fridge – how is that for safe! After about 30 min of touching smelling and feeling I knew I needed to cash out before I bought one of everything. With a few goodies in hand we walked down to MET bar where we enjoyed a few drinks and people watched… well I people watched, I think he watched the game…

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On the way back to the Northend we stop at City Sports – we both got a new pair of kicks – which i needed desperately – I love the grey and bright yellow of mine!! Nike Free is the BEST sneaker for me – I learned all about the different versions and what the 3.0 vs 5.0 meant – I opted for the 5.0 and let me tell you – putting them on just makes me want to run around!

How was your weekend?

SweetGreen

I met Jasmina for lunch earlier this week to catch up before she travels for the next several months. She picked Sweetgreen which coincidently I was lucky enough to try after the ClassPass spin class I took at FlyWheel last week. I love they concept, they source local and organic ingredients, they use recycled packaging and the all storefronts are built with all sustainable materials.

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I had the Kale Ceasar which tasted SO good … I usually have a hard time actually enjoying Kale but this was so yummy!! I also love their manifesto which is posted all over – they are so much more than a good salad place! Ill defiantly be going back!

Live the sweet life 😉

xo

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Natural Glow

As a strong believer that everything in life is a little “better” with a tan, I find myself constantly in limbo, knowing the damaging effects the sun can have on your body, I like to go for the next best thing, spray tan! I feel skinner, my teeth whiter, my lips worthy of latest shade of lipstick, my confidence lifted, you see, when you are confident, everything looks a shade or two better.

I have posted in the past about my fav at home spray tan in  a can – perfect for an every day boost of “better”, but some occasions call for a bit more. Sometimes you need a full body spray, that’s right, a stand there naked while the magician makes you ten shades of better.

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Lucky for me, Natural Glow Salon moved just around the corner from my Northend apartment. In just 15 min I feel like a new woman! In prep for my tan I showered, exfoliated, shaved and moisturizer as much as possible, went to the Salon in the with loose pants and a what I thought to be a loose shirt… After standing in front of the fans drying for a few min post spray, I knew the shirt wouldnt do, so I put on my winter jacket, sans bra and shirt, zipped it up and skipped home to let it soak in just a bit more.

Tomorrow morning I will shower off the bronzer and be left with a perfectly natural looking glow! If you live in the Boston area you have to make an appointment – after all, everything in life is a little better with a tan!

Time: the best of times, the worst of times

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My last post I wrote about the concept of time and how it seems to control so much of our life, not enough time… or let time pass and it will heal you. Both of which seem to be the case for my situation right now, not enough time to make this work and hopefully with time Ill feel better about it….

It is with the saddest of hearts Bona Clara announced their close on Jan 31st. Bona Clara was far from perfect but I didnt think we were that close to the end.

A heartbroken and shaking Jasmina told us one by one on Thursday morning, despite the previous days efforts to “do what it takes” we would not be able to continue Bona Clara and we would not be looking for outside funding. It took me a while, actually its still hard for me to swallow this being the right decision. Their was just not enough time to do this properly and Jasmina “wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, knowing she is asking us to sacrifice but can’t promise something like this wouldn’t happen again. Maybe its selfish, but I saw this being big for me, I saw my entire career here in front of me… I saw myself being Jasmina’s partner in this, she would be the face + I would be the voice, or maybe I would be the face…. no she would be the face, she would be the brain behind the amazing products, and I would be the funny voice that told reps they can do it!!!! I saw these reps, these founding leaders being in my wedding some day, or even introducing me to the wonderful Mr. Francesca… This is the one thing, I didn’t see coming…

We were told last Tuesday there was a problem, we instinctually said we would fight this, do whatever it takes, now its Wed night and I will only have 2 more wakeup’s to the best job so far, the job that took me from I cant do anything to I can do EVERYTHING, maybe I still haven’t started dating again or made a million bucks, but it made me happy, it filled my cup + I was able to be a little part of filling someone elses. I will post more on this later as I am really trying to just soak it all in, I have no idea what is next but I do know I am beyond grateful for the past 16 months.

For anyone interested in the “smarter beauty products” they will be on sale at 50% off through friday! Just go to the Bona Clara site for orders!

BostInno 50 on Fire

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Bona Clara’s CEO was nominated for BostInno 50 on Fire for Bostons inventors, disruptors, luminaries and newsmakers across all industries.

Jasmina was one of the finalists so we got to celebrate with her and  Boston’s brightest at the Moakley Courthouse which by the way was the most beautifully built building I have seen in Boston.

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Jasmina didn’t win this year but we had a blast!!

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Its all in the details

I hate to admit but growing up in a town just outside of Brimfield Ma with a mother who couldn’t collect enough antiques (which I considered junk), she would pull over on on any road if she saw a sign with furnature on the lawn, all I remember is thinking you are going to kill me with embarrassment…  I was a bit jaded to just how cool some of the pieces you can find really are.

Fast Forward to me at 25… I am in an apartment in Boston with my BFFL + I am finally ready to start purchasing things here and there that I will have for a long time. My friend Lauren, an interior designer with the most amazing eye had a white hutch in her small apmt that she used for her tv and storage underneath. I was desperate for something like it! Naturally the next time I was home I told Memre what I was looking for, before I knew it she had canceled dinner plans and we were on the hunt. After about 5 stores I came across this beauty:

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So, what do I do… wait another week till black friday + then purchase at $100 less than the asking price + beg good Ole Pepe to help a sister out + bring this piece back to Beantown.

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It fits perfect in our large (very large for the Northend) living room with brick walls. The details are my favorite, I feel like such an adult actually investing in something other than IKEA.

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