The Gift That Never Fails...

My Father is the King of practicality, particularly when it comes to gift giving. One Christmas, he gave my boyfriend at the time a jug of windshield wiper fluid for "driving in the cold New England weather". I was horrified.

Growing up, we had both a fireplace and woodstove in our home. The woodstove provided significantly more heat to our house and was also the inspiration for a rather interesting maple syrup making experiment (which may or may not have involved tapping our neighbors' trees).  Every late Fall, my family and I would spend hours stacking firewood for the season. I quickly learned the value of quality firewood and especially, kindling.

One of my favorite "never fail" seasonal gifts is L.L.Bean's Fatwood Sack. The kindling comes in a burlap sack and is the perfect practical component to a warm winter fire. It's a great gift to bring to friends that have fires in their home, or if you're headed north to Vermont and other snowy states for a ski weekend, you'll make instant friends after a cold day on the slopes. Dress the bag up with a fun ribbon and voilà!

Just One More Day...

What if we had one more lazy, hazy day attached to our weekend? Just one more day to savor that morning coffee for as long as we like and romance ourselves with a day full of adventure outdoors? Some will get to enjoy the holiday today, however I'm coming out of my wine coma and slipping back into reality...

Fall In Napa

This weekend I'm headed to Napa for some adventures in wine country. Time in Napa is always carefree and the epitome of R&R. There's nothing better than an escape from the city with your best friend only to drink copious amounts of wine in a beautiful landscape. I've always loved this photo of Claiborne Swanson Frank taken near her home in Napa on the shores of Lake Hennessy. It is among a collection of portrait photographs in her book, American Beauty.

12 Years & Many Many Tears

Well, the reviews are true. The Best Picture frontrunner is an extremely raw deep dive into the business and psychopathology of the American slavery system and without question, full of many powerful moments, sober beauty and horrific realities of what was a part of history we cannot avoid.

It's a tough one to watch but a brilliant film unquestionably deserving of the acclaim it has received thus far. You can find the trailer for "12 Years a Slave" here.