Playing Tourist: A Boston Afternoon

On Sophie and Steve's last day with us, we spent a few hours in Boston.

We started at Quincy Market, which is a fun stop for food and shopping. After spending quite a while at Newbury Comics, we walked part of the Freedom Trail.

(The Freedom Trail is a red line on the ground that you can follow through Boston to see historical sites from the American Revolution).

We walked through Boston Common, and ended up at the best destination of the day: lunch!

We ate at Fire & Ice, where you get to pick your ingredients and the chefs cook them up right in front of you. Everything was delicious-- and fun to put together!

Playing Tourist: The Berkshires

I'll be honest and tell you that one of the best things about our day in the Berkshire Mountains was that I had an excuse to wear my new dress from Old Navy.

However, we also did some fun things, too.

We started at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, which houses a whole lot of Norman Rockwell paintings. It was fun to look at all the Saturday Evening Post covers, and some of his works were really moving and beautiful.

Next, we stopped at Furnace Brook Winery in Richmond for a wine tasting. It was a gorgeous setting, and a relaxed environment to try out new wines. (We left with a bottle of French Cidre-- it's like cider, but spelled funny).

Next, we hit the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, which probably would have been more fun if we were in elementary school. We spent some quality time with the dinosaur statue out front.

For dinner, we went to my favorite Chinese food restaurant, The East in Great Barrington.

Then, we went down the road for dessert at the Barrington Brewery.

We ended our day at the Berkshire Theatre Festival to see The Last Five Years. It was an amazing show in a small, pretty theater.

Make-Up Monday: Hard Candy Welcome Matte

Although I have professed my love for MAC Blot Powder in the past, I couldn't resist trying a new, slightly cheaper mattifying powder.

Enter Hard Candy's cleverly named "Welcome Matte" pressed powder.

This little compact holds less than my beloved MAC powder, but it is also less expensive at only 8 dollars.

(I busted out a calculator to figure out how much cheaper the Hard Candy powder is. While MAC Blot Powder is about 52 dollars an ounce, Welcome Matte is about 30 dollars an ounce).

Although it does save some money, Welcome Matte can't handle my oily, summertime skin.

This one-shade-fits-all powder goes on beautifully, but my skin is shiny about a half hour later. Although MAC Blot Powder isn't a miracle worker, it gives me at least a few hours of shine-free skin.

I would highly recommend Welcome Matte for those lucky ladies who do not fall into the "ridiculously oily" skincare category.

Playing Tourist: The Steaming Tender Restaurant

When we were picking places to take Sophie and Steve, our houseguests from across the pond, the Steaming Tender was on the top of our list.

It is right down the Turnpike from us in Palmer, and it is housed in a beautiful, old train station from the 1800s.

There are lots of fun details-- from the steam locomotive in the parking lot to the vintage luggage in the waiting area.

Also, it has amazing french fries.

The boys posed in front of the antique car in the parking lot, but I'm afraid they obscured the car... with their giant muscles.

Sophie and me, on the shoeshine chairs

Summer, Summer, Summertime

Our British house guests have moved on to Cape Cod, and Mr. Kinne and I are done with school for the summer. (Well, except for the fact that I am teaching summer school).

We had a lovely few days of playing tourists with our guests, and I am putting together some posts about our Western Massachusetts adventures.

For now, I leave you with this picture from last summer, because I love it:

A Night at the Theater

We're taking our guests to the Berkshires tomorrow night to see one of my very favorite musicals.

The soundtrack is one of my favorites to sing along to at the top of my lungs.

Darling, You Send Me...

I made this print to fill an empty space in our shiny, new guest room. It is a quote from one of my favorite songs, which was also Mr. Kinne's and my first dance at our wedding.

You can download the print here-- it can be trimmed to fit an 8 x 10 frame.

From Mess to Guest Room

It's done! Our spare room actually looks like a guest room, instead of the room where we throw the stuff we don't know what to do with.

Here's where we started:

Here's the end result, two weeks and a couple hundred dollars later:

Make-Up Monday: Clinique Full Potential Lip Gloss

I got a sample of Clinique Full Potential lip gloss with my last Clinique order, and I'm just not in love with it.

I got "Glamour-full," which, admittedly, is a fun name. It is a pretty pinky-brown shade, but it is a little too thick and sticky. Plus, I don't see any of the plumping effect that the gloss is supposed to provide.

Definitely not one that I would purchase.

In unrelated news, our spare room currently looks like this, and our guests arrive on Wednesday.

We've got a little work to do.

Happy Father's Day

My dad is the best, and I could think of no better way to tell him than with cupcakes.

(Those adorable cupcake toppers are from here).

A Baby Shower Cake

The room re-do is at a bit of standstill, because it is report card time again.

However, I did manage to take a little break from schoolwork to make a cake for two of my pregnant co-workers. (Pregnancy is like an epidemic in my school this year).

The cake recipe was this one, and the buttercream recipe was from Smitten Kitchen.

The umbrella decoration was made with candy melts spread over waxed paper.

(I printed out a picture of an umbrella and used that as my guide).

I was pretty impressed with myself.

The British are Coming: Getting Ready

With our British house guests arriving next Wednesday, my top priority is having a place for them to sleep. However, I don't want them to spend three nights on our tiny Aerobed.

This means I had to take a trip to the home of inexpensive, Swedish furniture:

My dad, who is awesome, spent this past Sunday wandering around the New Haven Ikea with me.

Meatballs were consumed.

Boxes were hauled to the register.

A sofabed was purchased.

Now, I just need to clear a space for it in the spare room.

The British are Coming!

Next Wednesday, my fabulous friend Sophie and her boyfriend are coming to stay with us for a few days.

But, here's the thing...

They are coming all the way from London, and we have some serious work to do to get the Kinne Inn up and running for guests.

This is what our "guest bedroom" looks like now. (Yes, I am a little embarassed to show you how messy we are).

But, I have some serious plans to transform this room on a very limited budget.

And, I'm hoping that in about a week, I will have some kick-butt "after" pictures to share.

Make-Up Monday: Virtually Try On OPI Nail Polish

Sephora has this new way to "try out" OPI polishes on their site.

Admittedly, you only get a general idea of what the polishes would look like on your nails, but it's fun to play around with the different shades.

Also, I decided I want all of the ones with glitter in them.

One of the Cutest Things to Ever Come Out of My Kitchen

Well, I attempted a Bakerella project, and while the results were not perfect, they were pretty flipping adorable.

I started with this pile of ingredients and turned them into tiny graduation cap pops:

I began by cutting these Hershey squares a little smaller, because I couldn't find the Godiva squares that Bakerella used.

Then, I used candy melts to "glue" on mini M&Ms and red candy straw.

Next, I put a little candy melt on the lollipop sticks and stuck them right in the middle of the tiny peanut butter cups.

After that, I put everything together with more candy melt.

Finally, I stuck them into styrofoam and made Mr. Kinne "ooh" and "ahh" over how cute they were.

Because, seriously?

So cute.

Because I Do Not Have Enough Purses

I am eyeing this bag at oldnavy.com. I am loving the navy blue with the brown handles, and the slouchy shape.

The 15 dollar price tag doesn't hurt either.

In Which I Tell You About a Dream I Had

So, I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the end of the school year. This is my very first year of teaching, and sometimes I just pretend I know what I am doing.

Then, last night, I had this dream that I was at school. My classroom was completely messy and chaotic, and my desk was covered in maple syrup.

According to a totally legit source (i.e. some random Dream Dictionary site), the maple syrup could mean this:

To see maple syrup in your dream symbolizes sentimentality and nostalgia. Or, this dream can also mean that you have found yourself in a sticky situation.

According to Mr. Kinne, I might just be craving pancakes.

Get in Touch with your Inner 10-Year-Old

Now that Lauren has admitted her love for Selena Gomez in the comments, I can no longer keep this to myself.

I think that Wizards of Waverly Place is one of the best shows on television.

You might be saying, "But, Mrs. Kinne, isn't that a kids' show?"

To which I say, "Yes. It is also awesome."

This show consistently cracks me up and has actually made me tear up on occasion. Plus, the cast is pretty flipping adorable: