Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island is one of my favorite places in the entire world.  It’s gorgeous, tons of fun, and I’m lucky enough to have family there.  We just sailed the choppy seas of Lake Huron to pay a visit to my sister and her clan.  Luckily, we had the Arnold Line Ferry to help us brave the waves.  If I do say so myself, the Arnold Line is the best ferry in the world- it’s my dad’s!

Here I am with the scurviest sailors on the water… though First Mate Meredith decided to take a nap through this leg of the voyage.

We had a grand old time staying at the Grand Hotel, and Prentiss and Meredith had the great opportunity to play with their cousins. Prentiss and her cousin Tilly treated us to countless shows and plays.

These two princess peas in a pod were the stars of the vacation!

The Bedford Post

William and I just had the chance for a get-away at the Bedford Post, which is Richard Gere, Carey Lowell, and Russell Hernandez’s new Bed and Breakfast-styled Inn in Bedford, NY.  I must say it was a welcome rest. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a great summer with the girls, but a little time away from diapers and tooth fairies can get to be pretty necessary.  So the beautiful accommodations and excellent food at the Bedford Post were just what the doctor ordered.

They’ve got bed, they’ve got breakfast, they’ve got a stone path and climbing plants….

The food was really, really good.  In the evening, we even saw Henry and Nancy Kissinger enjoying the fare.

I kid you not- these sticky buns were the best I’ve ever had, ever.

If you ever get a chance to visit, I highly recommend the Bedford Post.  It was peaceful, quiet, and tasteful to the smallest detail.  Seriously, how often do you find a bouquet like this in the bathroom, of all places?

The new workshop, from the ground up!

The Katie Brown Workshop has outgrown its old digs!  You know how much I love renovating and re-doing old buildings, and making them something new and beautiful.  Well, the latest project is going to be the Workshop’s headquarters in Brooklyn.  We’re super excited to get going here, but it’s taken a lot of work to transform a ramshackle old warehouse into a full-fledged workshop.  And, most exciting of all, we’re going to have a new store in front- I can’t wait!  We should be ready in the fall, but until then, we’re building the place up.

It takes a lot of odds and ends to build a workshop…

This is going to be the test kitchen area… who cares if there’s no stove yet? I can already hear the skillets sizzling.

We’re not feeling blue now that the basement floor is so bright and cheery…

And here’s the workshop’s elusive chief elf, The Man himself, Lucho… there’s no job too small, and nothing he can’t do.  I’m incredibly grateful to Lucho- without him, there would basically be no workshop at all!

Nobody does plants like Bonnie Plants!

I’ve been doing a lot of gardening this summer, and it’s been a real blast.  I love getting on my hands and knees and digging around- I might come up with a few grass stains, but it’s not like I’m wearing Prada in the garden anyway!  I’ve been having some pretty good success this year- the harvest has been excellent, and I owe a lot of it to Bonnie Plants.  Have you tried their stuff?  Their seeds and starter plants are the best I’ve ever found.  These Roma tomatoes are ripe now, and they’re SO good.  They are plump and yummy enough to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert!

Even plants get hungry- this plant food went a long way to nourish my vegetables and help them grow up big and strong.

I had never heard of a white eggplant before Bonnie Plants enlightened me- at first it sounded like a mythical creature, but it turns out it’s simply delicious!

Can’t get enough of Meredith…

Meredith really has been the brightest light of the summer! Every single month of a baby’s life brings incredible change.  She got some teeth, and now she’s trying to feed herself, too!

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Meredith!

She became buddies with Buddy, the horse…

And she looks great dressed up as a bear!

Painting the trees

There were a few dead trees on the orchard grounds, so I decided we should spruce them up a bit and give them a little flair.  Adding a little decorating touch to the natural environment is a great way to engage the landscape, and I knew these trees would look great with a touch of white paint.

Of course, I had to call on the hired help…

I even recruited William…They need a little touch-up on their tops, but they look pretty good, right?

Prentiss horses around

At the ripe old age of 5 and a quarter, Prentiss has been in a number of horse shows, and she always does exceptionally well…

But here she is with her very first blue ribbon!

Of course, we’re all as proud as can be.

Shoes off!

With all the playing in the dirt up at the orchard, I had to make a sign to hang on the house.

From now on, flip-flops only indoors!

Take us out to the ballgame!

Though the orchard is basically impossible to beat, we did make our way back to New York City, and we caught a Mets game.

The crack of the bat, the fans going wild, the seventh inning stretch, and the food (mmmm- hot dogs never seem to taste as good as they do at baseball games)… a good baseball game is a ton of fun.

Prentiss just so happens to be one of the Mets’ biggest fans, so she was super excited when they won the game!

Bridges

As beautiful as the landscape is around the Berkshire mountains, there are a few contributions from the people that live there that almost rival the natural beauty.  I really love bridges myself, and there are two in Massachusetts I especially enjoy.

This is the bridge to the wonderful town of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

And this really takes the cake- every year the people of Shelburne Falls create this Bridge of Flowers.  Talk about a great idea!  This is one of the nicest gardens in New England, if you ask me.