I have know it was coming for a long time but Friday was my 50th birthday. Yikes! I had a big trip planned with all my girlfriends but we had to postpone until the Fall. To commemorate the occasion, I had one of my favorite artists Paige Spearin do a birthday painting for me. She even added little Mimi (my new puppy) with her one ear up.
Cheers to birthdays!!!!
XOXO, Kristin
Over a year ago, I started hearing friends of mine talking about their kids being on Tik Tok and honestly, I had very little interest. Tik Tok used to be Musical.ly which was videos of people lip synching and that is not something I would probably do. Fast forward to the Quarantine and I decided to check it out and the next thing you know, it is the last thing I look at before I go to bed and one of the first things I check in the morning when I wake up. Hilarious.
The truth is, there is a ton of cool stuff on there. Besides a ton of people dancing around-which is very entertaining, Tik Tok uses a massive algorithm that tailors your feed to the kind of material you enjoy based on likes and follows. So, my Tik Tok won’t look anything like your Tik Tok. Mine is filled with lots of cooking videos, cheerleading, famous people, people talking about Real Housewives, and lately, people who sell on Etsy/Amazon. Its fascinating.
One night listening to someone talk about how they make a ton of money selling items on Etsy, they said something that kind of woke me up. They said it was important to be on Etsy because there are millions of people already shopping on Etsy and you have a built in audience. I know this concept sounds simple, but after you put the amount of time I have in building your own website, you don’t want to dilute your audience with another site. But, I decided to resurrect my Etsy shop and loaded it up with sets of plastic cups and have sold a ton this summer! Clients I would not have reached have ordered tons of Summer Water and Eat Beach Sleep Repeat cups and I am thrilled. I just started adding my floating crystal necklaces so soon, this shop will be filled with tons of my non-personalized items. So fun!
Check it out here.
So, basically Tik Tok has saved me during the Quarantine, providing crazy amounts of entertainment. If you have not ventured into it, just download it and check it out…if you hate it, you can delete but I swear you will find something awesome on this app!
XOXO, KP
Every summer one of the things I look forward to is the release of Elin Hildebrand’s new book. This year it was 28 Summers and it was so fun. Most of her books hook you in right in the beginning and by the end you feel like you are leaving your friends behind. This was exactly like this-the main character was so likeable and they way Elin describes all the characters help you imagine what they look like and possibly who might play them in a movie.
There is a possible movie based on this book and Elin announced that news recently and opened it up for suggestions on who should play who. Some of the answers were hilarious but I would definitely love to see this story on the big screen.
Looking for a good beach read this summer, this one is a winner.
XOXO, KP
I have written about 20 blog posts in my head during this Quarantine and just didn’t have it in me to type them out. I am using this rainy Saturday to update my website and add some things and when googling a picture of some cups, came across a funny blog post from 2010 and then went down my own rabbit hole of Summer in Newport. It’s funny to think I used to write about my comings and goings with such detail-it makes for a good permanent diary where you can easily look up things from your past.
Since my day job is with a large cruise line, we have been working from home and out of service since March like many others. After the CDC put a hold on cruising and our normally bustling business has been literally docked, I am extremely lucky to still have my job. These slower times have been great to regroup and catch up on all the things you never seem to have time to do.
For my business, I have been getting orders here and there, but I am using this time to clean up my website, continue to promote products on social media and making lot of jewelry. I even brought back my old floating crystal necklaces. I used to make these every day and sold them to everyone. These days, I have a bunch of new clients who have never seen them, so I am bringing them back. The price of Swarovski crystals has skyrocketed since I made these before, so the price has changed to $26. These are a favorite.
I have been watching a ton of television-lots of Netflix and Hulu and re-watching/binge watching Real Housewives series. I miss movie theaters and seeing new movies in the big comfy chairs. Also on my list is eating out-we had a small window to do this last month but since people weren’t being careful and wearing masks, we are back to square one and I am so fearful of where we will be one month from now-all those restaurant owners and servers, it is heartbreaking, not to mention boutiques and all small business owners.
The one highlight of this crazy quarantine is that I have realized that might never have this opportunity to be home for so long again and have put myself on 4 different waiting lists for a puppy. Unfortunately, a ton of people have had this same idea so a lot of the breeders of the type of puppy I want have a ton of people wanting puppies as well. Fingers crossed that this works out for me. This is the type of puppy I want….
So now I am on hold waiting for an email to come through with good news. I have a name picked out and everything-so excited.
Hope you are all doing well! Stay safe..
XO, KP
Happy Easter!!!! So excited that a new show starts today that is from the creators of Downton Abbey. It looks amazing..you will need the new channel Epix. I added it to my AppleTv subscription (there is a free trial) and the first episode is already available to view.
“Belgravia,” a six-episode British period drama from “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes (adapted from his 2016 novel), is everything you want it to be, but not one bit more: a pedigreed, crunchy-gravel story with all the trimmings and light melodramas, set in London’s most affluent neighborhood in 1841, where an old family secret is just dying to get out.
The viewers are in on this secret almost from the beginning, which turns the series into a protracted exercise of hurry-up-and-wait, to see if things turn out all right. The real tension in “Belgravia” (premiering Easter Sunday on premium cable channel Epix) is attuned to class and status, as it usually is in Fellowes’ work.
Here, a successful building developer, James Trenchard (Philip Glenister), and his instinctively circumspect wife, Anne (Tamsin Greig), have risen to a comfortable rung on the ladder during a time of progress in the early years of the Victorian age.
The Trenchards carry a potentially ruinous secret, however, dating back to Brussels in 1815, where, on the eve of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, their lovely but socially ambitious daughter, Sophia (Emily Reid), fell in love with Lord Edmund Bellasis (Jeremy Neumark Jones), the sole heir of the Earl and Countess of Brockenhurst (Tom Wilkinson and Harriet Walter, respectively).
This flashback prologue (and its tragic outcome) occurs in short order in the first episode, so it’s not a huge spoiler to simply note the unplanned birth of a baby boy, who is spirited away by the Trenchards to an adoptive family.
Decades later, in more mutual social orbits, Anne feels compelled to tell the Countess about the grandson she never knew she had. Rather than keep a lid on it, the Countess sees an opportunity. As in “Downton Abbey,” the focus is on the old rules of rightful vs. presumed inheritance, hidden paternity and the measures people will take to retain what they think they are owed – including the servants, who can be coerced to spy on their employers.
John Bellasis (Adam James), the Countess’s greedy nephew (and “Belgravia’s” designated villain), can’t wait to get his hands on the family fortune. But, in another “Downton”-esque move, the true heir begins to emerge: a solid, hard-working, middle-class gentleman, Charles Pope (Jack Bardoe), that secret baby, all grown up and puzzled as to why half of Belgravia is suddenly desperate to make his acquaintance.
“Belgravia” is often more basic than captivating, even with all its 19th-century grandeur and two shipshape performances from Walter and Greig, whose characters ally themselves to stage-manage a standard-issue conclusion. It’s the sort of ending any viewer will have already heard coming from several clip-clops away.
HAPPY WATCHING!
XOXO, KP
Holy cow…what is happening with the Royal Family this week is straight out of a dramatic movie- unprecedented events in the last few days. Several people have asked me what I think and the truth is I didn’t know right away but now some facts have emerged and I do have an opinion…
While all the dust settles on this bombshell announcement that Harry and Meghan are retiring from their Senior Royal roles opting for a more private life while still supporting the monarchy, it’s still a little fuzzy on how it all went down. After a couple of days, info has leaked that Harry had been telling his Father since Christmas of this plan and Prince Charles told him they would need time too work this out to see how it could be done (meaning done without upsetting the Queen). The financial part is also tricky and obviously he wanted time to figure that part out as well. This answer prompted Harry to contact his Grandmother asking for a meeting. She has always had a soft spot for Harry and granted his request but informed him that she would not discuss his situation without resolution from his Father (Prince Charles holds the purse strings for his family from the Duchy of Cornwall and pays for most of their expenses from this purse). Her courtiers blocked the meeting and when he felt backed into a corner, he obviously thought announcing this on Wednesday via Instagram would be the way out and let them know right before it happened. So, it was shocking the way it went down, but they knew it was in the works. I honestly don’t think they fully thought through all of the ramifications of this big move, but I think there is more here than meets the eye.
Today, reports surfaced that Harry has been fearful of his mental health and his role as a Senior Royal jeopardizes this. I am sure, with Meghan’s encouragement, this plan was actually a precursor to what would have eventually happened to their roles in the Royal Family, but now they get to control how its handled. There have been talks of a more streamlined monarchy once Prince Charles becomes King and they saw the writing on the wall and figured they would get a head start on the inevitable. Harry is now so far down on the succession list, his role is really secondary compared to the house of Cambridge.
So, my thoughts on Meghan are… I actually like her and think that she has amazing plans for their future and all that they can accomplish together but were being tethered by a strong chain to their positions. Her capsule clothing line that debuted last year was a perfect example of how she knows how to use her station to benefit others, it was a rousing success. Some people who don’t like her balked at what she did, but in the end, she is helping many, many people and she is popular..not like Kate but popular nonetheless. Not sure how popular she will be after this week.
The trademark office releasing the applications for Sussex Royal listing all the items they wish to brand with their logo/name was very interesting. Their shiny new (beautiful) website launched the day of their announcement (www.sussexroyal.com). It is chock full of info on their roles and how the system they have been living in is run. Now, they can be free and do their good work without being pinned down by all the Royal rules and procedures. It makes sense for them. Maybe the writing was on this wall when they eschewed a Royal title for baby Archie earlier in the year??
I have so many questions (like everyone else):
The coming days will most likely have lots more info on this story..stay tuned!!!
This past Saturday, I downloaded the audible of Inheritance by Dani Shapiro. The author read her book and it was about 6 hours long. Funny how some audibles are 15 hours and then this one only 6. This book was praised by Elin Hildebrand recently so it was on my wish list. I vaguely knew what it was about but decided to listen to it while I was working on organizing my bedroom. I had read many novels by this author but this was a personal non-fiction book, her story about finding out that her Father was not her biological Father through Ancestry.com.
Dani Shapiro, born into a devout, religious Jewish family was very fair, blonde with blue eyes. All her life she had fielded comments about how she didn’t look Jewish and described how these seemingly benign observations had had an effect on her -chiseling away at how she viewed herself.
A quick Ancestry.com spit test started the unraveling of who she was or who she thought she was up to that point. The detail in which she describes the events and how she put all the pieces together are staggering. Her voice is so calm yet so full of emotion that several times in the book I had tears in my eyes, which doesn’t happen so often to me. I was so invested in her story and the outcome, that three moments in the timeline, described so honestly and with such care literally choked me up and made me cry.
What is so striking is that this happened to a famous author, one with a researcher’s mind, tools and the means to travel across the country to get to the bottom of her truth. I couldn’t help but think how many people are using these new genealogy tests to see where they are from and end up finding out way more than they bargained for. Parents having affairs years ago, producing children that show up and want to meet their siblings or..children put up for adoption at birth for all the right reasons and now they are coming looking for their parents. Being a sperm donor was a popular way to earn a quick buck years ago and that is what happened in this story. Dani’s Mother was having a hard time conceiving so she consulted a fertility expert. The “expert”, a sort of renegade, was mixing sperm from sperm donors with patients’ husbands to increase the positive outcomes. After she figured out this is what happened, her quest in this story was to figure out if her beloved Father knew she was not his actual daughter. She does find out this answer and is lucky enough to find her biological Father, who is still alive. The leading up to this amazing discovery is nail biting.
I don’t want to give any more away because I highly recommend reading or listening to this book. Recently, I have totally embraced audible books, listening to them while I drive back and forth to work. I try not to listen at home so they last longer and it makes me actually look forward to getting in the car and sitting in traffic.
How many people have taken these tests? One friend from work thinks they are a way for the government to collect data on all of us and would NEVER do it. Someone told me that boys have a more accurate reading so I asked my brother to take one so we could really see where we are from. He has researched our family tree so didn’t see a need but I do think it would be interesting to have some proof. One side (my Mom’s) is 50% Italian and 50% Greek. Knowing both Grandparents and their extended families my whole life, it would be shocking if this information were not accurate. The other side (my Dad’s) is more of a wild card. We know there is English and Welsh roots but late in the game with a Grandmother on her deathbed, she blurted out that there was some Polish ancestry that was conveniently left out on paperwork years ago. Polish? Seriously? My Grandmother was on morphine so it was easy information to discount but the Ancestry.com tree that you build with the leaves proved that there was indeed some Polish relatives in addition to the English and Welsh. Talk about a turn of events. And that isn’t that serious of a curveball, imagine finding out some skeletons in your family’s closet, it could be so distressing and disruptive.
Have you taken one of these tests and been surprised by the results? I would love to hear about it!
I love that the New Year starts off with a bang with the always entertaining Golden Globe Awards. This year, I have actually seen a lot of the movies/shows nominated which makes it all the more fun. The red carpet was spirited…here are some favorites….
One of my favorite moments was when they announced Brad Pitt as the winner of Best Actor in a supporting role in a motion picture for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. His speech was great and he profusely thanked Leonardo DiCaprio (LDC), his partner in crime -the two of them are amazing together.
Another highlight was Tom Hanks receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award. His highlight reel is literally filled with so many of the very best movies. He is definitely a favorite.
There are a bunch of shows left before the Academy Awards..after tonight, look for Once Upon a Time in America, 1917 and Rocket Man to be heavy favorites. I loved Marriage Story-it was really good. I need to see more of these in the next two weeks!
That’s a wrap on the Golden Globes..back to the real world on Monday. I am not really ready to face it..are you????
Since I am on Instagram almost 2 hours a day, or so my iPhone tells me, I am constantly finding new brands and seeing all that is out there for my purse obsessed self. The Corroon bags popped up and it was instant love. I love the look of them and the price is not too outrageous. I missed out on getting a Goyard and now this seems like a better investment for me. All of the bags are amazingly constructed and are reinforced on the bottom, which is great for me since my bags usually weigh as much as a baby.
There are ones with stripes and monograms, which are so great. You can even add some leopard, which is so cool.
The ones I am drawn to are the custom ones with extra things painted on them. The stars are awesome, I obviously love the hearts but look at the Swedish Fish one! That would have been so appropriate for me years ago before I found out about gelatin and how disgusting it is-thanks so much to Billy Buppert for ruining my favorite candy for me.
But the one that I am leaning towards is the camo one!
This is the one I am dying for..the camo with the hearts but I would have my initials in pink and might make the hearts not so pastel. SO FUN! Prices are in the $300-$500 range. Check out Corroon here.
Happy Shoppping!
XOXO, KP
It seems these days that everyone is hooked on one podcast or another. I really can only attach myself to a small number of them. My number one is the Goop Podcast. To be completely honest, I really only listen to the ones Gwyneth leads, which is 20% of them. Her Chief Content Officer moderates the others and I fast forward to the last few minutes where Gwyneth does an “ask me anything” part and reads a question someone has written in and then thoughtfully answers it. I realize this is sort of cheating, but I am trying to be real here. The questions are all over the board so if you like GP, they are fascinating….
My number two is Juicy Scoop. This hilarious podcast is all about comedian Heather McDonald (of Chelsea Lately fame) and her thoughts on pop culture, all things Bravo and other gossipy tidbits. She has lots of interviews and a regular cast of characters that join here, mainly her co-stars from her Chelsea days. She has a small habit of mispronouncing names and you just have to get past that and enjoy her enthusiasm for getting out the scoop. She also does amazing impressions-mainly of the Housewives and Jennifer Anniston. She is hilarious. A few months ago, my friends and I went to a stand-up show in Delray Beach and got to meet her. It was amazing.
She was super nice and chatted with our whole group. We were dying that she kept using the picture below to advertise her shows..that’s us in the bottom right corner-I am the only brunette with all my blonde friends.
The best part of listening to Heather is that she has back-end Hollywood knowledge after working for so many years, she offers a lot of insight to the gossip of the day. This is all on Juicy Scoop, which is free. If you want more in-depth info from Heather, she is also on Patreon, which is a fee-based subscription service and those posts come out on Fridays. She keeps the really juicy stuff for the paying customers. (I pay $5/month so I am in the “single scoop” level)
The other podcast I listen to is NPR’s How I Built This. This one is so interesting and it was recommended by a bunch of people. The first one I listened to was the Kate Spade one which they played after her untimely death. This has become a favorite.
I am open to other podcasts..let me know what I am missing!
XOXO, KP
Summer in Newport 