Café Design

Earlier this month we spent a blissful week on Cape Cod and made it to the island of Nantucket for a day visit. It was great to see in person some of the houses I’ve swooned over for years through the blog and social media and I returned inspired to add a touch of Nantucket to our own little cottage garden. One of the most remarkable details on the island, and on Cape Cod in general, was the stunning curb appeal of so many homes. Window boxes are an art form on Nantucket (you’d be pressed to find one you didn’t like) and the prettiest houses were the ones with the most colorful front yards, no matter how big or small. We fell in love with the architecture and quiet charm of Cape Cod and since our return I’ve been trying to break down that distinct Nantucket look and figure out ways in which I can add some of its charm to our own house and garden. Here’s what I have so far, none of it breaking news, but all of it feasible with some effort and expense. 

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Happy weekend! For those of you experiencing extreme summer weather, I hope you’re staying cool and hydrated, wherever you are. Western Mass has been scorching hot this past week so we’ve been hiding from the heat and only going out when it is absolutely necessary. We’re also dog-sitting our neighbors’ Australian Cobberdog, Albus,  and we couldn’t be happier to have this sweet and gentle  pup stay with us again. (The past few days have been filled with puppy kisses and cuddles and Sofia and I are having a hard time letting Albus out of our arms.) 

Dear friends, today I have a very special blog post to share with you, one that I think textile lovers will find particularly interesting – an interview with textile designer and entrepreneur Lisa Fine of the eponymous textile house – Lisa Fine Textiles. As the company is launching its first Performance Collection, Lisa Fine has agreed to sit down for a quick  Q&A to tell us more about the fascinating world of fabric design and her latest prints. A departure from the company’s previous work, the Performance Collection was designed entirely during the pandemic, and features patterns and color schemes inspired by beautiful places slightly closer to home – Florida and the Caribbean. You can see a glimpse of the new designs on the backdrop of Lisa Fine’s stunning book, Near & Far: Interiors I Love, in the images below. Without further ado, let’s welcome Lisa for today’s Q&A: 

Planing a garden in which there’s something blooming from early spring to late fall is one of the most rewarding gardening strategies, and one of the trickiest to implement, especially for beginners like myself. Each year comes with new gardening lessons and some lessons are more painful to absorb than others (I still ache for those hydrangea shrubs we purchased on an impulse soon after our move, shrubs that never flowered in our Zone 5b). One thing I’ve been learning more about lately is choosing locally-grown plants based on bloom time so there’s something pretty in the garden throughout the seasons, and less heartache for the gardener.