And that's what I've been doing...

It's been such a whirlwind these past few weeks. My children finished school, we headed to the beach house and opened the long closed windows and let the sea air in.

Just as we started to relax, we headed to Lake Santeelah for a week for a family visit. Dave's sister and her husband own a spectacular waterfront home there. We had coffee every morning overlooking this outstanding view. Add in the boating, waterfront dock and jet ski - well we almost didn't' leave!!

As usual Dave and I scoured the real estate listings. We fell upon this wonderful retreat, just down the road from my sister in law's. Oh how I wish we could live near them!

Look at the beautiful kitchen - I love all the wood and the rustic lake feeling this kitchen has.

And what a porch -I love the fireplace and willow chairs! You can't really see the view from here but believe me - it is amazing. To see more of this wonderful property click here.

Then back to Boston to water the trees (can't wait to post my new landscaping!), then to my 25 year college reunion (Yeah WSC!), finally back to the beach! In all the craziness I have had so much fun, but not much time to blog!

In the midst of all the traveling I had a welcome visit from Kristin Mullen of Covetable Designs. You may remember last year when I introduced you to Kristin. I did a post on her and her blog - click here. She emailed me as WD reader, and I learned that she is a wonderful person and an incredibly talented interior designer. It was the beginning of our year long email friendship! Kristin's son was headed to summer Lacrosse Camp in Massachusetts so we hatched a plan to get together on her visit!

It was a crazy day for her, and we had only a few minutes to meet before she needed to catch her train to NY, but we squeezed in a quick coffee. You can read all about it on Kristin's blog here. In case you missed my post last year, I wanted to show you some additional photos of Kristin's kitchen - isn't it fabulous! Kristin designed it and William Ohs created the beautiful cabinetry.

Her kitchen is going to be featured in Beautiful Kitchens Magazine. No surprise to me!! And the rest of her house is amazing as well, so make sure you stop by Covetable Designs and see her absolutely gorgeous house here.

We finally got settled back at the beach and spent yesterday afternoon at the Rockport Garden Club's Coastal Garden Tour. What spectacular gardens! I was so inspired. To see more photos click here.

We also got a lobster license this year, so we spent the afternoon pulling up our traps!

It's so exciting to see what's in them. Here is our first catch - a small crab which we threw back! (but it felt like we won the lottery!)

In the end we caught three lobsters! We had so much fun! Camp starts tomorrow so I will be able to get back into the swing of things. Check back Tuesday for one of my favorite secret shopping stops - its on the way to Brimfield, so perhaps you can stop there on your way. Enjoy the weekend!!

(photos: Covetable Designs, Mountain View Realty, Life at the Loom, Willow Decor)