You may have seen some of our fun on Instagram last weekend. We were both in New York City with our husbands to see Prince Igor at the New York Metropolitan Opera. I’d like to say that we are opera aficionados and we were well aware that this was the first time Prince Igor had been performed at the NY Met in 100 years, but to be honest, this was a first, for all of us! To attend an opera was on both of our bucket lists and seeing as my cousin, Maria Dolan is an opera singer and was performing in Prince Igor…and…seeing as the dates of the performance lined up with my birthday, well, we just couldn’t let this opportunity pass us by.

Maria Dolan

Our husbands agreed, but we must confess, we didn’t tell them until the week we were leaving that the opera was 4 hours long. Not that that would’ve been a deal breaker, because they love us AND we had already bought the tickets. Friends of ours joined us for dinner before hand at The Lincoln where we had an exceptional  meal, great conversation and superb service…and some of the best salmon roe I’ve ever tasted!

Our hostess at the restaurant knew we needed to be done in time to get to our seats at the opera house. “The opera waits for no one!” she said. Most of us finished dinner with a coffee (to help with the long night ahead) and left with plenty of time to spare. The New York Metropolitan is everything you think an opera house should be; ornate, grandiose, extravagant and beautiful. Chris Ann immediately recognized the painting on the wall as a piece by artist Marc Chagall.

We found our box seats and settled in. Devon and I had read the synopsis of Prince Igor on our ride up to New York. If you’re as curious as we were, you can read it HERE. My cousin told us afterwards, that we had chosen quite a first opera to cut our teeth on. She was impressed. She went on to say that most operas are 2 1/2 to 3 hours long. We did have bets as to which husband would be asleep first. (I’m not going to rat out who won.) The chandeliers raised and the lights dimmed.

The orchestra started playing, the music swelled, the curtain rose and for the next four hours, we were mesmerized by powerful, melodic, bold and sensual voices. The sets were awe inspiring and the people watching during our intermissions was fascinating. But the best part of the evening, was being with the people I love while watching someone I love, pursue her passion for all to see.

Our LIFE category is where we share a bit more of the behind the scenes of the LoveFeast lifestyle.  You will see a bit into our personal lives here as well as the beauty and inspiration we find along our journey.

This year we started the year going to NYC Gift Fair.  It was there we found these beautiful hand embellished dishes which have become a popular item in LoveFeast Shop.

 NY International Gift Fair

This past summer we packed in all the good things that make summer special.

LoveFeast Instagram Summer Memories

We love to see new things, and taste new foods and of course we love to travel.

 London Weekend ~ Places To See & Be

This is the third part of our Friendship Story. We have been friends for 18 years…there is so much to tell! Just to give you a glimpse, we lived in the same neighborhood while raising out first 7 (Kristin 4, Chris Ann 3) children. We sold both of our homes within a month of each other with Chris Ann’s family moving back to Minnesota and Kristin’sfamily traveling the world. We wanted a way to see each other, so 4 years ago, we started a business together.  

Our Friendship Story ~ Beads

You can read Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.  

Where We Gather

There’s other places to find what inspires us!  Here’s where we share behind the scenes ~ our life, our shop and the beauty & inspiration we find all around us on our journey!

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We’d love to know what were your favorite times of 2013 ~ leave a comment and let us know!

Are you on Instagram? It’s a fun downloadable app for capturing and sharing photos.  Kristin and I have found it to be a creative and fun outlet for capturing and sharing beauty, memories and inspiration!  On Instagram you can see a bit of our personal moments as well as some shop “behind the scenes” happenings in our LoveFeast Shop.

Follow LoveFeast on Instagram HERE

Where we share behind the scenes ~ our life, our shop and the beauty & inspiration we find all around us on our journey!

Our summer looked a little like this ~

It was a great summer!  How about you?  What were your favorite summer memories? 

It’s hard to fit it all into just one weekend! We saw Wicked, drank tea, had lunch in a pub with friends, visited the Tate Modern, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, visited Bourough Market and had a memorable dinner at The Ivy.  Mind the Gap!

Do you have some favorite places to be and see in London?  We’d love to hear.

A few weekends ago we went to New York City for the weekend to celebrate with our New York City friends over a beautiful private dinner with a menu created by The Sea Grill just for our party.

Our table looked out to the skating rink at Rockefeller Center.

While in the city, I walked around the streets feeling the energy and the awe that the city brings me. (Grand Central Station turns 100 this year!)

I’ve been hearing good things about it for quite a while and Eataly lived up to its name!

Our lunch on the glass inclosed roof top was as very close to eating at  a favorite lunch on a Italian hillside in Tuscany.

No weekend in New York City is complete without a Bowl Of Bliss from Belthazar.

Walking around Soho and Nolito and finding unique boutiques is and adventure I love.  At The Little Cupcake Bakeshop I had German Chocolate Cupcake.  I grew up with this flavor.

I found another new lunch favorite, inside food truck dining at Tacombi.  The fish tacos I had were excellent.

A little shop called the Condor did not disappoint.  This is where I met Merlin the boutique’s pet bunny who freely hopped around the shop. He had just had a haircut.

Here’s some of our other ideas for great things to see and places to be on a New York City Weekend:

New York is the New Black – Drinks: Pegu Club Stay:  The Waldorf

Fancy Friday – New York City – Eat:  Tortilla Flats  Shop:  ABC Carpet & Home and Fishs Eddy  See:  Union Square Farmers Market, Times Square

Oh My Momofuku! – Eat: Momofuku Ssam Bar

Warmed At Hearth – Eat:  Hearth

Bowl Of Bliss At Bethazar – Eat:  Balthazar

Remember The London – Eat: Maze by Gordon Ramsay  Stay:  The London

A Day In Brooklyn – Drink:  Dutch Kills  Eat:  Buttermilk Channel  Eat:  Baked   Eat:  Vinegar Hill House

This past weekend, we were both in New York City for the NY International Gift Fair. This was our first time to the NYIGF. Last year, we went to the Atlanta Gift Show. These shows are trade shows for retailers who are in design, decor and gifts. It is basically floor, upon floor, building upon building, of products for your home. The first showroom we visited was the Global Designs showroom. Now, some vendors are protective of their products and ask that no pictures be taken, but many were more than willing to let us snap a few shots to give you a glimpse of all the goodies! There were hand-felted runners from Uzbekistan and linen blankets and towels made with natural dies from India.

There were gorgeous pillows, GALORE! Some of which you will find in LoveFeast Shop soon!

There were even displays that made us *swoon*!

The true treasures for us this trip were the unique items that we can’t wait to bring to LoveFeast Shop so you can enjoy them in your home as well!

There is so much more we’d love to show you…truth be told, so many new things we will be sharing, in March!

Behind the scenes we’ve been busy working on a LoveFeast Shop redesign. Along with a whole new, beautiful, much more navigable  site, we will be loading it with new product. There will be new accessories for the home, dishes and table top pieces, linens, gifts galore and fun pieces that just make us happy.

This weekend was so needed! Not only did we find great new pieces, but we reconnected with vendors we met last year, had some amazing meals and had countless girlfriend time with late night laughs and serious work and planning sessions.

If you want to follow our day to day adventures, join us on Instagram or on Facebook. We’d love to have you join us!

One of our favorite places in Maryland is Assateague Island Beach.  Assateague Island is a nationally protected 37 mile barrier island in Maryland.  Besides having a beautiful beach with lots of seashells, the island is home to a herd of wild ponies.

It was the perfect place to spend our last day together after our LoveFeast Family Beach Week in Ocean City.

The beach is perfect for a serene walk collecting shells.

The waves and beach are great for boogie boarding.

The occasional wild pony is part of the surroundings.

Slowing down to look at shells,

and enjoying a walk with a friend.

Taking time to be,

collecting a gathering of shells,

and watching wild ponies

do their wild pony things.

We captured pictures

and moments.

It was a lovely day for a “herd” of kids and two mamas.

Do you have a favorite beach somewhere? 

The LoveFeast Family Beach Week was just perfect!  Our Brek Family of 6 road tripped it from the Minny-Apple to B’more to celebrate the Pots’ oldest sons’ graduation from high school.  Even though we have been Family Friends for 18 years, it was great to see our whole families instantaneously re-connect after 2 years!  We arrived just in time to help with the last minute prep for a Vintage Americana Graduation Party, before enjoying a week of rest at Ocean City, Maryland.

After the party we headed to the beach.  Even though it was a bit chilly on the first day it was still a perfect day to enjoy the smallest of our crew resting like an angel…

We enjoyed the quiet and the waves together while are oldest boys strolled and made sand castles like they have been doing for 18 years.  Our middle kids enjoyed the adventure of the board walk.

Our “Beach Butlers” (aka our husbands) surprised us with fresh deliver hot coffee with a touch of Baileys and salted caramels from Candy Kitchen ~ ahhh the life!  (Also the secret to long happy marriages!)

You could say we were living The Bella Vita!  Sure, we like something fancy every now and then, but it is the simple things of life like savoring enjoying the moment, that make life beautiful!  Even our girls are getting our message and have absorbed the LoveFeast brand ~ bringing home matching henna tattoos from the board walk!

What is The Bella Vita?  The beautiful life! 

Being together ~ and sharing that common table of life we enjoy. 

We’ve changed our kids’ diapers, swung kids at the park, brought each other groceries, cooked each other meals, shared coffee and lunch, worried over teens and fevers, cleaned up spills, thrown parties – big and small, started businesses and traveled.  To us enjoying our families, each other, and dreaming up the next adventure is all a part of what we think is ~  the beautiful life!

To catch up on the latest ~ here has been what has been happening around our LoveFeast Table while we’ve been beaching it!

We’ve have 2 winners of our latest Giveaway ~ our new feature product Wine Bottle Candles!  They’ve been selling in our LoveFeast Shop ~ online boutique, along with Mother’s Tree Of Life Necklaces for mothers and grandmothers, art, the 365 Gathered Thoughts Box and ALREADY our famously beautiful Velvet Pumpkins as people are preparing ahead for parties and decorating the fall season!!

We are getting ready to add ADVERTISERS to our blog in a more assertive way ~ so if you think you would like to be a part of our INSANELY BUSY FALL PUMPKIN SEASON ~ let us know and we’ll send you our Media Packet!

What else?  We are doing the regular Mom summer stuff:  swimming lessons, baseball, soccer, and keeping up with the laundry.

We keep up on the phone daily as we are prepping our LoveFeast Shop for the fall shopping season, planning our editorial calendar and another BlogLove Event this fall!

New here?  Check out our latest beach photos and more on Instagram, See our inspiration on Pinterest, Join us at the table on our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter!  We love having new friend join us at the table celebrating a LoveFeast Life with beautiful things to Love, delicious Feasts, and more!

Link up with us on our last Fancy Friday ~  Favorite Meal Memory! Link up to win something cool from our Shop!

What are you up to this summer?

About 4 years ago Kristin and I and our husbands, Todd and Devon, embarked on a week of Italian adventure.  It was the first time we had traveled together.  We were comfortable with eachother abroad as much as in our own backyards.   We drank the best wine, shared a wonderful table in Tuscany, found the best apartment right behind the Trevi Fountain that was spotless, and snacked from fresh local markets.  We discovered Todd and I are fast walkers.  One day as we meandered in a neighborhood somewhere near the Spanish Steps we happened upon an old vintage print shop.

Source: dressdesigndecor.blogspot.com via LoveFeast on Pinterest

We went inside, explored the racks, and chatted with the man who owned it.  We wandered around, flipping prints, looking for nothing in particular.  We did find wonderful antique and vintage prints that pricked our aesthetic.  Our husbands leaned in to see what we were looking at.  I remember we pulled out a few prints to consider.  This we declared would be the type of thing that we would but to put in our shop if we ever had one.   We wondered if we should buy them now, or wait for the journey to unfold.  We decided to wait.  We didn’t know exactly then what we were scheming if that makes any sense.  We hadn’t had a light bulb moment yet or shared that table at the Golden West.

That was how it was, a little declaration along our journey, a “what we would do, one day” moment, leading one day to what would become ~ I’m glad we kept walking that road, even the times, when the climb is as steep as the Spanish Steps.

We also found inspiration in gelato!

Have you ever meandered into a shop that inspired you, a trip that made you remember what you wanted to do, or a day that made you dream…what if?  Where have you wandered that actually was a little step towards your dream?

  See this pillow and more in our LoveFeast Shop!

Luck can be defined as the chance happening of a fortunate event.  Being at the right place in the right time – can open up more possibilities to help out good fortune.   Luck, if you will, may find you – and might even come straight to your table!

Traveling in Italy can set you up for this right kind of luck.  In this case, luck found us at our Italian table.  We had set out to visit the Italian countryside of Tuscany, driving from Florance to Rome.  We were ready for adventure and surprises!  We were in Italy, after all, which is lucky enough anyway – our glass was half full!

By chance, or was it luck, we obeyed our rumbling stomachs and set off on a road that took us to a small village in Italy called Panzano.

We found a place to park our rented tiny car on a side street. We were charmed by the view peeking out between the streets and over the hills.

The waiter of the restaurant we found crammed on a street corner, weaved us through the jumbled tables to the back of the restaurant that opened to a patio. We were led to a table in the corner under a canopy of fig trees and to a view overlooking the Tuscan hillside that we will never forget.

We pinched ourselves! How fortunate to have happened upon this road, this restaurant, this table, this view!

We ordered the type of lunch that could be nibble and savored over conversation. A bit of ham, some fruit and cheeses to share. Little plates of happiness.

And, then with our stumbling Italian, we ordered some wine to go along. We bumbled some Italian phrases and pointed to our menus – choosing what we thought to be some good table wine at a modest price. We knew we were going to get a good bottle in Tuscany anyway.

Our waiter seemed pleased with our selection. He took it to the table beside us to decant it. Hmmm, interesting we thought. Was it worthy of decanting?

At that point my husband who had been studying the menu realized we had bought the “better” wine. For a minute we thought we might change our order, but the bottle was uncorked and was pouring out. We settled back into our chairs, reassuring ourselves that the more expensive bottle was worth it. We were lucky after all to be in Italy, so we might as well enjoy our lunch. And, of course now…the “better” wine.

From the first sip we knew something was special about this bottle. It lingered on our tongues as we found more notes as the wine opened. It was Brunello Heaven.

We cheered to ourselves that our unlucky order had turned into the best bit of luck to be had in Tuscany!

When we arrived home we found out that our heavenly Casanova di Niri Brunello di Montalcino 2001 was a famous bottle and the Wine Spectator 2007 wine of the year!

It was our mistake ~ that helped Good Luck find us at our Tuscan table!

And we savored it to it’s last drop!

We hope one of you will have a bit o’ luck and some happy travels, like we did! Check out the giveaway below and see if you can find some luck!

Check out the International Delight Facebook page and enter the International Delight Luck of the Irish Contest, for your chance to win a trip or two to Ireland.  If you do, make sure you check them out on Pinterest too!