SoWa fall preview

The weather is getting cooler and so is the South End…! Yeah, I said it. Coming up is first fridays on October 2nd along with this event from D SCALE:

PREVIEW – POLARIS ITALIAN FURNISHINGS & PHOTOGRAPHS OF ITALY BY ERIC ROTH

In the spirit of Italy; by design, D SCALE is hosting a preview reception Friday, October 2nd, for the Polaris line of finely detailed leather and upholstered furnishings. Established over thirty years ago in Forli, Italy, Polaris continues to reaffirm its reputation for skillfully crafted, handmade furnishings. www.polaris3b.it

Complementing this preview will be photographs of Italy by Eric Roth. Through the streets and scenes of Italy, Eric documented the Italian life and urban landscape. The lens of Eric Roth marvelously captured Italy; by design. www.ericrothphoto.com

First Friday Oct. 2, 2009…6:00-8:00 p.m….520 Harrison Avenue, Boston
D SCALE…RSVP info@dscalemodern.com…Free Parking

And we’ve still got 5 more weekends of SoWa Sundays which, by tradition, ends with a huge Halloween Party on the last Sunday in October (October 25th this year). At the SoWa Open Market there will be a pumpkin carving contest, a costume contest, music and goodies for the kids…

it was hot.

Sunday, Illinois-based band Elsinore surprised/graced the SoWa Open Market with their presence and quite possibly rocked our pants off, though I’d have to check on that.

Meanwhile, everyone has been making fun of Chris Masci (SoWa Open Market manager) for taking photos of the clouds. But these altered photos are freaking amazing! and kind of scary.

Russo’s Food & Produce Market

While not all of these delicious looking fruits and veggies are local and in-season right now, the berries and the lettuce are! Russo’s produce is top of the line, and I love that they partner with local farmers whenever they possibly can. Plus, going to the Produce Market each week is like a mini lesson in New England crops and what time of year each food is harvested.

**Eating seasonal and local foods is healthier for you and the environment!

SoWa Sundays Shopping Expedition

May 31st, 2009… Don’t you just love it when the TV man tells you it’s going to be 70° Fahrenheit so you wear jeans, and then it ends up being 85° and extremely sunny all day? Me too.

Here’s where I confess that I’m a vendor at the SoWa Open Market and I’ll basically be in SoWa every Sunday through the end of October. I’m glad we got that out of the way. So this weekend I dragged a few of my friends (and one furry, four-legged lady) down to the South End for some window (or tent?) shopping. Here are the highlights, if you want to see more, go here.

When Daisy wasn’t busy hitting on every other dog at the SoWa Open Market, we were making her pretend to look at the art at Bumble Belly Designs, ha!  Catie tries on a vintage fur jacket (Only $60) despite the fact that it’s unbearably hot and we go over to visit our friend Cadence who makes button rings and paper collage bracelets. Like any normal girl, Catie makes a bee-line for a robot collage (cough, geek, cough cough) by Emily of Dream Girl Art and we all admire the Penguin Watercolors by Greg Stones including one of my favorites: Sock Monkey, Moon Penguin. Above: Golden Girls mousepads at Big Fat Magnet. We found these amazing printed ceramic cups from Unkle Thirsty with unusual images printed on them and Emily bought one ($20) from bleach-blond Elvis with gold aviator sunglasses. Two tents over, Catie and I discussed this ginormous ring from Filomena’s House. The designer, Ashley, tells us that her jewelry has been featured on What Not To Wear- we’re hoping it was on the “What To Wear” part of the show… (it was!) With our pale-New-England-winter skin feeling the beginnings of a sunburn, we ducked into the SoWa Antiques Market in the old brick barn at 540 Harrison. The next three photos can probably be attributed to heat stroke. It actually scares me how well Catie rocks this outfit from Stock Keeper Costumes- tulle skirt only $50! Kristen and I love this gorgeous antique chaise lounge upholstered in gold fabric (for $195) sets of vintage teacups ($5 each) and what we think is a pillow- made of intricately sewn fabric. Emily tries on (without a changing room) and buys a white vintage dress ($10!) and Daisy befriends a dog roughly ten times her size. Starving, we head over to the Rocca patio for some late lunch. We order the Salad Special- the ingredients are straight from Russo’s Food & Produce Market in the lot behind Rocca (fresh produce every Sunday!) and a couple of pizzettas and a proscuitto panini plus a round of Rocca’s famous Ligurian Lemonade. Ahh! Sundays in Boston are fun again.

Memorial Day Weekend

Boo hoo! The Markets won’t be open this weekend because of the holiday. I guess I’ll just have to drown my sorrows in cheeseburgers and margaritas, and from the looks of it, a thunderstorm.

See you next Sunday and if you’re heading down to the Cape on 93 South right now… I’m sorry!