Weekly Obsessions

- Stephanie Leave a comment

weeklyobsessions-lfr-blog

END OF SUMMER KAYAKING
Nate and I didn’t do as much kayaking as we would have liked this summer due to travel, busy weekends and general “it’s way too hot for this” vibes. This past weekend was sooooo fall-y, though, that we went kayaking two days in a row! We even got to catch the most perfect sunset up in NH.

CIDER SEASON
With the end of summer comes the beginning of cider season. Being the adventurous humans we are, Nate and I have tried a couple new brands recently. My personal favorite has been Citizen cider, while Nate has been digging Stowe’s product. I also want to give a shout out to Lookout Farm‘s new cider, it’s good and luckily they are located just up the street from us! I’ll definitely be supporting local this season. 😉

CASTRO + CARLY RAE + ARIZONA
My three music picks for this season are pretty different from each other! Castro is a singer-songwriter sibling trio who have honest lyrics and impeccable harmonies. Carly Rae Jepsen, I believe, is the unofficial queen of pop, and ARIZONA has some serious electronic beats that are a perfect addition to your running playlist. Listen to my fall playlist with jams from all these artists here!

Have a great week!!

5 Years Later

- Stephanie Leave a comment

I can’t believe it’s been FIVE YEARS since college graduation! That blows my mind. After almost a year (seriously, it took THAT long) of coordinating schedules, booking flights and planning carpools, 13 of us college friends all came back together in the place where it all started: Syracuse! We had a great weekend catching up, playing games, walking around campus and of course, eating too much good food at all the classic spots (aka: Funkin’ Waffles, Dinosaur BBQ and Tully’s 🙂 ) The weather was questionable for most of the weekend (lots of rain!), but we did have a minute to swim and play Kan Jam at Green Lakes. We also hit up Marshall Street for Cafe Kubal and to replenish our Orange attire collections, like good Cuse alums should.

3JTVl322114746l

There were a lot of favorite parts of this weekend for me, but 2 things particularly stand out. Worshiping and praying together on Sunday morning in Hendrick’s chapel was one. Of course, praying for each other from afar is always possible, but being all together in the same space and feeling God’s presence is something we haven’t been able to do for 5 years (and it’s something we DID do for four consecutive years). So that was great and really encouraging for me. The second thing that I will always remember is meeting and spending time with baby Judah, Amanda and Rob’s sweet little smoosh. So cuuuute!

gV5FB322120420l

5YfsC322121235l

Being together was so fun and I tried to soak it up, but the whole weekend also had a hint of bittersweetness for me, because I knew we’d have to leave eventually. We’re spread out all over the country, and judging by the fact it took well over a year to plan this reunion, I imagine it will take another 5 years for us to all be in the same spot again! We do have a decent sized New England crew, but Texas, Ohio, Seattle and Philly are all so far away 🙁 I think we need some weddings soon, k guys? 😉 😉

4f5w5322116687l

Married for Life

- Stephanie Leave a comment

StephNate386

Last year I did an in-depth blog post of cute/important things Nate and I learned during our third year of marriage. This year I barely posted about our anniversary on social media at all. Not because I wasn’t excited to be married for another year, but because this year was hard. I was hesitant to be super lovey-gushy-dovey about it, like anniversary posts usually are, because I wanted to be really real about it.

I wanted to post something like “every year gets better and better!”, but I had to get real. Year four wasn’t all roses and love notes. It honestly was a big kick in the “welcome to the non-honeymoon stage of marriage” butt. Maybe we had it really easy the first three years, or maybe this is what marriage is really like. Even though it was tough, year four was also an incredible adventure to Italy together. We joined a church planting team together, and celebrated birthdays and promotions together. And together is the only way I ever want to do it. So here’s to year five – and the rest of life together – and all the crazy adventures it will bring!

4WtXR322111542l

P.S. We spent our anniversary driving 5 hours up to Syracuse for a college friend reunion (more on that soon). I was cool with that plan, because we don’t do anything over the top for our anniversary anyways. But! When we got to our hotel room, there were pretty flowers waiting for (I thought) us, but really for me! N had ordered them and had them delivered to our room to surprise me. Sweetest ever. <3

3 Tips for your First Market

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hey makers!! This blog post is specifically for you! If you’ve been here for a bit, you know I was a vendor at my local farmer’s market three times this summer. I had a blast sharing my lettering work, and each time I learned something new and helpful. I wanted to share these tips with you in case you are about to embark on your first market appearance soon!

MARKET TIPS letters from rita

PAY ATTENTION & SAY HELLO
This seems like a no brainer, but I saw so many other vendors on their phones or reading a book while potential paying customers walked right by their table! I definitely noticed a difference in interest between when I said hello versus just smiling at the person walking by. I think that when you reach out and say hello it engages the person right away and makes them slow down a bit. It’s not guaranteed they’ll buy something, but at least they are taking a closer look.

KEEP YOUR PRICES EVEN
Most market-goers bring cash, because they assume vendors only take cash. This means you’re dealing with change! Keep your prices even, so you aren’t rifling through pennies and dimes, which takes a long time and can be frustrating if you can’t find or don’t have what you need.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, BUT SET BOUNDARIES
On the day of my first market, there were no less than 12 people there to support me, which was amazing and fun! BUT! I had to make it clear that I was there to reach out to new customers, not to talk to my friends for hours. If you have a squad taking up all the space in front of your table, it will be intimidating for others to make their way to your products, so set those boundaries. You can all talk when you go out for ice cream after!

BONUS TIP:
Have a sign up sheet for your email list on your table and tell anyone who is remotely interested in your product to add their name! Give them a good incentive: sale codes or freebies do the trick 🙂

Hopefully these pointers got you thinking about your market in the not-usual-market-tips kind of way! Good luck!

tips for your first market - letters from rita blog

WEEKLY OBSESSIONS

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Natick Lifestyle Photography - Natick Portrait Photographer Stephanie Rita Photo_0222

It’s been just over a year since I started blogging for fun again (affectionately known as fun-blogging 😉 ) and I wanted to celebrate with a Weekly Obsessions post! Here are some of my recent favorite things!

Sparkler Inspiration Shoot – I always have 2-5 photo shoot ideas wandering around in my head and sometimes I actually get to make them come true! This one was based on summer, sparklers and pure best friend fun. Go to my photo blog to see!

STOK cold brew – I discovered this cold brew recently and I can’t get enough! Buy a jug of it at the grocery store (for the price of one Starbucks iced coffee!) and you’ll be in cold brew heaven for at least a week! Bonus, pour some into your ice tray and have coffee ice cubes, too 🙂

salt box kitchen concord ma

Saltbox Kitchen – There are way too many awesome, delicious restaurants in my surrounding area that I haven’t tried yet! Luckily, yesterday I stopped by Saltbox Kitchen for lunch and it was the best place to eat I’ve been to in a while. The best part is they use all their own, locally-grown veggies! Maybe I should set a goal of eating at one new restaurant per week. Metrowest Boston peeps, where else should I go?

The end of July – July has been SO hot and a lot busier than normal, and I’m a little relieved that it’s ending soon. Just being honest. August is bringing a couple weekend trips with friends and hopefully not-constantly-in-the-90s weather, so I’m looking forward to that!