It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

What a gorgeous day here in federal Hill, even if the wind tries to send you sailing down the street at times.

We just had a pair of wonderful guests from Holland stay with us. They were a referral from the visitor's center. They were so charming and fun to visit with.

Speaking of the visitor's center, Jane Seebold, the new Executive Director of Federal Hill Main Street, and I walked to the visitor's center at the Inner Harbor to show her how welcoming they are and how willing to help the tourists realize they should climb the hill and explore our neighborhood. She was truly inspired with new ideas and ways to help all of us business owners get more tourists through our doors and discover what many of us already know, that Federal Hill is one of the best hidden gems in the whole city. It is funny to say hidden, considering that we are right in the back yard, so to speak, of the Inner Harbor itself.

While I am on the topic of boutiques and Federal Hill businesses, let me digress a moment to remind everyone that tomorrow night is SPRING FEVER! This is when many of the stores stay open later than normal, from 8 PM to midnight, and offer progressive discounts all night long. With summer weddings going on, birthdays happening summer parties/barbecues requiring hostess gifts and Father's Day coming up, what better time to stock up on all your summer needs while there is a sale-a-bration going on right down the street?

I am almost set for the business book club i am trying to get off the ground. Andrew, the very nice owner of the Book Escape on Light Street, is offering us a discount on the books we will be using for our get-togethers. I believe we will be meeting in the offices of Federal Hill Main Street and we have over a dozen business owners who are going to gather together to discuss, learn, share and help create and build an amazing future for both their own businesses and also for Federal Hill as a whole!

This is such an exciting time here in our little community...we have had so many new places open in just the past year...Whimsy/Reason, The Funky Beehive, Babe, Doggie Style, Juniors Wine Bar, Flipside, Sign-a-rama, and there are quite a few more slated to either get construction started or be opening within the next year. There will soon be no reason to visit anywhere else to dine, shop, or relax.

I have a favor to ask of the locals...a personal goal of mine is to start collecting any ghost or haunting stories from here in the neighborhood. I am not talking about silly things, but serious tales of personal experiences dealing with the unexplained. The folks that have created the walking ghost tours in both Fells Point and in Mount Vernon would love to do so in our neighborhood too. Wouldn't that be a hoot! So if there is anyone willing to help me out on this one, please let me know.

Have a great day and a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend!

Grapes are good, but wine is fantastic...

Over the weekend we stole some time away from the B&B to go to Wine in the Woods, a great wine festival held at Merriweather in Columbia, MD. It was a perfect spring day, a slight breeze wafting through the trees heavy with bright green foliage and plenty of wine to try out.

While enjoying the day, we met the owner of the Basignani winery and are looking forward to developing special packages, including wine tours and tastings with them in the near future. We bought a few bottles of their wonderful Riesling and Vidal and cannot wait to share some glasses of it with our guests.

Today starts the week with lots of projects. Friends and I are looking into have a website for the Federal Hill business community created so that tourists and locals alike can learn more about what events are planned, what sales and promotions boutiques and taverns are offering, and much, much more. I am also starting work on our summer newsletter to keep all of those interested in what is happening here around the B&B as well as the neighborhood and city as a whole.

Late this afternoon I just might have to crack open one of those bottles we bought as a reward to myself if i get these projects well under way. It will be a great day for a bit of wine on our bricked mini courtyard. The sun is bright and the temperature is perfect for vino sipping while i watch the people and cars go by. Always good to have something simple but sweet to look forward to.

Spring brings so many new things...

Spring has certainly sprung here in Federal Hill.

Its warm and rainy, making the trees and plant so green it almost hurts your eyes. Flowers are blooming and neighborhood events are about to get starting.

In Baltimore, the running of the Preakness seems to be the final shout out that Spring has arrived and is here to stay, least until it is overtaken by the heat and humidity of Summer. We are filled to the gills with guests this weekend for the annual race.

We have a lot of other Spring time events going on around here as well.

Friday, May 23rd brings us Spring Fever. This night of fun and shopping has many of the boutiques and shops open until midnight with progressive discounts starting at 8 PM and running until midnight. Many of them offer refreshments as well.

Speaking of shopping, a brand new boutique has opened and miracle of miracles, they sell BOTH MEN'S AND WOMEN'S clothing, as well as home and fashion accessories. The boutique is called Whimsy/Reason and it one of the best looking shops I have ever been in. Their selection of goods is fun and the mother/daughter team that owns it are gracious and wonderfully friendly!

Other new things are coming down the pike as well. We are hoping to have a new website up and running, hopefully by June first. All of the elements that make our current website so easy to use will still be their, plus a lot more content and the overall look and feel will be much more fun and unique, just like us.

Hope you are having a great day. Mine just keeps getting better...our assistant Claudette just took some chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. Guess i had better do my innkeeperly duty and taste a few to ensure they are fit for the guests. :)

Sunshine makes me happy...

The sun has finally returned today and to say I am glad to see it would be an understatement.

Our wedding guests all packed up and went back home yesterday, just in time for our new guests to come through the door. One nice woman is here for a conference and a couple from London are taking a couple of days to explore our great city.

And today, we prepare for the influx of Red Sox fans. We are sold out most of this week which makes both me and my wallet a bit happier as well. But there is so much more to happiness that all of this. I am also happy that it is my partner Jeff's birthday today, but i am digressing.

The more I think about being happy, the more I have come to realize that happiness is a constant state of mind rather than an accumulation of things and events. We can either choose to be happy with where we are and what we have or play a victim of circumstance and look for someone to pin our displeasure onto. True, factors might not be the best for many of us right now, but look at what we do have that so many others do not and that we can make changes to make our life, at least some part of it, that much better.

What have you done lately to make your outlook a little brighter?

When did you last help someone else because you wanted to rather than feeling obligated to do so?

When did you last do something nice for yourself even if it is as small as stopping in the middle of your crazed and chaotic day for a true coffee break, where you leave you workspace, sip a cafe au lait or chai tea and just breathed deeply and alowed yourself to experience true joy?

Try it right now. Take a deep breath as you slowly count to ten, hold it for three seconds, then slowly let the air out counting from ten on down. As you do so, think of a a truly happy moment in your life, maybe getting your first puppy, or your wedding day, whatever it may be...now picture every detail of it, how did the air smell, how did the light reflect on things, so on and so forth...anchor yourself there and just luxuriate in that heady light feeling of bliss.

It is hard to be this thoroughly happy everyday, but think now about one or two things you could do, however slight, that would make you a happier person and write it down on paper as a promise to yourself that you will do it. (Putting things on paper has been scientifically shown to increase your commitment to whatever is written.) It could be a weekend get-a-away or to buy yourself flowers once a week, maybe you would like a different hair style or an extra fifteen minutes to just lay in bed after the alarm goes off.

Now enjoy the rest of your day and smile and follow through with your personal promise. If you cannot keep promises you make to yourself, you cannot be happy when making promises to anyone else.

Strive for happiness.

To me, unselfish happiness is what life is all about.

I wish everyone could love their job as much as I do...

I love the smell of freshly roasted coffee brewing and blueberry multi-grain pancakes. This is what greeted me this morning as I made my way down the stairs to help our assistant innkeeper, Claudette, with breakfast service.

I have a house jam-packed full of people for a wedding later today. It is great and very sentimental to have all of them here, especially since this is the first time the mother of the crew has had all of her children with her on Mother's Day for probably over 15 years.

We passed out gifts to the mother's over breakfast...great little sets from my friend Theresa at SoBotanical on S. Charles Street. They were all wrapped up in bright green tissue and tied off with elegant brown ribbons.

As I type this post, the dining room is filled with laughter and the bride's siblings giving here marital advice to take with her as she starts her new role as wife later this afternoon.

A house full of happiness for a family full of love. What could be better? I am so glad i pursued my dream of having a B&B. It has been filled with trial and overwhelming moments, but has given me so much joy and emotional rewards beyond belief. Living your dreams takes a lot of work, but it is always worth the extra effort.

It has been soooo busy...

Hello everyone.

It has been so busy around here this past week. Actually it hasn't seemed to let up much since we got back from Anaheim, CA, where we attneded the Professional Association of Inkeepers International Conference.

We had a lot of fun meeting fellow innkeepers and learning how to be even better at what we do. We even carved out some time to visit with Mickey and his crew. One of the big highlights was learing that we were accepted as members in Select Registry. This is an organization that represents the top 4oo or so very best bed & breakfasts in all of North America. Not only were we accepted, we are the FIRST and ONLY B&B to be selected in the city of Baltimore! It was my goal when we became the owners of our inn to become a member within three years, and we did it in 9 months! Yay for us!

We had plenty of preparations to do for the Women's Board of the Johns Hopkins Hospital's Great Taste '08. the subtitle was Luxury Living & Hidden Treasures, A Tour of Homes in Baltimor's Inner Harbor, Federal Hill & Otterbein.

We were very happy and proud to be a part of this fun event on Thursday, though having between 250 and 300 women tour our place and nibble on cookies and sip on our strawberry basil lemonade was a bit overwhelming. Many of these fine women took a copy of the Select Registry Guide Book with them as our gift.

This weekend we are thrilled to be hosting the entire inn full of family members of a beautiful couple who are exchaning their wedding vows on Sunday.

Thanks for reading my first post and thanks to all of the women (and a few gentlemen) that attended the home tour!