This blog post is brought to you by Good Mojo Dog Manor. They're not a sponsor or anything — in fact, we're the ones paying them. But they are the first doggie daycare that we’ve found in the area that is up to our (admittedly high) standards for what we want Raffy to have in a daycare. Turns out, Amy and I are the worst kinds of dog parents. The kind that believes our little nugget deserves the absolute best, including a pool and 24hr webcams so we can check in on him whenever we want. Meanwhile, Raffy is perfectly (if not extra) content with a patch of dirt to roll around in.
(In our defense, if we don’t helicopter parent Raffy, he will eat books, shoes, dirt, and any and and all of the crumbs he finds on the ground, including the mystery orange thing that one time off the street in Manchester that sent us to an emergency vet at midnight…)
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So, with Raffy safely ensconced at a daycare that welcomes him with coos of "Hi, Peanut!!", Amy and I headed down to Somerville for a quick day trip. If you aren't familiar with the area, we were right outside of Boston, in an area where towns are the size of neighborhoods — which means some of the places mentioned in this post may say they're located in Boston, and some of them are actually located in Cambridge. It's all basically the same.
We started our day at bōm dough, a Brazilian cafe with an extensive selection of drinks and treats. Have you ever had pão de queijo? If not, we highly recommend it. Amy likes to say that it's basically cheese mochi — a firmer exterior shell, with a soft, chewy interior made with a blend of tapioca flour and cheese. We also split their mochi churro waffle with bananas, whipped cream, and dulce de leche. Cheese mochi and real mochi... what better way to start the day?
With a container of to-go pão de queijos in tow, we headed over to one of our stockists, Tiny Turns Paperie, located at Bow Market.
It's always so great to visit our shops in person, get to see our cards on the shelves, and to get a visual reminder that all of the pulling, sleeving, bundling, and packaging of cards that happens in our messy little studio does, in fact, show up in the "real world."
I think I've said it before, but these trips to our stores really put things into perspective. So often, the day to day work that goes into the business can feel like a slog. Amy and I get into a routine where there’s always something else that needs to be done for the business or around the house, and the actual why of what we’re doing gets lost in it. Being out In the Wild™ is a good way of grounding ourselves in what the purpose of the business actually is. It reminds us that our cards are actually out there, filling shelves and facing customers, and helping people connect with their loved ones.
Plus, it's a fantastic excuse for us to pick up a few too many new stationery goods every time we're "just popping in to say hi."
So, with our cheese mochi, notebooks, pens, and stickers filling up the back seat of. the car, we made a final quick pit stop to pick up some delicious Lunar New Year-inspired macarons before heading back up to New Hampshire to get a late start to our workday.*
*Despite our attempts at pretending that we would enjoy said macarons over the weekend, Amy and I polished off all fourteen that afternoon. If you’re in the area and want to try some of the lightest, most delicate macarons that Amy or I have ever had, then make sure to try out maca (also located in Bow Market, so you may as well also stop at Tiny Turns and pick up a sticker or notebook or three).
As for Raffy? Well, we needed something to watch while we ate all of the macarons, and so we tuned into the Good Mojo webcams to see how he was doing. I can't say for sure, but it definitely looked like he'd been placed in a pull-out group with pups that may have needed... a little extra guidance.
