If Interested, EP 03: Not a Cult

But, would join if it was one.

In the craziness of the past few weeks, I’ve fallen a bit behind but I'm catching up! I’m ridiculously excited to talk about my recent weekend in Vermont which was the definition of summer magic.

New York City summers keep getting hotter and any chance to escape is a treat. Our friend John has one of the most incredible properties I’ve ever seen up in Woodstock, Vermont. One of my dearest friends, Carly, and I, along with 14 other people, went up for a weekend of adventures.

We WFH together during the day on Friday (talk about a Zoom background!). I wore this country-esque patchwork dress from Polo Ralph Lauren.

For dinner, we were told to wear white.

I was surprisingly low on white dresses, but found this dress that I had gotten years ago on a trip to San José del Cabo. The brand is Aakaa - I can’t find this dress anymore but here is a similar one from the brand. I paired it with this chain belt from Urban Outfitters. This low-rise western chain belt is a trend I’ve been wanting to try so I purchased it for my sister’s western-themed bachelorette and was excited to see how well it paired with this white dress and suddenly became quite Grecian goddess (happy to play this role for a night).

Pre-dinner, the games began.

How it goes: Everyone pulls one piece of paper, from three different baskets. Like Clue, everyone gets a person, an item, and a place. You have to directly hand your target person the item, you can’t ask them to pass you something from a table, for example. I was proud to get the first “kill” of the weekend and was never killed!

The next night was Western themed.

Carly and I hadn’t known about this so we didn’t plan ahead but I think we did well with what we had in our suitcases! We knew we needed a cowboy hat to pull it together though so after checking a Target and Walmart to look, we ended up hitting the Tractor Supply and bingo!

I started the night wearing this Totem black dress paired with some braids and some unknown ribbon I found in my suitcase and then borrowed Carly’s Reformation sweater once it started to get chilly.

Another impressive dinner ahead from the boys, the girls were tasked with collecting flowers for the dinner table. This was very easy with the gorgeous wildflowers and gardens we had to work with.

While the nights were filled with dinner parties and dancing, our days were spent reading, swimming in the ponds, and using the sauna (hopefully flushing the alcohol from the nights before). I switched between this Urban Outfitters bikini and a black one-piece from Solid and Striped. It’s not available anymore, but I loved the cut of the one-piece, which was most similar to this one. The green shorts were a $10 Target find from the previous day.

These vintage Coach flip-flops I found at a yard sale for $4! I’m reading (and loving) Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. I always have 50+ SPF on me - I used Caudalie mineral SPF on my face and Sun Bum on my body. and I’m currently addicted to Cloud Water seltzers. More than anything else this weekend, you could find me in this incredibly soft Vermont Flannel Company robe.

I left this weekend on Cloud 9 and couldn’t be more thankful to John for hosting and to the entire group for being the best company imaginable.

Lastly, as a thank you host gift I sent this Personalized Heritage Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Flamingo Estate. I love a useable, custom gift!

Thank you for reading <3 I hope you’re enjoying the last weeks of summer.

xx Erin