LIFE’S A PICNIC
June 1, 2022
How To Pull Off The Perfect Picnic Spread This Summer Courtesy Of ACK Picnics.
story by ACK Picnic
Freshly cut flowers, ice cold drinks and decadent food…nothing says Nantucket in the summertime quite like a picnic with your closest friends and family. Here’s a few tips and tricks to create an experience you’ll savor well after sunset.
- Picnics are an opportunity to balance curated design with casual vibes and fun. Every detail, including seating, table, decor, food and drink, should play nice together. We love making them interactive by engaging all your senses and getting guests involved with a few icebreaker games.
- A picture-perfect picnic is a work of art built from the ground up. For seating we recommend layering comfortable throw pillows and blankets with a nice low, sturdy table. When it’s time to set your table, melamine dishware is our go-to. It’s durable, easy to clean and very picnic-friendly. We found this to be a great alternative to fine porcelain or ceramic, and we love having reusable dishes to help with our environmental impact.
- Now time for the fun part: making a statement with your décor. Use your picnic to create an atmosphere or set a mood, or pick a theme and look to your surroundings for inspiration. You can enhance the coastal environment by decorating your table with sunset colors or keep it simple and sophisticated with neutral shades.
- When it comes to color, we say the brighter, the better! Adorn the center of the table with a brilliant table runner paired with fresh flowers and ruby grapefruits cut in half. We love using this citrus trick as it gives the table a bright summertime look and the delicious citrus scent is an added bonus.
- Choosing a neutral color palette will allow you to layer multiple different textures without fear of it being too busy. A eucalyptus garland adds life and freshness to the table. You can create height and drama with tall candleholders. We love neutral tables that are classic and portray a nice laid-back yet refined look.
- Finally, you can never go wrong with a crowd-pleasing seaside-themed table. Make sure to look around the house for little trinkets or knickknacks that just might be the perfect touch to elevate your table. We like to pair tall candleholders and short local hydrangea bouquets to complement this seaside setting.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with different levels, textures and colors to create your Instagram-worthy picnic table. We truly believe a picnic is the perfect way to celebrate with friends and family this summer. What better place than Nantucket to draw inspiration from and get creative among the beautiful island scenery we all know and love.
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Written by Brian Bushard Photography by Kit Noble For the past 10 years, Katherine Jetter has been selling her jewelry at her shop on Centre Street, The Vault. But unlike most jewelry stores, she is not only selling her own jewelry, but the earrings, bracelets and rings of 30 other couture jewelers. This month, she is showcasing those jewelers at a residency at Ten Easy Street, which runs through August 15. “The purpose is to celebrate our community and create a place to bring all of our clients into a social environment where they can get to know each other and experience all the things I love and curate on a deeper level in a social environment,” Jetter said. “I love bringing people together and curating, so I have curated some incredible experiences.” How did you get into the world of jewelry making? I didn’t come from a multi-generational jewelry house where I had the privilege of growing up with a safe full of gems and access to everything. I’m completely self-made, and the only way that I could shine in a very saturated industry was to really teach myself to be an expert on specific subjects, so that I could really come from a place of knowledge. What did that process look like for you? I studied and studied books on the history of jewelry making. I went to every possible trade show I could find. I’ve been going to the Tucson Gem Show since I was 24 years old and I ask 10,000 questions. The thing that really made me learn was that I was never afraid to say what I didn’t know—why is this amethyst a $10 per-carat stone, and why is this amethyst a $200 per-carat stone? I found allies and friends in the industry that would help teach me and educate me. As a young 20-year-old, I found people who loved their craft who were excited to teach a young person what they knew. I would do everything from finding the rock to going to the mines. That is what I think really is different about me. I made it my business to be an expert and to study what I’m selling, so that I’m not just a designer who’s taking pretty objects and putting them together. I’m being very thoughtful about everything from the ground up—where it starts, how it’s made, the engineering of the piece and the execution. When you’re selling a product, if you don’t understand from the ground up the integrity of the piece, it’s a very different sales process than if you’re coming at it from a place of workmanship. Even though I specialize in certain avenues, I also recognize that there’s something for everybody, and if it’s not something that I’m making, I still want to find you. I love doing that; it really is what excites me. I’ve never had an ego around it being my way or the highway. If I don’t make what you’re looking for, I will find the expert that does.
FOGGY SHEET
FOGGY SHEET
FOGGY SHEET
Interview by Paige Martino Photography courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association Long before Greater Light became one of Nantucket’s most beloved historic houses, it was an aging 18th-century cow barn tucked away on what was then Bull Lane. Where others might have seen a weathered farm building, Quaker sisters Hanna and Gertrude Monaghan envisioned something extraordinary, transforming the humble barn into an exuberant home and art studio layered with salvaged architectural treasures, handcrafted furnishings and original paintings. They called it Greater Light . A hundred years later, Beverly Hall keeps HannaMonaghan’s spirit alive, putting on period clothes and performing as Hanna at Greater Light. “My feeling when I walked inside [Greater Light] for the first time was almost visceral,” Hall said. “One day during the process, I just got so immersed I said, ‘That house just needs someone to bring it alive.’ I just said it. I blurted it out. ‘Someone needs to be Hanna.’ The whole group turned around and said, ‘Beverly, why not you?’” Becoming Hanna meant immersing herself in Hanna’s memoir, filling pages with underlined passages, colorful notes and thoughtful observations tucked into the margins. She interviewed people who had known Hanna and spent countless hours researching both the Monaghan sisters and Greater Light itself. Along the way, she began recognizing unexpected parallels between their lives, particularly in their shared devotion to faith and the arts. “The attraction was immediate,” Hall said. “[Hanna] really sparked something within me, so I took it and ran with it.”
Written by Brian Bushard Photography by Kit Noble While they may not be household names in the true Hollywood sense, Nantucket’s summer population includes powerful producers, screenwriters and editors who are behind the scenes on the movies we all recognize. Indeed, Nantucket has an underground entertainment community that is in effect a hidden Hollywood.“I got involved in the Nantucket Film Festival before we bought a house on the island,” said Marc Resteghini, a producer with Amazon MGM Studios who executive produced the series Young Sherlock. “As I started to learn a little bit more about the festival itself, I started to realize there were a lot of people who either lived on the island or vacationed here from the entertainment industry.” Resteghini was named the new chair of the film festival this June. While Nantucket has a reputation for attracting politicians and Wall Street titans, lesser known is the fact that dozens of leaders in the entertainment industry have also found Nantucket as their summer refuge, just not the names you might know. “It’s like Sergeant Pepper Lonely Heart Club Band,” actor John Shea said. “We see each other but the last thing we want to do is talk about the film business. It’s more of a quiet acknowledgement of a fellow traveler thana fellowship.” “The Vineyard is where all the actors and the writers go, the creatives,” documentary film producer Annabelle Dunne added. Dunne summers on Nantucket. “I think a lot of people that work in Hollywood come here to be with their families, relax and enjoy Nantucket, not to network. But it is a small island, and sometimes when you take away the work component and you say we’re just getting together to get together, then things can happen.”