Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/692580
home chic home from immaculate flowers to michelin star-worthy meals, weston homemaker Diane O'COnnOr showcases the hand- and homemade in a top-tier blog. By Lisa PierPont PhotograPhy by Dianne o'Connor, Kate arnolD, anD aDam Detour From handmade crafts to tablescapes and food, Diane O'Connor curates the Weston good life on her picture- perfect website. The lush yard of Diane O'Connor's Weston home welcomes 3,000 tulips in the spring and 40 espalier apple trees in the summer. Inside, jars of ginger, cashews, apricots, and lentils line the kitchen counter, ready ingredients for a gourmet meal for her five kids and husband—plus 27 chickens, three rabbits, an ill-tempered goat, and Oliver the dog, who enjoy any leftovers. O'Connor documents her domestic doings on her new lifestyle blog and commerce site, WestonTable.com. Covering cooking, garden- ing, and everything else she creates or deems gorgeous (handcrafted puppets from Prague, say, or hand-thrown ceramic bowls, all for sale), the site is the platform of a stay-at-home mom who's reinvented her personal life into a professional one. Think Martha Stewart with an MBA. "We are in a renaissance," says the former Wellington Management Co. consultant. "People are shopping and browsing in a different way. They want to be entertained." The site certainly does, guiding readers along a journey of shopping, travel, live events (O'Connor presents a cheese-making class on August 11), and tips on creating an elevated, but accessible, life. "My style is expressive but comfortable," says the Montana native, who shoots and styles the site herself. "I hope [my platform] will be the first in [experiential] e-commerce. I want my readers to linger and browse; pour a glass of Sancerre, find a cozy quilt, curl up, and surf Weston- Table." westontable.com . 112 bostoncommon-magazine.com Space Digital