This Is Framingham

Ethan and I were taking a walk one night and noticed a sign in a window for Celtic dress designs.  I was really curious and wanted to learn more about this business and why they picked downtown to open their shop so I emailed the owner and she was nice enough to invite me into the shop and show me around.
Julia Ebel, the director, designer and owner, started the business almost 2 years ago and has been at this street-viewable location on Union Ave. since this past summer.  She’s from Natick but chose this location for it’s affordability and space.  As she showed me around and talked about the work involved in these dresses, I was amazed at the attention to detail that goes into these dresses and the quality of fabric she chooses.
With the help of her mom and some Framingham State College interns, she makes beautiful Celtic dance competition dresses as well as any kind of non-Celtic  special orders and can reproduce dresses from drawings/photos and even wedding dresses.
Here are some of the dresses both finished and in-progress:

Some children’s dresses:

One of my favorites was a colonial dress, perfect for a costume party:

Another thing I like about Julia’s shop is that she loves working with her clients on the design.  She said sometimes people will come in with a family crest and ask her how to work it into a dress design, while others will leave it up to her to design and she sends them her designs to choose from.  For anyone interested, she always welcomes people to come to the shop, take a look around and see the workspace in back.  I highly recommend checking the shop out if you can, Julia is very informative and great to talk to.  I went there thinking I’d visit for 15 minutes and we ended up talking for almost three hours.

Celtic Dragon Dress Design is  located at 118 Union Ave, 2nd Floor, right across from the Danforth Museum. (phone: (508) 820 7745)    
For more information you can check our their website: http://celticdragondressdesigns.com

I’ve always wanted to go the East Side Room, which is the student-staffed restaurant inside Keefe Tech Vocational School but it never worked out. Finally I got to go and went with my friend and co-worker (Yes, I got a job!) Vanessa who was just as curious to try it as I was. how long ivermectin take to work
The menu is understandably limited but I think there’s something for everyone. ivermectin sheep drench for goats?
Our entrees stared off with a generously sized garden salad:

We both got the same thing, tortellini with marinara sauce. I asked the server if they made the tortellini there and he said yes but it looked a little machine made, although I’m guessing maybe they must have a tortellini machine in the kitchen, I don’t know I’ve never made it but we both enjoyed it so it didn’t really matter.
We splurged and split a dessert, chocolate bread pudding, which was really good:

When we were leaving we noticed the bakery case outside the restaurant and got our boss a chocolate sour cream loaf for $3.75.

The prices for all the baked goods were very reasonable at $0.30 for a cookie, $0.55 for a brownie and most cakes were under $4.
I believe they are only open for lunch Tue-Fri and take reservations for 11:30am-12:30pm but take walk-ins (as we were) from 12-12:30.
I forget exactly how much the lunch was but it was in the – range which is pretty good since it comes with the salad and a vegetable (I forgot to take a picture of). ivermectin for cattle and swine on dogs They don’t have any information (that I can find) on their website but the phone number to the main office, who can direct you to the culinary dept. for any questions, is (508) 416-2100.

Yay, it’s finally my favorite month, October!   I’m excited that the Framingham History Center is running their Haunted Halloween Trolley Tour.  Below are some details from their website:

“Take a 45 minute trolley ride through Framingham’s mysterious past.  Costumed actors tell true stories “dug up” and verified by author James L. Parr during a tour that features haunting scenes at actual locations of the town’s most bizarre and scary tales.  Sword fighting pirates, ghosts, highwaymen and eerie tableaus will unfold as riders wend their way through the highways and byways of town. After the tour visitors will be treated to refreshments and a variety of activities at the “haunted” Edgell Memorial Library on Framingham’s Centre Common.  Esmeralda will tell fortunes, while paranormal investigators will share the “results” of their stake out at the library last winter.”

I was going by the old Bickford’s last week and noticed the “For Lease” sign was gone and some guys out in the parking lot with some sort of equipment, I forget if it was a table saw, but something like that.
I looked up the address to see if there were any work permits out for this location on the town website. Looks like this will be a Mexican restaurant called La Caretta.  Not sure if it will be related to the small La Caretta chain in New Hampshire but it’s something different and maybe a good (late) replacement for anyone missing Chi-Chi’s that used to be across the street. I’m glad to see it will be another restaurant anyway.

Back in July I posted about a sign for new produce store in the Trolley Square plaza.  Last week I was walking by and saw a crew working on the interior and a flyer in the window that lends a little more information about what the store will carry:

My friend Yanna and I are really looking forward to checking this place out.  Looks like they still have another few weeks of work left to do inside but it’s definitely coming along ! ?????? ???

We stopped by the recently remodeled Dunkin’ Donuts on Concord St.
The door pulls on the outside are the letter D, kind of cute.

The inside the color theme is kind of earth-tonish, which I like.


The set up isn’t as different as I thought it would be, it’s still basically the same but they did a nice job and I’m glad it’s an improvement to the area to have a nice newly remodeled shop here.

I love Fanny’s salad dressing and was surprised to find that La Cantina now offers a Balsamic Vinigrette version. I bought some and sent it to my sister in Oregon who is a devoted Fanny’s original fan and got a bottle for Ethan and I to try.
It’s great stuff. Since we bought it I haven’t used original at all, not that I won’t use it anymore but it’s very good. I highly recommend anyone who is looking for a new salad dressing to give it a try. I’m guessing they offer it at La Cantina but I found it at Stop & Shop.