That Chelsea Morning

The cool group tour at Chelsea Market was a few weeks ago, but I've been busy. And then I wrote the whole story here and lost it at 11 p.m. one night.

We saw some women-run businesses in that bustling food mecca--and the final stop on the tour was Blackbarn shop/cafe/bar, which I had reported on for ASPIRE DESIGN AND HOME.

Here is the recap. Click on the business name after each bullet to see the sites.

• Amy's Bread. I've long loved the blue exterior of the location on Ninth Avenue--I passed it often on my walk home from Hearst Magazines to the Port Authority. I met my friend Celia at Chelsea Market for lunch and we went to Amy's. I have the cookbook, hard to resist. The place is famous for old-fashioned layer cakes and more. Owner/founder Amy Scherber wasn't in, but the samples of chocolate sourdough bread were--and they were yummy.  
  
• Fat Witch Bakery. Have you been to this one? Supercute brownies cut into neat little squares and wrapped carefully in cellophane, like afternoon-snack gifts. Just add milk. We met owner Patricia Helding, warm as a fresh batch emerging from the oven. Her line has grown to include everything from brownie mixes to adorable totes. Helding grew up in a suburb outside Chicago with "a mother who baked a lot"--and said she likes witches. [The one on the label is endearing.]  If you like baking pies, bake pies, said Helding, but stressed that this isn't just brownie-baking but running a business. Next treat on the line: Something called Orange Crunch, so look for it. We each received a small, chubby Fat Witch brownie that I tried  to save for brownie-lover Punch, but did not. The baker said she admires Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. I mean, I don't drink coffee, but he created a brand, and even though the logo has changed over the years, the brand is intact and thriving.  
  
• Zach & Zoe Sweet Bee Farm. What a small, small world. Beautiful Summer, who runs this business in NJ with her husband [they named it after their two children], said more than once to me, I know you. I know you from somewhere. Then she figured it out. It turns out the family lived in the corner house on our block several years back--but moved farther out into "the country" after a couple of years. They have 5.7 acres now. My friends Claire and Pat and their four kids live in that corner house and now I know it well! Check the zingy flavors, including beetroot and matcha. Time for a stylish new honey wardrobe for your pantry. Summer even said they kept a big Tupperware full of honey on their son Zach's nightstand and gave him 2 big tablespoonfuls every night for a while and it cleared up his allergy/breathing issue.

• BLACKBARN. This is a must-see, with a mixologist who stirs up cocktails like "Sweater Weather" [for winter] and "Garden Party," which we had, plus beautiful wines like Fleur de Mer petal-pink rosé from the lavender hills of Provence. We were surprised with a full lunch here. If you like the plates you eat on, you can also buy them, said Kristen Zeff, who co-owns the spot with her husband, Mark. I was drawn to pink plates.....and a handcrafted espresso dark chocolate bar, which I plan to go back for.....the farm-to-table food was so good. Portobello mushrooms with polenta cakes and Chicken Milanese Sliders...oh my yum. The store offers merchandise from Africa, a personal care line made in NY--and a bespoke floral counter with breathtaking blooms. Enjoy.

Money, Found & Lost

I remembered a $200 check I had misplaced. Money found & lost, but not wasted. See yellow highlight below. Thanks, John Keats, via PoetryFoundation.org.

from Endymion

BY JOHN KEATS

A Poetic Romance

(excerpt)

BOOK I 

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: 

Its loveliness increases; it will never 

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. 

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing 

A flowery band to bind us to the earth, 

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth 

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, 

Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways 

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, 

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 

From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, 

Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon 

For simple sheep; and such are daffodils 

With the green world they live in; and clear rills 

That for themselves a cooling covert make 

'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake, 

Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms: 

And such too is the grandeur of the dooms 

We have imagined for the mighty dead; 

All lovely tales that we have heard or read: 

An endless fountain of immortal drink, 

Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink. 

$ MONEY SPENT OUT OF POCKET

• Uber for Sug + me to groomer, since Dan had our car at Science Day at Punchy's school. Thanks, driver Pedro, with $1.50 tip, $9.20. Poor Sug was shaking like a leaf. She knows very well when she is headed to the vet or the groomer, in an Uber or not. She's nobody's fool.
• Uber for me to get from groomer to Joyist to work [and step outside to sit at tables there to do phone interviews]. Thanks, driver Yasmin, with $1.50 tip, $9.27.
• Joyist, latte, free, with my unlimited weekly coffee card. Delicious breakfast bowl w mashed root vegs, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, crispy kale and 2 eggs. Costs $11 but free, with my 10th punch on rewards card. Chia pudding w raspberries, $6.
• I now ordered the Mini Warren Lamp from Aerin.com to go with my beautiful Liberty of London lamp shade, which does not, in fact, fit with my little $3 Cape Cod thrift-shop lamp, as I hoped it would. I put the shade on a small lopsided white Laura Ashley lamp I bought in the 1990s! It will look so much better on its true partner, on sale 50 percent off [so $125] and comes with a pretty cream linen shade. Then I will surprise Figgy by putting lopsided lamp w perfect new cream shade up in her room. I think she will like it. Lamps are alluring accessories and casting light is a beautiful thing. Free shipping, but $8.28 tax. $133.28. I have the best news! I checked my email around 5 p.m. and found one re. Aerin warehouse sale! My order went through at 11:49 a.m. and at 2:39 p.m., the little lamp was marked down to $79. I called customer service and will be charged the lower price. So glad I caught that email ON SAME DAY. Adjusted price: $84.23.
• Williams-Sonoma, lovely Floral Meadow Easter bunny mug to give Sis [she is coming for Easter dinner; all Easter items were 20 percent off] and jar of organic veg stock marked down from $19.99 to $4.99. $16.04. 

  

  I got this mug to give Sis on Easter. Here is the LINK.
  When we see a bunny in the grass, we say it is our Dad visiting.

• Uber back to groomer to get Sug and then deliver her at home, all fluffy, clean and pampered. Thanks, driver John, with $2.50 tip, $13.69. This was a madcap + stressful Uber day but Sug was overgrown. I didn't know the groomer was closing early and needed us there by 2; Dan couldn't get there by then from Science Day. But I did get our car again by 2:15.
• Parking meter, $1.50.
• Montclair Stationery, two legal pads for article interviews, one pink, one blue; 2 fine-point Sharpies for taking notes, one green [embracing my Irish] and one royal blue; and one large, old-fashioned interoffice envelope that says INTER-DEPARTMENTAL MAIL. I think Punch and I can send notes back and forth to each other under our bedroom doors. You know, retro envelope also says, Cross out previous address. Use repeatedly until all spaces are utilized. $13.84.
• I FORGOT TO PUT THE COST OF GROOMER FOR SUG'S BATH AND HAIR STYLING. ADDING TWO DAYS LATER, $65 + tip, $75. BUMMER. I'M GOING TO ADD A PETS/VET $ BREAKDOWN STARTING AT END OF MONTH.
• Joyist to work again while Dan handled Punch, free cold brew; hazelnut energy bites, $7.

DAILY SPEND: $235.77.
MONTHLY SPEND AS OF APRIL 4: $605.64.
AVERAGE DAILY SPEND SO FAR THIS MONTH: $151.41.

New York Minute [Well, 7 Hours That Went Fast]

Hopped 1:42 bus to NYC for Architectural Digest Design Show at Pier 94 [55th Street and 12th Avenue]. Went to tweet for Aspire Magazine [@ASPIREmagazine on twitter]. Key words: Fast. Fashionable. Frenzied. Furniture. Foodie. Fun.

When Figgy heard I was going to be in the city, she asked if I would come visit her at work in Brooklyn. So I walked to 57th and Seventh Ave., took the Q train to Union Square and connected to the Canarsie line L to Bedford Avenue.

Had a fine scoop of Fluffernutter at her workplace, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in Williamsburg. When her shift ended at 8, we doubled back to midtown on the L and then the N. I was back in Montclair at 10 p.m.

More tomorrow. Good night.

In My Dreams

At my old nicked wood desk, a cast-off from the Good Housekeeping offices in the 1990s. The desk with the two Art Deco drawer pulls that look like earrings. It has a lock, but the key has gone missing.

I love this desk, and the stories it must hold.

Several pieces due today...about homes in exclusive Saddle River, a bucolic town Mary Higgins Clark, Mary J. Blige and Richard Nixon have called home. A town where John Travolta went house hunting.

I'm writing about homes that are selling for about $7 million each--well, one is $14.9 million.

One in particular caught my eye when I toured it on a recent Saturday; it was built by the president of Motown Records, then sold. The second owner is an interior designer with an exquisite eye, and I had to breathe in as I walked from room to room....the Artistic Tile in the kitchen, mirrored and glittering.....the chic little diamond of a butler's pantry, with Sub-Zero refrigerator drawers and a gorgeous floor....the dining room, a fashionable space with turquoise and silver wallpaper so pretty that I would wear it as a wrap skirt....the music room, with a piano Stevie Wonder played on...and, oh, the breakfast room, with a soaring dome ceiling that is hand-painted to look like a beautiful blue sky with floating white clouds.

See why I was taking deep breaths? It was like opening one Christmas gift after another.

Didn't blog yesterday because I was busy working, plus had a dr. appt., plus got Rxs, plus H. and I were invited to go into Punchy's classroom and talk about being writers. [H. wrote 60-Second Novels for two of the children. All of the kids seemed sweet and smart.] Then at night, Fig watched Punch at home while Sis and Don treated H. and me to Saint Patrick's Day drinks and dinner at the elegant Water Club in Cos Cob, CT. I had the best Bloody Mary, a jumbo shrimp cocktail that would go nicely with that $7 million home, a petite filet mignon. Everything was delicious. A lot of people were wearing green--sweaters, ties, shirts, hairbands. I had such a hectic day that I didn't have a chance to hunt for green, just wore a blue dress. Didn't have time to add my shamrock necklace.

Happy Friday to us all. Off I go, polishing and expanding my vocabulary of words such as stunning, breathtaking, chic, glamorous, bespoke, hand-picked, tailored, modern.....

TCOY

1. Always have tall glass of ice water by my side when working. On my third one now.
2. Took a nice lavender bubble bath.
3. Looks like I'm driving Punchy down to her mom's for an overnight visit tonight while H. plays poker here with his friends. I hope to then be back in time to go to see the movie "The Lady in the Van" starring Maggie Smith.

Article Archive: Saks Fifth Avenue Style Setter

I interviewed Marco Oppici, design guru at Saks Fifth Avenue. I especially love his RSVP answers--and what he's done for shoe shopping. Figgy, Sis and I once landed in that shoe playland at Saks! It was hard to extract Fig. Here's the link:

http://www.aspiremetro.com/aspire-dinner-guest-marco-oppici-of-saks-fifth-avenue/