Butter Your Banana Bread with Chocolate Instead!

A nice 4 o'clock snack, or bread item with coffee at breakfast with sunny side up eggs is banana bread with a chocolate spread. Make your favorite banana bread recipe, and for the chocolate spread, melt semi sweet chocolate chips with heavy cream in a pot on low heat. Stir constantly and don't let it get too hot. If it boils, lower the heat. When melted, let cool and spread! Put the extra in a dish and refrigerate. In the morning, take out the chocolate spread to take the chill off. Spread on your banana bread and enjoy!

Suppa's Deli is Family Feeding Family

Beacon storefronts always have clever chalkboards outside of their shops. Today, this was Suppa's Deli's message: Let Our Family Feed Your Family. Quite nice.

Want to know my usual at Suppa's? On a role, turkey, prosciutto, and provolone with lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayo. Filling until dinner!

Rock On Rocker!

This definitely gets a spot in our Window Shopping category. Clay Wood and Cotton is sporting this Rock On rocking chair/seat in their window.

Blackbird Attic 1year Anniversary Tonight's Second Saturday

We're on the West End of Main Street for my first walk of Second Saturday , and spotted this sign for Blackbird Attic's 20% off sale tonight for their anniversary! Ruby is distracted by many shiny objects on the sidewalk, so we might only make it to Global for a wood bracelet and Dreams in Plastic for Tootsie Roll socks, and we just finished hanging at Beacon Cycles. Big night!

Purple Footstool at Global - incase you needed one

Just as I was walking my coffee shop hop (latte at Bank, lunch at Crumb for my Thursday work session), this purple fabric footstool in the window at Global caught my eye. I had to keep walking because this business mother is on babysitter time, but I know I can browse this Saturday for their Designer Trunk Show!

Early Morning Blowouts at Salon Arje in Beacon, NY

Really, Beacon, you never cease to amaze me. While browsing BeaconCitizen.com, I spotted "Early Morning Blow Out". Intrigued, and expecting great things, I clicked to learn more. I'm not a blow out kind of gal, because my hair is pretty straight as is (I *wish* for the wave), but I've got friends who I learn from. And I've learned from these friends that they look for early morning blowouts, to perfect their hair to straightness before work or a fancy photo shoot of some kind. So, if you're looking for hair blowouts in Beacon, NY, Salon Arje could be your hookup! They go from 6am-9am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it's by appointment only. Call 845-831-4426.

Designer Trunk Show: this chunky ring and more

This silver ring rocks (no pun intended, actually)! I'm sure you've seen the purple posters around town, but just incase you didn't realize it was May 14th almost, the shopping night at Global on the west end of Main Street is this Saturday! And it's also Second Saturday. I've actually never been to a Second Saturday yet, so I think I'm going to pack my girl into my carrier and head out!

Designers you'll find at this trunk show are Madame Fortuna, Enochian, Alexis Bittar, and more. Global will fix you a drink while you shop! They suggest that you strap on your heels and come on out. I'll be lacing up my purple beauties I got from Echo a few months ago, and will attend!

Glitter and Pattern Manicures Without the Mess, and Lasts

I'm gazing at my own manicure of seriously compressed gold glitter and black stripe, dubbed Creme de la Creme by the nail polish maker, Incoco. But this isn't your normal nail polish that you paint on - it's stick on, but it's real polish that once it's exposed to air, starts drying super fast, and I mean super fast. It's 3 polishes in 1: the base coat, the beautiful color or pattern, and the top coat. It's been a week, and after caring for a baby who gets a bath every night, and even through gardening and digging out and replanting azalea bushes - NOT A CHIP.

I get my toes done at Love Nails just because it's so enjoyable to get a pedicure. And for my ingrowns. But for my fingers, I paint my own because I can. However, I was on the judging panel last weekend for the Independant Handbag Designers Awards (final awards presented June 15!) and while there, 3GirlsBeauty were offering complimentary mini-manis to apply Incoco nails. I'm not one to get bling glued onto my nails, so when presented with the option of getting a pattern nail polish print, I almost passed. My choice was between gold with black stripe print, or very compressed purple glitter. How can a girl decide?

I went with gold. The girls at 3GirlsBeauty applied it and educated me as to how the nail polish is applied, and why it works. They said people would notice. And they have. Right away. My barrista at my local coffee shop Bank Square spotted them immediately: "Where did you get those? Are those the stick on nails I was reading about? CVS was out of them and I wanted the houndstooth!"
Yes they are, and they rock. They aren't the Lee press-on nails from long ago, which I've tried and they flew everywhere in an airplane once when I was opening a bag of peanuts. They are actual nail polish that come in little strips that vary in size to fit your nail widths. They are thin little stickers that you can flatten into place around your nail.

I can't vouch for how I'll do putting them on by myself, or removing them with nail polish remover, but when I do, this blog will be the first to know. I do know that when I do apply them, there won't be a drying time, so I can go to bed right away if I do them at night when my daughter isn't climbing on me. And there won't be a bottle to spill. This isn't replacing my bottles of essie nail polish, but it's a nice addition to my nail polish collection.

Baby Chicks at Stony Kill Farm

We're here supporting the farm and bought some tomato plants and basil. And here are the baby chicks just born!

Early Mothers Day at Beacon Falls Cafe

We celebrated Mothers Day early because my hubby has to work this weekend. He drove us to Beacon Falls Cafe (I was too tired to walk after digging out an azalea and replanting it elsewhere in my yard...w Ruby in the other arm sometimes).

My review? Let's just say, we've returned home, comatosed. We split a bottle of Pinot noir, and an order of crispy calimari. Entres were seared salmon in a lemon butter sauce, and a delicious looking seared pork on the bone, both with mashed potatoes and sliced squash, tomatoes, and the salmon had capers.

We wanted to stay for dessert, as they had a special ice cream thing that hubby recognized, but Ruby was too close to the edge of bedtime, so we departed and had a nice drive around Beacon before settling in.

Happy Mothers Day!

Chair Massage Thursday at Sacred Space!

It's here! Thursday! And that means it's Chair Massage Thursday. Come out of your office or your house for a 10minute chair massage. You do need to call ahead.

An army of watering snails! At Dreams in Plastic

For indoor plant watering, or outdoor window boxes, hanging baskets or really thirsty plants, these watering snails can help! Or for kiddie pool play. Available now at Dreams in Plastic.

Sweet Alert: 2 for 1 cupcake or cream puff at Crumb

Today only. Enough said.