Saturday, November 29, 2014

Gingerbread House Decoration Party from Beacon Public Space

http://beaconpublicspace.org/

The 8th Annual Gingerbread House Decoration Party is today at the Howland Public Library!

It's a BOYGBH (Bring Your Own Gingerbread House) supplies or buy a kit there if there is one left for $12.

Brought to you buy Beacon Public Space, this tasty project is loads of fun and is a great excuse to decorate a gingerbread house. But it doesn't stop there! It then adds to the decoration of Beacon's Main Street, because with this Gingerbread House Decorating Party, there is a catch - at least one house per decorator must be put on display in a storefront window December 11 - January 20th.


Thursday, November 27, 2014

#GobbleGobble: A Hashtag Thanksgiving

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving, reflecting on how the digital world of hashtags and Pinterest have brought us closer together by tapping on hashtags to see food ideas, table centerpiece ideas, and close moments between people.

If two (?) years ago was the time of one if the most damaging snowstorms for Beacon and surrounding areas on Halloween, this was the year when a nor'easter kicked off Thanksgiving and made travel a little dicey (note picture of our trip across Pennsylvania on I80 through a mountain range before cell service goes out).

Here's a toast to the creativity coming out of everyone as they tap and search and follow inspirations.

PS: did you know that Beaconite and tech enthusiast Stowe Boyd of BeaconStreets.com was part of the behavior movement that encouraged hashtags to be an official way of categorizing thoughts and tweets on Twitter and other platforms? We are living in transforming times.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Cherry Bomb Opens Tonight - Picture Roundup of Artisan Gifts You'll Find!

It's happening! Cherry Bomb PopUp Shop is throwing its grand opening party tonight, and shoppers are invited! Visionary behind the shop, Kat Stoutenborough, has hot chocolate on the stove with bourbon infused marshmallows. Oh yes, you'll leave happy after you've toasted yourself a high-five for finding unique gifts for friends and family. The rule in this store is... 2 for them, 1 for you! And to make your night even more fun, more shops are open late, and you'll discover more special finds from other popup shops on Main Street. Check our always updated PopUp Shop Guide for details of other stores!
Find Cherry Bomb in what is normally Zora Doras,
201 Main Street.


This designer uses semi-precious gems in rough designs.

Mason jar art is hot, especially in henna!

Beautiful.

Actually mine! My name is Katie Hellmuth Martin, the publisher
of this blog, and this is my accessories line, Katie James.
Do investigate the jewelry pouch for the pockets and
ring loops that secure rings with a snap!

Adorable cards.

Kat herself attaching one of her felt flowers
onto a braided knit wreath.

A must-have belt.

Holiday cheer!

Something for guys!
These cigar boxes went like hot cakes last year.


An early shopper!
These are unique items, so buy them while they are here!

Where's Kendra, My Favorite Barista? She Opened Magpie Studio, Her Hair Salon!


Kendra's specialty is vivid hair color and an edgy cut.

Regulars at Bank Square Coffee Shop know where their favorite barista disappeared to. When she wasn't serving up your favorite cup of coffee, or winning competitions in mountain biking, Kendra was cutting hair in her apartment above the coffee shop. But now...

Magpie Studio's waiting room for hair cuts and color.
Kendra is the proud owner of Magpie Studio, the most rad hair and beauty salon in Beacon. Why "rad"? Because Kentra's specialty is color. Not just any color, but serious color pallets for hair that you would normally find in a nail bar, she will paint in your hair. And that's not all. Blowouts, keratin smoothing treatments, waxing, brow shaping, and more.

Look for Magpie Studio's green front door around the corner
from the Howland Cultural Center.


And because your daughter has been asking for pink highlights, Kendra is also known for her way with kids, where kids haircuts are listed as a service for $20 (but "$300 if they won't hold still"). If you need "vivid shades or double process blonde", an appointment at Magpie Studio with Kendra is a few clicks away.

Pick up a services sheet and enjoy the art.

Find Magpie Studio at:
2 Tioranda Avenue
(near the swoop by Beacon Bagel, across from the Howland Cultural Center)
Beacon, NY
845-202-7072
Congrats on this dream come true, Kendra!



Monday, November 17, 2014

Belated 3-Cheers for Crosswalk Signs on Main Street!

Crosswalk signs are helping cars slow down for people.
Earlier this summer, a few crosswalk signs popped up in the middle of Main Street on the yellow lines, making it easier for drivers to notice the white crosswalks painted on the pavement of different areas of the street. Despite some crosswalks being white and some being brick with faded paint or no paint between the bricks, noticing the crosswalks was difficult to a driver. Often times, this driver (me!) would zoom past families waiting to cross the street, thinking "Oh, look at that cute family!" instead of "Duh, that family really needs to cross the street and I should stop."

A belated Three Cheers for the City and Highway Superintendent Anthony "Zep" Thomaselli
for grabbing some of these signs and placing them in the middle of the street. The signs are making it easier for walkers to cross the street, which can take quite a long time if cars don't stop. When we contacted Mayor Casale to ask about these crosswalk signs, and he verified that Mr. Thomaselli placed them in spots on the streets to see how cars and trucks handled them, and that the curb across from the Howland Cultural Center near Beacon Bagel and Echo was too narrow to handle a sign. The mayor also mentioned that Beacon was awarded a substantial federal grant for maintaining crosswalks. Yay! We vote for neon green paint of the brick crosswalks so that drivers really see them, and neon green coordinates with the already green neon signs!

And in slightly related news, there is a vote tonight on who pays for sidewalks that are repaired or replaced during roadwork projects - homeowners or the City. Turns out, a possibly well-intentioned rule was having negative impact on homeowners, which erupted after projects on Oak Street and Henry Street where new sidewalks were put in over the summer, as tracked by a recently created Facebook page, Beacon Sidewalks. Normally, personal property owners need to pay for 100% of their sidewalk repair or replacement. However, if the City is doing roadwork and needs to repair or replace the sidewalk as part of that work, the City splits 50% the cost of replacing or repairing the sidewalk with the homeowner. This sounds like a deal, but in real life, a homeowner puts off replacing their sidewalk and is not prepared to receive a bill for thousands of dollars if the City happens to work on the sidewalk outside their home.

Sidewalk news is becoming a hot topic, as there are different ways to get a sidewalk paid for, including this federal grant that Beacon received for replacing sidewalks on Liberty Street as part of a Safe Routes to School Program. There is mention of narrowing the street, which would be a huge bummer because driving along parked cars is hard enough to squeeze past, not to mention when snow falls and the streets are even more crowded until plowed snow melts or is removed. Not to mention how nerve wracking it is to get children out of car seats in cars when cars whiz by. Wide streets also make it easier for cyclists to ride bikes to work or the store, a movement which Stowe Boyd at Beacon Streets has actively been working on to cultivate through grants and new painted bike symbols on the streets themselves called "sharrows".

UPDATE on 12/2/14: New crosswalks are painted in residential areas.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Golden Leaves to Garden: What Are Your Fall Prep Plans?

What is more beautiful than a thick layer of golden leaves on a back porch? Before they get too soggy or crisp, I'm going to transfer them to be leaf mulch on my back yard garden to hopefully nourish and warm the soil. The other hope, however, is to block the spreader weeds that love shooting under ground from other areas into my garden. Last year I waited too long to put the hay mulch down, and did a few rounds of weed pulling before finally throwing down the hay. And even then, throwing down hay around sprouting vegis was also enough of a kick-myself action to get ahead of it all this year!

What are your plans? Do you turn old stalks into compost? There are still bunches of tomatoes on the ground that the squirrels have been enjoying, so I put those in a pile in the very back.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Thanksgiving Catering Menu Ideas for Pies, Breads, Shrimp, and Turkey!

The ovens are getting hot on Main Street, cooking special treats for you to serve at your Thanksgiving gathering. If you are hosting a Thanksgiving Dinner, you're going to want to invite more people because your catering menu choices are that good. If you're packing it all into a car to travel to Grandma's house, you're going to want to make room for a large storage box to transport the amazing food that's on the holiday catering menus at a few Main Street bakeries. After you read these choices, you may want to host a "Leftovers Party" just so that you have an excuse to serve more accent dishes.

For all of these menu options, you'll need to call each store ahead of time to place your order and check their hours for when they are closing for Thanksgiving. Some bakeries as well as a few restaurants are offering special hours around the holiday. Not all of your favorite eateries are closed on Thanksgiving Day!

Make your menu, decide what you're making and what you're ordering, and get to dialing!

Cheeses at Beacon Pantry.

CHEESE TEMPTATIONS
Because cheese can be stressful if you don't know how to order it, Beacon Pantry will hand select an array of artisanal cheeses for you, perfect to serve to company the night before Thanksgiving so that you don't have to cook, or on Thanksgiving afternoon as everyone waits for the turkey! You can also find artisanal cheeses at Homespun, but special to Beacon Pantry's Thanksgiving Catering Menu are cheese platters served with dried fruit, nuts, and sliced baguette or crackers. And if you're partial to your own platter, or want to spruce up your serving table by getting a new one from Hudson Beach Glass or Utensil, and bring the platter to Beacon Pantry and she'll plate your cheese for your order. Need a little olive oil for dipping? Stop into Scarborough Fare and pour your own flavor to take home.
Pumpkin fondue at Ella's Bellas.

Pumpkin Fondue...because you've never tried it, or because you've enjoyed a slice of pumpkin fondue at Ella's Bellas with a salad. It's also another reason to have a pumpkin on the table and because you don't have to prep this fondue! Ella's Bellas has a fully baked Pumpkin Fondue on their catering menu that comes stuffed with layers of cheese, bread and rosemary, baked to perfection. It also comes with re-heating instructions, and yes, you can eat the pumpkin flesh as you scoop for melted
 cheesy bread.

Thanksgiving is not complete without shrimp cocktail, and Beacon Pantry has mixed a house-made cocktail sauce to go with domestic wild caught shrimp.


THE TURKEY & STUFFING
You've got options, and an ability to give back to the community by ordering turkeys from these stores:
Beacon Natural Market is getting their turkey from three different farms this year:
Murry
Snowdance
Hidden Camp

Beacon Pantry is getting their turkey from two farms with a few options on the type of bird:
Campanelli Farm in Kenoza Lake, NY
Northwind Farm in Tivoli, NY

Key Food has partnered with I Am Beacon for the "Turkey on Every Table" food drive. Key Food will be storing all of the donated turkeys in their warehouse to be distributed. And of course you can get a turkey at Key Food.

Ella's Bellas is offering a Mushroom Herb Stuffing made with Ella's Bella's bread, celery, raisins, and apple, to be ordered per person. They are also offering seasoned cubed stuffing by the bag.


ROLLS
Oh brother, you have some tough choices to make. We are lucky enough to have a few really, really good bakeries in Beacon. We have so many good choices, that for this article, we needed to divide this carb section into Breads and Rolls. At All You Knead, find challah rolls, cranberry raisin pecan rolls, and regular white or multi-grain rolls. At Beacon Bread Company, find brioche loaf rolls, harvest grain loaf rolls, and rye rolls. At Beacon Pantry, find country white, challa, and whole wheat multigrain. And at Ella's Bella's, find rosemary or plain rolls. As with everything at Ella's Bellas, the rolls, bread, and anything is gluten-free.


BREADS
This is where your dinner planning gets tricky, but fear not, there will be a bread for your style of a meal. At All You Knead, find challah bread, cranberry raisin pecan bread, seeded rye bread, marble rye bread, and sourdough – plain or whole wheat, multi-grain, rosemary herb, or white wheat Pullman. Beacon Bread Company has a brioche loaf (it's perfection), a harvest grain loaf, as well as a baguette. Find sweet breads like orange gingerbread, banana, pumpkin cranberry, and apple raisin bread at Beacon Pantry. And expect to find has their rosemary or plain baguette at  Ella's Bella's all if which is gluten-free.

And because you need bread pudding, All You Knead has it in banana, pumpkin or chocolate flavors.


PIES AND OTHER SWEETS
Making your own pie? Utensil posted
a link to this recipe at FOLK.

You thought you were already in trouble? Brew a pot of coffee from Tas Kafé (at Ella's) or Sumptown (at Beacon Pantry), or Starbucks (at Key Food) because you're about to indulge in a lot of pie that will require your very own home made whipped cream that you whipped together from a pint of Hudson Valley Fresh cream (at Key Food,) vanilla, salt and powdered sugar.

Homespun is offering a variety of pies, starting with the basic pumpkin pie, and ranging to a caramel pecan tart, vanilla cranberry jam cake with pumpkin spiced buttercream, pumpkin cheesecake, almond daquoise with pumpkin buttercream (gluten free), and an apple pecan crumble in a deep dish aluminum tin.

At All You Knead, choose from an old fashioned pumpkin pie made with Denning's Point Distillery whiskey. Or go sweet and traditional with pecan, apple buttermilk, and apple pie.

Dennings Point Beacon
American Whiskey
in All You Knead's pumpkin pie.
Beacon Pantry has pumpkin, apple, apple crumb, cranapple, and a mixed berry crumb for those who need a fresh flavor after dinner. Beacon Pantry also spiced it up with Frangipane Tarts in many flavors including blueberry, raspberry and more.

Beacon Bread Company has traditional pumpkin, apple and pecan pies. Ella's Bellas has the traditional pumpkin, apple and pecan, but also tempt yourself with a fudge pie with a chocolate chip cookie or hazelnut shortbread crust. (!?!)

Get Frosted Cupcakery is also baking pies in the flavors of Apple, Cherry, Pumpkin, Peanut Butter, Lemon Meringue and Chocolate Cream. Want a cupcake? Pumpkin spice cupcakes and pumpkin cheesecakes are also available.

Check all stores for hours and ordering and pickup deadlines, and no, this isn't even everything you will find on their menus. Choices...you've got choices for a great dinner, and a reason to have a second party for leftovers with a fresh pie.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Pop-Up Shops Guide: Seasonal Shops & Fairs Going On Now!


In addition to the wonderful shops found on Main Street, the hot trend in pop-up shops has come to Beacon. Pop-up shops are very special because they curate items that may be few or one of a kind, or bring access to a brand that may be hard to find. Pop-up shops usually consist of a collection of artists, or are a mini and temporary extension of a store in a new location, or are run by a single artist. This guide includes pop-up shops that are located on Beacon's Main Street, as well as those in the surrounding areas for those who work in the Hudson Valley and are driving past opportunities on their way to/from home. If you have a pop-up shop you'd like us to know about, please email editorial@alittlebeaconblog.com. If your shop is in this guide and you want to enhance it with an advertising package, please click here for details.

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Sound Shack Record Shopping Open House
Address: 148 Depuyster Ave, Beacon, NY
OPEN: Saturday, September 12, 2015
Hours: 9am-3pm 
Tons of records for sale from bargain to collector. ...must make room for more! (Plus a yard sale of stuff and more stuff
chairs, t-shirts, household etc…)


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Are You Running a Pop-Up Shop?
If you are hosting a pop-up shop in or around Beacon, NY and want to be included in this guide, please email editorial@alittlebeaconblog.com for consideration and details of what you are selling and where. If you want to add a little flare to your listing by including a photo of your shop or products, click here for Feature Opportunities.