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How Fast Time Flies

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Attempts at scrapbooking can easily end up looking like a child’s art project gone wrong. But now, creatively chronicling your most special moments just got a whole lot easier, thanks to How Fast Time Flies, a Digi-Scrapbook service that provides an easy-to-use alternative to old-school scrapbooking without all the hassle and expensive supplies.

Cathy Bennett, whose goal was to let her customers grow their books a few pages at a time, created the site from her home in 2007.  Now, thousands of aspiring scrapbookers can choose from the company’s 624 digital scrapbook template designs to produce professional-looking pages and share them with friends. In addition to blank templates (for all those artistes out there!), How Fast Time Flies also offers ready-made pages designed for babies, vacations, special occasions and weddings. Just in time for June wedding month! (more…)

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What To Do About Death

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Dr. Christina Grant

We don’t get much training in dying, being with the dying, or what to say to those who have just lost someone very close to them. The subject is generally feared and met with much resistance. We often hear the standard line, “I’m so sorry,” while people languish in their discomfort.

I am interested in how we can approach the subject of death with more reverence and respect. How can we treat it with the sacredness it deserves, rather than something terrible to quickly move beyond?

I’ll not forget the time I spent in the hospital with my dying friend whose body was being ravaged by a rare blood cancer. I sat on her bed, listened to her concerns and life stories, and did myriad tasks at her request. Just before she passed her cousin came to say hello. The cousin stood about 6’ away, purse over shoulder, arms crossed in front of her chest. She had brought her husband and they both had the same look on their faces – a look that said, “Good God, get me outta here.” They scrammed after about seven minutes. This as well as other encounters I witnessed during that time revealed much about how uncomfortable we are with death and dying. (more…)

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Hamptons Hot Spot: The Boathouse Restaurant & Lounge

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

by Lorelei Marfil

Why: Patrons who loved The Lodge Bar & Grill and Bamboo Sushi Lounge will love restaurateur Michael Gluckman’s latest establishment. Steer your yacht into the restaurant’s dock and experience the Hamptons’ first nightclub raw bar. Newly revamped, this waterfront restaurant is open for brunch and dinner. After 11pm, this venue turns into a lounge offering guests a chic nightlife scene. Gluckman tapped Matt Levine, owner of The Eldridge, and his team to run the nightlife operations.

Dishes to Order: Start off with Rock Shrimp Tempura with creamy spicy mayonnaise, $14. Enjoy the Sushi Grade Soy Ginger & Sesame Crusted Tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes and baby bok choy, $28.

Signature Cocktail: Grey Goose L’Orange Ice Tea: Grey Goose L’Orange, iced tea, simple syrup, fresh mint and orange rounds

Reservations: TheBoathouse@BrandswayCreative.com

The Boathouse Restaurant & Lounge
39 Gann Road
East Hampton, NY

Lorelei Marfil is an editor and style maven based in New York City and is the creative force behind InsideMyCloset.

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Hip New Vodkas!

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Two new vodkas just found their way onto my desk and they’re both collaborations…fine, twist my arm, I’ll try them. One is the latest in the “city series” from Absolut—Absolut Brooklyn, which is a collaboration with Spike Lee (natch) and is red apple and ginger flavored. Sounds a little odd, right? But WOW, yum! This with a ginger ale and a lime is such a great summertime BBQ drink.

Here are a couple recipes to try:

Absolut Brooklyn Stoop Party

1 part Absolut Brooklyn

1 part Cranberry Juice

1 part Ginger Ale

Build over ice in highball glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Absolut Brooklyn Ginger

1 ½ parts Absolut Brooklyn

2 parts ginger ale

Squeeze of lime

Pour over ice in a highball glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

The other is Matthew Williamson for Belevedere Pink Grapefruit. When you think Williamson, you think bright, colorful, fun, whimsical, bohemian. And when you think Belvedere, you think ice, glass, mixer, swallow, smile. The grapefruit is actually soaked in vodka (“maceration”) so it has a very natural (read: not sweet) taste. I recommend this one with soda or diet tonic for a light, refreshing summer cocktail, but here are some recipes as well:

Belvedere Pink Salty Dog

1.5 oz Belvedere Pink Grapefruit

4 oz Premium or freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice

Rim a rocks glass or small wine goblet with Malden sea salt. Fill glass with ice and pour over the ingredients. Garnish with a pink grapefruit slice.

Belvedere Pink Sour

1.5 oz Belvedere Pink Grapefruit

½ oz lemon juice

½ oz simple syrup

Dash egg white

Dry shake, add ice and re-shake. Pour over cubed ice into a rocks glass and garnish with a lemon or pink grapefruit wheel

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The Oil and The Animals: The Latest Pics from the Gulf

Monday, May 24th, 2010

courtesy of the boston globe

This is beyond heartbreaking. A few weeks after the devastating spill, the animals are now perishing. The anguish we feel for the wildlife affected by the Oil Spill is eating away at us all. But REMEMBER you can help here by texting “wildlife” to 20222.

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Movie Review: Holy Rollers

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

You know that Rihanna song, “Good Girl Gone Bad?” Well, Holy Rollers is the story of a good boy gone bad. A very good boy, Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg) is a Hasidic Jew and lives in Brooklyn with his family. Going to school to be a rabbi, Sam follows all rules set by his religion and parents. Since his family is struggling economically and Sam is of age, his parents attempt to arrange a marriage with Zeldy Lazar (Stella Keitel) who is the eldest daughter of a wealthy family. Sam desires to do anything to help his family, be it suffering through his awkward date or coming up with improved business practices to help save his father’s fabric store from losing money. However, his father, Mendel (Mark Ivanir) prefers to keep things simple and have return customers rather take Sam’s suggestions.

Soon Sam gets fed up and the downward spiral begins. He finds out that his next-door-neighbor and best friend’s older brother, Yosef Zimmerman (Justin Bartha) has been importing “medicine” from Europe and making money to support his family. He recruits Sam who brings along his friend Leon (Jason Fuchs) and they travel to Amsterdam to help Yoseph. At the end of the trip they find out that what they were doing was not helping heal the poor but smuggling ecstasy.

This story is long and complex but it is interesting to see how easy it is for someone who has always been good to become bad. Sam’s discomfort with his new job slowly fades away and he soon becomes the  best in the business, even surpassing Yoseph. However, when he finds that he has gotten himself in too deep, there is no way for him to get out of this dangerous business.

Courtesy of First Independent Pictures

At the end of the movie, you learn that this story was inspired by true events in the late nineties when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe which gives it a dose of reality. A very interesting and intense movie, it won’t be for everyone but the story will consume you and make you wonder about how quickly it is for a person’s life to change.

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Visiting the New Limelight Marketplace

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

by Lorelei Marfil

From a church to a well-known nightclub, this iconic hotspot has been revamped once again to offer Manhattanites a new shopping venue. This three-tiered arena offers over 60 shops. Brocade Home, Caswell Massey, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, LeSportsac, and Sue Devitt are among the many retailers sharing the newly redesigned space.

Designer James Mansour was commissioned to revamp and create a space truly unique for shoppers. The19th century stained glass windows were meticulously restored by the design team. The Limelight Marketplace also offers new entrepreneurs and retailers a turn-key solution to establish themselves in the New York market.  “When I found out they were going to maintain the integrity of the architecture, I thought it would be something really good and new and fresh.” said Lisa Versacio, founder of Brocade Home. Versacio was interested in the unique retail experience. “From the eclectic mix of businesses to the iconic space, I thought it would really make it a compelling and interesting retail concept.”

“We were actually one of the first ones to sign up.” says Caswell Massey’s Michael Miarecki. “Caswell Massey is one of the oldest retailers in the United States; we’ve gone through a lot of different changes over the years. In a sense, so has this building. This building from all of its different lives. It’s had so many different high points; it’s evolved with the times. For us it was a neat symbiotic fit because as a brand that is so old, we need to constantly renew ourselves and find a new customer base. We think the eclectic mix of retailers will attract you. You’re the customer we want to reach. We already have your mom, your aunt, we have your grandmother. So we need to reach a younger, cooler demographic. We think it’s a cool fit here for us.”

Limelight Marketplace

656 Avenue of the Americas at 20th Street,

Store hours: Monday-Saturday from 10AM-10PM, and Sunday from 11AM-7PM, with the restaurant spaces remaining open later.

www.LimelightMarketplace.com

Lorelei Marfil is an editor and style maven based in New York City and is the creative force behind InsideMyCloset.

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Movie Review: Letters to Juliet

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

If you’ve ever dreamed of traveling abroad and having a whirlwind romance (and let’s face it—who hasn’t?) then let Letters to Juliet take you on a journey that you won’t want to end.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) decides to travel to Verona with her fiancé Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a sort of pre-wedding honeymoon so they can spend time together before wedding craziness and the opening of Victor’s new restaurant sets in. From the start of their travels it’s easy to see that they are not on the same page as Victor only wants to meet with suppliers for his restaurant and Sophie just wants to explore Verona with her fiancé . Victor will remind you of that boyfriend you had that just never really listened but ultimately, his intense nature and love of food produce some of the funniest lines of the movie.

After Victor leaves once again to meet with yet another supplier, Sophie decides to explore Verona by herself and stumbles upon the Casa di Giulietta where women of all ages write to Juliet for advice. An aspiring writer for the New Yorker, Sophie is fascinated to find out that a group of women who call themselves Juliet’s Secretaries actually write back to every single letter from the wall. While helping collect letters one day, Juliet finds a letter written from Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) to Juliet about her beloved Lorenzo (Franco Nero) from 50 years ago and decides to write back. (more…)

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Things I Won’t Be Doing Between Now and My Wedding

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Here I am – less than a month before the wedding.  It all just hit me.  Over a year of planning and preparation… hiring vendors, finding a dress, scouting locations, trying desserts… and now, I can finally enjoy the fruits of my labor (and by “my” labor, I mean the labor of my wonderful mother and talented planner, Beth Helmstetter).  As the date gets closer, I have decided to make some very important decisions about what I will NOT be doing between now and the wedding.  Maybe it’s about maintaining some sense of sanity… maybe it’s because I have tried not to be a bridezilla.  Whatever it is, here are my very arbitrary rules for myself:

No More Wedding Mags

Martha Stewart, InStyle Weddings (RIP), Elegant Brides (RIP) and The Knot are piled high on my bookshelf.  Even though most of the wedding details were finalized months ago, I felt compelled to buy the latest issues of my favorite wedding magazines.  After about a year’s worth of magazines, it’s time to give it a rest.  There isn’t anything in there that I haven’t figured out or decided on.  The only thing it does is create more of a mess for the fiancé to get annoyed about and occasionally cause me to second guess myself.  Bye Bye Magazines.

Crash Diet

The dress fits.  Really well.  Would I like to be more sculpted or trim?  Perhaps.  But why try to lose 5-10 pounds and risk an ill-fitting dress that took nearly a year to perfect??  I work out 4 times a week already – and I might increase the arm exercises, but as for losing weight before the wedding?  Nah… I look like me and I feel like me.  That works. (more…)

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Spring Giving Idea

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

courtesy of flickr user Ben Heine

Recently, we got an intriguing email from a friend of ours in the down-on-its-luck music biz. Times are tough for everyone, including her– but she’s never the sort to sit and sulk– actually, she’s doing quite the opposite.

Her email read:
“i have a question for you. so i decided to spend my entire week next week helping people for free. doing whatever they need done. so far, i’m babysitting three separate kids, watching dogs, organizing offices, moving someone, brainstorming, helping someone with a marketing campagin, organizing contacts and music…my days are filling up. know anyone who needs help? for FREE???”
This was a new one. We asked her how she got the idea to volunteer herself and her time to the free world, and she replied:
“(Because of) many months sending my resume out to anonymous job postings, revamping cover letters over and over again, all the while watching my savings dwindle has truly tested my patience, confidence and positivity. On another jobless day of sending out my stats to an empty email address, never to hear back again, I got an idea. Perhaps I can spend a few days helping out people who are working and don’t have this blessed (that’s questionable) time to do things they need to get done. I figured it would be healthy for me to get out of my hopeless home office, where the phone’s silence was as thick as the walls, and focus on someone else’s live for a moment. So, I posted on my facebook. I was volunteering myself and my freedom for one whole week, to be used by anyone in anyway. Need me to hammer something? Mow a lawn? Walk your dog? Organize your office? Create an excel? Guess what, I’m here to do it for you, and do it for FREE! In moments I had days filling up with everything from babysitting someone’s child whom I’ve never met, to driving a car-less friend a few hours north to see her family whom she misses. Today is the first day, and I have to say, it feels great. I can hardly wait to see where the week takes me. I enjoy the time away from the stress of job hunting and seeing these requests from people has taught me that we all need a little help sometimes, in very different ways.

I’d love to write more, but I have to go help a struggling artist put together a marketing plan and create a business plan for him for the next 6 months! :) For free!

I love my non-job!” (more…)

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