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Today I got pushed.
Not pushed in love or pushed to do something crazy like, say, skydiving. Nope. Just pushed.
It wasn’t a gentle tap or an accidental hit. It was a startling, full-on, “get outta my way, lady” shove by a man on a mission. Welcome to New York.
Needless to say, I need some pampering.
Now, I’m a believer that a hot shower at the end of a bad day makes everything better. It helps to wash the badness away to let in the goodness. Luckily after my shower tonight, I remembered just the thing that would offer warm comfort after the big bad wolf huffed and puffed.
Sweet Milk Cologne by Jo Malone is part of the limited edition Tea Fragrance Collection.
Now, I’ve been told that the fragrance is controversial – polarizing, if you will – in that people either love it or hate it. There are others in the collection that may be more pleasing to your smell senses. But after I first smelled Sweet Milk, I immediately fell in love. With notes of vanilla and almond, it evokes a soft embrace in a spritz. It’s Mom in a bottle after the boo-boo.
I feel better already. Now, I’m off to snuggle with myself.
Jo Malone Sweet Milk Cologne, $55, www.jomalone.com.
Today marks the first anniversary of Goodness, Grace and Grub!
Today is a milestone in the magical idea that grace is sometimes just one thought away.
Today I celebrate how searching for goodness, for pleasure, for enchantment is a journey well worth embarking on.
Today I commemorate one eye-opening year that has acted like a firecracker in my life, urging me to pay attention to the magnificence all around me.
A big thank you to all my readers and a gracious welcome to those who have discovered this blog for the first time. I am grateful for each and every one of you!
To see how it all began, take a look at the first post from exactly one year ago today. https://goodnessgraceandgrub.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/welcome-to-the-goodness-intervention/
My hope is for you to find inspiration in being present and seeing the beauty in every day. Here’s to a holiday weekend that will bring you the magic of goodness and grace in every moment.
The beauty of some summer days is that they feel like stretches of time that can last forever. Such is the case on a perfect beach day, with endless expanses of blue sky, warm breezy weather and active waves…
good friends…
lazy beach towel time with your favorite tunes…
…and long walks to search for seashells, to stretch and to be one with the sand.
Here, it’s all good.
Wish you were here. XOXO
From the time I was a young girl, magazines have been my favorite escape. They were quick, accessible, aspirational vehicles for dreaming and learning about places and people that were different from me.
They were also a peek into how stylishly, glamorously and beautifully some people lived. Even now when I want to escape from the to-do lists, there is always a stack of magazines close by to offer a diversion.
I loved Domino magazine. It was the first design book that spoke to my sensibility – modern, urban and chic. Needless to say, I was devastated when it folded over a year ago. It felt tragic, sort of like Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” when he lost Wilson the volleyball, as if I’d lost a friend. Just kind of sad.
Randomly discovering Lonny Magazine a few months ago was like meeting a new friend who felt awfully familiar. It is published online, so it can provide longer features, more in-depth information and a wider array of fashionable photographs than a paper magazine. Lonny offers a full surround of stylish lifestyle tips for the home, the garden and everything in between. Some of the advice is immediately useful, while some of it allows you to dream for the future.
Meet Lonny. I think you’ll be inspired by it too.
There is an excitement to traveling, to visting a place that you cannot claim as your own. The anticipation of not knowing what to expect is sometimes better than the trip itself.
My first far away trip was to Hawaii, when I was 8 years old. My family and I left on Christmas Day. I’d been on an airplane before, but never that far or for that long. This was a time when flying was still cool, when girls wanted to be like the glamorous and kind stewardesses (or at least I did) and the plane ride was part of the adventure, not just a means to an end.
On this trip, the dashing pilot came out of his cabin and gave my brother and I American Airlines wings. That was cool.
Hawaii was magical. We were surrounded by lush island greenery, which was only heightened by the occasional rainstorm. Our hotel was steps from the beach; I didn’t know you could live so close to the sand and the calming sound of the waves. There I discovered the joy of room service. You just dialed a number, told the person what you wanted and they brought it to your door! Hamburgers and french fries had never tasted so good. It made me feel like a rock star.
Magical places transport us from our every day lives. They make us see clearly that there are things outside of our world – the classroom, the carpool, the cubicle – that are worth appreciating.
They also underscore the value of the small things in life. Hawaii was a long, fun trip, but I was just as happy when I got home.
There is magic in mom cooking your meals, even if she made what she wanted – not whatever you ordered up – and you had to go to the dinner table to get it instead of it being brought to your room on a silver tray and a cloth-covered table.
Magic lives in your own well-worn bed with its cool sheets and familiar lumps that comfort a tired back at the end of a long day.
And there is magic in making your friends envious as you tell tales of the New Year’s Eve fireworks that stained the Hawaiian sand red, something enchanting that you would never, ever have expected.
There is magic in home.
I’m unattached this Valentine’s Day, but that doesn’t mean I’m hating on the holiday. Love isn’t just roses and champagne or lingerie and chocolates. Love is in the details, in the small gestures of everyday life.
Love is…
…my mom traipsing across town to bring me orange juice, soup, tissues and my favorite candy when I’m too sick to shop for myself.
…my father coming over to my apartment specifically to “take care” of the fly that had pitched a tent for almost two weeks after I’d tried in vain to take care of it myself.
…the stranger who walked me home as blood ran down my leg after I’d taken a nasty fall and banged my knee up pretty good.
…my doorman who never fails to make me laugh before I leave for work.
…the unexpected friends who checked in with me regularly during a family crisis just to see how I was.
…the cashier at Cipriani’s who saw me standing at the end of a very long line and grabbed the last piece of the veggie egg white frittata because she knew that’s what I bought every morning and didn’t want it to sell out before I got a chance to order.
…my guys at Starbucks who never fail to give me a grande when I’ve ordered a tall.
…Carol Sue, my “other mother” on the opposite end of the country, who knits a scarf for me every year for Christmas.
…my nephew illustrating his feelings for me in a recent work of art.
Love is everywhere. Take a moment to embrace it in your life.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
xoxo, Goodness & Grace
I love the holidays, despite not being a winter lover. The holidays are perfectly timed, the hustle and bustle a nice distraction from the fact that it’s getting seriously cold outside. Christmas is particularly magical, with New York City all decked out in its festive finery. This season, I chronicled my yearly pilgrimage around town. Enjoy!!
Snowflakes sparkling on the facade of Saks Fifth Avenue.
The Christmas tree atop Radio City Music Hall.
The Swarovski crystal snowflake high above the intersection at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Heavenly musicians near the tree at Rockefeller Center.
Under the mistletoe at Grand Central Station.
Magical lights at the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle.
It’s time to celebrate!
I’ve been looking for some inspiration. Overwhelmed by the madness of each day, I’m longing to look at life through a joyful lens. Goodness is in every aspect of life, but we often overlook it in the midst ordinary chaos and craziness. Or at least I do.
Goodness, Grace and Grub is my attempt to embrace the pleasure that lurks everywhere. It’s my own personal intervention to move away from the mundane and the inane and towards simple pleasures. It’s time to pay attention.
In this blog, I hope to share the products and other items that bring me joy (goodness); the intangibles, both small and large, that offer pleasure and awe in the everyday (grace), and the food stuff that transports to the island of hedonism (grub). I promise to write an inordinate amount about food – my greatest love.
Since I write this on Thanksgiving evening, I think a great start is to share what I am thankful for this year:
- I am thankful for my family, who have taught me more about courage and love in the past year than I ever thought was possible.
- I am thankful for my nephew, who demonstrates the joy of laughter and pure fun without even trying.
- I am thankful to have reconnected with childhood friends this year that I thought about often, but never thought I’d see again.
- I am thankful to live in a country where anything is possible.
- I am thankful for bacon. And for its distant cousin, chorizo, that elevated my cornbread stuffing to new heights tonight.
I hope you will share the things that make you happy, too. Goodness is a two-way street.
Join me in saying yes to life!
xo, with Goodness and Grace
Goodness, Grace and Grub 