New York - Day 2

Day 3 in New York was spent doing one of my mum’s favourite hobbies, ok and mine – Shopping!

Those of you that visit the US and enjoy shopping may be familiar with Premium Outlet shopping malls and Woodbury Common outside of NYC is one of the larger branches

Our excesses of the day before saw us sleeping in later than expected but once again the lighter crowds compared with December meant once again everything went smoothly.

We caught a coach from Port Authority and mum was pleased we had a chatty driver who pointed out various landmarks on the way

A trip to Woodbury Common also provides an opportunity to visit supermarkets Wal-mart and Target. On our last trip we allowed ourselves an hour in each but this time decided to do just one of the stores, choosing Target

Many bargains were had although sadly not like in the days of $2 to the £1

Carrying all those shopping bags was tiring work so we enjoyed dinner at the restaurant across the road from our hotel. Mum made sure that included a large glass of wine

One more day of my New York trip to come!

Back to New York Again!

So how do you follow up your first day in New York when it started with seeing your idol in person? You move on to the home of another idol of course!

Here I am outside the beautiful brownstone in Greenwich Village TV home of Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw

I must admit I felt naughty approaching the “No Trespassers” sign and was waiting for someone to come and tell me off but it was worth it!

Greenwich Village is a lovely part of NY and literally round the corner was Magnolia Bakery

The stories of queue’s of people outside were unfounded (it seems they’ve all moved on to the Rockefeller location) and we were able to take photos and make our purchases in comfort

We jumped into a cab destination Serendipity 3 where we had a lunch reservation

I made the booking to avoid the long queue’s I’d heard about but as it happened it wasn’t necessary. I will admit the food wasn’t great in part due to my choice - sour dough bread will not be something I choose again! Mum had shepherds pie which was nice but did say she needed some gravy

As we browsed the shelves for trinkets to buy a kind gentleman told us if we brought the cookbooks he’d happily sign them for us… yes none other than one of the founding Princes (as the story goes!) of Serendipity, Stephen Bruce

The heavens had opened as we left there so it was a quick run to Dylan’s Candy Store

and if you're feeling homesick whilst in NY there are some British treats to enjoy

And then another quick run to Bloomingdales

After dropping our shopping off at the hotel 

and resting our weary feet for a short while it was then onto the Empire State Building

I first visited the ESB with Kelly on our first visit to NYC but mum has never been yet something she’s always wanted to do. Unfortunately visiting in December see’s crowds around the block but not this time – not a queue to be seen!

Our tickets included the Sky Ride (a simulator style trip around Manhattan), not really worth the extra money but still fun to do and something I’d not done before

We ended our day with a visit to the diner at the hotel we usually stay at

Review of the trip so far – April is definitely a better time to visit! Usually we’re weighed down with shopping, fighting with shoppers and loose most of our day in queues

Fair Goodies

I hope you've all enjoyed the long weekend

The Vintage & Handmade Fair was great fun and lovely as always to meet up in person with a few blog friends

Kelly & I were to busy looking at all the stalls and chatting to everyone to take any photos but I'm sure you'll be visiting those involved to see their pictures

So you want to know what I brought?

I was rather restrained buying only 2 things.... although one was an eiderdown from the well known Donna Flower so definitely an investment piece!

The rest of the weekend was spent playing with my new sideboard

and moving the chest of drawers that were there into my craft room

So my Bank Holiday weekend was the perfect mix of days out and organising - how was yours?

The Martha Stewart Show - Live from New York!

So on our first morning in New York mum and I made the short 15 min walk from our hotel to the Martha Stewart studios

It was so surreal to be in the studios of a programme I've only ever watched online

 Wouldn't you like to have this craft room as your disposal?

The shows theme was Earth Day which was really interesting and we walked home with so many freebies; a cd rom of every issue of National Geographic since 1888, Martha Stewart Hand Soap as well as various DVDs and books

Seeing Martha "in the flesh" was fantastic and everything I hoped it would be. I was really concerned having read a few blog posts about her negative attitude and indifference to the studio audience but my experience was nothing but good. Our show was going out live so naturally she was focused and hardly likely to turn to the audience and have a chat!

I also noticed as we were leaving the studios that Martha had moved in to the on set kitchen to see a member of staff who had obviously brought her new baby into work. Martha was holding the baby and having photos taken with them, laughing and joking all very normal behaviour!

At the end of show Martha came forward to the audience and asked if anyone had any questions for her whilst she was waiting for them to set up cameras for her promotion reels to be filmed

 One women had a question about cleaning leather gloves and Martha recommended a professional service at a store in Manhattan which she couldn't remember the location of, in a matter of seconds an intern whizzed over to the lady in question with a print out of the store Martha was talking of

It was a fantastic experience one I'd certainly recommend and watching Martha in action live I have a lot of respect for her. Just watching what goes into one of these shows I can only imagine what it must be like when they have cooking segments!

I'll leave you with a photo of the Empire State Building lit green to celebrate Earth Day

Back from the Big Apple

Hello everyone I'm back from New York and had a fantastic time

I have so much to share with you about my trip and of course MARTHA but right now I have to get myself ready for work tomorrow!