An Abundant Life - Lovely Days

I had left the Christmas decorations up at YES Gallery this year much longer than I usually do, and it was the beginning of February when I began to take them down and change into Valentine's Day mode. Usually I have some kind of Birthday celebration in the space itself, but this year I had the beautiful birthday celebrations at Halifax Hoboken and Little Bar that I wrote about over the past few weeks, and somehow the Christmas decorations seemed to be bringing so much joy not only to me but to visitors that I decided to leave them up until after my birthday. When February blew in, I began to take them down and to slowly put up the hearts and pinks and reds for Valentine's Day. I finished a few days before the day itself, and now that they are up I think I may leave them in all their sweetness through most of this often gray month of February. 

Valentine's Day for me is a reminder of all things lovely and sweet and joyful, of the loves of youth and the love of long time family, friends, and life. Hanging hearts and making decorations for the holiday have always brought me so much happiness, and many of the decorations I have are things that I created or found or put together or discovered in some way or another. The red foil hearts and heart shapes that adorn the gallery now were made from beautiful red foil wrapping paper I found last year. They bring such a beauty and glow to the vintage recycled wood tree and the tree branches in the windows, and the holiday lights that I've left up make them shine all the brighter, bringing more loveliness to every day. 

Celebrating Valentine's Day

At YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

With Beethoven's Emperor Concerto

Sweetly Playing On My Vintage Stereo

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Jewelbox Gem

 I've written about Little Bar in Hoboken in these pages before, and the beautiful experiences that are curated there by the marvelous Chef Seadon Shouse, Executive Chef of Halifax Hoboken, and the marvelous owners and staff. On the week of my birthday, two days after I'd had the beautiful blessing of enjoying the new delightful Happy Hour menu and wonderful mixology at Halifax Hoboken on the day of of my birthday, I had the double blessing of being at Little Bar for their new Pizza and Cocktails evening. 

The beautiful Dena McCoy, who I've also written about in these pages before, took a trip across and under two Rivers, the East River and the Hudson River, to visit me from Long Island City in Queens, and she met me at YES Gallery first. We walked over to Little Bar, enjoying the loveliness of a Hoboken winter evening, and found ourselves at Little Bar where it's always so welcoming and precious and the most wonderful place to be. In warmer months it's a cool and inviting space and in winter so cozy, and I had been wanting pizza for a while so hearing that they had a pizza and cocktails evening they were starting as a regular weekly event was just what I had been wishing for and even more because of the place where it was.

Little Bar is one of those places where I could go every afternoon or evening, because everything on their menu is a treat. The wine list, as always with Chef Shouse, is wonderfully curated, and the cocktails have such fun and inventive names that add to the delicious experience of their carefully crafted flavors. Pizza night was such a beautiful experience, and the pizza was outstanding. We tried a mushroom pizza and one with prosciutto and were tempted to try even more, but we decided to leave that for next time as we know we'll want to go back for a visit to the sweet gem of a jewelbox place.

An Evening At Little Bar

For Pizza And Cocktails

With The Gorgeous Dena McCoy

The Marvelous Hector

Crafting A Smoky Chocolate Delight

With Palo Santo

A Very Happy Birthday Celebration

Photograph With So Much Gratitude

To The Gorgeous Dena McCoy 

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - The Happiest Hours

This past week I celebrated my birthday, and I was blessed to have two wonderful places to visit on two different nights, Halifax and Little Bar, both favorites that are connected together in Hoboken through the marvelous Executive Chef Seadon Shouse and the marvelous owners and staff.

I've written about both wonderful places before, so I'll just write a little here about the special evenings I enjoyed during my birthday celebrations. This week I'll share about Halifax and the new Happy Hour menu and I'll share about Little Bar and the wonderful Wednesday pizza and cocktails night that I had the absolute pleasure of enjoying there in a future post.

Halifax as I've written before is one of those places I could go to any time and have the most wonderful experience because of the beauty of the design and the wonderful creations of Executive Chef Season Shouse along with the wonderful cocktails and wine selections, and the wonderful staff, with a combination of talents and gifts and expertise that makes every moment so beautiful and so special.

On the day of my birthday I had been thinking that I wanted to go to Halifax and when I heard they had started a new happy hour with a special menu it was the perfect place to go on my own special day. I started the afternoon at YES Gallery and walked over to Halifax while the light was still in the late afternoon sky, so I was able to watch the view of the Manhattan Skyline from the restaurant as I enjoyed the menu tastes and treats.

Oysters are always my first choice, especially when they are as fresh and wonderful as they are at Halifax. Chef Shouse is such a wonderful Chef that even the sauces with the oysters are special. I usually use very little cocktail sauce with oysters, especially when they are this fresh and excellent, but the cocktail sauce that arrived with these wonders was so delicious I could have eaten it by the spoonful. Afterward I tried the Lamb Meatball Sliders with Smoked Gorgonzola Fondue and Parsley the Mini Fish & Chips, both presented so beautifully and so delicious with such layered flavors and textures that they brought a smile to my already celebrating face. I decided to try the Squash Flatbread with Squash Ricotta, Mozzarella, Pancetta, Arugula and Pickled Squash, a delightful and lovely way to end my evening's choices. For cocktails I tried the Boulevardeiro, the Kingfisher Manhattan and a Once In A Dream, all beautifully presented and layered with flavors of smooth goodness. For the sparkling part of my birthday as anyone who knows me knows is always a first choice, I tried the happy hour special of Veuve du Vernay which was wonderful, along with my regular favorite at Halifax, Benjamin Bridge.

Being able to celebrate this special day in this special place was truly a gift and blessing, and one that reminded me again of how beautiful life can be when there are such wonderfully talented and gifted Chefs like the marvelous Executive Chef Seadon Shouse and such wonderful owners and staff as those at Halifax Hoboken. Such happy hours as these are make every day more beautiful.

A Happy Hour

Birthday Celebration

At Halifax Hoboken

With So Much Gratitude

To The Marvelous

Executive Chef Seadon Shouse

And The Marvelous Owners And Staff

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Vintage Sweetness

A few years ago I found a wonderful and very sweet vintage music box Christmas carousel at a favorite thrift store. If I am remembering correctly the place where I found it is no longer there, but it was one of the places where I used to go and find all sorts of beautiful treasures. The year that I found the carousel I posted a video of it on Instagram, and then each year afterward for some reason, though I kept it out year round, I didn't find the time or the place to play and post it again.

This year, right before Christmas, I decided to move it from its year round place and move it to the table to see if it was still working. I wasn't sure if it had batteries or how it operated because when I had originally found it, the mechanism was turning and music was playing and I hadn't checked to see how. This time, when I turned on the on switch, nothing happened, and so I started looking for the place where batteries might go. There was a little door on the bottom that had a screw in it that looked as if it might house batteries, but the writing on it was so tiny and difficult to read I had to get my flashlight out and the magnifier on my phone camera to check for sure.

The words were still difficult to make out, but it seemed like I saw something that said batteries, so I tried to open up the screw on the cover of the case. It was very difficult to do, and though I tried for quite a while it seemed as if whoever had used it last had made the screw impossible to open, and so I decided to break open the hinges on the little door as carefully as possible in hopes that I wouldn't ruin it entirely. It took me a while, but I was able to do it, and when the hinges were finally broken away and the door was open, I saw the batteries inside that were needed. They were a size that I didn't have any extras of, and because of the schedule I had over the holidays it took me a little while to go find them at the store. When I finally did it was well into January, but I decided to post a video of it playing anyway because it was so joyful and sweet. 

There is something about music boxes that always makes me happy, and the ones that turn are even more special. My grandmother loved music boxes and my mother loved carousels, so this very sweet design with its German Christmas songs made me think of both of those wonderful women and all the sweet and joyful times we had together. Christmas has always been a special time for me and this year I have allowed myself to take time to savor it for a few extra weeks. It's coming up to my birthday and the Christmas decorations at YES Gallery are still there. I was thinking today that I might leave them until the end of the month this time, and as I was on my way home a saw that some neighbors still have theirs up too, so maybe the ones I have still up are bringing joy to other people too, along with the sweetness of the vintage holiday memories that I have from years gone by.

A Musical Vintage Christmas Carousel

To Sweeten Cold January Days

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - January Glow

January is a very strange time of the year sometimes, with cold and wet weather setting in, sometimes snow, sometimes rain, and days that feel gray or chilly in a way that December keeps away with it's holiday cheer. It's my birthday month, so I always feel like celebrating, but sometimes people seem to be staying home or maybe they've gone away, it's break time or just time to take it slowly and hibernate.

For me, the snow and cold of January reminds me that not only is my birthday and a time of celebration near, but after January we are really almost through winter. I've never been fond of the cold, although I do like snow when I'm able to be home and cozy, but somehow YES Gallery has been still feeling like springtime even though the plants are inside and the daylight is shorter and the door to the outside needs to stay closed.

Just after the New Year Casey Cotton Kirsch, whose gorgeous handmade ornaments are in the gallery now, stopped by to give me some Christmas lights she had just taken off of her tree. She had seen how I loved to decorate for Christmas, and had said she had some extra lights to share, and when she did I told her I would most likely be using them year round. Usually the lights I have are white lights, something that is left over from my own childhood and the way my Mother always decorated during the Christmas and winter season, but the lights Casey shared with me were multicolored and so I started to think about the best place where they could add their party glow.

After a short while I decided on trying them in the loft, and from the first moment it seemed like they were meant to be there. I had been wanting to figure out a way to add more light there, and there are some chandeliers I've found in different places that are not hooked up but are still pretty up there, so I draped the lights around the space and now it has a very fun and almost vacation den or private room feeling to it. People always loved that space before and it's so much fun to create different areas in the gallery that feel almost like their own spaces, so now in January we can feel like we're not only somewhere cozy, but also somewhere that could just be the nicest party spot of all.

Multicolored Lights

Adorning The Loft

At YES Gallery

With So Much Gratitude

To The Gorgeous Casey Cotton Kirsch

The Glowing Lights

Along With A View Of

Some Of The Beautiful Ornaments

Created By Casey Cotton Kirsch

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

 

An Abundant Life - Living Gracefully

I met the gorgeous Dena McCoy through Instagram first. She is a dear friend and colleague of some wonderful people I know and some who I have written about in these pages before, and so in the way connections through social media are made when wonderful people are connected through other wonderful people, we started following each other and I knew because of the people she was connected to that she would be as beautiful inside as she is on the outside.

Over time as I began to read her posts, I started seeing mentions of a book that she'd written titled Greed & Grace and when I looked up more information about the book I saw that it had some resonances with experiences I've been having in my own life. I kept feeling as if I wanted to reach out to her, but I am always aware of being very careful to respect people's privacy, and though she'd written about her life and published a book, I didn't want to presume that she'd want to talk to me about it. Then at one point she posted that the book was published by Trilogy Christian Publishing, and I have a very lovely memory and connection with Trinity Broadcast Network, or TBN, which is the parent company of Trilogy. When I was teaching community nutrition and health workshops I was introduced to TBN by an Episcopal Priest who was in one of my classes, and I was invited to be on their show Doctor To Doctor which at that time was filmed in their studio on 16th Street in New York City. Trilogy is a fairly new part of the wonderful work that TBN does, and seeing that Dena had published through this wonderful company made me even more interested to find out more about this woman who was doing so many wonderful and special things.

Not long after I saw the post about Trilogy, she began to post some truly beautiful performances and songs recorded by her daughter, Ava. I love to support Artists of all kinds through this blog, at YES Gallery, and in other ways as well, but because of my own background I am very careful about the people I write about and promote through my gallery and my work, making sure that it is only the best of the best, Artists, Writers, and Performers who are truly excellent in their work and who they are as people. Each performance and video Dena posted of Ava was so deeply meaningful, with songs and a delivery that were unique and memorable, and a voice that is completely her own. I felt again so strongly that I wanted to reach out to Dena, to offer to write about Ava and about her, but I hesitated again because it seemed that these beautiful and immensely talented powerhouses of women already had everything and everyone they needed. But as I prayed about it, I felt as if I should just go ahead and send a message to Dena and so I did, and when I heard back she was so gracious and kind and grateful for my offer that I immediately felt a warm and welcoming glow through the messages. We set up an appointment to meet and had a lovely brunch together that I wrote about at that time, at Cafe Henri in Long Island City on a beautiful afternoon that I will always treasure the memory of.

To say that meeting Dena was life changing is an understatement. That day she shared so much time with me, in a generosity of spirit and grace, and since that beautiful day we have shared messages and conversation that have helped me navigate some very challenging aspects of my own life. I began to read her book Greed & Grace right after our meeting, and not only is is very well written and enjoyable to read for the skillful writing of it, but it is powerfully empowering in its honesty, humility, and graceful telling of this beautiful woman's most vulnerable and difficult moments in her life's journey as she grows in faith and her walk with God.

In a featured Artist highlight on SohoMuse, she is described as the New York based writer and Author of Greed & Grace, a member of The Authors Guild, and a graduate of the University of California Berkeley with a degree in Humanities, an entrepreneur, commercial actor, occasional runway and print model as well as the proud fourth-generation Trustee and Vice President of her family's seventy-three year old philanthropic foundation in her home state of Oregon. The audio book version of her memoir Greed & Grace was recently recorded and narrated by Dena, and will be available on all platforms soon.

On her Linktree she describes herself as an Author, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Creative and a Mom, and while she is all of those things she is so much more. Dena McCoy is a life force for good and grace and for uplifting and helping others to move through their experiences of darkness and feelings of weakness to find their power and joy.  She is an overcomer who helps others to overcome, and to walk in the light of who God has called them to be.

There are so many wonderful places where you can find out more about Dena, and here is a list with links for some of her podcasts, and the magazine articles and features that have been written about and with her:

Publications:

Red The Luxury Life October 2022

https://www.instagram.comETT Women and Bella Around Town Empower Overcome Succeed

https://www.instagram.com/reel

https://www.instagram.com/reel/NYFW

https://www.instagram.com/ElieBalleh

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Red The Luxury Life August 2022

https://www.instagram.com/Red The Luxury Life Post May 2022

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Bella Magazine Women Of Influence Issue April 2022 Post

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Bella Magazine Greed & Grace

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Red The Luxury Life March 2022 Post

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Red The Luxury Life March 2022 Introduction

Podcasts:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/The Julie Chan Show

https://open.spotify.com/episode/26elEwYjm8Jh8DloqI0kMv?si=DNoVMQHMQ2Gi8tcnZoz4Zg&nd=1&dlsi=073d44f704294fa6

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Madison Malloy Next To Madison

https://www.instagram.com/Madison Malloy Post

Article Written By Dena McCoy:

https://www.instagram.com/Metropolitan Magazine The Avadora Mimouni Collection NYFW

Link Tree:

https://linktr.ee/denamccoy

Dena McCoy

Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Mother

Multi Talented Creative

Author of Greed & Grace

https://linktr.ee/denamccoy

Blessings,

Jannie Susan 

An Abundant Life - A Very Beautiful And Special New Year!

On the morning of New Year's Day I woke up to see a very large bird outside of my window, perched on the top of the fire escape that goes up to the roof. It was such a very big bird that I said, "Oh, Wow!" out loud and took a picture of it. When I checked the time on the photograph it was 8:08 am. I had woken up much earlier but decided to go back to sleep for a bit, and this was what I would consider the time when I was really waking up. Later, when I looked up the bird to try to find out what kind it was, I saw that it was a falcon. I had seen it one day recently out of a different window, swooping out of a tree across the street, and I think it might have a nest there, but to have it appear at the moment I was waking up on New Year's Day felt like a very special and beautiful gift.

When I went to YES Gallery that afternoon, it was very quiet, and because I had arrived fairly early, I decided that I'd leave earlier so I could get home before the weather grew colder. There was a wonderful neighbor who had stopped by two days before and he had said that he might be stopping by with his wife to look at some art together and possibly get some ornaments and maybe have her try to find a pair of earrings she liked. I kept checking my messages to see if he was going to stop by and when I didn't see anything as it began to grow darker, I decided that they must have been planning to visit another day.

Just as I was walking out of the gallery and locking up, I took a little extra time to look in the windows and enjoy the lovely views, as as I paused on the sidewalk, the lovely couple arrived. They are so kind and pleasant and they said they could come back another day, but I didn't mind opening up again and so I did. They looked at art and chose some ornaments and a pair of earrings and we talked a bit and then they went on their way. Such a lovely way to end the day after such a lovely way it had started! Here's to more days like this and a very happy New Year!

A Wonderful Morning Visitor

Outside My Window

A Falcon Bringing Good Cheer

Lovely Visitors In The Evening

Who Brightened The Day

As They Admired Art

And Gave Their Support

To The Artists And YES Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan