An Abundant Life - Coming Home

I grew up in a farmhouse that was built in 1720, and though I've lived for much of my adult life in other places there's something about that house and the land around it that still feels like home. Recently I was back for a visit, and when I stopped into the local supermarket, a wonderful man working in the produce department said, "Welcome home!" and something about the way he said it and the way I was feeling, it touched something so deeply in me that I knew that I was home.

There are so many hopes and dreams that were born in that house. It is the first place where I ever came home to, and the place where I began writing about, the place where I wandered the fields and learned about bugs and bees and flowers and trees. In the area in the back, that I called the back, back yard where I used to wander, there were so many magical things. White violets, moss, tiny lace wings with their iridescent colors, and these wonderful juniper bushes that I discovered I could crawl into and hide in the center, making a kind of fairy home where I felt protected and surrounded by the beautiful scented evergreen boughs.

The person who I was lives on in the person I am now, and on this visit I could feel so much that the land and house and barn are just waiting for me to begin restoring it to what it had been when I was growing up and even longer before that. It has been in kind of sleep, the way an enchanted forest is, but underneath the overgrown areas and near the plantings that have not been nurtured for too long there is life that is waiting to be breathed into and taken up and in with the breath of all that is a part of the journey that is and was and is to come.

A Farmhouse Just Waiting

For Its New Chapter of Life

 

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Beauty Is

I've written about my adventures at Saks Fifth Avenue and the Chanel Beauty department in these pages before, and just this past week I had such another lovely wonderful time that I wanted to take a moment to give thanks to the beautiful Makeup Artist Brianna and the beautiful staff who made my afternoon so lovely.

It's been a very busy time for me for many,  many months now, and even when it's a holiday or my birthday or some other time when I would normally be able to just relax and enjoy myself my schedule has been so full with sometimes so many things that need my focus and attention that I can feel at times as if I really haven't had time to take the time I need to just be and breathe and enjoy the peace and beauty and joy of life. 

When I heard from a woman I know who works in the Chanel Beauty department at Saks that a very special Makeup Artist would be visiting for one day only, I was so happy to see that even though my week was a very full one, the day when she would be visiting I could make the time to be there. I set up the appointment, and when the day arrived I took the time to go and meet with her, deciding that because of the possibility of snow later in the evening that I would go straight home afterward rather than going to YES Gallery or doing other errands which is what I normally would have done. I also decided to give myself the time that I needed to just be there and not be thinking that I had to be somewhere else, and that in itself felt so relaxing. However short or long our appointment would be, I decided that I would let myself enjoy the experience fully without watching the time at all.

As I made my way there, I was running a little late, and because I don't like to keep people waiting I sent a message when I knew the time that I would most likely be arriving. For some reason that day, maybe because my week had already been so very full and very busy, I felt like I couldn't walk fast enough to get there when I wanted to. But when I arrived it was as if all my cares could just drop away because I was welcomed so kindly and made to feel so comfortable immediately with the true gift of hospitality and welcoming warmth that is created by the wonderful staff there.

Brianna began to do my makeup, adding wonderful skin products with such a beautiful gift of skill and touch that I felt like I was receiving the most luxurious facial. She followed that with beginning to add the makeup itself in the same beautifully relaxing and enjoyable way. As she added the different products and colors to the different parts of my face, she described everything carefully and showed me how she was doing each step. There was so much that was so wonderful to learn, and with each new layer and addition the makeup took on a new life that truly went with the way that I know my own face and the way that I would want to have myself look.

I've written in these pages before about my joy of having my makeup done by a professional Makeup Artist, because when they are truly Artists the experience always makes me feel so beautiful, cared for and special. When Brianna was finishing, I told her that what she was creating for me was the best that I could remember and I've had many beautiful experiences with Chanel Makeup Artists. At one point, the woman who had invited me to the event walked by and said, "Oh Wow! Those colors are so beautiful!" And she came back again later to repeat it again, adding about Brianna, "I told you she was really wonderful." It was such a beautiful afternoon, and I'm so grateful that in the busyness of life that I had this beautiful gift given to me of an afternoon of feeling like a princess.

A Visit To The Chanel Beaty Counter

With The Gorgeous Makeup Artist Brianna

At Saks Fifth Avenue

New York City

https://www.saksfifthavenue.com

Feeling Like A Princess

On A Winter Evening

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Saying YES To Love

I wrote a few months ago about a wonderful Christmas Tree that arrived at YES Gallery from a sale at a house in Hoboken. It had belonged to a couple who I had met a few times because I always admired their outdoor displays in their screened in porch, and whenever I saw them I always said hello and thanked them for making such a beautiful place for people who walked by to enjoy. The tree is made of recycled wood pieces, and there is a story behind where the wood came from although I don't remember it now. When I had admired it one day they'd told me about it, and I think it had been made by an Artist, though I'm not sure. Whoever had made it and wherever the wood came from, there's something about it that is so special. It reminds me of things that my Mother always liked and she had a smaller version of something similar on her tabletop in recent years.

The tree was such a wonderful Christmas Tree, and because I don't really have a place to store it and I don't really want to ever put it somewhere where it can't be seen, I decided to decorate it year round in some way. After Christmas and the New Year celebrations, I began to take down my ornaments that were on the tree and in the windows of YES Gallery, but I left a few things on the tree that could become decorations for Valentine's Day. The vintage chandelier crystals I'd hung on the tree stayed, and the little white fairy lights too. And then I began to make Valentine's Day hearts from a roll of red foil Christmas wrapping paper that someone in my neighborhood had put out brand new and still in its protective plastic for recycling one night. When I began making the hearts, I planned to put them in the windows on the tree branches that are there which I did, and after cutting them out I noticed that the red foil that was left from cutting the heart shapes was something that could hang beautifully on my recycled wood tree. The inner shape was a heart, and the red foil paper is silver on one side, so when the pieces are hung on the tree branches, they make the whole tree glow with beautiful dangling red designs that look like hearts inside an open space.

As I began to decorate for Valentine's Day and fill the windows and the tree branches with red foil hearts and paper and other glowing and lovely red decorations, I thought about how important it is to remember that Love really is the answer. So often we think of Valentine's Day as a time for romance and it is, but it is also a day when we can be reminded that love is a powerful force for good in the world. It doesn't always feel easy to love, as we get older and have experiences that make us feel like sometimes our love is not understood or is taken for granted, but love is never wasted, and opening our hearts to saying yes to love will not only bring more love into our lives but will also keep us feeling joyful and able to feel young at heart and at peace.

The Valentine's Day Tree

And Window Decorations

At YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - A Beautifully Special Happy Birthday

I've written in these pages before about the Executive Chef Ashfer Biju and the wonderful experiences he has created at a variety of events and places, and when it was time for me to start planning for my birthday celebration I decided to visit with him for a birthday lunch at the Baccarat Hotels where he is currently creating the most wonderful and joyful food experiences imaginable.

Last summer and early fall I visited first for tea in the Grand Salon and then for a lunch in their outdoor garden terrace Le Jardin, and this time I was able to experience the Grand Salon for the winter season. As always everything was so wonderful and so special, from the moment I walked in the front door to the moment I found myself on my way home again, and my birthday was made all the more beautiful and memorable because of the afternoon I was blessed to enjoy.

Executive Chef Biju and the staff are all so excellent in everything that they do, that every moment is a jewel in a treasure box that just keeps getting more lustrous and glowing as the experience unfolds. I started with a glass of champagne and before my first course of Crab Avocado arrived, a surprise of a lovely Wild Mushroom Bisque with a beautiful pate arrived. Each of those courses was so wonderful, and then the steak arrived which was truly excellent and delightful with such a beautiful presentation and lovely combination of flavors and textures in the accompanying vegetables, bed of polenta and sauce. An order of Pomme Frites with Sumac Aioli and Sel Gris arrived with the steak that was prepared and presented so wonderfully that every taste was a lovely moment in itself. To finish I had chosen the Sticky Toffee Pudding because that is such a long time favorite since the first time I had it in a very special restaurant in London a friend had taken me to years ago, and this one was everything that I could have wished. Another surprise arrived with an array of the most beautiful assortment of Petit Fours and a pink candle, and the little girl heart in me glowed with its sweet loveliness.

Every moment of the afternoon, even the matching of the champagne glass to what I was wearing, made this visit one that I will always be so grateful for as every other time I have visited with the marvelous Executive Chef Ashfer Biju. With so much gratitude to this marvelous Chef and the marvelous Staff for your marvelous hospitality!

Birthday Lunch

At The Baccarat Hotels

With A Gorgeous Menu

By The Marvelous Executive Chef Ashfer Biju

 

Blessings,

Jannie Susan