This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending my first holiday-themed event of the season – Yelp’s Holiday Bazaar at the New Britain Museum of American Art. Emily Cahill, Senior Community Manager for Yelp Hartford, did an amazing job coordinating so many vendors and even entertainment. What an awesome turnout!
Tote bags and name tags were provided.
I received complimentary Bristol Bliss products for review purposes. All opinions are my own. This is not a sponsored post.
When I visited Brilliant Options Wellness for my first massage, I noticed some cute and great-smelling soy candles in the studio. BOW owner Kellie informed me that they were a local product (hooray!) by Bristol Bliss. I contacted owner Mary Brown to find out more about her natural/organic candles and other beauty products. She was kind enough to offer me some samples for a review and giveaway blog post!
I received bath salts, a candle, lip balm, and body scrub.
Unfortunately I never take baths so I never got a chance to use the All-Natural Detoxifying Ginger Bath Salts. The ingredients list is short and sweet: epsom salt, sea salt, ground ginger, baking soda, essential oil. I am not a big user of natural beauty products (or beauty products in general…I just have a few basics) so these pronounceable ingredients are new to me – that’s a good thing!
Make sure you check Cait Plus Ate on Facebook to find out who won my Real Art Ways Oddball giveaway. I hope you’ll consider attending – tickets are still available!
One great thing about a blog is the ability to look back at fun times of the past, especially if those fun times involve annual events. I have blogged about the Glastonbury Apple Harvest Festival twice previously – last year and the year before – but have never missed the festival since my first fall living in CT (2001). It’s frankly just an adorable fall event and really gets attendees in the spirit! The timing is great – the foliage is lovely, it’s not too cold out yet (hoodie/sweater weather!), and the autumn sun is often shining bright. Yes there have been some rainy years, but more often than not the Glastonbury Apple Harvest Festival (Apple Fest) fares well weather-wise.
Look at that blue sky!
The Biena Foods roasted chickpea snacks giveaway closes tonight at 11:59PM EST, so make sure to enter! I will announce the winner tomorrow.
Who has the day off for Columbus Day? Oh, you do? Well I don’t like you. Sorry, I am a bitter Betty today. My alarm went off for work and I felt as if I could’ve slept another few hours (realistically I probably would have slept about one hour more, but I’m just sayin’).
At least Columbus Day meant my commute was not long or crowded.
Let’s focus on the marvelous though, because it’s marvelous that I even have a job, after all. And my weekend was full of marvelous too.
Be sure to join Katie’s link-up and share your marvelous!
Marvelous is…Friday night pizza and salad at Kat‘s house with her, hubby Mike, and baby Penelope. I provided the wine, Kat provided the delicious food, and Penelope provided the laughs (and alas tears – she is teething). Kat prepared a fresh spinach salad with radishes, heirloom tomatoes, balsamic, and EVOO. She also made four naan flatbreads – one with roasted shredded baby cabbages and goat cheese (we obviously had some on the side too), one with fig and prosciutto, and two with buffalo chicken and fresh basil (bro-friendly for Mike). My favorite was definitely the fig and prosciutto but the Brussels pizza was obviously a close second.
I received free entry into this event via a press pass. This is not a sponsored post and all opinions of the event and what I sampled there are my own.
Where do I begin?! I mentioned in Friday’s post that I’d be attending an event that evening that I was extremely excited for. Well, the Onyx Moonshine Gatsby Ball and Onyx 111 Infusion Challenge lived up to my expectations. The marvelous event was one of the best I’ve ever attended.
Join Katie’s link-up to stay focused on the positive on your Monday!
I pulled up to the gorgeous venue, The Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill (Middletown, CT), and immediately knew why Kaitlin has chosen this as the place she will be married next summer. The entry way is what I can only describe as “grand”, and the inside was lovely and perfect for a party meant to transport guests to the past.
Check out that peacock feather in an Onyx bottle – great centerpiece!
Every Labor Day my parents do the huge New Haven Road Race, and the last several years I have been joining them to stay overnight at the Omni the night before. We feast and drink in Downtown New Haven (knowing we don’t have to drive anywhere), and the ‘rents do the race in the morning while I hit the gym (which is pretty darn nice for a hotel). Then I find an interesting cafe for coffee, followed by a unique spot for lunch, while my parents wait in huge post-race-beer lines.
This year my dad was away so my mom and I decided to still visit New Haven for a night, but she joined me in the hotel gym, because we stayed Saturday to Sunday (as opposed to the usual Sunday to Monday) this year. Our getaway couldn’t have come at a better time; I had a lot of anxiety and such going on after last Thursday night’s A Taste in Simsbury event, and I needed nothing more than a special weekend with my amazing mother.
One of my first blog posts ever was about my finds from my first-ever trip to the Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market, the best farmers’ market I have ever been to (by far). I was lucky enough to go TWICE last summer with Heather and even participated in one of their events, as a judge for a cocktail competition. This past Sunday, I made my first (and hopefully not the last) trip of the 2013 season! I could not have asked for better company – my sister Hannah, my good friend Kat, and her daughter (the famous) Penelope.
Penelope visited with my mom before we left for the market!
Please notice Penelope’s fabulous foodie onesie, appropriately gifted to her by Emily, Community Manager for Yelp Hartford!
A huge thanks to all my supports who helped my blog’s FB page hit – and surpass – the 600 like milestone yesterday! My next milestone goal is 4,000 followers on Twitter and I am currently at 3,917 – so close! So if you’d like to throw a follow (or 83) my way, I wouldn’t object 😉 I’m so thankful for all of those that continue to support me!
I’ve been to It’s Only Natural – a popular vegetarian restaurant in downtown Middletown, CT – many times. My area does not have many vegetarian/vegan restaurants, so every meal there feels special. The food is always unique and fresh.
My last visit was unfortunately, while delicious, also slow and sullen thanks to a waitress who was overstaffed but also making no effort to apologize for the speed of service or make customers feel welcome. I was there with Kaitlin, who elaborated on that negative part of our visit on her blog.
I’m gearing up to leave for vacation this Friday (a week off work, what a perfect birthday present!) so work has been CRAZY. School too. Therefore I’m keeping it light again on the blog today and just popping in to do a giveaway!
Living just outside of Hartford gives me easy access to The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts, where fantastic musicals, plays, panels, and more are held year-round. The Bushnell seriously offers something for everyone! I’ve seen Wicked there twice, and took my Nana Connie to see The Addams Family Musical in 2011. You may recall that I attended the CT Forum’s Vision & Brilliance panel in December as well. I’ve sat on the floor and in the balcony, and I’m serious – every seat is a good seat. After all, the theater was designed so that every single patron could sit back and enjoy the arts, and that involves actually being able to SEE them!
How are you all doing?! Thank you for the compliments on yesterday’s Blo West Hartford review! I wish I could tell you my hair looked like that every day, but alas, right now it is in a messy bun. And here’s some proof for you:
Blend run-in!
I am blogging from Daybreak right now because due to Sandy, my workplace has no power (thankfully I do have power at home and we only ended up losing it for an hour last night). As I was settling in here, someone approached me and introduced herself…the lovely lady pictured above, Rachel of Healthy Chicks! I met her dad (a local) here awhile ago, and we got to talking and somehow my blog came up. He told me he had a daughter who blogged and lived in Boston, and put me in contact with her via Twitter. She came to stay with him during Sandy and recognized me blogging away – she was even expecting to possibly see me here since, as regular readers know, I am ALWAYS at Daybreak! I loved chatting with her and still can’t get over the coincidence. Never thought when I left this morning that I’d be meeting a blend today!
Alliteration, come at me! I have a few pieces of cool information that I want to share with you all today:
The beautiful blogger (and fellow Vol, yes I consider myself one even though I didn’t go to UT) Sloane of Strength in Freedom is starting a campaign that is going to be an amazing support system for many girls – I just know it. The campaign is called Freedom From Perfection and is all about being able to share (anonymously if you wish) the thoughts you may have that put pressure on you to be perfect. Whether you suffer from disordered eating or are just sick of those occasional “should” statements that pop up in your mind, you can participate. Sloane is providing an outlet to be honest about those thoughts, get them out in the open, and push them away! She launched the campaign today, so make sure you check out her vlog that explains the campaigns message – and how to participate!
Next, I wanted to spread the word about something CT locals may be interested in. Yummy Hummy, a New London-based hummus, pesto, and salsa maker, has been mentioned on my blog a few times. I adore their products – so many unique flavors like Carrot & Dandelion Green Pesto, Curry Hummus, and Strawberry Salsa (all of which I’ve tried and love). This November and December, Yummy Hummy is offering a convenient way for local people to regularly receive tubs of their local products – a winter share with pickup at the Wethersfield Winter Farmers’ Market. For just $32, you can get access to four pickups (two in November, two in December). At each pickup, you will receive two containers of your choice. That’s a savings of $1 per container, and pickups are 11/1, 11/15, 12/6, and 12/20. So hurry and sign up! To do so, email Lexy at [email protected] or call her at 860-334-2045.
Finally, I received a FB message from a high school friend letting me know about a product with a mission that I may be interested in. She was right about that, and I want to share it with you guys too. Her friends Alex and Mark previously worked for MANA Nutrition, a non-profit that (along with Unicef) provides ready-to-use-therapeutic food (RUTF) to children around the world with severe acute malnutrition. It’s basically a powerful dose of nutrients that these little bodies so desperately need to get them back to a level at which complete development can occur. Now Alex and Mark are starting “the TOMS for peanut butter” – Good Spread. They’ve developed a natural peanut butter (just peanuts, organic honey, organic sea salt) and will be donating to MANA funds for one RUTF packet for every one packet of Good Spread PB sold. In order to fund an initial production run that will result in enough PB to last six months, Alex and Mark need to raise $65,000 to fund ingredients, mixing, packaging, design, shipping, and stocking. That’s where WE come in! There are 7 days left in their Good Spread Fixed Funding Campaign. Even if you are only able to give a little, every donation counts, so click on that link if you are interested in reading more about and/or supporting the cause!
And that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Or not “all”, because that was a lot! I hope that those affected by Sandy are safe and if you are without power, I hope it is not for long. I’m off to do some homework…maybe.
Have you ever run into a blend somewhere unexpectedly?
How are you faring after Sandy? Were you affected in any way?
Have you ever signed up for a local food share of any kind?
What do you think about Sloane’s campaign and/or Good Spread?
I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!
