Thanksgiving Tablescape

I was asked to set a tablescape for a fall/thanksgiving dinner table for a magazine. I used a lucite table that I designed where the top comes off and you can fill the table with whatever relates to the season or theme of your dinner party. I filled the table with maple leaves. I then lined the table in my rooster wreaths and candles as well as my flower pods in between the wreaths, all available on my website http://www.jane-carroll.com/. For the pre-set salad course I hollowed out small pumpkins and filled each one with fresh organic greens with a balsamic dressing and chopped pumpkin seeds. The results are lots of texture, color, punch and creativity! When you think about setting a table with a harvest theme use the harvest as much as possible for your decor it is not only readily available but very cost effective. Check out my site for the gourd tea lites also used on this table. Enjoy falling into the season

Designing With Fall Leaves

This has to be one of the prettiest times of the year, especially if you live in a part of the country that has the changing of the leaves in autumn! The leaves at this time are as beautiful as flowers with their brilliant shades of gold, orange and flaming red. I try to wrap everything and anything in fresh fall foliage for my home this time of year. Above is a photo of our fresh fall foliage table runner which is so easy for anyone to make. You just need an old runner or make a runner out of any old sheet or fabric you have hanging around the house. Cut it to fit you table, if you have a rectangular table cut the fabric so it is in the center and hangs over the edge. If a round table is what you have just cut a piece of fabric in a circle. Then go collecting fall leaves, cut the stem off the leaf and lay the leaf right side down on a piece of cardboard (so that the glue is on the backside of the leaf). Spray the leaves with tac2000 spray glue (I found this to be the only spray glue that actually works!). Spray about a dozen leaves at once, they are best when tacky, not dry but not completely wet. Once the 12 are sprayed start applying them to your runner or cloth until it is completely covered. If you are not using your runner right away you can store it in a cool place like the basement or even outside as long as it is cool and not in the sun. It is best to store your runner flat with paper on top (newspaper works great too) and then add books to weigh it down and keep the foliage flat. This design will liven up any dinner or brunch and will be a huge hit at thanksgiving. It is one of the easiest creations to make with the largest impact visually! If you have any questions please let me know and I will gladly answer. You can email me directly at jane@jane-carroll.com or call my studio at 845-268-7202. Happy Fall!!!

Saturday Night Live Biden Palin Debate

I had to post this video from SNL, I thought it was hysterical!! I can watch it over and over again. Let me know your thoughts! Oh God, when your down and feeling blue crack open a bottle of wine, eat bread & cheese and watch this video.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-biden/727421/

Jane

Veggie Centerpieces

OK, I am finally back. Summer is gone and I am looking forward to having a massively busy fall into winter season!! I have re-designed our site a bit to make it easier to navigate as well as more informative.

I wanted to start off this fall season with a little how to blog. I use to teach in my studio years ago to make some extra money in slow season. I had a morning class and an evening class. We actually had a waiting list of people wanting in!!! The ladies love it, as did I. We ate, we drank (wine at the night class), smoked cig's (pre-heart attack) and laughed. My students loved the idea of also having a centerpiece to take home and enjoy.

I want to start how to's on my blog for people who don't or can't spend a lot of money or have cdd (creative deficit disorder).

Since it is the fall season I thought I would share with you the art of making a fresh vegetable centerpiece. It is one of the easiest designs I know how to make and again, not your typical glass ginger jar with stuff! You first take a glass or plastic cylinder. If you have neither one of these get a 2 litre bottle of soda and cut it down so it is 4 inches shorter then your fresh asparagus. Take a heavy duty rubber band and place it around your cylinder container. Cut your asparagus so that they are all the same height. Start placing your asparagus between the rubber band and the container until it is completely covered. Then take a handful of your favorite flowers and cut them so the flower heads sit right on top of the asparagus. When you are done tie raffia around the rubber band to hide it. Place the arrangement on the dinner table and you are good to go for a perfect fall feast or your thanksgiving table. One note...make sure your arrangement is never over 11 1/2 inches tall so that your guests can all converse.

The ball in the photo is another unique idea for a table centerpiece. We just covered tennis balls with fresh flowers using a low temp glue gun. Try to use flowers that last a while such as santini mums or use flowers that dry well like roses, ranunculus or hydrangea florets. We then mound up five balls and place in a bowl.

Try for something unique and creative at your next dinner party!

Jane

work out

Sorry for the long delay between blogs, it is slow season so I have been working my butt off coming up with new product and product lines for the fall. Check our site to see the new selections which should be up by August!! We will be adding gift baskets to my product line. I hate the word basket so if anyone out there has another word for basket in the "gift basket" industry let me know. You can register on my site and be sent updates and special pricing and offerings. 

So let me tell you what a freak I have become since my heart attack (which by the way it is my 1 yr anniversary). Over this past weekend my sister wanted me to go check out this new gorgeous gym her and her husband joined about 3 months ago. Now keep in mind it has a nursery for her 3 year old daughter (you know the daughter, the kid who comes to my office every day and writes on my walls and furniture. Her new thing is potty training, she now likes to stand behind me at my desk and pee on the floor, why me!!!!!) My sister loves this gym but only made it there 2 or 3 times. She tells me I would motivate her to go if I join. OK, so now here I am, the total opposite of my sister. About a week after my heart attack I decided I was going to become a runner. Now remember I was a smoker for over 20 years but I was not only going to recover from my heart attack I was going to be stronger then I ever was. I walk up a couple of hills and made my way to hook mountain. It was August and hot and I walked the trail along the hudson river until I saw the mile and a half mark. I then turned around and started walking back down the trail. Well the idiot I am, by the time I got to the end of the trail I had to call Robert to come pick me up because there was no way I could make it up another hill. Cathy my sister one extreme, Jane the other extreme.

Anyway, back to the gym. Vision Fitness in Pearl River NY www.visionfitnessny.com is one of the most beautiful gyms I ever saw. It is state of the art with a fireplace in the yoga room, lounge with computer access, spin room, children's gym room with amazing exercise equipment for kids age 8 and up and even a movie room which has all sorts of cardio equipment! Of course like I need more fitness. I presently work out 6 days a week, 3 days with my incredible trainer Nancy (if your in NY looking for a trainer she is brilliant). I do 2 days circuit training and 1 day kick boxing. I then do 3 days cardio walking, running but like any other lunatic I feel I need to push more so I thought of joining a gym to have options, take a class, do yoga, etc. So here I am having a good old time walking around with the 20 something trainer who was just adorable telling me all about the gym as my niece is holding her crotch telling us she didn't have to go potty. Oh god, let us get thru the gym without her peeing on the floor!!! My sister did manage to get her to the toilet (she is a skinny kid and did slip into the toilet rather then sit on the toilet but she made it yehhhh) when we checked out the locker rooms. As our tour ended I sat with my guide who gave me literature to take home as my sister and my niece sat at the smoothie bar ordering chocolate milkshakes!!! My sister just kept saying, "it only has 280 calories"!!! Bottom line, I will most likely join the gym and become more addictive to exercising and maybe I can get my sister Cathy to go with me by reminding her of the chocolate milkshakes at the smoothie bar! Stay tuned..........

heart attack

I was shocked and saddened, as the rest of the country was, to hear about Tim Russerts death this week. I felt especially vulnerable when I heard about his ongoing medical condition. His doctor said he was a model patient, followed a modified diet, exercised and took his medication. After our house fire in February of 2007 we moved into a rental for almost a year. In mid July of last year, on a Monday evening around 8pm I started to get mild chest pains with some mild pain in my shoulders. The pain gradually got more intense and Robert (the boyfriend from previous blogs whom also is the person I rented the house from while my house was uninhabitable) insisted on taking me to the hospital. I went kicking and screaming and only went after I ran into the bathroom and sucked down one last cigarette knowing the hospital wait would be long!!

We arrived at the hospital around 9:30pm and they ushered my ass right thru the doors (complaining of chest pain moves you to the head of the line). I was trying to tell the nurses and the doctors that although I had not formally attended medical school (nor did I even make it to the 3rd semester of college) I was stung by a bee a few days prior and when I researched online about heart attack like symptoms it stated that an allergic reaction to a bee sting could trigger side effects similar to a heart attack. I just wanted them to confirm my diagnosis and then I could take a pill, go home, have a good night smoke and go to sleep! Well they hooked me up to ekg's, took a mri, checked vitals and were a bit dumbfounded. I was far from the typical heart attack victim,  42 yrs old, 5'10" tall weighing in at a whopping 121lbs.  The female doctor on duty that night came in with the nurse and informed me that she thought it could be premenopausal but wanted to take blood tests to rule out other possibilities. Doing the blood work would mean keeping me overnight which was never going to happen. I mean for gods sake I was felling better and was dying for a smoke! The premenopausal comment also put me over the edge and I thought I would have to take down the doctor for it and would end up spending the night in a jail cell. The safest place for me was home so I checked myself out, signed a paper releasing the medical personal and hospital from any liability if I dropped dead. Had poor Robert bring me home as I insisted I was fine and it was the bee that was affecting me! It was 1am by the time we got home and Robert gets up at 6am for work, I felt terrible!!!!

I got up on Tuesday morning and walked Guinness which felt like I ran a 20 mile marathon. I then went to work, went to the grocery store at the end of the day and lifting the bag with a loaf of bread and some pretzels winded me beyond belief. That night I managed to eat nothing and just dove into bed at 6pm. I got up on Wednesday feeling much better. I thought the bee sting had finally left my body and I was getting back to normal. I spent the day in the office with 2 business associates who were down from Canada to visit my company. Myself and Robert took them to dinner that night in Nyack. When we got to the restaurant I was feeling a bit tired and achy, I felt it was just from the stress of the last couple of nights at chez Nyack Hospital. I ordered my norm, steak, french fries and a nice glass of red wine. The first hint that something was wrong was I couldn't drink my glass of red wine, it almost made me sick to my stomach (oh god, how sad that comment is). I can drink a glass of red wine in 120 degree weather on a sandy beach! I was starting to feel out of breath. I cut the dinner short and headed home. When Robert and I got to the house we were sitting on the couch and I was feeling like I was suffocating and didn't want him to know so I tried my best to get rid of him! He left and I found myself slumped over a piece of furniture gasping for air! This happened a few times and I started to get scared so I called Robert down to the house (are you all thinking...oh this poor guy???). He sat with me for a few episodes of not being able to breath with shooting pains down both arms as well as massive chest pains. Then it finally went away and I told Robert I was fine, even though he wanted me to go to the hospital. He went back upstairs to his apartment and I tried sleeping. About 20 minutes later the shooting pain down my arms and chest started again as well as being breathless. Poor Robert, I called again and he came downstairs. He insisted I go to the hospital. I insisted that if it happened 3 times in a row I would go. Oh god, the pain was ridiculous and not being able to breath is one of the scariest things to experience. I was falling apart and knew I needed to go so off we went to the hospital for the second time in 3 days. Of course as soon as we got there I was known as the woman who checked herself out 2 days ago!!!! Well to make a long story short, Robert saved my life by convincing me to go to the hospital. I ended up having a heart attack in the emergency room and fortunately they administered a nitro patch which prevented any muscle damage to my heart. I will fill you in on what happened over the next couple of days in the hospital but I have to get to work now. I am just hoping that we get more info on exactly what Tim Russert's diet, exercise routine and medications were because I have changed my lifestyle and I hope to god it makes a difference otherwise I'm going back to smoking for stress release, eating junk and getting off these meds that throw your body into complete chaos!!!! 

surviving mothers day and thereafter

I know it has been a while but it took some time to recoup and I had a few things I was working on! This is always a bit of a scary time for my business, the summer is slow so I am trying to do a few things to change that. Spread the word about my blog and site and help me out!

OK so yesterday I thought I would burst a blood vessel! My son was working all day and went home to take a shower. He called me at the office 15 minutes later to tell me that United Water had cut us off. Of course my dear mother was here at the office with me and immediately asked if I had paid the bill (that sort of questioning comes up a lot when you own a small business and live by the seat of your pants waiting to turn the corner and never worry about bills again!)

Anyway back to the story. So of course I told my mother the water bill is practically the only bill I pay on time because it is always so low! My son tells me he called United Water and they said there was nothing they could do. Being the calm, cool and collected individual that I am (mind you, I am so calm I ended up giving myself a heart attack last July, a real authentic, emergency room heart attack with all the bells and whistles that come along with that particular health [problem!) I immediately got on the phone to customer service at United Water In Rockland County. The woman explained to me that we did not have a water meter and therefore they shut us off! No warning, no letters, no nothing, just give you the finger Jane Carroll in your face attitude from my rep at United Water. I explained to her that the water meter had melted last year when we had the house fire and when we got back into the house in January I called them to get one installed. They finally got back to me in April and told me they were installing a new meter and it had taken so long because they had new meters that there employees did not have to enter the home anymore they just drive by and their little gadgets read it automatically (oh boy, technology, what a wonderful thing, now if we could just have intelligence to go along with that!). So we finally got our drive by water meter in May as I paid for the past year and a half on estimated bills, and yes mom, on time!!! The customer service rep tells me that everyone there at United Water had been instructed, under no circumstances, to turn my water back on. With that said, the lunatic in me came out and I asked her who was the almighty powerful one who instructed them with such confidence in his position as supervisor. They gave me the supervisors name and I asked to be connected to his phone line. They told me that would be useless as he was either in the field or home. Home....hmmmmm...I am sure he was going home to a nice shower, pasta boiling in water, fido drinking water from his bowl, his children washing daddy's car with water supplied by United Water, his wife in the jacuzzi filled with water!!!!! My son and I were going home to a dried up well, I was not going down easily. Since I couldn't contact the powers to be I then asked for the telephone number of the main headquarters for United Water, to my shock she informed me that would be in the country of FRANCE!!!!! Now in the great country of ours, how in god's name did France get approved to own a utility company, here in my sleepy river town of Nyack, NY?????? So OK, can't call France (they are 5 hrs ahead of us), it was 10pm their time. I resort to desperate measures, I look over at my mother and decide to use her as a bargaining chip. I tell (well maybe I scream) my lovely customer service rep (whom I am sure she felt so lucky to have picked me as her phone customer) that I have a sick mother over the age of 70 who is staying with me and is in need of water. I tell her I will sue the french beret off of United Water if anything happens to my poor, sick mother (who by the way is sitting next to me waiting to go out to dinner and throw back a few with my sister!) She certainly couldn't go to my house for the Dewar's and water!! This ranting went on for what felt like minutes when I am sure it was just seconds. I finally hang up with her and then proceed to leave a voice message for the supervisor who gave the orders not to turn on my water under any circumstances! Five minutes later my cell phone starts ringing, surprise, it's United Water telling me they made a mistake and were sending someone out to my house to get the water back on. How do you install a water meter in April and not document it anywhere? Also how do you shut off water to a customer without any warning? It infuriates me that a customer service rep can't help and you have to become irate to get anywhere. Well anyway, that was the end of my day yesterday, hoping today's ending will be a bit better. It should be, I am working out so I can get my aggression and frustrations out on the heavy bag. I'll tell you about my heart attack next time, yes I was only 42 when I had it!

lucky

I am home, it's 7pm and I was just thinking how lucky I am. Work has been tough with the economy lately but it's my own company and I have options. I can work harder, be creative and make a mark in my industry. I am having a glass of wine and I have my music blasting throughout my house. After the fire I decided to get my entire house wired. Each room has a keypad for CD, Satellite, TV, Radio, my god who has it better then me! I need to remind myself of that more often! My son has a 3.5 grade point average for his first year of college, I got my health back (we can talk about that later) and I get to dance in every room of my house (and thank god I have a house)!!!! Michael, if you read this I want you to know how incredibly proud I am to have a son like you!!!!!!!! We're Irish so we would never voice that sentiment so I thought I would write it. To coming home tomorrow, I missed you!!!! MOM

The House Fire

So in the middle of trying to make a business bloom, we also did major renovations to our home mostly by ourselves. Michael and my brother made concrete counter tops. We removed thousands of staples in the beautiful hardwood floors hidden under linoleum and carpets, put together kitchen cabinets by Ikea. A note on Ikea, you need to consider these cabinets, they have a 25 yr warranty, come in so many styles and the drawers are molded plastic so they are so easy to keep clean. We did our whole kitchen for $3,000 and anyone who sees the cabinets think they are custom. So anyway, we were nearly finished, had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas and on a freezing bitter cold Sunday night in February I turned in early. I had a bad cold and needed to be at Lincoln Center the following day to receive an award from Forbes Magazine for my companies achievements. I took some cold pills, put Little Miss Sunshine in the DVD played and fell asleep. At 1am my son Michael came into my bedroom and told me we needed to get out of the house that it was on fire.  I told him to go get Darina and the dog and I would go downstairs and check it out. As I made my way down the steps, thick black smoke overcame the house. Michael thought the fire was in the laundry room so I made my way over there, hit the light switch and heard sizzling. I immediately thought it was an electrical fire and screamed to the kids to leave everything and get out of the house. We stood out in the street in 10 below weather with only the clothes on our backs watching thick black smoke coming out of every crevice in the house. I called the fire dept. and our neighbors let us in as we watched 6 fire trucks and tons of fireman go in and out of our house for the next five hours. When it was all over we were told by the fire inspector that the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion. We were refinishing a piece of furniture in the basement and we left rags with stain on the concrete floor. The rags combusted in the middle of the night and spread to everything in the basement and made its way up the walls to the first floor of the house. The fire Marshall said we were lucky, if our dog Guinness didn't wake up Michael by barking non stop, we would have been overcome by smoke inhalation within minutes. Of course I was unconscious because I took a cold and flu medication and when Michael woke me up I told him he could take off from school and to go back to sleep!!! The kids and the dog saved my ass! When the smoke and flames subsided reality crept in. We sat in the driveway in the car with my insurance agent who told us to each get a garbage bag and take clothes for a day or 2. All our belongings would either go in the garbage or would be taken out to be cleaned. We gathered our garbage bags and headed to my office to figure out where we were going to live for a while! I'll continue later..... 

Michael My Son

I just read my last post and realized why Michael and Darina decided to go to college in South Carolina last September. They must have needed the rest and relaxation!! Guinness is still stuck with me! Here's my Michael with a future family graduate, Catherine my godchild. 

My Dog

Here's the star of the family, Guinness the dog who saved us from our house fire last year! I see him as absolutely adorable with a mush face but most (for some strange reason) see him as a scary dog!

So I will briefly tell you about the lovely 2007 we had as a family (Me, Mike, his girlfriend Darina and Guin). We moved from Darien CT (the most pretentious, obnoxious, self absorbed, judgmental place I have ever been. Where how you dress, where your from, how much money you make, what you drive and who you know makes the person) to Nyack NY. Nyack is a beautiful, artsy river town located 20 miles north of NYC on the hudson river. I used to drive from the Bronx when I was young and look at houses telling myself I would live in Nyack one day and now I do!

CT was a major mistake, my sister and her husband lived there which is why I tried it (they don't live there anymore). I am not going to get into the whole experience of Darien CT today, but I will tell you my son was arrested (for attending a house party with 300 of Dariens finest children (at least in their prescriptive drugged parents minds), my house was raided by 16 policemen in 7 police cars. My son was also arrested for riding his dirtbike. I was continually followed by police cars, my house was always watched and going to the grocery store in my sweatpants and baseball cap with no makeup was like attending a yankee game and standing on the pitchers mound in my underwear! The neighbors were horrified!!!! Good riddens to you Darien, may you all continue to pretend to live perfect lives while hitting up the medicine cabinet with your children!

Anyway, my son, Darina and I (with our Guin) moved into our 1966 contemporary with hudson river views in February of 2006. I had a vision!!!! We all looked beyond the red, white and blue shag carpeting, linoleum kitchen floors, pink and blue bathrooms and a painted white wrought iron banister and saw a diamond in the rough. Everyone nicknamed the house "The Brady Bunch House". Many nights I would wake my son up holding a sledge hammer telling him another wall had to come down. We ripped out the kitchen ourselves as our neighbors watched us in our pj's laughing our asses off trying to carry pieces of the kitchen that weighed more then me into the dumpster (one of 6 dumpsters in 7 months). One night I decided we could re-do the copper pipes under the kitchen sink and install the new faucet without the help of a real plumber. What the hell, if you can read instructions what's the big deal. I went and bought the kit with the soldering gun, flux, sandpaper, the whole nine yards. Of course it was the middle of the winter and we had to shut the water off which meant no heat until we fixed the pipes. We thought the more solder you put onto a copper pipe the better the fitting. Every time Michael went into the basement to turn the water back on, water shot up through the connections on the pipes. I was up in the kitchen screaming "shut the water off" as I got soaked along with the kitchen floor. We would then run to the fireplace, get warm and then back to soldering. This went on from around 7pm until 2 in the morning. I finally got online and read everything there was on copper pipes and plumbing. I can flux, sand and solder my way through any copper pipe these days! We worked like dogs, had so many laughs and I have so many tips for designs that are creative, look gorgeous and cost little. I will try to post some before and after photos if I can find them and also give tips along the way.

My mother is here at the office and is hungry and wants to go out to dinner now so I have to sign off and will continue writing later. Sorry but when mother wants food and a jug of wine we go.

moms sauce

I could get addicted to this blogging thing and end up with no life! I'm home after my day of playing with flowers and just replaced the candles on my dining room table. I will post a photo of what my table looks like because the most cost effect and bang for your buck decor is so simple. I bought 6 various height and style glass and crystal candle holders that I have scattered down the center of the table with 12 glass votive candles interspersed. You can pick up candlesticks at garage sales, ebay or any homegoods type of store!!!! I will post a photo tomorrow. I always made it a point, even if we had macaroni and cheese, when my son and I (or a house full of guests) sat for dinner it was always by candlelight, this was my rule. So no matter how shitty or stressed your day went you couldn't help but be soothed by a full belly, huge glass of red wine and the way candles made everything appear beautiful! I am cooking my mothers tomato sauce, it is a tradition in mine and my siblings homes. She brews a fresh batch every time my son comes home from college. It is the Irish version of sauce and I will post the recipe if she allows me, it's to die for.

I need to run so I can finish cooking for my boyfriend whom has the strength and courage to come to my house even after my dog Guinness (yes the Irish beer) attacked his mother and sent her to the ER for stitches in her arm. God I will let you know the details and my dog tendencies for aggression later in the week. I am going to post photos of my endearing puppy. I think I need a survey as to who thinks he looks like a beast and who thinks he looks like an angel!

where have all the good guys and girls gone!

Politics is not going to be a huge forum for me on my blog (the candidates bore me to tears) but I wanted to chat about our senator Hillary Clinton. This particular incident has bothered me for years! From the first year I started my business in 1996 until 2002 my company only provided event designing and planning, my retail line did not exist up to this point. In the summer of 2001 (I was living in my shop from 1997 until late in 2001) I was desperate to get ahead and of course I was not going to give up. I decided to write a letter to Oprah introducing my company. I also sent her photo copies of pictures from events we had done. I told her if there was anything she may need in terms of event coordinating or event designing to let me know. Of course everyone in my building complex along with the couple of employees I had laughed their asses off when I told them what I had done and let them know Oprah would be calling! 3 days after I sent the letter the phone rang and it was a woman calling from Oprah's office. She informed me that Oprah loved my work and wanted me to come up with a retail item that could be shipped anywhere in the country. I created boxed in blooms and it was due to go into her magazine on her "O" list in November 2001. September 11th 2001 the world trade center was hit and the world changed. I had one brother who is a NY City Fireman, another who had just resigned but was called back into the NY City Police Dept. New York stood still as we all tried to comprehend the totality of this tragedy. As friends and family in Pearl River NY (huge population of Irish, cops, fireman, policeman, nurses and teachers, most transplanted from the Bronx) attended funeral after funeral for a year, I struggled to hold on to my business. As event work disappeared in the city and elaborate parties came to a halt I had the Oprah magazine coming out in November and thought that would sustain my company so there was light at the end of the tunnel and I just needed to hang on. Then around September 21st the phone rang and it was once again Oprah's office informing me that under the circumstances they were changing the layout of the November issue due to the events of September 11th and they would call to let me know what issue we were going in. I waited and waited and waited. In the meantime I thought of our dear senator and thought she was there for the people of NY and represented women and our struggles, god was I wrong!!!! I wrote telling her how my business was devastated and we were trying to keep afloat. If there were any suggestions on networking with other women, any organizations she knew who could possibly help us while we tried to figure out how to get business back into NY would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Hillary 8 times over the next few months and never once did she respond. Hillary was not there for us New Yorkers, nor was she there for a fellow woman but Oprah was and my boxed in blooms was featured on the "O" list in February 2002. My retail line was born!

welcome to my blog!

I am so thrilled I now have a voice thru my site. I have a big mouth in real life and wanted an opportunity to share tips on floral designing and decorating, as well as share incredible highs and lows as I navigate and try to grow a small business from the basement of my home in the Bronx to the pages of Oprah, Instyle, People and more! With no investors, PR firm, business loans or partners I hope to give insight and humor into the daily struggles and triumphs of running a new york company that employs not only me but my sister, her 3 yr old daughter Catherine, my mom, the ex-husband, the ex husbands childhood friend, my son part-time, Brooks, Yolanta, Norma and more. In the world of big business, big bonuses and even bigger bail outs, step into and get personal with the little guys!