Artful Day w/Friends

I can't think of a better way of adding some excitement to the middle of the week then a day out with friends for lunch and exploring. Last week my dearest friends Suze and Bonnie met up with mom and me for lunch in Montclair. If you aren't familiar with Montclair, its a great place to explore, fabulous architecture, boutiques, antique stores, artsy activities, eateries, cafes and more. Look at the following building, I feel like I found the secret entrance to Hogwarts or Diagon Alley, its this kind of architecture that gives the area its unique flare. For me Montclair has some great memories for me, I lived there for a short while as a little girl, then moved on to West Orange and eventually 20 plus years in Maplewood, a town similar to Montclair and one worth exploring as well. We met up at Starbucks now housed in the former Haynes Department Store building and headed up to eat at Famous Raymond's located on Church Street, which is the most fabulous vintage operating deli/diner/cafe serving all types of breakfast and lunch entrees, including fountain drinks, shakes and desserts. The decor is by far my favorite asset of the eatery, art deco class and glamor meets a 1950's essence, all wrapped up into one. The menus are just too fab with seer sucker stripes, the counter guy even had a bow tie on which I thought was too cool, the ceiling is original tin w/hanging bulb lamps, wall mounted art deco lighting, rich red leather booths, sophisticated tables and great food, but the company of Suze, Bonnie, Mom and Me was the best part. After lunch we explored a bit on Church Street and headed over to Madeline's Accessory shop which I love, love, love their trendy jewelry and accessories, plus their prices are really reasonable fitting every budget, even Johanna who can be found at Madeline's is extremely nice, helpful and artsy too. Following Madeline's no trip would be complete without a visit to my friend Nancy at her artsy boutique called Parcel, located on Bloomfield Avenue, just the cutest shop ever with fun and unique items sure to fill any artsy, crafty lovers essential list of fun items, Nancy is even doing more classes now, which is so exciting. Finally we all headed to our cars and started to plan our next adventure, but for Mom and Me, our adventure was not quite over, since we were in the area, we decided to head over to Applegate Farms for some ice cream, a real treat for many of us Jerseans, I've been going to Applegate for years, since I was real young, perhaps even as an infant, lol, such a nostalgic place and great atmosphere to spend some time and unwind before heading back home. I opted for a change and went with green tea ice cream and black raspberry, normally I'm a soft serve vanilla girl w/rainbow sprinkles on a cone, lol, but today I changed it up a bit. Thanks for recapping the day with me, have a wonderful coming week and remember adventure can be found through everyday experiences, a walk in the park, by your house, around your house, within your religion, children, family, friends, pets and art, simple things such as shoes, flowers, books and food. xoxo Lisa xoxo Lisa

Adventure in Montclair

I grew up in Essex County, NJ, lived in Montclair when I was real little, onto West Orange for a bit and finally from age 9 years old til 27 years old I called Maplewood, NJ home. If you aren't familiar with these towns, Montclair and Maplewood are very similar, a few towns away from each other, ornate and fabulous architecture/historic homes, great cafes, boutiques and very, very artsy, just so much to see and do in these towns.

Montclair is perfect for exploring, so many nooks and grannies to search and photograph, we all know how much I love photographs, lol, so with that being said, Saturday was a perfect day to break out of the house and explore all the artsy goodness Montclair had to offer, with the warm weather, sun shining and make it a Saturday, I was off to explore.

First was a stroll into the Montclair Bookstore off Bloomfield Ave., which I love, love, love, so many great finds in this store, out of prints, rare, old, vintage and new, you could get lost in there with the different sections and floors inside, its like a Harry Potter bookstore right in modern day settings. Inside is filed from floor to ceiling with tons of books, mags and ephemera, if going allow at least an hour inside, my exploring buddy Dave lost me a few times inside, lol.

Then it was off to explore the rest of the stores, especially on Church Street, which over the years has played home to some of my favorite stores, sadly no longer there such as Cat's Pajamas, Toys in the Attic, British Tea Store and just down the road the funky vintage store: Boomerang, today its filled with equally fantastic stores, including the neighboring streets which have built up with boutiques and cafes as well, the even have an Anthropology store and Urban Outfitters. The starbucks is housed in the former Haynes Dept Store building which I visited often as a little girl, my communion dress came from there.
After a few hours of exploring, we were running out of steam, needed to eat, our first pick was Cuban Pete's but the wait would be over an hour, so we ventured out to Mcloone's Boat House overlooking the Turtle Back Res., in West Orange, such a great place, I recommend it for the view, especially Spring through Fall.

Next explore trip will be Art day at my former home town in Maplewood, NJ, the best hometown ever, so quaint and historic, also home to the fab store Perch Home.

P.S. All the photos in this post were taken from my Iphone 5 and the filters are Instagram, you can follow me there as well: moonfaires or type Lisa Kettell
xoxo
Lisa