Happy Thanksgiving 2018 – And Important News!

Hi Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving 2018, well, a day early, but I’m actually writing you from beautiful Conway, Massachusetts. Or, as they fondly call it here, western mass.

Where is Conway, MA?

It’s nestled in the foothills of the Berkshire mountains. I only arrived yesterday, a completely uneventful trip, until my car decided that it had to have coolant, NOW when I was about 25 minutes away from son, Cale Israel.

No worries, I found a general store in the town of Whately, MA called “Muffins”. And yes, they had coolant– oh, and I discovered later some pretty amazing muffins. haha.

A kind man put it in my car for me and refused any money. So nice. Cale arrived because it was dark and I never would’ve found his house, nestled in the hills. But, the general store, had so many cool things and we bought a delicious beef stew for our dinner.

Today, we had errands to run and so Cale drove me around to show me part of the area. The largest nearby towns are Amherst and Springfield a little further south. But, the town of Williamsburg is a classic New England town.

Between the towns are lovely farms with hills in the background.

I feel quite at home here, for some reason. In fact, they’ve already put me to work; I don’t mind. In fact, I think that the change of pace will do me some good.

Of course, this couldn’t have been from today, ;] because there is currently a substantial snow cover here. And, just now as Cale and I came back to his home, it was starting to look a lot like Christmas, not Thanksgiving.

Fortunately, it was only snowing very lightly while Cale and I were driving around and just as we walked in, the sky fell!

Earlier, this morning, I snapped some picks of the view outside the home he has been renting with his girlfriend, Mary Joy. If you recall, Cale was living in Boston for ten years but has yearned to be living out in the country. They still commute to Boston to teach and play gigs once a week. And, they are teaching locally, as well.

Pretty gorgeous, huh?

The owners of this home only use it for a month or two in the summer and so Cale and Mary Joy have it until July, I believe. It is a 3-bedroom, two-story home. Sorry, no pics yet of the exterior or interior. The house is in terrific condition, but alas, it’s decor is quite dated, and too funny, but there is a combination of stained wood and white trim, just like we were talking about the other day.

Our first stop for errands was in the town of Buckland, MA which is actually on the other side of this bridge. And yes, Laurel stood in the middle of the road to get the pic. haha It was one of the fastest ones I’ve ever taken and the fact that it’s reasonably straight is 100% an act of God. Thank you!

The side of the bridge where the photo is taken is called Shelburne Falls. This is a historic area; not in an obnoxious touristy way, but it does have its attractions.

One is this wonderful market where Cale and I did some last-minute Thanksgiving shopping.

The most famous attractions are the lovely falls in Shelburne Falls. To the right is an area known as Potholes.

There’s a placard on the fence just out of view here.

I guess that this means that the Europeans who settled here could use the land for hunting and fishing and the native Americans would be cool with that? Did they have a choice? I reckon not.

We stopped for a treat at a wonderful bakery in Shelburne Falls, but I don’t have a photo of that.

On our way back home, Cale and I stopped at a charming farm called Atherton Farm. The owner, Susan Atherton came out to greet us.

Like, where on earth in New York does anyone do that? (Okay, maybe further upstate, they do.)

That’s because people in these parts actually TALK to each other and smile. (and help those who need anti-freeze!)

In the short time we were there, we found out that the farm had been in her family since 1945 and that she has proudly taken it over. She was busy inside making wreaths for about 100 customers, all word of mouth.

Well, it’s a very short post because it’s the Thanksgiving holiday week.

And, of course, I really don’t want to be tethered to my laptop the entire time. However, I also want to update you on what’s going on with a few things.

One, Laurel’s Rolodex.

Some of you are probably scratching your heads wondering what is going on, because I said that the price was going up today, but as you can see, nothing has changed.

That’s because I’ve decided to extend the promo period until the end of the day on Cyber Monday, the 26th. At 11:59 PM ET, the price will go up  to $229.00. Final answer. :]

A few of you have asked me if I’m having a Black Friday sale and the answer, is no, I’m not. And that’s because I don’t think it’s fair to the many people who have paid full-price in recent days. However, I feel that my digital products are worth a lot more than I’m charging. Each one took 100s of hours to create and is crammed with information. Please click here to read more about my products.

However, there are already a myriad of sales and you don’t have to wait until black Friday.

Of course, on Friday, there will be a far more comprehensive review of the new store and I’ll be sharing many favorites with many vendors. But, in the meantime, please visit the Hot Sales Pages because my favorite vendors are all there.

In addition, on Monday, I visited the brand new One King’s Lane Store in New York City. It is gorgeous and if you’re in Manhattan, I definitely recommend a visit. There will be more about that on Friday.

I will leave you with two photos to whet your appetite (hopefully) for more.

The beautiful Brampton chair in a fun print. I did sit on it and it’s delightfully comfortable and beautifully scaled. They are already running low on inventory on this particular version.

Moi hanging out on this wonderful Robin Bruce curved sofa. This is also incredibly comfortable and I love the shape and scale. Photo by Lotte Meister (a little more about that too, on Friday). If you recall, Lotte shared her beautiful home in Rye, NY with us last month.

Here’s wishing each of you, in the U.S. the happiest, warmest Thanksgiving Holiday 2018.

I am phenomenally grateful to be able to spend this time with my son and girl friend’s family and to learn more about this area that they moved to last August. But, I’m also so grateful to all of you– because each of you brightens my day immeasurably and it’s not something I ever take for granted.

Much Love,