i'm being filmed for the TODAY Show tomorrow
and other updates from a very festive weekend
before we get into the fun, this edition of the sunday series may be too long for email, so Iād recommend clicking out to read in browser or even better, in the substack app, where you can like and comment! your engagement on Substack means so much to me š
hi, friends!
when I arrived at my godmotherās place for Thanksgiving, I found myself walking in the door mentally tangled up in an email sitting in my drafts. my family was working on a photo collage of pictures from holidays past, and I was annoyed with myself for being like, āIāll be right there, I just need to send this one email!ā
but that one email was important.
that one email was a response to the TODAY Show producer who had reached out about a story she was working on. and Iām going to get thereāIāll be sharing all the juicy details on what the feature is about with my paid subscribers at the end of todayās installment of the sunday series, but first, a little festive season catchup!
West Village Book Club does our first āfavorite thingsā party
we had our finalĀ @westvillagebookclubĀ meeting of the year on Wednesday, and it was a double header as we discussed our December pick (our first Tessa Baileyā¦) and did a favorite things party. itās likely that you, too, have been seeing videos of favorite things parties across your feeds and are curious about what hosting one could entail. if youāre interested in hosting your own, Iāve outlined how it works below, but first things first: Iām super excited to share our West Village Book Club Favorite Things Party Gift Guide outlining all of our āfavorite thingsā that the seven of us brought! from epicurean delights to things to uplevel your workout to French-woman-approved skincare, we had an incredibly well-rounded curation of goodies under the tree.
whoās who: breaking down our faves
Chelseaās faves: Joie: A Parisianās Guide to Celebrating The Good Life, Bonjour Mug, and Embryolisse Lait CrĆØme ConcentrĆ© moisturizer
Cayleeās faves: Owala water bottle and Alo socks
Lauraās fave: Boy Smells candle
Jennaās faves: Pura 4 Diffuser with Fraiser fir scent
Nicoleās faves: Brightland olive oil, anything from Fishwife, Ayoh! mayo, and Pistakio pistachio spread
Hilaryās faves: disposable cameras and anything from LāAppartement 4F Bakery (pictured here is their croissant cereal which you have to go to the actual bakery to buy!!)
my faves: Caudalie Beauty Elixir, Caudalie Energetic C+ Detox Mask and Klorane dry shampoo
how to host your own favorite things party
set a budget: we did $40 per gift
pick how many gifts everyone will bring: we did two gifts per person!
carefully select your favorite thing or favorite things that collectively come in at/around the budget. both gifts should be identical! we had a couple of people bring two different gifts and that also works because it made it fun to have more variety under the tree
show up to the party ready to present your fave things!
draw names out of a hat one by one: youāll go forward to backward through the names for the first round of gifts, then backward to forwards for the final round. meaning, if you are selected first, you choose first and last. if you are selected last, you choose both of your gifts at once as youāre rounding up the first round of selections and kicking off the final round of selections
thereās no stealing like in white elephant! everyone gets to go home happy!! so fun. so festive.
in the gifting spirit? in a recent post, I curated seven different gift guides or, you can hop directly to my ShopMy for tons more ideas linked below!
festive season in full force
Iām feeling delightfully festive this holiday season. earlier this week, we did pre-holiday party drinks at St. Regisā King Cole Bar and had way too much fun doing so. last night, my mom and I (sheās in town to join me at 30 Rock tomorrow!!) went to see Handel's Messiah performed by the New York Philharmonic and tomorrow, itās all things Rockefeller. Iām fully embracing being a tourist in my own city and loving it! Iāve also been referring to my list of ā31 ways to make december sparkleā and trying to cross off one a dayālinking up the post where I listed everything below in case you missed it.
new york city musings: small businesses making their way from BK to WV
Edithās Sandwich Corner: after starting to sell hand-rolled bagels and dishes inspired by the Jewish diaspora out of Paulie Geeās pizzeria in 2020, owner Elyssa Heller opened Edithās Sandwich Counter in Williamsburg. today, itās more than a pandemic pop-up success story, with their second location set to open in the West Village on the corner of Charles and W4th Monday!! I cannot wait to have their most popular sandwichāa BEC with a latke layerāin walking distance. did I mention this creation made its way onto The New York Timesā list of 57 Sandwiches That Define New York City? lucky us!
LāAppartement 4F: even if youāre not a New Yorker, if youāre active on IG, thereās a very slim chance that this viral bakeryās highly aesthetic content and coveted collaborations with large brands havenāt found their way into your scroll. L'Appartement 4F began in a small Brooklyn apartment as a two-person cottage bakery making handcrafted small batches of slow-fermented, sourdough bread. since theyāve curated a menu that brings France to NYC with a brick-and-mortar in Brooklyn Heights that opened in May of 2022. this January, they are set to open at 119 W 10th Stāif you speak New York, this is just next door to Rosemarysās and across from our beloved Jefferson Market branch of the NYPL!
the TODAY show of it allā¦
okay, for fear of having buried the lede, Iām ready to share what tomorrow is all about. since Iām actually going to share the exact email thread between the producer and me, plus, my advice for perfecting the art of the DM slide, Iām keeping this one just for my paid subscribers. if you arenāt one yet, it would mean the world to me to have you join our premium subscriber sunday crew! Substack also has a gifting option if youād like to gift access to a friend who you think may enjoy being on the list xKD
now, let me share exactly what the outreach from NBC looked like and my very lengthy (me? verbose??) responseā¦
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