Family Fun in NY This Weekend

I don't intentionally mean to forget my east coasters so I wanted to share a few fun things that are going on this weekend - from free events to fun shows.  Wish I could be there - fall in New York is one of my favorite times of the year (minus the cold, of course!)

SATURDAY
11am:  If you're up on the Upper East on Saturday, then you want to check out the free Bari Koral Family Rock Concert at Barnes & Noble on 86th and Lexington.  Bari is slated as the "IT girl in kids/family music".  (Watch out, Laurie Berkner!)

All day:  Check out the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden.  Now, why does this sound exciting?  The NYBG has constructed 140 landmarks made entirely out of plant-based materials such as twigs, acorns, and berries where trains zip by recognizable attractions such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Status of Liberty.  Ticket prices vary and must be purchased in advance. 

SUNDAY
1pm:  It's an all-encompassing holiday show!  Go see the "Three Bears Holiday Bash", which is a marionette show at the Central Park Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.  There's singing and dancing (of the puppets!) and they cover Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas in their version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".  Tickets:  $8 - adults; $5 - children under 12.

All day:  It's finally okay to play with your food at this gallery, as it's the "Canstruction 19th Annual NYC Competition" at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery.  This annual competition is hosted by the Society for Design Administration and you will be able to check out artistic structures created by leading architecture and engineering pros - and it's all made up of canned food!  Even you can contribute by bringing in your own can of food.  After a winner is decided, all cans will be donated to City Harvest.  A great competition for a great cause.  Admission:  FREE

Weekend Warrior

It is hard to believe that in the last 36 hours I have been from Los Angeles to New York to Las Vegas and back to Los Angeles and managed to not feel stressed about any of it. I know for some people that sounds terribly glamorous and I would love to play that up for you... BUT the truth is it was not entirely planned that way and now I am exhausted and ready to go to bed!

On Friday I was due to fly to New York so that I could set up our booth for the ENK Children's Club show. March is the biggest event of the year and armed with Joey and another three workers, we were due to get in late Friday evening ready to get set up the following day. The other four took an earlier flight on Friday and as I had work in LA to finish I was meant to leave on the last afternoon flight. Meant to....

I had raced home to grab my luggage after a very frustrating trip to Staples where I couldn't find a single person on the floor to get me a removable disk drive from a locked cabinet and then after finally talking the person at the register into leaving the long line of people waiting to pay, I was finally out the door and rushing to the house now running late. Once home, the phone started... a messenger dropping our samples in at the show didn't know where to go. I directed him and then he called back as GES wouldn't accept my box. I told him to drop it at my booth. He called back. No one was there so he couldn't leave it. I raced to the computer and called the show organisers who assured me they would accept it. They didn't. To cut a frustrating story short, I then left the house late and hit peak hour on the 405 and 10. Most simply put, I parked on the freeway with my closest million commuters. At that point, I chose to accept my situation and the stress evaporated.

I missed the flight and left 5 hours later on the red eye! So straight off the plane to the show for set up. With the full team on board, we set the stand up and finished at around 10pm. A late dinner and finally sleep at 2am. Up at 7am to finish set up ready for doors opening at 9am! By 1pm I was off and headed back to the airport (after a very successful morning of sales of course) and on my way to Showest in Las Vegas.

I arrived in Vegas late last night and got up early for rehearsals ready for a 9am Australian panel to talk about tax incentives and filming in Australia. By 11am, I was done and packing and heading back to the airport so that I could be home in time for a television show that was coming to our house to consider our renovator for a Room Renovation!

The rest of tonight has been spent getting orders ready for shipment tomorrow and a full day in the office...

So glamorous - I don't think so! But I am not complaining as I have chosen this life and love the returns it gives me. I am ready though for a very good nights sleep!

Oh... the new Oobi Baby and Alimrose Designs samples are AMAZING!!

Taxi's across the globe

One of the things I occasionally struggled with in Australia was taxi-drivers that wanted to have a good chat. Now its not that I don’t understand the need for them to chat – its pretty boring sitting in a car all day and the brain goes numb from little interaction, but rather, after getting off a long distance flight or having just had a stressful day in the office, sometimes the last thing you feel like is an in-depth conversation with a person you don’t know in a small space.

Especially when they tell you their politic views which are vastly different from your own – and as a young woman (with a set of strong political views herself), it is a challenging situation to not argue when you are alone in a car with a complete stranger who is passionate about things such as ‘women not working’ (I am not kidding – after a long day, that was one of the topics my cabbie needed to discuss).

So where is my blog going with this– well here in the USA I have discovered a new cab driver – the New Yorker! These one’s don’t actually talk to you but just talk. At first I kept trying to understand what they were saying, and even enquired to be sure they asked me something, only to learn they are immersed in a conversation with some unknown person on the other end of an earphone. This conversation seems quite one way, since there is no break for the person at the other end to be responding.

The airport is a good 45 minutes to an hour from the airport, and Cute-ture takes me to New York 4 – 5 times a year, so after a few years of these taxi rides, I have realized that in fact I don’t have the same cabbie every time but rather there must be some test all cabbies do to see if they can talk non stop for 45 minutes in a mumble without a breath in between.

As for Los Angeles Cabs – well I think there may only be one cab in all of LA…they are very rare to see (not to mention to actually get one) so if you see it – jump in!

New York, New York

Cute-ture took New York by storm this week, showing our lovely little people's luxuries at the New York Gift Show. The show is known as 17 miles of aisles...Quite overwhelming to the senses! That being said, it is a wonderful place to be inspired, find unique items and shop for one's store!! And happily for us, it seems we inspired and were unique enough to have a very successful show.

Cute-ture was in the Metropolitan Pavilion which we love (so much more than the enormous Javits Center) mostly because there is a great French coffee shop - called Telegraphe Cafe next door which actually makes an extremely good latte. They also have soup and sandwiches and are not at show prices (as in not so overpriced that our entire profit from a $20000 sale is spent on a sandwich for lunch). New York is somewhat known for its coffee but as a coffee snob - I have to tell you, its awfully difficult to find something that an Aussie or Italian would consider drinkable...sorry New York - but your coffee sucks. So finding a 'cuppa' next door at a reasonable price was quite a find indeed.

The other bonus of the Metropolitan Pavilion is that the Container Store is around the corner. For those of you not familiar with doing tradeshows, the biggest winners in the tradeshow business are Ikea and The Container Store where it is cheaper to buy your stand (display cases, bookcases etc) than to rent it from the show organizers. This is an international standard mind you - buy a clothing rack at The Container Store for $30 or rent one at a show for $110....What would you do???

The funny thing about each show we do, is that the little finds we have - such as the cute cupcake containers (found at $1.99 at... The Container Store), to put our handsqueakers in, become as hot an item as the squeakers themselves. I guess that makes us somewhat successful merchandisers and the store must wonder why they have a sudden rush of buyers wanting those funny looking cupcake containers. Last show it was miniature plastic chandeliers that run on batteries which I used to dress up bookshelves turned into little clothing cupboards that were the hot display show item. Inspired indeed.

So New York rocked - and now we are back in LA contemplating shipping all those orders or moving house.... Oh the joys of being snowed under - even if it only snowed once in New York.