Tea Room Review - Arium

The sun is finally shining here this morning! Not so yesterday in NYC when our lovely outing day was plagued by intermittant showers. But the rain did not deter from theater, tea and dancing, i.e., a pefect combination of events!

After seeing Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Westside Theater, we headed down to Arium for afternoon tea. In our family, we have a tradition of having real, official, afternoon tea on the day after Thanksgiving. While it hasn't really worked to have tea on that day in the past several year, it's not working to have tea that weekend at all this year. So yesterday was substitute.

Finding the perfect place for tea can be a challenge. We like trying new places, if we can. We like the full, three-course, sandwiches, scones, and sweets tea without excessive cutesy floral romance, but with a certain formality that marks a difference from coffee and a small cake or pastry at a cafe.

Deb was on the case, and found seemingly the perfect place: Arium, down in the revamped, now trendy meat packing district, on a street with one of the best names ever: Little West 12th.

Arium was lovely in many respects. The atmosphere was nice - good furniture, formal serviceware, but simple. The food was good, though I prefer my scones a little less cake-y and more biscuit-like. The service was good. We were served quickly and not rushed. The tea selections were great, far beyond the usual one type of green, a darjeeling, an earl grey, and maybe an oolong for variety, with a list of trendy non-teas. I had two of my favorite Yunan types to choose from. I selected an Emperor's Red from Fujian Province.

But here's the kicker - there were no other people in the place. And not just the tea part of the place. This so-called design studio is really an upscale hair salon. It used to have a gallery, but that has been replaced by headshots of models with interesting hair. And though the place serves lunch, dinner and tea and is in a trendy location, it was empty but for us.

My overwhelming thought when we left was that Arium wouldn't be around for long. I'm glad we caught it in its brief moment of existence.

A spate of home improvement...

Almost all at once it seems, I'm trying to take on some very small house projects.

First, in a spate of frivolity, the halloween mantle:





The first image, though clearer, does not convey the lovely light emitted when all of the candles were lit. The second image, though blurry, gives a sense of that warmth. I felt so Martha using the leftover berry spray from my autumn wreath revitalization project as an added bonus. I'm finally about to put all of the halloween candle holders away, but I'm still finishing burning the orange and black mini pillars I'd been holding onto for several years...

On my one free weekend in October, I made great strides in some closet re-organization. I went through a bunch of clothes in preparation for a Salvation Army run, and in the process, realized that I didn't have to repossess the "closet" in the little room on the 2nd floor, soon to be my office. Instead, I banished the final clothes rack that was in my craft room to the basement, hung all of those clothes in the wardrobe in the office (which is normal closet depth - amazing!). And the office closet will become, wait for it, a linen closet! Small it seems, but this excites me no end.

Once I had decided for the linen closet, I didn't want to lose momentum. Last month I just happened to meet a handyman who does a bunch of work in Mt. Airy, and decided to take a chance. I've been building a list of small projects - painting things, hanging things, adjusting things. - things I lack the time and/or the expertise to do. I called him up, and last weekend he came to look at my projects and give me an estimate. The good news is that he said he can do the three small things I gave him. The even better news is that he goes to California once the weather gets cold (Thanksgiving), but he can fit my projects in before he leaves! Now if he actually calls back, I'll be in business. But I know his mother, so the chances are good...

As the last item in this series, I bought a bed last weekend. For several years I've been lusting after the Crate and Barrel Porto Bed. Finally it came up on E-bay for about 1/3 of the list price, and shockingly, I won it. The good part is that it was a pick-up item, so no shipping costs. The other good part is that it previously lived in NJ, which means, driving distance. So last weekend, a friend with a big car and I picked it up, put it together, and suddenly, a big-girl bed!



I'm still not used to seeing it because I don't think of myself as a person with major pieces of furniture I acquire myself, but I'm pleased. And just think of how nice it will look once I actually paint the room a lovely blue-grey. Maybe in the Spring...

Every time it rains, it rains...

As my version of the stuff-it-in-the-mattress savings plan, I've been saving all of my loose change for the better part of a year. I guess it started when the fabric wall of the change pocket of my wallet tore, and I started keeping any change I got during the course of the day in my pocket. From there, I would unload it into a glass jar every night. I wasn't attempting to not spend it during the day, just putting aside the remainders to feed my dreams of colored walls and warm rooms, and maybe even a linen closet.


I counted the coins at some point over the summer and had about $75. After my gigantic craft room re-organization, I found a bag full of pennies (why I had them, I'll never know), and added them to the growing number of jars on my bookshelf.

For some reason, this past weekend became the moment to do a big counting. I armed myself with coin rolls, settled myself in the glow of the Halloween tableau on my mantle (which the camera could not capture, you'll just have to come visit), and got to work.

The verdict: over $160, including enough pennies that I had to buy a second bag of assorted coin rolls to package them up.

And now comes the fun of pondering what to do with that cash... I fear it will go into something unromantic like columns to support the sagging kitchen walls, but what all of those pennies brought to mind is the image I posted way back in January...

http://festiveyettasteful.blogspot.com/2009/01/flooring-of-future.html

So, what do you think I should do with my change?

What she looked like during the day...

Please notice that the curls artfully hide the burn mark on my forehead from a curling iron mishap...

The dreaded short hair problem...

Well, the moment has almost arrived, the moment I've been growing my hair for for almost a year - the JASNA conference, at which I am teaching several dance workshops and leading the grand ball on Saturday night. Thanks to the skills of a certain Princess, I have a big, floofy purple ball gown and a Jane Austen-y day dress, re-fashioned out of one of my existing dresses. I have white tights. I have gloves. I have dance shoes. What I don't have is the appropriate hair for this event.

My hair is so medium at the moment. It's neither long nor short, blonde nor brown, straight nor curly. In short, impossible. But as it's easier to pretend to be JA with the current length than the usual length, onward I go.

Tomorrow morning, armed with hair clips, bobby pins, hair net, hair spray, and a curling iron, I will attempt to affect an artfully arranged mass of something that stays out of my face, yet looks at home to the masses of people attending the conference who are sure to know the difference.

Note to self: bring camera.

If the results are positive, you may even see them...

Tea time accoutremonts...

From one of today's Design*Sponge posts:





From the tea accessories collection by Bodo Sperlien for Yauatcha Atelier. I don't even want to know what they cost...

No, really, I do need this...

Think of the Jello Jigglers this would make...



From Sillycone Inc. via Kim Vallee.

A map of the best new way to get to camp:



From Transit Authority Figures. We just have to get them to publish the light rail map of camp...