While I’m on the subject of how much I love Partners & Spade (Seriously, can they do no wrong?), this is brilliant.
My best friend Chris and I, back in high school, had actually decided that it would be just as good if you knew what someone wanted to get you as if they actually got it for you–provided that it was truly thoughtful and specific. We were going to give each other cards with our very thought-out gift idea on birthdays from then on out.
I wish I could say that we followed through (or that I really don’t want any presents this Christmas). I think it’s time for visiting the 99 cents store, i.e. Partners & Spade.
There are a ton of great pop-up shops that are, well, popping up lately. I was especially excited to check out Warby Parker’s Holiday Spectacle Bazaar–in no small part because Partners & Spade are behind it. They have placed two yurts inside a SoHo warehouse: one to showcase Warby Parker spectacles, and one to host rotating events and products (like a McSweeney’s reading). Out front, a large blackboard lists all of the events; in back, there’s a set-up for $50 eye exams.
It was pretty empty when I stopped in last night, which meant I had ample space to dance/bounce Hudson to the very cool soundtrack (I felt like I’d stepped into a Wes Anderson movie) while trying on as many pairs of glasses as I liked. A young man in heavy frames and red longjohns greeted me at the garage door.
I actually just bought myself a pair of Prestons from Warby Parker a week or two ago, and couldn’t be happier; but it would have been cool to get to try on more frames in person (I was so nervous I’d made the wrong choice, even though I knew I could return them). One favorite little moment: I overheard the very cute girl overseeing the try-on yurt complimenting a man on his selection and he was so clearly won over. I think he would have handed over $100 on the spot with the confidence that she liked them. Clever chaps, those Warby Parker folks, having cute bespectacled girls manning the yurt.
The Bazaar runs through January 8th at 45 Grand Street in SoHo.
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a happy holiday, if you were celebrating!
We made some long overdue changes to the website and–phew!–finally migrated to WordPress. Fingers crossed that there aren’t any problems, but please let us know if you have trouble with anything. I’ll be updating categories and the like over the course of the week. We hope you like the refreshed site!
You’ll notice that we finally set up a Facebook page, and added buttons to follow us on Twitter and Pinterest. And I’m excited about our cleaned-up sidebar. (Thank goodness for our incredibly generous neighbor–an actual web developer, Ben Freda–who helped us link it all up.)
Another big change? I’m bidding farewell to Baby Mine. I had a wonderful time writing Baby Mine, and focusing on pregnancy and kiddos in a space apart from Hither & Thither. But it has become clear that those spaces really aren’t so clearly defined as I might have once tried to imagine them. The division between personal stories I’d tell on Baby Mine and personal stories we’d tell on Hither & Thither started to feel a bit arbitrary (especially when there’s a sweet little baby boy with us at every moment).
So we have added “family” to the scope of Hither & Thither, and I’m giving ourselves permission to post on anything from traveling while pregnant to Hudson’s monthly updates in addition to our usual content. I’m looking forward to making some changes for the new year!
