June 2, 2025

The Best of May 2025

by Liz Heather in Beauty, Best of NYC, Food, Movies, Personal, Products, Recipes, Television

This has been the longest spring of all time and I’m not complaining. Here’s what went down last month.

The best tweets of the month can be found over here.
I finally reviewed last year’s Met costume exhibit (this year’s 2025 exhibit review can be read over here).
Bought/love this travel box for jewelry. Also got these great swim trunks for Nathan (love non-bland menswear).
A bunch of new candles came out at Trader Joe’s so obviously I’m on it.

Got this great quilted sweatshirt for $10 on sale at Banana Republic Factory.
Made this sausage, pesto, ricotta pasta on repeat for a few nights. Also made this bread pudding with vanilla sauce for a friend’s birthday that really turned out well.
I visited the new Printemps (french department store) in the city, which is really lovely. The design of the space is worth seeing if you’re in the area. Keep in mind that practically nothing is priced under $100.

We went to Ruta in Astoria, which is probably the best Mexican in the neighborhood by far. Their deep red salsa will fix you.

Here were my favourite Met Gala looks this year:

So I tried a retinol night serum on my face and I was warned that some flakiness might occur but this was next level flake city. I had to stop. I also do not care about the benefits of retinol, so let’s never speak of it again.
The chain Toasties in the city? What garbage! Never again. How do you mess up lunch?
I can’t stop texting this image to people (below).

I was looking for a new (not drugstore) mascara and I found a fantastic one - the Glossier Lash Slick. In love with the wand, it catches every single little hair.
I tried the Trader Joe’s strawberry gluten free muffins and they were okay, but nothing can top their GF cinnamon coffee cake ones.
I was invited to see Mel Robbins at The Beacon (with a very lovely new friend) and I’ve got to be honest. This woman is… just not for me. I’m happy that people seem to get something out of what she says, but I just can’t. Wellness can’t be bought and I will die on that hill.
Marla came for a visit and it was a blast. She stayed at The New Yorker hotel (which was old, wonderful and perfect), we did a million things in 48 hours and ate at Modern Bread & Bagel approx. twenty times. It was perfect.

Was so, so pleased that she agreed with me about how incredible the tart frozen yogurt is at Madison Fare.

Madison Fare frozen yogurt with raspberry

She also treated us to a Broadway show (this woman cannot be stopped in her generosity), so we saw Real Women Have Curves. And it was good!

I poached some salmon in a coconut cream sauce and it didn’t come out that great, so I think I’ll just stick to baked salmon.
I think I’m suffering from Pinterest-aesthetic-brain-overload because I was on such a mission (for some reason?) to find a perfect black cardigan to layer with some outfits I have - and I found one at Uniqlo. But once I tried it on I realized how very basic-white-woman it is and put it back. It can be very hard to fight these things that the internet tells me that I’m supposed to have. (I did buy this great baseball t-shirt, though.)
I went to Edith’s for the tahini iced coffee and it was very good. I also tried a bite of their chicken caesar and it was nothing special. Main reason to go here is definitely the coffee.

Edith’s tahini iced coffee in the West Village, NYC

I got a lash lift and it’s only week one, but I can see the appeal of getting them done. I’ve been using Nulastin for a few months and I’ve been seeing length, but they’re not very curly so I guess we’ll see if this makes a longterm difference or not.
We went to visit the town where the original Friday the 13th was filmed (it’s just under two hours from NYC) and it was so much fun. I’ll do a full post on it here soon. We also went to a wedding in the Poconos and it was such a great weekend.

Some things I watched:
- Final Destination Bloodlines - not as awful as I expected! The beginning scene was the most memorable/best part.
- And Just Like That (newest season) - okay, this was the craziest part of the first episode:

…what the hell? Were we all supposed to think that is a normal thing to say? Infact this insane sentence is making me want to do a deep dive on ALL of the wildly dumb things these women have said over decades and we all have just eaten it right up and accepted as normal! Madness.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I really want to go to Modern Bread & Bread for their night menu, I want to make this chicken Diane recipe at home, I think I’m going to start doing my Summer Saturday posts again starting this week (the season starts when I says it does) and I might have to pre-order the Jaws popcorn bucket (below).

You can read last month’s roundup over here.

Just a reminder that you should take way more photos of your friends everywhere

November 4, 2021

October Occurrences 2021

by Liz Heather in Best of NYC, Events, Family, Food, Halloween, Links, Movies, Personal, Recipes, Reviews, Television

October is complete and I’m exhausted. Every year I try to make the most of October and every year I feel like I accomplish just that. And then November arrives and I feel like I can relax again for a minute before the rush and excitement of December begins. I complain, but I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way. Here’s what went down last month!

You can find my favourite tweets of the month over here and here.
I visited the new rooftop terrace at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (a branch of the NYPL) and wrote about it.
I did three episodes of Nathan’s podcast throughout the month: #1, #2, & #3.
Your annual reminder that Christmas starts November 1st, these are the rules.
New nails alert!

Liz Heather nails — Smokey grey for autumn

I finally made the journey to Salem, Massachusetts and it was everything I’d hoped it would be.

I got this great temporary tattoo from Etsy that I kind of really want to get as a real tattoo now. Could this ever happen? Could I change my entire non-tattoo personality overnight? And if there’s a reality in which this could happen, what would I tell people is the reasoning behind it? That I love Halloween? That it’s a reminder to just live? (← Okay that might be the corniest thought on this entire blog but aren’t all reasons behind tattoos corny as hell? Do people even have reasoning behind their tattoos anymore? DID THEY EVER? Do you see why I’m not made for this??)

Liz Heather temporary ghost tattoo Halloween — Temporary ghost tattoo available on Etsy

I’ve seen most of the new SNLs this season and here are some thoughts:
- Owen Wilson ep. - based on the monologue alone, how is this man not considered the most charming celebrity on this planet? He’s so likable, it almost hurts. Love that whole family. (I still dream of Luke Wilson as my third husband or something. He just seems like he might treat me so good?) And the episode wasn’t bad overall but mostly because I think Owen’s just… so nice.
- Kim K. ep. - I won’t spell out the K word, I just won’t do it. This episode was an alien-level of bad. It blew my mind to find out that a lot of people thought differently and even liked it. Not even mainly because she was terrible (she was), but the writing was like… what the fuck is going on? These people are WRITERS? It made me so mad for a bit. Just agonizingly awful.
- Rami Malek ep. - entirely forgettable but not especially terrible.
- Jason Sudeikis ep. - okay, now this makes NO sense after the Kim episode, but this was the funniest episode I’ve seen in maybe years. What is going ON? Sudeikis was, obviously, perfect but of course he was gonna be. Can’t love this sketch more.
- SO EXCITED for Simu Liu to host next month, seems wild to have someone who knows where Square One is hosting this show.

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I tried the new apple cider truffles from Milk Bar and you guessed it: great.

Some of the family went on a mini trip to Niagara Falls and it was nice to get away, even for just a night. We were missing a few people though and that never feels right.

Tianna Heather Baby Dog Niagara Falls 2021 — Tianna & Baby Dog, Niagara Falls, October 2021

I attempted to get passes to Open House New York’s annual weekend and it went horribly. The site crashed immediately upon opening and then everything good was instantly sold out when it came back online. This damn city sometimes, I’m telling you.

I tried the pie crust cookies from Janie’s Life Changing Baked Goods on the Upper West Side and they did not disappoint. Honestly just love the bold name choice.

The chocolate pie crust cookie from Janie’s Life Changing Baked Goods, Upper West Side

I have watched so many movies this past month, they’re all kind of a blur. No true standouts, but one. Hubie Halloween. Do not watch it. A movie hasn’t made me that irrationally mad in years. Just unwatchable shit. Can that man just go somewhere and sit on all his money and be happy? He needs to be stopped.

I finished the series On My Block and it’s really just a sweet little show. Happy it ended the way it did and when it did. Fully recommend (the first two seasons mostly).
So I’m in the middle of giving up meat for a month for some health reasons (they’re boring reasons so I’m not going into details) and have you ever heard of meat withdrawal? I hadn’t but it’s real, baby. Thought I had the flu or COVID for awhile (I got tested and it was negative) but all the symptoms aligned with cutting meat. Who knew?
So I’m not going to buy the entire Simpsons collection because I’m not wildly irresponsible anymore, but I really want to buy this makeup bag.
My 16 year old niece visited New York for the first time and it was such a great trip. Highlights from the trip: we saw the Joker steps in the Bronx, we saw the musical Wicked (which was TOO good), she went to a cat cafe, we listened to jazz in Harlem, we had dessert at Serendipity, we went to Coney Island to walk around and ride the Wonder Wheel, it was such a busy weekend, I’m so glad we were able to do so much. Loved having her here.

I made an apple fritter cake for Thanksgiving in Canada that was heavenly. Definitely going to make it again at some point.

Links I’m Loving:

After reading so many good reviews, we got Mexican takeout from Ruta in Astoria and good god, that salsa. It’s incredible and deep red and I can’t wait to have it again.

I’m not a giant pumpkin fan but I made pumpkin pecan scones with a maple glaze that were very good. I tend to prefer a lighter, fluffier scone, but the pumpkin weighed these down a bit to make them a bit more dense. I also had so much leftover pumpkin, so I made some soft pumpkin cookies with salted maple icing that were really, really good. Both recipes can be made vegan if you’re better than the rest of us.

I found a new waxing place in Astoria that is incredible: Rio Wax Studio. Not only is it priced reasonably, but the service is incredible. She gets your ingrown hairs like a fucking scientist with special glasses and a magnifying device, it’s amazing. Never going anywhere else again.
I went to see the pumpkin flotilla in Central Park and it was wonderful. (People bring in their carved pumpkins and then the Central Park staff arrange them on these little planks to be floated across the water and lit up.) Yes, it’s an event aimed at children, but I like cute/fun things as much as any child.

The pumpkin flotilla in Central Park, October 2021

So I entered the Broadway ticket lottery and somehow won (why doesn’t everyone in NY enter this lottery, like, every day?), so I saw Aladdin on Broadway and look, it was cute. It isn’t for me, though. Off and on throughout the whole production I kept thinking about how the 1992 version is so far superior, but I looked around and the kids in that theatre were wowed. So that’s great. One thing that was incredible? The flying magic carpet scene. That was true beauty. Another highlight of the night was being able to walk around and see the inside of the New Amsterdam theatre. Just an architectural beauty. Every view in that theatre is magnificent.

Inside the New Amsterdam theatre in NYC, October 2021

It’s finally soup season, so you can find me most days at Il Bambino in Astoria. Every soup they’ve ever done has been spectacular.

Cream of spinach soup at Il Bambino in Astoria, Queens

I’d always heard good things about the Halloween decorations on the brownstones in the Upper West Side, so I spent the day wandering around up there and had such a nice walk searching for them. Here were the best streets should you want to see for yourself next year.
- 87th Street (between Columbus & Amsterdam)
- 95th Street (between Columbus & Central Park West)
- 94th Street (between Central Park West & Columbus)
- West 88th Street (between Central Park West & Columbus)
- West 69th Street (between Broadway and Central Park West)

For Halloween, Baby Dog dressed as Anne of Green Gables and Nathan & I were Bella & Mortimer Goth from The Sims.

Baby Dog Nathan Macintosh Liz Heather Anne of Green Gables halloween dog costume 2021 — Baby Dog as Anne of Green Gables, Halloween 2021

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I have to get my hands on Dave Grohl’s new book, it’s Thanksgiving croissant time (the best time of the year), the casual outpost of L’Artusi just opened (B’Artusi) so I’ll have to head over there soon, the new holiday stamps just came out and I can’t get to the post office fast enough, I got my ticket for the Dior exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum which should be great, I may or may be headed to another old mansion upstate for a holiday tour of the grounds, and I’m definitely going to write about recent visits to the fashion exhibit at the Met and about visiting The Octagon House upstate, too. Oh and if you care, don’t forget that the Sephora sale starts on November 5th if you’re doing any Christmas shopping.

If you have any interest in reading what went on in September, come on over here.