masha tea for noguchi + it isn’t the thought that counts

Last night, I made tea for the Noguchi Museum holiday party. I first heard of the museum when I first moved to New York. It was a snow day and there were a bunch of people at my local tiny coffee shop, we were all reading and journaling and the girl next to me had a beautiful book on choreographer Martha Graham, we started talking about it and she mentioned Martha Graham’s work with Isamu Noguchi. I had never heard of either of these people, which my neighbor at the coffee shop made me feel quite embarrassed about, but she was kind enough to tell me that I needed to go to the museum, which I did the following week and the garden in particular has since been a place of refuge for me in this city.

It’s the first museum that I brought my baby to, and the museum cafe was one of the first accounts to carry Masha Tea, truly when I was first starting out, making my earliest relationships with tea farms, stencilling all of the packaging by hand (which I incidentally did again yesterday, making last minute bags for this holiday party.)

Something that I am grateful for this season is getting back in touch with the creative side of Masha Tea, why I started the tea line in the first place, as a personal project. Small things like rearranging where the wild roses live in the studio space, putting hand written notes out with orders when I have the time, blending teas and admiring their shape and color and smell.

In this anticipatory phase of the holiday season, I am reminded that my favorite things to give and receive are tea, jewelry, books, flowers, and sweets.

Books

As much as I like to give books to others, I love to get books for myself.

The most beautiful book that I got this year came a few days ago - Italian Interiors by Laura May Todd. I loved the font, the shade of bubblegum pink, the extra protective cover, the approach to what makes a home Italian. From the intro, taken from an essay by architect and designer Gio Ponti

The Italian house is not a refuge, padded and garnished by its inhabitants against the harshness of the climate, as are the dwellings beyond the Alps where residents seek shelter from inclement nature for long months: the Italian house is the place chosen by us to enjoy our life, with joyful possession, the beauties that our lands and skies give us in the long seasons.

Phaidon is an incredible resource for books to gift visually-minded people across categories.

Earlier this week, I went to Nike HQ for the launch of their Phaidon women’s wear book Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good: Nike Apparel. Until this year, I didn’t spend much time exercising and now that I am, it’s so interesting to think about what women wear when we move. I’m writing this on the ferry home to Greenpoint from a pilates class at WSA in the Financial District. To the class, I wore my new Nikes, a sports bra that I got at Palm Heights this summer, and a tiny cropped Gil Rodriguez shirt (not meant for exercising in) with short black hemp shorts. It was fun to wear and I loved seeing everybody’s sexy pilates outfits, casual clothes that are truly for yourself and what make you feel the best in your body. I love how in the book, the earliest photos in the sports bra sections are of corsets - “Ferris’ Good Sense Corset Waist For Bicycle Wear ad 1889.” I would actually love to bicycle in a corset with cute matching shorts.

Jewelry

Laura Lombardi - Perfect site to shop because of the range of price points, I love the satisfying curves in all of Laura’s pieces. There are classics, but also hidden treasures like heart shaped charms and anklets (I wore one of her anklets to my wedding.)

Alice Waese - For gold, sapphires, and diamonds, wearable art, my everyday pieces.

Octave Jewelry - I got to wear these seeing-stone earrings during a pop-up that Ope and I did together and they made me feel mystical and understated.

Flowers

Everybody loves to say that the most exciting place to buy flowers in New York is flower market on 28th street, but my favorite place to buy flowers in New York is from flower farmers at the Union Square Farmers market. Hyper local flowers are so fresh and energetic and beautiful. Outside of the market, I also love Outline Florals, especially when I need something professionally arranged in a pinch (this is maybe not a great example, but I had been looking for a perfect wreath and saw Julia from Outline post some on her instagram, and she delivered the wreath of my dreams to me two days later with instructions on where and how to hang it.) Always easy and simple.

My favorite people to gift flowers to are people who love receiving flowers as much as I do. Right now, these people are my husband’s grandmother and my parents. For both of these parties, I always go to my local florist, World of Flowers. Watching the owner tie ribbon is one of the most impressive and ornate visual experiences that I have on a somewhat regular basis. The bouquets are huge, traditional, and they always have the classics. My husband’s grandmother’s living room is decorated in beautiful shades of rich blues so I love getting her flowers with blue or violet hues - hydrangeas, dark calla lilies, last time we went, imposing lilies with dark red shades in it that were almost purple.

My parents are the first people that I went flower shopping with. When I was a little girl, I remember going into the same Italian flower shop in South Brooklyn with my dad and picking out the most beautiful flowers for my grandparents whenever we visited them. We often veered towards enormous white or red roses but would sometimes get gladiolus or, less often, irises for my grandfather. My mom’s mom liked carnations so we would sometimes get big bouquets of those for her as well. The last bouquet I got my parents (for their wedding anniversary/ Thanksgiving) was in that same spirit, huge red roses, like out of Beauty and the Beast, babies breath, ribbon, that little powder to keep it fresh for longer taped on.

I am very particular when it comes to flowers, and I buy fresh flowers for my apartment on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, to the point where my husband has stopped buying them for me. For me, with flowers, it isn’t the thought that counts. I guess I feel the same way with books, jewelry, really any object that I wear or have in my house or eat, and so on. I guess it makes me a difficult person to gift for.

Close to my neighborhood, the best place I-know-they-would-do-a-good-job-no-matter-what flower shop is Fox Fodder Farm. I feel the same way about Stem in Fort Greene. A favorite flower moment of mine is every year, one of my best friends who lives in Boston sends me a bouquet from Stems for my birthday. (Different place than Stem) When I first moved to New York and started my own private naturopathic practice, you had to walk through Stems flowers shop (then in Brooklyn Heights, now in Bushwick to get to my office) and it always brings me back to that time in a really special way. After the flower shop moved out, the owners of the space painted that room a really dark plum purple, in a shade that makes me deeply uncomfortable and I couldn’t handle walking through, so I moved my office to a big, bright, white space in Williamsburg shortly thereafter.

Tea

It’s always fun for me to help people figure out which teas to gift people. When I travel, I still bring home new teas to try and as gifts, despite having my own tea company and sources. I like the idea of not reinventing the wheel, and I like to give someone who loves matcha a new type of matcha to try, or someone who loves black tea, a massive bag that will last them for months. On that note, I recently got a latte whisk from Golde, which has turned me into someone who makes hot chocolate for my daughter at home and mochas for whatever adults are around.

Sweets

As far as sweets go, I got a bunch at the market this week. This Wednesday was raining so a lot of the farms didn’t show up to the market. Too bad because it was also So warm and I found it a beautiful market day. The granola I got from Knead Love Bakery was incredible. I actually don’t buy granola too often because I wind up eating it all, not matter how much “it all” is, over the course of one day. Knead Love’s is made with buckwheat, oats, and maple. It’s so crunchy and satisfying.