I'm going to admit, I must be living under a rock, because before this trip, I had never heard of Eataly. I also was unaware of one of it's famous owners, and didn't clue in until I saw a half dozen of his books on the shelves, and thought, wow...they must really like him. But after going, it's easy to see why there's all the buzz. Let me show you what this food empire is about...

It's hard to visit any city and not try to hit the flea market. NYC would be no exception. A visit to the Garage was just what was needed. It's located in a parking structure, which is kind of odd for this California girl, but I soon got used to the idea and set off to find a few treasures.

My favorite shop in NYC was John Derian. Please excuse the less than stellar quality of these pics. Some are from my Instagram feed and all are from my phone. (I got tired of lugging my big camera around every day.) He has two shops located next to each other and everything about them are amazing. The displays, the wares, the lighting....everything. Here is a sampling of both...

Another shopping destination included a stop at ABC Carpet & Home. They have such beautiful things everywhere you turn. Some of my favorites were all the wood products, from breadboards to bowls and more. And I loved the glitzy pendants lights. So pretty! Some of these photos are from my cell phone, please excuse the quality.

You know what they say, better late than never, right? I've been meaning to share my trip to NYC with you and completely forgot. So let's just pretend I got back last week instead of in December. We'll begin with the shopping first, starting with Fishs Eddy. I'm not sure a trip to NYC would be complete without a visit here...there's just so much good stuff.

When you walk in you're greeted by this enormous display of waving ceramic hand molds....

On Friday, I flew up to San Francisco for a girls get-away. I decided to leave my camera at home so I could be "off the clock" and enjoy the time more freely. But I did snap a few shots with my cell phone. We started with a visit to the Ferry Building where I bought a petite cake pan from Miette. Now my cakes can look like theirs but probably won't taste like them. ;)