ramblings Archives | Jersey Ice Cream Co.

A MERRY LITTLE EVERYTHING

December 26, 2013 by Tara Mangini 2 Comments

The day after Christmas has always been a little heart breaking to me. As a child, the thought of waiting 364 days until Santa returns was unbearable, but even as an adult, I can’t help but feel that something magical has vanished and suddenly all that’s left in its place is the thought that winter, the real bleakness of it, has only just begun. Sigh.

It’s so tempting to just curl up into bed with no honest plans to leave until Spring, but this year (like everything) I find myself wondering what I can do to make the cold days a little more bearable. But with a trip to Hawaii not in the works, and new snow boots waiting by the door to make their debut, I know that the only place the warmth is going to come from is a fire, the heat turned to full blast, or my own little shivering heart. Life in those precious weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas seems to be fueled by a frenzy of glitter and goodwill. People love to mumble about trimming trees and baking cookies and wrapping gifts for other people, but I have to believe that it’s part of the Christmas cheer equation. Hide behind your Grinch face if you must, but I know that tasting the first homemade cookie made you smile, especially if it was mom’s recipe, or maybe something new you came up with yourself. And there’s a reason that the tree looks a little more special when you go chop it down yourself, or when it’s hung with ornaments that each have a little story to tell. The more love you put in, the more love you get out. And that simple equation is the only thing that’s going to keep us warm for the next few months.

So hold your loved ones close. Treat yourself to a cup of hot chocolate and put extra marshmallows in for the 3 year old you once were. Stay up past midnight to watch the snow start falling, and spend an entire Saturday in your pajamas writing letters to your favorite people. Be in awe of yourself and the things that your two little hands can make. Take the time to create little moments of beauty, and most importantly, share them with everyone you can. Because with the days so dark and cold, we need all the light we can get.

And now, from me to you, some Christmas moments of beauty. And my most successful (and easiest!) shortbread recipe of the season.

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JERSEY ICE CREAM CO to HEAD WEST

October 2, 2013 by Tara Mangini 4 Comments

Yes, yes, yes it’s all true! We are packing our bags, leaving our lousy winter coats behind and heading west to a place where the grass may truly be greener. We’ve been secretly planning our big escape to west coast for months, maybe forever. I remember reading in some book, or lost article a brilliant quote. It went something like, “There are two types of people in this world. People who live in California, and people who wish they lived in California.” Based on a personal study of one, I would say that quote is completely true, and I have big hopes about transitioning from a wisher to a liver. As in, one who is living their big, glorious, beauty filled life in California.

That all being said, we are happy to announce that we are on the hunt for our first California project. Just to really get the word out, I am going to resort to shouting. WE ARE ON THE HUNT FOR OUR FIRST CALIFORNIA PROJECT! So if you, or someone you know, lives in CA and has a renovation or design project that we might be able to help with, let us know! As always, we are up for a challenge, so don’t hesitate to overwhelm us with something that you might think is a little nuts. It’s the crazy things that we get excited about. Please send all requests and questions to jerseyicecreamco@gmail.com, where we will be checking our email compulsively.

California, here we come!

LITTLE JOYS & The Great Outdoor Shower

August 6, 2013 by Tara Mangini Leave a Comment

Today is the kind of day that makes you grateful. I’m not sure if it’s the blue skies, the unexpected warmth that means so much more now that an autumn chill has hit the air, or that it’s day two of the Oprah meditation thing I’m doing, but my guess is that it’s a perfect combination of all three.

The days here are filled with tiny joys and discoveries. Learning the name of a flower you’ve loved for years, bringing home boxes of fresh produce, finding a hike quite literally in your backyard. When you have such a simple backdrop, these details are easier to see. We now have an indoor toilet, a bathroom sink AND a bathroom door. That my friends, is happiness. Sure, there are still frustrating moments, there are still gloomy days, and I may never learn how to properly use commas, but when the sun shines and a hummingbird hovers in front of you for a moment, you can’t help but feel pretty darn lucky.

Whoa. I just swatted a daddy longlegs off my arm and it somehow shattered into a million pieces, or eight I guess. Did you know the little legs still wiggle around on their own, like a chicken with its head cut off? There’s your science lesson for the day. Also, powdered sugar is just regular sugar put through a tornado! Throw some sugar into a Vitamix and you’ll see what I mean. It’s pretty magical.

I digress, but perfectly. That’s what it’s all about these days. It feels like we’re building life from scratch sometimes, so little thing are something to be celebrated, or at the very least, noticed. Life doesn’t always feel this way, and so often it gets swarmed up into one big stress ball, so for now this change of pace is a blessing wrapped in a blessing, even though I still complain about it every three days. You can take the girl out of the crazy, but you can’t take the crazy out of the girl.

There are so many things to be grateful for. But you all need to SEE some beauty today. And I think you deserve to look at something a little more appealing than a bathroom door. And with that, I awkwardly transition into the second half of this post, which is an ode to the outdoor shower!

I’ve been swooning over the joy of showering outdoors since we waved goodbye to the confines of indoors a few months ago. There is no better way to wash off a long run or a hard day’s work. Fresh air, fresh water and naked bodies. I feel a little dirty writing that sentence, but it’s the perfect combination and it must be said. If you have the chance to get outside and lather up before the summer ends I strongly urge you to do so. Don’t let rain or a chill in the air stop you, they truly only add to the experience. And oh, what a glorious one it is.

So without future ado, an ode to the outdoor shower. I love you in the sun, I love you in the rain.
And if you don’t feel the same way after checking out these beauties, you’re just plain crazy.

More photos after the jump!

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There’s NO PLACE like HOME

April 22, 2013 by Tara Mangini 5 Comments

For about a year now we’ve been living like nomads. Traveling from one job (or trip!) to the next, living out of bags, subletting, crashing with friends, and living with my parents in suburbia to fill in all the time in between. There was some excitement to this lifestyle when it began last spring, but at this point we’re both desperately longing for a place to call home.

We had hopes of trying out a new city, which led to a nationwide search for the perfect place to live. There are still a few places to investigate, but as fairy tales have been trying to tell us for years, it turns out in the end, home was right in front of us. Staying in Philadelphia near our work and connections and people feels like the best thing to do for now, especially while we continue to try and figure out this crazy business of ours. The runner up awards went to LA, New Orleans and Savannah, and the five year plan still involves moving somewhere warm and beautiful and building a house and having a vineyard and maybe even some blonde kids running around, so don’t get TOO used to us being in one spot. Yes, I’m already thinking about our next house and we haven’t even found our first one yet. But I know you’re crazy and do the same exact thing, so cheers to being human!

Anyway, house hunting! What a glorious, fun, all-consuming, disappointing, heart-breaking, dream-making activity. We pretty quickly have realized that the more completely falling down a place is, the more we love it. Remodeled kitchens? Shiny new wood floors? Freshly tiled bathrooms? No thanks! Bring on the cracking plaster, the hidden wide plank flooring, the tattered wallpaper that I can’t get out of my brain, and make the place super affordable while you’re at it?

Here is a glimpse of the things that have been making our hearts flutter, and some glitter popcorn walls just for the fun of it. And if you believe in magic, send out a little prayer to the housing gods that the guy selling 728 S. 6th comes to his senses and let’s us turn a crumbling mess into a beautiful home. If it happens, our guest room is wide open.

Desk for One

July 19, 2012 by Tara Mangini Leave a Comment

Dear rainy Thursday plus working at home for too many days straight,

You’re the worst. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a place to be at 9am tomorrow.

It’s so nice to be in charge of your own time, until that actually happens and even though there is stuff that has to get done, you are a total pushover of a boss and can’t seem to get your “employee” to be very productive.

“Hey, there’s a ton of work to get done, but you know, take your time. Do it when you’re ready. Why don’t you look around on Spotify for a bit until you find just the right music to suit your mood?”

Why aren’t there places where people all go to get things done? They could all show up at the same time and dress to impress each other, and talk about problems they are running into. There’d be a little teasing and goofing around, but they’d be in an environment dedicated to actually getting things done. Maybe they could even grab lunch together to decompress a little. Grab a 2:30 coffee. The possibilities are endless! At the end of the day, when they know that nothing else is going be accomplished, everybody closes their laptops, gives one of those swift dusting of the hands motions, and says “Alright, that’s it for today. Anybody want to go to happy hour?”

Oh, if only if only if only.

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