Happy Halloween 2024

All photos are taken by Debra Turner of the Upper East Side (Click to enlarge)

On the Upper East Side, it's Halloween 2024. Around the Nabe walk with me once more.

Yet beware of coming too close, or lingering too long. Because Halloween's Monster Bash has already begun!👺

New Yorkers are dressed to the nines, it's clear. Forever I hear, there's plenty to fear. 🐺                                                                                                                                                                                 

As passersby stare at the undead, they'll stare back at you! There's a chill in the air and a cold wicked glare

No expense is ever spared on the decor to meet Yorkville's spirited Halloween lore.🎃

Witches, spiders, rats, tall hats, and severed heads. Maybe alive or maybe they're dead?

The eyes, the skulls, the creatures who beam.🧛‍♂️

Some grin, some lean, some hang, and others look quite mean. 

This year bones are trending. Pets and pumpkins too.💀

A book of poisons to put a hex is on you!📚 

 Oh, what a Fright lasting all day and all night!🔪

When Gotham locals and tourists are out on the town, a voice whispers, "Send in the clowns. There ought to be clowns."🎵♩♪

A raven watches your every move. You must stay alert to avoid danger and be ready to skirt.🕷 

All Hallow's Eve, ghosts, and ghouls are running loose.

Howling, flying, and on the hunt for the obtuse. 

Don't be their prey. Stay far, far away!

The Gold family flew in this morning. A warning!

Another day is dawning, but perhaps not for everyone as evil is swarming!👀

The owl asks, "Who, who? Will it be you?" Oh no, hang low. Spot foe. Don't let it be so!😱

We're at our last stop and the end of my ditty.

Happy Halloween, readers, from Gotham City!

And ... know👆that someone is sorry to see you go.🩸🩸🩸

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Fat Free Lemon Or Orange Curd

I like lemon curd but want to use up oranges, so I'm using my no-butter lemon curd recipe to make 2 cups of orange curd.

Lemon or Orange Curd

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh lemon juice or 1 cup fresh orange juice (from 4 to 5 lemons or oranges) 

1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest 
1 cup sugar (minus 1 tablespoon)
3 eggs, room temperature

A squeeze of lemon (for orange curd)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Optional: Butter makes a traditional curd. Add 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of unsalted butter in step #1 if you wish.

Directions:

1) Squeeze the citrus fruit to get 1 cup of lemon or orange juice and pour into a saucepan with the sugar. Turn on the stove to medium heat to dissolve the sugar into syrup. Toss in the zest. 

2) In a bowl beat the eggs. 

3) Slowly pour the syrup into the eggs. Stir. With an electric mixer beat for a minute.

4) Return to the stove on low heat while stirring until it begins to

simmer. At this point, turn off the heat and add the vanilla.

Store in a jar or container in the refrigerator.

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Soft & Cozy Merino Wool Blankets

It's been nearly 2 years, and I'm still grieving! Laytner's Linen & Home, a much-loved brick-and-mortar shop, closed its doors on the Upper East Side after 3 decades, and I still miss it. Its owner retired but customers can still buy his home goods online. Over the years, I bought bedding, pillows, throws, and a myriad of housewares like kitchen rugs, potholders, organizers, and Christmas ornaments. The salespeople were store employees for years and I miss them too.

Consumers never have to break the bank buying from this linen and home goods company! Yes, present tense, off its website!

You can't beat the retailer's quality for its fair prices. I have 2 sheetsets on deck, which I bought at Latner's going out of brick-and-mortar business sale. When the time comes to restock I'm happy I can still order online from the merchant. But I miss going inside the store, touching the merchandise, and sometimes discovering new items I didn't know I needed until I saw them at prices too good to be true.

Speaking of which, for winter I highly recommend Laytner's soft and cozy reversible 100% Merino wool blankets, its reversible 100% Merino wool throws, and if your budget permits, its cashmere and lambswool blankets.

Natural wool threads are spectacular! They are cool in warmer weather and warm in cold weather. Also, they are more durable than manmade fibers. You seldom get pilling, lint, or fuzz. Wool shows less wear and tear than acrylics.

You can get cozy with bedding from Laytners without disappointment. The family's 50 years of experience is reflected in the quality of their products at honest prices!

For natural yarn blankets in the winter, Laytner's Linen & Home is your retailer! Check out its on-sale-now prices!

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Applesauce Breakfast Cake

Photo: iStock

As a child, I loved a great aunt's applesauce cake. It was so moist and sweet! I want to eat applesauce cake for breakfast so I tried my hand at making a healthier recipe. You can easily turn the cake batter into cupcakes to eat breakfast on the go if you wish.

Applesauce Breakfast Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup of applesauce

1/4 cup mashed ripe banana (= 4 tablespoons)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons cider vinegar (I think organic tastes best.)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of oatmeal turned into flour in a food processer

(You can substitute unbleached all-purpose or whole wheat flour. I use oatmeal for a breakfast cake, and flour for a dessert.)

1/3 cup dark brown sugar (White sugar works too.)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (The cider vinegar activates it)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

1/2 cup of raisins (Omit if you wish. Raisins will keep your cake moist for extra days.)

Optional substitution: A pumpkin spice mix powder has cinnamon and nutmeg in it so if you have it, feel free to use it.

Directions:

1) Get out 2 mixing bowls. Mix all your wet ingredients in one bowl and all your dry ingredients in the other bowl.

2) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and incorporate with a mixer or whisk.

3) Pour the batter into a greased square 8-inch by 8-inch baking pan. Sometimes I use a loaf pan, which you can also cut into squares) If you decide to make cupcakes instead, pour the batter into each cupcake holder 2/3 full.

4) Bake the cake or cupcakes in a 350 F degree preheated oven for about 22 minutes. Check the cupcakes at about 16 minutes as they may bake faster.

5) After the center is done, remove from the over. Remove from the pan, not when hot, but while still warm.

Light Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients 

8 oz Neufchatel (light) cream cheese

Drops of milk

As much powdered sugar as you need

1 teaspoon of vanilla extra

Directions:

Whisk all ingredients until creamy. I start with a cup of powdered sugar and add a little more at a time.

Alternatively, you can sprinkle your applesauce cake with powdered sugar instead of frosting. It will have even less calories.

Ahhh, the perfect autumn breakfast with coffee, tea, or milk. Enjoy a light treat that also has a few nutrients in it!🍎🍏

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Pretty Gnoce Jewelry Can Be Personalized

All photos are from Gnoce's website here

While I appreciate luxury handbags, shoes, and apparel, it's fine jewelry that makes my heart beat a little faster. Today I'm collaborating with a jewelry company because I love everything about it -- its quality, price, and customer service. Gnoce Jewelry was founded in 2015 "with the idea that jewelry should be fun and inspire happiness," and WOW, do they deliver!

The jeweler aims to capture and celebrate life's special moments and to achieve this, it designs a wide range of ultra-cute styles and personal pieces including necklaces, pendants, bracelets, charms, earrings, and rings to suit every customer and special occasion. 

Conceived, developed, and crafted in-house, Gnoce's 2,000+ pieces are well made (on par with Pandora) yet by far more affordable! With a wise business plan, the company owns its own sustainable factories and sells directly to consumers. Much of its stock including all of the charms that go on a choice of bracelets is made of 925 sterling silver, a precious metal for fine jewelry. Gnoce charms can be further personalized with engravings or photos or by selecting name necklaces. 

IMHO sterling silver jewelry is a luxury item worth the splurge because it endures. With care, the pieces will last a lifetime.

Gnoce has 10+ collections of jewelry to fit every imaginable taste making it very easy to find your own style or to tell your own story with hand-painted and beautiful meaningful or playful charms.

Gnoce's 925 sterling silver pieces are extremely budget-friendly and adorable, making fine jewelry accessible to nearly everyone. In addition to reasonable starting price points, Gnoce offers attractive deals such as buy 2, get 2 charms free, and recurring sales. This makes gift giving of fine jewelry easy on the wallet, and you won't go broke collecting the charms! 

Right now there's a hot 🎃Halloween Sale👻 to check out, including Gnoce's🩸SAW Billy-themed Collection🩸while supplies last. But should the Halloween inventory sell out, I don't need a crystal ball to know Savvy Shoppers will find something else just as wearable. Great attention is paid to the details. Everything is so darn cute, for sure, whatever you pick won't stay in a box!🎁

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Buy Pinalen Instead of Pine-Sol

During COVID I re-discovered Pine-Sol, a household cleaner that kills 99% of germs on surface areas and is also used to clean grease and heavy stains. It was invented in 1929 by Harry A. Cole of Mississippi using pine oil as an ingredient. In 2016 Cloxox, its manufacturer, removed pine oil from the formula sold in stores to save money.

Since today's in-store Pine-Sol doesn't contain pine oil I switched to Pinalen, an equivalent cleaner that still contains pine oil.

Pinalen is comprised of water, pine essential oil, sodium laurate, sodium oleate, dodecanoic acid, sodium salt, isopropyl alcohol, and benzenesulfonic acid.

Along with its disinfecting and cleaning powers, I appreciate the pine scent. I put a few drops inside my toilet bowl several times a week to keep it clean, as well as, fresh smelling.

Although I clean my toilet with hydrogen peroxide, Pinalen is said to be safe for all parts of the toilet. It won't damage the internal mechanisms nor remove the paint from a toilet seat. The reason I use hydrogen peroxide is to skip the follow-up step of rinsing with clean water. I use a few drops of diluted Pinalen to soak only inside the toilet bowl then brush and flush. (Btw: mostly I mop my floors with white vinegar and water, but every so often, I mop with Pinalen diluted in water or even bleach and water for heavy-duty cleanings. Afterwards, I'll rinse with water. When mopping with vinegar you can just let the floor dry without rinsing.)

So now I have to contradict Clorox. Although the makers of Pine-Sol say it won't hurt your toilet tank, I wouldn't add it to the tank regularly (only if you need to clean a dirty or moldy tank initially) because the disinfectant and its equivalent cleaners are acidic. The rubber pieces in the tank's cistern will erode, causing the flushing mechanism to malfunction. It won't hurt used infrequently, but that's why I only put a few drips in just the toilet bowl.

In addition to bathrooms, Pinalen cleans laundry, kitchen counters and appliances, floors, walls, garages, and backyard fixtures. 

It's less expensive than Pine-Sol. I buy the one-gallon (128 fl oz or 3.785L) concentrated size, then dilute it with water (a 50/50 ratio) in a spray bottle to clean. Less product is required in a bucket of water to mop a floor. Mix 1/8 cup of solvent with 1 gallon of water. Available at Walmart, Walgreens, and Amazon. Pine oil smells amazing though perhaps it's not to everyone's liking.

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Old Navy's Sweater Dress Is Perfect For A Breezy Home

My mom lives in a warm house but due to high ceilings, it can get a little chilly in winter. Old Navy's Sweater Dress is perfect to wear during the colder months so her home's thermostat doesn't have to rise above 72 degrees F, keeping her gas and electric bills reasonable (though not cheap).

In her senior years, too many layers can get too heavy and cumbersome, restricting her moments or causing her to fall. This is a one-piece, knitted dress that wraps around her like a soft warm sweater. It's 56% cotton, 25% polyester, and 16% nylon. I bought her the dress last year in a light tan color and hoped Old Navy would bring it back this year in new colors ... which they did! She loves wearing shades of red, so I ordered her dress in cherry bark.

I highly recommend buying clothes for seniors at Old Navy, and unless there's a medical reason, skip those senior apparel websites. They tend to be greatly overpriced and unfashionable. If you dress old in garments resembling sweats and pajamas, you start to feel ancient and feeble. My mother likes fashion and wants to maintain the same dignity she had at ages 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. 

Old Navy offers cute comfortable clothing that looks appropriate for every decade of a person's life. The sweater dress isn't too loose or skin-tight, but just right to flatter most body types. Moreover for everybody, they are easy to put on and take off, as well as, to care of by machine washing and drying them.

With a promotion code, I just spent $22 on her new lovely durable sweater dress. It sure beats paying $70+ for a sweats-pajama-house dress that nobody ever called fashionable!

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b. fresh Deodorant Smells Great

Scents - Grapefruity Good, Roses All Day, Coconutty Vanilla, Lush Lavender

If you've been following THE SAVVY SHOPPER for a length of time, you may remember our discussion about underarm personal care products. Sweating is the body's natural way of cooling itself, and as it turns out, eliminating this necessary function with antiperspirants may not be desirable according to some recent medical studies.

Let's review why: Antiperspirants stop wetness by clogging sweat glands, while underarm deodorants prevent odor (not wetness) with bacteria-fighting ingredients. But what antiperspirants also do is make you sweat more so you may be better off using deodorants. Going 1 - 4 weeks (because everybody's body chemistry is different) without using antiperspirants lets your body rebalance itself, and surprisingly you should end up sweating less. What's more, the ingredients in traditional antiperspirants are also raising enough concern to pay attention.

B. Fresh deodorant is a T.J. Maxx find that smells fantastic! Aluminum-free, it is made with a blend of natural plant and mineral odor-eliminating ingredients including rose flower extract, bergamot leaf oil, zinc ricinoleate, lavender oil, orange peel oil, and lysmeral. 

I bought the Roses All Day scent to pamper my senior mother after her bath. She does smell like roses all day! It's a good, clean scent ... strong, yet not artificial or overwhelming.

I also like the shea butter and hyaluronic acid in the product for a smooth application, especially restorative after a shave.

Photo: Getty

IMHO, once you pay for a product and walk out of a store, ain't nobody's business how you use it! In our family, we may end up using it as a perfume on our arms, neck, behind our ears, etc, etc. to smell awesome like roses all day long!🌹

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