magic!

I'm a total sucker for unique pieces of furniture, housewares and clothing, especially those of the vintage or antique variety.  I'm also a sucker for keeping a stash of sweets around the apartment.  Since baked goodies don't last very long, I almost always have a bowl of candy out.  I love individually wrapped sweets in their shiny foil papers all colorful and bright.  A bowl of candies can somehow brighten up a room while adding a sense of homeyness.  And what guest doesn't want a little welcome snack?  I've had friends visit and apologetically eat every piece I have in the house.  I blame this ever-present candy dish on my father.  To say that he loves candy is an understatement.  He always has a secret stash of candy.  Once, I left a bag of Reese's Pieces (one of my faves) in my car for a few hours and when I went back to get them, they were gone.  It was as if they had never existed and my dear dad pretended they didn't.  To this day, he will deny eating them but I know what really happened!


I usually toss a bag of candy in whatever bowl happens to be sitting clean in the dish drain but lately I've wanted something a bit more permanent.  My sweets deserve a home, a proper candy dish.  And so my search for the perfect candy dish began... and it ended faster than you can unwrap a Hersey Kiss.  There in my email was an Etsy treasury with this little ditty in it:

Yes, it's real.  Thanks to the amazing eye of Becky and her Etsy shop, Kings Down Road, I am now the proud owner of a magical candy dish with unicorn handles!  I had another major award moment (you'll find I have a lot of those because I absolutely love opening mail) when I opened this box as the bowl was even more spectacular than I had expected.  Obviously I had to immediately run out and get some candy to fill my new prize.  So off to Slodycze Wedel, the amazing all-Polish candy shop that has floor to ceiling baskets and baskets filled with mystery candies!  The sweets aren't that mysterious but since I have no knowledge whatsoever of the Polish language I can only pick out hints as to what's wrapped up in Christmas-like sparkly cellophane.  They have dark chocolate covered marzipan, chocolate jellies, milk chocolates filled with every liqueur imaginable, pistachios and hazelnuts dipped in dark chocolate, even prunes enrobed in cocoa, yum everything in the store has a little bit of chocolate!  If you haven't been, you should make a special trip to Greenpoint.  It's definitely worth it if you love sugar and nostalgia.  The shop has that old-world Polish vibe that seems to be disappearing daily from Manhattan Avenue.

A brisk walk home so I could quickly dump $10.60 worth of Polish confections into the new unicorn bowl and abracadabra razzmatazz voila and poof! Magic! 

Tell me you wouldn't grab a piece or two if you saw that...