If you know anything about this charming Madame and her companion, please let me know. There’s a detail of the signature on my Instagram at instagram.com/thedealmommyblog. At $25, I couldn’t let her go! Frame is not original-I pilfered it from another thrift store piece.
For Deal Girl’s Christmas present this year the two of us spend a girl’s weekend in New York City. We decided to split up the visit between 2 hotels (she likes hotels, and 2 hotels means 2 STAYS, which gets me closer to status for next year) so our first night was at the Hyatt Union Square.
Most of the kid-centric NYC stuff on her wish list (IE Times Square, Toys R Us, FAO, Dylan’s Candy Bar, Etc.) is in midtown or higher, so I had some flexibility with our day on the other end of Manhattan.
Fortunately, right around the corner from the Hyatt is the Strand Bookstore, which boasts 18 miles of new and used books. I can’t say we marched every mile, but Deal Girl and I passed two wonderful hours in The Strand wandering and finding all sorts of discoveries: Mad Libs (which were new to her) for $1.95, Flower pens for 50 cents, a bunch of Mr. Men and Little Miss books to add to the collection ($2-3), and in a bin next to one of the elevators I found the lady above. I took her to the attic where the rarities are housed and the expert up there verified that she’s a lithograph, not a cheap reproduction, but couldn’t give me any hints as to the artist or it’s age…any ideas?
Deal Girl’s one Downtown mandate was our choice for lunch, which was non-negotiable: Peanut Butter and Company.
If you’ve never heard of PB and Co., well, you must not have visited NYC with a kid. The shop itself is postage stamp sized with about six 2 and four seater tables, so don’t expect much…but the sandwiches ARE worth it. Deal Girl is a fan of the fluffernutter, while I recommend the Elvis (peanut butter, banana, honey and…wait for it…bacon). You can actually buy PB and Co on Amazon 
Do you have any downtown discoveries to add to the list for our next trip? We really enjoyed the Hyatt Union Square and I’d love to spend more time down there. Please share in the comments.