Success and happiness

Simpler Times.

One of the best parts of doing the Women’s Survival Guide is lighting a spark in someone to get out there and try something. Another huge bonus is the people I meet, or in this case, reconnect with. I met Cai Cai Fritzinger when her last name was Needham in pre-college, running around days. We have some close friends in common and to be honest I can’t recall the exact first meeting. A few years after college, she and I were part of a group of girls in Boston a little like a Bridget Jones clan. For a stretch, on Thursdays we would get together at our friend Emily’s house, down the street from me on Beacon Hill, and watch “Must See TV” like Sex in the City. Emily would make us her staple dish, Curried Chicken, recipe from Fanny Farmer. Then, we would go out. Simpler times.

As wonderful as that sounds, beneath it for me was the drum beat of singleton anxiety. I know I wasn’t alone. I was about 26-29 during the time described above. I had just moved back from New York and missed it. But New York had scared me that I was never going to find anyone to settle down with there. At the time, I worked with single women in their early thirties and they were not happy campers. When my job imploded in New York, my Dad offered me one and I high tailed it back to Boston. Actually, I hung around for a few months until my lease ran out.

In Boston, I moved a few houses up from my Mom and Step Dad into a 500 SF apartment of perfection. It had three side of windows! So much light it was like living in a fishbowl. Two fire places and a roof deck! A lovely bright bathroom. A bay window I could sit in like a cat and see the river. My mom decorated the place while I was still in New York.

She went to the fabric mills in Rhode Island and found a bolt of pretty chinoiserie chintz that she made into a slip cover for my little Pierre Deux loveseat we bought on sale in Washington, DC four years before. Then she made two large pillows (chintz on one side, a green and red and cream plaid on the other with a cream caterpillar fringe) for a sleeper couch we bought at a thrift store for a hundred bucks and had recovered in a nifty red fabric we got for $10 a yard at Zimman’s. She made a cushion for the window seat. We bought a little rug. She had a stand made for a old red and black metal tray (a “tray table” very popular at the time). The bedroom was separated by two little doors so its decor matched the living room. The same chintz for the curtains. For the bed, which we got at a thrift store in New Hampshire, mom found a French-red dust ruffle and matching red and cream toile duvet and pillow cases by Yves Delorme. A cuter apartment could not be had, though Emily’s was also pretty adorable. I believe she had bright yellow hallway, or Pink?

If my description above of life and living in my 20s resonates with you, treat yourself to the Bridget Jones’ movies this holiday season. Watch them with your (upper teenage and beyond) kids. My kids love them and we watch them every year. They have fallen in love with (young) Hugh Grant and Colin Firth the way we all did back then. Renée Zellweger is even funnier to me now. The movies are hilarious. They take place at Christmas, actually, and perfectly capture that feeling of being young(ish) and single in the late 90s. Her apartment has a key role in the movies, as well.

What was your apartment like in your late 20s? Did you decorate it? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

Please enjoy Cai Cai’s and my banter below on video (and in a day or two on podcast) and if you get a chance swing by her uplifting store at 162 Main St. Wenham, MA 01984.

The story continues below!

MAVEN OF THE WEEK!

Cai Cai Fritzinger

Back to Cai Cai. Eventually, we both found our mates. We married, had kids and spent the next twenty years raising them “for export” as my friend Carolyn likes to say. And here we are. As you will hear in our vlog/podcast episodes Cai Cai did think about opening her own store one day, though I am not sure she thought she really would. But, she collected bits of information and ideas over the years in case the opportunity presented itself. By no means was there a road map or plan. The Copper Shed, as her store is called, happened organically.

The store got its name from its first home in her yard. She and her family were building a new home north of Boston and she was working with a British decorator who also designed her own fabric. Cai Cai got a the idea she wanted to sell pillows made from the fabric and she had just put a copper roof on a shed on the property. Suddenly, she had a name, a place and some product. And from there, The Copper Shed, LLC took off.

Her risk was low, thanks to the shed but it took guts to start her business. Her store is more than a place to buy things. It’s a hive of happy interactions. Please tune in below and listen to what starting her business has meant to Cai Cai and her to her community.

Copper Shed Instagram:

See The Copper Shed Instagram!

Penelope Chilvers Shoes:

See Penelope Chilvers' shoes!

FIVE STOCK QUESTIONS

What did you want to be when you grew up? In the FBI

What are you excited about now? Everything!

What books are on your bedside table? None

What do you do to relax? Walk with my doggies

What category/subject would you add to the Guide? The right balance of sports/ working out to avoid injuries but stay in shape

A RECIPE YOU WON’T HATE from Cai Cai:

Big Anne’s Fish Chowda

Ingredients:

 2lbs Haddock (skinned)

 2lbs Idaho Potatoes (skinned and quartered)

 3 Yellow Onions

 1-quart whole Milk

 Butter

 Salt Pork

 Common Crackers

Recipe:

1. Cut up salt pork in small pieces and fry in a large frying pan until crisp

2. Take salt pork out with slotted spoon & put in a container lined with paper

towels

3. Add sliced onions to the salt pork fat and cook until translucent, take out and

put aside in a bowl

4. Put the haddock in a large pot and add water just to cover and then cook on

low boil until haddock is white

5. Take haddock out with a slotted spoon and put aside or on top of your bowl of

onions

6. Add cubed potatoes to the water used for fish (the base) and cook through,

don’t overcook

7. Add the onions and the fish into stock with potatoes

8. Add butter, milk, and salt and pepper to taste

Best made a day in advance, more flavor if it sits overnight.

In a few days we are going to release a podcast of the video and I am hoping to convince Cai Cai to let me post a blooper or two because we are really funny together:) So, stay tuned and send to friends! xo K