Gold Coast Mansions: Sands Point

Hello everyone. I'm here today with my first installment of my Gold Coast Mansion series. This series will be a collection of posts showing off the rich history of the Gold Coast, also known as the North Shore of Long Island. Today I'll be discussing The Sands Point Preserve (home to Castlegould and The Hempstead House) as well as the town of Sands Point in general.

It was easy for me to choose this first mansion and town because it holds a lot of personal memories for me. It is a place that I've been exploring for years and one of my favorite places to just drive around and take in the beauty, architecture and spectacular views. It is also the inspiration for the town of "East Egg" in The Great Gatsby, the book that inspired me to start this series in the first place. It seems like a no brainer that this would be the first stop of my Gold Coast tour.

This post will be a little bit different since you'll see a few parts of the town as well as the preserve since I have such a love for the whole area. I've recruited my friend Alex to join me in this journey and I'm so glad that she wanted to come with me because we had a great time!

All of the historical information that I will share was obtained from the literature I received upon arrival to the preserve. Also, apparently the tours of the estate occur Thursday through Sunday and our availability limits us to Mondays so we were kind of left to fend for ourselves so I was unable to ask questions and apparently missed out on one of the mansions.

Enough of my babbling, let's get started!

The Sands Point Preserve is what remains of a former Gold Coast estate built by Howard Gould, the son of railroad tycoon Jay Gould. In 1904, Gould completed Castlegould. Its architecture was inspired by Kilkenny Castle in Ireland.

This is Castlegould. It is the first building that you see when you enter the main portion of the preserve. It is a massive and striking building, clearly resembling an old castle. It was intended to be the main estate but the Goulds did not like it and build a second estate on the property.

Here is a wider view of Castlegould. Believe it or not, this is the smaller building and would go on to house the stables and become the servants quarters.

This is the back of the Hempstead House, the main residence of Howard Gould. It was completed in 1912 and was considered one of the most lavish and extravagant estates on the Gold Coast. 

*Note - I apologize for not getting a full on front view of the Hempstead House but they seemed to be getting ready for an event that day and there were trucks blocking the front.

This sign appears behind the house and I just thought it was interesting. 

This is the back garden area of the house. It is surrounded by the gorgeous stone wall that you can see bordering the garden in the picture and has a beautiful view of the water. The detail is really stunning in person.

This is the water view from the Hempstead House. It overlooks the Long Island Sound and Hempstead Bay, hence the name. As you can see, we had an absolutely perfect day.

This is the side of the Hempstead House and unfortunately the closest I could get to the front. It is built in a Tudor Manor style has a granite and Indiana limestone exterior. It is 225 feet long, 135 feet wide, has three floors, 40 rooms and an 80 foot tower.

Another side view of the home. Following Howard Gould's divorce, the Estate was purchased by Daniel Guggenheim in 1917. He was the third Guggenheim to own property in Sands Point and he was the one to give the main residence the name The Hempstead House.

Guggenheim gifted 90 acres of the Estate to his son and new daughter in law in 1923, where they built a Normandy style house on the bluffs overlooking the Long Island Sound. They called it "Falaise," which is the French word for cliff. I did not get to see Falaise and I'm not sure if that is part of the tour but I will try my best to get back on a weekend to see if I can get a few pictures of it for you.

The Preserve also boasts many beautiful nature trails that take you through the woods and down to the water front. Due to my severe seasonal allergies I was unable to bear the thought of walking through the woods but I will make that part of my mission for when I return.

After passing hands several times, upon the death of Harry Guggenheim most of the 90 acre estate was deeded to Nassau County for use as a museum site and is now known as the Sands Point Preserve.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I chose Sands Point because I do have a personal connection to it. I don't know if this is a "Long Island thing" but in high school and when I was on break from college my friends and I would get together for the evening to get dinner and coffee. The night would ALWAYS be capped off by a multiple hour drive around Long Island to our favorite locations and Sands Point was a weekly stop for us. We had discovered that following the curve at the end of the road would bring us one of the most beautiful views we could ever imagine. I always felt like I was in on a secret and we would drive there every single time we got together. You'll see why in just a minute.

One of my favorite things about the town of Sands Point is the eclectic architecture of all of the houses. You'll find every style of house you can imagine, one more grand and opulent than the next. The waterfront views are unbeatable and I could spend all of the time in the world driving around and looking at the area. The house pictured above is my absolute favorite in the town. I love its almost gothic and medieval vibe, the view is incredible and those spikes on the surrounding wall are so different and intimidating. It is definitely my dream home and I love passing by and taking a look at it. It also looks really spooky at night which is really fun.

This structure is located directly across the street from the house pictured above. This is located in someone's side yard I believe. It's hard to tell what belongs to whom but I'm pretty sure this the side yard. It is such an interesting structure because if it belongs to the house I'm thinking of it is a completely different style than the architecture of the main house. It looks really cool nonetheless.

I love the feel and vibe of this little area and I'm not going to lie, I've wanted to do a photo shoot over here for ages. It would be a great place for an engagement shoot with the right couple ;)

This is not a great picture but I love the detail of the fence surrounding this little side yard. It reminds me of giant chain mail and I thought it was so unique.

This is another gorgeous house located in Sands Point and sits directly across from the view I was mentioning above. The home is huge and my favorite feature is the double wraparound balcony/patio on the top and bottom levels of the house. If you are in the market for a new home and love the look of this house, you are in luck! It is currently on the market and you only have to fork over $13 MILLION. ;) It is so beautiful, and what makes it even more special and stunning is the view.

(Special note about this photo - Alex took this photo. Poor thing was practically hanging out of the window as I was rolling the car, ha! She got a great shot, thanks for being a trooper in my crazy adventure! In all fairness though I was practically hanging out of the window getting the picture of the house across the street)

This is what you see when you look directly across from that gorgeous mansion. It is hard to tell because it was a little hazy on the horizon that day, but this beautiful house overlooks the water (I believe the Long Island Sound but I'm not 100% sure) and has an amazing view of the city. Imagine coming around a curve in the road at night and being treated to this view of a beautifully lit New York City over the water. I feel so lucky to know about this spot and to be able to go there whenever I want. When it is warm out and I don't want to be at home I'll sometimes just drive down to this spot to get out of the house and enjoy a beautiful day. It is so special to me and I love it so much.

So this is it for my first post in my Gold Coast Series! I apologize for not getting the pictures of the nature trails and of Falaise, but I promise I will try to get back on a day where they are doing tours and when my allergies have calmed down a bit. So I guess there will eventually be a part two of my Sands Point post.

I hope you enjoyed my photo tour of the Sands Point Preserve and the town of Sands Point. I am so excited to have more adventures and show you more of the Gold Coast. Funny enough, I worked my first wedding in a long time yesterday and we happened to go to the Estate that I was planning on going to next! I got to scope it all out and get re-acquainted with it and it is a beautiful and completely different property from the preserve and I look forward to going back soon! I've also been debating filming a driving tour of the town so you can get a really good idea of what I see when I drive this road but I would have to work out the logistics of that. Is it something that you would want to see?

Have a great weekend!

What I Ate Wednesday!

Hey everyone! I'm back for another What I Ate Wednesday! I've been eating a lot of raw food lately. Allergy season is upon us and I'm already feeling it so I'm trying to be as clean as possible because it's hitting me really hard. I haven't photographed a ton but here's a little bit of what I've been eating lately.

Here's some of my meals!

I made a gorgeous juice! I couldn't get over how pretty the pulp looked so I took a million pictures of it ;) I definitely felt like I was eating (well... drinking) the rainbow. How gorgeous is it?! It's like produce confetti.

And here is the actual juice. It was a really good one. It has pineapple, orange, green apple, carrots, beet and lemon. I have never juiced beets before so I was a little nervous about it but it was good! It had a bit of an earthy flavor even though I peeled it. I may just use a half next time but it was definitely delicious and this was a large glass. I think it was about 24 oz?

For this dinner I didn't have a raw meal but I did eat my veggies :) This is Eggplant Salad (puree of roasted eggplant with olive oil, vinegar and garlic) and it is served with veggie garnishes and delicious, fresh pita. It came from a place called Greek Corner. Truthfully I'm not a huge fan of most of their food (their hummus and falafel are not my favorite at all) but my mom ordered this one night and let me try it and it was delicious! I usually don't order from there but I will definitely order this again. It's super garlicky too.

I'm sorry about the horrible picture and tablecloth. After I finished my dinner I chopped up some tomato and cucumber and made an Israeli style salad (basically you just chop your veggies nice and small) and topped it with the leftover eggplant dip. I brought this to work with me the next day for lunch. I basically mixed it up into a delicious mess and put it in a pita. Good thing I was alone that day because the garlic is intense ;)

I had this beautiful salad! It had mixed greens, grape tomatoes, almonds, cranberries and candied walnuts (which I didn't eat because I didn't realize they were candied until after I got it and I didn't know what the ingredients were). I used some balsamic vinaigrette and it was delicious!

Sorry this isn't a ton of meals but I'm trying, I promise! Hopefully next week I'll have more meals to show you. I'm just so excited about visiting the mansions and photographing other things that I've been neglecting my meals. Like I say every Wednesday, I'll try for more next week ;)

Hope the rest of your week goes well!

This Week On Instagram... a Teaser!

Hey everyone! Soooooo I barely posted last week... sorry about that! And today's post will be quick too but trust me, it's worth it. My allergies have flared up big time so I'm feeling a bit yucky but I braved the environment and my severe allergies to go check out my first Gold Coast Mansion! I'm not going to give any details... just three teaser pictures to hold you over until my post on Saturday. Hopefully they will intrigue you enough to bring you back on Saturday!!

No explanations, just awesomeness ;)

I lens flared the heck out of that last pic. I'm just saying. 

The only information that I'll give you is that I have a personal history with this town and it's very close to my heart. I'll also tell you that only one photo is of the actual mansion property. The rest is just amazing architecture in the town. I can't wait to tell you more about it and share more photos this weekend!

I hope you all had a good week and a Happy Easter. See you Wednesday!

Show & Tell Sunday: Earnest Eats Hot & Fit Cereal

Hey everyone! I'm back for a Show & Tell Sunday post. Today I have a review on a product that I bought a while back called Earnest Eats Hot & Fit Cereal. The cute little individual serving cups caught my eye in Whole Foods so I stopped to check them out. I don't even typically go down the cereal aisle since I rarely eat cereal but I'm glad I passed by! They had the individual serving cups which are fantastic for a meal on the go. And I love that they actually have a lid on them rather than just a peel back top for easy transport. They come in three different flavors: American Blend (cranberry and almond), Mayan Blend (cocoa, pepita and cashew) and Asian Blend (mango and green tea). I purchased one each of the American Blend and the Mayan Blend. Today's review is of the Mayan Blend flavor.

This is the sturdy lid I was talking about. It boasts a vegan label along with the nutritious grain blend that makes up the cereal. It's hard to pass up a hot cereal that has ingredients like these!

Here is the front of the container. It's a really cute container and I'm sure you can see why it caught my eye.

It works like an instant oatmeal. You fill the container with boiling water up to the fill line on the outside of the container (my only complaint: I wish the fill line was inside so it is easier to line up), stir and wait until it thickens up. If you are like me you'll use almond milk instead of water for a delicious, rich flavor ;) It almost tasted like hot cocoa with grains in it!

Here is my final bowl! I topped mine with banana and shredded coconut because why not? The cereal took a few minutes to thicken but ended up being really creamy and warming. The chocolate flavor is so rich and there is a really nice nutty flavor from the grains, the seeds and the cashews. It's such a nice alternative to plain oatmeal. This is a very hearty meal (especially with the toppings) and would be perfect for a cozy breakfast on a brisk morning.

Here is a closer look. Sorry my pictures are so terrible, I took them with my phone and this new tablecloth is driving me crazy. Anyway, I really enjoyed this meal and this product and I'm looking forward to trying the American Blend. I definitely recommend trying this cereal if you enjoy hot cereal and are interested in branching out.

Earnest Eats has other products as well that I have tried including energy bars and granola bars/planks. I used to enjoy bringing them with me when I worked weddings because they were really delicious and packed a nutritional punch in a compact serving. They are perfect snacks to bring with you on the go.

As with all of my reviews, the opinions in this post are my own and solely based on how I felt about the product. I purchased the products myself and I have never had contact with the company. 

So there you have it! Tomorrow I'll be celebrating the first night of Passover so I'll have to hold off on trying the other blend until the week after. I hope you have all had a good week and are enjoying the beautiful weekend. I'll see you tomorrow with some Instagram pictures!

Throwback Thursday: Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies!

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! I'm here with another throwback recipe. This is one of my favorites and I was reminded of it a few days ago reading Shen's blog. I think I may have to make a batch of these after Passover ends because it has been too long!

Anyway, here is the recipe! I used this recipe as my start point and made a bunch of changes to create this new cookie! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup gf oat flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup Alter Eco Mascobado Sugar*

1/4 cup white sugar (or coconut sugar!)

2 tbsp maple syrup or coconut nectar

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, drained on a paper towel

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 cups gf rolled oats

3/4 cups sliced almonds

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

*Instead of regular brown sugar I used Alter Eco’s Mascobado sugar that was sent to me to review. This was my secret for this recipe. It added a beautiful hint of caramel that was so perfect. I really love this sugar, definitely give it a try if you can find it! If not, feel free to use regular brown sugar..

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Mix the sugars, syrup, applesauce, coconut oil and extracts in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Add oats, almonds and coconut. Fold mix ins into batter until combined then let sit for a few minutes.

5. Drop cookies on baking sheet (I used a small ice cream scoop to portion my cookies). Bake cookies 10-11 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on tray then transfer to cooling rack. Enjoy!!

*Feel free to add in some chocolate chips as well, especially if you love the Almond Joy flavor combo of coconut, almond and chocolate!

These cookies are seriously amazing. I really love the almond extract in it too. I may add a little almond flour next time too 

That's all for tonight! I hope you all have a great Friday!

What I Ate Wednesday

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I did a What I Ate Wednesday post so over the past week I made the conscious effort to photograph as much as possible. I didn't get a ton of pics but definitely enough to give you an idea of what I've been eating :)

I know it seems silly to take a picture of water but I've been focusing on hydration over the past couple of weeks. I drink a couple of these large mason jars filled with water every day. I love my glass straw :)

As the weather has been warming up I've been enjoying some smoothies lately as well. I got this one from Fairway (the store with the awesome pickle barrels and huge olive collection that I discussed here) while I was out and I'm typically a little weary of this since a lot of places tend to use syrupy fruit. This place had everything laid out for me to see and it was all fresh fruit and greens. This one is mango, pineapple, strawberry and spinach (passed on the agave she was going to add). Fresh produce blended with ice, you definitely can't beat it. 

I've busted out the juicer as well. This super green concoction contains one large cucumber, some romaine leaves, a few handfuls of spinach, some green apple and the juice of one whole lemon. It was really good! And I love the immediate boost of energy I get when I drink it. Oh and the cup is an adorable plastic-y (BPA free) mason jar type container that my mom got me. So cute!

I made myself a large fruit salad with several oranges, apples and some strawberries. Munched on this over the course of 3 days. It was so good and having it prepared and ready to go really helped my laziness ;)

This is a very thick bowl of Mayim Bialik's Tomato Soup with Israeli Couscous! Her pictures look way better than mine but oh well ;) This is a very delicious soup out of her cookbook Mayim's Vegan Table. The book is a really great collection of simple vegan recipes for family friendly meals. I love that she includes veganized versions of popular Jewish recipes too! I was pretty excited about that since there are some recipes from my childhood that I do miss and now I can make them again!

If you are interested in the recipe for this soup PETA actually has it posted here! Try it, it's delicious!

I had to make this last picture even larger so you can see the gloriousness of it. Last Saturday I went out for dinner at Wild Fig with my oldest (we've been friends for 15 years!) and dearest friends and her awesome husband. They live in Massachusetts so I don't get to see them often and when I do get to see them I am so happy. We went for Mediterranean food and had the most delicious meal with lovely company. For appetizers we ordered hummus and stuffed grape leaves. These were served with the most delicious, warm, fresh flatbread. Their hummus is by far my favorite of any hummus I've ever had. I wish I could bring home a gallon of it. On the bottom of the picture was my red lentil soup and it was amazing as well. Such a perfect meal and I was STUFFED when we left. It was such a good night :) I'm planning on going to visit them sometime in the spring as well and I can't wait! Oh and sorry about the horrible pictures, I took them with my phone in horrible lighting.

So this is some of what I've been eating! I'm going to try my best to continue to photograph what I can of my meals :) See you tomorrow with a Throwback Thursday Recipe!

This Week On Instagram & Patch Test Results

Hey everyone! Happy (?) Monday! I hope the start of your week was kind to you. I'm back today with some pictures I posted on Instagram over the past week :) Trying to get back in the groove of my new posting schedule and I think I should be on track for this week!

Here's what I've been up to!

I finally had the time to sit down and attempt to do the water marble technique on my nails! It didn't come out too bad for my first real try! It is very subtle because I chose dark colors but I love how it came out. I'll try again with more springy colors next week and show you how it comes out :)

I also had the time to try to achieve some heatless curls using my new Flexi Rods. I used two different sizes and wasn't 100% thrilled with how it came out. My hair got BIG. Like Lady Marmalade big. Ridiculous big. It calmed down a little bit eventually but I think next time I'm going to try to do them all with the large size Flexi Rods and see what happens. And sadly that gray hair at the top of the picture is here to stay :( More on that in a minute.

I just saw this sign at an abandoned gas station near my house and thought it was kind of awesome.

I normally capture sunset pictures but as I wasn't sleeping all that much the past week I was able to get this amazing sunrise picture! It almost looks like fire! Love it.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day and I couldn't in good conscience sit in my house all day. I don't like going to Whole Foods any time after 9:30 am because that's when all of the self absorbed, entitled jerks in my area converge upon the store but decided to risk my sanity and take a trip at around 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a mistake in the sense that the store was a disaster and people were leaving their carts all over making it virtually impossible to pass. On the plus side I got to take a nice drive with a gorgeous blue sky above me and the spring air coming in through my open window. So beautiful.

For some reason I've been feeling really girly lately (see above hair and nail attempts) so I decided to go to my local beauty supply store (we used to have an Ulta but sadly not anymore) and pick up a few things. I grabbed a few bottles of nail polish for a cute springtime water marble, some clips to help tame my crazy hair when I attempt to style it, some empty travel pill cases that will be perfect for holding DIY crayon lipstick (which I discussed in yesterday's post) and of course cotton balls... because we all need cotton balls. Yeah, so between yesterday and today I decided that I really am curious about this crayon lipstick and really need to try it ;) Who knows, if it comes out well I may do a little giveaway. We shall see!

OK so I finally am finished with my allergist adventures and have two confirmed allergies to add to my extensive list of environmental allergies: P-Phenylenediamine (PPD) & GOLD! GOLD?! OK, so the PPD allergy was actually the reason I went in there. It is the ingredient in hair dye (it is in pretty much every single dark hair dye out there... including black henna, wtf?) that I reacted to several months back. Upon further research when I got home, I basically need to stay away from hair dye (except the one brand that supposedly doesn't have it in there but I've heard that people still react to it), and need to inform my doctors and dentist about the allergy because it can cross react with certain local anesthesias. It can also be found in black rubber, sunscreen, and for some reason a lot of websites I went to said to stay away from orange peel? I don't completely understand that one except it may just be naturally occurring in orange peel so I guess no more orange zest and I either need someone to peel oranges for me or I need to wear gloves. That's crazy.

The other allergy that popped up was to Gold. I find that amusing because apparently it is rare to be allergic to pure gold. Most people that are allergic to their gold jewelry are actually allergic to the nickel that they mix with the gold. Nickel is the most common metal allergy and I'm not allergic to it. I don't know why but I'm amused by that but I am.

As of now those are the only two confirmed allergies. The other one we were watching was for a textile dye (also dark colors) but while it turned red it didn't have any other characteristics of a full reaction. I have to watch for one more as well which could also be starting to show a delayed reaction. This one is for Chromate but for the most part I don't come into contact with most of the common sources (no thanks leather!). I think the only things I would have to be careful of is tattoo ink and some cosmetics.

I did skin testing today for some food allergies like tomato, potato, eggplant, corn, and soy and they all came out negative. Yay!

OK this turned into a very long post but that's what I've got for you today! I hope you all had a great Monday and I'll be back on Wednesday with a What I Ate Wednesday post! See you then!

Show & Tell Sunday: The Pinterest Edition!

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been MIA this week. Truthfully I've just been really uncomfortable due to the allergy patch testing I had to do. I've definitely got some allergies going on and because I was showing evidence of a delayed reaction on Friday I have to go back again tomorrow. That will be my fourth visit to the allergist in 8 days. Oy. I will give you the full results tomorrow after I go in. I'm ready for this to be over so I can take care of the horrible itchiness I'm dealing with.

So for today's Show & Tell Sunday post I'm going to take a break from the reviews and show you some of the things I've been pinning on Pinterest lately. I've gotten back into the Pinterest groove and am really excited about some of the things I found and can't wait to try them! Let's check out some of the pins!

source

How cute are these DIY Scrabble Coasters?! I love that you can customize them and it's really creative and adorable. I have to figure out where to get the scrabble pieces so I can make these because they are just too cute.

source

I am so excited to try this Easy Vegetable Chowder. Assuming I'm not allergic to corn (which I'm testing tomorrow) I will definitely be looking forward to trying this recipe with fresh, sweet corn. Yum!

source

I DEFINITELY want to make this gorgeous Roasted Vegetable Orzo Salad. I will probably make it with quinoa or Israeli couscous but it is such a beautiful, easy meal. Pair with with a fresh green salad and it's a perfect spring meal.

source

Raw Carrot Pecan Milk?!?! Say what?! This sounds absolutely incredible and I definitely want to try this gorgeous recipe from Deliciously Holistic: Healing Foods Recipes and Lifestyle Tips to Help Increase Your Energy and Immunity by Shelley Alexander. I don't have the book yet but found the recipe posted and it made me really want to get the book. There is no Kindle version yet but hopefully they will make it available soon! 

source

This is one I've been most curious about. I've heard of making your own lipstick out of two ingredients: Crayons and Coconut Oil. I'm weary about the idea of using crayons on my lips but every single video and article I've watched/read about this says that it is a completely non-toxic, safe way to make and wear lipstick. Crayons are non-toxic, are made of paraffin (which is what is in lipstick anyway I guess?) and food grade coloring... which makes sense as they are for children and children LOVE eating crayons. I love the idea of making my own chemical free lipstick and personalizing and experimenting with colors. I guess I'll be thinking about it a little more and who knows, maybe I'll end up doing it and I'll post what I come up with!

source

I love Lululemon workout gear but it is so damn expensive. Kiava makes really cute workout clothes at a more reasonable price... it's still pricey but it's more reasonable than Lululemon. I'd love to try out some gear eventually :)

source

I can't wait to try this gorgeous Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup! The coolest part? It's thickened with Chickpeas! I feel like that is kind of genius. Again, once I make sure I'm not allergic to tomatoes I'm going to make this beautiful soup.

And on the sweet side...

source

If you are a sucker for the Samoa Girl Scout Cookie flavor combo of chocolate, caramel and toasted coconut this sweet treat is right up your alley. These are Paleo Samoa Miracle Tarts and they look incredible. These are vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free. Definitely can't wait to make these.

source

Finally, these are Coconut Lime Frosty Cups! I love tropical flavors and lime is a favorite of mine. Lime combined with coconut is a lovely, light, bright flavor combination perfect for a summer treat. These chilled treats will be really beautiful and refreshing dessert or snack on a hot summer day. Definitely will keep these in mind for BBQs and picnics :)

So that's all I have for you today! I hope you liked my Pinterest roundup and I will definitely post as I try all of these recipes and projects out. What have you guys been liking on Pinterest?

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! I should have more posts up next week since I will hopefully be more comfortable and less itchy ;) Have a great Sunday!