Cacao 70 ~ Montreal, Canada:

514-933-1688.

village-mtl@cacao70.ca

Address:

1310, Ste-Catherine Street East,
Montreal, QC H2L 2H5

Montreal Botanical Garden:

The Montréal Botanical Garden, one of the city’s jewels, is recognized as one of the world’s greatest botanical gardens. It offers a colourful program of events, exhibitions and activities all year long.

With its collection of 22,000 plant species and cultivars, 10 exhibition greenhouses, Frédéric Back Tree Pavilion, and more than 20 thematic gardens spread out over 75 hectares, it’s also a perfect place to enjoy fresh air and natural beauty.

Located just minutes from downtown Montréal, right near the Biodôme and Olympic Park, the Montréal Botanical Garden is a veritable living museum of plants from the four corners of the globe.

Associated with the Montréal Botanical Garden, the Insectarium welcomes you to discover the world of insects.

The Ritz-Carlton Montreal:

On a recent trip to Canada my family and I stayed at The Ritz-Carlton Montreal.

When it opened its doors in 1912, the Ritz-Carlton Montreal set a new standard for luxury. Today, more than 100 years later, the Grande Dame of Sherbrooke Street blends its historic splendor with contemporary design, offering an unparalleled boutique hotel experience in the heart of downtown. The only Quebec hotel to hold the prestigious AAA Five Diamond, the Ritz-Carlton Montreal offers guests:

• Boutique hotel accommodations blending historic elements with modern features
• Fine dining at Maison Boulud, featuring modern interpretations of classic French cuisine in an upscale setting
• Elegant meeting and event spaces that offer flexible seating arrangements and state-of-the-art technology
• A rooftop and terrace featuring an indoor saltwater pool and stunning views overlooking the city
• Afternoon Tea, which originated at this downtown Montreal hotel

The personal attention to every detail was extraordinary and the gracious manner in which the staff accommodated us …..sublime. Our suite was perfectly prepared and attended to promptly.

Breakfast by the saltwater pool is a must and a quick visit to the sauna is both healing and reflective as the hot stones restore ones inner spirit.

Afternoon tea in the Palm Court is deliciously elegant and lends itself to an era of refinement and leisure, a time to converse with friends and family in a no rush environment with attentive waiters that will custom make a desired request.

Main contact:

+1 (514) 842-4212

Address:

1228 Sherbrooke St. West
Montréal, H3G 1H6 Canada

” What do the Holidays mean to you, and what should they mean to the world.”

We are thrilled to have Laura Bounin join us this Holiday Season….. Laura grew up in Paris and attended the prestigious boarding School, Le Rosey. She is currently studying at Regents University in London for a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Journalism. She speaks and writes three fluent languages …French, Romanian and English. In the Springtime she will be graduating, year 2016. We here at Old Fashioned Mom Magazine are proud to introduce Laura Bounin!

Ah! It is that time of the year, the Christmas bells are ringing, you can smell the flavor of the Christmas Turkey and admire the marvelous presents underneath the Christmas tree, though it is not the time to open them just yet…

As the Christmas Holidays are approaching it is a great time of year to be next to your loved ones and enjoy quality moments, as there is nothing more important than family traditions! It is also a great time for you to invest more in yourself and to start doing all these little things you never made time for throughout the year. Holidays are the chance for you to finally go out of your daily routine. Go ahead and read this book that has been sitting on your shelf for so long, go sign up to this yoga class, learn a new language, call up that old friend of yours you haven’t talked to in so long. Holidays are a good time of the year to reconnect with your inner self.

Though, holidays are also about traveling! For my part I think there is no greater time of the year to go out and explore the world! There is a dazzling amount of opportunities on our doorstep; it is time to release the hidden Christopher Columbus hiding inside each of us and to go explore the treasures of the world. There are so many ways in which one can enjoy a holiday, whether you prefer savoring a cocktail on a beautiful beach in Bali while admiring a wonderful sunset, going for a trek on the Himalaya Mountains, visiting an old Maya temple in Mexico, or going skiing to the French Alps. You get my point, holidays are really for everyone, the lazy, the adventurous, the athletes. Holidays don’t put anyone aside. We travel in the purpose of discovering other lives, other souls, other cultures and to find ourselves speechless in front of the beauty of the world!

There is no such luxury and treasure as the one a holiday can bring, culture, knowledge and memories come together and become one. Sometimes all we need is a beautiful place, with beautiful souls far away from home just to rest and remove all sort of negativity from our lives. We will never truly know all the surprises a holiday can bring, it might be a new lover, a new friend, a new job. We should go places we’ve never seen before, and travel the whole world with people we love. Holidays are a great opportunity to fill your life with experiences and stories to tell. Rich is the man who has the chance to marvel at small thing and fill his heart of the world’s beauty.

So let’s embrace the luck of this wealth, and let’s travel and create our memories for tomorrow with the people closest to your hearts and souls, let’s allow ourselves to feel experiences as they are, only focusing on the present moment, because now is all we have and everything in this life is ephemeral except the memories we make.

St. Augustine said it himself : « The world is a book and those who don’t travel only read one page » .

We are the sole writers of your book so let’s go explore the unknown and create a story worth reading for this new Holiday season!

By Laura Bounin

More than any other food, chocolate delights and enchants….chocolate tantalizes and it comforts. No one knows this better than Maribel Lieberman, the founder of Marie Belle Chocolates. From her first chocolate shop in Soho, N.Y., Maribel’s passion for discovering and sharing new flavors has seen her continually reinvent how we enjoy chocolate.

Read on »

Andre Balazs is the President and CEO of Andre Balazs Properties that includes a portfolio of hotels across the United States and residences in New York, especially in New York City.

I love the fact that in addition to his role as a Hotelier that he is currently revitalizing “The Locusts” a historical private Estate and retreat in Staatsburg, NY….not far from my country house.

My favorite Hotel from his collection is Chateau Marmont. The feeling is old Hollywood glamour and dotted around the Hotel are also 9 Spanish cottages, 2 luxurious poolside bungalows and 2 hillside bungalows designed by mid-century architect Craig Ellwood.

The Hotel is located in West Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard and was modeled loosely after Chateau d’ Amboise, a royal retreat in France’s Loire Valley.

This great castle on the hill is deliciously fun! I enjoyed myself immensely on my last sojourn there, running into old friends and making new ones along the way. There is a home away from home quality here that satisfies the heart making the transition from plane to Hotel so comforting.

The restaurant at the Chateau Marmont features an intimate indoor dining area as well as an idyllic garden terrace. Guests can enjoy traditional American meals prepared by Chef Carolynn Spence.

The cocktails are divine and I adore the Blackberry Teaser. It consists of vodka, illet blanc, blackberry liqueur, cherry bitters and champagne!

Philanthropist and Tycoon Leonard A. Lauder recently made international headlines when he  announced his enormous pledge of $1.1 billion dollars of Cubist Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Lauder donated 78 works by great artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Leger to one of New York’s most famous museums.  Moreover, he pledged to continue donating additional acquisitions of Cubist Art.  His objective was to fill the gap in the Museum’s own collection. Lauder wanted his gift to be “transformative ” and  was quoted as saying “it will catapult them into the 21st century.” He recognized the need to share his works of art with the rest of the world.  This billion dollar pledge of  art  had followed earlier gifts for the endowment to the Museum for the creation of a research center for modern art.  Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection went on exhibit at the Met Museum on October 20, 2014 and will remain on view until February 16, 2015.  Represented at the Met are 34 works by Picasso, 17 by Braque and 15 each for Leger and Braque.

Lauder, a long time patron of the arts, has never been a  stranger to the world of charitable giving, especially when it comes to art institutions. The Whitney Museum of Art has  been the recipient of both his  art and resources.  In 2008,  Leonard donated over $100 million to the Whitney to assure it’s long term sustainability. To date, this is the single largest gift ever received by the museum.

Leonard has also pledged his beloved collection of 120,000 postcards to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. A longtime collector of postcards, his passion for them had caused his late wife, Evelyn, to refer to the collection as his “mistress”.

Lauder  has  shown his philanthropic nature in other areas besides art.  He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and a member of the President’s Council of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. Lauder and his late wife, Evelyn, were actively involved in the creation of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Evelyn Lauder is the founder of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Leonard Lauder, New Yorker extraordinaire, was born in 1933.  He serves as chairman emeritus of The Estee Lauder Companies. Throughout his life he has also been involved in the world of  politics and education.  Lauder is often seen around New York at various charity galas including those for NY City Ballet and Metropolitan Opera.

Hudson Heinemann, Michelle-Marie Heinemann Jon Heinemann, Michelle-Marie Heinemann, Hudson Heinemann and Hyacinth Heinemann host an Enchanted Evening in the Garden celebrating The Hampton Classic Maidstone Inn, East Hampton, NY

Old Fashioned Mom Magazine hosted a spectacular enchanted Garden Party at the famous Scandinavian Maidstone Inn in East Hampton in honor of the Hampton Classic. Guests nibbled on passed delicacies including chicken satay, goat cheese and truffle cream wontons and bacon wrapped scallops. A special cocktail called “The Hampton Classic” was created as a symbol of good luck to all the riders which included Hudson and Hyacinth Heinemann.
Read on »

Jon Heinemann, Hudson Cornelius Heinemann, Michelle-Marie Heinemann, Paul Mayne, Hyacinth Cornelia Heinemann, Julie Stevenson. The Heinemann Family proudly supports The Hampton Classic

As one of the largest outdoor horse shows in the United States and a premier destination for horse people, the Classic is a much-anticipated stop on the summer tour. Now well into its third successful decade, The Hampton Classic Horse Show is in a class all its own, both in the minds of spectators and horse people alike.

In 2009, the Hampton Classic became only the second horse show ever to receive the status of Heritage Competition by the United States Equestrian Federation.  This prestigious status is reserved for competitions that have been in existence for at least 25 years and have provided for their communities as well as the horse community as a whole in an unprecedented fashion.
Read on »

Joys son….blowing out a candle!

Joy Marks has been appointed the official pastry chef and cake decorator for Old Fashioned Mom Magazine and their events. Her vast knowledge and love of baking have earned her multiple awards and featured in numerous magazines and food periodicals.

Joy’s revolutionary techniques and ground breaking recipes have garnered the attention of major celebrities and restaurants worldwide.

As Joy recently stated “I love creating cakes and fabulous pastries as it helps to reflect the artistic side of my personality besides fashion, and a beautiful cake that is delicious will make every party more spectacular. It is the Piece de Resistance of any celebration of life!”

In 1999 Joy was the sole proprietor of the famous gourmet bake shop called Le Grand Boulangerie, however with three small children she decided it was taking away to much time from them and eventually closed the doors. She did remain a consultant to various restaurants and organizations.

We here at OFM are delighted to have Joy Marks and her magnificent creations and expertise in the field of desserts, especially cakes and look forward to sharing them at our events!!