Here come the brides… at the Morris County Museum (www.morrismuseum.org) See the exhibit that opened this week of gorgeous classic wedding gowns from the museum’s permanent collection.
Nearby, in Madison, The Tempest is stirring these summer nights, at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s outdoor venue (www.njshakespeare.org).
The State Fair at the Meadowlands (www.njfair.com) is underway through July 12 with enough rides and attractions to keep you happy on the midway all night long.
Need to get up close with nature? Join the Bioblitz with volunteers at the Schiff Nature Preserve in Mendham on Saturday beginning at 5:30 am (www.schiffnaturepreserve.org ).
Or you could start the weekend with something different, Tommy Femia� ...

They are the stuff that food legends are made of. The culinary rocket fuel of our busy roadways. The classic Jersey diner. More necessary than ever.
The Jefferson Diner (www.jeffersondiner.com) sits in a shopping center island in between heavily trafficked Route 15 north, and Route 15 south, in what is technically Lake Hopatcong. From the northbound side, it is not as visible and you must carefully follow the signs.
But this big, bright, shiny building, chromed like a giant Cadillac, embraces your appetite with a display of sky high pastries, a menu of bonus sized servings and hospitable, friendly hosts. Families are welcome here, so are the real early birds; at 8am on a recent Sunday morning, the parking lot was filling up fast.
Nearly 25 year ...

So, you say you like it hot?  How about 2200 degrees Fahrenheit hot?  That’s the temperature inside the oven or “glory hole” at Hot Sand, (www.hotsandap.com) a fun hot glass studio on the boardwalk in Asbury Park.

With the help of Hot Sand staff, children age 9 and up can blow simple glass bubbles.  You also can create glass pumpkins, a glass cast of your hand or foot, tumblers, and much more.  Workshops are offered and experienced glassblowers can rent studio time.  Several glass artists sell their delicate, colorful wares in the Hot Sand gallery.

Thomas Stevens and Paul Elyseev started Hot Sand in 2007, so named to connect the studio’s beachy location with one of the main ingredients of gl ...

Country comes to En Jay in a BIG way, as the red hot group Rascal Flatts (www.rascalflatts.com) rolls into the PNC Bank Arts Center on Thursday. 
Because you are one of our NJ My Way readers, we’re offering you exclusively a special chance to see the performance for free AND meet and greet the band!
First, about the tour:  Boy do these guys look good in denim! They’re wearing the JC Penney American Living Line (www.jcp.com/rascalflatts ) and promoting their new album Unstoppable. 
Second, about the giveaway:  JC Penney gave us a pair of tickets to the show, along with a meet and greet backstage, right beforehand. You can take photos, chat with the group, and get up close and personal. Yes, really.
To be the lucky winner just click on the Write The Editor link below, and send us your name, good reliable contact inf ...

Breastfeeding baby is often not easy, and for some women, the choice is agonizing.
The barriers can be personal, and also, cultural and legal.
www.bestforbabes.com, based in Little Silver, is leading the charge to defeat booby traps, the site’s clever name for institutional barriers to putting baby to the breast. Like offices where you are allowed a place to smoke, but not to pump breast milk.
Co-founder Bettina Forbes says she started Best for Babes because she herself was reluctant to breastfeed and there was nothing like it to prod her along.
“I ended up sticking with it because I was lucky to have some great women (like my co-founder and best friend Danielle Rigg) in my life, and I feel incredibly gratef ...

This is one of the biggest and best outdoor arts and crafts festivals of the season: the 21st annual Spring Arts & Crafts Show at Essex County’s Brookdale Park. Both days you and the kids can have your photo taken with the characters from Broadway’s Wicked (www.rosesquared.com).
Still shopping for Dad? Snap up an autographed copy of the new Morton’s steak cookbook for Dad, while you meet and greet Morton’s restaurant co-founder and author Klaus Fritsch this evening at the Barnes & Noble in Riverside Square Mall, Hackensack.
At the shore-- a Saturday street festival in Asbury Park celebrates upcoming bands with lots of great food and music. All day on Cookman Ave. (www.cityofasburypark.com)
The Surflight Theatre on LBI picked a per ...

New Brunswick’s dining scene is red hot, but there are low-priced discoveries on the city’s pedestrian-friendly streets.
Within a few blocks of the venerable Harvest Moon Brewery and The Frog and the Peach, you can feast at an assortment of authentic ethnic restaurants patronized by hospital employees, NJ Transit train commuters, Rutgers students—and us.
Our favorite Mexican is Noa Noa  (114 French St New Brunswick, (732) 448-1821‎)
where your elementary Spanish will help. The prices are so low, you will order too many items. And the portions are so huge that leftovers (cheerfully packed up) are a given. If your timing is right, an itinerant Mariachi trio will interrupt the blaring jukebox.
Even lower-priced, is Taqueria El Poblano, (202 New St New Brunswick  (732) 937-9722) hard-to-find but a fixture for ...

Lets face it, Dad has had a pretty stressful year. So make Father’s Day 2009 about pampering the guy who is carrying that weight on his shoulders by giving him gifts that give him a break.


Click to download Gift Certificate for NJMyWay Readers
Our friends at Dieci Lifestyle Spa (www.diecispa.com) in Livingston have cooked up a slew of specials to de-stress Dad. Try a facial and manicure for $115, and get a complimentary eye relief treatment. Check their website for other goodies.
Give Dad a gift certificate for a deep tissue massage at Aquamedica Spa in Long Branch (www.aquamedicaspa.com).
Or create an at-home spa experience by giving him a organic Vinotherapy Body Hydrator with Chardonnay Grapeseed Oil - a freshly whipped body ...

They say there is a website for everything. And we believe them, especially when we heard about www.myclothingcalendar.com.
This is the idea of a Hillsborough couple who that that we over-consumers need a place to keep track of what we wore yesterday, and the day before—besides the dry cleaning bin and the closet floor.
Andrea and Matthew Wolkofsky, both with sales backgrounds and fulltime careers, launched the Clothing Calendar website as a tool to “stretch out your wardrobe.”
The idea is you catalog what you wore to each event, from a night out with friends to a job interview. You can also upload photos of the outfit. As you buy clothing, you also add the descriptions and photos to your virtual closet.
“Believe it or not,” An ...

Here’s a new voice for South Jersey: Elizabeth Norton is a Cape May area mom who launched a website that captures the best moments of child raising and shares the secrets of family management during these frazzled times. This is an excerpt from www.motherhoodavenue.com

You know you’re a MOM in cape may county when…… A school, an Acme, and the main library are all in the court house.
You know you’re a MOM in cape may county when……You know how to say wooder correctly and spell it water. Don’t get confused they are the exact same thing.
You know you’re a MOM in cape may county when……You know Avalon Coffee and Bagel isn’t just in Avalon………(but if only they had a drive thru)
You know you’re a MOM in cape may county when… ...

Have you ever realized there are fewer men’s clothing stores in our towns? Well… one Maplewood woman is filling that gap.
Renee Kingston opened Grade A Goods…(21 Scotland Rd South Orange 973-761-0876) a Soho style men’s clothing store  in the heart of downtown South Orange. The store  features an "urban classic trend," according to Kingston that mixes and matches styles. The store opened its doors in December, 2008.
Renee is a recent Cornell University graduate with a major in textile and apparel management. She opened Grade A Goods because she felt there was an absence of men’s clothing stores in the area.
Renee’s target customers are young men- twenty to early thirties- who are sophisticated, outgoing, and wil ...

Keep the address 99 Rumson Road in mind this weekend. It’s the annual spectacular Stately Homes By The Sea (www.statelyhomesbythesea.com) showcase—it opens this week and you won’t regret making the trek to tour one of the foremost properties in this ultra-exclusive ‘hood. It’s all for a great cause, the Visiting Nurse Association of Central New Jersey.
In South Orange, you can celebrate some of the town’s magnificent homes, and help the town historical society this weekend by attending the Gems of South Orange House Tour on Saturday. (www.sohps.org).
Travel Around The World in Eighty Days without leaving En Jay this weekend, by taking in the Shakespeare Theatre’s (www.shakespearenj.org) production of the Jules Verne novel.
Watch former bandleader-turned-cabaret star Eddie Bruce’s famous tribute to Tony Bennett ...

Margaret Noon of Scotch Plains is serious about food. Slow food.
The Slow Food movement originated in Italy; local chapters are called convivia from the Latin --to share life together. Each has its own mission.
Noon leads the Northern New Jersey chapter of Slow Food USA (www.slowfoodnnj.org) which advocates slowing down and enjoying healthy, locally grown food from ecologically friendly farmers. There are chapters in Central and South Jersey. (You can find a complete list of chapters at www.slowfoodusa.org).
In the Garden State, Slow Foodies support local farms like the Bobolink Dairy in Vernon (www.njmyway.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=95&Itemid=53) makers of barnyard raised, fed, and aged cheeses and meats.
And, they hold big, fun farm-to-table gatherings to savor the local fare, and fundraise for groups lik ...

Aerin Kwait-Taubin says proudly of her swimsuit company “We’re getting bigger and bigger by the minute.”  Plenty of doublemeaning here.
This Ridgewood mom parked a career as television producer nine years ago to launch her line of bathing suits because she saw the need for fashion with full bust support.  And she wanted to have the lifestyle flexibility of a home-based business.
Besides a college degree in marketing, Kwait-Taubin knew little about the garment industry.  She jumped into the fashion pool, and learned to swim. With her  pattern maker and contractors, and endless hours of determined work,  her new enterprise was underway. 
Aerin Rose Bra-Sized Swimwear (www.aerinrose.com) specializes in fitting zaftig and well end ...

by Daniel Santacruz
Rule No. 1: Wear hiking boots.
Rule No. 2: Drink lots of water.
If you hike the Appalachian Trial to Sunfish Pond wearing sneakers, in violation of Rule No. 1, guaranteed your feet will be sore for days.
But you will also remember the stunning views of mountains, valleys, clear streams and pristine Sunfish Pond.
The New Jersey leg of the Appalachian Trial — it measures some 72 miles — runs from the Delaware Water Gap to High Point State Park, at the northwestern corner of the state.
The easiest way to get there is to take Route 80 West to the last exit in New Jersey, at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Stop at the Kittatinny Point Visitor Center to get brochures if you need them, then drive a few feet to th ...

One day soon, you’ll want to lift a glass of sangria, and drink a toast to Rick Martinez.
The Maplewood entrepreneur spent three years developing Señor Sangria (www.senorsangria.com) out of a backyard recipe into a viable business.
Rick, a former internet account manager, made sangria for parties. He put it in buckets, then poured it into bottles and brought it as a house gift. Then, he had a revelation.
“One night while still living in Hoboken my girlfriend (who is now my fiancé) said I should bottle the sangria and sell it,” Rick wrote us. “The next morning I woke up with the idea still in my head.”
Rick sold his Hoboken apartment and moved in with his girlfriend to fund the venture.
Three long years spent in research, develop ...

Here come the brides… at the Morris County Museum (www.morrismuseum.org) See the exhibit that opened this week of gorgeous classic wedding gowns from the museum’s permanent collection.
Nearby, in Madison, The Tempest is stirring these summer nights, at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s outdoor venue (www.njshakespeare.org).
The State Fair at the Meadowlands (www.njfair.com) is underway through July 12 with enough rides and attractions to keep you happy on the midway all night long.
Need to get up close with nature? Join the Bioblitz with volunteers at the Schiff Nature Preserve in Mendham on Saturday beginning at 5:30 am (www.schiffnaturepreserve.org ).
Or you could start the weekend with something different, Tommy Femia� ...

In an age where we are bombarded by advertising messages—from our cell phones, screens at the supermarket checkout, billboards on buses – the low tech message may be the best of all.
Businessman Errol Ernstrom of Denville knows this well. He runs Placemats Plus (www.placematsplus.com) which is now celebrating 25 years of successful placemat advertising. Errol’s paper placemats, printed with ads from local businesses, are under plates in more than a hundred diners throughout northern and central New Jersey.
“Where there’s a diner, there can be a placemat,” says Errol, pointing out that these eateries are the natural location for the paper placemats—the customers are varied and span different generations and socioeconomic groups—and the turnover is quick. Plus, New Jersey has more diners than any other state. ...

Chances are you don’t have a reservation at your favorite restaurant tonight. How do we know? Because it’s Monday, and there’s a good chance it’s closed. Here’s one hot spot that’s open, and you’ll want to go and table hop. It’s a party where you stand—not sit—at the table. Actually, at more than 25 tables. Where you admire table settings that range from wild and wacky to elegant. And where you’ll get ideas for parties you never knew you could throw.It’s the fourth annual Dining Spaces Tabletop Design Competition and Fundraiser, tonight, beginning at 6 p.m. at Mayfair Farms in West Orange. They have the details at www.diningspaces.com. It’s for a good cause, the Susan G. Komen Breas ...

Christmas is hard work for Mike Antreassian. But it’s a labor of love when the job is to spend 80 hours putting up 63,000 lights around his house in the hills overlooking Dover.

The dazzling holiday display brings hundreds of people to his block, seeking that spirit of Christmas they can’t get by shopping at even the fanciest mall.
They come to see the 35-foot tall “waterfall” of lights, the spiral that looks like a spinning Ferris wheel on the side of the house, the tall trees draped with bulbs, the Santa Alley children walk.  He also puts out an old fashioned school desk for kids to write letters to Santa, which they then deliver themselves: they clip the note to a rope and hoist it up with a pulle ...