Spotlight: Etsy Seller

Amy Daniel is the owner of the Doodles and DooDads Etsy shop! Her etsy shop makes the most beautiful stained glass I have ever seen. I collect stained glass and I find her pieces to be truly unique.In Daniel’s profile, she says that she hand cuts each piece. If you are a fan of stained glass, you will quickly become a fan of the DoodlesandDooDads Etsy shop.

This is the first piece I purchased. It’s absolutely stunning (even prettier in person)

I recently purchased this piece:

Recently, Amy’s husband built her a new shop and she will be able to make even more incredible pieces and teach as well.

This is not a paid post, nor do I know Amy Daniels in person. I just wanted to share a great etsy seller with you.

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The Perfect Gift – Nora Fleming Serveware

If you are looking for the perfect gift for a bridal shower, wedding or house warming, this is it! Nora Fleming created pretty, versatile pieces. You start with a classic white platter or serving dish, like the one below. In the top right hand corner, you can see there is a small hole drilled through the platter. In the hole, you insert a decorative mini and viola – Beautiful!

Here are some of the mini’s that can be added to the platters:

 You can see more about this line of serveware and her new mini’s on Nora Fleming’s site or The Merry Martini’s site.

Nora Fleming does not know the Queen of the Click, but of course I wish she was my neighbor. I also am not in any way affiliated with the Merry Martini site, but I love their items. This is not a paid post. It’s just me writing about something I love.

I always look for discount codes, coupons and deals  for the Nora Fleming plates, mini or minis, but I never find any. The best prices are at Merry Martini, sometimes there is free shipping at http://norafleming.com or you can find seconds or irregular minis (kinda damaged) on ebay.

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Grateful 4 Great Weekends

 The weekend was fun and easy. We got some things done around the house and just relaxed.

We took care of the yard and went to the store to order replacement fabric for the awning over the deck. The one that came with the house (seen below) is worn out. It was hard to find someone in Brooklyn to replace the material on the swing arm awning. Many places wanted us to install a new contraption, but we wanted to keep the old. We live close to the water and the winds are pretty strong and the current awning is also very strong.

Lee and I cleaned the yard and then Lee made amazing chili.We picked out this charming Pottery Barn table for the upstairs hallway. I’ll order it soon. I like to think have a few days before I commit to the furniture.

Tonight the wind is blowing through my home. It feels amazing and it reminds me how grateful I am for this life.

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BP Oil Spill Solution is Already Online – Paraffin

Why hasn’t paraffin been used to clean up the BP oil? It seems like the solution has been around for many years, but it hasn’t been tried because they are still talking about how dispersants are harming the fish.

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Etsy Spotlight: Salted Carmel

Have It Confections is a wonderful etsy shop selling sweet treats. I never tasted salted caramel before so I thought we should order. A box with these beauties came. OMG they are amazing. They don’t taste anything like what you would think. Their description of their item is Fleur de Sel ~ the perfect marriage of sweet and salty.

I do not know v&b, just their etsy shop, nor have I been paid to write this. I wrote it because I wanted to share a great item on etsy.

Topics: Brooklyn | 1 Comment »

Why I Don’t Like Astoria, Queens

Astoria, Queens is dirty. It’s actually a filthy place. A huge power plant was closed in Astoria this year.But there is still a dirty person there.I don’t care for a certain dirty person if you know what I mean Croatia.

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In Sync – Part 2

We are well underway in renovating the tiny second floor bathroom. I removed the paper (with help from my friends) and Lee went to work taking up the tiles, removing the sink and destroying….err I mean renovating the room. The tiles probably weren’t as old as we originally thought, but they were in a strange shade of blue that wouldn’t work. Besides, a nice wood floor would look great in there.

I researched small sinks to put in the bathroom under the stairs.  Lee researched how to move the toilet back so we can get a few inches. We have a flushometer toilet which uses the pressure from the water supply, rather than gravity and as a result uses less water (Green). There’s no tank of water on the back of the toilet. See here for more info on a flushometer.

When we saw each other’s researched we laughed. I asked him if he was surprised and he said, “no not at all – we work well together.”

Love him.

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Tiny Bathroom Renovation

There is a bathroom on each floor of our new house. A regular full size on the third, a half on the first and an under the stairs -> powder room on the first floor. It’s tiny. It’s just enough room for a toilet and small sink.

Designing the room is tricky because we want to make the room appear bigger. Who wouldn’t want a larger bathroom? But when the tiny bathroom is just 4×3, you can’t really make it appear that much larger.

We are going to use all the designers tips for making it larger, but I know it’s not going to make a huge difference so I think we should go for the cool factor!

I want to choose a cool sink so when someone is in the bathroom, they think “hey small bathroom, cool sink.”

Lee doesn’t like my cool sink idea.

He wants storage – a plain sink with lots of storage suits him. He’d like a space saver sink something like this, but I think it’s took deep – needs 17 inches from the wall. Lowes & Home Depot have them in stock.

* I was hoping to find a sink with faucet because very small sink owners have complained that standard faucets don’t work as well as they should in these tiny sinks.

I found this beauty, the Porcher Elfe (which I’ve seen in some swanky NYC restaurant bathrooms).

The Porcher Elfe is $217 at Vintage Tub (5″H x 19-1/2″L x 9-1/4″D)

I heart this one too:

Edgewood sink $129 at Cornersinks (also available in bone color) $119 at Rens Up

Jem Collection by Whitehaus– includes towel bar below sink $271 (19 3/4″ x 9 7/8″ x 5 1/4″)

Of course there are Corner sinks

..

.

This one is $159 at Cornersinks

1930’s Durvit model

English Turn Corner Basin

$85 in white or $102 in bisque

And a corner pedestal sink:

$265 at Vintage Tub and Bath (faucet not included)

Overstock is a great website for a variety of small sinks and many include faucets too!

Kraus sink and faucet $209 at Overstock

$219 Vessel sink with Bamboo style faucet at Overstock (the faucet is a bit too trendy for me)

Kraus sink $200 at Overstock

Frosted Bowl sink & faucet $189 at Overstock

Read the rest of this entry »

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Olphine’s first letter after quake

Olphine, the child in Haiti whom I sponsor through Compassion International wrote. It’s her first letter since the earthquake.

Usually Olphine’s letters are just sweet notes about her family, school and a current holiday. But this note was quite different because her world has been drastically changed. Olphine’s father worked in the hotel that was destroyed and she wrote that they didn’t hear from him since the earthquake.

Surprisingly, her family’s house was not destroyed from the earthquake. Olphine wrote they keep finding dead bodies in the debris. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for the children in Haiti.Although I am saddened by her news, I am glad that organizations like Compassion are helping her family.

Go sponsor a child through Compassion (yes you).

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Message for Our Home

Now that the hallway is painted, we added this message because that’s all a home needs!

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Looking for things going right

For as much that goes wrong in life, there are so many things that go right.

• We went on the roof this weekend. Before we purchased the house, we had an engineer tell us that it was brand new and he even knew the company that put the roof on because of the way it was done. So we saw our roof for the first time and it was PERFECT. Flawless. And the view was amazing! The Verrazano Bridge is a beautiful site to see from my roof in Bay Ridge.
• Most days I wake up and I am just so grateful for our home. It feels so good to be here.
• The steps from our duplex to our tenants apartment downstairs were covered with linoleum. It was clean, but very old fashioned. We removed the linoleum and found a gorgeous wood staircase.
• Lee & I went shopping for furniture and although we didn’t find any in six stores in NJ, we did laugh enough to make my cheeks hurt. Even the salespeople loved Leon’s humor, but I think they would have appreciated him more if he bought some furniture.
• My students made me laugh so hard today. I love them.
• I’m back to myself ->  Looking for things going right and being grateful for it all.

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Anthropologie Coupon – Hooray!

I got an Anthropologie Coupon in the mail! I absolutely love Anthropologie. Just going into their store can put you into a good mood. Besides having pretty clothes, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, it has has home items. I get a lot of the little owls, shower curtains, beddings, etc. that you see in my house from Anthropologie. I love to shop online too and http://retailmenot.com sometimes has coupon codes for Anthropologie.

The coupon is for $15% off the total purchase. I signed up in the store and gave them my birthday. It actually came with a cutsie candle necklace. So when you are in Anthropologie next time, make sure to sign up for their mailing list.

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