Realistic ruby berry brooch

Blackberry pin and earring set

Isn't this brooch and matching earring set awesome?
It was made by the Italian Buccellati jewelry house around 1965 and features blackberries made of onyx and rubies.
They look pretty realistic to me, and not too cutesy.

It is up for auction now at Bonhams, with an estimated price of $7,600-$11,000.

Very pretty.

Word to the Wise: NYC sample sales now and this weekend

Lauren Merkin 
Deal: Up to 70% off handbags, clutches, and accessories. Bargain boxes start at $20.
When/Where: Tuesday, April 16 through Thursday, April 18. Daily 11am—7pm. 231 W. 29th St between Seventh and Eighth Aves, suite 201 (212-239-2459)
 I've gone to this sale before and found a really cute clutch for my sister. If you need a Spring bag, head on over.

Jil Sander  Deal: Up to 85% off women's and men's clothing, shoes, and accessories. When/Where: Tuesday, April 16 through Friday, April 19. Daily 10am—6pm. 8 Crosby St between Howard and Grand Sts, fourth floor (no phone) I'm not a huge Jil Sander fan, but if you like her style and need some basics, 85% is not shabby. Plus on the last day they usually go down to 90% off. Which I love because the math is easy. You just move the decimal one place over and something that was $255 is now $25.50 because you are only paying 10%. MiH Jeans Deal: Discounts on women's clothing. Jeans start at $40, shirts start at $35, and jersey pieces start at $15. When/Where: Wednesday, April 17 through Friday, April 19. Wed 10am—7pm, Thurs 10am—8pm, Fri 10am—7pm. 584 Broadway between Houston and Prince Sts, Suite 609 (no phone) $15 Summer tops sound like a great deal. Bettye Muller, Linda Richards Deal: Markdowns on Bettye Muller shoes, as well as Linda Richards accessories and outerwear. The shoes will start at $35 (originally $195 to $625). When/Where: Wednesday, April 3 through Saturday, April 20. Mon—Fri 8:30am—5:30pm (closed weekends). 209 W. 38th St between Seventh and Eighth Aves, suite 505 (212-382-2257)  Whee, $35 shoes! Yumi Kim Deal: Up to 80% off silk dresses, tops, skirts and more. When/Where: Thursday, April 11 through Sunday, April 21. Daily 11am—7pm. 44 Prince Street at Mulberry St (no phone) The silky tops have fun patterns and colors. James Perse Deal: 40% to 90% off men's and women's clothing, as well as athletic wear from the Yosemite line. When/Where: Tuesday, April 16 through Sunday, April 21. Tues 10am—8pm, Wed—Fri 10am—7pm, Sat 11am—7pm, Sun 11am—5pm. 260 Fifth Ave between W. 28th and W. 29th Sts (no phone) Get some really comfortable jersey shirts that will last a while, on sale.

Etsy Finds of the Day: Penguin Print Shoes by Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas Shoes is a Maya Levi, a shoe designer in Israel who makes leather shoes with fun prints on them.

Here are my favorites:


$210 Skimmer with Penguin print
AWESOME!
These flats have pointed almond shaped toes and matching vamp. They are black in back and fade to white in front, where they are printed where adorable penguins.
They are leather with leather insoles and manmade outsoles.

Comes with a cute matching tee with penguins on the bottom. I like the shape of the tee and the wide neck.



$210 Slipper with Wild Horse print
Similar to the penguin shoes, these are flat slippers with a photo digital design of horses running in a field on the toes.


BTW this one comes with a matching tee that has the horse print in a band on the bottom


$210 Juliette pumps with Flamingo print
Shaped like the skimmers but with a heel.

These are mostly black with a flamingo digital print on the toes. The heels are not that high, so walkable. Looks about 2-2.5" to me, but I could be wrong.
This also comes with a tee but I don't like the design of it.

NYC Groupon deals worth getting

I had a self-ban on groupon and living social for a while because I would buy things and then not use them or have bad experiences (I am looking at you, terrible "jewelry class" which was just people stringing beads).

But some of the offerings recently have made me change my mind and want to start buying again.

The other reason I have not been using the deal sites is that it is so terrible for the businesses (they get 1/2 of the discounted price, so if you get $100 service for $50, the business only makes $25).
Now, if you end up patronizing that business, the loss is worth it to them as a marketing cost. But if you know you're just hitting it up for the deal, it makes me feel bad. To each their own, though.

Anyway, these are places and services that I would not have know of without the deals, so I think it's ad money well spent on their part.

If you sign up through my links, I might get a credit, so consider doing that!

My picks:

$50 Groupon Brick NYC mozzarella making class for 2 (Usually $100)
What a good date night or fun friend outing. For $25 each, you get the class and wine and antipasto.


$49 Travelzoo Hot Stone massage at Supple Spa (Usually $125)
I've been interested in these hot stone things, but never enough to spend hundreds of dollars. $50? Maybe!



$19 Groupon 5 fitness classes at Studio Maya in P Heights (usually $100)
I just signed up for this one!
Anyone want to go with me?



$89 Groupon 3 laser hair removal treatments -small area- at Deify (usually $750)
This sounds like a good deal, but I think you need more than 3 sessions to get rid of hair.
They also have $179 for 6 sessions.


$45 Living Social eyelash extensions at Wink (usually $95)
Who doesn't want longer lashes?

Finding a floor lamp is really hard

Right?
There are so many ugly ugly ugly floor lamps out there. And lots of plain boring ones. But almost no cool ones or pretty ones or ones that you would actually want to have as a piece of furniture taking up space in your home.

E and I are going to be moving to a new apartment that has no overhead lighting in the bedroom or living room.
So we need some new floor lamps. But damn is it hard to find a good one!

Here are some of the better options:


$1,570 Michael Aram Enchanted forest lamp
This is really nice but crazy expensive.
Also, I can already see the wads of bunny hair trapped between those spindly legs.


$499 National Geographic driftwood lamp
Along the same theme of the "this is a tree no wait it's a lamp," which I like.
But still more than I really want to pay for a lamp.


$325 Mid Century Cypress floor lamp
I like the natural shape of this one, and the little feet on the bottom (though again, fur traps).
I think it is even prettier than the Nat Geo one above, and for less money. But there is only 1 of it.



$179 Rustic wood curve lamp
This is somewhere between natural and industrial looking. I think it is the frontrunner at the moment.
You can order it in light medium or dark stain. I like the dark.
But it comes disassembled so really am I going to pay for a lamp that I have to put together myself?
Also, I don't think it comes with the shade, but the Etsy listing was a little vague about that.



$402 Wooden adjustable floor lamp
This one is AWESOME! You can configure it however you want and make cool shapes with it.
Ships from Estonia for $39, but I am not sure if it comes assembled.



$2,200 Trinity Floor lamp table combo
Crazy cool and super modern. Though if I had $2k to spend on a lamp I probably wouldn't have this blog because I would just buy everything I saw that I liked instead of posting about it. I'm not going to tell you how much shipping is because you have $2k to buy a lamp so what do you care?


That does bring us into a new realm of floor lamps that I like: lamps that are part of tables or shelves.
Make that lamp do double duty! It can't just stand there, giving light and taking up space. If something demands floor space in my NYC apartment, it better use that vertical and store something.


$385 Vintage tiered shelf lamp
This one is a little "grandma" for me, but I think it could be cool in the right setting. I'm annoyed that the seller decoupaged the shade instead of leaving it plain.




$399 Pacific Coast walnut lamp table
This one looks classic and would be as at home in a log cabin or in a modern apartment.
It would look nice next to a couch.


$270 Pacific Coast two shelf table lamp
You can get this in black or in wood finish.
It looks very mod and clean.
If you had cats, they would love to sit on it and knock all your crap off the shelves. Whether that is a plus or minus for you is your business.


$71.99 Adesso Magazine table lamp
This is the Target cheapo version of that style. Not bad but a little boring.


$67.99 Threshold modern table lamp
Another cheapo Target edition.


$120 Etagere wood lamp
This is more of a shelf style than table style, but still does double duty.
 What breakable shit would you put up there?





$49.99 Threshold Shelf floor lamp
The price includes a CFL bulb, which is nice.
You could put plants on this and put it in a corner of a room.



$428 Antique industrial dominion sunlamp
This one is completely unrelated to the others but I just like the weird vintage style.
I hate the color though. I'd paint it flaming orange or bright lemon yellow.

New Bedding for Liz

Liz has assigned me a serious project:
Find her and her husband some new bedding and bedroom accents to go into the house that they are buying.
The wall color in the bedroom is sage green like this:


And Liz's bed is upholstered in  dark gray charcoal fabric like this:



I like that image as inspiration.

One thing I think will be important for Liz is to make sure to incorporate lots of texture and pattern into the room.
Otherwise, the dark walls and dark bed will read as somber and sad.
And that is not like Liz at all! 

DUVETS
For textural duvets, I don't think anyone beats Anthropologie.
I have one of their coverlets from a few years ago and the delicate fabric is tearing (with no help from ravenous bunny who likes to dig and chew on it), but it is so pretty and I can sew it up just fine and you can't really tell because there are seams and ripples everywhere anyway.

Here are some favorites from Anthro:

$325 Light Gray Rivulets quilt (queen)
This light gray would brighten the dark bed and bring it closer in hue to the wall color.
The texture is killer and fun. Who wouldn't want to jump into this bed?
The shams are an extra $100, and I think you don't need to get them. The quilt is plenty. Plus then you get the chance to buy different complementary pillows.




$628 Dark Gray Bonne Terre Duvet (queen)
Another way to go would be with a pattern like on this Bonne Terre duvet. It introduces white into the color scheme which I like, and brings air into the otherwise solid room.
The  design is at the edges which makes it more classy and less feminine than an all-over print. It is also botanic without being too flowery and girly.
Again with this one, I say skip the pillow shams (I think these are ugg) and do something fun with accent pillows instead.


$89 Assembly home Quadrant duvet cover (full/queen)
A more modern and graphic style with gray and white stripes.


SHEETS
When you have a really textured or organic patterned duvet, I think you need to keep the sheets more plain.
If you get crazy sheets, then go for a more neutral cover.

I think the sheets Liz buys should incorporate the sage of the walls and also a lighter accent color.
here are some options:

$99 Harbor House Brisbane sheet set (queen)
These are mostly white with borders of sage leaf prints.





$70 Marimekko Pippurikera sage sheet set (full)
Also mostly white, but with a bolder pattern.


For a more plain look:


$67 Sage Egyptian cotton damask stripe sheet set (queen)




$19.99  Ashley Cooper Sage dot or stripe jersey sheet set (queen)
These tee shirt sheets in stripes or dots could go great with the solid color textured quilt from Anthro.



OTHER ROOM ACCENTS

I think Liz should get 2-5 throw pillows for the bed to really bring together the sheets, the duvet, the headboard, the walls, the rug, and any other large items in the room.
One should be patterned, one should be textured, one should have something shiny and metallic, one should have a crazy color not found anywhere else in the room.

 
$23.99 Throw pillow with decorative gray print
This brings gray and a greenish yellowish color and white together.


$37 Mac decorative pillow
This brings all the texture with those petals.



$43 Rhythm embroidered square pillow
This one has the right colors and brings some orderly lines and geometry into the mix



$39 Christopher Knight paillette pillow
These come in a set of 2 and have the shiny metallic pieces going on



$32 Bernice silver throw pillow
Another jewel of a metallic pillow


$44 Marlo Lorenz Petra peacock pillow
Here is the crazy color one! I think Liz will like it.
This will make people say whaaaat? this isn't just a boring hotel-ish room where everything matches.
 


$35 gray zig zag curtains
The large pattern is young and fun, and the light colors lift the room.
Small prints on curtains can be grandma-ish and the muted sage wall colors don't need extra muting.



$589 Tiger print rug
Urban Outfitters is my favorite place for cool rugs that aren't insanely expensive.
This one has graphic interest and incorporates the dark gray/black color of the bed.


$299 Wool weave quatrefoil rug
Here is another good graphic rug from UO.



$89 Circle Chain chenille coverlet
This would be a great throw or spare blanket to have around. It is light gray between the color of the walls and the headboard, and has a cool pattern and lots of texture.
You could throw it folded up over a chair when not in use.




$19 Textured metal vase
This silver textured vase would be like jewelry in the room. I'd put one of these and then two other silver things in other finishes on a dresser or nightstand in a group.



$16 Mirrored quill wall decals (set of 9)
These are awesome and would be great if you distributed them so it looks like feathers are falling down the wall behind the bed.


While we are at it, these would be some great towels for the en suite bathroom:

$24.94 Marimekko Pippurikera sage bath towel
Clean white and matchy sage