Skip to content

Page Header

Massage Robot: Every Home Should Have One

Massage Robot: Every Home Should Have One published on

1.jpg

My husband purposely gives me bad massages when I beg him for one just so I can beg him to stop. Oh, I do the same to him, so kudos to him for picking up on my ingenious idea.

Sometimes I wonder “What’s a person gotta do to get a good massage around here?” My BFF is a massage therapist, but she’s not around at the drop of a hat.

So I think I need the Auto Healther Reiz DZ-270 from Dainichi. It can sit in the center of my living room since we never invite people over. Cost? 8500€. That’s like $2 million these days.

The thing is, I’m willing to wait a few months. FYI, my birthday is in August.

Via Top Blog Posts

Make Every Day Earth Day

Make Every Day Earth Day published on

edn_8_05.gif

I’ve been seeing lists of items people can do the one day of the year (today) that we recognize Earth. First of all, one day per year isn’t gonna cut it. Secondly, although planting a tree is great, it’s not something everyone can readily do.

So here’s my own list. In no specific order. Many are included in other, more official lists.

1. Get those reusable shopping bags. Don’t leave them at home when you go shopping.

2. Don’t leave your windows open when using heat or air conditioning. Seems like the most simple thing in the world, but I’ve seen so many people do it. Usually they are my tenants.

3. Spay/neuter your pets.

4. Spay/neuter yourself. Seriously, what’s wrong with adoption? You could be just like Brangelina!

5. Unplug appliances when not in use. I’m too lazy to do this, but my husband does.

6. Get your fat ass out of the car and walk alittle!

7. Instead of throwing away used building materials and furniture consider the fact that one person’s junk is another’s treasure. Do a curb alert.

8. That not only goes for building materials. If you have a bunch of “garbage”, perhaps an artist can use it for a project? Craig before trash!

9. Switch to CFL bulbs. Get a rain barrel. Buy energy star appliances. Use cloth diapers (or see #4). Yada yada.

10. Go vegetarian! Hey, there are only a handful of times during the year that I can get preachy on this subject and today is one of them. Save the cows! Save the pigs! Save the chickens! And little fishies too!

Flea Finds

Flea Finds published on

Well, it didn’t rain. But the sun doesn’t like Sundays lately. What did Sunday ever do to The Sun to deserve this? Anyhoo, the market wasn’t jam packed this week, what with Passover and the Pope in town, there were only a bunch of heathens like myself lurking about. Still, I only managed to get down 2 aisles.

lew.jpg

hardware.jpg

Finally got to Lewis Jaffe’s booth after 2 weeks. He comes from Philadelphia with Victorian hardware from demolished buildings in the area. He’s also a “book plate junkie” hence the name of his blog. Not something I’d consider myself interested in, but it is actually fascinating stuff. It’s an art form that many people (or just me) forget about. Lew Jaffe is in space L8.

mold.jpg

molds.jpg

Shoprico is a chi chi design firm on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. They represent various furniture and lighting designers alongside the work of founder Rico Espinet. But what grabbed my attention at the market were their big molds. They sell huge sand molds that are ready to display. How cool are these things? Space L14

Affordable Real Estate: Queens Wins!

Affordable Real Estate: Queens Wins! published on 3 Comments on Affordable Real Estate: Queens Wins!

My completely unscientific research has led me to conclude that Queens is the most affordable borough. Here are some coops under $200k. I don’t know what some of these neighborhoods are like or if they are the slightest bit desirable, but they are cheap.

playground.JPG
$159k: 1BR, Jackson Heights

 

4535729a.jpg
$172k: 2BR, Queens Village

 

real_estate.jpeg
$189k: 1BR, Bayside

Bad Weather Karma & Lots of Paintings

Bad Weather Karma & Lots of Paintings published on

weather.jpg

Looks like crappy weather Sunday for the third week in a row. These flea market organizers have some bad weather karma they need to deal with. It hasn’t rained on us yet (Yeah, I just jinxed it), but the sun hasn’t been around either. Cleanse your auras or something, guys.

spaintings.jpg

So this week I hit the mother load of tacky thrift store paintings. Check it out…the Native American chick against the dark background: velvet. It just doesn’t get any better than that! Unless it’s Elvis. Look at the clown. Classic. I run a high end racket for people with exquisite taste.

shorse.jpg

I picked up the horse from the same guy. It’s the one I had as a kid. He came back to me! This one is pretty scary, with dark eyes and fuzzy “hair”. I might not be able to part with him.

GuyIBuyStuffFrom tells me he’s cleaning out a house next week that has tons of 50’s toys in the attic. What does this have to do with “homes”? Who cares? Toys are more fun! How does “Reclaimed Toys” sound?

Weekender:Country Condos?

Weekender:Country Condos? published on

2br_condo_f289_main.jpg

2BR in Tivoli: $200k

I never understood why someone would want to live in the country and not have land around them. I’d pass homes close to the road, townhouses and condos and say “WTF”? Well, I’m much older and wiser now and I kind of get it.

Weekend homes are a hassle. The cleaning each time you come and go, the heat and water during the winter. Plowing snow. Garbage removal. Maintenance. It’s a part time job and you don’t really get to relax and enjoy the house if you’re just going for a weekend. At least that was our scenario.

So how about those country condos? Some of them offer amenities that would be too pricey for a single homeowner. Pools, tennis, lakes. No guilt that the home is sitting empty if you don’t use it too often. And let someone else worry about the maintenance!

Are condos the way to go or are the fees too high for a part time place? Plus it’s nowhere near as romantic as a cabin the in the woods.

Retro Chicks

Retro Chicks published on 1 Comment on Retro Chicks

I must say, I’m having lotsa fun finding small vintage items for the flea market. Kitsch is my specialty. The uglier the better. I stick to classic Victorian in my own home, so this is a great outlet for me to let loose. In search of “kitsch decor” I stumbled upon these fine websites that I’ve added to my blogroll.

cropped-50spam7.jpg

Retro Renovation

This wasn’t a new discovery. I’ve written about her in the past, but for some reason I never included her in my blogroll. Shear laziness. Oops.

weir53kit.jpg

Frisk the Fridge

retromodgirlblogbanner.png

Retro Mod Girl

blogcollagegrey4.jpg

Vintage Goodness

Riverdale: Part II

Riverdale: Part II published on

Author: Brett

id_2282007112305am.jpg

Our whirlwind real estate tour of Riverdale concluded at the massive Briar Oaks Apartment Complex on the Henry Hudson Parkway. Unlike the small, modern Waterford building that we had seen in the morning, Briar Oaks is the old-school apartment building (circa 1950s) where Mom grew up and where you went to visit Nanny and Pop-Pop until they got sick of the New York winters and moved to Boca del Vista with the rest of The Greatest Generation.

The apartment we saw on the 11th floor was a definite “diamond-in-the-rough”. For their asking price in the mid-500s and a maintenance of around $600, you could have a view of the Hudson River, 3 giant (by today’s standards) bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a terrace, and ample living and dining room space in addition to a separate kitchen. The downside is that this particular unit needed to be uh, gutted. The paint and plaster walls peeled and cracked and the floor choices in some of the rooms left us puzzled (linoleum tiles in the bedrooms?) while others would clearly need to be updated.

While the Oaks has amenities like a playground, a playroom, a laundry room, storage lockers, and on-site parking, most of what they have to offer also needs refreshing. Parking is $100 a month and there was a wait list for an indoor spot, the storage lockers are also waiting-list-only and the playroom was downright depressing. Each building has a doorman, but the one we talked to didn’t seem to know that there was an open house in the building that day nor where we should park as visitors.

We took the tots downstairs to the playroom for a quick diaper change and I shuddered to think of all of the kid cooties on the ancient toys lining the shelves. I risked their contracting typhoid anyway since my son is in the middle of a motor vehicle obsession.

Ah, but the size of those rooms! And the view! The apartment was definitely in our price range and we would have money left over to really renovate. Andrew, however, was not impressed. While our weekend of apartment-hunting had been informative, he was suddenly thrust back into the realm of maintenance fees and laundry rooms, coop boards and noisy neighbors sharing walls—all of which he realized at that moment that he did not want to revisit. While I would not mind living out my life in a well-maintained apartment and I simpered at the thought of us turning down what could be a kick-ass dwelling, I had to admit that I could no longer make do with a laundry room since I currently do about 2 loads of clothes (and diapers) a day while taking care of the twins myself. There are single-family houses in Riverdale and the area is definitely beautiful, but if we were going to buy a house and fix it up, we might as well look closer to Andrew’s parents, in Brooklyn.

We decided to take a look around Marine Park the following weekend.

Brett’s search

Bklyn Flea:Take II

Bklyn Flea:Take II published on 1 Comment on Bklyn Flea:Take II

gate.jpg

Jonathan Butler and Eric Demby check in vendors

Last week we reported that we did ok-but-not-great on the inaugural Brooklyn Flea weekend. Well, our tweaking worked! We doubled our intake by offering smaller, less expensive items (read: flea market “junk”).

All of our tarnished silver plated tableware: gone. Most of those dusty old lamps: gone. Other big hits….We sold a vintage but new in box Seal-o-matic that my husband thought I was nuts to get. Our 50’s stroller had people debating the vintage (one woman thought it was from the 30’s) and playing with it, but didn’t actually sell until the end of the day. Horribly ugly kitsch items were big sellers. But the biggest hit of the day was the green spindle bed that sold in the morning but stayed in the booth. At least (at least!!) 25 people said they would’ve bought it. So, I need to get me some more spindle beds.

sbed.jpg

But enough about us! Here a few primo vendors I came across:

chairloom.jpg

Molly Worth reinvents vintage chairs for her company “Chairloom“. Gorgeous stuff that I spotted from 3 aisles away. Her online prices are slightly higher than that of the flea’s. (Space V6)

moh2.jpg

I caught Mohawk Studios unloading their stuff and knew I had to visit their booth. They create decorative art and functional items out of salvaged metals, etc. Their prices are very affordable and the big dude with the mohawk is willing to negotiate. If you dare. Unfortunately, the website they gave me doesn’t work. (Space B6)

moh1.jpg

Mohawk creations

humble2.jpg

How sweet is this stuff from Humble Beginnings? Carolina, who refused to be photographed, (but you can see what she looks like here) told me that it takes her time to get around to doing things….like a website. I loved her booth! Did I mention how sweet it is? You can find her at the flea every weekend (Space E10) or email her: carolina44Sataoldotcom

**Space numbers are subject to change. I was moved over a space this weekend. Try this link the day before.

Primary Sidebar