Murano Glass: The Island of Murano

Murano, Italy is an island that is the home of Venice, Italy's murano glassmaking industry. The glass making was moved to this island in the year 1291 because the production of this beautiful murano glass was a fire hazard for Venice as her buildings were constructed of mostly wood (see note below). Murano is just a short boat ride away on the vaporatto which is a water taxi from St. Mark's Square in Venice. On this trip we stayed huddled inside the vaporatto as it was quite cool and choppy out on the water.

My first visit to Murano was in the Fall of 2006. The canals are quite this time of the year which allowed us to experience the peaceful, everyday life of the people here. With few tourists, we were able to take our time and really explore this island. Murano is a quite peaceful island in late November. We found ourselves walking through a residential area that was a step back in time. I loved seeing the laundry hanging from balconies. The streets of Murano are as quaint and charming as those in Venice but more deserted which had a few locals wondering if we were lost. In the Fall you notice the everyday activities such as the man selling produce off of his boat.

It was interesting to find out that the people of Murano were held in high esteem for their glass making abilities. Daughters were allowed to marry into Venetian nobility and Murano artisans were immuned from prosecution in the earlier centuries. In later centuries, the people of Venice began to build homes on Murano because it was believed that the fires from the kilns provided healthy benefits to those living on the island.


Note: For a great read, check out The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). This book has great architectural facts and interesting facts about Murano glass blowers. It's a great fictional story that takes place during a great fire in Venice, Italy.

Dreaming of Paris in Springtime

I remember taking this picture while in Paris. We were walking around Montmartre and I just fell in love with this little shop. I'm ready to go back to Paris in the springtime. It was wonderful! I was amazed at how easy it was to get around and I really think Montmartre was my favorite little spot with the artists and interesting little restaurants and shops. I bought a couple of pictures from the local artists and love looking at them and remembering this special time, as this was my first visit to Paris.

With it snowing outside, I am definitely dreaming of Paris in Springtime. In my dreams I will not only make it back to Montmarte and hopefully find my favorite artist, but I will spend more time sitting in the outdoor cafes watching the world go by. It seems Parisians do a lot of "people watching" while eating and drinking. It's almost like a sport! I wish we had more outdoor cafes where I live. We have a few, but I have never seen anyone just sitting back and watching the world. People are hunched over, hurrying to finish their meal because they feel they need to move on.

Where are you dreaming of being this Spring? Check out my Miche Bag for your travels. You can take a purse for everyday in a small amount of space.

Three, Two, One....GO!

Well, here we are in a new year.

A very important year for me. I can hardly believe I will be 60 this year - WOW! How come I don't feel 60?

They say you are only as old as you feel. Well, I feel like I should not be any older than 38. But, 60 is a real wake-up call. I have so much more to do and accomplish - I need to get going.

So, it's time to seriously sit down and write the "bucket list". Not just where I want to travel to, but what else I want to learn and do. Oh, and there is so much I want to learn.

I'm looking forward to this year and all it will offer me. My on-line store has come a long way and still brings me joy and now I'm learning Staging for homeowners that want to sell their home in a really slow market. I want to help give them that edge. And, travel will always be at the top of my list. So, three, two, one.....here I go!


Note: picture taken by Todd Bates

Happy New Year!

Well the holidays are just about over and the New Year brings uncertainty and hope. We are all uncertain about the economy and hope for a brighter future.

The New Year is also a time for reflection. Every day the newspaper is full of this year's historical moments and important people that we have lost. But the New Year is also about accomplishments. I feel great that I have learned so much this year from people that I have met through the internet. Who would've thought??? I now have a successful on line store and continue to be amazed at what I learn on a daily basis to keep me on page one of google under murano jewelry. It's hard work - don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

The New Year is also a time for resolutions. I think I will resolve to continue to grow in knowledge, live life to its fullest, travel more, love more, believe more and of course the usual "lose weight".

I wish you all a wonderful, spiritual, brighter New Year!

Sandi

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Gift Cards: Beware This Holiday Season

This was sent to me last week and I wanted to pass along the info to all of my readers. With the economy as it is, it would be wise for anyone to do their homework before purchasing gift cards this holiday season.

This is a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards
around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be
honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after
Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though
the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them
from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankruptcy
Planning". Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be
cautious about.


Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores mo re to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stor~s
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

Hope you will consider doing some on-line shopping and maybe make a purchase at WhatEver Accessories.

Little Voices

And, the little voices have been yelling at me lately -"YOU NEED TO REORGANIZE!"

We've been talking about moving rooms around and just talking about it caused me to become more unorganized as the weeks went by. Before you knew it, I was overwhelmed with notes, clutter and whatever. You know I was actually feeling "anxious" as I became more and more buried in notes and not knowing what I wanted to do with the information and I think as a result of that my office was becoming cluttered too. Whew! I needed to tackle this before it got out of hand.

And, after this weekend I'm happy to say my office has been moved to a bigger room. I cleaned out old files and "stuff" that just wasn't needed anymore. I feel renewed!

Unfortunately, I now have 2 more rooms to get in order after the office move. But you know it's a great way to clean out that stuff that just accumulates and you wonder why you were saving it in the first place.

So I feel renewed and glad those little voices were telling me to change things up a bit. I have a new spacious office and ready to move on to the next rooms.

Do you do whatever little voices tell you to do?