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With holiday gift-giving approaching, consumers may wonder: Is Macy's a good place to buy fine jewelry? My answer is  yes with conditions: I would not buy a diamond engagement ring at any department store, including Macy's . First of all, for such an important piece of jewelry, a buyer is smart to shop around to compare the quality of diamonds vs price. In the best of all possible worlds, you can find a trustworthy jeweler at an independent jewelry store to sell you a nearly flawless diamond at a reasonable price. An independent jeweler should have top diamonds. Department stores often don't sell the very best diamonds; or sapphires; or rubies; or emeralds. 💎 So why buy fine jewelry at Macy's? Because everything you own doesn't need to be the apex of quality, and you probably couldn't afford it if it were. Rubies and diamonds Using a sapphire as an example: Naturally, I'd love a light Ceylon blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, but they are rare and thus, super e...

Photo: William-Sonoma  Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving and a day to reflect and count your blessings. Despite the turmoil and divisiveness in the world, we are fortunate to live now and not earlier in history. Could you have survived harsher times? Photo: WAVE Los Angeles I am thankful for so many things: family, friends, modern medicine, good sanitation, health, nutritious food, clean water, work, leisure, etc. ... many things that make life better, easier and meaningful. Freedom, education, equality. A safe and comfortable home. Thanksgiving wallpaper Fellow bloggers and readers, I am also thankful for you. I love exchanging ideas and learning new things. We are a global community. Blogging has brought us together! Thank you for stopping by and sharing. 🌽 H a v e a ve r y Ha p p y T ha n k s g iv in g,  Fr i e n d s !🦃                                            ...

Hindsight is 20/20. If I selected a dish set today, it wouldn't be fine china, or from Pottery Barn (where I bought mine in 1990). Instead, I'd buy a Corelle dish set . Made of Vitrelle ® , "a tempered glass ... consisting of 2 types of glass laminated into 3 layers:" The dishes are sleek, lightweight, modern, classic, simple, durable and cheap. If a plate drops on the floor, it will not shatter. Plus, it's microwave, refrigerator, and freezer safe; not to mention you can set a pretty table and eat off of it for years. A Corelle dish set is full sized. The sizes of the plates and cups are generous, yet they are compact and designed to take up less room when stacked in a cupboard. Wow, I wish I had considered the storage factor when selecting my dishes. A Corelle dish set comes in over a hundred colors and patterns. There are 2 shapes: round or square (as in a "square meal" a phrase coined by the British navy in the 19th century during recruitment....

Betsey Johnson embellished velvet shoes  Does soft, downy velvet ever go out of style? Of course not! I have 3 velvet jackets, 2 velvet dresses and 2 velvet suits in my closet, and none were purchased recently. Velvet looks rich, dressy and glamorous, which is why I love it. It doesn't wrinkle, and you can wear it nearly all year around.  Although velvet is always fashionable, it is making a huge comeback on the clothing racks of retailers this fall. Everything is velvet, from jackets, trousers and leggings to capes, hats and shoes. On a trip to Express and Macy's , I spotted these garments: Express Macy's - 3rd floor Macy's - 3rd floor - Calvin Klein section Macy's - 2nd floor - shoes A velvet burnout fabric top is paired with a solid velvet suit in the left bottom photo. In the right image, the black velvet trousers look chic with a faux fur vest.  Over to Topshop for a hot pink velvet pinafore dress: Velvet in living color Next  a stop at TJ Maxx where...

Photo: Fat Free Vegan Kitchen As we move into the nippy months of the year, I crave warm soup for dinner. New Yorkers eat out alone in restaurants all the time. I mostly don't unless I'm out of town. With a companion, I think of eating out as entertainment. Alone, I don't mind cooking dinner at home. Miso soup (a food I 1st tasted eating out) is easy/breezy to make at home ... and for a fraction of the restaurant cost. So I keep a tub of miso paste in my refrigerator, along with dried seaweed and dried Daikon radish (an ingredient in many Japanese dishes).  Scores of big supermarkets and health food stores carry miso paste. We have a convenient Japanese grocery in the neighborhood.  Recently I bought: Ryotei Aji Dashi Miso (paste)               $5.99 Sengirl Daikon (radish)                         $3.35 Tkon Cut wakame (seaweed)             ...

Express (along with its sister company Limited ) has a special place in my he a rt. They became my first go-to stores as a Manhattan resident. Between the two, I could dress in fashion-forward and quality clothing on my entry-level publishing salary. The clothes are classic with a cutting edge, making them versatile for work, parties and home. I still wear the jackets, tops and skirts I bought from Express  years ago. Classic pieces never go out of style! The retailer continues to offer the best (🔷blue ribbon, 5-star⭐️ leggings and tights in town. You will easily spend 3-4 times more for the same quality elsewhere. Their basic leggings are mostly cotton with a touch of spandex. They are jet black, soft, classy yet sexy, cozy and opaque. Personally, I wear them all fall, winter and spring -- alone or under dresses and skirts to keep warm! So inexpensive, I buy many, many pairs to machine wash and wear during cold temperatures. This autumn Express has truly stepped up its edgy-p...

Fashion created from (left) pouches and (right) Polaroids. Students from Manhattan's School Of Visual Arts  fashioned attire that is on public view on the sidewalks in front of the famous fashion houses on Madison Avenue . Fourteen exhibits enclosed in glass run from East 61th Street through East 76th Street. The layout is called  One-Of-A-Kind Luxury , and the outfits are made of unusual materials for clothing, including house keys, packing peanuts, computer keys, forks and spoons, white paint, copper pennies and orange earplugs.  Dresses designed using: 1) silverware (the bust is created from 2 ladles, the neckless is a spoon); 2) copper pennies; 3) Monopoly themes. A cup of tea to go with a stylin' raincoat made of teabags anyone? Take a look. Clothing created from: 1) paint; 2) Lipton teabags; 3) left - metal keys and right - packing peanuts; 4) earplugs. Each reveal looks posh in my humble opinion. If designed out of cloth, people would want to wear them....

Photo: wpid By law, Whole Foods can only sell wine in New York City at one of its locations. So every 6 months when I go to the dentist nearby, I buy 2 bottles of delicious cheap Spanish red wine. As wine connoisseurs can tell you, the price of wine does not always reflect the quality. Whole Foods has spectacular wine under $5. Once it sold for a low $2.99 but increased to $4.50 per bottle . I buy 2 varieties: Listed in order of how I like them, but it is a matter of individual taste. Both are fruity, low in tannins and balanced: Don Simon Tempranillo - Made with 100% Tempranillo grapes, a grape variety only grown in Spain. Not sweet, this fruity, complex wine has hints of strawberries and cherries. A good drinking wine with pizza, burgers, chili or any meat and potatoes dinner. I especially enjoy drinking a glass paired with extra sharp cheddar cheese on dark Lithuanian rye bread (or just saltine crackers).  Don Simon Shinaz - Although also fruity, it's a ...