firsthouse -- thank you! the walls were really supposed to be light gray... I don't think the paint was mixed correctly. I'm living with it for now -- I like the blue but really wanted very light gray... Lizabeth -- thanks so much! i found the blue accent tile quite by accident in a local tile store. i was looking for subways and found those blue accents. i have no idea who made them and the order form only has a number. i immediately loved them. I had no idea what I wanted as accents until i saw them and then held them up a hunk of blue pearl which I had already purchased for the counter. Total accident - or fate! i will try to call and ask about them for you this weekend. PinchMe -- sorry I didn't see your post till today. The mirror is a "venetian style" mirror that I purchased locally but I have seen them online too. I just wanted something really different, sparkly and sort of focal. My home is a small bungalow and this bathroom is in a hall off the dining room. If I have "dining room dinner guests" they can see that wall of the bathroom from the table. I wanted something that would look pretty from the dining room view. I so appreciate all the comments! My favorite thing of all is the glass door knob! I did my kitchen in 7/08, where I have 3 doors and I started with the glass door knobs then... slowly replacing doors and knobs through the house. I think I've become a door knob freak! Really, I just love them! OK, I'm very happy with my new bathroom, everything -- but I so love my glass knob! Haha!

OMG, what a fun thread . . and what memories! My first apartment was in 1974 in Deerfield Beach, Florida. I'd gotten my RT degree and had been working in Detroit (New Dawn, we were there at the same time!) at the Children's Hospital, but tired of the hour-long drive back to my parent's home in the suburbs . . not to mention Michigan's cold, gray, slushy winters. One day, I'd had enough and three weeks later I was on my way to a new, exciting job in Ft. Lauderdale as the head of a Special Procedures Department at one of the local hospitals down there. I had no furniture,no dishes, pots or pans; nothing but my clothes, etc. to take with me. I had to buy everything when I moved in. Thank goodness I had a nice bit of money saved! Mine was a one bedroom apt on the third floor of a 3-story building about a 1/2 mile from the ocean. It had a screened-in porch that overlooked the pool area. I found a couple comfy folding patio chairs and a little table at my Publix grocery store for out there. My gram took me to a furniture store on Federal Highway in Boca Raton and I got the prettiest green & white bamboo print sofa, white wicker coffee and end tables there, a big wicker throne chair and a couple of yellow ceramic table lamps, too. I loved it all, as it looked so exotic . . . and so un-Michigan! I had no dining room table or bar area, so I guess I must have eaten at my coffee table. I probaby ate most of my meals during the week at either of my grandparents homes, though! Both sets had retired to Deerfireld Beach a few years before. Gosh, I haven't thought about this for 20 years,at least! My grandparent's lived in a condo on the ocean and their many retired friends were always giving me decorative pieces for my place. They taught me to make all sorts of great appetizers . . . which is what they all seemed to live on. That and Tanqueray & Tonics. I don't mean to infer that they had drinking problems; I just remember a LOT of cocktail parties. One gave me a large framed print of one of Henri Rousseau's Jungle paintings for my living room. I got my queen size bed, and dresser from one of them, too. They were all missing their own grandkids a lot and I became the substitute grandchild to many of them. They were such sweet, wonderful people! I have such great memories of them all. I bought a beautiful green & pink on white jungle print bedspread with tropical leaves and flowers on it. . and I still have it today! It's tattered and torn, but I loved it so much I've kept it all these years. I never did own a tv in my four years down in Florida and I don't recall ever missing it. I spent my evenings during the week listening to music and reading or playing tennis with friend's. Weekend days were ALWAYS spent at our local beach with my friends, swimming, surfing, scuba diving and playing beach volleyball . . . or waterskiing up and down the Intracoastal Waterway. We spent the evenings at the nightclubs in and around Ft.L and Miami. Anybody remember Big Daddy's Brother Jim's in Ft.L? We also spent a lot of time down in Key West, scuba diving and beaching it. I got to know KC & The Sunshine Band when they were just locals playing at the clubs around Miami. Those were a wonderful, exciting and life-changing four years for me. What great memories! Thanks New Dawn :~) Lynn

Drilling holes into glass can be dicey if you are inexperienced and hanging all the weight of the piece from the holes in the glass is not advised. You don't want to hang something that potentially heavy from a "thin leather strap" . . frame it and reinforce the framing to keep it (and your family) safe. Of course you can just glue and go if you want grout bleed. You need to seal the edges of the stained glass to the substrate glass in order to avoid grout bleed. Or don't grout. It's up to you.

DH and I just returned from a trip that included Paris and Amsterdam! I had great suggestions from GW. You can read those by searching Amsterdam. You can get a Paris Museum pass for 2, 4 or 6 days. It allows you to skip the regular lines at the Louvre and D'Orsay. It includes many sites you could just pop in for a look see if you're organized.The Louvre and D'Orsay have days when they stay open late. They both have beautiful views at night. I videoed the Eiffel Tower doing it's night light dance from the Louvre. the window glass reflected the room full of paintings with the Eiffel Tower glittering in the middle. From the D'Orsay you can see Sacre Coeur lit up. Wear good walking shoes, break them in and build up your endurance. If I had one day, I would start in the centre of Paris with Notre Dame. You don't need to go inside to enjoy it's beauty, the lines are too long to spend the time. San Chapelle is nearby. When people climb the stairs(brief climb) they gasp when they see they are surrounded by high walls of stunning stained glass. Does your bus include tours through Paris? If not look up reviews of Hop on and off. Bus #67 runs from the Eiffel Tower all the way through Paris to Notre Dame at the other end. You can't hop on and off though, with the same ticket. If you transfer to a different line within a certain amount of time you may use the same ticket. I would also take the trip down the Seine like others said. Have a wonderful trip!