Jen, what I like about the free google stuff is you can play around with it all you want and it's free.. Kind of like test driving to see if spending money would be "worth it" I would do blog & web page; play around with both to see which will do the trick. If you use godaddy, be careful about hosting on their servers. Someone I know had their account hacked then their domain name (URL) was sold to someone else. In the end the person that bought the domain would not give it back to the owner. From what my computer people tell me, GoDaddy is the pits for security and patching holes.

I had to google Klout. Not at all interested in becoming more visible on the net. Apparently this site is moving more toward facebook and twitter and the Houzz mystic. That isn't me. I used to browse pinterest before it became a password protected site. In the long run, this could be a good thing. I used to get a lot more done inside and outside the house before I started killing time in front of the computer monitor. I miss the old GW forum. I will probably come here to read from time to time but it won't be like the old days. The atmosphere is totally different. Being here now is like having coffee with Lady Mary instead of Mrs. Patmore. In the kitchen forum I've always felt like Elizabeth having coffee with Hyacinth so I don't often go there. I'll see what develops on the kitchen table forum. The same people seem to be on all the forums I read.

I have pointed out several glitches to them. In addition to the whole annoying sideways photo thing, I've found that links I post move or disappear completely after I hit submit. Then I need to go back in and do it again. If you highlight and try to delete it wants to leave the page. It's an adaptation, not the original forum set up that was popular before. The one piece of information I was given after several complaints is that Houzz is optimized for the Google Chrome browser. If you use Chrome here photos post properly and the links don't disappear. I use Chrome for 1 or two things because it is rapacious about tracking every single thing someone does. Then Google collects and profits from the information and your privacy is invaded more than it usually is by Firefox or even IE. Ipads use Safari. You'd think a design site would be optimized for that and mobile but on mobile the site isn't scalable. Houzz should address this. They've been told. They don't seem to care.

In our previous house, we put up a tile backsplash just like the ones used at the Belgian-inspired kitchen in Portland. I scored tons of different colors when HD was closing out their colorful square tiles at, IIRC, about 50 cents a tile. I like lots of color, too. It makes me happy. :) Anyway, I wish I had a photo handy but we had a laminate counter with a bit of a faux stone look to it. However, much less movement and all the color tones were much paler than your Venetian Ice. Our cabinets were Hickory which is a busier wood with a lot of grain and visual interest. I thought it looked great. But I'm unsure if you could pull it off with that particular stone. I agree with getting out your paints, markers, crayons, whatever, and coloring on paper what you think you'd like and then hanging it in the backsplash area to see how it looks. Don't just do a small bit. Make colored copies and really cover that area to give you a good feel for how it might look. It might look great or you might decide you need to bring color into the room with the art and accessories. I dunno. I think people should do what makes them happy. I also hate to see people spend time, effort and money on something that doesn't work for them. I think a test run is a good way to make sure you are going to be happy with your choice.