Mariann, don't be afraid of 'Chocolate Chip'. I've had the same little clump for three years and it's very well behaved. The original Ajuga 'repens' can get invasive...it's now in my lawn...LOL...but the other varieties seem to be okay. I love 'Catlin's Giant'...it's awesome!!!! The good thing about is if you water the area, it's really easy to pull. :) What variety is your Chamaecyparis? 'Pendula' or 'Van den Akker'? I have 'Van den Akker' and adore it!!!!

Thank you all so much!!! We had company last night and put the dimmer on about half way and the light was just beautiful. I am so happy, our guests loved it too and thought it was perfect. I will have to keep the shades in mind; the only problem I had with them before was the circles they left on the ceiling. Our ceilings are so low that it made me crazy. I'll pick some up if I see red ones though; the worst is I would return them. Mailynn---yes, our kitchen was Blonde and now is Shaker Beige. The front wall of our dining room is also Shaker. The front wall is our dining room, front door and living room and I needed one color for all of them. Our hallway is Shaker too so it joins it all together. No pink, no green, no tones at all no matter what time of day or night. We couldn't be happier about that either, esp. DH who is my resident painter lol.

mag, I don't know if you are going to get into stuffing your own sausage, etc., but I buy casings and supplies from Butcher-Packer in Detroit, they have fast delivery and good service. My favorite cookbook for this kind of thing is "charcuterie" by Brian Polcyn, a Michigan chef. Larry Engelhardt bought the book for me and I've used it to make pastrami, to smoke bacon, and to make several different batches of sausage. Elery and I do sweet Italian, breakfast sausage and we've done hotdogs, not all that successfully. We'll try again and I'm still working on kielbasa and Portuguese Chorizo. Annie

Your kitchen came out just gorgeous! You must be thrilled. I love the tile, it sets everything off beautifully. I'm also admiring your faucet, since I'm looking for something similar. I work at HD and have not noticed this faucet. Hmmmm... The granite looks very much like several Giallo Vicenza slabs I've been looking at. I loved the gray tones many of them have blended in. I thought they were Giallo Veneziano, but the granite yard insists they're Vicenza. This was one of my top contenders til I fell in love with Crema Bordeaux. But the Vicenza/Veneziano does have a rich, old world feel to it that can be stunning with the right cabinets. Congrats on a beautiful kitchen!