I think sometimes people think they should be able to get the same price as some of the high end shops in NYC or something. I'm always amazed when I actually see something priced properly...I want to hug the person who created it. I tend to frequent shops that have a wide variety of price ranges as I think those folks have a much more realistic mindset. If you want to attract buyers, then have something for everyone's price limit. There are more people who would have bought her teacup feeders for $15 than $35. If I were going to go to the trouble of having a craft booth, I would want to sell the items I had, not have to lug them back home! And, of course, being a junker myself, I'm always looking for a bargain.

A lot of the shows, whether interior or exterior, don't cater to small budgets. Some of the things they show cost more than what I paid for my whole house. I have always been a bargain shopper, a repurposer of old items, and if I do remodel in or out, I tend to save my money and buy the better items, instead of trying to save now and replace later anyway. I even built a trellis out of tree limbs from the tree we cut down where the pond went in. Is it fancy? Nope, but the morning glories don't care. I'd bet we could come up with better ideas AND get better viewership. But, I'm too busy playing in the pond. LOL.

Funny how things evolve/change throughout various life stages. I think the size of the house depends greatly on what your life circumstances are, what stage of life you happen to be in at the moment (i.e. single, empty nester, family, etc), and of course, probably most importantly, the layout/design of the particular house you're in. As big fans of Susanka's "Not So Big" houses, DH and I were perfectly happy living in 1800 sf for many years until we adopted two wonderful girls 4 years ago. Our daughters are now ages 10 and 15, and during the past 4 years since becoming a family, we've realized how important it is that we each have some "away" space. We're now in the process of renovating a fixer-upper, and eventually it will have about 3400 sf, which, in my mind, is the "right" amount for our busy family of four. The space consists of 3.5 bathrooms, an office, a guest room, a family room/dining area off the kitchen (in somewhat of a "great room" concept, not at all formal or unused), 3 main bedrooms, and a small "hangout room" outside the girls' bedroom area so they can have sleepovers, watch their own TV/movies, have a spot for the computer, etc. We have a large yard, and we'd love for the girls to be outside playing all the time, but the reality is that although they're both very active with sports teams and various activities, it's just not like it was when we were growing up, when we'd leave the house in the morning, roam the neighborhood, ride our bikes everywhere, go to the town park on our own, etc. Nowadays, let's face it, getting kids together with friends involves mostly organized events (called play dates). Our hope is that our kids and their friends will want to congregate at our new house as they continue to grow up through middle and high school (some potentially scary and turning point type years). Unfortunately, in our former house, the girls' friends did not naturally congregate at our house because of several factors - 1) our girls' bedrooms were so tiny they could barely fit one extra friend in the room for a sleepover, 2) the communal great room/family room was the only hangout space in the house for all of us, and it just did not provide enough privacy or independence for everyone concerned, especially 'tweens and teens who will inevitably want to break away a bit (just when parents want to simultaneously keep an eye on their activities), and 3) all of our girls' friends had much larger houses, many with huge game rooms, pools, etc, where it would naturally be much more fun to congregate. Although such mega-houses are not our style and we would never design/construct one, we can certainly understand the appeal from a kid's point of view, like it or not. Bottom line is, I guess my point is that there isn't a "one size fits all" solution. It's easy to say that we should all downsize, but I'm more of the "live and let live" mindset. What makes sense at one stage of life may not (and probably will not) make sense at another stage. Let it evolve. For example, it was easy for us to tout the virtues of living small when there were just two of us...now, we see that we need just a little more space - not to have a McMansion or to be showy, but just to ensure that our family hums along smoothly. To each his or her own. Best of luck to all in creating your own peaceful and enriching homey space!

Judging by the German Persil Pro powder: oxy bleach comes 4th and bleach activator 6th. Zeolite, a water softener popular here, is somewhere in the middle. That's good - I find - because this stuff does not dissolve and is the reason why dedicated cycles for dark clothes use a lot of water in the rinses (to flush visible zeolite residue off the clothes). Persil Megaperls has zeolite as the first ingredient. Finally there are enzymes at the end of the list. Six of them, which sounds pretty good.