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Thank you ladies for your sweet compliments. I sometimes hesitate to show something because I have seen the quality of crafts here and my things never seem to turn out that well. To answer your questions.... Oddie, I have seen your gorgeous crafts and I am honored you like mine. I am not talented enough to make the ornaments on my own. I got the program Kaleidoscope Kreator for my birthday and am having a ball practicing making ornies. I hope to make a bunch for Christmas gifts, but for now, everyone is getting my trial ones for Easter. Luvs, I have admired your crafts and your beautiful vignettes on the holiday forum for some time. You are a very talented lady. The eggs are so easy it is funny. Take a plastic egg, glue together with hot glue, then start glueing clear (or I guess you could use colored for a different look) faceted beads to it. It takes a lot of beads and a lot of glue, but it goes quickly. Donnas, I just got a look at your craft pictures. I am so glad you were able to post pictures of them. Great crafts!!! The feathery stuff is just that...feathers from a boa I got at Dollar Tree. It doesn't show up well in the picture, but I painted the eggs with white glue and sprinkled clear glitter over them. When they were dry I just glued everything onto a grapevine wreath with hot glue. What would we do without our hot glue gun! Thanks again for looking. Here is a link that might be useful: Kaleidoscope Kreator

elizawhyza, you ask an important question about working with a contractor in putting in a largely recycled kitchen. Many people who artfully incorporate old things into their homes are seasoned DIY'ers, but I needed grown ups to get things in properly. My contractor is not a firm. He is a recovering economist who has an affinity for old houses and likes to see them respected. His own skills are excellent, and he puts together work crews for each job he undertakes, whether it's a bathroom or a whole house. I cannot imagine taking on this house with a different kind of contracting firm. Indeed, he looked at all the houses I was considering and outline what work would be entailed in for each of them. I have worked with him on several less extensive projects over the years, and I consider the trade-offs -- basically I had to start with a very rough ballpark estimate of what his work would cost and I was responsible for contracting with the electrical, HVAC, window, and floor people, but I knew that I would get careful work on the house -- more than reasonable. By the time we got to the kitchen, he and his crew has turned this into this which entailed jacking up the roof, replicating a lost corbel, and patching the original cypress clapboards with newly milled ones. In that context, shimming the kitchen cabinets vertically as well as laterally was not a big deal. On your other question, I bought the cabinets from my local craigslist, after checking out what was available almost daily for several months. I talked to the owner, drove out to look at the cabinets, paid him for them, and then hired three guys and a truck to pick them up and bring them into the city. The distance was about 15 miles and the moving cost a couple hundred dollars. There are also a couple of local non-profit house part recycling places that occasionally have nice cabinets, but that works best if you are in a position to check them daily, which I am not. The non-local sources for good used cabinets are ebay (which tends to have kitchen center displays that are listed for "local pick-up") and and Green Demolitions. The latter carries some very up-market used kitchen from the NYC area. They will email you all kinds of pictures to show the condition of what you might be buying, and they can help customers arrange shipping. I have never actually purchased from them, but I would certainly consider it. I look forward to seeing your cabinets. Best of luck with the whole project. hbk Here is a link that might be useful: Green Demolitions.

Thanks Luvs ") Hi Punk, the bricks are very easy, they are done with sponges, the cheaper ones with the larger holes in them gives ya the best detail. I used to get a bag of assorted sizes at the Dollar General store for a buck (but it has been a few years since I have painted) first paint the whole wall the color grout you want between your bricks. next cut your sponges the size brick you want. I always cut mine with an exacto knife to get a sharp clean edge, I cut 2 & then a half one for the edges & corners. Dampen your sponge & ring it out as dry as you can, then using an old stiff brush, put the paint LIGHTLY on your sponge with the old brush, then start your bricks ") you will have to reload your sponge after about 3 or 4 bricks. Measure your wall & adjust your grout line accordingly so your don't end up with a half a brick at the top or bottom of your wall. I always started at the top of the countertop, where there was a straight line for me to follow. When you walk into the room notice the first part of the room where your eye goes to. That is the part where your want your bricks & grout line to be straight for sure. I usually use a pencil or the width of my finger or my paint brush handle to measure the grout lines with. When you put your brick on, you can apply more pressure to different parts of the sponge so you don't get the same pattern, also you can flip your sponge upside down to get a different pattern or you can use your 2nd sponge. The ivy is a simple leaf that I double load on an angle brush, It comes in very handy for covering up any mistakes in the brick, ")LOL I also used outside house paint in my kitchen so it would be more durable & washable. It has held up pretty well for about 14 years now LOL If you notice in the pics, the top bricks are different sizes LOL this was my first brick wall & I didn't measure very well LOl Here is another pic of my kitchen -- This is a plywood sub-floor This wall has a more standard size brick & 3 colors in it. If your want more than one color just add a streak here or there on your sponge, when your apply the brick to the wall just wiggle the sponge back & forth just a hair & it will help blend in the different colors. Just remember it is only paint so if ya mess up just get out the roller & cover it up & have fun. If ya got any questions just ask. Lilly