Yes, the way I dealt with the frozen apples is to use crates to store the apples. It keeps the apples away from the walls. Don't know why your Grannys are mushy, but then again, mine were picked fully ripe in January, that might be the difference. Do far, the only apples that last a real long time have been zestar, rubinette, pink lady and granny smith, the Grannys appear to benefit from later harvest, but it's the opposite for pink ladys. If I pick my pink ladys earlier right when they are generating the first bit of pink flush they last 50% longer. I remember two years ago harvesting pink lady in mid November and eating perfect pink lady apples the following May. One additional problem has been the fact they many apples absorb odors. Some do not, pink lady, zestar and rubinette seem to have very well sealed skin.

Lucky you, Karen...I like your dishes from Linda almost as much as I like mine :)Linda, you do beautiful work. Love the gratin dish...everything looks good in those. You'll like your brown sugar bear...I have one (well, mine's a birdhouse) and it works great.It looks like a good cookbook, too, especially this time of year.

I waited to post here hoping you would include the Dragonfly story. I had not ever seen it before. It is beautiful. Your bench is beautiful, too. Some things are definitely worth waiting for, including the bench and the story. I will save the story. Sue

I nearly didn't open this thread, missing that it was a reveal. I'm glad my curiosity got the better of me because I would have hated missing this reveal! I love the two-tone look. I especially love the piece of wood trim along the upper cabs. Nice touch! I had no idea pecan wood was so lovely. Your DH did a very nice job on your banquette bench. What a nice transition between kitchen and FR. I also really like the floating shelves he built for you. Great use of space in that skinny cab for your upper island counter. It all looks so good, I'm glad you didn't wait any longer to share your new kitchen with us! btw, my cardboard island hood would have been good company for your cardboard island. I made this when we were still contemplating keeping our island cook top so we could see how it looked and felt with an island hood (we ended up moving cook top to the perimeter, so glad we did). I was ridiculously proud of my creation (I generally am craft-impaired). One of DS1's friends tried to talk me into covering it with foil and keeping it hung up as "art."