It was gorgeous out there the last three days and of course I did not do any of the stuff I really need to do. I BADLY need to cut down weed trees & paint with ground kill, spray neighbors kudzu (I help her with it, she can't manage anymore), and weed wack like the dickens. My back yard is a DISGRACE since we have not been able to re-do it yet, and I've left it. Now it's weed seeding everywhere. My friend came to take care of part of it, and he hasn't come back to finish up. I need his big tools to knock down the 8' poke weeds so I can spray inside their hollow stems (I HATE pokeweeds). The old waterway is completely filled with grasses and weeds. I need to get cracking (but we had such fun during the weekend, I just kept having fun....)

Last fall I finally cleaned out my basement storage and made a huge pile of things too good to throw out but stuff I would never use. I also had my mom and dads household in the basement from when we all moved into together in 2000. Only took me 8 years to finally deal with all the stuff. When we cleaned, we also made 4 (big ) pick up truck loads to the dump. So, this past Wednesday, a friend I hauled that pile of meduim good stuff to the flea market. It was an adventure! We got there at 5:00 am , by 5:30 all big items were gone and buy 7:00 am , I was ready for lunch! Or so it felt. At 9:00 am , we made our two tables into the .50 cent table and the dollar table. At 9:45, we were yelling out, "Everything a quarter" and at 10:15 we gave away free all that was left. That ceramic bird you bought for $7.95, Red, might have gone for a quarter. Maybe. The vacuum sealer and several boxes of refills went for a dollar. The health rider (Mom's) went for a dollar. Lots of baskets, knick knacks, pillows, books all went free. I took home a ceramic vase that I had bought on a whim that is pretty and cost about $8.00 when I bought it 8 years or so ago. Which is where I got the parallel, Red. Many people picked it up and one idiot asked who was the potter. Hmmm, tjmaxx? When we did the free table, I put it back in the truck to take back home. It was a sobering event in the fact that all the stuff I accumulate is not worth anything. We made several hundred dollars and I don't want to buy anything else!

Hi Nomorebluekitchen, Wow, have you had a rough time lately, that whole mess sucks. These construction problems appear to be everywhere and it makes me wonder why they aren't more regulated! I have a good friend who (at the same time she was going through a messy divorce) had one nightmare after another with an addition she did to help accomodate three kids she was adopting to add to her own four! She had the contractor from h*ll, who didn't know what he was doing especially in regards to code. He too couldn't tell time and did the opposite of whatever he promised. Everyday it was something new, in the end, he made several errors on the build that cost her a small fortune to correct and it pushed her way over budget. Eventually, she had enough and fired him but not before he had most of her money. To add to the misery, by that time this whole mess in the housing market had taken hold, and she couldn't get any more financing to finish the project with a new contractor. It's been a couple of years now but she, her 7 kids and her (new) husband have been able to finish most of the house on their own and yes...even their 9 year old learned how to help lay floors! I learned from her, that when it comes to people in this industry, do as much as possible on your own, trust is a commodity that's earned and even then, watch 'em like a hawk. Isn't there a way we can request a forum to be started that can be dedicated for these types of issues? Somewhere where members can go to convey positive and negative issues they've experienced with specific companies they're working with. I think it would be an invaluable resource for members of the forum, don't you? In the meantime, I hope this turns around for you, and you're able to come out of it ok. -- Lukki

may_flowers and sprtphntc - I seldom buy either. I have been buying and looking at a few things lately. Both my mother and my MIL downsized this year and I got a few small pottery pieces from each of them. I wanted to display them but none of them really went together and so I was looking for other pieces to set them off so I was prowling consignment stores and antique stores. So much of it was pretty but not suitable, but when a piece "spoke" to me and I thought "yes, you will set off and add to my enjoyment of my great-grandmothers water pitcher", that's when I bought something. palimpset - exactly. I agree with you. I too prowl real estate listings (used to frighten my DH) but I don't want a new house. Appreciating things does not mean having to own them. mudhouse - oh I really like that imagery of "stocking the visual library in our minds". I'm going to use that line on my DH the next time a situation arises. Then watch him try to figure what I'm saying - he won't get it, poor guy. romy718 - Perhaps like your daughter, I just want to convey my joy in seeing something that I think is, for me, pretty. I don't expect the person that I'm with to agree with me because I do know that we all have different tastes and different definitions as to what is visually pleasing. I guess I just want them to see my joy in seeing something that I find to be pretty and I want to share that - not to buy but just to stop, take a minute and enjoy looking.. Oh, and to be clear that doesn't actually happen all that often. And kevinmark - you're right ,not every gorgeous accessory is meant to buy. I suspect that if one did that the joy of owning pretty things that one found joy in would somehow be diminished over time. For me anyway.