I did a quick look see and saved it to favs. I wish I could get into Shabby Chic w/white grout but just can't. I love to LOOK at it but can't DO it. The thing I LOVE about her style is the way she uses the wonderful plate edges, circular designs, entertwined, and most of all I love the way she just mosaics part of an old fence piece, and not cover the whole thing. Great site, beautiful stuff.

Stunning colors! Seminole Wind still sticks out for me, but all of them are gorgeous. I hear you about the rain, we had it almost all weekend and it's spotty today. The grass has to be mowed every 4/5 days. Everything sure looks lush, so I can't complain. I think it's going to start drying up now.

i never understood the idea of 'releasing' things... its awful presumptuous on your part.. to think your new 'pets' are going to stay with you ... i would suspect.. faster than you can release them.. they will leave your homestead ..... i dont recall.. what you are battling with the lacewings... perhaps this was discussed in some other post ... maybe link us??? 'releasing' is like the polar opposite of 'luring' traps [which by the way.. is what your ant stuff is .... arent you luring more to you???] .. and i usually get a whiff of snake oil in this remedy ... a disney-esque mind picture of your little laborers.. just sitting around your small garden.. helping you win the battle of ma nature ..... i dont buy it .... congrats on at least thinking about tracking back the ants... though i had you there.. lol ... good luck and.. wait for it.. WOO HOO!!!! .... lol ken ps: now.. if you had a thousand acre farm.. and a prevailing wind.. and you could release them on one edge.. i could comprehend them moving across the field and doing some good.... [before they went right out the other side] but i just cant picture it.. on a few square yard garden ... not even on my 5 acres ....

Katie Kitty is safely back home! My neighbor was so upset (she is in her 70's) and she cried when she asked me to send out a mass email to everyone asking them to help find her cat, so I'm very happy to report that Katie Kitty found her way home! Cyn, my husband is a federal type as well and won't get any snow days because he telecommutes so they don't get to take snow days. He doesn't mind though, he'd rather be able to work from home most days then to get a snow day. Are you a teacher? We know several teachers in NoVa, one in Centreville and one out in Haymarket. Our schools are canceled for the week also! LOL Newhomebuilder, I feel like that often with my posts, I wish there was an edit feature on here! The couple who showed up said they thought about calling us to see if the party was canceled but I guess they just decided to forge ahead! I sent them an email apologizing again for making them come out in the cold and ice and they said they had a wonderful time, so it all worked out in the end. I sent them back home with their fruitcake and plate and they said they had a meatloaf in the oven for their daughter and grandson who live with them, so they were fine. Cooperbailey, we have not one but two 95+ year olds on our street! They are both in great shape. The 95 year old woman lives with her daughter, SIL, and grandchildren but she still comes to every event and is just a little hard of hearing, but otherwise doing really well. The other 96 year old is a man and lives on his own, but right next door to his son and his family. He is truly amazing! He still drives, and seems to be fine, has a beautiful garden which he dutifully tends and I think he even has a computer! He also takes his Dachshund to obedience training!!! I hope I'm just like him as I continue to get older, I'm 46 now. A funny story about him when we first moved in and he was a mere 94. One day we drove past and he was laying on his side in the ditch near his mailbox. We drove past and I said to my husband "GO BACK George has fallen!!!" and my husband said that he thought George was just pulling weeds or something. I said "honey, clearly he has fallen, look at him he's on his side, you don't pull weeds like that!" so he agreed and began backing up. When we got beside him I rolled down the window and said are you ok George? He looked puzzled, he didn't really know us since we'd just moved in, and said "I'm fine, I'm trimming" and sure enough he had those old handheld trimming shears that everyone used to have that looked like giant scissors! We left and he went back to trimming. My guess is that one day George will be helping us up rather than the other way around, he's my hero! Here are some pictures of our pups playing in the snow. They look so fierce when they play, yet they love one another dearly! Quinn, he's fast, but not quite as fast as our nearly 10 yr old BC, she is still faster! Quinn giving his "mom" some love! Kat :)