I think I can understand your question/dilemma. I would strongly suggest that you go to the book store/magazine store or perhaps the library but I bet they don't have the best garden mags. If you're like me, you have a library of garden magazines so you may not need go anywhere except to your personal library. Anyway, browse thru the garden mags and find 2 or 3 (or more) pictures of gardens that you LOVE or REALLY REALLY like. (If there is a half-price book store nearby, that will work too.) Pictures don't have to be similar. They don't have to apply to your front yard. They don't even have to apply to your geographical location. But they will give some ideas for style that your landscaper needs to know, i.e. whether minimalist, cottage, formal, zen, symmetric, asymmetric, lots of horizontal, lots of vertical, tropical, etc. Don't worry if it seems to you that you have given him conflicting information. The only other thing is that if you think the pictures really DO show ideas that are too much of a contrast regarding taste, you might consider talking to the landscaper about the pictures (instead of just giving him the pictures) explaining why you think you like them. Anyway, you will need to buy the magazines that have the pictures that you REALLY like so you can provide the pictures to him but hey, I know these mags aren't cheap but what is 20 or 25 dollars at this point especially regarding your front yard. Last recommendation, don't make a career of this. Give yourself a time-limit or limit on how many mags/books you will look thru. Sounds like you really need to move on from this so don't use this task of finding pictures as another obstacle. Good luck. p.s. We have a (small) symmetrical house with door in the middle and one large window on each side of the door and our planting is very asymetrical and I like it very much. I DO have identical pots on our porch on either side of the door. I also have an Indian Hawthorne bush on either side in the garden spaced a little away from the walkway on either side. But after that, quite a difference. Lots of very tall huge Elephant ears on right side with sago palm on the end on the right. On the left, I have a very large, dramatic yucca/plant/tree (12 feet tall or so) along with a couple of Nandina bushes and some Caladiums and Verbena for color. (On the right side is a pot of asparagas fox-tail fern, almost forgot). Oh also, a sago palm on the far left as well so I guess I have symmetry on the immediate right and left and far right and far left and in the middle right and middle left, quite a diverse situation and I like it a whole lot.

That's a hard lesson to learn! Leave them a while and see if they get new growth below the dead part. If you cut them off now they won't survive at all with no leaves. The stem may not be completely dead and have enough alive to get nutrients.

Great minds think alike, Claire! I'm planning a Swaziland/South Africa theme bedroom, replete with mud and kuba cloth and some African furniture! I was just at the paint store for that project when I started thinking on the way home that maybe I could do a stencil or special effect on the office walls. I like the idea of a bright rug, although a light rug might be out because I have a Chinese crested, you know, the hairless dogs that knock on the door to come inside to pee. I liked some of those papers a lot on that page you posted. I would have to learn how to hang paper...ugh! I'm going to try to post some photos of the room now. Thanks!

Frankly, nobody should purchase a marble top for a bath vanity. This is always a match/ blend issue as tile and slabs come from different sources. It's virtually impossible. Marble baths benefit from a simple plain quartz top on the vanity. Knock yourself out with marble everywhere else. Porcelain and the real deal stone will ALWAYS disappoint, Every. Single. Time. No bath should be demolished until every needed material has been selected and checked for compatibility. Or this delay is also a guarantee.