seeing my husband asleep, he is in so much pain when he is awake and sleep is so fleeting for him, right now he is asleep. seeing sunshine pouring through my windows, snow melting, birds singing, (and in summer my garden makes me smile) seeing my son when he is happy and excited about life. seeing my mom (almost 90) and my sister still alive and having a good day, with less pain. my two kitties and the two kitties of my sons, they just love unconditionally seeing good people treating other good people, good and even being kind to people who treat them bad innocence

I want to thank everyone for your input. MtnRR, you bring up a good point, so I went back to look at the size of my island. It's 51x92''+/- an inch, so six inch pendants simply won't do. And Gooster, You're right, Subee's kitchen isn't my kitchen. So I went and did this mock up. I don't have the software nor the skill to mock up the right floor plan, so I had to stick a sepia version of the table plus the dragonfly pendant in the front of the picture. I really really thought everyone would say that the number one option above was too matchy matchy. Maybe now if I could find it in a larger pendant, not a mini pendant, I'd use it, but that light is too small. I've looked at probably a thousand pendants again in the last two days. I'm wiped out. Nosoccermom, thank you for looking for so many blue lights. I've photoshopped them in, and for a variety of reasons none of them are any more right, especially in light of the other decor. I actually really like the first one you posted, but it's too small and probably not the right style for the dragonfly anyway. Ineffable space, if the only consideration were the dragonfly lamps what you posted might be absolutely perfect, but since the dragonfly is the cuckoo in the nest, I'm not certain that adding another cuckoo is the right thing to do. Holly-Kay, I've loved those plantation pineapple lights for so long. They were a given before we even spec'd out a single thing. Glad to know you like them. Akshars, Busybee3 and Annie, I'm keeping the dragonfly lamp for the time being. I like it and it was made just for me. My specific lamp is still in storage, and I haven't seen it for 4 years. When we empty the boxes from storage we'll have the builders hang it, and maybe it'll just have to be one of those things that are quirky to a house that make it a home and not something that a pro decorator has totally coordinated. At the moment, after all this exercise, I'm still thinking that the pendants that I originally posted here repeat the lines in the cabinet mullions and fit the space well, and I really have grown to like them a lot. I'm going to keep looking for something close to what Kellie posted in a regular, not mini, pendant. Worst scenario is that I put in a light over the table in the bkfast room that doesn't coordinate too well with the other elements in the room - that cuckoo in the nest. Worse things have happened. Again, I really appreciate all the input. Makes me really consider the choices. I'm almost afraid to post about the master bedroom selections - I suspect they'd be outta here in a heartbeat! (It's because I'm already second guessing those the most)

Pat, the only adjustments I've made over the years is switching to safflower seed for a few summer months when the sparrow fledglings out number the dandelions. Otherwise, I use a good blend, very light on millet, for the rest of the year and buy suet by the case in the fall when it goes on sale at Agway. I have just the one seed feeder, one suet cage and one hummer feeder. What I did do was plant extensively with native plants that attract everybody. Plus, we live in a somewhat wooded area. Feeding birds is all about me. They will continue on long after I'm gone. They are my entertainment as I photograph them mostly through my office windows. What I have learned even more so from observing them is that NONE of this is my design. Mother Nature never consulted Jane and we all know she doesn't give a tinker's dam what I think. So whoever, whatever, comes because I put food out, is all on me. If a hawk steals a mourning dove in my yard, I feel bad for the dove, good for the hawk. He will live another day. Many hawks do not reach maturity due to starvation. I've learned that birds do not have the greed gene. They take what they can eat, store what they can if that is their habit - like BC Chickadees - but nothing goes to waste. When the birds fool around on the feeder and seed goes to the ground, the chipmunks, et al, eat well. I have a wonderful neighbor who buys only shelled sunflower seeds, pricey stuff, and uses a feeder that is weight balanced to exclude blue jays, grackles and all the guys she doesn't want to feed. She likes little birds. She won't even look up when I say, "Oh, look! A red tail hawk!". She can't stand hawks. But she is a great, kind woman who gives and gives of herself - just not to big birds.But she too feeds all year long and is concerned when her regulars disappear. Long answer here, but yes, I keep the same feeders year round filled and have a ton of birds that are happy and fight among themselves - just the way Mother Nature designed it. Any bird here is okay by me. Pat, I say do what makes you feel good in your birding area because, to me, it's all about us watching them; not them depending on us. (I know that is a debatable subject in the current ranks of ornithology, but that's not where I am.) Life is easier if I don't hate anything. I have to work on the sn*ke thing, lol, that's fear. Maybe a trip to New Hampshire would help. :) Birds pay me back ten fold just for being themselves. This little guy is worth all the sugar I can give him: Link to Buddy being Buddy - - - Buddy Jane

I feel as if I'm reading about the Emperor's New House, and New Furniture. I can't see any of the OP's pictures in this thread. And I'm still puzzling out why someone who describes herself as "confident in my likes and wants and the odd one out. I'm the one that *doesn't* follow the crowds, I have no problems with authority but I tend to break the unwritten rules. Who wrote them anyway - because it wasn't me!" is on an advice forum, asking for advice she mostly doesn't like and doesn't seem at all keen to accept. I can see the pictures in the first ideabook, and to me they look overwrought, sort of Joan Collins's idea of a "big old 'olden days' country house". While my own preference is the English country interiors of Ros Byam Shaw, Robert Kime, Ben Pentreath, Penny Morrison, Jane Ormsby Gore, Amanda Brooks (yes, I know she's American but she's adapted well lol), I would take a look through the Instagrams (and websites/blogs) of HillhouseVintage, Serena Fresson, Nina Campbell and (her daughter) Rita Konig, Gloria Gonzalez (and her blog here). Rita Konig offers one-day design workshops in the UK, which might be helpful, http://ritakonig.com/products/workshops/ And Nina Campbell has a new book out shortly, "Elegance & Ease" which might be worth a look for some ideas, http://littleaugury.blogspot.com/2018/09/elegance-ease-nina-campbell.html As for picking a name out of the air to use instead of HU-338309200, it's not that a name gives any of us a false sense of belonging, but it goes far in helping us to distinguish you from the recent army of HU-4983892020, HU-9653434245, HU-338309199, etc. Think of it as a little kindness to the other forum members, who find something like "Liz" or "fairygodmother" or "RedRose" easier to deal with than a long string of randomly-generated numbers.