Marcy--I didn't see you there! Wow, you read this whole thing and didn't pass out from confusion or boredom?! I didn't think about the hair issue. DS is 5 and should always have short hair. DD is only 18 months old. It's hard to think of them as big people with different features. Maybe that one-time hair swing into the prep sink behind will be enough of a deterrent. ;) And the cooktop in the photo of that kitchen would scare me regardless even if there wasn't a bench there as the counterspace around it is minimal at best. I do love the cushion fabric! Sherriz--I meant to thank you for showing me your gorgeous kitchen again. I love your space! The B.A., the floors, the ceilings, the banquette, the cabs, everything. Your photo actually helped convince me that white island cabs were the way to go for me in my house. If I had a kitchen your size, I would have done a dark island.

Ill start near the beginning (minus the cutting out of pattern pieces, although that in itself was an ordeal since I realized as I went along that I hadn't cut out all the pieces required...). I hate to bore the experienced sewers, but there may be people out there learning, like me. : ) I had no idea that I was going to have to hand-sew anything. lol. Oh, how naïve. I mean, when looking at the pattern in the store, how did I figure those spools of thread were going to magically 'get the thread on them? So imagine my surprise when the pattern instructions told me to baste. You want me to what? The only thing Ive ever basted before was a turkey. Then I had to trace the cat out on the fabric. That was do-able. Then I put the appliqué cut-out onto the fabric and ironed it on (Ill spare you the ironing part). (The cat in the photo below was not in its correct place yet, by the way.) I peeled off the paper the next day, and presto it looked like a cat! Wow. Then, I applied the things that went onto the cat. I actually enjoyed the whole process of applique, and look forward to doing it again. I found out I have an applique stitch on my machine, so I used that around the cat and the spools. I used straight stitch on the nose and stripes. Then oh then, I had to put the embroidery thread onto the spools. I went to bed that night with only one spool finished, and I woke up at 3 am and couldnt sleep, so I did the other two in bed. Later on, I would find that the threads are very delicate and would have to repair two of the spools. I just tied any broken threads into knots near the surface of the spools, and you cant really tell. I doubt they would survive the washing machine. I also did the whiskers that was enjoyable (really)! And the buttons. I have at least 500 buttons now bought two bags-o-buttons. But, I digress. Then came time to add the back of the cover. The cat seems to be looking up at it wondering, wussup? Then came the piping. I know someone had mentioned using fabric cut on the bias, but I missed it the first time since I was so confused about everything. I followed the pattern instructions (and the pattern piece) and it didnt mention anything about cutting on the bias. So, I didnt. When I googled sewing in piping, it mentioned it there, too. So, by now I was concerned the piping wouldnt work correctly. I had minimal problems making the piping I used the zipper foot because my selection of feet is minimal. It did the job, though although not perfect. I figured the unevenness of my stitching would be hidden in the end any way (and it was/is). But, it was sewing in the piping onto the sides, front and back that gave me a huge headache. I tried the zipper foot it wouldnt work. The piping was almost ½", and it was just too big for the zipper foot to handle. Mainly, I couldnt get the stitches close enough to the piping, so it just didnt work. I ripped it out at least 4 or 5 times before I gave up and decided to HAND SEW (gasp!) the piping in on both sides of the cover, and then I hand-sewed the sides to the front and back. Oh the inhumanity. My hand-sewing is nothing to write home about, believe me, but you cant really tell from the outside. And, I was so delirious by the time I got the sides attached, that I ended up cutting some of the piping TOO SHORT because I read the diagram incorrectly (or the diagram was confusing). I came up with a fix by cutting out small pieces of matching piping fabric, and patching up two of the ends. You can see where I added on some piping fabric: By this time, after appliquéing, sewing teensy threads onto spools, sewing in piping; making the liner was a day at the beach. That went smoothly and without incident. Thanks to the internet, I was able to figure out how to get the lining into the cover. I admit, it took me a few minutes to understand how putting the cover *into* the lining will eventually lead to the lining being inside the cover. *confused for minute or two* Then after I got the lining in, I figured, ah, now all I have to do is sew the bottom, and Im finished!. Uh, no. I had to slip stitch. : / Slip stitch? What is that? And why cant I just skip that part? But, I knew better. For some reason they wanted me to slip stitch, so I did. More hand-sewing. That turned out ok, though. Then I finally sewed the topstitching on the bottom of the outside. There were a few tense moments when I doubted my foot could get over the piping humps, but with a little pushing and pulling, and flattening, I got it done. And on my sewing machine. Now I'm going to make another one. : )

Satine - Thanks so much for your thoughts. I'm happy you had a chance to talk to your friends. That's a great big hug for sure. Just be sure that the male friend won't try to burn the candle at both ends - if you know what I mean. Also, make sure you don't get sucked into that as well. Go ahead and enjoy the new relationships though - sound like loads of fun still to be had. RE my daughter - she was a passenger (in my car!!!!!, believe it or not, but I'm not going there!!!). The idiot driving wasn't familiar with the narrow back roads in D'wood and I think tried to pass someone on a 2-lane road that started winding. When he did that, he probably saw an on-coming car and slammed on the breaks. My car didn't have anti-lock breaks, and of course they locked up, and the car veered right into a HUGE tree, on the edge of the road. That tree no longer stands - they cut it down because there were several accidents there within a few weeks of each other(even 2 days later) and decided to widen the road - DUH! Even though the car veered right, and up an embankment, the wheels were tured as though the car was trying to go straight, on the road. OK, that's the accident part - as most people believe, including me. Witnesses pretty much said the same thing, but it was dark and basically, in the woods, so you never know. They were about a mile from the house. The first responders were about a half-mile away, and a friend who knows the fire station, gave us a copy of the report (which we aren't allowed to have, BTW), so I know they were there pretty quickly. The report says w/i 4 minutes of the call, and the call was right away. They were taken by land to different hospitals because his injury was supposedly worse than Cheryl's. He has a ruptured pelvis; Cheryl, for the moment only had dislocated shoulder and leg fracture. He also was on suicide watch (friend was nurse at "his" hospital). Since Cheryl was 18, they could do stuff w/o my permission (thank goodness because again, I was in MB). She did call my sister, who went to the hospital. They joked about who was going to be the one to tell me about my car (almost paid off) being totaled - actually blown up!! My sister was an almost RN and knew some stuff when they put in a catheter and the fluid was a very slight pink. That's when they realized she had internal injuries - a nicked aorta!! They did an angiogram and then medi-flighted her to a major trauma center in DC. My sister saw the chopper land, but it was about 5-6 hours before she saw them take her into surgery - YIKES! No one said anything to my sister. I happened to call "home" to check on things and a friend told me about the accident. I knew Cheryl was a good driver and wasn't worried. BUT, why was my sister's friend answering her phone - he never does. Also, he told me to catch a flight home. Another friend paid for my plane ticket home and I went directly to the hospital. When I got there, they were wheeling her into an elevator for the 2nd surgery, and the Dr. in charge just looked at me, and shook his head - basically saying there was no hope. Good news after the 2nd surgery - they even set the fracture this time. After about a day, some friends and I were looking at her - still wouldn't wake up, and noticed her face began to change. Basically she went from OK looking except from a scratch over her eye, to a pie-faced look. To me, that meant she probably wouldn't be OK even if she survived. The next day we were called to the hospital early in the AM (DD's guidance counselor's boyfriend was a nurse at the hospital and would tell her all the details they wouldn't / couldn't tell us, which she relayed to us). When we got there they told us that she was brain-dead (sorry, don't mean to be gorry). We had to decide to turn off the machines. We told them to wait until visiting hours were over since a lot of her classmates were on the way. At 8:00 that night they shut everything down and she "went" about 45 min. later. The nurse told me that we would know if we made the right decision if that happened. Still, ya kinda never get over not knowing if you did. But, that's my long story about my DD, the bicentenneial baby - 10 lbs, born on the first holiday of '76, and died on Memorial Day - 18 yrs later. Hopefully everyone understands the detail here. I'm OK with it - believe me. We all just question her care when they transferred her. The Dr. at the 1st hospital was SHOCKED that she didn't pull through. He told me that if he had any idea that things would have ended this way, he would have done the surgery there. He just didn't want anything to happen and they not have the truama experience to handle it. The 2nd hospital handles lots of gunshot traumas and he thougth they would beter equipped if anything went wrong. Ya never know. It was good she lived long enough for us to see her alive. Dr. said only 10% with that injury make it to the hospital; only 1% make it after that. I just believe in Malichi 3:17 - she is now a jewel in God's crown (the gathering of the jewels). The driver - he has a permanent injury/limp. I met someone three years after the accident that knows him well. She said he was still sufering from Cheryl's death. That did give me some closure because we never knew him - won't go into that either! BUT, DD was a good kid, and unfortunately, things happen. He had an alchohol problem but was very different and respectable when he wasn't drinkng. So... One thing - WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS! She wasn't, although we had JUST had that conversation the day before. Dr. said DD's injury was typical in accidens w/o seat belts - blunt force trauma. Enough of me - but there is a message for everyone here. Have faith, and you can get through anything!! I'm not Bible-toting, but know that without that faith, I coulnd't have gotten through it - even now. Thanks for listening! Wishing all of you well - sunny side up :)

I have written off the ancestry matches. My matches at GEDMatch answer me AND they have my family names in their tree!! BO-NUS! All I have to do is compare the amount of DNA we share and where and I have a pretty good idea if they need to be contacted. I've had a couple contact me, too! At ancestry people don't answer, have private trees, have trees with less than 10 people in them, or no tree at all. I guess the ancestry advertisement of "just enter your parent's names and we'll produce your family tree" worked. If I'm really serious about family trees at ancestry I will do the search from the person page and choose family trees. I've had a much higher success rate doing that than following the match hints. I'd like to see some pictures, too. Someone must have some. On another note, there is an "aunt" who is probably dead by now who is rumored to have 13 boxes of genealogy stuff she inherited from her mother and aunts. She wouldn't share with anyone. I call her insulting names under my breath. I bet she's dead and I bet it all went in the dumpster since she didn't have any kids.