I went back to the bad hair color thread just now- and there she was in her red ash glory. I hadn't read most of the posts before I added mine...dang, I usuallly read more carefully. OK, mystery solved. As you were!

I am toying with an antique train car (you know those old private cars they did at the turn of the century) for DS' room. It has to be somewhat historically reasonable (we now have a responsability to the hosue I'm pressured with) so no monkey rooms. McMamn....we'll be keeping the lake house. DH will be traveling back and forth for work and we'll plan on spending our summers in alaska. You know, it's funny how you reflect. I'm down to my last few days for a while here at the lake house and I'm sad. I am leaving my network, my "people" as few as they are since DS has been ill...and I'm actuallty very sad and incredibly nervous about the whole endeavor. I am of course excited, how could you not be, about the new place, but there is this underlying fear.....I expect it's going to be a bit of a lonely life for a while when DS and I move in. We know no one (but mom who we adore) so he has no friends and the few who have stuck with me here since DS has been born are special. I will miss them more than I can possibly say. So I'll throw my life into the new place and hope to find my dear darling son some new friends. He's BEYOND excited about moving near grandma. And honestly, I am too :) (Don't tell...I'm far too old and far too cool to say I miss my mommy) heh heh Just two sleeps away. We have a dinner party tomorrow (following tonights) for DS for his birthday. Then monday then we are off to our new adventure. Can you imange some dork who would actully worry about moving into that lovely home???????? I'm the dork LOL Sue and Kelly...drive fast...I'm getting nervous and I need the support!

Oh I'm sorry dear...I will have to go re-read that post and make sure I didn't say it right...that was a house we were considering (made an offer even and that lovely butlers pantry was part of the reason why) but we didn't end up getting it (it's called French House in Duluth Minnesota). So I can't tell you much about the china, except to say that the elderly woman who lived there said everything was her parents (they built the home in 1914 so perhaps that might date it a bit????) When we build our butlers pantry in the victorian we did buy we'll be using that butlers pantry as a guide....so maybe I should get the china too LOL (she had many lovely things from her family...all gathering dust sadly) :o(

Sorry for the slow reply. I just got the internet set up in the new house and am trying to catch up :) It seems to only work in the back of the house LOL But that's another problem for another thread. Cheri answered my question for me though. I highly recommend Phoenician arts on Ebay. Shipping, price, service, it was all wonderful. We actually have two of their pieces (and another in storage). The tile behind the stove (just the mosaic, the black tile was framed for us by our tile guy) and our "carpet" in the entry: Thank you for the compliment :) We do love the mosaics. I have to be honest....they're some of the cheapest and yet highest impact items we put in the house. They were both under a couple of hundred dollars total (with shipping). That goes to show that you don't have to sell the ranch to make a cool impact statement in decor (unlike so many decor mags we see that have multi thousand dollar murals on display). I am a huge believer in the joy of ebay LOL