Good point highaltitude, the question couldn't be answered from the information given. Al seems to have 'covered' it well with his answer though :)

My mother was not much of a cook, but she did prepare meals for us most of the time. She used mostly frozen veggies, rarely canned nor fresh. We were only allowed one "starch" per meal, and that is probably her biggest influence on me. When I met my DH and went to eat at his parent's house for the first time, I was amazed at the spread his mother put on. She was a good old fashioned country cook. DH's dad always had a garden, so veggies were either fresh, or more often, home canned. She'd serve potatoes, corn, casseroles, bread, you name it, it was on the table. And there was always desert, too. She loved to bake, but hated sweets, so everyone else got to eat her cakes and cookies. She never did anything fancy, and her icing was that awful old fashioned stuff made out of Crisco and powdered sugar, but her cobbler and pies were wonderful. She taught her 3 boys and her brother to cook. Her brother became a chef, and one of DH's brother's was a cook in the reserves. He was in the first gulf war as a cook for the troops. My mother, on the other hand, never baked. If I wanted homemade cookies or cakes, I had to make them myself, so I did. Since I've grown up, I've played off and on at cooking for fun as opposed to just cooking to get something on the table. Lately I've been in one of the cooking for fun phases. Speaking of home made cookies, I used to make home made cookies for my kids when they were little all the time. We almost never got store bought, partly because I liked home made better, partly because it was a fun activity for the kids, and mainly because home made's cheaper and I know what goes into them. Anyway, my kids would occasionally beg me for store bought cookies rather than home made. They wanted what the other kids got - store bought. Thanks for sharing, y'all. Sally

Looking at RR's bottle tree, loving it and thinking that perhaps it's all in the artistic talent and eye of the maker.....and of course placement and lack of resin gnomes and frogs that make is pretty. When he retired, my uncle started "making things" He had seen a wind chime made from various cut off bottles, with a hole drilled and carefully arranged so they all didn't clang together at once. So he took to glomming on to every empty bottle he could find, cutting it and stringing it up and giving it away. His next project was wind chimes made from forks and spoons strung on a bent coat hanger. They clanked in a breeze. Then there was another man who took up rug hooking when he retired. He bought kits and tied knots like mad. Their house was covered with furry rugs, hanging on benches, on the back of the sofa, on floors and piled in a corner. Another person took up needle point and in 5 or 6 years all available space was covered with needle point renditions of someone else's art. We had Pinky, Blue Boy, The Mona Lisa and even Van Gogh's sunflowers. A beautiful home was turned into a display of kitsch....but it kept them off the streets! LOL! I have seen some very lovely "art" made from broken pottery....but I have also seen some stuff that is pretty much broken dishes glued to something. The line between art and craft is fine.....and the line between craft and junk perhaps even finer....and some don't seem to see it. As an example, I made a trip to New York several years ago to see Christo's Gates. I found it moving, exilerating and endlessly fascinating. I posted on another forum what I had done and how wonderful I thought it was.....and was booed and hooted at ridiculed for bothering to view something quite as silly as that. Art doesn't need the approval of others to be "art". Van Gogh died penniless with a stash of things like whirling suns and swirling clouds and flowers beneath his bed. Pollock also died broke. Frieda Kahlo's work never sold until after her death when Madonna started collecting. I have seen several gardens that were full of "repurposed" items, the toilet planter, the shoe planter, the frog under the hosta and the elf sitting on a rock. Some were lovely and charming, while a few others were a collection of junk. What makes the difference? I guess it's the skill of the person putting it all together. Scuse the ramble, I guess it always boils down to "To each his own" or "chacon a son gout", but I never understand why someone feels the need to defend their own taste, or feel insulted if someone else doesn't like what you like. Why would anyone feel threatened because I don't like plastic gnomes in my yard, nor Robert Kincade (however he spells his name) on my walls nor canned soup in my casseroles? It's your house, do what you like. Linda C

Gray, I am interested in your interpretation to my interpretation of the thread which pertains to what Joanie said above. Let me get this straight, you want my opinion on your and Joanie's belief that rich braggarts here are given a free pass and fawned over and regular folks (non-rich people) are subject to being insulted. I believe we "fawn over" (not sure that's the best phrase but I will go with it) people with good taste, clever ideas and/or strong decorating abilities. Mythreedogs is clever and has a great eye and she gets rave reviews every time she posts a photo. Similarly Palimsest, Funcolors, Magnaverde, Les917 and ChiJim (to name a few) are revered for what they bring to this forum and how they help us all learn to be better at this craft. I don't know whether any of these people are moneyed or not. It's their ability that we admire and "fawn over." I fawn over a couple of the guys on the Paint forum too - I have learned so much from them. Braggarts with big fancy houses who post photos: I may be guilty of fawning over a picture of someone's beautiful house or kitchen - not fawning over the poster, fawning over the beautiful thing. And that brings me to where I disagree with you on the infamous toilet thread - I see a distinction between the poster and the issue: I don't care how funny the pictures are in the thread, you all were making a joke out of my topic. Yes, we were making a joke out of your the topic. It wasn't about you. It was about the subject of decorating around a toilet. YOU were not being tarred and feathered. You didn't even post a photo on that thread. And then the over-the-top ridiculous pictures from catalogs of dressed up toilets had us all rolling in the aisles. I guess it comes down to how we view ourselves. Some people deeply personalize their ideas - if you don't like my idea, you don't like me. Other people make a distinction between the person and the idea - the person can be good, but their ideas can be flawed. In your defense, however, I will say this. As a first time poster, I'm sure the responses caught you by surprise and were unexpected. But really, girl, you have been around here long enough to know we like you and those responses had nothing to do with you.