What a wonderful price you paid for Bartzella! You will love its HUGE yellow flower in a year or two when it is mature enough to bloom. Here in my yard I have 75 varieties of peonies, of which the majority of them were purchased in the years 2007 thru 2010....so many of them still need to mature enough to bloom for their first time yet. These are my ITOH peonies...I have a dozen varieties now. Bartzella Copper Kettle Cora Louise Going Bananas Julia Rose Morning Lilac Pastel Splendor Singing in the Rain Smith Family Yellow Visions of Sugar Plums Yankee Doodle Dandy Yellow Doodle Dandy A few of my ITOHs had their first flower last summer. Wow, the colors were great! I also have some other peonies that are not simply a bomb. These are cactus styled peonies hybridized by Klemn at his Songsparrow nursery. They are really different peonies!!!! Some of their names are Alley Cat, Bric a Brac, Cactus Jack, Daisy Coronet and Scatterbrain Pink. Just google these names...as only one of them bloomed last summer. I didn't get a good picture of it and so, cannot show you here in this post what it looked like. I love peonies and have them planted, usually in the center of flowerbeds. Anything and everything is planted around them...all sorts of perennials. Once they finished flowerering, I have a nice green round shrub-looking plant in the center. As I am usually out taking pictures in my yard each morning, it is not that hard, yet (the majority of them are still immature) to keep up with the deadheading of all the peonies. Brenda

I LOVE my slow cooker! It's an old Rival, probably from the eighties, given the floral motif in country blue. It has a heavy, ribbed, earthenware insert that holds the heat well, and clean-up is SO easy, no matter what has been in it or for how long (don't need those new inserts!). It just has the two settings, low and high, and has a plastic lid. I can't even remember where I got it. I think maybe my mom found it in a thrift shop, and I think she gave it to me because she thought it was too big just for her. Anyway, I work long hours, and having a hot cooked meal waiting for me when I get home is a godsend. (Has anyone read Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable, Miracle? Her family has named their crock pot, "Betty Crocker," because she stays home and cooks all day for them! Tee hee.) One of my favorite things to make in it are pork roasts (either with teriyaki and pineapple for an Asian flair or with applesauce and onions for a Germanic twist--always browned on the stove first before adding to the crock pot). But recently, I made the BEST chuck roast ever--a Polish recipe with chopped dill pickles in it! Sounds weird, but it was HEAVENLY! Here's a link to the recipe and a picture (from my cooking blog): http://lindseysluscious.blogspot.com/2008/08/big-o.html And finally, the very best thing I make in my crock pot is a pasta sauce with braised short ribs that must be tasted to be believed! It is just FAN-tastic! Here's the link to that one: http://lindseysluscious.blogspot.com/2006/10/short-ribs-long-on-flavor.html I think slow cookers are going to become sexy again. ;-) Enjoy yours--Gina

just had my 33" Blanco sink installed this week and love the size (bigger than my old 29" sink but not cavernous like a 36" would have been) -- i also got the grid which i think is a good idea for protection as well as raising the base slightly if you are tall. I bought it at a great price and spoke to a couple different sales reps -- both seemed to think it is fine quality..there def is a snob factor if you buy a sink with a higher profile brand for those who want to spend more for it. Blanco isn't hollow like some cheaper fireclay sinks. Recent consumer reports gave fireclay overall good ratings for durability but almost no sink fared well if you drop a heavy object on it from a foot above...fingers crossed cause i lurrrrv it!

I hope this helps you. I bought a Belle Foret faucet, it was a piece of crap. The whole neck of the faucet wobbled back and forth inside the base part of the faucet. I sent it back and got a replacement, same exact thing happened. Both faucets leaked and dripped. I replaced with a delta. I know a sink is not a faucet but I just wanted to comment on the brand its self. I did do some research and found out Belle Foret is made by Home Depot, that doesn't make it good or bad, but just a bit of info I thought I would share.