I haven't worn a foundation in at least five years & don't miss it. As I've aged ('m 70) I seem to want less 'heaviness' or 'weight' on my skin. (I also don't miss having to put it on.) However, I have discovered a product this past year that I'm really pleased with: Olay Definity Color Recapture. It's a lightly tinted sheer moisturizer, light in texture & not sparkley. It makes my skin looks lighter & almost dewy. I find it at Target, Rite-Aid, CVS, etc. You could check products at these stores; they carry Maybelline, Olay, Neutrogena, L'Oreal, Max Factor & other lines that don't necessarily cater to the under-50 crowd. I use a powder blush & want to share a hint I read years ago. Instead of using a separate eye shadow (which may no longer look good at upper ages), stroke on powder blush under the brow above the eyelid. Also use it on the tip of the chin to add definition to the face. I'm echoing moonshadow - you are a good daughter. When we get so old, we age in ways we don't expect & it's pretty discouraging & depressing. We think & feel the same inside as we did years ago, but there's this ugly person on the outside.

Thanks, Mysterymachine. I think that after living with the gray light kitchen the black on the counters just hit me hard. I agree about the cherry. It would have to be very simple...like cat mom's. Please continue to follow me with this. The support from the people on this forum, and the support of the people on the pool forum as I built my pool has helped so much to get me through the tough stuff during both projects. DH tries, but truly doesn't care as much as I do! I'm glad your seams are nice. When mine was lighter is was the first thing that caught my eye when I walked into the room. As I said, my back seam is perfect. I wish that I could have switched them! Minac, did you see? I do have apples up above my counters in a silver bowl. They were on sale at Target! My things on top are not my final choice, just stuff I picked up and put up there to make my kitchen look more finished for Christmas company. LOL. And yes, I guess I was leaning towards the colors in my dining room set. The chairs are cherry with a black leather seat. The table is cherry, the painted glass, and brushed silver. I thought that using that color glass would look great and bring my counter into the year 2008. If I got new door and drawers, I would go with the longer hardware too. I've included a link to my set (I got a much better deal than that!) but mine is cherry and black. It's the coolest table ever! It pulls out to a very big table for large gatherings, but pushes in to smaller for a more intimate dinner. I waited 20 years to get what I wanted! Glasskote contacted me today, and asked for my measurements for a bid. I'll let you know how it goes. I also ordered a sample from 3M. Can anyone recommend a company that would make replacement doors similiar to Cat Mom's for my cabinet guy to buy? The closest he had was a slab door in pear. Here is a link that might be useful: Dining Set

I do faceting of gems and the standard cleaning solution I use is rubbing alcohol. Buy as high a proof as you can get (200 proof is 100% alcohol). The usual strength available at drug stores is 70% alcohol. When your faceted gem becomes dull due to gunk on the back side of the stone (pavillion), clean the stone with rubbing alcohol. If there are no sensitive adhesives on the piece, the entire piece can be immersed. A q-tip is handy for getting into crevices on the backside of the setting. A good cleaning can revive the brightness of the stone provided it is not scracthed and dulled. Much of the light return is a function of the pavillion; It behaves as a multifaced mirror. Light leak increases through this 'mirror' when it becomes dirty. The pavillion is as important, if not more so, than the crown for brilliance.

My prinicipal, first story, rooms are 8'9" high. My skirting boards are roughly twice the height as the width of the window and door casings in each room. In the main reception rooms the skirting boards are a hair under 12 inches tall. On the second floor, the same relationship between door casing and skirting prevails and they just under 9 inches high. Stylistically, the profiles of the casings and the top edges of the skirting board are identical in an individual room, though vary somewhat from room to room downstairs. The second floor details are simpler than downstairs, and all the same in all but the most humble of rooms (storerooms, really). Skirting board of this height in rooms of nice but not overly high by modern, or Southern, or two-story foyer-type house standards may seem like too much of a good thing. But I find that they lend a nice visual "weight" to the lower walls and having them match the door casing patterns makes for a visual unity and calmness. The larger rooms always had 12" high wall paper border above a picture hanging rail, but no formal cornice. The trim is original to 1849/1850 when the house was built. The house style is a late-period, vernacular version of Greek Revival farmhouse built (and paid for) by a mature and prosperous couple to house their 40-ish bachelor son and his new, and quite young, bride. I suspect that the somewhat anachronistic. and the by-then a bit passe, style of this new house in '49-50 stems from the fact that it was chosen and erected by older folks in their taste, even if the bride who was to live there was much younger (almost young enough to be their granddaughter.) I have often wondered if she chafed at having her house designed, and furnished, for her in such an old-fashioned style. Perhaps she was more mature than I was at her age, and perceptive, too, to the fact 150 years later these style differences would smooth out. Maybe a hundred years from now people will aspire to a mixed-up fin de siecle retro look of avocado appliances, black granite, with white subway tile and frameless shaker cabs. A combination of details that today would drive most of us into a renovating frenzy, or at least to the appliance store!