I've missed seeing you and your beautiful tablescapes (& food!) around here lately, Kathleen. Those coffee cakes look and sound delicious! I've copied the recipe to make the cherry one myself. Coming from Michigan, I'm a huge cherry lover. IMO, the cherries popping out may have been an accident, but they make the end product look absolutely luscious! Your table for two looks lovely and I'm ~again~ lusting after those gorgeous lavender dishes. Lynn

As I matter of fact I do wear jewelry differently at my 2 homes! I can't stand cold metal touching me so I don't wear necklaces in the winter (from Nov to about March) at my regular home. And I wear one particular pair of earring almost all winter because they dangle but not long enough to touch my skin. Some of the longer ones end up touching my neck from my scarves & bulky coat so I avoid those. It's crazy but cold metal just sends a chill right through me and makes me feel colder. Since it's warmer in HHI, I do wear necklaces & earrings and even bracelets. I usually bring a few down with me so that I can have some variety. One necklace at a time, if it's bold than the earrings are smaller. One bracelet at a time and it depends on my sleeve length. In both places, I occasionally wear rings when I remember them. Your comments about gold & blue reminds me that I have an 18k gold ring with a lapis lazuli stone. I should dig that out and start wearing it again.

Windows on Washington - re photos: I don't know that my "before and after" photos will be that dramatic. I've ordered the identical style door in the identical color. Where the current door is awful doesn't really show up in photos. The door is uninsulated, and thin-gauge, and the sidelites are single-pane. The frame looks fine, but if you press your finger on it (especially at the bottom), it is either spongey in wet weather, or crumbly and brittle in dry weather. I could post a pic of the carpenter ant sawdust (which I learned is called "frass") along the bottom of the sidelites--but that would be gross. I have been told that Home Guard's "Timberframe" composite option is not appealing to carpenter ants. I also plan to spray Delta Dust all around while the opening is open. I will post just the "after" photos when it's installed.

Wow, here I am almost 8 months later and there is very little progress toward our bathroom! No word at all from Jim, the contractor. I wonder if he is still doing the commercial job or if he even wants our work. Plus, Toby, our dog, is even older now - 16 - and on prednisone, so he is peeing a lot. He has doggy dementia, too. He is not terribly confused, not enough to put him down, but there is no way I want new, clean grout on that floor. The bathroom is on hold until he decides to take a trip over the rainbow bridge. I have just contracted to replace the last four windows in the house. The aluminum sliders will be gone in 6 weeks or less! We are getting an awning window for the bathroom with a blind in the glass that can be raised and lowered. It is our sunniest room, and light from that window lights up the whole end of the hallway. I wanted the option to raise the blinds up. The three bedrooms are getting double casement windows with blinds in the glass. Hey - I don't clean, so the blinds are a major, major plus for us! Now I have to get windowsills for all three bedrooms. And for the bathroom, the need for a windowsill is forcing me to decide on the counter top for the vanity. It seems to me that they should be the same material. Tomorrow I am going to try to find the Cambria Quartz source for the area. I want the place where I can get a leftover piece of someone else's slab, since I need such a small piece. My vanity is only 18" x 46". I am hoping for the color called Parys. [houzz=https://www.houzz.com/photos/cambria-countertop-2010-traditional-kitchen-phvw-vp~2704735] Since I still have not chosen the color for the wall tiles in the bathroom, the color for the vanity top is going to determine what direction we go, since it is the next critical decision that I have to make. I like Parys because it is dark and will contrast with the white sink. It will also contrast with all the different wall tiles I have considered. I especially love the glowing blue bits in it. It reminds me of my favorite stone I use when making jewelry, Labradorite! It has that chatoyancy, that glow when it catches the light just right. Opal also does that. Parys just glows in any light. Other things I have made progress on have to do with the vanity. I have sanded it and have decided to replace the original drawer pulls. No way will we enjoy finding the little bail that recedes into a groove on those babies. I am going to fill the holes and then drill one center hole and use a glass knob with chrome in the center. I had already purchased three of them to use on the new cupboards that I was adding into the wall across from the vanity. I have also removed the metal floor protectors on the bottom of the 8 vanity legs and discovered that the small feet that can be leveled that I purchased will fit into the ends of the legs. Holes have to be drilled for them. Because the floor will be made waterproof, and sloped toward a drain, if I did not put levelers into the feet of the vanity, the whole thing would be unlevel and the sink would not drain properly. A and C below make up my leg levelers. Yes, I do try to think of everything. When you have THREE YEARS to do nothing but plan, you do a lot of planning! I have also purchased the shower plumbing - the rainhead, the shower temperature balancing valve, and three volume controls, one for the rain head, one for the shower head, and one for the hand-held, and the controls will each have those labels on them! I already had the shower head. I still have to decide on the hand-held system. I also purchased a really cute hand towel holder. I don't like the rings because the towel gets bunched and does not dry well. This one is from Ginger and it has two bars that move on a swivel, independently of each other. The bars are 12 inches long and the holder holds them a good 2" away from the wall. Plus, since they swivel the whole way around, if one is particularly wet, you can pull it away from the wall and it will hang perpendicular to the wall as you wait until it is dry. In this picture, they show the arms out away from the wall. Normally, they will hang closer to the wall that the thing is mounted on, I would think. For instance, I plan to hang it on the wall to the side of the vanity. The arms would be folded up close to the wall most of the time. I suppose you could install it on the wall next to the medicine cabinet and have the towels hang over the vanity area, if you liked.