I agree a zillion times on the heat mats! I have 12 of them and need more of them. I do like the idea of using a heating blanket, never thought of that, it would be perfect size for starting flats of Caladiums this year, as last year I didnt have enough heat mats for them and it took forever for them to sprout. Lights are also vital for me, I have way way way too many of them in our home, occupying 4 different "grow rooms". Other gizmos, I use a large turkey baster for watering individual plants. The baster seems to let out just the right flow of water, as the watering cans seem to spill water into individual plants that dont need watered. This can be time consuming, but necessary until flats are all drying out at the same time. I bottom water all seedlings until they have been transplanted. I also use, well it isnt a gadget but it is a technique really, a gallon water jug where I mix my fertilizer at HALF STRENGTH with water, and I will use equal portions of this (as needed) with WARM water, which gives me a 1/4 strenght fertilizer for all seedlings/plants that get watered. As you know, you should never water with cold water, but if you mix a batch of fertilizer and then dont need to use it all right away (say, a gallon amount), it gets cold in its container. So, I allow the gallon jug to get cold and then just mix with warm water, whatever amount I think I may need. I just use a second water jug and mix equal parts. No fertilizer waste! I also use valve action markers in different colors that I use to right on my pots, so I know what is in them. I dont actually right out the whole name, such as Petunia 'Tidal Wave Silver', but I will simply write a small TWS on the pot, so I know what it is without using tags, because tags can (and do!) fall out. In the off season, after I scrub my pots, I use a black valve action permanant marker and mark over these labels so that the next season they are ready to go. I also have jillions of pie plates, muffin tins, and pot pie tins which I use for sowing seeds. These are the perfect depth for planting almost all seeds. Though, I am now beginning to use more commercial plug trays, I still use lots of the muffin tins for planting up to 25 seeds. I also use cut up sections of plug trays for "jimmying" up the different containers to reach the light. For instance, right now I have several containers with impatiens seedlings and several with petunia seedlings, which are about an inch difference in height. I jimmy up the petunia seedlings in the flat so that they are the same height as the Impatiens, and all plants are the same distance from the lights. My plants almost touch the lights! I also use little tiny baby toothbrushes for scrubbing plug trays and bottle brushes for cell packs and pots. My husband designed some "free standing" grow light racks for me for when my plants have outgrown the shelves. We drape several chains over a table and hang the lights under the table, and I can keep growing on my plants when they are quite tall. I can raise the lights up to two feet if I wanted to! Most plants dont get that tall though before getting hardened off, but the height is nice for getting containers going early. Anyone can build this, just get a good old sturdy table. I also do the wet toothpick trick! Works great for "smashing" pellets also. I like to smash my pelleted seed so that they all germinate at about the same time. Another thing to do with the toothpick--if any of you are like me and want to conserve every single seed that germinates, I get frustrated when I have a container of ready-to-transplant seedlings and I look closely and see several seedlings that had just sprouted. Especially with seed that was expensive, like impatiens! What I do is, I keep an eye on the flats and I will use a toothpick to remove some of those tiny germinated seedlings from the container, and move them one by one into a new container. Since they have just germinated, there is only a very tiny root system, so you dont hurt it at all by moving it. If I did not move them, they would get ruined when I transplant the larger seedlings to cell packs. I also keep an eye out for ungerminated seeds,in particular with impatiens or seeds that I spent a lot of money on. I dont quite understand why they dont all germinate at the same time, but it happens all the time! I will use a toothpick to pick up the seeds, put them in a new container and back under the domes for germinating. This also keeps me from losing those baby seedlings I mentioned before. Tedious? Sure! But I strive to get everything I canfrom what I spend on seeds! Anyway, those were my gadgets! Neat post!

I meant to comment on how nice everyone's gifts are. Joanm, your dishes are beautiful! Nancy, What is that pot used for? It's so pretty. Is it a specialty pan for cooking a specific dish? Annie, if you pass through the Dallas area on your way south, let me know. Also, be sure to eat at Scampi's when you're in South Padre, and try to get a table either outside if the weather cooperates, or at least situated where you can watch the sunset over the Laguna Madre. It's been 5 years since I've been there, but the food and the service back then were superb. Sally

Can you put the sink on the wall where you currently show the fridge/dw, moving dw to the end where the fridge is. Then fridge down beside the pantry, stove pretty much where it is. And a small prep sink on the island close to fridge end. That would make the kitchen work better re. your stated goals re. 1 cooker/baker and 1 helper/cleaner. It would let you have the ice tea maker and vitamix between fridge and stove (with water handy at the prep sink behind), keeping snackers, tea drinkers, and smoothie makers out of your main cooking/baking space. And you could use the area between range and sink as your baking area with your kitchenaid mixer and bread machine, utilizing the depth of the corner counter depth for their regular storage while still having the usable countertop in front when needed. The breville might work in that run too. It would mean you couldn't reuse your corner sink base, but it looks like you have the other corner cab by the peninsula that you could repurpose for that space. Good luck!

I have this Black and Decker electric jar opener. It works great! It requires only enough strength to push a button down. I’ve had mine more than 20 years. You can find them all over eBay for a lot less than Amazon. I even saw one on Poshmark once. I like this OXO manual can opener. I would love to have an electric can opener that works well. I bought one a couple of years ago and finally pitched it. It never opened the can all the way and I was left struggling with trying to find a way to pry it open without cutting off a finger. I have this Norpro scoop/portioner in several sizes. I’ve found that the key to making it release easily is to lightly spray the scoop with PAM or something similar. I don’t know that this is the exact citrus juicer I have (mine was a gift), but it is certainly similar. I’ve had it for years. It does what it is supposed to do and goes in the dishwasher. You can find similar on Amazon. Cast iron would be my choice for a grill pan. I’m partial to Lodge when buying new cast iron. Their grill pan at Walmart is about $20. At W-S, it is $35. Several years ago, Cooks Illustrated proclaimed Chefs Choice as the best electric knife sharpener. I can’t recall which model. Like others on here, I send my knives out to be sharpened. I live in a very rural area. Nevertheless, there are 2 places I can take my knives for sharpening, the specialty butcher shop and Ace Hardware. My potholders are pitiful. Old and getting thin. DD has a couple of OveGloves that she likes. Not being argumentative, just curious, is there some reason you cannot remove the handle cover once your pot is on the eye and then replace it when you want to take the pot off? Is there a reason to leave it on the whole time? I don’t have any and have never used one, so I’m unfamiliar with them. Are they difficult to get on and off the handle?