Hi, I've owned leather livingroom furniture for the past 18 years. I would NOT recommend spending that much money on your pieces. The tanning process of split cowhide leaves only the top surface dyed, so when it stretches, wears...it cracks open with the gray underneath color. OR....if really soft it grease stains and stretches. Leather is wonderful because it looks good and does not asorb dust, dirt, etc like cloth. Take a look at this sofa... http://www2.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?ItemID=145fcbb&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=PRD&ShowMenu=T&ShopBy=0amp;SearchString=furniture&RefPage=SearchDepartment.aspx&s4PageSize=15&CmCatId=searchresults&Search1Prod=True

I am still deciding what I want to do. Mulling maybe is a better word. Sallymo, I had a painter out for my foyer yesterday. He is coming back with my estimate today and the foyer will be painted withing the next month regardless of who paints it. I may decide to go that way while I have a painter here. I am sort of focused on my finals until Friday and I may run after and see what I can find. I thought perhaps some pictures matted in cream (black and whites or sepia) of my children and family would bring a good feel to the room and the cream mattings would brighten things up a little if I went that route. I am also am looking at pillow covers on Etsy in patterns to cover my pillows. I thought I could still use the same forms and sizes and find a brown linen, a blue linen and then I really like the pottery barn ones. They should fit my current smaller pillows. I am sort of getting a vision. I want new lamps and I just need to find them!

I love Costco! I take my mom shopping with me to save her the cost of a membership. I don't buy as much bulk frozen as I did when boys where home and teenagers, but youngest DH and I love their frozen french onion soup cups. On a fairly regular basis I buy paper products, laundry and cleaning products, salmon, beef, chicken, pork chops, organic chicken stock (a top recommendation of Cook's Illustrated), canned tomatoes, fresh berries, cases of Smart Water, milk, butter, olive oil, small household appliances, books, DVDs, beef jerky, pistachios, wine, and alcohol. We've also bought the big flat screen for the FR and some bookshelves. Oh, bought my suitcase there, too. I go every 2 weeks or so. In fact, I need to go tomorrow--better get my coupons ready!

Thanks so much!! Yes, I painted all of those. The vintage ones were either missing their paints, or the paints weren't useable, so I just kind of made it up with acrylics. I did each pair in the same color scheme, but mixed it up between the pairs. More so because I wasn't happy with it until the last set, than trying to be creative. LOL! That painting for the bathroom had that background drybrushed in the directions, but the whole thing looked a little flat when it was finished. I added a crackle medium to the whole surface, then stained it with a glaze. The whole thing took a few hours of painting each evening for a few weeks. I'm working on one now that's going to take months, if I'm lucky. Tacky or trite? I don't know, but I enjoy doing them. I have a high-stress career, and I find it very relaxing to just chill out and dabble in the paints. And (to paraphrase Magna) I'd rather have something tacky and trite that I did myself, than something ugly bought from the store. Pal, that's a wonderful display! A little too dark and brooding for my taste, but you've shown off the art and set the tone perfectly! I love the blonde girl with the black cat. It looks like Frank -my very black cat.