I love this picture because it has a story in it and it looks enchantingly mysterious. The background looks like a mountain waterfall in a Chinese painiting. I can hear the sound of the water, the chirping of the crickets in the cool night air and can smell the lovely rose. The blue butterfly is a symbol of hope and our desire to fulfill the dreams and our passion for beauty. Of course everybody understand what we see in a different way. This is my interpretation!

Hi, Scroll down to the bottom of the page, youll find a serch there, youll find the answer to all of your questions there in the form of prior postings =)

hi, I just posted about ABs on the Craft & Dec page (post about going away gift). I'm in a round robin right now. Each participant passes their book to the same person after a certain length of time (1 month in our case). Each time we get another book, we work in it and send it on to that same person. Eventually our books come back to us. We formed a yahoo group just for sharing about our progress, and to post pictures. And yes, I think the main thing is to have a theme. I was really scared to take part in one of these, but now I highly recommend a round robin. I've also heard of "Tip Ins" --a kind of swap where others send pages or spreads that you "tip in" to your book. You can attach the pages directly to other pages, or cut off existing pages leaving only a tab, and glue the tip-in to that.

silvergirl426--the kitchen is 14' x 14'. I toyed with adding more cabs, changing the layout, but nothing else felt better than was already there. I'm sure the layout gurus on this forum might have done differently, but it really functions well for me. I hate to feel crowded and cramped, so the open wall (where the dog bowls are), creates a feeling of space that feels very comfortable for me. oasisowner--my DH originally wanted bright blue countertops (!), but I talked him out of it and went neutral. I think we're both happy with the results, especially since the shelving is green. carp123--great minds think alike! I have been trying to figure out what to do above the fridge, if anything. I love wicker/rattan baskets, just trying to figure out what to put in them...I like everything to have a real function! momo7-thanks! It was a leap of faith, but I so love the Hawthorne..no regrets! AnnaA--yes, freeing! And I know just where everything is and what I have. I still have a lot of empty space in the drawers..just waiting to find the right organizers. mc15--ah, the hood...kind of a long story. It didn't exactly work out how I wanted. It originally hung down lower. It is a deep hood (24"), which I chose when we were going to put in a 10' wide window. But the window was too expensive, so we went to 9', but I forgot that the hood would no longer fit inside the window, enabling it to be pushed back further on the ceiling. So it is flush with the cabinet depth, which I love for capturing all of the steam/smoke. But when installed at the highest recommended height, it was too low for DH, who is 6' 2". So we had our contractor raise it to 76" high. It actually does work fine, it's just so loud now! But I'm having the contractor back to see if there's anything he can do about the loudness...it wasn't this loud when it was lower. I'm sure if we had bought a higher-end hood, it wouldn't be an issue. So, if no one in your family is tall, it would probably work at a normal height. We might go ahead in the future and have our contractor build something different for us...we'll see how it works going forward. gr8day--thanks for your kind words! CEFreeman--I bought the chairs (Restoration Hardware) shortly after moving in. Not sure if they actually go with the kitchen, but I absolutely love them, too. And I spent way too much money shipping them to us, so they're staying! I tell myself they coordinate well with the trees out the windows. ;) Thanks again, everyone!