I very much enjoyed Marian's link to Tabby cats. I had always thought "calico" was the term for cats that have largely grey coats, but with large patches of white and also hints of buff around their eyes and the bases of their tails. I see that coloration in handsome Ted although his coat appears to a "classic" or "modified classic" Tabby. Vera is "classic" Tabby, both Spencer and Polly are "mackerel" Tabbies, but both show the coloration I described above as "calico", Spencer having a good deal of white on his body. I was esp. interested to learn that a Tortoiseshell pattern is a specific sort of Calico and I did know that coloration is very closely sex-linked. It's all very interesting. But I've never met a cat that wasn't! I did some alteration work yesterday and shortened two pair of tab top curtains, using the excess fabric to fashion tie backs for them, too. I have another two pair of slacks to hem and a zipper to replace either today or tomorrow. Alterations and repair/re-style work always comes back when economic conditions take a nose dive. And I'm very glad I was well trained lo those many years ago. Anyone need new pockets in anything?. (I've become rather rusty with zipper replacements in slacks, though. It took me 15 minutes, up from my personal best which was about 8 minutes (including removing the broken one). ;) Woody, I've seen that Jap. Maple at a local nursery and I simply adored it. You have excellent taste! We have a Bloodgood on the Compound and I've wanted to add a few more but there is still too much "hardscaping" and reorganization on the docket for me to consider forking over the sort of pork required to obtain a nice sized specimen. I rather miss your frequent posts, too, but knowing you're "applying yourself" to the class makes me smile. Michelle, I love the look of matching picture frames... and the aerial views of the farm must be wonderful. I recall commenting on them once a long time ago. It's always neat to see things from the perspective of a bird (or Brenda as she plummets toward terra firma after hurling herself out of plane). I'll bet you're glad the audit is over! I suppose the thing to bear in mind is that the audit is there as form of control and protection and NOT to simply make everyone's life miserable for a fixed period of time. This is definitely the time of year I most wish I'd made the effort to bring in some "germamiums" from the windowboxes... alas. PM, how funny that I didn't read your post to Marian in a negative way, at all. But I've never been much for hunting for "DHMs" (deep hidden meanings) anyway; takes too much time and too much energy, to my mind. ;) I'm impressed by the scope of the JulieJobs you put behind you, Marian. Wanna come here and do some of that in my house? I'll bet you felt great after you finished. It's good to know you're in a "brighter" place. Life in a dark, shadowy world is no fun but sometimes we find ourselves there even when we don't wish to be. I would really like to see the pop open cat cube; our cats have developed a real fondness for a particular upholstered footstool that sits in front of Daddy's chair. It's been basically shredded, and reclaiming it from their sharp little claws will be no day at the beach for me, but for the time being it's OK that they pounce on it, grapple it, and slither around underneath it. We do indulge them. ;) Wondering if Mary has yet put a stopwatch on David's manoeuvering through the wheelchair agility course? Were you able to get to the concert? I thought of you on Thursday when my boss told me there is a gluten-free bakery going into one of the storefronts in town. Another one offers something called "Chocolate Decadence Cake" as a wheat-free offering. I do believe you're a trend-setter! :) Norma, I managed to score a large piece of 3" foam last week. I'd just finished making new cushions for a cuddy cabin and replaced the foam in the process. If I put it to the coals and make a cover for it Rex will have a smashing new bed, VERY plush. Best of all, he won't care if the foams smells a tad musty! Next warm spell I'll clip some Forsythia... you just shove the shoots in water, right? Cigarettes. I saw firsthand what regular use of them did to someone I loved. Bladder cancer is 95+% attributable to cigarettes. 60+ yrs. of a solid pack/day put Mum in the sorry position she found herself for the last 5 yrs. of her life. Not to mention the toll on her respiratory and vascular system. There are theories that smoking also affects hearing, weakening and reducing elasticity in the tympanic membrane. When I was changeing the urostomy pouch once/twice every week and routinely dealing with all the necessary steps involved I used to look at pretty young women huffin' on a butt and think that there was a time when Mum thought as they did... nothing will ever happen to me. And I wanted to take them home with me to get a good, hard look at REALITY... an 80 yr. old woman who was reduced to peeing into a bag glued to her side and depending on someone else to care for her most intimate, personal needs. Not to mention the sheer scope of the MONEY wasted maintaining the habit. Do the arithmetic, a pack a day X365, then calculate the interest it could earn (or save if applied to a mortgage or installment loan). Clearly, we all share the same view on the topic. But the fact that the addictive properties of nicotene are now becoming clear gives me hope. I feel so bad for W, because he knows the score and in the face of so much flux in his life he's unable to get that monkey off his back. Lots of love (and more love) and support is all that will work. I truly wish him well because I understand just how tough an addiction it can be to get under control. Also the toll it takes on those around you. ((('bug))). Great pictures and Deanne your backyard is as lovely in winter as it is in the summer. I can't wait to see you next weekend; let's hope there is no snowstorm! OK! it's time to get busy with the day. We chalked the lines for the floor last night and it's time for me to get out there and come up with my plan of attack. It took me a fair piece of time to come up with numbers to lay out the grid. I'd been stuck in a rut seeing only parallelograms (rhombus, actually) and was having trouble coming up with measurements required to lay out the grid. Then it came to me... a rhombus is actually 2 equilateral triangles, which can be broken into 4 right triangles... and then it's only a matter of plugging numbers into an equation and isolating variables. Praise be Pythagorus! :) (I loved geometry and it was geometry that made Algebra make sense for me, isn't that silly?). It tickles me that V. is working on the ceiling and I'll be working on the floor... reminds me of the great Paul Simon song, "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor".

Hi Donna, I have not been able to get to your page and look at your list. I get a screen print business. Am I looking in the wrong spot? Still hoping for those beach bunnies someday...I hear you have an extensive library of stuff, can't wait to view it....

Hi Donna Am trying very hard to navigate this site but wonder if you can help me out with any Alan Dart patterns. I am newly returned to knitting and would love the witch pattern plus the mouse one. Can you help me? I am also a computer novice so bear with me!! kind regards Sheila

Sometimes the biggest risk in decorating is to go the safe, neutral, 'in-style', paint-color-of-the-year route. Now, there's nothing wrong in painting your living room the same beige as the model home you fell in love with when you bought your house. There's no harm in getting a microfiber couch that will stand up to the 4 kids and clean up well for company. There's no foul (yes, you know how I want to spell it...) in buying a beautiful painted rooster for your kitchen island because it ties in all the colors of the adjoining great room and you also have a set of chicken plates somewhere. There's not even a good reason to pull down your own mullioned, (as the case may or may not be!) ginormous mirror that just fills up that zooming wall in the entry and gives you that satisfied feeling that you found just the right piece for Your house, and looks very real since it's up way too high for your own visitors to suspect that it's anything but the real deal. Why? Because a risk for you may be entirely different than a risk for me. Painting a nerf football and using it as art would not be a risk for me. It would be an act of insanity. I can imagine visitors to the house of MV coming innocently close to the giclee-nerfe' and only thinking... "How cool is that sculpture?"--but in my own far more pedestrian/subdivision/cookie-cutter house setting saying... "What the hey?? What were you smoking when you painted a sponge football, Red?" And BTW, have you seen the football in question? Or the plastered table? Bet you could scroll through the photos fast in the link below and not spot it immediately. I've seen it before in the magazine and had a hard time picking out the makeshift art from the artist-painted. Fabulous. No, taking a decorating risk is not the sensible thing to do for everyone. And my risk might make you snicker. Your risk might make me shudder. Beauty is most assuredly in the eye of the beholder. And sometimes beauty is found more plentifully in areas where the shopping is more limited. I know for sure that my house in a small town in New Mexico, at the edge of the desert, next to a Walmart, had more interesting, 'found' items, than any place since. I had few options for furniture or accessories. Now, with stores surrounding me, and a truck to haul things with, I find myself bringing home a lot more cheese than I ever thought possible. Thankfully, most of mine comes with a return receipt and rarely makes it past the first few hours in my house. And interestingly enough, the things I find in the corner of a barn at an estate sale out in the country, are usually not risky buys at all. I know that old piece of rusted iron will work somewhere. The aging needlepoint with spider webs on the edge will make a great pillow. The chipped cobalt and white clay vase will be wonderful on the dresser. No risks and no regrets. It's the stuff I get the register receipts for that always prove to be the the question marks. Right now, I'm working on my own art project. I'm applying plaster and a coat of pink latex paint to a bottle of Nyquil. Then, when it's dry and perfect, I'm going to send it to a good home in Chicago. Watch for it next year in Expensive Home Magazine. Red Here is a link that might be useful: from Apartment Therapy