Okay....finally I got back.....yesterday I printed the ideas, and played with it some last evening!!! I call my style boring...ummmmm I mean traditional, but due to the fact of my Dad building antique repros, it may slide a little toward country! Mostly I guess you could call it functional!! Sooooo, here is what I did..... on the top shelfy layer, I have (R to L) a lamp with a fox figurine peeking around the base...center are a couple of rusty iron birds ala Nell Hills....far right a red plate with a golden pineapple on a black stand. Down in the "sink" part R to L, I have a matching lamp on two small books (placed a bit to the outside left from the one on the top shelf)...a squirrel figurine sitting on a limb nose to nose with a snail. On the right side under a cloche, I have a beaver fiurine...he is sitting on a pile of logs he just chopped down!! All of the animals are in brown tones and just seemed to look "fallish".... Over the entire "scene", I have a needlework of an old barn...framed in black. I think it looks pretty good thanks to you!!! I have taken a couple of 35mm pictures and hope to get a disc made so that I can post the pictures. Again my thanks....Judith, you never give yourself enough credit!!! Luvs, I would really be thankful to see the Christmas deco if you find the picture!!

I really like their glassware. There was a time when I became fixated on the stunning antique containers with the single blooms that seem to be in all the shelter magazines. Instead, I went with my own version with glassware from Ikea. It turned out to be a great choice for me because they can be scattered around the house without worrying about coordinating.

I found myself alone when my husband died suddenly 4 years ago. I had an old Victorian house that was mine before I married him and fortunately I could afford it on my own. I was in my late 50’s. I spent the first year not doing anything differently. During the second year I started to feel that the house was becoming more time and money than I wanted to spend, and also the town was more of a family place, and now I was a single woman. I began to consider what did I want, and where? A smaller house, like a ranch house, or maybe a townhouse, where I didn’t have to do much maintenance, but at the time that idea didn’t appeal to me very much (I also considered renting, but it wasn’t for me). I wanted to be closer to main roads and the train station, which would be more convenient to my children, and near a city where my social life was starting to develop. I began looking online at possibilities, and at the same time I started cleaning out the attic, the garage and the basement a little at a time. I had to stay in the same basic area for my job, but there was a radius that I began to explore, and I tried to picture myself in different scenarios and went to open houses to get a feel of different towns and situations. I ended up finding a townhouse community in a great location with floorplan layouts that I liked, priced well below my current house. I decide to put my house on the market and amped up the decluttering and sold it before I had a place to buy. This was last May. I had gotten rid of enough stuff to fit my furniture & things into a 10x20 storage locker and moved in with a girlfriend into her son’s old bedroom, twin bed and all, LOL. I found an end unit townhouse in the area I wanted soon after, and moved in 3 months after that. I had equity from my old house, but not enough to buy outright, so I still have a mortgage, but it’s so much less expensive every month and I laugh at my utility bills now, after what it cost to heat my old house. I used some of my equity cash and installed hardwood floors and remodeled the 30-year-old kitchen and I still have money in the bank and I feel so much more secure than I did in my old house. I love living alone, and its mine, all mine, LOL. And I go to concerts and festivals and the city and the beach on weekends instead of doing yard work. Take your time; be open to possibilities, and someday you will know what is right for you – it took me three years to figure it out, and I’m so happy with my decision and my life now. Best of luck to you, things do get better.

More pictures. I would like to paint the front door a more neutral color eventually!