You all are so wonderful! Below are answers to specific questions some of you raised..... staceyneil-Love the brackets! Never ever would have thought of that. That could be perfect! Also, you asked about location....we're in NJ so we'd want a Nantucket look, I think. debelli -You asked about the age of our house and also about what other homes in the neighborhood look like. Our house was built in the 50's and had some renovation done in the early 70's. As for the neighborhood, it's a mix of older homes (mostly Capes and Colonials) that in recent years have been replaced brand new, much much larger homes. The "building" on the left you ask about is one of the new homes. Its three floors dwarfs our little place. arcy-our budget right now is pretty low as home improvement budgets go...a few thousand dollars at most right now and that has to include replacing the entry door (which is badly warped). We are hoping, though, if we finalize our vision of what we want the whole thing to ultimately look like we can work toward it in various stages. A lot of you have asked about the gravel driveway (actually it's river rock...a little nicer looking as rocks go). We do need to keep it to park the cars, so other than possibly pulling it back off of the house a bit, we're going to have to work with it for now. Thanks again to everyone for all of the fantastic feedback!!

Good, I'm glad someone stepped in with a tutorial for the "biscornu" pincushion. I have never needed one. As soon as I spied a photo of one (made from quilter's cottons) in a blog, I instantly knew how it was constructed. I piece them by hand, to get sharp corners. Jan gave me the name ("biscornu") and I went looking. Most I have seen are made with cross stitch fabric, and are beautifully detailed. Oh, and to answer the question from empress... I bought that rose fabric ages ago, in the mid-90's, before I even imagined I would ever make a quilt. Thought I would make a shirt from it, but never did. Finally washed it to add to my stash, and from the texture, I wonder if it has some polyester content. It is made by Cranston. I love the colors, and think the rose motifs would look very nice, enlarged and done up as applique. The other face of the rose biscornu is from a dress I used to wear. I reuse fabric whenever possible. The plaid biscornu is made from two different plaid shirts I got at the second hand clothing store--a great place to find fabric for quilts! Oh, and of course (she calms down slightly) clothing for myself and hubby.

It is no longer permissible for non-matched books crammed into bookshelves in living areas to be considered a "mistake". If it is good enough for a vaunted decor "authority" it is good enough for me. Well, it was good enough for me anyway. :-) Although I think her apartment is a little fussy and I'm admittedly uncomfortable with that caliber of fancy-schmancy stuff (yeah, yeah, I'm low-class, I know, but things like a sideboard costing twice as much as my car make me very nervous - they're gorgeous things but I feel like I should look at them from behind a velvet rope, since I wouldn't be able to afford to replace it, I'd be afraid to actually use anything), I do like how she throws such dissimilar stuff together and values comfort as much as aesthetics. I LOVE how she shamelessly displays "tacky" needlepointed-text pillows and tosses dog beds under the expensive antiques! It's like "I like it, d*mmit, I don't care if you do or if you think it 'goes', so it's going here" and I wonder if it's that 'tude coming through that makes it all work. I look at those pictures and it seems like every single room breaks some "rule". (Although as I said, it's important to know the rules - and I'm sure she does - in order to know when and how to blow them to smithereens.) Actually, she reminds me quite a bit of Julia Child, who was another beyond-cool person - I lived in South Boston when she was still living in Cambridge and her number was always right there in the phone book, I still kick myself for not getting up the nerve to just call and introduce myself. Surprisingly few people did, I think everyone was so afraid of her! (I'm actually very shy IRL, so it wasn't that I was afraid of HER, I was afraid of putting myself forward.) BTW, I don't think pressed wood is sacred, and I'm one of the staunchest "don't paint nice wood" nuts out there. :-) Note the inclusion of the word nice though. Some wood is crap and would benefit from a coat of paint, but the urge to slather paint all over everything that doesn't move (Old Army adage: "If it moves, salute it. If it doesn't move, pick it up. If you can't pick it up, paint it.") is an urge that IMO sometimes ought to be squelched. :-)

Maryilync- awwww, Grandpa had found a safe haven at last. Not to hijack the thread, but an update on my attempt at having the neighbor's cat taken to the lo-cost spy/ntr clinic. Coco is still a no-show. I only hope something drastic didn't happen to her. The clinic has been so helpful and understanding that the lady called me again this morning to say whenever I find the cat to call and they will set up an appt. next week. She she told me, "Tell them Sue said you could!" :)