Well, well - hello, Louise. A pleasant surprise to see you here .... ;o) By the length of what I wrote, you can tell I'm as snowbound as you. Louise (I'll let the cat out of the bag and tell you that's her middle name, so it sounds foreign to me) and I are good friends. We've traveled together to far parts of the country, mostly in search of knowledge, but for new experiences too. We've also attended dozens & dozens of educational events together. She is (next to the 'Fred' we both mention) probably the best person I've yet met at identifying plants by name and being able to tell you what their cultural wants/needs are. I wouldn't think of going on my spring pilgrimage to Detroit to buy all my plants for the dozens of containers I put together each year as garden display plantings without her. She's a skilled plantsman & is always very eager to learn. ;o) I really intended for the thread to address keeping up with what's new, and being open to new ideas, techniques, innovations - not being stuck in the rut of being insistent that there is only one way to do something and that change is bad, but it looks like the experience:knowledge thing is winning out, so we'll go there. Louise asked: "Als friend Fred, and mine, at 94, is still learning, and hes thoroughly enjoying every moment. To me, that is poignant proof that seeking knowledge has some interesting, and beneficial, side effects. What do you think, Al?" I thought Fred was 92 and here I find he is 94. I was at his 90th b-day party, but I guess the years are passing more quickly than I realize - and women are sooo much better than I, at keeping track of important things like birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates. Why is that ......? I think that Fred has passion. He is passionate about people and he is passionate about his plants. He loves nothing more than to be among his plant friends, learning and teaching. He was the first person to actually give me any guidance in my bonsai endeavors, and the thing he told me, tried most to impress upon me, didn't sink in at first. I don't remember his exact words, some 15+ years ago, but what he told me was: if I want to be successful in growing bonsai, I MUST learn about plants. I must learn how they work and how soils work - otherwise my efforts will be, at best, only frustrating. I didn't have the sense to believe him then, so I jumped right into bonsai & soon learned he was right. It took only a few short months for experience to teach me just how much I didn't know. I could have plowed blindly ahead & depended on experience and trial & error to guide me, but I started studying, and I can say that (like Louise asked about) the side effects of what I learned have been so very beneficial. I NEVER could have come to where I am today as a plant person w/o my focus being primarily on knowledge. That doesn't mean I'm inexperienced, at all, and every day my experiences validate some piece of knowledge I already have. It's the same for you guys. You can read something in these forums that one of us has learned and all of a sudden, a light goes on, or you might retain it in your memory & a month from now, your experiences might cause you to recall what you read & you say "Oh Yeah! NOW, I get it." This is another case of experience validating knowledge. Louise & Mentha both mentioned cooking as an analogy, so let me paint a picture: Imagine two people who know nothing about cooking - no experience whatsoever. The first person (I'm going to make him a guy, because I'm the cook around here) ;o) is put in a huge kitchen with all the utensils & everything needed to create a 10 course gourmet meal including a fancy desert for Louise and Mentha. Not gonna happen - right? The second person is schooled in all the cooking techniques - knows how to make the sauces, studies presentation, knows exactly how baking powder makes the biscuits rise and how proteins in meat break down to make it tender - this person is essentially an educated idiot. So, if you put him in the same kitchen ...... It prolly STILL ain't gonna happen - right? Which will come closer to being able to present an edible meal ... The person with no experience or knowledge, or the educated idiot with no experience? Let's take it a step further. The person with no experience or knowledge is left to his own devices, but he doesn't seek knowledge beyond what he learns by his own experience. He plods through the kitchen day after day making mistake after mistake ruining meal after meal and having failure after failure, until after a lifetime of trying he might have figured out how to make a presentable gourmet meal. Back to the educated idiot now .... ;o) He keeps studying & studying - learning fresh, new things & techniques. His first meal was a dismal failure, but a week later, he makes a meal that's pretty good. A year later, he is still studying and making fancy dinners with wonderful presentations. 5 years later he's a chef at a fancy restaurant. 10 years later, he has his own cooking school and is teaching other chefs what he's learned so they can benefit from his knowledge and experience. Why is this? His meager, but growing experience is validating time after time what he already knows and he has eliminated 90% of the trial and error mistakes the other cook depends on almost exclusively for knowledge. Where is the cook who embraces nothing new & refuses to learn? Still stuck in a rut, plodding along and unable to even make proper sense of the results of his actions or what he observes in the kitchen. I could easily have made the analogy about greenhouse operators or hobby growers like us, but as a friend is fond of saying, "We work with what we have." and a cook is what I was given. ;o) Al

Oh! Can I play? I just found this and am relating to it in an extreme way. We just removed everything from three bedrooms to have the floors refinished and I am forcing myself to downsize before I put everything back. I was fortunate to start reorganizing my filing system a week before the move, and purged a lot of paper at that time. I'll confess the oldest thing I found was a secretarial civil certification from 1977, and medical records from two dogs ago that have long since died. (Filing is Not my favorite thing to do.) It helped when I read that 80% of what we file is never looked at again...and yes, that is true in my case! Before I bring anything back into my home office, I'm making da*n sure that I need it or I love it. When in doubt, toss it out! I've wanted to do this for such a long time, but apparently I needed an extreme makeover to push me into it all the way. My goal is NO SURFACE CLUTTER. I've always had a fair amount of that, so this has been a challenge. I want my surfaces clear for anything I want to use them for at any moment, and to be easy to maintain. My office is all hardwoods (floors and furniture) and the dust is too hard to deal with, so I'm endeavoring to get 95% of it all under cover (drawers or closets.) We ditched a large armoire in the bedroom that wasn't utilized well, and a recliner we didn't use much to create some breathing room. I am dealing with everything you've mentioned and can relate to it all...from throwing out pens to bathroom/bedroom stuff. (I'm now down to a small box of pens where every last one works. How nice to go for what you need, knowing it still writes. I threw away more than I kept!) I've also purged gift wrap (Oh boy, do I relate!) along with the stupid gift wrap organizer which never worked very well for me. Instead, I have a beautiful old antique paper holder which holds two rolls; I'm also a total fan of white and brown butcher paper. (Along with a stash of tissue, which takes up less space than bubble wrap and makes great padding.) I saved a couple rolls of wallpaper which I like to use for drawer liner (or gift wrap) but I'm not saving Christmas paper any longer either. I did our bathroom potions/lotions when we finished the bathroom remodel, and the extra is stored in a small, two shelf nightstand cupboard. I refuse to buy anymore until that stuff is gone, and won't keep more than two on hand after that. No more Stocking Up excessively! Tomorrow, I'm putting some of my books back on the shelves, and considering a former cd rack for my next garage sale. (It's not under cover!) When we added a media cabinet in the kitchen, I allowed a couple of drawers for those and when they fill up, it's time to purge. I finally let go of all the cards I had saved (years worth) and frankly, I don't miss them one little bit. It's been a lot of work, but I'm enjoying the freedom that a little space brings. I've started a To Go list for the next garage sale with the items I no longer need and their location, so I'll know what to drag out when the time comes. Isn't it fun? Now if I could only brainwash myself into thinking organizing the garage would be fun...I'm not there yet!

Offering honest feedback to "HU-242728640". "Doors do not line up with drawers. Every door had to be adjusted." >> Not uncommon with many mfg's. Transportation will cause doors/drawers to need adjustment. An installer "to do". "Trim pieces were missing and our retailer told us trim only comes with "kitchen" cabinets, but not with "bathroom" cabinets." >> Even with kitchens (pick ANY brand), you don't get trim. It's a line item. The dealer selling you the cabinetry specifies, budgets, and orders any and all trim. "Three others that were also made incorrectly were not replaced." >> Sounds like the dealer didn't order something correctly OR didn't (doesn't) know the product they sell, whereby "over selling it". "We are adding felt stickers to many areas where one door bumps into another or into the wall. Drawers on one side cannot open without hitting drawer handles on opposite walls." >> 100% a designer error. I sold Shiloh years ago. They'll NOT proof your order. Order a cabinet too big... that's on the dealer. Even if the (submitted) plan says 30" wide, they'll make a 36" IF you order 36". "Poorly designed, poor construction, real wood, but so is balsa wood. These cabinets will not last a lifetime and will not hold all of our kitchen items. Several shelves are unusable because of false drawer fronts added where doors should have been." >> Again, I was a Shiloh dealer... and yes... they have their issues. But I cannot throw them under the bus for issues that could've been, should've been, addressed by the dealer/designer. Most of your complaints should be directed to them. Often the problem begins with the designer/dealer/retailer. They fail to educate the homeowner/buyer as to what they're actually getting. If you're told Shiloh is high-end custom... it's not, they're lying. If there are design flaws, that's the designers fault . If the cabinet is flawed, that's on Shiloh. I used to show homeowners the difference between (then) Shiloh and true custom. There is a contrast in quality and (should be) price. All the best in remedying your issues. Jerry

Now that's creative! I LOVE how you combined the leaf & the dragonfly. When you remove the leaf, you can do a wash on it & stain the leaf. Maybe tape the dragonfly to spray & seal the stain. I made a couple of stepping stones with leaves & did them that way & they are holding up pretty well. There are pics of the painted leaf imprints near the bottom of the page. Here is a link that might be useful: leaf stones