Will miss you, dear Memo. I understand totally. I agree with what others have said about being a gardener no matter how small your cottage garden may be, even if it's pot size! Hopefully you will still be posting here, at least on occasion. I did bookmark your blog. Sending you lots of love and best wishes, my friend. XXXXXXX Becky p.s. I just recently got a sewing cart for my sewing machine--yay!!. So will be getting more into sewing shortly (also have another grandbaby on the way, to sew for) :) Should have some fabric scraps that may be suitable for quilting, and you are most welcome to them, Memo, if you are interested. I am not a quilter, so please let me know what type/size of fabric you can use, okay? Just send me an email, anytime. :) B

I had to smile when I read your post, as it sounded just like me several years ago. Every year since 1967..I had an annual Chili Supper for all my neighbors (around 30) the Sat night before Xmas, then it moved up to an ultra fancy Open House Cocktail party for 60, every Xmas Eve. But the old grey mare-she ain't what she used to be..LOL! Now I alternate each year-one year it's a fancy cocktail party for 25 on Xmas Eve, and this year it's my Christmas Morning Breakfast Buffet for 20 guests. Good Luck with your bash..it'll be great I'm sure!

Well ... As the saying goes "The old grey mare ain't what she used to be".. The same goes for top loading washing machines, the ones with agitators. There are new "Government" regulations and the new top loaders do NOT fill up like the old ones used to. I forget exactly what the limit is, something like 14" of water. That seems like it would be hard on clothes and you would have to break the loads up into smaller ones. I have Samsung from loaders and I am very pleased with them. Someone here said theirs takes 2 hours to wash a load... I have never used a cycle that took that long. Mine has a "quick wash" cycle and you can choose from light, normal and heavy. The light takes about 27 minutes, the heavy is 33 minutes. I have not found anything that does not get perfectly clean on the 33 minute cycle. At any point during the wash I can "pause" it, open the door and add additional clothes. Also, if it doesn't have quite as much water as you think it should, or want all you do is push pause, when the door unlocks open it, then shut it and push the continue button and it adds more water, you can do this as many times as you want. I rarely add more water unless it is a bigger, bulkier load such as my mattress pad. Picking a new washer is a huge headache....

The cowhide looks odd in the context of the room, it just doesn't look right. I agree you need a rug that will ground the furniture and to tie all the colors together. You did not ask, but the placement of the furniture does not take advantage of the shape of the room (Beverly in Fl, might help you out with that) and the wall color is very, very close to the sofa color.