Thanks everyone for the replies. if there is one thing i am not afraid of...it's getting my hands dirty. I love it. I am happiest with my hands in nice warm soil. I love to weed! it cleanses the soul. I am in Oregon. lane county. very political and liberal. I am neither of those but have no problems with those who are. So I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. the interviews. anyway, I am excited about it. I work in a nursary during the winter and spring and have learned so much there. I planted about 300,000 little flower plugs. plus, did other stuff. it was great. I came home with SO MANY flowers. free. loved it. What I loved most was the pay check that I spent on compost and beautiful perennial mix. My dh could not believe I spent money on dirt. and lattice and plants and more dirt. I have a little greenhouse and want to expand and add a pond. maybe this next year. Thanks so much everyone. Love your name GardenFaerie! I named my garden "faerie glen garden" along time ago. sorry for babbling

Topics I'd like to see addressed in a decorating class would be how to coordinate fabrics...i.e.combining patterns and colors. What to look for in quality furniture. How to arrange accessories. Pitfalls to avoid when selecting paint colors (don't go with gumball pink if you want a pink room, beware of the opaqueness of yellow, understanding how important undertones are,etc). Surely there are some rules to guide the novice, it would be good if those were spelled out to make the process a little easier. Throwing a little Fung Shui in there couldn't hurt. I don't mean all that chi stuff, focus more on the more logical aspect of it like where to place chairs and desks in a room so the person's back isn't facing a door, that sort of thing. How to chose carpeting, what does all that loop and pile jargon mean. I wished my teacher had provided a list of local sources for upholsterers, seamstresses, wholesale to the public suppliers, that have been vetted be her/him...so students can skip the middle-man and go directly to the person who is able to sew bedding, slipcovers or upholster furniture. I have taken several classes through the community center. What I discovered is that many of the instructors use this as a marketing tool to drum up clients. What the interior designer really wanted was for the students to hire her after they saw she was competent enough to teach the class but not so informative that they would think they can do this all themselves. So I never got the sense she was willing to give away all her trade secrets. But maybe she was just trying to keep it at a very beginner level so as not to saturate the students with too much information. I'm not saying we had to sit through a one hour sales pitch but I thought I should have walked away with a lot more information than I did. She did spend some time on proper placement of art, mirrors, etc on the wall..pointing out that most people usually hang them too high. So that part was good.

There are so many courses available - it just depends on what you are looking for. Ex.:If you want to go branch off and get into faux painting, just type that into a search engine(I use go2net.com) and you will be amazed at what's out there! And check the links for classes in your area.You might find an advanced class in "one stroke" that's in your hometown. Best wishes!

Hi Marry's, I'm not sure if this is the right place for nursing homes, but if you are looking to buy trees or are interested in Australian native plants then maybe this is the right place.