Thank you for all your kind words. It means a lot to me. I do have to chuckle at myself, though. I got my dates off with everyone home for so many days over the holidays. *Yestereday* was Twelfth Night, not today! I do know that it's the 6th, but thought that today was the 6th! Oh well. Syble: Yes, my good friend is a great crafter. She's made me many decs over the years, including the two Christmas Bear candy jars that you can see next to the kitchen sink. Jaybird: too funny! I'd forgotten how late you were posting last year's Christmas pics. We can be The Late Team here ;^D Luckygal: thanks for your comps and for the link, too. As for the painting on the antique window in my powder room, it's a piece I bought from an artist here many years ago. It's a reverse painting of three santos (saints). I LOVE paintings on old windows, and paintings and photos of interesting windows, as well. I wonder what some psychiatrist would say about us because of that(LOL)? Milosmom: thank you, that's such a sweet thing to say! DG: Now you can see why your wonderful tablescape using your own Christmas village pieces excited and inspired me so much. I'm already planning on using some of my pieces next year on a holiday table. What a great idea, DG! Phonegirl: thanks, I'm loving those dishes, too. They look so cozy and honey to me. Karen, I'm glad my pics aren't too late, thanks! I do love our family tree. I should have included a pic of the F-P "ornaments". They really are cute. I'm glad you remembered that it was Luvs who alerted us about the cardinals. I'll thank her in a minute, as I love how great they work on my mantel. As for your Christmas Village, maybe we can both try using some of our pieces in a tablescape, a la DreamGoddess', next year. Gosh, that was a great table idea! Kathleen: thanks! Will you give us a little seminar someday soon on photographing tablescapes? Either here or on your blog? I do remember you telling me to use a tripod. I need to do that, as many of my pics were blurry again this year. Any more helpful hints would be MUCH appreciated! Jeanne: I'm glad you and others here can appreciate our Southwestern decorating. I can imagine how different it could look to people not from here. As for my newest Phil Sonier photo, we're really enjoying it. This is the one Coldwater Creek used on it's catalogs for years. Phil told me that he actually saw it on a billboard advertising CWC when he was in Kenya once! That's a loooong way from Albuquerque! When it first came out on CWC, there was this big debate as to whether it was a wolf or a bear. I knew right away, but Phil confirmed it to me himself . . . it's a wolf. Luvs: and thank you for the great heads up on those cardinals! What a great buy for so little money. Yes, it was the best gift to have our DS home with us over Christmas. I miss him already. Jane: your compliments mean a lot to me, as I'm a huge fan of your own decorating and tablescaping talents. Thank you. OA: You can come anytime and be be a real guest here! "HL" is short for the store chain, Hobby Lobby. The Pecan Crusted Beef Tenderloins were fabulous. We found the recipe in Food & Wine. As for my trifle, no it's not hard, but it does take a while to get it all together. I first slice pound cake into long, thin, 1/4" slices and let them dry out a bit. Then I spread half of them with seedless raspberry jam, cover them with the other half and cut into 1" cubes. I sprinkle them with Marsala wine and then layer them in a large, footed, clear glass trifle bowl. The layers are the pound cake cubes, my homemade custard, fresh berries and tiny mint leaves, and broken (real, Italian) Amaretti cookies. I top it with mounds of fresh whipped cream, toasted slivered almonds, berries and mint leaves. Back in Victorian time, it was called a Tipsy Trifle because liquor was used in it. Anyhoo, it's wonderful and we all love it every Christmas Day dinner. Let me know if you ever want the recipe itself. Lynn

Oh my! I apologize for creating a stir. My intention was not to bash those that live in larger than average size homes. I think that we can all agree that some people just dont need as much space as others but itÂs not right for those people to discount other peopleÂs lifestyles. However living in a larger, less efficient home definitely has a negative impact on our environment and the new building trend is definitely leaning towards sustainability. This should be acknowledged and accepted by all. The purpose of the posting was to see whether or not 1,100 sq ft for a two bedroom unit is acceptable for most people. I think more accurately, my posting should be asking if 750 sq ft for a one bedroom loft is acceptable, as well as 350 sq ft for a studio. And yes, I realize that in Honolulu everything is much smaller. That was another purpose of my posting, to see if other parts of the mainland US are starting to shift towards smaller more efficient home design, something that Honolulu has been doing since the beginning of time. Condos and single family homes did increase in size since 1940. For example, a two bedroom condo or duplex in 1940 had an average size of about 500 sq ft. Today, the average size is about 850 sq ft. Single family homes increased from an average 3 bedroom home of about 1000 sq ft in 1940 to about 1700 sq ft today. So the increase is not quite as dramatic as that in the US mainland. We are seeing a slight shift in home size in todayÂs new buildings but I donÂt think itÂs as dramatic from what IÂve seen in the US mainland. But thatÂs probably because we didnÂt experience a "size run-up" like the mainland did. And for the record, I wanted to copy and paste a follow up I created on another category on the GardenWeb forums about a week ago. It describes how the 3 levels were actually split up to accommodate multi-person living. You will see that my design was not intended for ONE person , ONE couple, or ONE family to live on all three floors. The design is such that the home can be shared by extended family (for example grandma on the fourth floor, children on the second and third). But they have their own kitchens, bathroom and living area. I completely agree that a 1,100 sq ft home spread across three floors makes no sense. But if you NEVER had to access the spiral stair case at all, would it still be an issue? Hopefully the follow up I created below will lead to clarification. Original post follows (sorry, itÂs quite long) The units are being built and sold OR rented (I may end up renting the property instead of selling) as "hybrids". Meaning that the unit originally built as a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath can be converted into a one bedroom loft AND separate studio with completely separate living spaces. Let me explain how this works and then maybe the elevator concept will make more sense. Imagine 5 units in a single row configuration, just like a typical townhouse layout in San Francisco for example. Each unit is tall and skinny (3 stories of living space, garage at basement) and butt up to each other. From the outside you will see units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in a row from left to right with shared common walls. Each unit has an identical floor plan that consists of: First floor is a parking garage Second floor consists of a kitchen, living area and powder room Third floor consists of a one bedroom loft (you can see down to the living room below) and full bath. Fourth floor consists of a one bedroom, full bath and wet bar (essentially a full kitchen without a full size range). There are two staircases  one staircase is an average size if maybe on the smaller size spiral staircase that runs from the parking garage level to the top floor (fourth). There is access via the spiral staircase by door at the parking level, as well as a door at the second floor entry (kitchen and living) and another door at the fourth floor (one bedroom, full bath and wet bar). The spiral staircase, however, bypasses the third floor (it spirals past the third floor but does not allow access) and therefore does not allow entry to the third floor (one bedroom full bath loft). This is where the second SEPARATE staircase comes in which allows access from the kitchen/living area to the loft bedroom above (access from the second floor to the third floor). This second staircase is on the opposite side of the condo. If you wanted to get to the fourth floor from the living/kitchen area you would have to take the spiral staircase and bypass the second floor bedroom loft. The spiral staircase is essentially converted to a common area if the units were split up. If kept as a two bedroom condo, the spiral staircase is a private stairway much like any stairway in a house. The elevator would be of three-stop design. It would start at the parking level (first stop), then stop at the second floor (second stop) and the last stop would be at the fourth floor (third stop). Like the spiral staircase, the elevator would bypass the third floor altogether. Again, the third floor is ONLY accessible by the separate staircase (non-spiral) on the opposite side of the condo that is accessible from the living area (second floor). Confused yet? I apologize if you are. IÂm trying my best to outline my design via words. So the 4-story property can essentially be split into two separate living spaces  a one bedroom loft and studio. The elevator would allow easy access to the studio unit (if converted to two separate units) and I felt it was necessary. Who wants to walk up 4 stories to get into their unit? I figured that if the property was converted into two units, the resident of the studio would always use the elevator to access his/her unit, while the resident occupying the one bedroom loft would simply traverse the spiral staircase one floor to get to his/her unit. He/she living in the one bedroom loft could still use the elevator (all entries to each floor via elevator are keyed) in the case furniture, groceries or other large heavy items need to be transported. The elevator is large enough to fit a wheelchair and can fit most appliances and furniture. Large furniture may not fit. Reason for this design is that many people in Hawaii buy a home and rent out a portion of it to help cover the mortgage. Cost of living here is ridiculous, and housing is the biggest expense. Extended family living is also very popular here so the ability to separate one unit into two becomes very attractive. Keep in mind this place is being built in dense urban Honolulu, in downtown. The average one bedroom is about 600 sq ft, studio about 375 sq ft and 2 bedroom about 900 sq ft (we have to be much more efficient with space here). Without splitting the unit into two, the two bedroom is about 1,100 sq ft. If the property was split into a one bedroom and studio, the size would be 750 and 350 sq ft respectively, well within the acceptable size range for the area.

Hey Red! I tried BM Silver Fox in my kitchen and w/ it's low light and silver small appliances it looked to purple to me. So sad! Wait till you see what's going on my LR walls.... I've lived w/ the Revere Pewter sample in it for almost a year now and I finally made a decision. I'm sorry that the SW Requisite Gray didn't work - I'm happy to hear that you think it's a beautiful color though. I am actually re-painting our MBR Requisite Gray after somebody e-mailed me asking to use a pic of our MBR on a web-site. I panicked - how could I say yes? Was it the picture from when it was blue, blue, gray, green, white, blue or what?! Turned out it was the pic from when it was Requisite Gray. I sighed and my heart fluttered when I saw the pic all over again so I decided to do it again and leave it. I peeked at the Gray Owl more than once for DD's room. Good louck w/ your decision! Oh! I'm currently looking at BM Kendall Charcoal for a kitchen built in (to look like furniture) and Chelsea Gray or something for the upper portion of DR w/ SW Highland White below. But who knows - last week th eupper portion was going to be BM Polo Blue and before that MS Thunderhead (a gray).

I'm here and I got my seeds!!!!! I'm so excited. I'm in the middle of a little home reno so I've been busy. We just had hurricane impact windows and doors installed. The house looks so nice without those ugly metal hurricane shutters. I am too scared to plant these seeds until I get this mite problem under control. I have 6 grown adenium, most of which are under attack. Every leaf fell off and the new ones that come through are bright yellow and fall off. I have one plant with flowers only and NO leaves. It looks so weird. I have used neem oil and moved them in the shade but these suckers won't leave! Any suggestions? I have been doing a weekly-weakly dynagro fertilization. The trees look great, just bald. Also, 2 of my pots were infested with ants. It has been dry here and when I watered one of them I noticed hundreds of ants carrying eggs flowing out of the pot like lava. Disgusting. It's a constant battle here with bugs!!! I took one tree out and flushed out the rocks. It dropped what few leaves it had. The other one is still a luxury ant condominium. Having these beautiful plants in Florida is like having kids lol. So much work.