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

"I'm sure if we were ever prompted to call and the CC company told us the card was reported stolen, then yes we probably could take the card and call the police, but I don't think that ever happened while I was working there." First of all they won't tell you if the card was stolen or what the reason is that it is being declined. Part of the reason is the customer's privacy (ie: maybe they got behind in payments.) Part of the reason is that sometimes cards are declined for flagging reasons and the cardholder is not guilty of anything. (You are suppose to tell your card company when you go on vacation with your cards, so when they see purchases coming in from Romania or someplace not where you live or usually use your card, they will know it is you using it and not a counterfeiter. Not everyone knows this.) Part of the reason is so the cashier doesn't do anything thoopid trying to be a know-it-all hero and get themselves killed or get their place of employment sued. If you read your user agreement that comes with you credit card, you will see that it CLEARLY spells out that the card is the property of the credit card company - it is not your property. Very often the CC company will ask the cashier to keep the card. If you read the link above I provided it says that if a cashier is instructed to keep the card that they should do so only if they feel safe doing so. They are worried about the safety of the cashier. There have been cases were a person got violent when their card was denied. Also a cashier should NEVER take it upon themselves to "just decide" to keep the card. It is not their right to do so either. The card is only kept upon instructions from the CC company. The CC company handles calling the police if it is a situation that warrants it - not the retailer. They won't even tell the retailer/cashier if the police are called and on their way. One reason is so that the cashier does not inadvertently or even purposely tip off the culprit. (Sometimes a cashier is in cahoots with cardholder to defraud the company.) It happens.

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).

AHMIowa, I suggest that you go to the library and check out architectural books from the 70s and 80s. Do the research and find out who the prominent architects of your area were and look at their work. Local papers often showcase architect designed homes as an on-going feature. You may be able to see pictures in old newpaper articles. Look for old Architectural Digest or Metropolitan Home Magazines which tend to showcase contemporary architecture of the time. I think BHG tend to showcase much more traditional looking homes. In the West Coast, we have Sunset magazine that shows contemporary homes. I am sure there are other magazines. (no Elle Decor or Vogue decor in the 80s) This will educate your eye toward what you like and don't like about that era. You will also see how the 70s and 80s architects treated spaces. When you have trained your eye to what feels appropriate for the house and its era, you will feel much more confident about your choices. For example, sunken LR is a very much of 70s and 80s space configuration. This is not as popular outside of that era. My parents house was a contemporary from that era and had a sunken LR. My brother replaced all continuous flooring with hardwood and it looks good (better than before) and looks quite appropriate for the house. We took out the 30 year old carpet and vinyl. We also have a huge stone fire place as big as yours (not brick) and hardwood looks good with it. Their house has all woodwork in dark stain; all doors, trim and cabinets are the same dark stain. Not quite as dark as espresso of recent. Your house has medium tone from your ceiling. I don't see any other wood work: there is a lack/minimum of trim (a very clean look) and the doors are painted white slab. You also have to remember that the interest rate was double digit in the 70s and 80s and the budget for building houses (even architect designed custom homes) were much humbler than what it is now. The flooring treatment of carpet may have been necessitated by the cost and not by design choice. If the architect had a larger budget, he/she may have chosen to put wood or all ceramic. Hard to know at this point. Here in the Pacific NW, many of that era's contemporary homes had many surfaces covered with wood, often flat toungue in groove; ceiling, flooring and walls. These were often cedar and fir. Because the view sees mostly evergreen trees or water or mountains, these homes feel very much a part of the landscape with so much wood. I suggest medium toned wood for all your woodwork if going that route. The ceiling has set the tone for you. I recently saw a 80s contemporary house that had a complete overhaul to 2010/2011 esthetic. They used dark slab cabinets, dark window frames, concrete floors, metal work for stairs, etc. It did not feel like a 80s home. It really felt like a new home with the 80s shell. Unfortunately, the shell somehow carries its age even resided, repainted, windows replaced, and railing updated etc. You can't make something old look NOT OLD. If you are going this route, you gotta do ALL... I am afraid dark (mocha/espresso) stain is going to the 2011 treatment of modern design, not the 80s design. I love painted slab doors as suggested by palimpest. Ikea makes a line of painted white slab doors. This would be a budget way to go. One of my friends live in a home from the 70s/80s that won the AIA home of the year. This home has been in architecture books. He has all wood floors. All of the tile in that house is small 1x1 glass mossaic tile in a muted pinkish/beige color popular at that time, similar to your carpet. The tub is entirely tiled. They have painted white slab cabinets, very fitting the house. The house had a healthy budget of that era: it has granite counters, all HW, steel tubular railings (that's another item that dates the era). Good luck.