Can you give an example of a "well known, mid-priced dept store"? Do you mean Pennies or Sears? Except for sales, price will affect the quality of the fabrics. I do a lot of clothes shopping online. I've found that I had to learn which stores met all my requirements: acceptable price, acceptable quality, consistant fit, style. I did quite a bit of return shipping in the beginning and that hurts! But it taught me which places just don't work for me. Some places simply do not use the generally accepted sizes. Victoria's Secret for example, generally runs large, J Crew runs small. It's really the same for brick and mortar stores - you find which stores carry what you like and want. Unfortunately too many cater to teenagers. I think that is extremely short-sighted, given the larger Baby Boomer group who are now middle-aged. In the end, I settled for higher prices to get quality and fit over bargain prices. Lately, I've been trying to use some newly opened brick and mortar versions of the same online stores (like J Jill or Talbots) to save on shipping costs. I notice that these stores have *less* selection than their online versions. The only time I notice sizes lacking for online clothes is if I wait too long to order. Catalog stores definitely carry a lot less inventory than they used to. Some, like Soft Surroundings, seem to have everything on back order. I wonder if they wait until there are enough orders for something before they have it made?! Since I buy higher priced materials, I can't buy as much so I make sure I get classic separates that can work together. Better fabrics last longer too. I do still shop locally for bargains. Some shops not inside malls will offer lower prices to get customers. See if there is a Cato store near you. The clothing styles are rather youthful but they have nice accessories and the prices a great. In addition, check out consignment stores. I found a local second hand clothing store where a lot of well to do women drop off their used clothing. I've gotten some real bargains there of good name brands. In the end, you have to determine your personal clothing priorities. If lower cost is first on your list, you will probably have to compromise on other issues. I have a friend who is on a budget, but still manages to always be amazingly put together in a seemingly endless variety of outfits, from shoes to ear rings to lipstick color! She does no online shopping but spends most of her free time bargain hunting; haunting TJ Maxx, Marshalls and sales, sales, sales. For myself, I have better things to do than spend all my free time in stores. ;) I don't know about marketing strategies, but I often wonder about retailers in particular. I've been in so many stores with racks too full of clothes, poorly lighted dressing rooms, dressing room hooks full of rejected clothing (even piled on the floor), no clerks, clerks who were slooooowww or rude, etc., etc. And I do understand hating malls. It's like shopping at the zoo sometimes. ;) No wonder people prefer to shop online.

Interesting conversation. Although the first video was scary to watch, I watched it again and did notice the first house wasn't even completed which to me leads to the interview to be inconclusive. You can't compare a finished home to a new home under construction with just wood framing and then say the new home burned down, it just doesn't make sense or maybe I overlooked something. I don't have my house covered except for windows and roof but I do know it would burn down faster than my neighbours house which is 60+ years old because my home is essentially *naked* and I would have nothing left if both our homes were to have a fire. As for insurance, my insurance company hasn't asked anything about our trusses vs. traditional lumber so my premiums would remain the same. I was pretty concerned about this whole thing after reading it yesterday and called our city inspector (who's also a friend) and asked about the pros/cons and his response was "if new homes have this problem which he hadn't heard of, older homes have others you may not have such as old electrical issues so there's concerns about everything causing a fire in any type of home". Not trying to argue with anyone but essentially everything in our homes are a fire hazard that can bring down a house in a matter of minutes. As long as everyone is out safely, that's what we all have insurance for.

When I first started quilting in the late 1990's I kept hearing people say I needed to build a stash. So .... I was doing mostly applique and it wasn't so bad to buy a few fat quarters, but then I as most, if not all, quilters started seeing patterns I wanted to make and bought fabric to make those quilts. Now, I have a stash of fabric for quilts I'll probably never make and some of that fabric I wonder why I bought -- I don't like it any more. If I had do-overs, I would buy fabric for the quilt I intend to make and finish before I bought more fabric. But since that is not the case, I'm trying to use up what I have. I'm told you can put that ugly fabric in a scrap quilt and not notice it. So, my purchasing trend is to buy any backing fabric I need and batting. When I do purchase fabric I buy at a fabric shop -- Moda is my favorite.

Debbie, your home is very lovely, nice job. I'm also into the blue, blue, blue accents till a few years ago when I started to add the country red and mustard colors here and there. The colors are perfect together and there's more for the eye than everything being blue. The carosel horse decoration you have in your cabinet is just gorgeous as are the other blue pieces. You asked for suggestions on recovering furniture. My sis wanted to recover her couch and chair some years back so she carefully removed the tacks/nails and took the fabric pieces off trying not to rip or literally destroy them. Once she had that done she used a seam ripper to undo the sewn together parts of the couch/chair fabrics she took off and laid those pieces down on her new fabric, cut them out in the exact pattern and sewed them together as they were in the old patterns. Next was to put it all back on the couch/chair and used new nails/tacks where they went. You'd never know she refinished the furniture fabric, looked brand new. My sis is very much into sewing though and loves it so these projects were right up her alley.