Sammy- IME, betta's will hang out once in a while on plants for a quick "rest" but usually respond to movement within the room, or will usually surface and wait for food or just to "say hello". The biggest concern with "the general" is laying on its side. Not good at all. The picture looks like a small bowl with no filtration or temperature control. Depending on your location the water could be getting too cold and the fish's metabolism will slow and he will become lathargic. But that usually affects eating, and yours seems to be eating. This leads me to believe that he is sick or the water is toxic with ammonia or nitrites. If you keep a betta in a bowl with no filtration you really have to monitor ammonia levels. I don't know who's book you are following, but any amount of ammonia is toxic to fish, any type fish. The only way to remove ammonia from an unfiltered aquarium is to change the water daily to remove or at least dilute the ammonia. The ammonia comes from decaying uneaten food and fish waste. Ammonia can be detected after as little as 12 hours from uneaten food. In larger aquariums (and very small ones to) a "bio-filter" is created from helpful bacteria that converts the ammonia and nitrites in to less harmful nitrate. Nitrate is pretty harmless to fish unless it builds up over 40ppm. The nitrate is removed from weekly or bi-weekly partial water changes (PWC's). This is what happens in a natural eco-system. Also plants (live ones) cycle the amm. and Nitrite to nitrate. Plants do this and use the nitrate as food. To keep "The General" in command, get a larger aquarium. I would say at least 5 gallons, with filtration and a heater. Minimally the 5G with a heater and some hearty plants like a Java Fern. Just improving the water conditions will improve his health and longevity. I know the Betta is marketed in a way that makes it seem like a no effort way to keep fish. IMO it is just exploited for its attributes as a survivor. Truth is more often then not these fish don't survive as long as they should or could.

Unfinished windows--just more cheap construction. Large master bathrooms are the expected situation here in southern California and will hurt your sales situation if the master bath is small. Ditto hall bath. Now the powder room can be small, but it had better be posh. All I know is what DD told me. They did a shoot after they moved into their house. Maybe the producers wanted to get one more area show before they packed up and were willing to do a rush job like this. Don't know. Just like that redecorating show where they show how to set up a room using only furniture and accessories you already own. Some good lessons can be learned watching this show. But it is so obvious that they get the owners to buy a certain color of throw pillows and put them on a bed so that they can "shop the bedroom" for the exact color of finishing touches they need. Happens too often.

Hazel- Thanks - I'll get a bar of soap off to you in a few days. I have been swamped also. Mother's day is killing me. I think I've averaged about 3 hours of sleep a day. I promised Mother's day orders by Wednesday evening to my customers though. So whatever it takes. I also started selling in the local "craft mall". It's a country sampler that is nation wide. A little pricey on the monthly rent, but we'll see how it goes. I don't know how much business you want to do Hazel, but what I started doing was having "book parties" from my booklets. I give a few books out to whoever wanted to have the party. They get orders from friends and family and then I go to their house to close the sale. The host/ess get's 10% of total sales, $5 for every person who closes a book party from a referral from their party, and then an additional $20 for evey $250 in sales (all in store credit). Everything is delivered to host/ess house within 7-10 days for s/he to distribute. Hand sanitizer is basically aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol. You mix them together until the gel is thinned out and then scent it. I'm not sure what the ratio is. You can buy the base at duckiescrafts.com or USA CHEMICALS. It's averaged priced - around $13/gal. Take caution regarding duckiescrafts.com though. I have heard several bad bad things about them. There is a site where you can read negetive info about them, but I'll have to e-mail it to you if you want it. THS will not let me post any mention of this site though. They keep throwing my submits back. Somthing to do with spamming. Also - i read once that to carry the sanitizer requires a different form of liscensing because it is "antibacterial". That may be why a lot of suppliers don't carry it. Just a guess. HTH Heather

A few years ago, I was in a JoAnn's with my DIL. I found two fabrics that I liked and were co-ordinates. Both brown, one with a swirl of two or three colours, the other was a polka dot. Future project material so into the brown bin they went. In my head, the main colour besides the brown was turquoise and so that was my plan for the sampler. The pattern is called Cinnamon Teen Chocolate, a BOM, from Fat Quarter shop. (where do they get those names?) it uses only shades of brown from dark, to medium to very light, but I thought I could use turquoise from my stash to replace the mediums. But when I pulled these fabrics out of the bin, I was very surprised, and a lot disappointed, to see the dots and part of the swirl is lime green with some bits of turquoise. Probably a colour combo popular a few years ago. So my options are 1. Make the pattern using only shades of brown, 2. Replace some of the mediums with lime green, or 3. Mix in some turquoise with lime green. There really won 't be too much of either colour. I am still auditioning fabrics trying to wrap my head around these options. and Donna, I know you aren't fond of brown and turquoise but I kind of like it. Sorry to be so longwinded. Sometimes writing it all out makes it clearer to me. And helps me decide. Open to any suggestions! Theresa