Seakrits, You could also go to a website that sells plants and look at the pictures to find the ones that came with your house. I am really bad at remembering names of things, so I use plant markers and I label everything I plant so that I can remember later what it is. You can buy metal markers at the store (like in the Garden section of Walmart), or you can also cut up old mini-blinds and write on them and stick them in the ground. Can you ask Grandma what kind of bulbs she gave the kids? As for mulching, in general you just put it on top of the dirt, being careful not to cover over plants you already have. You can buy "living mulch" that is a combination of mulch and compost, and it will help your soil. Eventually (in theory), worms will come up from the soil into the compost and mix it all together for you. For added weed prevention, you can also put down a thick layer of newspaper (or cardboard) under the mulch. Most weeds/grasses won't be able to grow up through it, and that will cut down on your weeding in the future. Then, to plant plants in that area, you just dig down through the mulch/compost and tear through the newspaper for each hole for each plant, so its roots can get to the soil. If you have a large area you're working on, it'll be cheaper to buy your mulch and/or compost in bulk. There are garden centers that will sell you mulch by the cubic yard for about $30-40 (more if they deliver to your house). A small pickup truck can carry a cubic yard no problem, and you can usually spread it out in one morning. As an example, I can mulch my front flowerbeds, which run the length of my house, so about 60' long by 2' wide, with a cubic yard of mulch (although I actually use the mulch/compost mix). Another good way to make new beds is a method called "lasagna gardening." You can search it on this website (or just google it), and learn a lot. I wouldn't even bother with a vegetable garden if you're wanting to sell the house next year. Too much work for one year's bounty. You could grow a couple of tomato plants in with your flowers, though, and it would work out fine. Here is a link that might be useful: Source to look up what plants you already have

When I get home from work tonight I want to check the dates on mine. Not only did I find pennies everywhere I also started finding dimes. I was careful to keep them separate from my other money in my change purse; it finally got to be too much to carry there so I'm keeping those coins in a pretty tin that I bought at a yard sale the morning before Bob died. The most strange thing was this: When I was switching out my winter clothes for my summer clothes earlier this year I had carried about 20 items upstairs - they were on hangers in the basement closet. I laid them on my bed and went through them one by one so I could eliminate what didn't fit, I didn't like, etc. When I got about halfway through the stack there was a dime. It was laying on a sweater! OK, maybe I was holding the clothes up against me and the pressure kept it from dropping out. BUT - if that was the case how did it stay there while they were hanging in the closet downstairs? And I had already been finding dimes instead of pennies for a few weeks at that time. No doubt in my mind where it came from.

budge1: I like the brown floral. In fact, after your post I started looking at a few similar fabrics for myself. I think I need to just place my order so I can stop agonizing over it all. I was the same way with my kitchen. I kept tweaking the design for over 6 months and drove my DH and KD nuts. I love my kitchen, though even today I see someone else's kitchen and think, hmmm... maybe.... so that's why I frequent this board now over kitchens. jejvtr: Thank you for the other suggestions for sofas and glad you like the look of the CC one. I had picked that out over a month ago--it was the side chairs that I was in a delimna what to do regarding style and fabric and once I made my choices, I started to wonder if the chairs would go with the style sofa I had picked. If the decorating experts say this one goes, that is enough for me. I'd rather stick with CC at this point since I've already picked all my fabrics, sat in the sofa and found it to be comfortable, maped out the dimensions in my floorplan, etc. teeda: That was the conclusion I came up with also so no more looking for me on CL at vintage sofas. When we remodeled our house we lived in an apt for 7 motnhs and my poor DS actually slept in a sofa bed in the living room the entire time! After that, the sofa was not the same so we had to replace it with the sectional. The sofabed will only get occasional use and I think I might get an aerobed down the road so guests can have a choice and I have more options for additional guest sleeping since neither DH nor my family live locally--wonder if you can take them camping? Tommorrow I'm going down to CC and place my order--for the WTs, the sofa and 3 sofa cushions. The associate is busy getting a quote for me on reupholstering the chairs as I FAXed her a picture and dimensions which she sent to their workroom. I'm thinking of using the floral on the fronts and the green velvet on the back and arms. For the sofa cushions I will do 2 in the pink diamond fabric with fringe and a center cushion with the floral and green velvet combo.

I'm beginning again after having lost my previous post, who knows what I did. Thank you all so much for your kind comments. It always shores up my confidence when you all like what I've done, even when I'm sure in my own mind that it all looks good. d_gw, in one of the "before" pictures you're seeing the summer bedspread which I bought not too long ago, but after some time it got colder and I had to break out the winter quilt. I was too lazy to use the winter shams, however. I painted the yellow silk pillow with blue acrylic and rust colors to make it look less yellow. I'm no artist, but at least it blends in a little more. I'm showing a close-up of the dachshunds, which for some reason have feet that look like flippers. Hubby has no explanation; he's usually much better than that. I'm adding a picture of a beloved dog and cat who have passed on and a duck that's before my time, as were the dachshunds. Notice the "flippers", cannot explain those. Those are not doggie feet! Nellie, my beloved dog who I hope is waiting for me. Casey, my sweet and gentle cat, now long gone. A feathered friend. In all honesty, my husband's best works are oil paintings.