Maureen, your question made me realize I have no idea for my own kitchen. I actually looked up every single color mentioned in your thread-- it was really helpful. I'll have to check out the old house forum as well. I think the accessories, hardware, & paint will be critical since dark shaker-style cabinets can often look very modern. Kelleg, Downstairs is all a cream color (almost white, really). Upstairs, our bedroom is yellow (previous owners had painted it that color and it actually worked really well w/ our art, furniture, etc). One kid's room is BM Northern Sky (almost a wedgewood blue color) and the other children's room is lime green (previous owners' choice, but we really like it). Our art is really colorful, so we were thinking of leaving the walls white in the kitchen and then hanging on of our larger paintings in the eating area....

Just go to WalMart or wherever they have KILZ in your area (Value, maybe?) and ask them for a "Silk" or "Soft Silk" chip (or maybe the formula from their book if it's since been discontinued). Then take it to HD to color match! PS- Love everything about your house! Especially kitchen/family room and that laundry room floor. Great job! PPS- I'm pretty sure HD didn't list the color in their archives as "Debbie's cheap and making do again with leftovers!" Although I suppose anything is possible! :)

Wow! Thanks for the welcoming words and responses! Plasticine is a type of oil-based clay that remains soft and pliable and is, indeed, used in claymation. The author (and artist), Becky Paton, uses it to create the outer edges of molds for several of her creations. Darling little foot prints and colorful fish, for example. I've attached a link to Becky Paton's book via Amazon. Many of you are probably already familiar with her work. It blows me away. Please tell me what you think of her creations. Attempted to add a link to one of the actual pages in the book, but the link won't come through. Using the link below, you can search the book, using "plasticine" as the search term and then you can click to see the page if you are an Amazon customer. There are recipes on the internet for plasticine-type clay, but the ingredients sound a bit intimidating -- perhaps even hazardous to one's health. There is a German equivalent, but I don't see anything available in the U.S. What appeals to me is the ability of making my own specially shaped objects, rather than finding preformed objects or doing things solely in the type of geometric shapes that pizza boxes, tupperware(R) and the like allow. You guys are a huge inspiration! A complete and utter lack of experience and, sadly, artistic ability, takes me well out of the realm of mere newbie-hood or neophyte. Consider me the purest form of XXVOO. Humbly, Rain Here is a link that might be useful: Becky Paton via Amazon

Wood - Glad you are enjoying the wonderful "Child/Forest" book. My library has the prettiest edition of this, and I donated the other two in the trilogy, but have a strong feeling they went into the FoL book sale instead of on the shelves which I had intended to make up the trilogy for other people. As for the adding of the "-ie" sound to words in English, that is quite common even now. "Brekkies" - breakfast "Sarnies" - sandwiches "Prezzies" - presents/gifts Also, there used to be a penchant for reducing some names to "-az" such as: Sharon --> Shaz or Shazzer Barry --> Baz or Bazzer Des --> Dezzie This might just be my group of friends though... We had a mixed bunch (social class speaking) and I think this shortening was a lower class trend... I could be mistaken as it may vary in other regions...