Letting this move down. Thanks everyone! It was great to meet newcomers and to hear from old friends. Hope you'll all participate in the Discussions (and Conversations & Gallery) this year! Happy Gardening! Patti

Hey, what a fun thread! I have only been visiting this forum for about 3 months or so, originally getting into Garden Web through the Canning forum. My name really is Rachel, and Ellen is my middle name. I am 47, married for a year and a half...my husband is 47 as well, and it is the first marriage for us both. Slow starters. ;D No kids. At the moment we have 2 cats, an old grumpus of a male and a sprightly, mischievous kitten (almost cat), having lost my 21 year old Suzu Badcat last winter. We have also recently acquired Outdoorcat, whom I started feeding when someone moved away and left him. I can't bring him in because the old grumpus would have a fit having another male cat in the house...so I'm currently looking for a home for him. I have been cooking since I could manage pouring things into a bowl. My mother was a truly horrible cook, but I bless her for teaching me the basics so that I was at least not intimidated by cooking. I moved in with a Chinese family for about 6 months when I was 17, and that started my life long love for and fascination with ethnic foods. I am an eclectic cook...my husband never really knows what I might put in front of him, luckily he's wonderfully open minded and willing to try new things. I learned the basics of Chinese cooking from that family and kept going from there. I had many Japanese friends as a teen and learned a bit from their mothers, and then worked in a Japanese restaurant for 8 years and learned a lot more. I was born in Southern Maine, but lived most of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I decided that I would like to some day move to a more rural area, I realized that what I'd miss most was the variety of foods available. So, I started to teach myself to cook the foods of India, and have gained sufficiency enough to slake my desire for dals and curries and their lovely vegetable salads and sambhars when the mood strikes as I now do live in the Central valley...many Mexican restaurants, a few Chinese, and lots of burgers. My latest project is to learn Thai, but I've just started that. In addition, I dabble with various African and European cuisines, and of course, there is always good old American food! I bake for other people (I don't care for sweets as a general rule) can lots of jams,marmalades, relishes, and pickles. I have a real passion for vegetables, but am too much a carnivore to give up meat...though if I had to make a choice I'd rather do without the meat than do without the vegetables. I was in the restaurant business most of my adult life, going from waitress to head waitress to manager in a foo-foo fancy restaurant (after the Japanese place) where the chef often hit me up for menu ideas...the menu changed every month, and he got tired of thinking up new things. We'd toss ideas around and get into arguments about what was feasible and what would sell, but we had fun and he was always good about giving me credit when he used my ideas or recipes. Now I'm in business with my husband, and mostly just cook for us. When my cabinets got filled with all my spices, various grains, legumes, flours, rices etc., my sweet husband built me a whole pantry worth of shelves in the garage...which are now full...dunno what the heck we'll do now. :O The problem with multi-ethnic cooking is that you have to have SO MANY ingredients on hand! I love this forum because very few of my friends even know how to cook, let alone have a passion for it, and I can see that many here do. I am also very impressed by how positive, encouraging and helpful all the posters are. With cooking, there is always more to learn and no matter how accomplished you are, there is always someone who can teach you something. And, no matter how experienced a cook or how inexperienced, burnt carrots are burnt carrots and cursing under your breath at the botched mess in a pan before you throw it out and make sandwiches for dinner is sometimes really therapeutic lol. One of my biggest cooking problems is that I very rarely follow a recipe exactly...in fact, I generally use them as sort of an "outline" to what I end up doing. Or, I do a lot of just throwing things together because they sound good. So when someone asks me for a recipe, I'm at a loss. Also, we have a running joke, my husband and I, that if he really loves a dish I make, he'd better savor every bite as it will never taste exactly the same again! Lately, I have started trying to write down what I'm doing as I do it with mixed success. Anyhow, nice to meet y'all!

Laurie, I have that very old 21 year old blinking and humming on its last legs fluorescent light in the kitchen ceiling. Your light is not so bad looking as my light. My tiles looking so different in my light than the home I fell in love with the tiles on the floor is what made me realize how bad the lighting was in my kitchen. If I am not going to invest right now in new cabinets, then I want something for all this effort I put in and instead of undercabinet lighting and instead of installing the small fixture that is not big enough to light up the kitchen (will install in my dining room that only has 60 watts right now since 300 watts in a 15" fixture will look nice there), I am investing in recessing lighting and installing the tiles. I will revisit the kitchen after my busy season. But thank you Laurie for being happy for me. This does sound encouraging and I hope tiling under the dishwasher will help me if I ever replace the cabinets to maybe not tile under them and leave everything the way it is. For now, I may try to paint the cabinets (after removing the tarnished hinges) and if I like the way it turns out, I will add hardware to the doors and change the counters. If I don't like the way it turns out, I will save for cabinets with at least the lighting and floor out of the way. The new guy tonight kept pushing me to get new cabinets and wait several months when he is less busy and felt he could not go under the dishwasher. So far the other installer is winning and has the 2nd best price with the only one bringing a plumber into the picture to making sure the dishwasher is done properly. Your post means so much to me since you and your handy husband are on budgets also and just reminding me that I have been making a lot of progress is making me realize I have and must be patient. My home is so much better looking and functionable before I joined GardenWeb near the end of the 2006 year. Then I had stark white walls with matching white trim, almond appliances, damaged blinds in the rooms (all new window treatments are in my home now), old dirty beige carpets downstairs, and did not have the nice tile I have in my two small foyer areas (tiny area upon entering my home and in between the garage, utility room, bathroom and coat closet tiny hallway that sits between the living room and dining room that I made into my home office). I love my new engineered hardwood floors, love my blinds, love my appliances, love the new efficient central air conditioner/heater/compressor unit, love the new washer and dryer that I bought around 6 years ago now, etc. I just wish I could do more at once.

The herringbone upholstery fabric I purchased is available in a number of places. The best price I have found is at Mary Jo's Cloth Store. It's also available at Calico Corners. At MJ and at CC the fabric is called "Jumper" and it comes in a large variety of color choices. At Ethan Allen it's called "Turner". At Pottery Barn there is a similar fabric called "Chunky Herringbone". At PB it is only available in 2 different colors. Pecan is the color I used on the office chair. I had a feeling that color was also going to be great for my next project (sofa & love seat), so I was using the chair as "practice" and to also see if I love it in a large piece (as opposed to just seeing it on a swatch/sample piece). For the office chair, I had to pay more (even though it was on sale) and order through Calico Corners because of the small amount (2 yards). At Mary Jo's, the color Pecan has to be ordered in a larger amount...I think because they don't stock it? It's not that way for all colors. It's best to give them a call and check first. I was so pleased with the color of the chair, & the way the fabric feels and sews, that I ordered 18 yards from Mary Jo's for the love seat. Whatever amount is leftover after the love seat is done (probably in a few weeks), I can use toward the matching sofa. I'll place a separate order for the sofa. The shipping is very reasonable ($7.99), so not an issue in this situation. The 18 yards from Mary Jo's arrived yesterday. It looks exactly the same as the fabric from Calico Corners. When I get a chance to work with it (tomorrow), I will know more. If there is any difference at all, it may be that the backing is a tiny bit thinner on the fabric from MJ. I can't be certain, but may know more tomorrow. Sometimes, I see the fabric's manufacturer/vendor listed as Valdese and sometimes as UC Manufacturers. Maybe those two companies are the same? Let me know if you learn anything about this fabric and if you end up getting some. What will you be using it on? Laurie Jumper Pecan on top, Cafe below Here is a link that might be useful: Mary Jo's Cloth Store