Hi sanga, Nice pics. Wow,I don't recall ever seeing a D.brevifolia put out that many pups. And yet they all find a way to poke thru without damage to themselves or the ones next to them. I have a D.platyphylla with 10 pups,which I thought was very good,until I saw your photo,but your plant has even more than that. Good show! Bob

You made them all fit right in Jane, they look wonderful! Yep, the bunny is for anytime of the year, he's darling. These ironstone pieces sure go well with your red/white too. Wish I had a basement too, although Kathleen oftens moans about having to carry things up and down her's. I still remember when Judith was going to put storage shelves in her garage for the "overflow", remember? Luvs

I was in exactly your situation two years ago. We weren't really looking, but then found a house that was unique (it had won a major architecural award), and was perfect for us. And we knew it was not going to stay on the market long. We put in a full-price bid contingent on selling our house, and lost out to someone who made a full-price offer with no contingency. A week later our realtor called and told us the successful bidder had left the country on a business trip, and had not completed the deal before leaving. The seller was willing to cancel the winning offer and let us have it...if we went with no contingency. We decided to say 'yes,' even though we did not have our own house on the market. The only saving feature was that the house was being leased and the lease had 3 months to run before we had to close. We put our house on the market on November 1st and got an offer in the first week...that fell through. We got another offer in December...that fell through. We moved into the new house in January, with our old house still on the market. Even though the market was hotter 2 years ago, Thanksgiving, Xmas, and the first months of the year are not a good time to try to be selling. To make a long story short, it took 2-1/2 months after we moved to sell our old home, and it only sold because we agreed to come down in price by about 8%. Fortunately, we had no mortgage on the old home, but all of our equity was tied up until we sold. We had to take out a humongous interest-only bridge loan, and had about $2300 going out the door in payments each month for the privilege of owning two houses. In addition, we had utility payments and property taxes to pay for both houses, and had to drive across town to check on the old one a couple of times a week to clean up muddy footprints, clean sinks that had been used and left dirty, lock doors that had been left unlocked, and turn down the heat that had been cranked up. So how do we feel in retrospect? Great! We are really glad we did it, and still love the new house. It was nerve-wracking to have a huge (temporary) mortgage that we had to pay for out of savings, and it was annoying to have to keep checking up on the old house. But it was worth it. As long as you know what you might be getting into, go for it. Just have a backup plan. If the seller doesn't take a contingency offer, are you prepared to make another offer that's not contingent? (You could make an offer that is not contingent, but gives a closing date several months off.) And how long are you able to handle having two houses, both financially and emotionally?

Gram, I just bought some small paper doilies. I'm trying to make some "wooden" valentines cookies with different "toppings" on them. Wanted them to look like the ones Minnie postefd on the crafts or holidays forum. (Her's are real.) Thought I would use a doily as a stencil on a couple of them. Make them look like I sprinkled powdered sugar on them. I think I've stenciled over a doily before but it would have been eons ago! I have seen lace used on projects and it looked beautiful--just haven't had occassion to try it myself. Probably wouldn't want to ruin the piece of lace--I love lace! Ha ha I have some old bottles of texture paste, so I used some of it to ice a few of the "cookies" last night. The one product really looked like icing! Sure hope nobody picks one up when I am not looking--wouldn't want anyone to break a tooth! LOL Not sure this project will be worth all the cutting and sanding--but decorating them is sort of fun! I think my post about the painting roses on suitcases video is on the Trash to Treasure forum. This suitcase was only 99 cents, so figured "Why not"? I often want to try things--but then have no place to use them. I used to let that stop me, but now I figure I will just do it and enjoy myself. I can always have a YS or donate it to Goodwill, right? Paintingfool, Bet that was a good book. I have a couple of magazines with painted teapots in them. I've also seen some on ebay and on some of the Shabby Chic sites. I am sort of curious about this one--the metal is different from most that i have seen--not copper but very gold colored. It's really heavy and the inside is beautiful. We use Maas polish on the silver and pewter items at the store--so I think I will try that on this one. Just want to see if I might have found a diamond in the rough! LOL If it doesn't clean up and look good, then I will spray paint it and paint some roses on it. What a great idea with the bowls. Bet they are wonderful. That sounds like challenging painting too. You are just amazing. I think it is so fun to hit a YS or TS and look for things to revitalize with paint. That duck I found has to be from the 80's. I think I have a painting book with a whole bunch of them in it. For 55 cents, I couldn't not give him a 2nd lease on life. I think I will sand him off and repaint him--he'll add a little whimsey in my sideyard flowerbed. Happy painting! Luvs