De-lurking here to say it's not just you! We had a strange spring with wild weather swings (up to 40F from daytime to night), and I have to say...this is the crappiest rose season I've had in 8 years. Very abundant number of buds--probably the most ever--but the quality of the individual flowers just stinks. Like the worst thrips damage ever, but each and every rose has it. Some roses had stunted/balled/withered buds, others had blackened petal edges, still others didn't bother with blooms. My Queen Elizabeths, easily the most prolific roses in my garden, haven't bloomed yet. There are some old, established bushes that hardly went beyond their pruned size and only spewed a few deformed buds. Thrips are normally a problem on my light colored roses, but this blight is affecting every color. The later developing buds are better--if on the small side. It's the roses that developed first (late April to early May, which is quite late for us) that were the worst. Surprisingly, the roses that seemed to shrug it off best were some of my David Austins--Jude, the Dark Lady, and a few others. But some of the DA's (Abraham Darby) and other shrub roses and climbers (like Sombreuil) were just horrific. My mom came over and said "you know, if you just look at the roses from the house, they're not so bad." Sigh. And we had such a lovely, rainy winter (for us) that I was sure the rose flush was going to be awesome. And the numbers were truly impressive--hundreds of buds on some of my small (3 ft) bushes, which is the best I've seen. But again, the actual quality of the buds was the worst I've ever seen. Some tried and true winners from my garden were hard pruned just because I couldn't bear to look at their browned/blackened/crinkly/balled horrible little blooms. These included: memorial Day, Queen Elizabeth, Sheer Bliss, Peace (sob), Marilyn Monroe, Daybreaker, New Zealand, Just Joey, blue Nile, Evelyn, Abe Darby, Charles Darwin, Autumn Sunset, Golden Something(normally gorgeous downturned sunny yellow blooms, but this time they didn't even open!),Chicago Peace, Tamora, Pink Peace, Mirandy, Mary Rose, Secret (double sob), McCartney Rose, Tiffany....I could go on, but I'm feeling kind of nauseous. To put it in different terms: I have over 160 rose bushes with few repeats, and this year I have only brought six cut blooms into the house. SIX. But who can really blame the poor roses? Last week we hit 100 degrees on Monday, and on Thursday the high was 54 with rain (snow in Flagstaff, poor buggers). What is a plant to do in these conditions? Apparently, they sulk. Now it's getting to be blistering hot again, with humidity in the single digits. Spider Mite season. I won't likely see a good bloom until September, and then the deer and javelinas will be moving in for their Autumn feast. I'm thinking of getting into daffodils. At least the lilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and cannas are doing well. And the glads look like they might actually open this year (last year they were all duds). I'm off to sulk myself. Heather

Beth, I have been so delighted and educated with all these posts. I love the evolution of your wonderfully charming home! You are an amazing woman! I share several of the decorating dilemmas you've mentioned. My "living room" is about 2' more narrow and 2' shorter than your area. I'm learning a lot from your post. The repurposed gun cabinet idea is absolute genius. Please share a photo when you've installed the shelves and contents. Regarding the non-glare glass for your larger artwork. The price of non-glare glass has become simply ridiculous. I have an entire hallway lined with (Gasp!) a family gallery wall. It includes photos from more than 100 years ago to this year's school pics of the great-nephew. Color, colorized, sepia toned, black and white, all mixed together and mostly in their original mismatched frames. That just about breaks all the rules, but I love my wall. Several of the older photos - Mom's 1954 graduation photo; MIL's 1952 wedding photo, etc. - had plain glass. I can't tolerate the glare either. I made a note in my iPod of all the frame sizes that needed replacement non-glare glass. Every time I'm at a thrift shop or yard sale I check out the "frames" area. You can often find large pictures that may be in horrid frames, but they will have non-glare glass! I buy the frame, take out the glass, and toss the rest. I found one very large print of ballet slippers framed with non-glare that was big enough to cut down into several pieces. It made one 8x10 and three 5x7 pieces of non-glare glass for my wall, all for $1. With their permission, I took the glass out at the shop, tossed the faded print, and re-donated the empty frame back to them.

gle- My lawn came out ok enough....it's green, fungus gone, no weeds, over-seeded in early Sept.... My last thing to do this year is apply fertilizer late October/early November. Then starting next year, I'm going to try to follow this: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4826669/a-yearly-guide-for-cool-season-grasses-from-rutgers to the letter and see how I make out. We're supposed to get a harsh winter in the northeast so let's see how that goes.

Anele, you know your paint companies palettes - the ming red was a Sherwin Williams color. I'm not sure it's still an active color, but they still have it in their formulary because I buy small cans for touchup and according to my record book, it's definitely called "Ming Red." Honestly, if it wasn't for wanting to paint the dining room the paprika I found, I'd keep the red in the living room. I'm just ready for changes. When I finally got rid of my eucalyptus-y/sage green in my family room and went to expresso it was kind of galvanizing. The gold is really a bit richer than the washed out picture and it still makes me happy, but I'm in the mood for a change. The current color is just a few shades lighter than the curry (same basic color family) you posted above - and it does make wonderful changes with the light levels throughout the day and evening. It took a lot of painted 4x4' squares I moved around the room to find it, lol. I like the idea of green, but I'm just not sure since I got rid of green in my family room. Then again, shades of green, reds, and golds have always been my comfort zone - although I was blues, browns, white and pops of red before I married. I don't really care that much about the living room rug - I can easily put it somewhere else in the house, probably my office - but I'm stuck with the chairs until my daughter moves out and takes them, she likes the retro Alhambra print, although I've toyed with placing them at the head of the table in the dining room and getting a couple of new chairs eventually for the living room.