Jillalameda, gosh, what a wonderful compliment. Thank you! I do love it...making all the choices was agonizing and you just never know how it will all look until it's completed and it's too late to change anything. I do have a window seat planned in the dressing area, so I DON'T ever have to leave it! I just had an antique chaise recovered to put there temporarily, and someone wanted to see a pic, so I will get one posted soon. Gbsim, here is a different pic of the sanijet. I LOVE IT! There are a couple more on the website...didn't know if you wanted a different shot than what is posted, if so, let me know, but I think it is pretty well covered there. Also, I just wrote about Kolbe on the windows forum so if you go there and search for my name, you'll see my comments about them. I'd never heard much about them until I chose them; they are beautiful and seem to be good quality. Flyleft, I can't remember where I saw the trim tile...I went to every tile store between Seattle and Portland, I swear. Them my local tile store ordered it for me. I have been trying to get a good close up of it for you, but can't seem to capture the best subtleties of it. I'm going to try again and will post when I do. Oh, and the door design isn't a film, it's actually the glass in the door. I don't know if I squealed, but I sure felt like it when it was installed. It is gorgeous in person.

greenjewels...I look forward to seeing what you think of the quality from that site. I have 4 feet above my kitchen cabinets and will be doing a special project that will need some plants. I have looked at that site many times before and plan on ordering from there too. Best of luck to you. ================================================= Here is an article on cleaning plants. I know you can even hire companies to come into your home and clean your artificial plants...I may need to do that some day. :-) ================================================= Silk plants are an attractive accessory, but only if they are kept clean and dust-free. Silk plant maintenance is simple since they do not need the sun, water and fertilizers real plants require, but cleaning must be done regularly to keep the plants crisp and pretty. Basic dusting is the most important part of silk plant care. Use either a feather duster or a lambs wool duster to brush the loose dust and dirt off of your plantÂs stems and leaves on a regular basis. Periodically, use a soft brush attachment with your vacuum to collect heavier deposits of dirt or cobwebs. Once or twice a year, your plants may require heavier cleaning to maintain their beauty. Before you clean them, you should still remove the dust first so the application of water or cleaner will not turn the layer of dust to mud. Remember that each silk plant is unique since different types of silk and dyes may be used, and you should test your cleaning solutions on each plant in a hidden area. Always check the care label on your plants since some silks should not ever get wet. Several manufacturers sell silk plant cleaning sprays, and these generally do a good job when carefully applied to your plant. However, several less expensive cleaning methods work just as well. The first thing to try is plain tap water. Isolate one leaf or petal and run tap water over it gently. Shake it out. If the surface looks glossy and clean, you should be able to use water to clean the whole plant. Place the plant in a sink, outdoors or on any water-friendly surface. Gently spray water from a faucet or pour water from a large cup, washing each part of the plant without saturating it. Make sure whatever the plant is resting in is water resistant as well. Spanish moss will dry if it is washed along with the plant, but crumpled paper should be removed before you clean the plant. Once you are done washing the plant, shake it gently to remove any excess water and fluff and arrange the leaves. Set it in a sunny spot to dry more quickly. When it is completely dry, it should be as good as new. If you do not have a place you can pour water over the plant, spray water gently on the leaves and wipe them dry with a soft towel or cloth. For extremely dirty plants or plants with stains, add either a small amount of dishwashing liquid or white vinegar to your water solution. Spray the plant with this solution, then gently wipe with a soft cloth. Follow up with a spray of clean rinse water. Soap residue will attract dust and dirt quickly, so make sure the plant is well-rinsed. For a stain or problem area, apply the dishwashing or vinegar solution with a soft toothbrush, gently agitating the spot. Stronger cleaners are likely to damage the silk, so simply spend more time with the gentle cleansers on stubborn stains.

I would love to go to a lecture on color where the information came from real knowledge & experience, but, sadly, most of the ones that I've had the misfortune to have to sit through have been Crying-Baby-Yellow level: that is, not only was the info basic but much of it was worthlessly anecdotal. The good news about that is that it means that anything above that is a step in the right direction--even if it's a baby step. So my suggestion is not about your subject, since I'm no expert on using color--merely its historical usage--but about how to present material that your audience should know but may not know, without, of course, revealing that you know they don't know it. It gets tricky. No one gets as huffy at the subtle implication that he doesn't know what he's talking about as the guy who really doesn't know what he's talking about. The hyperventilating indignation is always the clue to the poseur. Like Shakespeare says, "The lady doth protest too much." Anyway, if you present your material not as knowledge per se aimed at them, but as an approach that they themselves can use to present it to their clients, things will go fine. That is, you talk as though they already know everything you have to say--and that you know they know (even though they may not)--and that the only thing that your audience lacks--because they're visual, not verbal experts--is the ability to explain important (and sometimes complicated) color concepts & theories in such a simple way that even non-professionals can understand them. It's the decorating version of the old "Doctor-a-friend-of-mine-has-a-problem" approach, except you'll be playing the part of the dcotor, and you'll tell them how to explain color things to their "friends." It's silly but it lets everyone keep his self-respect. I've never had to perform this little charade in regards to color, but I frequently have to do it with groups of architectural students & their professors, who, amazingly enough, often know almost nothing of architectural history. It's actually pretty shocking. Anyway, when I do, I preface the whole thing--and my spiel can be pretty heavy-duty: I once transcribed it and then annotated it with my sources and when I got done it had almost 200 footnotes for an hour talk. I don't dumb it down for anybody--with "for those of you who already know all this"--and here's where I give the profs a smile of affirmation that they are, indeed, much more knowledgeable than I am--"please be patient, since I want to make sure the first-year people have the background here, too." Then I sprinkle what I say with plenty of asides: "You already know that Chicago is built on marshland..." & "Think of the Guggenheim Museum's entry sequence..." & "Now, you probably remember know that Louis Sullivan went to school in Paris..." which, things, unfortunmately, many of them don't know, but they don't want to admit it. This way, however, I provide the information they need to understand what they're seeing, but only on the basis that they're merely being "reminded" of what they already know, not that they're being told something for the first time. And there's another benefit of verbally expressing your assurance that most of your audience already knows your material--even when they don't--it eliminates all the head-bobbing that comes when I mention something that they do know, and they want to make sure everyone in the audience KNOWS that they know it. That drives me crazy. It's like hollerin out "Amen"s in church. At any rate, if you can package your info--whatever it is, and good luck on that--into a format which makes it easy for your audience to pass it along to their clients & employees, then you know they're bound to absorb a lot of it themselves, without ever having to admit that it's the first time that they themselves understood it. Best of all, in the future, they'll look to you as an authority. Ah, the games we're forced to play to avoid damaging anyone's precious self-esteem... Regards, MAGNAVERDE.

I went to a Shade Better in Westmont and did not personally like it very much. I didn't think the shades were anything unusual, and the saleswoman had a bit of an attitude with me. Next on my list is the Glen Ellyn shop-- so close to me, but not open too late during the week. There is a coupon for 20% off. It looks like they have vintage shades, too, which I think is a huge plus! Here is a link that might be useful: Coupon