Graywings, thanks for your reply. I did post it on the Stereo side with different wording but was hoping someone on the docorating site would have ideas of making a stereo work in a room I am trying to make more appealing looking. I am thinking of just keeping the stereo I have after all since why buy a new one to have a smaller one if it will not look that much better. I'll take pictures once the white wicker dresser is in my room. I am hoping I am making the right decision with the white color since I visited the wicker store a few hours ago and really loved the white wash color. But I think the white will brighten up my room. I will have 30 days to change my mind and switch to the white wash finish.

this thread on fireplaces, particularly the pic above where a tv will be above the fireplace, reminds me of a neat trick my uncle did when redoing the living room in his Victorian. My aunt wasn't too keen on a flat screen TV above the fireplace, but my uncle really wanted it. He's a very talented builder/remodeler. He recessed the flat screen slightly into the wall and found a special kind of mirrored glass that looks just like a beautiful bevelled mirror when the TV is off but becomes transparent when the TV is on. He put that glass on top of the TV and framed out the edges with painted wood so it looks for all the world like a regular mirror hanging above the fireplace. I wish I had pictures. It is seriously cool. When the TV is on, there's no reflection from the glass, either. It looks like there's nothing on top of the TV. Brilliant idea.

When at school we did 'Domestic Science' which was really just cookery. I can well remember my first lesson was 'rock buns' which certainly lived up to their names. Second lesson was pastry-making. Not easy as I had never cooked at home, only used to being my Mother's skivvy washing up, peeling spuds etc. My brothers did the usual woodwork, tech drawing etc at school. Nowadays little proper 'cookery' or needlework is taught I was expected to make beds, dust, wield the 'hoover' etc and didn't enjoy it. I really think parents should make children 'help' in the house and not sit about being waited on like little Emperors, although this probably goes against the grain of modern parenting where kids must be entertained 24/7. How many of you notice a change in attitudes towards the amount of 'help' men give around the house. When I was a young child (late40's50's) my Grandfather lived with us and did nothing except eat, sit and read the paper and sleep. My Mother claimed when she first 'joined the family' he was unable to get clean clothes out or put stuff to be laundered. His sisters and Mother had waited on him hand and foot and even cleaned his football and cricket boots! Difficult to believe he had been quite a sportsman in his day. He would let the fire go out rather than put a shovel of coal onto it and used to get me (aged 3-4) to make phone calls on his behalf . . . My father was able to cook 'basic' meals and was good at noticing what needed dusting/cleaning and would drive my Mother mad by telling her about the wives of friends, all paragons of virtue, who were up every day at dawn polishing, cooking vast meals, cleaning the oven every week . . . and apparently telling everyone about it. My DH is able to cook and makes excellent bread but is less interested in cleaning and is the world's most untidy person who never throws anything away. My older son and s-in-law are very domesticated and can do as much, if not more than their wives, from child-care to ironing.

I loved Chicken Run, and realized I'd missed many good lines the first time, when we watched it again. The line I laughed hardest and loudest was 'Captain, we've got a cling-on, the engines can't take much more'. Gods must be Crazy is wonderful and still stands up over time - I showed it to my DH a few years back. The sequel is a disappointment btw I love silent movies, btw. Some of my fav include Sunrise, Metropolis (for the 'a head of its time' design, not so much for the acting), The General, The Wind and Greed. Also love some original silents of later popular movies: Wizard of Oz and Oliver Twist are very interesting, and Scarlet Letter is probably the best version I've ever seen. I have a huge collection of these movies and often find myself drawn to the time and place, and the acting of those days.