Sherry, glad you have decided to go for it. Lori and Robin, just wondered if you have decided to participate or not? I want to add you to the list. Just a reminder - if you are new to the forums and especially if this is your first Swap, make sure that you activitely post over the next few weeks so that your partner will be able to find some current information on you. Most of us like to search the various threads for hints of things that you might like rather than look at a list of likes and dislikes. Also, if you are looking for information on your partner and can't find what you are looking for, then get sneaky and start a thread on the cooking forum that hopefully your partner will post to. Example - Want to know if your partner likes spicy foods? Start a thread asking about favourite Curry or Mexican foods. Or maybe you are thinking of including something BBQ or Grill related. Start a related thread. Ann

Boxerpups, the lights are growing on me a bit. I took out the brighter bulbs and put in 38W. Much less POW! BRIGHT! but there's still a lot of daylight and that may be lessening the glare. I typically don't work or eat at my peninsula except during the day, so it's not like the lack of downward light is an immediate problem. I think though that lighting it well would perhaps increase its usability at night. My counters are Caesarstone Smoky Ash. I wasn't so sure about them at first (at least I'm consistent), but they're growing on me, too. abfabamy, I wish I'd thought more about this ahead of time. I don't really need all this mid-air light. At least I'm not staring into the bulb. I've seen so many lovely clear pendants and I don't know how people can stand the brightness. Definitely look for a shade that directs the light downward. I should have spent more time observing in the snooty lighting store before ordering online without thinking. holligator, those are really nice pendants. Until mine were installed, I wanted no part of cloth cords. But the guy had a hellacious time getting the rods straight and I was limited to certain heights. Now I wish I had cords. Does your bulb give off any glare? What a difference a day makes. My KD stopped by with a pot of red tulips. My peninsula looks positively staged. I washed all the dishes that had been sitting in the garage getting funkier by the day and everything's put away. It's only a kitchen, right?

We have 3 LBL lighting pendants over our center island. The glass color of the pendant makes a difference on the light quality that is emitted and it an important consideration in your selection. We have in ceiling lighting as well as LED under cabinet lighting in addition to task lighting at the cook top and sink. The overhead lighting and the pendant lighting are on dimmers. I specifically chose pendants that had bulbs that were concealed enough to not shine in people's eyes as they were gathered around the island. I have been very happy with my selection. And with the lights on (it was very important to me to choose a pendant light that gave off a warm light tone): Here is a link that might be useful: LBL Lighting

I told the saleschild at the local distributor that I'd had no problems with the one I bought from Modernica 15 years ago, and he tried to tell me that Modernica only made knock-offs. Rubbish. Don't mess with me about MCM design history, kid. I know the history of that whole situation, and they made originals with original equipment which they bought from a manufacturer who went bankrupt. But HM, which operates the George Nelson Foundation, saw how popular the lights had become, and sued over licensing and won. Clearly I'm more than just a little ticked off. But I have asthma, and am also awaiting a test for potential cancer, so I don't fancy breathing in all kinds of nasty VOCs for weeks on end. Arghhhh!