Ah, CG - it's Christmas Eve already? We're running out of time, friend. :-) (I'm still wondering what happened to October...). What's frustrating is that, even though we bought this house in the spring, one of the things that "sold" me was how pretty it would look with full-on Christmas decorations. White icycle lights along the roofline, greenery around the white columns, red bows (I usually do that, not this year tho), etc. Alas, it's a tall peaked roof, & DH decided to be afraid of being more than 6' off the ground. We even considered renting a cherry-picker to put up permanent lights, but didn't get to it. (Old house, you know.. Every year something comes up. Or, more accurately, "down", lol!). Next year, we'll pay someone to do it. For real, this time! Jakabedy - that's beautiful! Such a huge tree, with all white lights - its simple, it's classy, it's perfect. :-) (I'll bet you don't "throw stones" from that glass house of yours, lol!).

Glenda, you are so right. That spring green through your pretty window does lift one's spirits. Oldgardner, love those spoons...and the kitty on your sill. No spring green in the trees yet this far north, but the grass sure is green. The buds in the crabapples are a few days from opening, but I have hope that the frost that is predicted for tonight won't hurt them.

Charinky, So good to have you here commenting on our posts. VBS, I recognized your santa right away. I painted that same one on a tray last year. Your ornaments with the gold trim turned out great. I will try to help you post a picture instead of the link. Once you have loaded your pictures in photobucket, click the box below picture and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Generate HTML and IMG Code. Hightlight the second one and it will copy your picture and then you can come back to this forum and post on your message. If this doesn't help reread how to post or ask for more help. Does my Santa look like yours? This is going to be so fun to have more here posting with us. TFS Punk

debelli, the dark cherry paneling is from a house around the corner in our neighborhood. We tried to put in a bid, but found out the bank (it was a foreclosure) had already accepted a bid less than 24 hours before. We were pretty bummed, we really loved all the built in storage in that house. We fell in love with the neighborhood, so we kept looking and found our current house about a month or so later. The yellow-y looking paneling with the table and lamp is our actual office, although it's the listing picture. We haven't taken any pictures of this (I'm sitting in it) because we have it jam packed with IKEA office furniture. It's absolutely utilitarian, so definitely wouldn't inspire. DH works from home. Since the rest of the house needs work, I'm leaving this office to last. I'm guessing that we won't do much, no paint, DH doesn't want to change the paneling at all. The houses in my neighborhood were built between the mid eighties to mid nineties and ALL of them have paneling of some type either in an office or formal living room. I believe nearly everyone's paneling is done with birch luan and molding trim. Kathe