That is amazing! Send some to my yard :-) When a garden is left pesticide free then nature has a way of balancing all those evil bugs. I mentioned on the discussion forum that my swan milkweed (aka:family jewels) was killed by the oleander aphids - on the good side, I had lady bugs galore this year. Yep, didn't even have to buy any to release, they came naturally. Have you seen any milkweed bugs yet? First time I saw one I thought I had a rare species of bug *LOL* very colorful little guys, but harmless. They like to eat the MW seeds. Edna

Don, he wasn't my first parrot....He could be likened to finally getting a Porsche, if you're into cars. I brought him home when he was 5 weeks old.... about mid-April, 1999. Here is his baby picture when he came home. I'd been going over to my friend's house (the breeder), to hand feed him when she pulled him from the nestbox. I continued to hand feed him, with what is called "abundance feeding" so he weaned himself, at 22 weeks old, without feeling deprived. He weighed 600 grams as a well fed baby boy, and he weighs that now as an adult. He has beautiful feathers, no fat, great muscle tone especially in his breast which allows him to fly efficiently.....but consider that birds are so aerodynamic, with hollow bones, hollow feathers, they eat moderately frequently, also poop frequently and do it almost EVERY time before they take flight....which is a clue to imminent flight, by the way.

Glad you have enjoyed them - I had a good time rediscovering them all over again as I flipped through so quickly. I'm going to see if DH or my MIL can take the kids away for a few hrs. so that I can enjoy them over a cup of tea in peace & quiet & plan some more. I think that I really noticed some recurring theme's in what I like - especially color wise w/ all of the green, purple, pink combo's. In fact the page that says Floral Essences w/ a pic of the lady in the green dress is about to help me round out my color palette for downstairs! Her green dress is similar to my LR wall color. Her basket: close to the shade of brown that I've chosen for the top 1/3 of my kitchen walls. The brick wall: My house is brick I was trying to pick a red for my DR but the consensus on the forum is that the deep reds I liked were too dark for my dark trim BUT when I saw that pic I thought "Why not a color similar to the flowers in her basket?"! The whole pic flows so I know it would look good in my house as I already have so many colors in the layout. Color inspiration can be found where you least expect it! And it looks romantic but still earthy. As for my organization: That's a long way coming but thanks! I just used a 3 hole punch one weekend & just shoved my tear outs into 2 binders that I found laying around. I slipped a piece of blank white paper between each article to separate them. I still have tons to add. Soon I will begin looking for some decadent binders to organize them in. A few for decorating, gardening & entertaining. Right now they're all mixed together w/ no rhyme or reason. I need to add the little white thingies to the holes to reinforce them & I've learned that if I break the binding of the magazine I can easily pull out an entire article out w/o having to use scissors to score the pages & risk an uneven tear.

Hey lissa: the link to your drawing actually just brought me back to this thread . No drawing. It appears that you will have a large rectangle with a single door to the porch /office. Is the kitchen then going to be w/o any windows? Mine is as it is in the center of the house. You will certainly have lots more room when you close the window wall and have cabs and counters all along there. Also it seems that if you make the door to the porch/office as far to the DR end wall as possible that will get you more wall space in the kitchen if you put the fridge on that end of the cabs as you plan. They have of course fridges with panels that look like furniture so it would blend in. Also is this your only eating area ? If it isn't then you could do an island w/ eating area and incorporate the whole DR area into the kitchen. I really would like to see the drawing to scale and if you repost this so the real talent for floor plans can look at it , it will benefit you way more ! I am an amateur compared to some of the folks on here. c