What I fun thread! I'm late to the party but a few thoughts. 1) Re the poster above: I think pearls, and diamonds, do go with anything. I would say though, that right now, white pearls are less popular. I say this as someone with quite a large collection of them; they were always my favorite. But in the last five years or so I pretty much only wear my oversized grey south seas pearls. 2) In re "investment". Sorry, not really, not at all. Jewelery has some of the most egregious markups in retail. It can go in and out of fashion, also potentially eroding value. And it can be easily damaged. We recently liquidated a family estate, and I was shocked to hear that some of the diamond rings were quite highly devalued because "they had been worn 'too often' and had damage (not visible to the eye". That was news to me, that I am damaging my diamond by wearing it. 3) Girls and jewelry. My girls were both born very close to Christmas. The thought of trying to buy them gifts just a few weeks later was maddening and wasteful. So, starting when the first turned one and second was newborn, I buy them each a piece of fine jewelry each birthday. They cannot wear it -- it is kept in a safe -- but they get a great deal of enjoyment from it just the same (every few months they beg us to take it out and try it on). They will receive the jewelry to wear on their 16th birthday. I try to buy "timeless" things, and items I can see both a 16yo and a 46yo wear. 4) Watches. I wear mine for decorative purposes. In fact, given how wildly expensive the maintenance is on luxury watches (several hundred dollars every 2-3 years), I am considering letting them go and using them only for jewelry! What a crock these sellers are. 5) Everyday jewelry. I wear my engagement ring and wedding band. Usually with diamond studs but I have a lot of earrings I switch out. My engagement ring is a round diamond in a square basket setting, copied from my grandmother's ring. I lost my wedding ring, which was a rolling ring with two gold bands and one pave diamond band. I lost it about 18 months ago, but I kept thinking it would show up. I am so bummed. I just recently bought a plain gold Cartier wedding band with the little screw motif. It's simple but a little different, and it goes with my favorite daytime watch, which is the iconic gold/stainless Cartier tank with the little screws. This thread needs photos!

Oakley: no Cottage interiors out here that I've ever seen. You will, however, see everything from Rustic, Country, Traditional, Arts & Crafts, Contemporary, Modern and the many variatios of stucco and adobe homes. They all usually contain many Southwestern elements, from our colors to the art and accent pieces, though. A very good friend of mine has a drop-dead gorgeous, custom Arts & Crafts style home that she's decorated with a blend of (very good, antique) Japanese, A&C and SW pieces and they all work together beautifully. Bronwynsmom: Thank you! As for that SW decorating fad that most of us out here absolutely hated, you've described it perfectly, "the phony pink-and-teal, Kokopelli themed, allegedly southwestern schlock motif-heavy fad" . And I would add to that howling coyotes and saguaro cacti (which are not even found in New Mexico and always irritate us to see on supposed NM things -LOL). We still occasionally see evidence of them, but mainly in the cheap tourist shops. Your truth-be-told about owning one of the old, beautiful Georgian Colonial, Greek and classic revival style homes in your area of the country made me smile. My DD's dream is to move to Virginia and live in a home just like that. They are gorgeous but I like and appreciate your practical take on them . . . and will definitely pass it along to DD. Lynn

I think it'll be fine, especially if you're careful about the finish. Your house is pretty much now, and so is the style kitchen you've pictured, and the wide arch. The word "transitional" is overworked, but generally fits anything that has past elements in today's design framework, and that's really what you have pictured. The word "Shaker" applies to the simple recessed panel, not the minimalist design philosophy here. The woods in your picture of the stairs are honey colored (medium golden brown) and in your kitchen drawing they're more spice (medium-dark orange brown). Since you're opening up your house rather than separating off the kitchen, I'd be more concerned with making the woods work together than the cabinet style (which by being so simple should go with anything). Just make sure you're happy with the choice you make! There's no point starting otherwise.

VERY OT for Florantha & Bmorepanic Florantha, I knew zip about Tomtes....never even heard the word. Thank you so much for that very interesting link! My Great Grandma would tell us about her favorite Gremlin....they were best pals. If we left a little candy in the package before we went to bed, the darn candy was gone in the morning! Darn Favorite Gremlin went around our beds specifically looking for left\-over candy...ate it. Favorite Gremlin also did other strange things: Put Christmas tree up after we all went to bed, made cookies with our names on them for our birthdays, etc. But if we were bad to Great\-Grandma, look out! Favorite Gremlin didn't like us going against her and would find a way to get us back. LOL Again, really enjoyed reading link! Bmorepanic, I've seen you mention bondo before. I bought what I thought was Bondo.....it was in a tube, rolled. To activiate it you cut a piece off and kneaded it with your fingers. After prepping the area well, I thinly applied it to the very deep gouge left in our fridge by the pro restorers after the water damage in our kitchen. So the Bondo got put on, thinly and I thought all was going to work out perfectly as once I sanded it I would cover it with the matching appliance paint. Not so. That stuff can not be sanded! I got so tired (arms ached & hand cramped up) the first day trying to sand the bondo to a somewhat smooth finish that I gave up. Tried a couple hours the next day, gave up. Now I just leave all the sanding discs/blocks on the corner of the counter and if I walk by with nothing else to do, I'll give the area some sanding....not that it's doing any good. What's the best way/what tool? to sand this stuff once it's sets? I've got lumps and bumps on the door of a fridge where a gouge used to be. At this point, I'd rather have the gouge!