Linda, That costume is sooooo adorable!! She will look like a princess!! I know the love and effort that went into this. I once made my girls Little Red Riding Hood costumes for Halloween but I only made the Red hooded cape and that was enough! I'm a lurker and very rare poster but your handiwork inspired me!! Melvie

Happy Wednesday, everybody! Dreary and snowy here today, but not excruciatingly cold... House needs some tidying, but it's bill-paying day today (we just call it "money transfer day" - our penions get direct deposited, I pay the bills on-line. Pfft! Done in half an hour...). Thank you for your collective outrage directed toward the Phils...however, in their defence....we take turns here putting the little guy to bed (music practice, homework, bath, snack etc.) and cleaning up the kitchen. The other night it was my turn to do the clean-up. If I am sick or tired or going out, one of the adult Phils pitches in and takes my turn at whatever, and vice versa. But the other night I was not sick, or tired, or going anywhere, I was in a snit and just didn't take my turn. So....not excusable but maybe understandable...They did, however, pull out all of the Christmas decorations and help Adrian start his note to Santa and hang hs stocking (already! He can hardly wait!). I spent half an hour at the school yesterday looking for wayward mittens, snowpants (two pair gone already!) hats, fleeces etc. To no avail. His name is in everything....He came home with two pairs of the three snowpants that have gone to the school in the last week, and one pair of ski mitts without the liners...Saw the principal in the hall he asked if I had any insights on the lost stuff problem - I told him the real problem is that the kids are seven years old (grin). Busy week coming up. Today - music and parent-teacher interviews (report card was good). Tommorrow - DH has his physical in the town we moved from (can't find a doctor here) so I might tag along and shop..Friday Professional Development day for teachers so TCS has no school - he and his Daddy are making a gingerbread house, I am volunteering at the school book fair for three hours. Christmas stuff, volunteer stuff, trying to get an appointment to look at a very large old house for sale three blocks from here - likely a pipe-dream but... I will be taking out the dishes this week-end too - so a photo will be forthcoming... I hope you all have (or had?) a great Thanksgiving and are ready to leap right into the Christmas spirit! See you tomorrow... CHeers! Julie

Gee, Kat, why didn't you just shovel it all onto your grass? LOL! Should I stop making "helpful" suggestions! Shoveling it ANYWHERE is hard enough! Sorry to hear yours all landed in the Wrong Place! MANY years ago (back in the early 70's!) I lived in a little house in far south Aurora, and we got a storm like this last one, but even more snow and even more wind, and the way it happened to blow between the neighbor houses it ALL seemed to wind up RIGHT in front of our garage! It went all the way up to the roof, and if the snow had been hard enough we could have walked up the Snow Mountain and walked straight onto the roof! When we first went out after the storm and saw it, it was hard to really believe there was THAT much snow there! So I do know where you're coming from! It was kinda like: Could we possibly dig a tunnel thru it to drive the car out of the garage--rather than having to shovel it ALL!!! As near as I can tell I wound up with about 15" total. When I finally got out to measure it today I was getting 14", but the sun had been shining on it for quite a while at that point, and there was no question that it was well into the process of "settling down!" But one thing I know for sure; there is a LOT of moisture in it, and it really is gonna do a great job of watering everything. When I looked out the front door last nite about 12:30, trying to figure out just how hard it was still snowing, I noticed some flashing lites at the end of the block, and then I heard, Beep, Beep, Beep! It took a minute to figure out what was going on in the middle of the nite, but there was a city plow out there plowing the residential streets. When I looked more closely--over the shoveled pile along my walk, I discovered they had already plowed the road in front of my house! I thought that was kinda nice of Thornton--even if I don't need to go anywhere! And with the sun today now the plowed part is bare and dry again. Lots of piles, still, along the edges where people have shoveled their walks and drives--and shoveled out their cars that were parked on the street! By the end of the week we're supposed to be well back up into the 40's and maybe even back up to the low 50's so I'm guessing that even most of the piles will be gone by next weekend if they're in the sun! That's the kind of snowstorms EVERYBODY should have! Shhhhh! Don't tell anybody else about out Miraculous Disappearing Snowstorms or everybody will be moving here! We need to keep this to ourselves! Do any of you remember the March Blizzard of 2003? Funny story! I was working in San Fran at the time, and commuting back and forth, and the Blizzard happened when I was on the west coast. Being in the Airline Business, needless to say I was hearing plenty of stories about how bad it was and about all the flites that were being cancelled. The total (official) snowfall was just short of three feet (in about 24 hours I think it was), and when I had days off and was able to come home again it was on the third day after the storm, and I REALLY wanted to come home so I just made up my mind that I'd shovel my car out of the parking lot--no matter how long it took, and find some way to get home! I got back to DIA and onto the parking lot bus, determined that I was just gonna change into my Survival Clothes that I had in the car and start shoveling, and then we got to the parking lot! Except for the humongous--and I DO mean humongous, piles of snow where it had been plowed, all the cars and roads in the parking lot were DRY! I almost fell over! When I got out onto the two-lane road I took home (for those of you who don't know, DIA is out on the plains, halfway to Kansas!) the road was completely dry--and there were huge 6-8' piles of snow ALL along the road--I couldn't see over the top ANYWHERE! It was like being in a maze where all you could do was to keep going the way you were going! I felt like I was in an hallucination of something! Got back more into the Metro area and, except for the piles along the streets, you could hardly tell there had been a blizzard. I've lived out here since '64, and I KNOW how fast it melts, but even I could hardly believe what I was seeing that time! This IS the place to live! Skybird

Breezy- Thanks for the link! I really need to go see some samples :) Ironcook- It's confusing, because I'm getting a pretty good idea what I like (since changing the kitchen location) but not exactly how to pull it all together. I really like the cinnamon tone cabinets in these two pictures. It's a darker wood, but not orange-y and not too light or dark. I also love the white countertops...and the marble, when it's mainly white, as in third picture...but notice how beautiful it is with all that stainless! So, my debate is really over, whether to put the 'cinnamon' cabinets on the perimeter or the island. In both my pictures, they're on the perimeter, so I wonder if that would work better, in my space. If so, what to do with the island? I don't want it to be the same, because I want the island to feel like a worktable. So, I could do white (but that's kind of stark) or maybe a color...like green, with white or butcher block top. Then, maybe blue for the hutch. I'd like to add some painted colors with the wood, just to mix things up a bit...since I also have the wood table and chairs. So, to answer your question, I have no idea! LOL But, I am trying to narrow it down and I think the wood might be a nice choice for the island. And yes, I do want an antique brass faucet and white sink for my main sink...and probably the same thing on the island, unless I decide to do all metal. There are some wonderful, round antique brass sinks that would be perfect with butcher block...see, there I go again! LOL Hopefully, I'll get this all sorted out soon, but it's such a relief to get the overall plan in place, I don't mind playing around a bit more, with the details :)