welcome to the forum .. stick around.. and you will get addicted ... lol ... fell free to march to the beat of the drummer in your head ... right or wrong ... lol ... ken ps: and dont even get me started on whether hosta is both the singular and the plural.. and that there is no word hostas .... nor about if they are the august lily.. as they never have been... nor never will be.. a lily ... whats that all about???? it really doesnt matter how you say it.. or what you call them.. as long as you are talking about them ....

I agree with Party Music that the buffet line should be on both sides of table & have soup, corn, then stew,(do they make it with flatbread or will they be already put together? I haven't had that so don't know how it's done.. Drinks I always prefer to be in 1 area ,not main food table as a spill can really slow things down. Cake table- cake,forks, napkins & maybe couple of small containers of flowers, any canoes available?? How about a couple of child sized moccasins. Make them out of felt & bead on the front of them(glue or sew on) put a plastic container in where foot should go with low arrangement of fall flowers. Your idea of memories or quotes is good, make that a game where you pass out rough paper in rawhide or beige color & ask them to write something for bride & groom would need pens or pencils to write with but advice, favorite memory about couple or "how to get through the net 25 yrs" would be fun & interesting memory of the party. Only thought is be sure things are pretty secure in case of wind, would heat be a problem, might consider a tarp or 2 to shade some areas if you have trees or house you can anchor them on. Home Depot has brown ones that are nice & last quite well. Also have beige colored 6 ft wide shade cloth that can be anchored with long high wires to higher trees or close to roof so have some shade. It's sold in rolls 100 ft long or shorter 6 ft by 20 ft long. smaller rolls are $29. I think, I shade parts of my yard & makes a big difference. Sounds like a fun party!

Thanks, I do love the natural color of the wood and the patina on that butcher block. I am afraid that I will have to chop it down to fit in the space I have, and lose that aged edge. :-( DH loves the pantry, too. I love the look of it closed, but I am not sure that it is a very efficient user of space. With all those shelves and wood and air space, you have less room to store food. Right now, we have a irritating pantry set-up that was here when we moved in. There is a 30" w by 40" deep pantry closet. It is above the stairwell to the basement, so the floor of the space is slanted. For that reason, we cannot make it a step-into space with shelves around the perimeter. Being 40" wide and 30" deep would have worked better, too, but that is just not how it is set up. So you can try to reach things in the back, but unless you are Yao Ming, the last foot to foot and a half of the space is unusable. I think my mandolin (slicer, not music-maker) is in there somewhere, but I have not seen it in several years. So yeah, the pantries will be nice. I am hoping that the 18" one is simple slide-out shelves. I will use my current pantry space as the new wall-oven space. Because of that slant coming out 39 inches from the wall, the wall ovens will have 15 inches of dead space behind them. In other kitchen configurations, I was able to use that wasted space. If I was looking at a kitchen with 42" tall wall cabs, I would use them as base cabs against the wall that abuts the back dead space. Maybe I would bring the wall cabs forward a few inches and have a 15 to 18 inch deep counter on top. I would put a counter top on top of the wall cab (42" height off the floor, and put a an appliance garage door in the wall into the dead space, then continue my counter top from the tall wall cabs used as base cabs into the dead space. I was going to hide counter- top appliances back there when not in use. Like that Mandolin, if I ever find it. You know what is so weird? I can use all the cabinets in that kitchen, leaving only two 30" wide wall cabs and one slanty 1 ft by 4 ft cabinet. I am considering using the two 30 inch cabs in my powder room, just outside the kitchen. Maybe use one for a vessel sink base and one as a wall cab in my tiny little half bath. Okay, now I need candidates for flooring. In my last kitchen, I used real linoleum click-together plank flooring from Europe. I am not being extravagant this time. I like cork, I like real lino (as opposed to vinyl, which we have been calling linoleum for the past 50 years.) Real linoleum is made of cork, linseed oil, and pigment and is baked in huge rooms as it is draped across drying racks. This gives it a curve that is hard to work with, and means that the installer must know the special techniques to get it right. That is why they do not sell sheet-lino to laypersons. You have to buy it on MDF planks for click-and-glue floors if you want to do it yourself. I have bad feet, bad joints and a very heavy body. Cork or linoleum would be good for that. My dogs are big, and the floor must stand up to their nails. One has a brain tumor and is on Prednisone, so pees a lot. He can be incontinent, so we want a waterproof floor in case of accidents. I cannot stand the look of cheap laminate, but may be open to good laminate or engineered hardwood. Bamboo is another possibility. The paint I bought for the adjoining family room is Lettuce from Lowes (Eddie Bauer, I think. I will use it on the lower half of the dining area walls, with Pale Crocus on the top half of the wall (pallette stolen directly from Idie2live's bedroom, though my colors are a bit different). We have lots of soffits in the dining area and kitchen, and I am considering several colors for them. I am also considering a bizzare treatment for the ceiling above the dining light fixture. And we just got a Van Gogh for the dining area wall. See below Here is a link that might be useful: The Caf� Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, c.1888

A short sleeve night shirt most of the time. I have a couple of long sleeve ones & some pi's that I wear when DH is on a business trip or just to lounge around sometimes. DH is like a heater-he basically radiates heat. We let the temps drop a lot at night in the house but even cold-natured me can't wear anything very warm next to him. I can be wearing sweats before bed because I'm cold & then change into a short sleeve night shirt for bed. It's kind of weird. I always wear fuzzy socks (in bed & out) because my feet are almost always cold. I can't wear long nightgowns. I've tried them & they always end up tangled around me (like the covers).