Ohhh Nancy, I have to share my turkey story: A coworker of mine was selling his dark blue Mercedes. Had it detailed and polished to a mirror shine. Then because he didn't want it touched, he passed on the parking lot and parked it near open space surrounding our office. Yep....you know where I'm going with this....the turkeys happened upon it, surrounded the car, saw "that rival gang of turkeys" in their reflection and pecked a turkey-high ring around the entire car. We all learned about it when he was on the phone explaining what happened to his insurance company. You've never seen so many people with tears rolling down their eyes, trying to stifle the laughter.

WOW!! I absolutely love that paint job on the patio! I did our old cement floor in the basement with faux brick painting as well...but haven't gotten brave enough to try the patio area. The rock planter is great, but what gets my attention is the rock in the upper right of the picture. It surely does look like a chicken leg laying up there!:) I'm glad you got the picture thing figured out. Keep 'em coming! Be Safe, Rach

I have to agree with Jessy on this, only because of past experience. It's been gnawing at me as I got to know about you and your mother. A personal story - my parents had a cottage in Maine, we went up every summer, I loved it. (My father and grandfather built about a dozen cottages on the lake and sold all but two of them.) I still go to Maine every summer. After I married, my XH and I would go up to the lake (different cottage), and when we had kids, we took them up. My parents were there and we would all do things together, we had wonderful vacations. My kids loved it, especiallly having their grandparents at the lake for swimming and fishing, etc. When my parents got too old to make the drive by themselves, I would drive them up, get them settled, and later come up with my family. At the end of the summer I would bring them home. My sister never went back, she did not like Maine or the cottage - too rustic. Apparently, this bugged my dad. I would talk about how much I loved it up there, and looked forward to having the cottage some day for my family to use. He never really commented about it. Well, when my sister took over the financial management for my parents, she reviewed the will, and found out that my father was leaving the cottage to her, and not to me. He told her that if he gave her the cottage, maybe he could somehow change her mind about coming to Maine. She had a lot of long talks with him, and he finally undestood that his reasoning was wrong, and changed the disposition of the cottage to me. Well.......... then he started worrying about lawsuits (god, I never want to get old!?), and decided to sell the cottage to my cousin, who owns the adjoining property and cottage. He sold the cottage just when I was getting a divorce - I have to say, losing the cottage hurt me more than ending the marriage, I can't afford to replace it, but husbands are a dime a dozen! LOL Your mom my have the same reasoning - my poor son, if I give him money, he'll love me, I can win him back. I've seen this happen to friends - it destroys families.

Aw, I love all these posts! I also agree and do think it is a wonderful and strengthening style. I have the corner cupboard and dough trough my g-g-grandfather made, along with the frakturs for his and his future wife's births/baptisms (Taufscheine-birth and baptismal certificates). Also, several pieces of art from my grandfather and grandmother and lots of miscellaneous stuff. Every time I sit in one of the recovered wing chairs, I think of family and there is another very high-backed wing chair in need of recovering that belonged to one of my grandfathers- it was the place he always sat when we were at his home. We always had to shake his hand when we left (he insisted on a good firm shake) at which point he would slip us a dollar. It is now in the library and the pink (!) upholstery doesn't bother me a bit. Wonder if that is why I can't seem to decide what to do with it. It does bring me joy to see these items scattered around the house. Mixed in with all my own stuff and even modern pieces, our home makes me smile. Guess we are all softies, huh? Not too bad! Great topic and perfect title for a decorating style!