Great article! Thanks, Warren, for providing some good reading to get us by until spring. Hey, why is my User name all of sudden in lower case instead of EvanTN as usual? Oh well.

Betty, What a great haul! I love the plate with leaves on it. And, I've been wanting to do a african safari table for some reason (I have no idea why - maybe because I want to go there). Those napkin rings would be perfect for my table. Since they are not the deer you thought they were you should send them to me! LOL! My thrift stores are so hit and miss. Sometimes the prices are more than if I bought the items new. I've seen DT plates more expensive in Goodwill!!! But, sometimes I find some good deals so I'm always searching. I'm kind of in a "silverplate' stage and I can find that pretty cheap. I guess that is because no one wants to polish it. Again, great finds!

I just spoke to the Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta. They were very kind. The box top that I received was mailed from MD not Atlanta. The contents of the box and anything else that MD has acquired from broken and lost mail was sent at the same time under separate cover to Atlanta. I asked why the floor supervisor didn't respond 2 months ago to requests for information on this box and she had no answer. I explained that we felt that it would have been a lot easier to match the broken box with the contents immediately rather than wait 2 months . She said yes that would be true. Everyone agrees that the chance of another box of children's books breaking open in MD on that day is slim to none. If the person up there had done his job all of this could have been avoided. Of course if I had used UPS .... I am on my way to the post office now with the above list. She said they will immediately begin a search when it is received. Thank you ALL for your notes. I am trying to remain positive. c

I don't know what happened to the info I posted. So, I'll post it again. It was super easy to do, if you're not paticular (If you're reading this, you are particular- expect lots of time wasted on details.) It's just those cheap box cabinets from target. I think they were about 20 or so dollars each. The tall one is a double cabinet, but I got that at lowes. Just put together and put it on their sides so the doors face the right way. I got paint from lowes in thier mistake section- some really cute grey blue. It shows much bluer than it really is. It was only a dollar for a quart, I couldn't complain! They are melamine, so you have to primer it. If you don't and roll the dice, make sure to poly it or spray clear coat on it afterwards. Backsplash is just mdf painted and screwed on the top with brackets. The sink is just a cut hole to match a round pan. The faucet is from HD. :) I wanted a semi working one. And, for somereason, we didn't have any laying around here. The micro is a square shadow box with a dollar frame painted and bracketed to it. There is platic that I cut and pasted to it. Could make your own, but I didnt' want to bother my husband who was over doing this thing. I would have like to cut out a hole for the oven, but found these circular things to stick on the wall for substitution. Found at lowes for a dollar. Using the rest of them for the play room. The pulls were only a dollar each at lowes clearanced out. The burners are just those rosettes for the corners of your doors. Painted to match. And, that window is just a dollar frame with a picture cut to fit. I planned on putting legs on it, but my son is too short for that. And that is about it. Easy to make, so you can build it yourself. I couldn't cut any of the mdf, but HD did it for free. My husband gets irritated having to pull out that giant saw table, so I had HD cut it so I didn't have to hear him. My son is over it. :) Hopefully, he will use it again eventually. He washes his hot wheels in the sink. I'm hoping I have a girl so I have someone to play with! :) Kim