I'll gladly try and help. I suggest you getting one of the newer Ball Blue Books that covers canning, freezing, and preserving. It might make some good wintertime reading as you 'plan' out all the goodies you plan to plant next season. So far today I have done a batch of salsa, 14 quarts of green beans, and now have another batch of salsa cooking and about 16 quarts of tomatoes cooking. Buckets are washed and jars are ready. I guess I could go pick more maters, but then I would have to 'deal' with them. I wanna get this stuff done, so I can later spray some round-up. I don't want to spray until I am all done handling any produce or utensils in any way...sigh. Guess I could also go and water something...or pick the grapes...sigh

For a while I've been using the ARF homepage on my favorites for access and it's still working. I did notice that there're some changes in the portals wordage (Home and Garden) and a lot more iVillage references. I wonder if they still have the rosarians.com portal that Spike bought so many years ago. Answering my own question: Linked below doesn't take us to a GW home page with all the rose forums (and only rose forums) on it. Dang. That used to be the easy on I used when away from my own computer and it was fast and (best of all) easy to remember. Now it's just misc. ads. Dang. Dang. Dang. Here is a link that might be useful: Rosarians portal

We think you can get a good laugh from the name of our gardening business, Two Women and a Hoe! We get many different reactions and the name is truly unforgetable! We have shared many laughs with clients and friends! Good luck in April at the Comedy Castle. Maybe you will see Two Women and a Hoe in the audience. Visit our website at twowomenandahoe.com or myspace.com/twowomenandahoe. Be sure to meet Garden Hoe. and Green Hoe. One more thing, we have refined 'Hoe'. We bet you did not know it is good to be a hoe! Check out our site! Here is a link that might be useful: Two Women and a Hoe

Being your first time here, you may not have expected the replies you got about your daughter's two rooms. Don't be offended. We mean well. I tend to agree, tho. And not to get personal, but how do you and your hubby have any intimate time together if you're sleeping in the LR? I would at the most, give your daughter the larger room so she does have room to play, but would take the advice of others to store the toys in the same room. Maybe it's time to go thru them and donate the ones she no longer plays with? Kids only play with half of the toys they own, anyway. Involve her in choosing which ones to give away and explain that she is helping kids who have no toys. Make it fun and help her learn that being charitable is a good trait. I'm sure if you google, there's an article on how to do that because I've read about it. That being said, I think you did a bang up job on the white furniture. That is my taste exactly. Shabby-chic and cottage-y. I am single and on a disability budget and my home is about your size. So storage is critical. I do all my furniture shopping at thrift stores. I bought a dresser that I use as a buffet, yet I keep my tools, gardening stuff, plastic storage bowls and seasonal linens in the drawers. I also bought a tall handmade shelving unit with cabinets below for storage and an old console with cabinet type doors for extra counter space in my kitcken (up against a wall) and storage for my crockpot, platters, bowls, mixer, etc. That one I painted but have yet to paint the other two. Rule #1 - paint before you get it in the house and start using it or you will never get around to painting it due to the dilema of where to store all the stuff inside while it's being painted...lol. I've also found new curtains, quilts, pillows, shower curtains, and even Ralph Lauren bed sheets at thrift stores. Target donates lots of stuff to Goodwill. Most of my decorative kitchen stuff and household knicknacks came from thrift stores. Lamps are always cheap and can be spray painted. They make textured metalic spray paint if that's your taste. Just do a good tape job first. They always have lamp shades, too, and many of them are new. I've gotten wall mirrors and done paint treatments on them to make them look shabby chic. You can repurpose sheets to make curtains, pillows, and even a shower curtain if you're handy with a sewing machine. I also got my two sofas from the thrift store. One for $40, the other a pull out bed for $50. For the first one (red checkered...UGH!!) I bought a white slipcover from Uglysofas.com. They sell Pottery Barn slipcovers pretty cheap (they call them Brand X since they can't advertise where they came from). I guess they're seconds but there was nothing wrong with mine. The 2nd couch was actually in perfect condition. It came from a hotel remodel so there were several, along with club chairs to match. I liked the fabric, so it didn't need covered (but I still do...I like the white better). Do you have a Restore Store (Habitat for Humanity) near you? They have soooo much stuff for remodeling, including paint. I buy my drawer pulls from there (which are very expensive at big box stores). Yes, it takes some digging around to find the quantity you need but they really update older painted furniture. And my store has started a thrift store section with furniture, mirrors, lamps, etc. As for paint color....I like the sage green but that's just me. I see you have a blue and pink pillow, so you could pull off that. However, paint isn't cheap so if you can live with the sage, live with it for now and work on making a sanctuary for you and hubby and a nice new LR. Ohhh...i forgot to mention. Are you familiar with Pinterest? If not, you MUST check it out. I've gotten so many decorating ideas from there. It's all visual. Pic, pics, and more pics. You just type in 'shabby chic decorating' for example, or 'cottage bedroom'. I search by color since i have a beach cottage color scheme. So I type in 'aqua shabby chic.' Just saying....if you are thinking of blue, they use blue in your search. You have to sign up to use it but it's no different than signing up for this site. And there are no ads, no spam, nothing !! It's addictive tho....trust me. Looking at beautiful picture is so inspiring. And then you can pin a pic to your 'board' so you can save it. It's like a virtual scrapbook. I LOVE IT !! Well, I've rattled on long enough. I do love your taste and wish you the best in your decorating !! Bonnie This post was edited by brit5467 on Sun, Apr 20, 14 at 22:00