Thank you, all my friends, for your kind thoughts and wishes. Yes, Judy, both being writers did bring us closer together. We actually collaborated on a 4-part TV script; and I dramatised several of his novels for BBC radio (A Raging Calm, Joby, A Kind of Loving). I'm going to do more of them. Being writers, we each understood the process that the other was going through - 'Don't talk, I'm working in my head' was frequently heard, and neither of us would disturb the other. Result was, we spent our days separate and in companionable silence but came together for an early-evening drink in the pub, supper and a chat or catching up on TV. In recent years, when he got older, Stan used to spend afternoons listening to his beloved classical music, the other side of the house, while I was working. Diana

I'm not sure I even knew what a quilt was when I was growing up. We had wool blankets and chenille bedspreads, but my mother always had a sewing machine that she mostly used for repairs and some home decorating type of sewing. After I got married my husband and I took a road trip to Nova Scotia and I think I saw my first quilt in a shop there. I was fascinated and wanted to see more. Well as luck would have it, there was a Singer sewing machine stye in the same shopping plaza as the super market that I would go to and one day they had a sign in the window about a quilting class. So I signed up. I made a twin size rail fence quilt.. All the pieces were cut out with scissors and then sewed together. I remember quilting it with diagonal lines on that Singer sewing machine with no walking foot. It was a bear but I got it done and my daughter had that quilt for 30 plus years when I finally encouraged her to throw it away. A few months later I took another class at an actual quilt fabric store It was Eleanor Burlns quilt in a day log cabin That quilt also survived a long time. I bought Quilt Magazine and would search for easy patterns and mostly use scraps from old clothes or cheap remnants of fabric that i could find. There was a lapse of a about 15 years when I didn't do much sewing because I went to graduate school and was busy raising kids and went back to work full time. When my daughter was a junior in college she did an internship in NYC and rented a room from an elderly woman who happened to be a fabric designer for Benartex fabrics. I mentioned to her that I was interested in quilting and she began to bring me fabric from work. I had charm packs, salesman's samples, fat quarters and samples of all kinds. You iknow how heavy fabric can be and she would haul bags full on the bus or walking several blocks in downtown Manhattan. Although I continue to use this fabric there is an awful lot left. I will probably donate it to my guild because I'm getting too old to use it all up. Anyway since I retired in 2001 I've been a fanatic quilter and I'm getting more so every day. As I say it keeps me out of the bars and off the streets.

For what it's worth...the most important thing to consider even before how you want to style the room is the function. Function always comes before style. Once you decide function that will determine furniture placement. Then and only then do you pick style. If the mirrored walls impede function then they need to go. IMO get rid of them because (based on what you said) they do. Also the divider wall is in the way. If you remove all this then you'd have a great wall for your TV, some MCM built-ins or freestanding system and MCM art pieces. Either way fine. Then you could place your furniture in a cozy grouping in front of this element. This would make your room look larger. Also choosing a white paint (there are many "colors" of white) wall color will brighten, lighten, and enlarge the room and do a lot more for the room than the mirrors. The furniture and art pieces you choose will do the job of giving you the MCM look your going for! If you still want a mirror in the room get a MCM hanging wall mirror and put it on an opposite wall say above the furniture piece you have now in front of the mirrored wall.

Astrokath, I have never read a Cormac McCarthy book that I've enjoyed. That one sounds a bit different than his usual fare but, I bet it doesn't have a happy ending. I was about to pick up where I left off in my Hungarian bank robber book when the library informed me that another ebook I had reserved months ago was available, The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen. It's an entertaining fantasy novel. My book club has chosen Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts for next month's discussion.