I've been wearing a black zippered sweater under a black zippered hoody, lately. Nothing pretty or exciting, but they're easy on easy off. I'll need to replace the hoody soon. The sleeves are frayed and there are now official stains. Nothing gets the stains out, anymore. And of course (black) long-johns under my slacks. My shirts are always colourful. Right now I have purple and white shirts, but I do favour black in the slacks, and hoodies. Woody great to hear your results came back 'benign'. Sorry you have to see another specialist. My 2nd youngest sister has numerous health problems and is constantly seeing one doctor after another, and we always feel frustrated while waiting for them to do something to actually help. Usually we have to go and demand help, since they do seem to listen to the squeakiest wheel, so to speak. Love the pile of pooches. I know you just do this for friends, but I've started dog walking and dog sitting as a business. It's way to do something I love, which is be around animals, and to earn a bit of money doing it. GB loved listening to the music. That was cool. Sorry to hear that Skyler's mother is so difficult. I know some people never learn to put jealousy aside to work with 'new family'. It's too bad. Skyler's lucky to have you. You've inspired me to make stuffed green peppers. The rice is made. I just have to cut up a million veggies. My favourite part. Not. I agree about it being a compliment to our dogs to get a new one, but for some reason I just can't go pick out a dog right now. I wanted a dog just about right away after losing my last dog. That's how I got Jagger. He lived so long for a big dog that I thought he would stay forever. When I'm ready it will be time to decide if I want a pure bred, like Leah or a mixed breed like Jagger was. I don't care if the dog is a puppy or not. Jagger was 7.5 months old when we got him and Leah was almost 5 months old. My dogs have always had their own cats, but Jagger always wanted to chase other cats anyway. Leah just looks. She's got very good manners, unless she thinks she has to protect us, then she tries to act tough, by barking. Michelle sorry about the bad weather putting the kibosh on your tree finding plans. I'm with you on wanting the decorations up or as long as possible. It is a lot of work, but I love seeing the results for the whole season. Yum yum on the cookies. I'm going to try making my cookies with dates as I can't tolerate any form of sugar well. I owe $1.50 for overdue library books. :( I hate owing money. Oh well, I inevitably forget the date the books are due back. I have trouble getting into the good habit of writing when they're due on the calendar. Still, it's time to restock the reading material. I read everything, from scifi to best sellers and self help to business books. Richea only likes to read westerns and programming books. Oh, I forgot, add dirt biking magazines to that. If I had money right now that's what I'd get him for xmas. We'd donate magazines to the dirt biking group, so I wouldn't feel bad about getting him a subscription for a magazine. Maybe I'll surprise him when business picks up. Lol on the kennel jealousy V. At least the dogs couldn't quite get into the kennel. And they were outside if they had to pee! Leah met one of her possible Christmas companions last week. The dog I will probably be sitting for is almost deaf and close to blind. Anyway calm welcoming Leah actually growled. I realized that she was protecting a bone I had forgotten to pick up and put away. I'll have to get some spare bones for my doggy guests. Leah never tries to take another dog's treat away, so that will work out fine. Glad you found the comforter of your dreams. I love my down comforter. When I think of it, though, they word still comes to me in Danish. We say Dyne, and Dyne batrike is a down comforter cover. I always had to help put it back on after it was laundered. Time to sail to slumberland, Yeona

"they're already upholstered in something neutral. Does that change your mind? " I think I like the simplicity of a solid for your table, because it's all very elegant together, although more formal. It might be a bit much with two directly on the rug. Is the cream even available? The blue would be a muddle of patterns, I think, without more contrast in color. I do think you might be able to do a flame on the drapes. I can definitely picture a chair in the corner without clashing. This post was edited by snookums2 on Fri, Jan 11, 13 at 13:19

After having a "masculine" cottage bedroom for years I now have a more girly cottage bedroom and my DH doesn't mind. It used to have large floral drapes with black background and dark walnut furniture now it's all white and cream. Still has the spice brown walls as I really like the color. No lace, frills, or tiny floral prints ever tho. I think avoiding pink, lace, and frills and using a more muted palette of darker colors such as blues, browns, or greens works well. This site has lots of cottage inspiration if you can wade thru the pink frilly stuff: http://theoldpaintedcottage.com/pages/cotm.htm Here's one cottage on that site with some good inspiration if you can edit as you look - see only the dark wood, plaid, paisley, limited florals, neutral heavy textures, dark art work, leather bound books, dark painted wood and ignore the overabundance of tchotchkes if you need to: http://theoldpaintedcottage.com/pages/cotm-jan-09.htm This link shows many bedrooms and quite a few have ideas that are more masculine. I know the site is *Country* Living but there's often not much difference between country and cottage. Here is a link that might be useful: bedrooms here

Paintings in the Louvre...Lawrence Gowing This in remembrance of Bastillle Day!