Nancy Drew, I went to the link you posted - "days til Spring", but all I got was one bird call and a picture - is there something I'm missing? Is this a site that tells how many days, hours, minutes, seconds, etc? And all this time, I thought YOU were figuring it out! ellen

We're getting serious spring fever and are doing our garden planning now. We just placed our massive seed orders for the six raised beds OH built last summer, and there's lots of new stuff. Got three kinds of kale, three kinds of beets, gailan, melons, sugar snap peas, snow peas, bush beans, zucchini, scallions, spinach, three kinds of lettuce, hot peppers, sweet peppers, three kinds of carrots, arugula, cucumbers, Thai, holy, and Genoese basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, lemongrass, sage, and marsh mallow, because a friend saw it in the Baker Creek catalog and wants us to try making our own marshmallows now. The big project this year is rebuilding the deck that is behind the garage. The previous owners had a massive climbing rose on it that recently died. This was not heartbreaking to me, as I don't understand why you'd want a plant that tries to hurt everyone sitting on your deck. So now we're planning a wall of clematis to cover the garage and make the deck pretty. Thinking Clematis Huldine and Etoile Violet, both of which would be new to me. Is it spring yet?

It's been warm here and I really want to be outside digging in the dirt, but we've had a ton of rain and it's been gloomy the last couple of days. I can't wait for spring! There are signs of it coming though...the neighbors' bulbs came up last week and we have tiny leaves on the trees. The azaleas will be blooming before we know it. :o) Artlover...that tray is new and if I remember correctly it came from The Plantation Shop in Hilton Head, SC.

What gorgeous sinks, Lesterd! Just what I needed. Another obsession. ;-) Love that lampshade, Loribee! It's so fresh and pretty! Last night I fell asleep dreaming of waking up this morning and heading to the paint store. I dreamt of transforming my living and dining rooms with a soft, clear green on the walls. When I got up this morning and padded into the front room with my coffee, even though I was still bleary-eyed from sleep, I had to admit my dreams were only that ... dreams. What I have going on now just works, all the way around. The wall color goes with the new drapes (which reminds me, I need to post pics of the new drapes!), plays well with the rug, blends nicely with the throw pillows and artwork and other accessories. I have made some very minor additions to the living room that seem to soften and feminize it a bit. New lace panels on the fireplace-flanking windows, a little old English teapot that I picked up for fifty cents at a yard sale last week, an old (1950s) metal tray from England with a floral design, vintage orange(!) gingham pillows on the sofa. This morning it dawned on me that it's starting to feel like a very eclectic space, and I like that. I'm focusing on adding more soft touches to our guest room. Just bought a duvet from an Etsy seller (white with sweet, scattered hibiscus on one side, reversing to cabana stripes in sherbet shades on the other), and am going to be replacing a couple of prints with vintage botanicals. I also feel like decluttering in there a bit, as there's just too much going on at the moment. I originally decorated that room with sort of a beachy/tropical theme - and I still like the tropical thing but want to take it in more of a floral direction and less of a beachy one. One last indication that my "old tastes" are still ever-present: This morning I stopped by a neighbor's yard sale and couldn't walk away without buying the antique framed painting of a Native American man. There's part of me that's still very much drawn to the images of the southwest U.S. and Mexico - and the darker and/or more intense colors that are attendant to that style. I'm becoming more and more convinced that what I have is a split personality. But I'm choosing to call that eclectic. Oakley, I want to see those shoes! :-)