I live on the West Coast of Florida and have had Love&Pease for a year. It's one of my favorites and I absolutely adore the mix and depth of colors. It resembles Double Delight just with yellow and vivid pink. I would say L&P is quite vigorous for me but mine is from Nelson nursery and grafted on fortuniana rootstock. Good news - the rose tolerates heat ( at least Florida heat in 10a) very well. Not so good news - it does blackspot but honestly I doubt there is a HT which would not do it in our humidity. It looked like L&P was trying to resist it and I didn't want to spray so I skipped spraying once then twice then again and again... untill it was too late and it blackspotted badly and defoliated. Then we had a chilli thrips attack and they damaged all new grows so I had to trim the rose hard. Now the humidity and heat are down and she is coming back - leafed out and has about two dozen buds and flowers. As a bonus mine has a pleasant sweet fragrance, not the strongest one but I would say 6 out of 10. Overall, if you don't mind spraying regularly you should definitely try growing L&P, it is a very beautiful rose.

sheesharee: Oops! Only one year. I've seen a few of those for sale on CL. I wonder what type of decor they are meant to go with? You know, we really are very discriminating here on the decorating forum. I've had comments too that something I love doesn't go with the rest of my room. Does that mean we automatically need to take it out? The key here is do you love it or does it have sentimental value to you? If it does, then if definitely belongs. On a related thread there was a comment about how every room should have something "whimsical" to it. Perhaps the lamp is it? Ultimately our homes should be a reflection of who we are and what is important to us. The flow of your room is much improved and I think once you put more art on the walls and around the room, the focus won't be so much on the lamp. Right now there is not so much on the walls so naturally the lamp does become a focal point. BTW, have you considered painting the walls?

Great find, John. Cousances was bought by Le Creuset in the 1950's. The little skillet is indeed the lid to the saucepan. They still make these, called the 2-in-1, at least in the U.S. The skillet part is my total fave, and the saucepan part is a new fave for induction. Edited, from the eBay Guide "Cousances enameled cast iron ... had features which distinguished them from their competitors. Among those features were the base, which was left without enamel, but sealed against rust with the final glaze, and the skillet design which was a French version of the classic American skillet popularized by Griswold and WagnerWare, having two pour spouts, a cast on handle, and a lifting tab on the largest of the handled skillets." You've got the care and cleaning right. You don't need to do anything to the enamel. If it's clean, it's clean. And if the bottoms aren't rusted at all, they're probably still sealed. The place to beware is the very edge around the top where the iron is sealed, but can get worn. You don't want to leave that soaking so that it rusts (but if that happens you can just scrub off the rust and do better next time). You can bake on some oil to season any truly raw iron parts, but it shouldn't be necessary. If you do get stuck on gunk, you can deglaze it on the stove. Just heat some water and use a wooden scraper or wooden spoon to loosen the gunk. If the gunk is on the outside, heat it in a larger pan of water. And if you burn the bottom or really thoroughly bake on gunk, it just takes longer and more elbow grease, but you should be able to bring it back if you're patient and gentle. The most important thing for caring for your enamelled pans is not to scratch the enamel. No scrambling the eggs with a table fork in the pan. Use wood, plastic or silicone. For clean up you can use a plastic scrubby, or a plant fiber one, but no metal. Like any cast iron, don't shock them. No ice cold water in a hot pan. Don't put a hot pan down in a puddle. Try not to bang the rim or drop it. Le Creuset make silicone handle covers nowadays which can be very useful. Congrats on the new friends. They can parlent en français with the Maviels, because you know those prima donnas flirteront avec les bad boys.

Personally, with all those windows and light walls, I think a black table will stick out like a sore thumb. But maybe you have a lot of colorful art or plan on colorful curtains? If not, what's wrong with what you have? If you don't like the table, get a groovy tablecloth, you can do many looks that way. Pick something plain wood and washable for chairs with kids. You ca always buy cushions and tie them on, or chair covers for fancy occasions. Keep it simple with kids. These are the chairs we have for our kid-centric dining area. Very nice and sturdy and comfortable but they can be jazzed up for fancier occasions. They come in black and white and upholstered seats too. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/lancaster-table-seating-natural-finish-wooden-school-house-chair/164CSCHLNAT.html