I've read a lot of the posts, and as a BUYER of cut flowers, I thought I'd put forth an idea, several ideas, really. It's awfully long, but I was on a roll. ggg Note: The trouble with writing this is that I keep saying, "you need to" or "you should" when I mean, "one could" or even, "possibly this would be of interest to you" -- that's not how it came out, but that's how I mean it, ok? Instead of selling from your subdivision driveway, why don't you think about starting at an antique store? With online auctions, some antique stores that are not located in antique malls are really in sad shape in a lot of places. Look for one with a lot of glassware - i.e. vases and vessels to use as vases. You don't want the one with the $20,000 mahogany breakfronts! Make them a creative offer. I don't know your business, but I would guess you have some artistic bend...am I right? You may have to inflate it a bit when you talk to the proprietor, but why not offer them a class for their customors in "Shabby Chic flower arranging". The benefit to the store owner is they would get more traffic because you'd be advertising the event and it would be a special event they could advertise. You could also use their wares for your demonstrations. And you could really do some cool stuff, I imagine, and possibly sell the finished products, your flowers & the vase. There are a million ways to do this. Seems like using 'Shabby Chic' would draw in a certain type of person who would prefer an informal arrangement,,,but if you change the antique store to a different kind of antique store -- say one that has more of a country feel, you change your class to "Cottage Flower arranging". Or say one who sells antiques with a few reproductions and also more expensive antiques, it would change to "Williamsburg flower arranging" It doens't make any difference - LOL! The REAL object of the game is to find a store owner you love and who loves you. I'm thinking you could set up a sort of French open air market in front of their store on nice days -- using those french floral buckets on a wheeled stand. Maybe they would actually SELL your flowers for you. Or buy your flowers to sell themselves. It would have to be a fairly busy place,,,at least with walking traffic. Near ice cream stores, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, that kind of thing. If this is not your style, then think about what is your style ...Gingham? Organic? Healing Crystals? Just find a store, library, art museum, historical center, botanical garden, living history museum, church, whatever, and find your niche to get your name and product out where people can see you. If you're not opposed to people calling you for flowers or even picking them up from your home, look for public places to hold your flower arranging classes...the public library, public park systems, and the local high schools all have classes, both free and for a fee. You could put something together, talk about your business, talk to people about when and where your flowers will be for sale, have flyers or business cards to hand out..extras for their friends. Offer your specialty -- arranging your flowers in their priceless vessels or possibly doing it at their homes if you're willing. (I realize for some people it's the gardening/farming aspect and for others it's the design element...these are just examples -- just sell what you're good at) Public parks and libraries sounds sort of low-end, so choose municipalities where you think the residents have some extra cash for things like fresh flowers, people to whom $75.00-$100.00 for a flower arrangement is sort of middle of the road figure might be good customers. (and also target places where they don't have room for growing their own... and if not room, per se, then in manicured &/or gated neighborhoods where a lot of blooming flowers would be sort of frowned upon.) Get email addresses wherever you go! Make people sign a sign up sheet for any class you give, any-anything you do, and get those email addys! Then, 5 days before an event, or your sale, or whatever, email them the information. Set up a small website and have a newsletter / event calendar. A lot of people don't know what Agrostemma is, and if you grow it, you need to have a picture up! A way to do this is to tell people it will be ready "in two weeks" or whatever, and if they don't know what it is, say, "Oh, it's gorgeous -- lasts forever in a vase -- you MUST see it. Give me your email addy and I'll send you the picture." Of course, when you email them, just send them the link to your website with the picture on it. AND add the email addy to your list! If you wanted to sell from home, have a set day where people can roll up and get their flowers fresh. Even if it's only the 2nd Saturday of the month, make it EVERY 2nd Sat of the month during the growing season. Print that date on your flyers or business cards and at the bottom of every email and say it in about every third sentence in your classes. Farmer's Markets are fine and dandy, but they look like too much work to me! Sometimes the people working them (around in these parts) rarely smile and don't look like they are having fun at all. They just look hot & tired. I want to have fun choosing my bouquet and admiring their flowers. Ya know what else I'd like? To buy a bouquet and be able to add some super-duper stems to sort of make it my own. So buy a base bouquet and be able to add a variety of stems of my own choosing for extra money. Only 4 different add-on varieties would be enough. Love those giant purple/plum/lilac zinnias. Despise that millet or grass plume stuff. And the floppy faded-red stuff that looks like wilted ragweed. Yuck! LOL! I have more ideas, but I think that's all I'd better write for now! Lime

Hi Pixie, When you posted about Little House on the Prairie I looked some things up and was planning to post but just haven't found the time! I'm glad you explained why you wanted to do the plains! At least now it makes sense! After you posted I looked up DeSmet on google Earth--to get the "lay of the land," and I think your daughter would be really disappointed with the "plains" we have out here compared to the terrain you'll find in eastern SD. The link I posted to a pic of "our" plains up above really is pretty accurate--there is simply nothing out there! If you do DeSmet I doubt that she'll actually be looking at "the land" very much when you do it, and she'll have all the Little House things, which is what she actually thinks of when she's reading the books. (Love it when kids are reading books!) So rather than taking her for a hot, dry, flat drive, and destroying her mental image of Little House, I now very definitely think you should skip the plains and enjoy the extra time in the hills! A couple things about the fishing if you're gonna stick that in. Wherever you do it you'll need a Colorado fishing license, so be sure you plan ahead for that so you're not disappointed. And if you do decide to go to the Poma Ranch near Pagosa Springs, you'd really need to stay there two nites to have time for fishing. Checkin is at 3:00, so that wouldn't leave much time on the day you arrive, and checkout is at 10:00, so there wouldn't be time on the day you were leaving. The Weminuche River that runs thru the ranch flows very gently and it could easily be fished wading or from the bank. Check out their Fishing page at the link below, and there's more fishing info on their FAQs page, including that they rent "basic" and "kids" fishing gear at the ranch. I don't really know anything about fishing so I'm not sure what all that would include, but if you're seriously considering it and have any questions, call the ranch and ask for Karen! Also, since the river flows gently--and is shallow (a "river" out here is not the same as a "river" in the midwest or east!) your daughter might enjoy wading around in it (probably with a pair of cotton tennis shoes or at least flip flops since the bottom will be "rocky")! But she probably wouldn't stay in too long since water in the mountains is COLD--it's melted snow--and the ranch is at 8,000'! Also, if you're seriously considering staying there, PM me and I'd be glad to send you some more pictures of the inside (and outside) of the Hideaway cabin! I've stayed there three times now so I have pics of the outsides of the other cabins too. This is a favorite pic! I couldn't help but smile the first time I drove in there and saw the Welcome Home sign! I immediately knew I was gonna love the place! (The sign is on the back side of the "bathhouse" building that has the "waterfall showers!") And before I got to the welcome home sign (on the small building on the right) I ran into this roadblock on the drive in! (If it looks gloomy, that's because it was raining on and off on the drive from Pagosa to the ranch the first year I stayed there! Then, right after I got there, the sun came out just in time for sunset!) This was a view heading out of Pagosa toward the ranch that year! The ranch is in them thar hills! I also highly recommend the "Cozy House" at Dolores for the Cortez part of your trip, and would be glad to send you a bunch of pics of that place too to help you decide if you're interested. One more thing since Zinnia brought up Dinosaur Ridge! Just a little further down the road, in Morrison, is a place called Tiny Town! Perhaps in lieu of Little House your daughter would like to see some "little houses"---and other buildings! I don't have time to live link these pages, but here's a copy/paste link to their site, and if you google for images of Tiny Town you'll come up with lots of pics of the buildings with people standing by them so you can get the scale. I haven't been out to this place since the late 70's when it was a run down (tiny) ghost town all overgrown with weeds, but it's been all spiffied up and is back in business, and this could be a real fun Kid Thing! You could plan your whole last day to do Red Rocks, the dinosaurs, and Tiny Town, and then head to the airport for your last nite's lodging! http://tinytownrailroad.com/ Out of time for tonite! I can't wait to find out what all you finally decide to do! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Fishing on the V. A. Poma Ranch!

Artlover - I really like your faucet. This may be a silly question but does the stopper part in the sink come with the faucet? Mine's chrome there too. Maybe I will do something like that. Mjlb - Thanks for the mock up pic. How would I get the cord/chain to drape like that? Caroleoh - Ceilings are 8'. Good suggestion about moving the mirror maybe with the pedestal. I just thought how I already have that large mirror above the buffet though. I've been trying to think of another place for it. Would it look odd in the hall with other art? Do people put mirrors in halls? Alright, alright. I knew before I posted this the mirror was too small. It's ok but the whole look together isn't working for me and I wanted some additional feedback. I think the shelf would help visually fix it somewhat but I still don't think it would make me love it so I might as well not spend the money and end up "fixing" it a three times. So first things first I'm going to figure out the paint. Which here's some more pics of samples I already had. Left BM Jamesboro Gold, Right BM Blair Gold, Bottom is the same as before Duron Tobacco Road. I don't think any of these are IT but I like the darker look. I was thinking maybe SW Mannered Gold or SW Chamois or BM Mystic Gold? The color strips showing are the Mannered, Chamois and Relic Bronze. What do you think? Should I stay in this color direction? Sometime real soon we're suppose to have a sidewalk and some landscaping done. During that time there will be an electrician here to wire up a pole lamp outside and a fountain (I did manage to convince DH) I could probably arrange to have him hook a different fixture on the wall while he's here. IF I lost the lights and kept the electrical stuff there at the ceiling is there any type of light/chandy that would work there? Or am I destined to have a light bar? The mirror is for sure going somewhere in this house. I still do like the lights but again this set up isn't making me gitty. Ha told you I'm fickle.

You guys are not particularly helpful. Or nice. My best guess, and this is only a guess, would be that it's a maple tree. In the second picture, to the right of your ear, there's a scale of bark separating from the top side that looks thin (which can make climbing hard). When a scale of maple bark separates it can be relatively thin like that, whereas other common trees, oak or walnut, usually have thicker, bark that doesn't scale as much. On the flip side, it doesn't look as scaly as I would expect from say cherry. Without more info I'd guess maple.