I'm so glad you discovered Margo's site and posted it here. She used to post on Garden Junk a long while ago. I miss her! I love her site! INSPIRING! You can see a simple screen door trellis I made which she posted on her door page. :o) Bear Hugs! Kirk Here is a link that might be useful: Trellis

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face, thinking about the wonderful things James sent. I had left everything out so I could look at it all again and smiled over and over as I put things away. Thank you again James, for making my day. I used my new Microplane this evening...WOW, I love it! I wanted one of these for the longest time...I'm so happy to have one. Annie, yeah, I know, Julie is the designated lush. I'm just a lush by association. Adrienne, James did do very well. Those glasses are great, aren't they? The colors work perfect in my home. Pamela, Thanks. I don't know why I was getting blurriness in the pics though. New camera. I think I need to read the manual. Cindy, That apron is beautiful, isn't it? I've really wanted one, but now this one is too pretty to use. Maybe I'll use it when cooking something that isn't messy. Hey, I want to see a pic of the dress you got married in...vegetables? LOL Trixie, I'm still in awe at the wonderful package. Ellen, right, Ditto! James & Jeanne, It was more than a box of stuff...it was GREAT stuff! Thanks you Jessy for your input. Teresa, it is fun. I can't wait to try some of those recipes. Shaun, James just doesn't sound like the kind of guy the would "slap his Mama", does he? HeeHee...I got a kick out of it. Stacy, I wonder if we should all start having our hubbies help out when we shop for our swap gifts? :-) Doris, I am so enjoying these wonderful things. Karen, Pottery a big weakness for you, huh? I love it too...old Roseville is popular around here and I have a few pieces, but this is my first Frankoma. It's special! Diane, not a thing not to love, every single thing was perfectly pleasing. May, Cool, glad to hear your opinion on the wine. Can't wait to see a pic of your finished cork board. Ann, thanks to you too for setting up the swap and giving my name to James. :-) I'm glad to hear you have one of Jeanne's lovely aprons. I am just so excited about that. I've given up wine (and Cosmos) until I drop a few pounds. That wine will be the one I open when I reach my goal! I'm hoping that will be in a month or so. Jayne (who is so happy with her first swap...swap virgin no more!)

Les, totally agreed: all you need are some testimonials from people here and a rockin' website, and you'd be off. And in the Chicago area, you could probably charge $50/hour instead of $20, and people'd still count themselves lucky to have you! And the other talented people here, too: I love the idea of redoing one person's room/house each month. Thanks for these nice messages, everyone! Alas... DH has both our cameras and he's out of town, so I can't even take pics, let alone post them! I'll try to get a friend to take some, because I really do want to share them. THe part I most like about it all is this. My LR/DR/kitchen is one big long rectangular box, basically. We'd laid it out so that all the furniture was on verticals and horizontals, echoing the room's geometry and making it feel even boxier. Decorator Tom broke that up. My DR table is now on a diagonal, and so is the too-big sofa, but no traffic patterns are blocked, and the rooms are still very usable. (although my sons complained that now they can't do capoeira in the living room...) Also, he rearranged all the pictures, plates, etc so that wherever you stand in the three rooms, your eye falls on something pretty. I'm not quite sure how he managed that. Parma, my house is so dim, and I crave light... we had one wall dark in my MBR and it drove me mad. In another house, in my friends' houses, I love color, and here in mine I love deeply colored pillows, art, textiles... but I need the ambient light reflected by pale walls or I go off the deep end. Pam14, thanks for your sweet note. DS is OK now, thank goodness (I've posted to that thread). One more comment: Tom travels a bit, so if anyone in Phoenix, Albuquerque, or Denver wants his info, I'll pass it on. (:

Chlorinated Detergents are not so great for rubber dishwasher seals, admittingly. However.. they are not horrific. They we're used for decades in automatic dishwashers without problems, and I'd equally say that most machines made within the last 10 years are designed to handle corrosive, high PH detergent formulations. I have however noticed that there is a significant problem with GE & Hotpoint made machines though, concerning the Main Wash Dishwasher Detergent Cup leaking or allowing water to spray in, before the main wash cycle. Because of this, most if not all of the detergent is wasted, long before the actual wash cycle.. causing spotting & lackluster performance. I correlate this problem with the the fact that most detergents are now made with Higher PH's due to lack of cleaning agents, and substitutes for Chlorine, which may be too much for the very poorly designed rubber seal seated around the interior of the cup. Despite this... GE's engineers say it's not a concern, and they believe dishes will come out "adequately clean" for consumers.