Thanks for the feedback. My preference is for a stationary sectional with a traditional look (nothing modern), don't need recliners and want firm cushions due to back issues...I attached a photo of my current couch. It took me 8 months to find the Broyhill and thought we found a gem with the firm Duracoil cushions. This was our 3rd Broyhill and we still have a leather couch that we love and the other one lasted 17 years with a houseful of kids. Broyhill has gone way downhill and the Duracoil technology is a bust! The thought of picking out another couch makes me cringe...off to Pilgrim tonight. We might go with something in leather.

Val: exactly! The Zen feeling is what I am always going for. I realized you can't see it in the pictures here but there is a picture molding around the room and from it up to the ceiling is all painted like trim so it looks like a huge crown molding. I will see if I can take a pic. blessings I am sorry that you lost all the photos...that has to hurt. I am so glad that your Mom is safe though. We lived several places there. I was in Gentilly as was DH and when we married while I was attending Loyola we lived on Chartres and Esplanade, on the corner. We later moved to Gen Haig on the park. I went to JFKennedy HS on Bayou St John...1968 I graduated :) We have only been back once siince the storm. We are going agian in Nov. Your suggestions for a sculpture and table scapes are great. I have not tried that at all. I don't know what a Kuba cloth is but will look it up. THANK YOU...great ideas and I will try this out. 3grad...I think it is Allison that has the floats. I love them too and have thought of them in the past...great minds :) If I could trust E-bay that they would be the "real thing" I would get some. I may look again and see what I can find. Also my SIL is in the NW in WA maybe she can get them there. Thank you... Chic..you had me going there....the fixture is from the Restoration Lighting sale 2 years ago. I wish they still had a line with this look as I wanted something for the foyer....they don't though. I will tape your name and address to it...it is your when I am gone : ) : ) If you have some pics of that sort of tapestry /runner I would so appreciate it. That is exactly what I would love. I have had poor luck trying to find runner. The table is 6ft x 3 ft and as you can see in the picture of the sideboard the rug is a Hunter Tabriz with lots of a rose and navy and dark gold in it. Keep an eye out for me. Sue I agree....I NEVER thought of moving the china cabinet. Inspired is what you are. Let me see what kind of time DH has and I am going to see if we can move it . Then I will have to move something else so may need to use graph paper first. THANK YOU all great ideas...I knew I would get them here. c

Just wanted to let all of you know their decision. We tried out all kinds. She liked a lot of them, but they both liked the Joya best for their room. The size and style fits them and it is a little firmer than many of the others which she liked as well. They are getting it in navy. Mtn, in re your comment about the child's rocker, there was one chair at Crate and Barrel that she tried out and her feet did not touch the floor. She looked liked Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann. I thought of you! Ha. So, thank you all for your ideas, suggestions, and kind words. It gave the search some direction, so she wasn't overwhelmed with way too many possibilities-they all seem to blur into a mishmash after a while, don't they? It was also such fun to read all your posts. What a generous group you all are!

dbarron, I'm glad I was able to find that thread, and I'm glad you posted something on it in order to resurrect it from the archives. It will be interesting to see how the okra does for you. I consider my whole garden one long running experiment. To me, there is nothing more fun than trying new varieties, or new growing techniques or new....whatever. I get bored with doing the same things in the same way year in and year out. Jennifer, That is too bad about the power outages. I bet the house did get cold. We have a generator now, so the thought of a power outage doesn't bother me as much as it once did. Still, it is a lot of work to wheel the big old heavy generator out of the garage (it always is behind a ton of Tim's junk) and set it up, so I'd just as soon not need to use it. Our Wal-Mart has partial stuff on the garden center shelves, but nothing I want---mostly chemical pesticides and herbicides. You know, because we need all those in January? (Not that I use them any other time of the year either.) It was real hit-and-miss. There were some organic products outdoors on the garden center shelves, some patio furniture and outdoor throw pillows (because people buy those in January?) If I ran a garden center, I'd have seeds and seed-starting supplies on the shelves first, not pesticides and herbicides. There's still a ton of unsold Christmas merchandise, but quite a bit less than a few days ago. Even at 75% off, most people walk right by and don't even look at it. Everybody's clearly over Christmas and moving on. Nancy, I hope you hit that button and ordered your seeds. I did quite a bit of that yesterday, but I really did try to show 'some' restraint. Maybe not enough restraint, but I tried. Then, this morning I went to the websites of Hazzard's Seeds and Eden Brothers and both boggled my mind, as always, with the huge selection and huge quantities available in bulk. I didn't order anything, but I am pondering doing so. It is 69 degrees, gorgeous, clear and sunny with blue skies galore here. I just love it! Cats and dogs are happy although the ground still is terribly waterlogged and covered with big puddles. I am excited we will have more days like this over the next few days. Both the 6-10 day and 8-14 day outlooks give us an above average chance of rain. No, no, no. This is supposed to be our driest month historically. Can the rain please stay away for at least a couple of weeks? Why doesn't this rain fall in July and August when we need it? dbarron, Trowels? Ha ha ha ha ha. I'll admit to having at least 6 or 7. I swear ....somebody here (and it must be me because I am the only gardener here) leaves them lying in a bed in the summer and then they get lost beneath plants or mulch. By the end of the season, I'm down to 1 or 2 trowels being visible and usable. Then, in the winter or early spring I find them all again, gather them up, clean them off and put them in the garden shell. It is the same thing every year. At least I finally have more trowels than I can manage to lose in one growing season so I no longer actually run out of trowels and have to go buy another one. For years, it seemed like I had to buy one more per year. In fact, I have to resist the urge to buy another one "just in case" when they hit the store shelves. Amy, Believe it or not, my seed hoarding has improved a lot and I am getting better about using them up before they lose their viability. Well, I still hoard too many tomato seeds, but you never know when you'll want to add another 10 or 20 varieties to the Grow List. This year, I put the seeds I want in the shopping cart online. Then I go back and delete at least half of them before I order. So far that is working out pretty well. My storage tote seed crate is emptier than it has been in at least 10 years. Lisa, Wow! You sure have taken on a lot of responsibility with MOW. I am so proud of you---that is such an awesome thing that y'all do for your community and I know that y'all are making them really yummy food. They are so lucky to have people like you who care about them. You might not be behind....it might be that we are getting ahead of ourselves just a little bit, but what else can a bunch of gardeners do in the winter time? Talking, planning and dreaming about gardening isn't really the same as being able to do it, but it does help pass the time until gardening time rolls around again. This afternoon a yellow jacket tried to come into the house with Tim. It made it into the mudroom and there it died. It now resides in the trash can. Will somebody please tell the yellow jackets that it is winter time and we don't need their company in January? We feed the deer every day, of course, and this morning or perhaps overnight, one of them left me a small present at the deer feeding area---one small antler probably from a 6-pt buck, since this antler had 3 points. I picked it up and brought it indoors and will let it dry for a while. The grandkids will love seeing it...they are at the age where seeing and collecting anything natural like bird feathers, pretty rocks, dandelions, etc. just thrills them. Dawn