Any sub-tropical exotic catches my eye, like the Gunnera's, Windmill palms(Trachycarpus fortunei), giant ricepaper plant (Tetrapanax papyrifera 'Steroidal Giant'), the many different species of bamboo, hardy eucalyptus, & the hardy banana (Musa basjoo). Also the other hardy and semi-hardy palms such as the Sabal's, (Jubaea chilensis) Chilean Wine Palm, (Butia capitata)Jelly Palm, (Butia eriospatha) Woolly Jelly Palm, plus a few others that I see around the area. I also find the bright flowers of the hardy Grevillea and Callistemon very eye catching. Of course Chilean Firebush (Embothrium coccineum) during the spring also catches my eye along with the bright blue flowers of the Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) I also like the bright yellow flowers of the Scotsbroom, specially during our dark, rainy, depressing spring days. Those bright yellow flowers are so cheery. Scottsbroom also provides cover and food for one of my favorite birds, the valley quail. If it wasn't for the scottsbroom around Olympia there wouldn't be valley quail. I also like the bright cheery flowers of the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). There isn't the range of color, fragance, and time of blooming of any other plant for the northwest. They are very attractive.

THANK YOU!!! to everyone for all of your suggestions and input. I apologize for not replying sooner...where does the time go? I wish I could get on here everyday but never seems to work. Anyway, I think we have found a winner. We found it challenging to balance the things we liked the look of off the cabinetry with what it looked like against the cabinets with how they felt. Boy, it seems like if we found one we liked the look of, it didn't look good against the cabs. Or if we found one that looked good with the cabs, we didn't like the way it felt. Etc etc... We have almost finalized our choice to be the Atlas A826 pull. It seems to be a nice happy medium between look, fit and feel for our kitchen. Only question now is if a product made in China out of "zinc" is a safe product for a kitchen (where hands are touching food, etc.). Are we being paranoid? Here is a link that might be useful: atlas successi pull on home click

Paintergirl94 - I was wondering if anyone would think I was crazy. LOVED Siousxie and the Banshees!!!!! My mom liked listening to them w/ me. Listening to them right now! DH about fell over when I asked him who was doing the horrible rendition. He really thought it was a joke. He asked me who I thought did it and when I staunchly replied "Der... Siousxiee and the Banshees" he walked out of the room. Ha! Ha! Now my 6yr old listens to the Beatles every morning when he wakes up. Busybee - our local alternative radio statin plays a remake at 7:45AM. It's gotten to the point that if anyone is watching the clock at work we all stop (even the patients) to listen to the awfulness spewing forth from the speakers. I think that HGTV made a thoughtful decision in giving the winner a Special instead of a series this year. Safer to tread the waters instead of diving in after all of the past failures. I wondered how quickly the show went into production after she won. I do believe that she will be quite popular - I hope HGTV doesn't screw it up. Lots of blogs were a buzz about her and her style the following day! Beatles or Elvis? Gosh I don't know! For my kids def. the Beatles and I'm really psyched about that because I love a funky, rock 'n' roll kind of style for their room which they want to transition too. Can I say my decorating style musically (and fashion) would probably be a cross between Etta James, the Beatles and Duran Duran?

They weigh a ton paulines. I love heft in cabinet hardware heh heh Moonkat...I'll adopt you if you take over dog duties. That means he sleeps in your room, you take him for 3000 walks a day, and you can learn to live with puddles on occasion (not outside) LOL Pluky I have another room in my brain I haven't gotten to do yet. I want to recreate Tatooine (star wars planet where luke was living with his aunt and uncle). I could do a black sky ceiling with lots of stars and planets (including a death star light fixture) Then the dessert on the walls with speeders, etc., flying by. So if I have twins hopefully they'll love star wars heh heh Mind you we'll have to buy another house....but that just means I get to do another kitchen LoL Host that deep chest cough is killing us as well. He is finally over his high temps, but the coughing makes him grumpy which makes me grumpy! So we're just a couple of grumps locked in our house. Gail I have looked far and wide and coton knobs just don't exist. That's the problem with having a rare dog :OP If we had labs...we'd be in great knob shape! He's going to be worked into the house as well. We have a cat room under a stair case (about 6' long and 3' wide by 4' high). It has a large door to it with a smaller kitty door in it. I'm having the same artist who did the bedroom do a take on the "Dogs playing poker" with our two cats playing poker, and the coton will be the dealer ;)