Although I'm kind of a rare poster, I'm here all day, every day. I came by this wonderful forum by way of Southern Living boards and someone I remember as Hanart....I think maybe for her kitties? I'm not sure...but I was so SO glad she told me about this forum!! I'm "Gigi" to my grandbabies....and there were 7....well, now we're expecting #9! Guess that's what happens when you have 5 children and they are all close in age...gee whiz, I'm "only" 56 years old! AND two of the kids aren't even married yet.....oh, my. Christmas is pretty expensive...and loads of fun! If I could figure out the whole picture thing, you all would hear a LOT from me...oh, my real name is Kathy and I live in the Texas Panhandle. Lynn, I always think of you in NM as we frequently visit Santa Fe...would love to have a second house there! This is a fun thread!

Gifted myself a tabletop easel (Sorrento) and some brushes. Already have lots of Ceramcoat paint from when our local Beverley Fabrics store closed in Placerville (that was before we moved to So. Oregon year before last). Yesterday I went to a free intro class on tole painting, and plan to sign up starting next week. I have read lots of the earlier posts here, but it is awfully quiet, isn't it ... have a question, will post a new thread in an effort to breathe a little life into the forum. Delina

It's me gr8day! I had to add GW because imagine, someone already had gr8day : / I was worried I wouldn't see familiar names again! I think this is a great marriage and will add an infusion of excitement with the addition of houzz. So many times I have turned to houzz for inspiration and visual help and then to GW for advice. Now we can have both in one place.

Your double-meaning nom de plume reminds me of an unrelated but still funny (to me) incident from long ago. My choice to avoid being drafted to go to Vietnam was to join the reserves (the branch I joined was as close as guaranteed to be safe as it could be NOT be activated and deployed overseas as is common today, without a Congressional declaration of war. That was most unlikely. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution wasn't enough to allow involuntary deployment under the law as it was at the time). At boot camp, my basic training company was about 1/2 reservists like me (who were college educated or in the process of doing so) and about 1/2 draftees (almost all of whom were sadly mostly dimwits who were often HS dropouts who got snagged because they weren't clever enough to make other arrangements in their lives to avoid the draft. Two had been convicted of crimes as teenagers and were given the sentencing choice of going to juvenile lockup or enlisting in the Army). One day while still at the Reception Station (the arrival quarantine all new recruits are subject to for one week plus before being mixed in with the general population on the base, before basic training starts) I was in a line with a guy I hadn't met before who I knew to be a draftee. I turned to him and said "Hi, I'm Elmer Fudd (using my real name of course), nice to meet you. What's your name?" "Bill Livengood" I said "You're Livengood, really?" He said "Yeah". I said "Enjoy it while you can, you won't be livin' good once basic training starts." He said "Why, do they make us change our names?"