LEMON TORTE Cake layers: 1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 3 cups flour 2 TBL baking powder 1 cup milk 8 egg whites Filling: 2 cups powdered sugar 8 egg yolks 1 TBL butter Grated zest of 1 lemon Juice of 2 lemons For the cake layers: Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Sift together flour & baking powder & add to butter mixture alternately w/milk. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold into mixture. Grease three 9" cake pans & divide the mixture evenly between them. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool layers. For the filling: combine all filling ingredients in the top of a double boiler & heat over boiling water, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat, cool & spread between layers. Frost top & sides w/White Icing, if desired.~~ Food for Thought White Icing 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 egg whites 1 TBL light corn syrup 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup chopped marshmallows Beat first 5 ingredients at high speed for 1-2 minutes. Pour into top of a double boiler. Add marshmallows & cook over rapidly boiling water for 5-8 minutes. Pour into a bowl & beat until spreading consistency.~~

So sorry that it's taken me a long time to reply, we've been on spring break and every day/night at least one of my children has had a group of friends over-- a lot for me to keep up with. I love these ideas! The celestial print, the vintage photographs, the hooks for towels, everything. Thank you so much. And yes, no frogs (although I truly think they would love that), but I am leaning towards a lone star in the room somewhere, after all, we're in Texas. I'm also leaning toward burgundy as the main color, but still haven't reconciled that with my dark, golden oak floors. Today I was in a thrift shop and found a nicely framed van gogh print, the image, which had brilliant, deep blues and yellows (this wasn't Starry Night but a cafe' scene) prompted me to consider those colors as well (plus we're Notre Dame fans so we get a lot of mileage out of those two colors). In any case, your comments caused a lightbulb to go off in my head. Thank you! Please keep your ideas coming. I need all of the help I can get! Thank you so very much.

I practice home food storage, including hundreds and hundreds of pounds of grains/seeds/beans. I vacuum-seal dry goods in canning jars using a FoodSaver vacuum sealer and the jar attachment, and store them on shelves in the food storage room in the basement. Wheat, and similar grains purchased in large quantities are vacuum-sealed in FoodSaver bags in 5-pound amounts and stored in the basement on steel shelves in plastic storage containers (with a flat flip-top lid). Storing dry goods in mylar bags is also a good method since it's oxygen-free. The oxygen-free (vacuum-sealed) method insures you don't get an infestation of insects, and it also insures much longer storage time. You can also use canning jars with oxygen absorbers if you don't have a FoodSaver. You need to avoid 5 things with bulk food storage: 1. Heat 2. Light 3. Moisture 4. Oxygen 5. Insect Infestation Having practiced food storage since the 1980's and incorporating vacuum-sealing using jars and bags, I've never had an insect infestation. ***It is suggested to avoid recycled plastic pails that may have had anything containing fat in it (like the pails that had icing in them). The fat can't always be removed because it bonds with the plastic. During storage the bonded fat can become rancid and affect the stored items in the pail. There isn't a degreaser that can remove the fat that has bonded to the plastic. As already mentioned, there are lidded food storage containers of a wide variety of sizes and shapes from restaurant supply stores. I've tried many of them, but always went back to glass canning jars. I much prefer glass over plastic. Plastic will absorb odors, and fats from foods will bond with the plastic. When I move a canning jar of food from the food storage room to the kitchen it goes into the pantry and onto a wire shelf. I have my shelves placed so I load a 1/2-gallon or quart jar onto them on the jar's side so the top/lid is showing. The regular canning lid (which was vacuum-sealed) has been replaced with a canning lid that has been spray-painted with chalkboard paint and a canning ring. Using chalk (I actually like to use Bistro Liquid Chalk Markers in bright colors on the chalkboard lids) I write the contents of the jar, and any other information I might want. Using the horizontal storage method for canning jars takes up a lot less space than storing them upright, and you don't have them 2 or 3 jars deep on a shelf. You can quickly identify what's in the jar because the lid is showing. I can also vacuum-seal chalkboard lids to the jars, if necessary.

@Charles Coaston. Good luck. Remember, don't compare price per gallon, instead compare price per square foot. Here's how: Choose your grade of paint - good, better or best. I always recommend best. Determine the price per gallon Read the label and get the spread rate - it is on every gallon Divide the price per gallon by the spread rate Now you can fairly compare brands and grades of paint and decide if a few cents more per square foot is worth it. This needs an update but it's a good example of what I'm talking about. I priced major brands per square foot and made an infographic of the data. The less expensive grades of paint can actually end up costing more than the top tiers for several reasons. Like, they will require more coats to achieve hide and color resolution or they may be difficult to apply and thus require more labor, etc. A cheap can of paint is not always the great bargain it appears to be.