th you hostaholic. will report back from the battlefront!(the searching battlefront, that is!) along w the rest of you who depend on these bags, some of my fav things about them are: they are MAJOR lightweight- like a feather- and because of this and their loosely formed structure, they can be set down anywhere, even temporarily on top of plants. they don't have a 'rigid' bottom, like the barrel form of them, so they can just be tossed on the ground and they will open up to receive your tossed debris (their wideness makes exact aim not so critical as it is with other clean-up receptacles.) i think i made up that word,'wideness'? 'Width' just wasn't a big enough word for me i guess. Anyway, i am notorious for going out into the gardens unprepared; yanking out my snippies and willy nilly pruning away and tossing stuff on the ground. And in this perpetual cartoon, My Love is running up behind me and tossing down the clean- up bag! anyway, now that i'm actually starting to remember to grab one on my way out, we want more of them, so thus The Quest. best, Mindy The Cotton-Arbo retum

The technology has improved considerably since we started buying them almost five years ago. There are many manufacturers and vendors. Sunergy (a wholesaler, you can't buy them directly) is one of the best. LEDs are not as powerful, but the bulbs last almost forever. Rechargeable disposable batteries are an improvement over the old proprietary, costly replacement battery types. Some thoughts: --For high-intensity lighting, use multiple LED lights. Check Frontgate.com for their high-end solar lights and you can see a photo that shows the difference. --If you don't have sun or at least very bright shade, you won't get much light from solar garden fixtures. Single light LED sets are cheap, but they really don't throw off enough light to adequately light an uneven path, for instance. Spotlights are brighter, but more expensive. --White is blue-ish white, as noted, and quite harsh. Think cheap white fluorescent and you'll get an idea of what we mean. Amber is gentler and more attractive, but much dimmer. It is also losing popularity fast, and so I have yet to see a multiple-LED amber solar light widely available, which is a shame. More recent LED lights are now available in a "warm white", which is an improvement over older lights. --They don't last forever. Either battery or (traditional) bulb wears out. Sunergy's lights are heavy-duty aluminum, which is much sturdier than the plastic most mfgs use. Knock those little adjustable solar panels around too much, and the connector tends to break, so the panel just flops loosely. Since these things are down around your ankles, hoses, feet, and tools WILL occasionally bump them around. I don't like the solar lights with the panel inset on the top that can't be adjusted...not as useful in any but the direct sun/all day locations. In general, if you can put in low-voltage lighting (the new stuff is much better than the old-style kits, and easier to install as well), do so. We did not, because in our situation, it would take a $2,000 electrical subpanel and another $1000 of labor and materials to light up our backyard. Instead, we installed 4 solar lampposts, one 12-LED solar garden lamp, 8 solar spotlights and six sets of 6-lite solar garden lights on short stakes. It isn't perfect--a flashlight helps on the shady paths--but it works pretty well for about $750. Some of the lights are going on four years old, but in general you should plan on no more than 3 years of use before a few will need replacement.

Howard Kaplan Designs makes gorgeous pot racks, and perhaps their "Europa" model may even be the one that Mike De Giulio used. You should at least check them out - maybe it's not out of your price range. The price must depend on what size you get, whether you include lights or not, etc. so it's worth checking. I'll link below. Also check out the pot racks by Enclume. They are sold at Sur La Table, and other stores, and online. They will be more reasonably priced than Howard Kaplan, especially if you shop on the 'net. I wanted a pot rack, but the glamorous Mike De Giulio look in my mind and the reality didn't jibe. You need to have tall ceilings, otherwise you'll have have to peer through hanging pots. Also, my pots are much-used and can look gnarly, and I wouldn't have the gorgeous gleaming look of my dreams. Just wanted to give you a head's up in case you hadn't thought about those points. Another idea is a wall-mounted pot rack rather than hanging from the ceiling. I'll provide a link for that too. Howard Kaplan Pot Racks Enclume Pot Racks Thread about Wall-Mounted Pot Rack

If you are wondering if those two faucetts are interchangeable the answer is no.... The first one is a commercial sink faucett while the second one is a lavatory faucett. The is a substantial difference in the volume of flow and if you were to put the commercial sink faucett on your lavatory it would overwhelm the drain. Now if you are comparing Commercial Faucetts to Residential Grade faucetts that is another thing entirely. Primarily residential faucetts have more aestetics and eye candy, but more often than not the actual internal working components may be light weight brass castings or plastics, whereas Commercial Faucetts are made to hold up to the harsh environment of large restaurants or institutional kitchens. On commercial faucetts the emphasis is on durability. Aestetically they offer very basic form & function, but the mixer bodies are heavy weight brass castings and the spouts are cast brass, heavy wall brass tubing or in some instances brass pipe that is formed and plated for finish. Instead of having the proprietary design internal plastic cartridges to regulate water flow as are common to residential grade faucetts, most commercial faucetts still use the old Stem & seat valves which can quickly and easily be repaired with basic Bibb Washers and seats, which most plumbers carry on there service truck. The question then comes down to which do you want? You can have the latest fad designer appearance (residential) which will probably be out of style in 5 to 10 years or you can have a plane hard working faucett that will last 20 to 30 years in a school or hospital kitchen and no doubt the rest of your life in a residential kitchen.