Guess I'll introduce myself over here, though many of you already 'know' me or will recognize my screen name since I'm pretty vocal on many other forums! I'm Susan and I live in Houston, TX with my wonderful husband Jason and younger son John (14, with high functioning autism and apraxia). Older son is off at college. I have my own little company designing software for the hospitality industry, and Jason is a professional remodeler who is 'semi-retired' now and working on our house -- a complete rebuild. I first found GW through the Kitchen forum when we re-did our kitchen about five years ago, and I've become progressively more addicted aver since. My zodiac sign is Gemini, and I'm a Gemini in the kitchen as well. Some days, I just want something quick and easy (but still fresh and from scratch please!); other times I love to putter and spend hours making homemade soups and inventing dishes of one sort or another. Recipes? Not so much... They're good for inspiration, but when I'm in the mood to cook, don't tell me what to do! The toughest part of cooking for me? Figuring out what to cook! What a PITA... I need to come over here for inspiration more often.

Jack, my experience has been just the opposite. My yellow multipliers (which is really all that the various types of Dutch yellow shallots are) have wintered well for me, but the French Reds have not. I have to admit that there are all kinds of strains of multipliers (aggregatum group) with all kinds of hardinesses. My yellow multipliers came from Jungs in Wisconsin and they were sold to be fall planted in the north country, which I did with excellent success. Spring planting works just fine, too and they keep and keep and keep. IMO they are the best storage onions in existence, but are not very big. One of my father's ancestors brought a strain with him when his family immigrated from the Netherlands a few generations back. Unfortunately those have been lost. The Jungs strain is not identical but works just fine in remembrance. The ones I have are every bit as hardy here as my garlics.

Hi lascatx! The piano does not fit between the windows or on the opposite wall unless I angle it in the corner which someone mentioned was a no-no for upright pianos. I'm wondering if art and lamp above/on the piano could help with the "all one height along the wall" problem. And then I could move the existing art to the back wall where the mirror is in these pics. The bookcase has been in our foyer right outside this door to this room. I kind of miss it there, so I may move it back. It's not really any farther away if I use it for storage for office items - I haven't been sold on it between the windows and that would be one less piece of brown furniture in here. I definitely gravitate towards blues, so I'd definitely be open to that on the walls...finding the right color is the hard part. The current color is Benjamin Moore November Rain and it isn't terrible in person, but I figured I should explore other options since it needs a fresh coat.

Ooh just reminded me in the mid seventies ( my best guess- 74-76) I saw Patti Smith in some very very small venue which might have been a basement of someplace. She spoke quite a bit and I can recall she said that Baudelaire was the first Rastafarian. It was all over my head, but I knew I was witnessing someone very special. I also remember seeing Bette Midler at the Copacabana maybe a year after I saw Patti Smith. I was absolutely astounded at her energy. She really put on an amazing show and the venue was really small enough to have real banter going on with the audience. She was so sharp and quick- kind of how she comes across but it was so authentic.