There are some David Austin English roses in most of the local public rose gardens. Bakers Nursery, 40th Str north of Osborn in Phx, had the largest selection this winter but that still only amounted to about 20 of them. The website and catalogue features many, many more.... all bred for form and fragrance. Depending on your sniffer, some will have more scent than others. When Austins became more widely available in the US, Phoenix rosarians poo-poohed the idea that cool-weather roses wouldn't like our heat and they were proved right on many of them. In particular, Prospero, Golden Celebration and Molineax do very well in my garden. Several others shut down in summer. Fair Bianca has the grayish brown blooms of other whites. Due to our warm weather, several Austins grown as shrubs in other climates can be grown as short climbers in ours. I cage my floppers in large tomato cages until the canes are strong enough to support the blooms. The cages are strong enough to hold them up but cheap enough to take wire snips to when no longer needed. Try www.davidaustinroses.com for the online catalogue. Check with Bakers to see what they still have available. They'll be several dollars cheaper than ordering online plus you don't want to be ordering roses in 100F temps.

I feel your pain. I have a comforter I love and can't find any drapes/curtains to go with it so I decided I would just get another entire set with matching drapes. I can't believe what is out there. Huge florals are back in and the rest seem to be like you say, huge circles or some other nonsense. And I dare anyone to find a nice set in Cobalt blue. Haven't been able to find that in many years. I've tried on line, numerous stores and can't find anything I like. The best I've found so far is when I googled "Croscil." I have found some very nice sheet sets at Tuesday Mornings from time to time.

Search for 'drum shade pendant' and you will find a lot out there. As for lighting sites, here are a few places, along with some that just happen to sell lighting (I'm feeling lazy, so you'll have to copy/paste): http://lumens.com http://bellacor.com http://modernlightinguniverse.com http://lampsplus.com http://formplusfunction.com http://croftandlittle.com http://ballarddesigns.com http://designpublic.com http://2modern.com http://roomandboard.com http://wshome.com Do I have lighting on the brain? hmmmm....maybe

We LOVE our dogs! We've always had large outdoor dogs. The two indoor dogs we've had were small. We live in the country and they get to run free, swim in the surrounding lakes, and chase rabbits and howl at the full moon :) When they are "caged" it's a 3/4 acre pasture, not a crate that many are in during the day when no one is home (and/or at night). I'm home all day and have interaction with my dogs on and off all day. The weekends are full of outdoor activities around here (they're right in the middle of whatever is going on). They have grandchildren that play with them. They are my first defense against would be intruders. They bark at the slightest movement/sound (trust me :o ) Was it a coincidence that the first time they came in at night last year, we had a pack of feral hogs root up our south lawn??? I don't think so :o So the point of having an outdoor dog is no different than having an indoor dog...companionship. BTW, if you've ever seen a Lab jump in a sub-freezing lake to retrieve a duck or just for recreation and LOVE it, you'd know that they are fine in their igloo dog houses filled with cedar shavings :) Could all dogs do well in that environment? No, that's why we choose a breed that can.