I agree with TJ. I got one about 13 years ago, and it came in a dish with pebbles and water. I kept it like that for a couple years, but then decided it would be better in soil. It has thrived in soil, and even grew new stalks, which actually are attached to one of the main stalks, but below the soil, so it looks like a seperare stalk. If you choose to keep it in water, you MUST change the water often. I used to change mine every couple of days. Also, water has no nutirituve value, so you need to fertilize it, but because the fertilizer can't leach out, you must be very careful with it. Just look at typical fertilizer dilution. Per gallon, you only need a teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon if you feed every time you water. Now think of that, and think of how much fertilizer you may have put in, even though it was only "a pinch". A pinch is probably good for a quart or 2 of water, depending on what kind of fertilizer you used. I would suggest you pot it up, and keep it out of direct sun, to avoid bleaching it. Mine thrives in lower light levels, with no direct sun. Good luck! Joe

lavender_lass - yes, we are going with stainless appliances. My mom is a retired Sears employee and she has gifted us, so nice to have an employee discount...it limited our choices a bit for appliances, but to tell you the truth, it also made things a little easier when there are SO MANY decisions to be made! As for the rolled linoleum - I'm going to miss it terribly. Somehow though, I'll manage to muddle through. To be honest, there is part of me that feels bad disliking the current kitchen so much - we bought it out of the estate of the original owners...there's a certain amount of bittersweetness any time that we change things around as it means that it becomes less and less "the home that Dave and Ginny built" and becomes our home. palipsest - thank you for the suggestions. Do you think that a narrower island will look TOO narrow? That's something that my husband is very concerned with and it might be a hard sell for that one - we started with an island that was 36" total and my husband seems to have a mild case of heart failure every time I shave an inch off the narrow side! I very well might kill him if I take if from 31" to 26" or 27"!!! haha DH, being a man, believes that "bigger is ALWAYS better" and wants the largest trash pullout we can get, which puts us at needing an 18" cabinet for it. I'm trying to maintain a bit of symmetry in the island by using an 18" for my KA mixer so I'm slightly reluctant to change one and not the other. Might be able to go to a 30" drawer base and shorten the length by 3" to gain a little additional walkway between the table and the island...will try that in the layout and see how it goes.

Can't wait to see Annie's headboards too! Grouting will probably be DAYS, not day! NICE, I wish I had that kind of energy when it comes to grouting time! TooMuch, anytime goes! My hope is to stop STARTING without finishing! Gypsy, it's a GOOD sickness that we all share! SLOW, it's more white plate middles on a lazy susan. Thanks for all your nice comments. It is a fun passion!

Like nhb, my mom liked to get the holiday decorations put away before the New Year. Since I set our tree up on Thanksgiving weekend and decorate pretty soon after that around the house, I've pretty much followed that schedule since by the end of December it's been a month+. This year for some reason although I got the tree down and collected all my holiday decor to store for another year, I have procrastinated in packing and putting all the various decorations away. I have a system in place, with all my holiday storage bins colored red or green, or with those color lids so they are easily visible in our loft. I number each bin and have a corresponding master list of box contents by number. So when it's time to decorate and I want the boxes of ornaments, I just go to my list and pull out boxes 1, 2 and 3 for example. Anyway, I do rearrange and shift each year which means having to edit my master list....and I've just not felt in the mood to do that. So I have lots of boxes and stuff to be put away that are just sitting in our florida room (AKA home of random objects). Maybe I'll make myself work tonight, unless I laze out and resolve to do it tomorrow :).