I also love all the totems pictured. My question is: I have several pieces of Depression Glass. When looking at ebay I see there is an abundance of it for sale and its not bringing great bids. If I used some of my pieces in totems I understand that the resale value for the individual pieces will be less BUT would the totems be worth MORE? (I am considering making them for resale) I also have only partial set of MIL's vintage China. Would YOU ladies use these in a totem???? I have looked to see if the pattern is still available for purchase and was not able to find it. Therefore I don't think it would be worth holding onto as the settings are not complete. What do you think???

Great thread...it's great to see some of my favorite things on other's lists. I have just now been able to afford to really pick things for myself and my tastes, so some I have not had for long, but others have been with me since childhood.. My mother's lenox china (now mine) My Grandmothers sliver tea set (also mine) Various crystal and sliver candle sticks of my mom & grandmothers. Crystal vases My crystal Doilies my mother and great grandmother made Silk ribbon embrodery work of my moms Yellow, my favorite color, especially paired with blue and white. Antique pine and newer painted pine Walnut furniture Wood floors especially wide planked pine Art Glass especially that made by my mom's best friend Ceramics in vibrant colors especially red My broken tile backsplash (while new, is totally me) and I got to help create it:

We used Bitter Break or Bitter Apple to keep critters from chewing things, although thankfully once Randomkitty got out of the kitten stage she wasn't much on chewing anything except flowers and plants (both real and silk, but at least you can douse silks with Bitter Apple) and Goku just licks, rather than chews. Still, the "lickies" get really irritating! It's completely clear and lasts a very long time, but washes off nicely and IME doesn't stain. I, too, chose leather and microfiber upholstery so hair could wipe off, and wood floors are wonderful for being able to get the hair up quickly. (We're going to do wood upstairs too, when we can afford to. I hate carpet in general, berber carpet in particular, and cheap berber even more so.) I picked wool area rugs because cat barf cleans up especially well from those, since poor little Random never seemed to do her horking on the nice easy-to-clean vinyl! Now that we have a little more room in the living and dining rooms, we are going to get a prettier dog bed for Goku. I'm thinking about one of those nice wood-framed ones with a mattress inside instead of the "big pillow" kind, which I never liked the looks of. It's policy that any furkids are allowed on the furniture (they're part of the family, after all) but there are times when they need to go be somewhere else and "go to your bed" is an awfully useful command! Our boy loved bully sticks (aka macho stix for the big ones)... a little too much. It's the only thing he has ever shown resource-guarding behavior over, we can take his food bowl or even stolen beef bones away more easily. So, no more bully sticks. When we did give them, though, we used the big braided ones so that there was less likelihood that he would chew it right down to a nub and swallow the end. You should supervise them and take the nub away when it's short enough to swallow (3" or so). FWIW our vet recommends against pig's ears for, among other things, their tendency to be rather fattening when the calories could be better spent on more nutritious fare; she recommends American-made compressed-rawhide "bones" (not the knotted kind, and not the sticks) - Asian products are often contaminated with salmonella and other harmful bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides and other nasties that shouldn't be near any living being, much less our beloved pets! As with other chewies, dogs should not be left unattended with them. The safest things to leave with dogs are hard rubber chew-toys like Kongs.

Vee, I certainly agree with you! However, here in the states hanging clothes out of doors has strong negative connotations. It is associated with deep poverty. Many communities or neighborhoods try to ban it as lowering the value of the properties nearby. Also, I think the fact that many women work full time has made indoor dryers the norm. I am happy to have my dryer, and often fluff clothes on air with no heat for 10 minutes to soften the wrinkles before hanging them outdoors. Living in the midst of Silicon Valley as I do, no one is worried that I cannot afford a clothes dryer. I actually do believe in doing this, but I must admit to a delicious rebelliousness in flaunting what I see as a foolish trend. One of my sisters always dries her clothes indoors because she has bad allergies, lives in a high pollen area, and wants to avoid getting pollen on her clothes. I can understand that. But my allergies are not as severe as hers, and I hang my clothes to dry a good deal of the time. Carolyn lives near that sister, so she may have similar pollen issues. Rosefolly