Nell & nckvilledudes, Thanks for you help. The process of elimination is never a waste of time. I appreciate your sincere help. Pam, That is not OT at all! On these plants, each leaf has one little cream-colored bump, or node, on the backside on the central leaf vein. The stems are dark green and the leaves are a lighter green. I looked again. They are not glossy, but they are waxy. Like I said before, they remind me of lemon tree leaves, except no fragrance. No scent at all that I can detect. We shall see. I'll grow them in pots until I discover what they are. I don't want to open Pandora's Box if they turn out to be something invasive. They sure are pretty though! Thanks to all. ~Annie

Being the "thug", that it is, you can prune, butcher, hack it to within an inch of the ground, anytime of the year and Ligustrum will "bounce back" with renewed vigor. If you are going to maintain it at 6-8' height, get out the chain saw, Hedge Hog and a sturdy step-ladder and go to work! Now is as good a time as any to give it a haircut. A former neighbor planted a row along the property line, but mistakenly planted it ON the property line, so I claimed half ownership. They maintained it at about 4'. The new owners want it to grow to astronomical heights, so 2 or 3 times a year, I get out the Hedge Hog and cut it back to 4-5', amid yelling and threats from them. Every time they complain, it just gets shorter. Guess it reminds them of the Jungle, from whence they came. It was originally void of foliage near and within 2' of the ground, but 2 nights of -12°F on Jan 21-22, 1985, killed it and all other shrubbery back to the roots. Tapered pruning of the new growth that followed, allowed sunlight to reach the lower growth and today, it is full all the way down to near the ground and about to receive it's second haircut this year, back to the 4' height!. My pleasure! Will also rid it of the berries that birds love. Rb

i have an antique brass bed, in a guest room, with the same kind of side rails. i think they might be put in upside down (in the photo) and, therefore, are on the wrong side of the bed. my bed was put together like that by my last mover and was recently discovered by my daughter when she was here visiting. she wasn't able to get the mattress and springs off so just put short boards at the corners to keep them from falling off. i got new carpet since then and i asked the installers to put the rails on correctly when they reassembled the bed. sorry this is so long!..... i don't know if that was done or not and the bedroom is on a different level of the house than i am on and i am in a wheelchair so i can't go check. regarding the length of the mattress, yes, today's mattresses are too long. i bought a used one about 25 years ago, when i bought the bed, since it was shorter than new mattresses at that time. i hope this makes some sense!

Buy ready-made ones that are too long, and take them to the dry cleaner. Most cleaners have people on staff that sew, and they can hem them for you. If you want to keep the ones you have (and they seem to work fine with the carpeting color, and are okay with the wall color), have them shortened to the bottom of the window, so that the length looks intentional. One other thing you might try, tho this will seem bizarre. Take a panel and turn it upside down, so that you use the bottom hem as the rod pocket. You might have to open a couple of stitches if the side seam overlaps the bottom hem. Put it on the existing rod, and see where the panel hits. I am betting that if the tabs were removed on the now upside-down drape, the length would be right. The drape would also hang so that you didn't have the gaps at the top with part of the trim showing, etc. You could also see if you could do the same thing with the top of the curtain instead, as it appears that there is a wide enough hem there; the only issue might be that the buttons might be sewn through the hem, so you would have to take those off to open the hem. As suggested, you could also add a panel of fabric to the bottom, but if you don't sew at all, it might be a lot to tackle. You can use the iron-on tape to attach it, but you have to be able to cut the fabric correctly and it will have to be hemmed all around - perhaps more time consuming then just flipping the panel over and cutting off the tabs that end up on the bottom.