I feel as if I'm making a confession to you all. I always loved gardens but my folks never had much money or knew anything about plants so we had the ugliest, deadest yard on the block. I always hated that. My Dads mom had a beautiful garden and my moms mom grew a few rose bushes and a big loquat tree and my moms dad grew strawberries and tomatoes. My folks bought a house with clay soil and made a half hearted attempt at planting some unsuitable shrubs then promptly gave up. Everything died but the couple of pines and the Italian cypresses. My dad's folks garden was the magic place and I adored it. I always loved the prettiest yards on the street and I would stop and look at all the different plants on the way home from school. In particular I was in love with a Japanese couple's dicondra lawn surrounded by maples and bamboo and clipped things. They were out there almost every night working on it together. I can still remember them on their hands and knees pulling little weeds from the dicondra and talking to each other in Japanese. The azaleas were so beautiful and there must have been so many other treasures that I can't recall now. In my mind it was the best a garden could ever get. So then the years went by and I got a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book in high school and I read that book over and over and learned the latin names and began to really look at plants in a new way. I got an understanding of plants and what they like and that different plants want different things and that it isn't just magic that some people have and some don't. I started making an herb garden out in the no mans land of the front yard. Then I started growing annual flowers from seeds and working them in all the while waging war with bermuda grass that threatened to ruin all my progress. I planted seeds mostly because I was spending all my money to go to college but sometimes I splurged and bought fuschias and any other flowers that hummingbirds liked. I soon had a big fuschia collection going in the back under dads big pine tree that managed to survive the early years. I hated my job in the women's clothes section of a department store so I found another one at a local nursery run by a Japanese couple and their son. This couple was so good to me and the hours I spent sitting by Sumi learning about flowers and just being in her gentle presence changed the way I looked at the world and about flowers. She had a great wisdom and kindness. I don't think I'll ever know such a graceful and gentle person like that ever again. Sumi's brother Ken was there too and he was a wonderful man with a gentle way and great sense of humor. I wish I could go back and tell them how much I appreciate all the kindness they gave to me. I loved them and I loved the nursery and every plant in the place. I just wanted it all to grow well and for everyone who got a plant to be happy. I listened to all the growers and customers and I read everything I could read. Then came my friend Robert who knew everything about plants and loved roses. After a trip to his garden I wanted to grow roses. I thought I didn't know much after meeting Robert, but he was also very kind and wise and didn't mind my inexperience. He was also a great enabler and got me started buying roses from RoY&T. That catalog was like candy to us and we talked about it on lunch and while we were planting up flower baskets for holidays. When bare root rose season came around, Robert was always so happy. We loved getting into the big boxes of bareroots when they would arrive. After a while, I thought my humble herb patch was nothing special and started expanding. I left them all to go to the University and then I got a job at Disneyland Entertainment that ate my life. I spent many many hours during and after hours in the park and got to watch all the plantings and talk to the people in charge of landscape for the parks and the hotel complex. All that time, my garden saw me through tough times and I faithfully got up to water it before dawn when I had to go to work early or get to school and study. All along the way I met people who loved plants and I took cuttings and collected seeds to grow in my own garden. My grandma stood by me all the way, encouraging me. I loved Lord of the Rings too and Narnia. I remember when my sister and I were young and went camping in Colorado. We walked out into a meadow and I said " If I see the tents of Narnia, I'm just going to keep going" and she agreed with me that we wouldn't go back. I try to put a bit of fairyland in the yard for kids that come by and for myself to remind me of the old days.

caroleoh - Great point! I hadn't thought of that. I think I'm going to look around for something I have around the house, like a large tray, or something else shaped like that. I could tack it up to see if that might be an issue in the hallway. Not sure what I can find, though. Parma - I'm liking the mirror more and more, and I can't stop thinking about it - LOL! I have it bookmarked and open in my browser. I don't know if you read the review on it or not, but a decorator who bought it said it looks even more beautiful in person (and it's stunning already, if you ask me). I thought the exact same thing that you did about it picking up the same metallic effect on the picture. I love how it sparkles and the details of the tiny flowers painted on it. I agree that it will look best as a solo piece, which, as you mentioned, may be the way to go anyway. I measured it out on the wall, and at just over 32", it will be slightly larger than half the width of the bench. It's substantial enough, I think. What do you think about Caroleoh's point about how it would look from a side angle in the hallway?

I'm going back and forth on adding in some small streaks of the green and bits of silver. Here's what I'm thinking as of now: 1) Base coat - Color match to the beige/light gray in the pillow that comes with set (see picture of forest green comforter I added above.) 2) Add a FEW streaks ("strie"- the vertical lines), of the green and light gray (or whatever the "beige/light gray" pillow color is). I would add maybe 1 streak of each every 7 - 8 inches. I probably wouldn't even be using a teaspoon of each color for the entire wall. I doubt it would even show in the pictures, but when one is in the room, they would see a very subtle lines of the green and light gray. And if I even change the comforter, I could just paint over the green and light gray streaks. 3) Add the metallic paint (something light and "pearly") as the final coat on the headboard wall. 4) Paint the rest of the walls in the base coat (the beige/ light gray color matched from the pillow.) I really like the "drama" of the forest green comforter against the light walls. I also love that large gold metallic vase in @Molly 's picture. Thinking of doing something like that in a pewter. Now just have to find a massive vase that doesn't cost $300+ dollars.

My husband just pointed me to this story from Port Perry Ontario (he had siblings in Port Perry several years ago). The Golden Girls of Port Perry Lifted from that article: The national median monthly cost of a private room in a nursing home in the U.S. is $8,365, according to Genworth Financial, which means it costs more than $100,000 annually to live in a retirement home, and the price tag is only going up. Even if you have to "hire in" cleaning help, etc., aging-in-place is a whole lot cheaper than a nursing home. Of course, that's a nursing home -- not assisted living. Some communities here have gotten so far as declaring that first cousins aren't close enough family members to live together. That particular case was a household of grandmother and her two granddaughters. After grandma's death, the two cousins inherited the home and continued to live there but the local government was trying to force them to leave. I've never heard of this, but I don't see ... - How it's enforceable. If I let you come live in my house, who's going to say no? Assuming, of course, we're both law abiding citizens, who can say what happens inside my house? And if "they" do say no, how are they going to make you leave my house? - How it's possible, given society's widespread acceptance of unmarried couples living together as if married /though not married? I mean, if you can live with a guy you just met last week, why is it not okay to live with your cousin? - How it's possible, given that young people have always looked for roommates as a way of keeping their rent low? If this isn't okay, then college dorms are just plain wrong.