Hello and thanks so much for this fun swap!!!!!!!!! Shirley & Craftie2 & Corrine & Vina thanks for the congrats. It felt so good to win that I actually jumped up and did a dance. My significant other, Noel, went running for his camera so I calmed right down lol. No need for documentation... but I am so in love with all things garden and gardening that the idea of a "supa prize" got me up into the air. Corrine, thank you for your thoughts on attitude -- I think you've got that absolutely right and I'll be filing your examples in the back of my mind and pulling them out when necessary and applicable....probably tomorrow lol!!!! Have had a lot of fun and enjoyed meeting you all -- looking forward to sharing and hearing about everyone's gardening exploits and experiences in the coming season. Thank you so much Vina for brightening each day with your stories and wonderful pictures, games, etc. and for all your organizational effort!!! Best wishes, Barbara rhodes145

Dlm, what a nasty old lady! When we lived outside of Rockford, our back yard was a forest preserve. I had just finished putting in five gardens, to awake one morning and find that almost everything had been destroyed by the deer. I was quite distraught. DH, in his misguided attempt to calm me down, was coming up with all sorts of ideas to *help* with the deer problem. When I settled down, I did a lot of research and replanted with specimens that weren't as tasty to them. Allium, interspersed among a lot to others, helped a bunch as they hate their smell. I left their favorite cut leaf sumac for them to nibble on. :) I can't quite wrap my head around people who want to live in a natural surrounding but aren't willing to make a place for nature. The neighborhood we live in now has all of these man-made lakes and as a result, geese. They have changed their migratory habits and don't even leave for the winter. Someone must have complained as there was a crew out working the other day and when they left, there was a warning sign posted that some sort of aquatic deterrent had been applied. I just don't get it.

My husband would prefer the local marble be used around the perimeter, which may need to happen because there's a chance the butcher block manufacturers won't ship it with the sink hole cut as it may not be stable enough, and then we're back to the same place we were at with the Ikea countertops. Well not quite, but still needing to find a finishing carpenter willing to make that cut. It turns out that not even the butcher block makers like cutting undermount sink holes. BUT... the marble would be standard 1.25" tall, and our cabinet boxes are 34" from the floor. The minimum height of the cooktop surface of the induction range we've purchased is 36". I feel like a 3/4" difference between the counter height and cooktop is more of a deal breaker for me than the chance of the butcher block getting gunky around the sink. I can get the butcher block at 1.75" so there would just be a 1/4" difference between the cooktop and countertop.

For the first time in my life I finally have enough cabinet space in my kitchen that I can hide everything behind doors, meaning this space doesn't have to be functional but thanks to those mentioning that it would be helpful to be functional made me consider another option all together, so I've included 2 options with photos. One photo I took several items off my counters all white thanks to the awesome suggestions here (fruit bowl, utensil holder, onion & garlic holder) so that actually ended up being really useful and follows the concept of clean counters ala the concept found in "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" (I should mention I don't mind the added few seconds it takes to pull these items down as it will make cleaning my counters that much easier). This feels like the shelves are really full but when I took the photo and posted it doesn't look as full as I thought. The other option pictured is a more decorative approach (I still need to add something on the middle shelf). I think if I used this second decorative approach then I would fill that space with some beautiful handpainted teacups I saw that would make me smile. Sorry everyone I can't seem to shake that frame it's eye level and makes me happy, just need to put a photo in it. Not sure if I even arranged things right in these photos according to design principles, but here goes. Thinking of redoing the counters, backsplash, and paint but that's another post!