I've been looking at all the different patterns of Lenox Winter Greetings china on eBay. WOW, so many and beautiful. This pair I found is from the Tartan series. A goldfinch and a nuthatch are the other two birds featured. Some of the other Lenox cardinal plates are just wonderful, but pricey with shipping added in. :o( Slinkey, I never see any really neat plates at my GW, just normal every day type stuff. So this was really a treasure shopping day...and to think I almost didn't go in to shop! Too funny, Candy. Guess that's one way to avoid becoming a golf widow..play yourself. I never learned, but all my time went to showing my dogs for over 35 yrs. I've got several bags of things to take to the Humane Society Thrift Shop, now I've got to see how to NOT shop there too. LOL. (guess more photos will be coming!) hugs, Karen

Sorry if this is clumsy but want to respond and only have a minute to do so... Why not just use the French term cache-tourchons? Americans use several decor terms from other languages. For example, enfilade. I personally had not one fat clue what enfilade meant until I saw the term used here on the Garden Web. Perhaps cache-tourchons is just one more Garden Web vocab item to add to an ever growing list of elevated decor terms. P.S. I love this place - the stuff I learn about here is amazing. And @kswl lol! This post was edited by funcolors on Thu, May 30, 13 at 15:17

Steph, a lovely idea to make the mobiles with your southwestern ornaments. Around here, a lot of folks collect driftwood, and then use tiny screw eyes and monofilament fishing line to hang their shells or other things from those. I am in love with Swarovski and Waterford crystals, their Christmas starts, and that is what I give my granddaughters and grandnieces as a present every Christmas. By the time they are grown, they will be able to decorate a small tree with their collections, I figure. But putting them on a mobile inside near an A/C vent will keep them moving. I have three types of tuned musical windchimes that I've acquired over the years. The first one was made by Grace Note Chimes, then J. W. Stannard (also make musical instruments), and then Woodstock Chimes. Woodstock chimes had a screensaver program that I used for a long time, because the sound kept my house alive with intermittent tinkling and sounding of random notes. I think each of those folks maintains a website where you can listen to the sound of each of their chimes. Tuned chimes are wonderful. I still have chimes located around myy house here, where their tones let me know what the breeze outside is doing. It makes me feel connected to my environment. I had one huge chime I left up north in MA, but the strong winds there broke the cords holding it together. I have yet to mail it back to Grace Note Chimes to let them reassemble it for me. It sounds like church bells, so full, resonant, and mellow. I won't throw it away, it is gorgeous. To get a start at building your own mobiles, instructions should be available in many places, plus check your local library. Here is a link that might be useful: Grace Note Chimes

I always smile inwardly with the whole "do not go to bed angry" thing. In our case, some issues need time and some space before resolving. We have tried the not going to bed angry thing and all that happened is a bigger loss of sleep and things being said while exhausted that were not helpful. Sometimes, you need to table the discussion and try again another day. You may be ticked off when you are at the end of the day, but some things and some people need time before resolving. There is no one size fits all answer. It could work for many others, but not in our house.