great job on approaching your blank slate as if it were an artist's pallette. Did you go in with a vision in mind or did you just wing it and let it fall into place? ===>>> is this a serious question??? .. you ought to know me better than that by now ... i wung it ... past tense and all ... i started by planting the 1500 potted hosta i brought.. making beds in shade.. creating a backbone i presume ... after mowing the 5 acres for 6 hours and 4 hours of weed whipping every week or so ... the first year.. i created beds around all the big trees not associated with hosta ... and around any other problems in the yard.. like stumps of removed things ... that is called mowing at speed ... the kids were taught to run away from the sounds of the lawnmower.. not towards it .. lol ... then ... having learned in suburbia.. that beds are designed with the riding lawnmower .... aesthetically pleasing means nothing.. if you have to finishing riding.. get out the push mower .. and then the weed whip .. lol .. then i thought i would need basically roads .. to drive the pickup around ... and that is how the various paths were defined ... [never actually did that.. but its come in handy when tree work is needed ... though as the conifer grow.. my roads are shrinking ...] and then .. the electric company started line clearing .. and i got a couple thousand yards of mulch for the asking ... they would come in two or 3 times a day to empty the truck.. because if left overnight it would freeze solid .. it was winter of course ... and they did have to work the next day ... so i started creating beds between the paths ... then i used my hosta logic.. a green.. a yellow.. a blue.. and a variegated in each bed.. keeping in mind what little i knew back then about shape and form ... then throw in a twisty.. a curly.. a ground cover ... a pendulous.. etc ... then.. wait 10 years.. and ipso presto.. what you see ... filling 4 acres pure mineral sand.. with a plant that was basically sun proof.. drought proof and otherwise carefree after a year or two .. led me to either daylily or conifers/trees/shrubs ... and i already had a labeled collection of hosta.. i didnt really want to go into daylily.. those peeps are nuts .. lol .. i think that about sums it up ... vision... schmivion ... dig hole.. insert plant ... throw mulch around to make bed .. reduce mowing to about two to 3 hours total .. and throw out the push mower and the weed whip ... and it was real insight from God.. to find roundup.. and then its generic .... hows that for a plan ... more of a jackson pollack thing.. rather than a monet ... lol ... [ i did honor him by grinding cigarette butts into my artwork.. just like JP] had i been a golfer.. i could have really gotten carried away .. but i dont think many golfers are hardcore gardeners ... [in fact.. is there such an animal.. a hard core gardener.. who does his/her own garden work.. AND GOLFs .. i bet not ...] but i digress ... ken ps: i do live 15 minutes from hidden lakes.. so there was inspiration of how to do it all in the back of my mind ... in fact.. if you got satellite pix of both.. you can see that from space ... my yard linked here.. HL in post to follow Here is a link that might be useful: compare to link in next post ..

I personally don't like really formal style drapes with pleats. I prefer lined cotton or cotton/linen blend with ring clips that allow you to push to the side with a loose manual "fold". I have this look in my living room. I also like these types of fabrics "shirred" tightly on the rod through the rod pocket, especially in a bedroom. Another casual look I like is wide tab tops - I can make them hang in a loose fold similar to the clip on rings. That is the look I have in my DR. One more look I have (in my office) is tabbed backs on my valences (tabs are sew on the back and a continental rod slides through the tabs). That also gives a loose fold. So basically, my favorite style is more casual - it suits my house :). I like the look that Annie posted - a little more "dressy" than my look, but not stuffy or dated. Tuesday

BE CAREFUL!! You should never heat water in Pyrex in the microwave without a disturber in the water. A bamboo skewer is a good choice. If you don't have something with an irregular surface that the bubbles can form on, the water can look like it's not boiling at all, and can get superheated. The superheated water can explode out of the cup. Pyrex is too smooth. Fine for pie or even soup, but put something tall enough to go from the bottom to the top of the cup in it, if you're going to heat water, or put a spoon in it before doing anything else with it, to let the bubbles out. Pyrex used to be borosilicate glass. You can still get Pyrex branded borosilicate in other countries, with the name licensed by the makers. In the U.S. (PA), it's now made by a separate company from Corning, and is tempered soda-lime glass, which is supposed to be harder to break but less heat resistant. It's not inferior in quality, just different in properties, and Corning was also selling tempered soda-lime glass, besides the borosilicate, for decades before they spun off Pyrex, so age doesn't tell the whole story.

I broke down and went to my favorite store, 888, and as usual went on a spending spree. They only had one type of the brands I normally buy. I did notice that all of the lotus paste had the yellow bean paste but none of the others. One is very interesting and would be more to the taste of most people. By Rimei Food it is called Lava Custard Mooncake. The first one I had with my afternoon coffee was a dense chocolate cake filled with a runny chocolate center. The box states that it is mixed. It has three types, plain custard, chocolate, and purple yam moon cakes. They are only about 1/3rd the size of normal round cakes. I will have to go back in October to hit the sales. I do not like freezing sweets as I find that they often sweat when returned to room temperature which to me gives them an odd flavor.