Aha, you brilliant sleuths! Yes, individual fingerprints is the answer. **** for Annette, TM, Bobbie, and Nancy. We, along with apes and koalas, are unique in the animal kingdom for having those tiny prints on our fingers. The koalas fingerprints are so similar to those of humans that is extremely difficult to tell them apart. The ridges on a gorilla's hand not only give them unique patterns, but help them to grip objects. Thanks for playing. Time to go dig. I accomplished practically nothing yesterday and last evening, Chuck mentioned that I would have a lot of digging to do today. A not-so-subtle reminder that tomorrow is back to school for me and I can't put off this chore any longer! One of my first tasks this year is to look into the possibility of retiring at the end of the year. I doubt I will be able to do so, but it will be nice to see my options. Smiling and waving my unique fingers, Cynthia

I can almost look past some of the furnishings and accessories I don't care for. I think that's the reality many of us have to work with. This example seems like a fail because the designer had an opportunity to 'shop' the whole space, choose everything right down to the too-small-for-the-wall sconces. But in a *real* home, stuff happens. Literally stuff happens. For a theoretical example, the sconces might be too small but they were great-grandma's so they're going on the wall whether they're too small or not. (dammit) And while the rug might be too expensive to just pitch and replace and the contents of a room might not all be the perfect scale, or style, or color palette, the task is to make it all work together the best way possible. That way is thru color. Get the color wrong, like this particular palette of blues, and even the tiniest of details that might be just slightly off are magnified. Get the color right - the holy trifecta of right which is get color right for the light, right for the function, right for the inhabitants/users - and many design, style, scale, and proportion missteps are overlooked and rendered inconsequential. And instead of missteps or bad design choices, they have the potential to become the personality on which the room's character and overall atmosphere is hinged. This post was edited by funcolors on Fri, Jan 18, 13 at 17:42

Wow, Diana, you've got some great ideas in your photos. I especially like the clear box frames for holding small items - and I happen to have some of them available. My sewing room is medium size and crammed full! My house is old and so on the outside wall overlooking the backyard, I have two large windows butted up against each other with a built-in glass front shelf unit on each end of the window area. These built-in glass door shelves hold most of my fabric, one side for quilting and the other side for fashion sewing but the quilt stash has spilled over here too. My large, heavy folding table sits in the area directly in front of the windows. This table holds my Viking Quilt Designer and my Brother serger. At the table to the right of my desk chair on wheels, I have a set of plastic, rolling drawers (from Office Depot) and a trash can. On the left wall is a book case for books, magazines, mailing envelopes (love those swaps!), etc. To the right of this bookcase is an old oak sewing machine cabinet that actually belongs to my sister. On top of this is a portable radio/CD player and stacks of CDs. On the right wall is my design wall made with flannel backed vinyl tablecloth fabric from Wal-mart hung with saftey pins and nails in the wall. Just in front of the design wall is my ironing board, which stays up all the time. On the wall behind me as I sit at my sewing table is the door to the bedroom and a large 3 ft. by 5 ft. cutting table. This was a solid door I got for $10 dollars and friends helped me put saw horse legs on it. Under the table I have a plastic drawer unit to hold interfacing, fusible web, my collection of kitchen towel fabric, and works in progress. I also have a number of plastic, lidded, shoebox type storage boxes for more quilt fabric stash and works in progress (doesn't that sound better than UFOs?). There is another trash can at the cutting table, a ruler holder sits on top of the cutting table, and there are hooks for tape measures and rotarty cutters just under the cutting table. Computer paper boxes under the table hold my clothing patterns. There is a small closet in the room where I store bolts of curtain fabric, heavy white duck cloth, and freebie fabrics I can get where I work. But the closet has a window in it so I have to be careful what I store in there because of the light fading issue. As I type this, I'm thinking "what a neat and tidy room." But that is not the case because I have stacks of fabric in bags, various tote bags and wheeled totes, machine covers, and stacks of just plain "stuff" everywhere. Hey, I'm creative - I don't have to be tidy too! LOL! Here is a photo of my cutting table with storage underneath. This never looks as tidy as it is in this picture - LOL!

Trim the fur out of the seam allowance before stitching, whatever machine you choose. You shouldn't need to finish the seams, so I'd use a narrow zz to stitch it, just enough to allow a bit of stretch in the seams. I've had good results with a regular straight stitch and a walking foot, too. But, if you trim the fur really short, you can probably run it through your serger. If the backing is rough, you won't want the seams to rub against her skin either, so I'd say separate lining. It would it be easier to just put her in leggings and a long-sleeved turtleneck under the costume--that's what we used to do in the theater when I worked there. Annie