DapperDahlia/Carrie, Phil wasn't being serious -- Thus the tongue in cheek reference. We have never had a problem selling flowers to men/guys. Maybe our customers are more cosmopolitan; but, I doubt it. At the market we don't have to act. We're flower farmers; and, most people appreciate that. We also don't wear our bib overalls to market. Those we wear on the farm. Most farmers clean themselves up to look presentable. The ones wearing the bibs at the market are the 'pretend farmers.' Unfortunately, we have resellers at the market because the city hasn't quite caught on that they are not a good thing. As far as the tips, that's considered hawking. All the markets we attend have rules pertaining to that activity. Three warnings; and, ones butt gets put to the curb. It isn't tolerated. Markets are a refined social outing. If the customers wanted excanges with a 'carni,' they would most likely go to a carnival. How about some tips though on how to make our bouquets stand out from the other 20 or so flower vendors? Maybe a few snapshots of your spiffy booth. Hope you hang around, Phil. Do you have your helmet strapped on tightly? Some of us flower growers are pretty tired and cranky right about now; and, sometimes we forget our manners...........

I bring them to work and give them to my co-workers. I do that with a lot of the extra divisions and seedling plants in the spring. This year I brought in 10 or so divisions of Siloam Doodlebug and 8 divisions of Snowy Eyes and a few of some others. I also bring in other plants, like Lady's mantle, iris, perennial geraniums and stuff. I hate composting perfectly good plants and I'm too lazy to sell them. Most of my co-workers are not die-hard gardeners like us and don't care about things like names and genetics - they're just happy to get a nice plant with neat flowers for free! I've been doing this for a few years and it's always fun to have people come back to me and rave over a plant I gave them a year or 2 ago.

Some things I want to keep but have no where to put them are the big Wilton novelty cake pans & cookie racks. If they're not too tall they could go into underbed boxes, either the kind on wheels or just the ordinary cardboard kind. I'm a big believer in using the wasted space under the bed! They also are unlikely to be harmed by attic heat. Otherwise, think really, REALLY hard about just how much are you going to use every one of these pans? Can you pare down your collection? Is making novelty cakes and cookies a frequent hobby or a small business, or are these the sorts of things you only do once in a while? I'm a cookery nut too and I found it hard as hell to weed down my collection of goodies and gadgets before our move last September but I'm not so good at bending the time-space continuum to create storage space where there isn't any. Trust me, it was a wrench to put those adorable heart-shaped miniature springform pans in the donation box because I remembered the expressions of delight when I produced miniature heart-shaped cheesecakes for someone, but we just didn't use them enough to justify the space they occupied. Do you use all three ice chests so often that you need to keep three of them on hand at all times, or is there someone you could give, say, two of them to who would let you borrow them back when you need them? The ironing board. Right now it is behind my bedroom door. We had another ironing board - one of those short over the door things in a closet. Slide it flat underneath a bed or hang it neatly behind the door on the wall on an ironing board rack, or move the over-the-door one to the back of a bedroom door. There are also attractive ironing board cabinets that mount onto or even recess into the wall between the studs, and some can even be electrified so you can plug the iron in right there. I am assuming you prefer to iron in the bedroom instead of in the laundry room (you couldn't FIT an ironing board in our laundry room anyway!). The upright vacuum. This is a necessary thing and I won't be putting it in the attic. I just don't have anywhere to put it except a closet shoved between the hanging clothes. A closet is fine but organize the closet floor (shoe storage, blah blah) so that you can slip it into a corner rather than just shoving it in the middle of the clothes. If you've got a spare $400 floating around (BWAHAHAHAHAHA - who does?) the Dyson DC24 upright vacuum does compact down quite small although in this house the jury's still out as to whether it really stands up to all the hype. The printer for my laptop. Right now it's in the kitchen next to the peninsula where I usually do my work. Is there a chance of a wireless connection between laptop and printer? There are SO many gadgets now that let you print without being physically connected to the printer, and then you can put the printer wherever you can conveniently tuck it away (say an end table with a door where you could drill a small hole in the back for the power cord) without worrying about having to be able to hitch up that printer cable. If you're not technologically adept, there are any number of "rent-a-geek" services to help you. Luggage. Right now in the floor of the closet, but I'd like to keep stuff off the floor so it's easier to vacuum and looks bigger. Attic. Get bags of cedar shavings from the pet department at Walmart or whatever, punch a bunch of holes in each bag, and put them into old pillowcases, then put THAT into each suitcase. The cedar shavings will keep bugs and critters from taking up residence in them, absorb any moisture to prevent mold, and keep them from smelling musty. Or under beds if they'll fit, in which case you can fill them with other things. Make the adult kids (if they're old enough for apartments, furnished or no, they're adults in my book) responsible for their belongings - you are not running a storage facility or dumping ground for their stuff, you have enough stuff of your own. Maybe they can pool their funds for a storage unit; I could see their weeding out their belongings, selling some on CL, eBay, or at a yard sale to raise the money to pay at least part of the storage fees on the things they absolutely cannot part with. I downsized by 40% last year and had to be absolutely brutal about what came along with us and what had to go. We took several station-wagon-loads to Goodwill, and then about six months after we moved we had another "WHY did we move this?" purge and took another two station-wagon-loads out. You have to be kind of heartless... most of what we got rid of was stuff that other people had given us and we - okay, I - had to get over a good bit of guilt about giving it the heave-ho.

Yes, I probably won't cut my own soapstone counters, especially not when spouse is threatening to make me finish the bamboo doors. I like the wild rice and think it could work. Thanks again for pointing that one out to me. It is busier than the mesa, but from the full slab pictures I've been able to find I think not too much so. I ordered a sample and also of raven. Some colors like cemento which I thought I would love (forget manufacturer sorry) look purple in here because of all the yellow I suppose. Re granite, though I love the look and idea of stone counters, granite is often too busy. There is an IKEA sale right now and am planning to take advantage of it. Will have to order this week or next.