Thank you all for your wonderful praises~~ I had the help of my children in doing this because my house will be featured on the Christmas Home Tour next Saturday. It was fun, but doubt if it will look this way next year :-) My DS and DSIL wrapped those poles...I had fun watching them take the ruler and make sure the ribbon was exact. My DD stood on the DR table and did the chany. The dishware is also belongs to her and I was fortunate to have them to use....they are so pretty. I wish I had the urns out for this pic....they turned out very well (or so I think). I'd love for all of you to be able to come for that cup of coffee and chat awhile. I am so happy here and glad I came "back home" after my DH died. It was a huge step but have never regretted it for a minute....only wish I had him here to enjoy "our" new house...he would have loved it here on the little lake that he loved so well. Merry Christmas to each and every one of you and I hope 2014 will be very kind to you and your loved ones.

I know Carol. That is exactly what I said, if we shifted it a closet would lay out perfectly but that is a major load bearing wall with a huge beam that runs the length of the house so dh says no way will he move it. :( I really wish I'd paid more attention at the time but we weren't going to finish it right away and I figured it all could be adjusted. Kicking myself gently. In my simple mind I think hey just move the header down but it's not going to fly. Septic is fine so no worries there. We have 2 tanks. The windows are not for a bedroom at all so it would never be marketed or sold as one. In our last house we had something similar in the basement. We had a bonafide bedroom with window to code including a closet and then another room with a window that was not an escape window and it had a closet also (it was our workout room there too). There was never a problem mentioned when we sold the last one but I haven't checked so maybe I should. Depth would be for hanging so 2- 2 1/2 foot would be all I'd need I think?

We bought fresh greenery for the old copper boiler (kind of a tub/pot) Saturday, but it's been raining ever since, so have not put it in the pot yet. nor has hubby been able to get some trimmings off our magnolia tree. Inside is done although I need to get a couple more poinsettias. I like to use the smallish pots and use several in a larger container, I can arrange them better for a nice full look. I need one more for the sunroom and another one for the dining room, plus I think I'll add some ivy to that. I haven't had poinsettias in years but I'm enjoying these. Creme color in the sunroom and the creme with slight streaks of pink in the dining room.

@MrsPete My mom made a number of dresses for me when I was a kid, including the one I wore as a flower girl for her brother’s second wedding (by the time he married the 3rd and final time it was easier to buy a ready made dress :p) and when my dance costumes needed to be sewn she made those too. Those dresses and costumes are special memories for me, my mom‘s last sewing project is the quilt she made me several years ago - she only hems and mends things now. I made a duvet cover for our bed a couple years ago, pillow covers for the stationary back futon in the basement family room, and pillow covers for the sofa with chaise in the living room. The duvet I used some king sized flat sheets to make the front and back, then splurged on some pretty material and satin ribbon to ’dress‘ it up. The pillow covers for the futon I made when we still lived back in SoCal and I had access to a fabric warehouse store, what I didn’t buy in materials there I got on Etsy. The sofa + chaise pillow covers I did with cheap Walmart flat quarters in solid navy for the backs and fancier flat quarters from Etsy. The pillow forms themselves I made by ’cannibalizing’ old pillow stuffings (washed and dried in lingerie wash bags before re-use) mixed with shredded leftover fabric scraps and shredded clothing scraps, to go inside the outer covers made from an old white sheet set that was too dingy to go on the bed but since they weren’t holey they were serviceable to use for my pillow project. And yes, these projects were a lot of work. The total costs on the duvet, I spent less than I would have to buy a one of a kind duvet. With the pillow covers themselves I broke even, and the pilow forms ultimately cost me nothing since I used what I had on hand.