Oh Amber I wish you were there with me, he was flitting all over the place and so very cool. I hope he returns. I wish you were here with me more often, actually. I felt we spent so little time together at the swap last weekend (sigh) Wish you were closer so you could sit with me in the evenings by the pergola THAT would be so wonderful. You are a true delight. I have always been too impatient with my picture taking. Ill-Man gave me a few hints, Like click like crazy until ya get the perfect shot and take a deep breath before you shoot. Well, that's way too much multi tasking for me!! So I kept snapping until the sun caught it's wings.

Been there, done that...lint is such a HUGE annoyance to my life. We're in a 2nd floor condo where the dryer vent ducting goes to the roof through the attic over 20 feet and several elbows. My husband bought the condo years before we met, and the ducting was clogged after several years. At the time, he decided to disconnect the vent from the duct. The resulting moisture did some damage to the cabinetry (swelling of the particle board, even under layers of oil-based paint). Soon after we married, he decided we needed to fix the problem correctly. He went up into the attic and disassembled the ducting, brought it outside, and blew it out with his air compressor. I pushed some cleaning tool through it as well. We can't be doing this regularly! I mean preferably, never again! So, I had him put a filter -- a gallon paint strainer -- over the dryer vent where it connects to the machine. This clogs every month or so, we pull the machine out, disconnect the vent, clean the strainer, and put it back. This is still an annoying chore, but not the nightmare of dealing with the whole duct run. My husband had a cool idea, that what we need to do is sew a new, longer strainer that tapers to a skinny point, so that even when it clogs at the point, there can still be air flowing past the clogged strainer, and we should be able to go longer between cleanings. We got a new dryer last summer, and pulled the ducting out of the attic to clean it -- but it was already clean as a whistle. So, our secondary filter system has kept the duct run clean for 9 years. I found you can buy secondary lint traps with a door that opens to clean them out, but we don't have room to install the box in our laundry room, and I don't think it would work any better or be easier to clean than our homemade filter. When I redo the floor, I plan to put magic slider thingies under the dryer feet to make it easier to move in and out, plus I won't want to gouge my new floor. I have researched other solutions. People claim that solid metal vent will maintain better airflow than pleated, but I think it will still clog because we need 2 90-degree elbows to get it connected to the duct in the wall. And if it clogs, how do we pull out the machine with a non-stretching vent? If we could move the duct in the wall to match the dryer vent outlet, that would eliminate 2 elbows and would probably help... I also found you can install a secondary fan in the ducting near the exit, increasing the airspeed in long ducts so the lint won't clog. They cost $150-200, but if I never had to clean out the duct run or pull out the dryer to clean my makeshift secondary lint trap ever again, it would be well worth it. I also think that our ducting is leaky somewhere, because rooms on the other side of the wall (our master bath) get crusted with lint all the time. Finding and sealing those leaks would probably improve airspeed some, plus save me tons of work cleaning the lint all the time. I think the additional fan is the way to go. In 2 other areas where we replaced an ineffective low-cfm cheap fan with a high-cfm good one, like the hood over our cooktop, it made an amazing difference, night and day. Here is a link that might be useful: example of dryer duct fan

Thanks for your responses. It's a fun topic, isn't it! I should point out that there are scores of fabric manufacturers that were not represented here, so who knows how true my post is! But Beacon Hill, Stroheim, and many more that I saw are industry leaders. Oceanna--upholstery fabrics used to follow by a few years, but now its right on the heels of the clothing industry. BTW, I'm loving your cottage posts. mqmoi--Sorry I don't know how to find Sequoia by Richloom, but I'll but there is somebody here who can. tinker--I think the rust/spice colors are pretty neutral and easy to accent, as already stated; depends on how light or dark (saturated) you go. meg711--what happens where I am, is the distributor shows the newest fabric samples "to the trade", and these samples are constantly coming in; some stay longer than others. For someone like me, who goes maybe 3-4 times a year, the changes kind of jump out more than if I went weekly or daily like some clients. The new stuff filters down to retail showrooms almost immediately, where they are added to the samples that already exist, and their staying power can (and should) be a lot longer there--often for years. Sample books are almost immediately provided to the retailer as well. So you basically see the new stuff fast, but generally not on the same huge scale. In other words, there are no real surprises lurking in the background to blindside us; just general directions that get tweaked constantly. I was also thinking and wondering about browns when I left the place, because I didn't really notice browns. Maybe I just spaced it. Someone else may know the answer to that. At any rate, they didn't jump out at me, but I wasn't really looking. Syllabus--I agree about the greens. Some of them were very pretty though, by themselves. I think for traditional, country, cottage, shabby chic, etc. that sage green will always have a place; as well as any other color that you would find at, say, Williamsburg or other places of our heritage.

Nanny2a - If I'm understanding what you wrote the bottom of my lamp shade should be like 20" in diameter? That sounds and looks huge? Did I do that right? I measured from the bottom to the bottom of the socket base and got 22". Hmmm.. Threed - Oh no I wouldn't light them. They don't fit anyhow. I'll have to head to a lamp store with the lamp in hand. Chloe - I don't know that the tea lights would look right. I don't think I even have any to try right now though. Trailrunner - Thank you for those sites! The candle covers sound way better than the folded paper idea. ha I like the look of the candle cover things. What do you put on the top part? Or nothing because it's covered? Here's the ebay lamp I was talking about. I emailed the seller asking about the height of the shade. The bottom of it is 17" the top is 13". Lamp height is 35" I bought this shade just to get an idea. This is made so that you don't have to use a harp so I think it sits too low and it's not wide/big enough. This shade is 14" at the bottom, 10" top and height is 9.25". So I'm thinking I need one similar to the size of the ebay one? I'm going to try and find some lamp stores this week. Hopefully someone can help me and what I need is all right there.