I'm not an expert, but the Monkey Princess, Bruvver and I always bake cookies. This is the recipe I usually use, although the kids like a different recipe that's "puffier". It's harder to frost the cookies, though, if they are puffy, and they don't hold their shape as well. These rise, so they don't hold indentations and such as well as a cookie with less leavening, but they have a nice flavor: Sour Cream Sugar Cookies 1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1. Combine baking soda and sour cream. 2. Cream butter and sugar. 3. Add eggs, one at a time, blending well after each. 4. Blend in vanilla. 5. Blend in sour cream and baking soda. 6. Combine baking powder and flour and add to sour cream mixture. 7. Refrigerate until easy to handle, usually at least an hour. 8. Roll out dough about 1/2 inch thick and cut into shapes. 9. Bake at 325º for 8-10 minutes, or until light brown. I just use a powdered sugar type icing for decorating with the kids, but if I wanted something very precise I'd go with a royal icing so I could pipe an outline and then fill it in. Good luck, those cookies in that link are very cute. I can't imagine doing all the writing on that "accepted" letter, though! Annie

hi, I just posted about ABs on the Craft & Dec page (post about going away gift). I'm in a round robin right now. Each participant passes their book to the same person after a certain length of time (1 month in our case). Each time we get another book, we work in it and send it on to that same person. Eventually our books come back to us. We formed a yahoo group just for sharing about our progress, and to post pictures. And yes, I think the main thing is to have a theme. I was really scared to take part in one of these, but now I highly recommend a round robin. I've also heard of "Tip Ins" --a kind of swap where others send pages or spreads that you "tip in" to your book. You can attach the pages directly to other pages, or cut off existing pages leaving only a tab, and glue the tip-in to that.

This is ours....and so far no problems. I like that fact that the bins are supported on the bottom where all the weight in the bins "settle". Think about where it's best to support something heavy...the top or bottom (especially when using a plastic edge (of the bin) to hold the weight)? B/c it's a deep "drawer", there's no tilting of trash bins. There's no hanging rail to get in the way of the trash bag. [The rail can be a pro, though, if your bags routinely slip off the top of the bin. You can lift up the bin, put in the bag, and tuck it inside the rail as you maneuver the bin back into the rail. Ours don't, so it's not an issue with us.] mondragon, unlike the Ikea cabinets, the drawer above our trash pullout is completely separated from the trash area by a fixed wooden separator. The drawer sits above the separator. However, I do not put utensils, linens, wraps, etc. in that drawer as it psychologically does seem "gross". Instead, it's our "junk drawer". Here's a picture of ours: Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with either...so get whichever you like. Sorry, but winning an award in some state contest doesn't impress me...I've seen a lot of so-called award winning kitchens and wonder how people actually work in them! Most of those contests are really form over function...with function at the bottom of the list! I also suspect that "longevity" is not on "the list" at all. Your friend's kitchen may or may not be wonderfully functional, but w/o seeing it I take the fact that it won a state contest w/a grain of salt. Again, sorry if I'm too blunt, but I would not use that as a reason to get something unless someone is going for form over function...i.e., a "show kitchen" as opposed to a working kitchen...which is OK if you're upfront about it...not everyone actually cooks in their kitchen...some people just have them for "show".

Probably won't be viable if the weather is getting cold and trees are going to sleep and also would not suggest for you to trim a tree during this time after weather is below 60F because it's energy gets stored for winter , so when you cutting , you removing it's energy required for the winter .... You want to trim a tree when there is hard growth when weather is cooling going into autumn , so end of summer to limit stress and while it has lots of fowlauge or in spring before new growth buds out . Heating tray and a light should in theory work and has been done with many plants before with great success . Val rie, if you really want to get clippings , why not attempt air rooting the branches you will be cutting off ... success rate is much higher and if you enclose and insulate it properly , you may be able to keep it warmer in there for better rooting while temperature is dropping . In 6 weeks you could have enough root growth to cut it off the tree and maybe finish the rooting process in water if you still need them to grow more. That being said , it is still not the time to be doing that but if you cutting the tree anyway... might aswell. All the best