Backyardmomma, We have bought a dumptruck load of 'dirt' twice, once with great results and the second time, not with such great results. With the first load, we were building raised beds on land my brother owned south of Fort Worth and we bought a load that was a mixture of topsoil and compost. (This was when we lived in an old house on his land for a year in a rural area to 'test drive' living in the country before we sold our house in the city and took the plunge!) The topsoil/compost mix was purchased from Silvercreek Materials in western Tarrant County (they made their own compost then and probably still do, but are too far away for us to use now) and was AMAZING. Everything grew like mad. We had carefully done our research and asked questions and made sure we were getting quality soil. I just loved it and my brother and sister-in-law were amazed how much the raised bed with that blend outperformed their in-ground garden. In 1999, after moving here right in the middle of planting season (late Feb. or earliest March), I was desperate for topsoil to rototill into our very compacted red clay. DH ordered a load of topsoil from a supplier based in Carter County after calling around and comparing prices and asking them about their topsoil. At the time, no one within 50 miles of us was offering a topsoil/compost blend, so we were stuck with so-called topsoil that was mostly pure sand. It was awful. (I still am not convinced that you can even find really good topsoil for sale here in our rural area....they tell you it is good topsoil, but when you go and look at it, it is sand.) I just mixed the terrible sand with lots of compost and manure and added it to my clay, but I would have been just as happy if we'd never ordered or accepted delivery of that load of junk sand because all it did was bring in billions of weed seeds. At the time, I just said to myself "Well, it is better than nothing". Looking back, though, I think "nothing" would have better better than that poor sand. So, if you ever splurge and buy soil, try to find some that has compost mixed in and make them tell you what percentage of it is compost. Also, look at the soil they sell before you order it and make it clear you expect soil of the identical quality or you'll refuse to accept delivery when the dumptruck arrives at your house. Unless you have a friend with a Bobcat or front-end loader, expect it to take quite a while to get the soil from the big pile they dump in your driveway or yard to the actual beds you're placing it in. A dumptruck load of soil is a lot of soil, particularly if you're moving it one wheelbarrow load at a time. Dawn

These are the Easter egg jewelry boxes I'm making for DD's. Oh yeah, and some of the mini photo albums/scrapbooks that I got hooked on after seeing them on the Carol Duvall show. Image link:

In case anyone is interested, I did make 25 of the Sonobe Cubes (150 squares of wrapping paper in red, green and gold plaids and florals) and I put a couple of red beads at the top, and a couple of gold pony beads and red beads and a beaded tassel at the bottom. For the tassel, I bought a yard of beaded fringe from Hobby Lobby, and used 3 strands for each tassel, pulling them up into a pony bead. They came out really cute, and the best part was that I did them ENTIRELY at work, from start to finish. (I have THAT kind of job, lots of down time, with permission to work on personal stuff.) The peeps at the party really seemed to like them, too, and made me demo how they work. I forgot to stick a jingle bell in 'em, though. *dope-slapping myself* Thanks again, Karen, since I pretty much COPIED yours completely! lolol

PF, I have a video of Delane's--her roses of course. But on the tape, she does a stroke leaf that may be what you are talking about. The difference I saw between her's and DD's was that she did not turn the brush around so both edges of the leaf were dark on the outside. She made both strokes holding the brush the same so the 2nd stroke actually made the vein in the middle of the leaf. Gosh, it's hard to describe things in words isn't it? LOL Yes, I'm aware that stroke painting was around long before DD came along--but DD was just able to turn it into a sort of "gimmick" that caught everyone's attention and her advertising and marketing strategies sure paid off for her, didn't they? I would imagine that she might have ticked off a few of the established painters in the beginning, but I also imagine even they were later appreciative of the fact that her "One Stroke" campaign sure got allot of people interested in painting. I loved it in the late 80's, early 90's when there were so many cute painting shops around and you could buy supplies, take classes, or just see some of the finished projects and they made you want to make one too! Now they are almost all gone, and even Michael's here has done away with their painting book section! I asked where they moved it, and they said "Oh, we took it out to make room for more beads". Now if I want a book, it's either order online--or watch for older ones to show up at the TS. This area had allot of painters back in the day--and I keep thinking several of them may be getting "too old" to still be painting and might be getting rid of their stash of books, so I always look for them. (Not that I NEED more--but I just love looking through them and admiring all the designs) ;o) Did you read Anj's post about finding stacks of painting books at one of the TS she went to this week--she bought lots of books for only 25 cents each! I've kept the rose worksheet you made for us and have tried to follow it. My biggest problem is that since I learned the DD rose first--that one just keeps "popping" out of my brush strokes! LOL I'd love a step by step worksheet on how you do your leaves. I have read some of the books where the artist did multiple layers of floats to get the realistic effect--I just don't have the patience to do all the mixes and layers I guess, I prefer just the "suggestion" of a leaf most of the time because that's so much easier and "atainable" for me. (Big sigh) This is fun chatting about painting. Luvs