I'm still hanging around! (thought you got rid of me, didn't ya? Bwah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhhhhhh!) Brief Summary: I am the lucky Mother of 4 children and Grannie of 6 grandchildren. All gorgeous and exceptionally bright. The four youngest are very precocious, but well-behaved. The two oldest are adorable, but not so well-behaved. We are a multi-cultural and racial family. A beautiful rainbow of children from various cultural backgrounds. I was born and raised in southern California - 6th generation Californian on my Mom's side. My Dad was born here in central Oklahoma - 4th Generation Okie - he retired back here. I moved here to Okie from Louisiana with my kids in 1980. Now married to the most handsome, loving, gentle man in the whole world. My kids and grands claim him as "Dad" and "Grampa". My Dad says he's the best thing that ever happened to this family. Yes, indeed-y! :) We live in rural, Central Oklahoma on a southwest-facing high ridge, of sandy, worthless, alkaline soil over layers of sandstone bedrock. We have our own water well. Weeds and Bermuda grass are my best crops. This is ranch and farm country. Cattle, horses, wheat and various kinds of hay are the main crops in this area. The locals think I'm strange. I know they are! We have chickens, dogs, cats, and a green water turtle. No cows or horses. Our neighbors all do tho'. I'm an artist and gardener - jack of all trades, master of none. Disabled. I take care of the "ranch" and herd the cats. DH is originally from West Virginia, but was raised in Holland and Scotland. Hi dad is from Illinois, and his mom from Scotland. His family moved back to the states to Tulsa when he was 13 yrs. old. He is the Environmental Quality Manager for a young & small aerospace company up in Tulsa. We rescue animals and love wildlife of all kinds. DH does not care for snakes, however. I grow flowers, trees, veggies, herbs, and work too hard at trying to recreate a Country Cottage Garden on this high & dry rock of a place. ----------------------------------------------------------- Eduarda and I are good friends. We keep in contact year round. She is just fine, but work is keeping her hopping. They just took a break from it all - a holiday to the beach. I got a beautiful postcard. Timmy, her adorable, loveable pooch, is doing great too. hey are having severe heat and dry weather too. They even had a tornado there in her town - I think it was last fall. Did some damage to the elementary school, during school hours, but not to their home. Very freaky for Portugal! Anyone hear from Lorna in NM lately? I haven't heard form her in ages. Haven't heard from Rose in a long time either. Hope they are both okay. ~Annie

Ginger is right, if you are staining a real Longaberger basket - you will destroy any value of it and some are worth some $$$ now. If that isn't of any importance - and you want the basket stained - I would not use a waterbased stain - but a oil based stain. I have stained baskets many times and just use regular oil based stain. Use a foam brush and do both the inside and outside, using a generous amount. It should stain evenly...just wipe off the excess with an old towel. It will be messy and smelly. Do this outside if possible and let the basket dry in a garage or such if you can for several days. I have several Longaberger baskets, and I use them all the time. I don't keep them as a collector item, but use them as intended. When they get dirty, I wash them using a gentle stream of warm water and a small amount of soap. I towel dry them and set them outside to dry on my porch. They are very durable.

Thank you for the nice comments. DH and I designed our own house and FIL drafted the plans. We took many trips to Greenwich, CT and took hundreds of pics of stone and clapboard houses (think Stepford Wives). We started building our (much smaller) version in 2005 and are now in the decorating phase. We're missing a lot of moldings (crown, chair, wainscotting) but they will come in time. I'll take a pic our our exterior tomorrow and post it. The focal point inside our house is our kitchen with large mantel and double islands. I'll post those pics when the kitchen is a little cleaner. :0) Eating Area of Kitchen Foyer view from entry Foyer view from Living Room DH built the staircase himself totally from scratch. He did all measurements, bent the handrail, and even made all of the treads and risers from the scrap wood leftover from our flooring. We're both house fanatics and the funny thing is, you would never guess we live in this house if you ran into us on the street.

Yes!! Get the basket - it is unique and will bring you lots of pleasure for your Halloween and Thanksgiving decorating. It will make a cute center piece at Thanksgiving standing alone or filled with small gourds or a small herb pot (just a few ideas). Looks like the openings between the slats are wide enough to scrunch some things in there. I like that you are using your baskets for storage. I have a few, but have always been selective - they need to serve a purpose and not look like a "collection". I have a large basket (can't remember the name) that sits by my reading chair. It has a flat wooden lid that actually serves as a side table - it holds my library books and I can sit a drink on the lid. I have a small one on my bar with a red leather lid that catches the car and house keys and a small one by my Bunn coffee pot for my Moo Moo creamers :). I have the large magazine basket that holds my grandchildren's coloring books in the office. Mine are scattered throughout the house for a purpose and doesn't look like a collection. I like your snowman.