Something that I did was I made 9 yo-yos and stitched them them up 3 by 3. I sewed on buttons in the middle of each one. I cut out a hanger shape out of wood and glued it to the 3x3.I sponge painted the wood. It ended up looking like a little quilt. I add small spools of tread. I know this is hard to understand. I wish I knew how to attach a picture because I would. They are really cute. Anyway, I sold tons of them. \ Missy

"The stove wall will stay the same." "We're using the existing granite" You state you're asking for layout advice - but are you really? If you do not want to change the location of the range and you are using the existing counters (which means the sink and cabs cannot change), then I don't think you're really asking for layout help. Are you, perhaps, just asking what to do with the blank wall? The layout isn't horrible, it's not great, but it's not so terrible that I would tell you to rip it all out if your budget doesn't allow for a redo. If it does allow for a redo, then I suggest you rethink your decision not to fix the issues. Some issues I see You are lacking prep workspace where you need it most - next to a water source (with no DW in the way!) Your island has no water, so it won't be very useful for prepping. In addition, it's oriented in the wrong direction - it would be better facing the range, not the sink. I don't suppose you could switch the sink and range walls and add a prep sink to the island? You wouldn't be able to reuse your counters, though. It appears you're driving traffic right through the Cooking Zone - the work zone that should be the most protected from traffic. However, without seeing the entire floor (with room labels), I can't tell for certain. +++++ Do you have another Family/Living Room elsewhere? I'm asking b/c the new Kitchen is taking up a lot of space - you aren't going to have much of a Family Room, especially compared to the size of the Kitchen. In addition, the Dining Room area looks very small - and it's blocking access to whatever rooms are below it and to the right. If you really do want layout advice, could you please post a fully measured layout of the space and a sketch of the rest of the floor with room labels? [Fully measured means measurements for each window/wall/door/doorway and the distances b/w each window/wall/door/doorway.] How do I ask for Layout Help and what information should I include? http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2767033/how-do-i-ask-for-layout-help-and-what-information-should-i-include .

Hi there, we live in a 4 bedroom house, but we don't have an "extra" room for guests or an office since we have three kids (with no room sharing options.) My husband is having knee surgery this summer, and he will likely need to sleep downstairs for a few weeks. In addition, we would love to carve out a room for guests/office use on a somewhat regular basis. Our first floor has 3-4 rooms. One (counts as 1-2) is an open kitchen/dining room area where we spend almost all of our time. Another is a formal dining room that currently can't flex due to the furniture we have in there. The final room is the space in question: it is a large living room that we almost never use. It currently has doors on two of the three doorways, and we could add a door on the third. We would love to maintain the "living room" feel to at least part of the space since it is sometimes helpful to have a hang out space that is away from the TV/kitchen. We also need to keep the piano on the current wall since it is the only interior wall. However, it would be great to change the floor plan so that we can incorporate a desk space and maybe also a daybed space for a guest. We are willing to budget for new furniture as our alternative is an expensive project of enclosing our screened-in porch. I am including photos and would love suggestions about how to set up this space to better suit our needs! We have never really "moved in" here, so I realize that it looks like a total mish mosh right now. :-) We are ready for a fully revamp! Thanks in advance! Sara

Eileen, thank you so much for your enlightening tips such as about your egg-yolk cookies being firm, and about baking soda acting as leavener. And thanks for the sweetheart recipe, which cookies btw are adorable. The recipe looks simple - which is what i like! As for ginger/pepper in any posted recipes, of course I'd have omitted those, but they were tentative demo's anyway. (I'm assuming I can substitute the sugar (of sweetheart) with my brown-sugar, which taste I prefer? Naturally, I'd not be making hearts, rather button-hole cookies. I hope I'll be able to find locally some brown gingham 1/4" ribbon. Or polka-dot. Something like this in brown: https://www.walmart.com/ip/1-4-X-25Yard-Gingham-Pull-Bow-String-Ribbon-Pink-Baby-Shower-Favor-Decorating/618986422 Note my O.P. cookies were done because a neighbor got married. And this next batch I was planning for a great-niece, who got engaged (pending wedding). I don't like the idea of sugary borders (given my various dental saga's I don't wish to promote tooth decay. I also wish to keep them "chewy" and a sugar-crunch border isn't pure-chewy) So I've been ransacking images for a fridge cookie with an Inner-Concentric circle bordered by a color-contrast Outer-Concentric circle. Whereupon I'd punch two holes into the Inner-Concentric. All I came up with - was the attached pic, but it was a dead-link, thus no recipe. Anyway, below is the pic which i said interests me. Any idea how its concentric-border is achieved? I also wish the tiger-author would have provided a video! The only vid's on youtube are of zebra-cookies which aren't even as gorgeous as those tiger ones.