Lizliterarius's Profile

Saying "thank you" for the food on your table isn't a religous activity unless you (or the people you're with) make it one. It's just a way of acknowledging how fortunate we are to have a table of food to eat when there are others going hungry.
I'd be interested to know what you anti-gracers out there think of the grace my (atheist) mother created for us. We grew up in a VERY religous town and school prayer was common, especially before meals. This let us participate in the ritual without having to participate in their religons.

"Food gathered from hills and streams, plants grown under bright sunbeams, Corn and grain, milk and meat, here on our table, thank you, let's eat!"

PS-if you want an idea HOW religous our town was, Peter Jennings picked it as the "most religous town in America" on a tv feature 5 years ago or so. Seems 98% of the town goes to church every Sunday. Of the 2% that didn't attend every week? Yeah, we accounted for 0.5% of it. LOL So I get where you all are, feeling forced to participate in religous rituals you don't agree with. Spent 6 years of my life doing so!

This cookbook cracks me up! My mom's beef stew came out of it...and the only change I've made to it is using NON-corn-syruped tomato soup. And I cook it in a crockpot rather than the oven. Faster and much safer to leave the crock plugged in (to a GFI on a power strip)than the oven on all day. I mean how often can you get a home cooked meal like mom used to make by dumping two bags of frozen stew veggies, a can of tomato soup and a pack of stew meat into a crock and letting it cook for 5 hours? LOL ;-)

I like the idea of moving the sofa in front of the windows and I LOVE your lamps! They'd be stunning if you added a console table behind the couch in front of the windows and moved the lamps to the ends of the table. Your red drapes would then set off the lamps beautifully! Rotate the rug and coffee table to match the sofa's new orientation and the room feels fuller and the wall space less empty. The sofa is now out far enough into the room you could cozy the chair and ottoman into the corner by the staircase with one of the side tables without having it seem like screaming distance between them. Add a red throw or pillow to match the curtains and tie the color into that side of the room. If you can extend the curtain rod so the curtains only cover wall your windows will seem SO much bigger! You could even move them higher on the wall, since the bottoms will be hidden by the sofa's new position. Then move your iron-art to the wall between the chair and the sofa to draw the eye to notice the cathedral ceiling height.

Making these changes will fill the room's current empty spaces so it feels more balanced, but if you feel the empty wall opposite the staircase needs something decorative, painting a large square/rectangle of your darker accent wall color with either a series of smaller pictures or one big one would fill out the space and make a nice feature as you come down the stairs.

You have great stuff; all if needs is a quick twist!

I thought I was safe here...but the caulk in my bathtub? It has microban and it sure as heck has WATER on it daily! *SIGH* Time to put on the respirator, gloves and re-caulk the tub, I guess.

We've loved white vinegar in the rinse water for years. Kills most household germs, freshens the laundry and cuts static cling. What could be better? Oh yeah, we soak meyer lemon peels (just the yellow zest, cut off in strips) in the vinegar before we use it. Smells like my mom's backyard every time we do laundry!

I've been making these for years for the hubby's and my morning commutes. We use regular silicone muffin pans and fill it up with all kinds of leftovers from taco meat and peppers (great wrapped in a burrito) to mushrooms and cheese.

They've also been well requested for our dreaded 7am Saturday meetings. And I don't mind, cause they're SO easy to cook. Winwin all around!

uhm, wasn't the place with the slide google? I'm pretty sure they haven't gone bust...at least not since I last checked 20 minutes ago!

:)

Those are awesome!

Okay, it's not home fashion but I have to share this exceedingly cool doily wedding dress! Definately a fresh and modern take on using a doily.

http://makinglifeup.blogspot.com/2010/07/love-this-dress.html

LOL I can see this being useful, though my mother didn't bother with any of this, despite several world-wide moves that often left us in temporary housing/hotels for weeks at a time. She just turned to me (I was 5 at the time) and said, "Watch your sister!"