Battling Betty's Profile

If you put the dandelions into a bucket, fill it up with water and leave it for 3 or 4 weeks you get a really good liquid fertilizer. Dandelions are full of nutrients.

I couldn't live with a kitchen without a window over the sink. I think the alteration Katy made is just fabulous!

It's great that underneath the paint there was that lovely wood grain. Some wooden furniture is meant to be painted, but clearly not this item!

Yes! They're safe to use. Wash them in warm water with a mild detergent, rinse, dry carefully and you can start using them right away. You'll love using your grandmother's glasses (and how great that they have lasted so long without getting broken!) Somehow wine tastes fabulous when you drink it from a crystal glass.

Clean off any build-up of old polish - this often reveals more of the colour and grain - with a furniture cleanser sold for use on antique furniture. Then polish with beeswax furniture polish, not one containing silicone. I think you'll find you like the chest better. When the current fashion for painted furniture passes, you'll be glad you didn't paint.

I love how beautifully the blue in the rug goes with the blue on the sofa! And lovely semi-faded blues that are so tranquil.

My new home had two-tone mustard-coloured carpet throughout. When I first moved in, I thought it was hideous but couldn't afford to change it. I painted the walls to match the lighter of the two tones of yellow and gradually became reconciled to the carpet. I figured, at least it's a warm, welcoming colour. It also doesn't show spots and spills - and you guessed it, it's still here! But it is going to be changed in the next 12 months.

Those drop cloths make fabulous curtains too, with very little joining up to do if you have large windows - nearly 50% of the wall space in the living room of my 70's house. Drop cloths drape beautifully also.

I'd love to have your problem. I agree with the advice above. Don't make your bedroom another area for socializing, it's your haven! Why have you put the bed in the corner of all places? Move the bed forward and towards the center of the room, giving access to the fire escape. Put a dressing area with a closet against the head of the bed, thereby creating a headboard but still giving access to the fire-escape, if I understand you correctly. The area forward of your bed then becomes your lounging area. Put a low daybed at the foot of the bed so it makes the bed more of a rectangle instead of a square which is awkward in a rectangular space. Rugs will make each area welcoming.

What I intensely dislike is when the coffee table is a great distance away from any furniture. The seat furniture is placed round the edges of the room close to the walls; the very expensive coffee table is too far away to be of any use and placed on a VERY expensive rug, not intended to be walked upon. Where does one put one's glass? On the floor where someone eventually kicks it over. I just don't get it.