Originally Posted by graciegirl

I have become an HGTV addict.

Originally Posted by Muncle

Okay, I'm a straight guy, so I'm not really in to decorating. I know your basic colors, there's about 6-8 of them, and everything else is foo foo BS. When I bought my blinds, er, sorry, window treatments, the lady had about 20 pieces of white material. She and my sister, who thank God was here to help me move in, discussed in detail all the slight nuances between the egg shell, the ivory, the buff, the cream, and god only know what else. THEY WERE ALL WHITE!

Well, I tell you that to just reinforce that I ain't no decorator. I have a few pans and skillets that I use regularly, I wash 'em and probably put them back on the stove. I leave my toaster out since it seems silly to keep puttting it away and getting it back out if I use it a few times a week. I've got an el cheapo bookshelf stuck under the breakfast bar, behind the dining table, because I do much of my reading there and the bookshelf holds many reference books -- you never know when you might want to know who the Empress Maud was and whether she had a right to the throne or who the guy was who hung around Thalia Menninger. That's the way a guy lives. I've got all my Volksmarch mugs above the kitchen, my Homer Winslow(?) picture that I got at a deadpeople sale above my computer, and my centerpiece painting is a neat landscape I bought 30 years ago at a shopping center art show. I just had it re-framed at one of those fancy schmancy places and paid 4 times as much for the frame as I paid for the picture.

All the above rambling is to build my creds. Now down to the nitty gritty. Does anyone read the feature in the Saturday paper by the cute blonde (Dyer/Dwyer -- something like that maybe). I really like her columns, very readable and normally interesting and pertinent. I remember she says that she's available to speak to neighborhood clubs and the like and I expect she does private work. Anyone dealt with here? Is she as good in person as on paper? And no, I'm not stalking her.

Originally Posted by uujudy

Graciegirl, ME TOO! I am hooked on HGTV! Then I watch the virtual tours of the pre-owned houses on TV website. The houses look great from the outside, but some of them.... (in the words of Donna & Shannon Friedman) ... "WHAT were they thinking?!" :barf:
Topic cops :cop:, this does pertain to decorating in TV :)

Russ, Great idea for the Villages Window Treatment Club! You start it so it's up and running when we get there. You can show the world that straight guys can decorate! :hot:

And speaking of sewing.... Where do you get your fabrics? I get email coupons from JoAnn and Hancock fabrics, but you can't feel the fabric if you buy online. Are there any good fabric stores near the Villages?

Originally Posted by njgranny

I, too, am an HGTV addict. It's so much fun to see what they do to the homes, and the creative ideas they come up with.

Do you watch Design Star?

We're redoing our kitchen right now, and I got a lot of my ideas from the HGTV web site.

I learned sewing in 7th grade also. Guys - shut your ears for this part. Our first project was a "halter top" made out of cheap material that we wore when the school doctor examined our breasts. I think back now and wonder why in the world that was medically necessary. It was so embarrassing to a 7th grader. By the time I got to high school, I had figured out how to avoid the physical in school.