I really don't see how you are attaching responsabilites to your object
in this example. However, what you just said is true... the knowledge
of those design patterns is the key that is helping you to create an
efficient solution. There are several design patterns that are really
close to each others and this is why it's always good pratice to not
only use one at the time in order to achieve a specific goal.

At this point, I don't even know what the original poster thinks about
this... does he understand what is the decorator pattern now?

iscy