Went to the Annual African Violet Society Sale in Osh Kosh Saturday

Saturday JP and I went on a date to the Annual African Violet Society Sale in Osh Kosh........oh my, such beautiful flowers. And where, might you ask are African Violets from.....Africa of course. Violets were found in eastern Africa near the equator in what is now Tanzania. A number of additional species have been found in Tanzania and Kenya, but all were within this fairly small region in Africa that includes several mountain ranges.

In the late 1800's specimens of African violets were found growing in the wild by several individuals. The first person to recognize the value of them was Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire who brought flowers and seeds to Germany for further study. By 1926 a commercial operation in the West Los Angeles area, obtained seed. Armacost and Rouston chose ten of the best new hybrids and introduced them to the American public in the 1930's. Interest soared, and by 1946 (just 54 years after the first violet (Saintpaulia) was discovered) there were enough avid growers and colletors that the African Violet Society of America was founded.

We bought two little plants, Kohleria "Ampallang' Violet toned - red-pink flower with dark green, mottled leaves. Dick, who sold us this one, said it was not a violet but will get many blooms and they will look like little horns. Our second little plant is a miniture "Ballet Blueberry Swirl" double blue and white flowers. We got a cute little pot to keep it in. Maybe in a couple of blogs from now, I will take a picture of it.
The blue violet is called "Ness's Blueberry Puff"

The pink flowered violet is "Pink Rose Coral - Optimara Calif. II

The violet with large verigated leaves and maroon flowers is called "Powwow"

The pink with fuscia edges is called "Kev's Heavenly Star"

On our way home we stopped at a truck stop....JP's passion in life, giving tracts, tapes, CD's and bibles out to truckers. We then stopped off at Sandi and Doug's home for a short visit. They live on an island with lots of water around them........gosh, everytime I go there it feels like vacation to me.....I may become addicted to going there alot. Should be a wonderful summer if that is the fact....lol.

All in all we had a wonderful day, something we should do at least once a month.......JP and I have been workaholics most of our lives always doing something, running here and running there....maybe it is time to slow down a bit, at least for the summer.

Have a great day.

Ahhhhh Sweet Saturday

I LOVE SATURDAYS.........can sleep in late, not have to rush around getting ready for something, slow down and take time to smell the roses so to speak. ----------------------------------------->

As you can see I am spending part of my Saturday doing this blog, but this is a fun time for me, I like typing and thinking at the same time. Well, today is my husband's birthday, he is 61 years old. Ha, now we are the same age, I am the older woman in his life (by 6 months), excluding his mother who is 85 years young.

His birthday present or should I say presents are two violet pots, (for his violets), concentrate cherry juice for his gout, rhubarb cake, a turkey dinner for today and going out for chicken dinner tomorrow after church. He made out like a bandit! Birthday's should be like that though, don't you think? Sort of a celebration of life..........and celebrate all week long, why not? It's not everyday you are 61......one more year and he can retire if he wants. Nice goal to have, without a goal or vision the people perish!

Back to his presents, got the pots at Savers (a second hand shop, proceeds go to Easter Seals), the pots are handmade ceramics......very pretty!!!!! I actually got 4 pots, what a deal!!! Two for my violets. We are in competition as to who can keep their blooms blooming longer. So far his are doing fairly well, different light situations, my window does not get a lot of sun, north window, his are on the east window, which gets the morning sun, guess that makes the difference.

Did you know Cherry juice is good for gout? Yep, works like an antioxidant. I can get a quart at Copps for $16.99, or go to the health food store and get a quart for $17.99. Been going to the Free Market to get our water and they have cherry juice concentrate $3.99 for 8oz. that lasts a couple of weeks, making one quart at a time (with 2 tablespoons at a time). He drinks lots of tea also. We have a wonderful tea shop with over 200 different kinds of teas......oh it is a wonderful place to go. (Fava Tea Company will be another blog sometime) We have kept his gout in check by adjusting his diet. Sugar seems to stimulate his gout, so we try and stay away from things made with a lot of sugar. It's been a challenge but it is worth it, gout pain (which is a form of arthritis) is horrific. He can hardly walk around when the gout strikes in his toe or foot.

We have rhubarb growing in the backyard...........found a really fast and quick recipe last night for it, very good warm and with ice cream or whipped cream...mmmmmmmmm good!

QUICK AND EASY STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CAKE
4 cups rhubarb, 1" pieces
1 pkg strawberry jello mix
1/2 cup sugar (cut this down to 2 tablespoons, next recipe may even cut it out completely)
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 cup water
Spread about 4 cups rhubarb pieces in 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with 1 pkg Strawberry Jello(dry powder as evenly as possible. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 cup sugar over that.(uge, too, too sweet)
Next layer is 1 pkg yellow cake mix (straight out of the box) Last pour 1/2 to 1 cup water over everything. This should be done as evenly as possible, dampening as much of the cake mix powder as you can. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Good warm, good cold, good plain and yummy with cool whip on top.

Well so much for today's blog, think I will go wash my hair and get that turkey in the oven for his special day.............mmmmm turkey sandwiches with cranberries sound yummy. Have a good day and don't forget to put your best foot forward, don't look back, nothing you do about it anyways :-)

Here's a picture of another new set of cards I put together, these are my Thank you card sets.

2 butterflies and 2 fishes, the inside of the cards are blank so you can write your own message. I have priced these 4 cards @ $11.00 (that would be 2.75 per card - still cheaper then the stores)Postage is $1.75 - Paypal will take care of the transaction or you can send a money order. Go to my shop at: http://www.cards4ubylouise.etsy.com/

A Lovely Day Today

Well, today was a lovely day..........we went to Oshkosh to the African Violet Society........lots of lovely little plants were on display. I bought 4......and spent $16.50 and my husband didn't even say BOO! He spent $10 without flinching......hahahaha. My new little babies will be so cute when they get older.

• "Frozen in Time" is a verigated plant with pink leaves and the flowers are white and edged with lime green..........this I believe will be my favorite all time african violet.

• "Ness's Midnight Fantasy" is a standard size plant and the flowers are light pink with purple spots.

• "Optimara Little Moonstone" a double white ruffled with blue tinged center. Paid $1 for 2 leaves, well, will see if I can manage to keep them alive. Might have been better to put then right into soil. Will see..............they will take 9 months to a year to start growing.......that is a long time to get some blooms.

• "Gold Stone" flower will be white/double gold with verigated leaf.

On our way home we stopped at a truck stop so JP could put some CDs and tracts in the trucker lounge then from there we stopped at a antique store, I was snopping around for some vintage beads to make earrings with. Too expensive, just like buying beads at the Glass Onion or at Hobby Lobby....................have to know what your are looking at, that is for sure.

From there we stopped at a rummage sale at a church...............Bingo, found a gate for the front porch to keep the dogs from running off the porch...............they like sitting on the front porch with us. Kylie loves to stick her head out the bars of the porch and snoop. Hyko just sits and watches everything that is going on around him. He is a very content puppy dog (of 10 years). Kylie keeps him young.

I did find some beads for 12 cents..........now that was a buy, a little bracelet, I may turn these beads into earrings....................or make another bracelet.......who knows. We had a good day, was like a date, cept we did not go out to eat.........maybe after church tomorrow, I will say, lets go to the dinner and get some chicken. My treat, gosh, I better see if I have enough money in my little checking account.

Well, I think I will end this little commentary of what I did today........it was a fun day, the ride was fun, maybe there won't be to many more rides like today, what with the price of gas going up daily, rides will be scarce. I'm going to add a picture of a pair of earrings to this blog. Love making earrings, can't imagine why I have not done this before, what have I been missing. Guess I was leaving earring making up to others?

These lovely earrings are called "Mango Delight" The brown crystals are glass, the orange beads, mmmmmmm I think I got with a bunch of other beads, really should wright this stuff down..........they are only $7.00 with shipping $1.00. ($8 total) You can find them on my etsy store: http://www.cards4ubylouise.etsy.com Paypal will take care of the transaction or you can use your credit card or a money order.

Going to close here for the night............you have a great day, if you have any comments, now is your time to give them............be kind please. As always, Louise