It's beautiful!! I've always been afraid to try that.
Lynn
Sign up for "Secret Santa"
LOL - that happens to me too.
I am the "Macher" in this household too.
I used to collect cups and saucers and things to make silk arrangements and then give those as little gifts. But it became expensive to collect cups and saucers. Thanks again. Will post picture of the Windchimes when I assemble them. Can't use them now here on the beach - too windy. helene
I sent my package just now.
Soooo somebody here will get a packg. in 2-3 days. Sew beautiful. Am I bashful???
mine would have gone out today, but have to wait till my reciepent puts her right address in on daves, garden.guess i will have to wait till she reads er email.lol
bonnie
Ohhh, I see what you mean...I may still have it from when she sent some plants..
Sorry, I've been 'out of pocket' during the holidays. I've got to catch up and mail my gift! I'm almost done though. Your cup and saucer are beautiful. Wish i could work a drill!
Cup is really pretty! I got a drill bit at home depot for ceramic...I had some of those self watering planters that just were not working, so I decided to drill a hole in the bottom of the top piece and just wick my plant. It turned out good... I didn't break any of them and the plants did much better in them than before. Some had held too much water and others, not enough. I don't think I'm brave enough to try china though!
I'm putting the finishing touches on my ss and will mail out the package tomorrow.
Definately get a diamond hole bit-- you can drill anything!! You can get them at HD or Lowes but they are about $20 d-mail me if interested and I will give you a link to get them inexpensively ( I got both for $26 with free shipping).
Thanks' again. Much loved. I' ll post a pix of the Wind Chimes as well.
Helene!!!! You really outdid yourself! Talking about a spirit lifter. I came home from taking some exams, which I feel like I didn't do very well on, and found my SS on the backsteps.Here is what was in it:
Celestial Cinnamon Apple Spice Tea
Ghirardelli Chocolates
An ornament that she made (just beautiful)
An adorable watering can (which I can paint on)
A handtowel, which she decorated, with the cutest little poem
Two crocheted potholders and dishtowel
And Silver Sheen Episcia.
Thank you so very much!!!
Melanie
I am glad it arrived save. You are very welcome, perhaps you have a picture as I forgot to take one.
I'll take one and post it tonight!
Once again, thank you Helene!!
Oh my Melanie,
What a lovely gift!! Makes me wish I could still do crafts.
Lynn
What a wonderful gift!!
Hi hillybilly gran- I would love that link! By the way, how do ya'll add links to your messages?
Helene- beautiful items! I'm just teaching myself to crochet. It's so much fun so far.
add link:
highlight the link you want in the browser or in a msg. right click on copy, then go to where you want the link, right click on paste. there she goes.
Here ya go!
http://www.discountdiamondbits.com/index.html
Thanks for the link and link info.
Thanks to Mrs. Bonnie for the wonderful Secret Santa! What a pretty little demitasse cup and saucer for a violet. I love oyama pots and will use this 4 inch immediately. I also got some sphagnum moss pellets for starters and gesneriad markers. I have lots of seeds going (no germination yet though) and hopefully will be able to use those. I'm so sorry to say that the white sprite plantlet did not make the shipping alive. It was cold, soggy and dead. I could see that it had flower buds too. There is a circular ring that I think is for leaves. I've never used one and don't know how to arrange leaves in that without breaking them. Any advice? It will be nice to try something new.
Thanks again Secret Santa!!!
I'll send my package out this Monday.
ooooh nice gift!
Someone will receive a package from me @ Wednesday next week. It's all packed up and ready to ship first thing Monday morning ... heading North. ^_^
Oh Jamie;
So sad the tiny plant did not make it,but i do have plenty of them & when it's warmer i will send you a few. so glad you liked everything. The violet colar, think thats how you spell it. just take a rubber band on the back of the colar & twist it twice around each little nib, then slip your pot into the rubber band likle this picture. Hope this helps.I jusy got my box from Tish & was so thrilled, i will post a picture of that also. So smart, this little light bulb with a plant inside is really remarkable.lol I love everything she sent. the cute little pin cushion & bag, she made also. so talented.lol Thanks so much Tish. I love it. Now tell me where did you ever find that little lite bulb?? Also got 2 other plants in tiny bags, can't wait to plant them.
Bonnie
here is what i got from tish.thanks so much again
bonnie
this is soo much fun. all the gifts are unique and yet AV/Ges and planting related. I am glad you all particiapted.Arent you?
you bet, this is so much fun. like xmas.lol By the way Tish what are the little bags of plants you sent me? It looks like maybe gessies, but can find no info on them.any help would be appreciated. they are nipheae equadorensis,amalophyllon rupesite
bonnie
You are very welcome bonnie. I really enjoyed working on the sewing projects. I got the dishtowel idea from the sewing forum last year . Also Bettypause over there gave directions to make the scrap bag. You could also use that in the plant room for discarded leaves and such if you put a baggie inside it. The flowerpot pincushion probably still smelled like glue! - if so, sorry about that. I got that idea from a free handout flyer at a craft store the day before and I thought oooh....just want I want to add!!ha.
Did you pour the vermiculite out of the bulb and find the little tuber? I didn't know any other way to try and send it. You need a micro mini to grow in there, the small ones get too big. I bought that at Hobby Lobby, there are two sizes but the smaller one is really too small for anything except design.
I don't know about the Nipheae..... I bought that rhizome at the National Convention from Marcia Belizie. I read the other day that it will go dormant. I've been pampering mine, as it is new to me and I didn't want to loose it...I travel a couple weeks a month or so, so i have it growing under cover so it won't dry out on me. The leaves look just like achimenes, it hasn't bloomed for me yet. I know you have a lot of different gessies, and as I hadn't heard much about this, I thought maybe it was something you didn't have...same with the Amalophyllon. Now I got that rhizome last Feb from Jim Roberts. He had posted a pic on another forum and I wrote and asked him about it. Nancy Kast I think had shown a different amalophyllon variety at a couple conventions and I wanted one so badly...there were seeds from the gessie society seed fund and they just didn't sprout. I was very disapointed. I was surprised they have rhizomes, I hadn't known that. Anyway, Jim offered to send me a rhizome and now the plant it is in bloom, single white star flower blooms. If you aren't interested in growing them, feel free to share them or trade them with members of your club.
tish
What wonderful gifts everyone is receiving! Thank you Helene for hosting this fun exchange!
I love the little china cups/saucers and Wow, some of y'all are just so crafty ... wish I had a talent like that! I've just got to know about that light bulb with the plant inside! Does the top screw off to access the inside for planting?? I love planting dish gardens and little terrariums and that is so unique and precious!
Bonnie: I googled for Niphea (Phinaea?) and Amalophyllon and found this, Amalophyllon at top of page and scroll down to the bottom of the page for Phinaea:
http://www.gesneriads.ca/genamaldiaphin.htm
And, when I googled for Amalophyllon rupesite (rupestre?) I found a photo of one called A. rupestre: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ki/3715078670/
Really interesting plants ... I love browsing the gesneriads.ca website!
plantladylin - your gift is coming, it is coming. Very pretty too. Since I am Santa I know.
Those plants are soo precious looking.
Yes the light bulb is interesting. My problem with growing in terrariums is that when I put them in, they fit. But now that they are growing beautifully, how to take them out.
I have to do a pix of what I am talking about. Totally stupid....
My package is all packed up and going out tomorrow! I'm not so talented at crafts but I did make a little something, not the greatest effort but I tried. I've never been real talented but was a little better at crafts when I was younger. ^_^
I wanted to send non gessie plants to my buddy, but the weather isn't going to cooperate for shipping live plants. We are supposed get down to 29º and 30º for the next three nights, brrrr. I was hoping we'd not have another record breaking cold winter like last year but it isn't looking very promising so far. We usually don't have any cold nights until late January, early February and here it's only early December and we are going to be below freezing. Last week we had a daytime high of 83º one day and the next day a high of only 61º. The news said some areas had a difference of 30º from one day to the next! Gee, the weather is really getting weirder each year, even in Florida!
Bulb: Yes, the top screws off. .. its about the same size as a light bulb but the glass is thicker. I gave one with a sinn. white sprite in it this past spring. This fall she said it had grown and bloomed like crazy and had now outgrown the bulb.
My father gave me an old large 10 or 15 gallon clear glass jug, like they used to put medicine in (he got it from an old dr years ago). I had it for a long time and then one day, I had gotten a lot of episcia cuttings and I thought, now I'm going to plant that jug. Well, that was about 8 years ago and it is just full to the top...solid plants, very over grown. Now and then I see a bloom thru the moisture and leaves.
tish
I love terrariums and I have a few. I've got a heavy 5 gallon glass jug that was given to me back in the 70's, I originally had two but one of them broke many years ago. I'm lazy and cheated ... I had my husband take it somewhere to have a hole cut in the back so I could get my hand in for planting!
Not the best picture, but this jug only has a large Fittonia plant in it.
Great terrarium & great idea Lin!! I have a number of 4 gal plastic jugs that are supposed to be disposable(recyclable), and a number of gessies and begonias that want a terrarium. I can't bring myself to get rid of them(jugs or plants)--hmmmm you have given me ideas!
That plant looks very happy in there...leaf coloring is very pretty. I ordered a dozen clear plastic one gallon "jars". I grow a lot of gessies in them so I don't have to water so much. For a lid, I put a clear glass or clear plastic plate over the top. The heavy glass ones work better, but I ran out of the ones I had and the size had worked so well, I found the plastic ones on ebay. Guess I need to learn to like pickles really really well...for the jars! Ladies, get yours planted and then we will start a new post of our terranium pictures!
Mailed out my "Secret Santa" gift this morning ... recipient should receive it Thursday.
this is soo neat, looks like we will have it together way before the 15th. Nice I think.
There is no way to have mine ready before the 15th!!!!
well you are working on it and getting there. It'll all work out
Thanks for the encouragement. I just hope that the person likes it.
Helene,as soon as I can get to Moms I'll send you a picture of my great grandmothers quilt squares. I really hate to see them go to waste packed up.
Well like I said, if you can sew a little we can do something with them - or perhaps decide on colors and I can sash them and you have it quilted by some one near you - hand or machine..
Ladies, perhaps we shouldn't reveal the next few pkgs. received since meag848 is needing some time. This way - we wouldn't know who is to receive her gift. Yes? HD
Helene: No more reveals for now is fine with me. We all understand that this is a busy time of year for everyone ... and it's still a few weeks until Christmas so it's only natural that Santa is still preparing. ^_^