Birthday Fun!

Sunday was my birthday, and I had a GREAT day!

Actually, I was pretty much spoiled for the whole week because of Mother's Day, and my birthday being so close together.

The kids gave me money, because I told them that I wanted to start an Echinacea (Coneflower) garden. Of course, I already have the "normal" Purple Coneflowers that you see everywhere. And I have seen White Coneflowers sold locally, so I will buy them here. BUT, I was looking through my Spring Hill Nursery catalog, and found that there are quite a few different varieties available, and I want to "collect" all of them. I hope to dedicate a spot in the yard to all the different types of Echinacea. I LOVE these flowers, and the fact that they attract butterflies, and gold finches, is a HUGE bonus!

I started with:

Green Envy Coneflower



Sunrise Coneflower



And, Sundown Coneflower



Next up, will be:

Twilight Coneflower



Coconut Lime Coneflower



And, Pink Double Delight Coneflower



All of the pictures were taken from Spring Hill Nursery's website.

Aren't they gorgeous? I cannot wait to get them! I am sure there are other varieties out there that I don't know about. So, if YOU know of any others, please let me know.

During the week, one of my friends took me to a little town nearby, to go antiquing, and eat lunch. We ended the afternoon with an old fashioned vanilla malt. (EXTRA malt please!) It was SO YUMMY!

I came home to find a box from my Mom waiting for me. Inside, was a BEAUTIFUL blue crackle glass decanter, and the cutest little crackle glass perfume bottle. My crackle glass collection is growing! YAY! The decanter is now the largest piece I own. (It's difficult to find larger pieces.) And the blue is GORGEOUS!





(Sorry! The pictures aren't the greatest! You can see the tag on that back of the decanter, shining through the front.)

I also got a delicious cake, that helped add more pounds to my rear end, but it sure was good! (We cut the cake on Saturday, because both of the kids had to work on Sunday.) Brat Girl said that she was going to have them put "Happy Birthday PUNK" on it! LOL! YEAH! I get called Punk all the time around here! (Actually, we all call each other PUNK! LOL!) But, she decided to be nice, and left it just saying "Happy Birthday."



We were cracking up, because the letters were melting SO FAST! They were collapsing all over the cake! LOL



Mr. Mister let me pick out some of the JustRite stamps I have been drooling over! I absolutely LOVE all of the different ways you can use these stamps! I will have to keep adding more of them to my collection (YES! Another collection!) over time. They have an awesome blog, with a super talented design team. CUTE! CUTE! Ideas!

As for the rest of Sunday, Mr. Mister took me to eat my favorite meal at Romano's Macaroni Grill. They have the BEST Chicken Toscana soup. And, I cannot go there without ordering the Vodka Rustica. (Recently, they took the Vodka Rustica off of the menu! I almost CRIED! But, they told me I can still order it whenever I come in, because they will always have the ingredients to make it! WHEW! You really don't want to see me blubbering in the middle of a restaurant!) After enjoying the meal, they brought over a piece of cake, and sang Happy Birthday to me in ITALIAN! It was so COOL!

Then, off we went, for another visit to the Country Wine Gardens. (Rhonda, from the Christmas Notebook, mentioned this place on her blog last year. They enjoy going there because they collect Daylilies, and this place has some huge Daylily fields.) Every year, they dig up plants from the fields, and sell them. We didn't buy any Daylilies this year, because they weren't in bloom yet, and I couldn't remember what we had bought last year. But, I did find another Yellow Coneflower ( Yellow Echinacea Paradoxa) plant, which looks like it will be darker than the Sunrise Coneflower, and Mr. Mister bought some Stargazer lilies, and some really pretty "Gold Rush" Shasta daisies.

This is what they will all look like once they bloom. These pictures were taken from the internet as well.







Now, to figure out where they are all going in the garden!

The Country Wine Gardens also has a restaurant, and (obviously) a wine tasting area. I had read on their website that they carried our favorite wine, Moscato D'Asti, so we decided to pick up a bottle, sit on their patio, and drink it while we people watched, and listened to the band for a few minutes. (YEAH! We bought a few more bottles to bring home with us! NO! We're not lushes! LOL!)

After all the fun we had, we came home to enjoy a nice, quiet, evening. It was a wonderful day!