Hi Noni! The day was planned to be quiet, but I ended up spending it with many good friends (my "renta-a-family"). I have several Hippis in bloom: Intokasie, Rock 'n Roll, Candy Floss, Tosca, Sweet(?) Nymph and a Minerva. Several are ready to bloom within a few days. And the orchid is still going strong and has filled the back porch with it's amazing perfume. K

At the stroke of midnight eastern time tonight the rest of the First Look website goes live. Here's the message from Carol Brashear. Hosta Friends, As is our tradition, tonight at Midnight EST (USA), the FIRST LOOK meeting minions will launch the First Look website. There you will find 150+ photos from last year's exciting First Look competition at the 2011 New England Convention. Hard to believe, but we have seen our way through 11 great years of First Look and 11 years of fabulous new plants! It was a special treat to have entrants from all over the country this year at the AHS convention. Featured will be as many of the 95 entered plants as we could cram in, fun people photos, and of course, our recently launched Slide Show 2011. This year's slide show features some of the brightest up and comers in hostas, so go ahead and revisit that. This time the button that takes you into the rest of the site at the finish of the slide show will be HOT. @ midnight Be sure and check out the top winners from last year's competition and see if you agree with the AHS judges and the attendee votes. To get there go to competition > then awards > then Best of Class and ribbons and so forth. To see many faces that will go with the names you know from the hosta forums... check out the Meeting section of the 2012 Photo section....be sure to follow along the story line with the list in the people section. The most techy minion of all of First Look land finally fixed the photo viewer to include the titles under each plant photo! Hooorray! The link you will need to open this Holiday package is: http://www.hostalibrary.org/firstlook/ but wait until midnight =:>) just an hour from now... We especially like this year's wallpaper so look for it within the website for you to download and use if you'd like to. Early enthusiasts ( before midnight EST USA) will only reach our Holiday greeting page but at the stroke of midnight here in Region One, the entire First Look web will reveal itself. ( And it is BRIGHT, if the rumors we are hearing are correct!) If the holiday page does not disappear at midnight...refresh your browser. We would love to have you join us in the Pennsylvania Brandywine Valley FIRST LOOK 12! Details of the meeting will be updated as they develop here: http://www.hostalibrary.org/firstlook/ Sooooo... Best Wishes to All for a Happy, Healthy and Hosta-Filled 2012 from all of us at FIRST LOOK. Happy 2012 everyone. Steve

Thank you Jeanne, I hope you and all our friends here had a wonderful Mother's Day. Love your picture it is so professional. The Columbines are really pretty. I don't know if they grow in my area, I'm going to check. Nana

I think she got the framed wedding dress idea from Adrienne Malooff in Bravo's Housewives of Beverly Hills. It was in the entrance to their closets. Divorced now, so wonder what she did with it. When searching for her dress, I saw this one - "Michaels framed my wedding dress in a custom shadow box. I waited until they had 60% off plus an additional 25% off. It was only $700. And now it's always displayed on the wall walking downstairs. Better than rotting away in a box in the attic." I think she should have kept her $700. Most of the others on Pinterest are bad. Pinterest Dresses.