Thank you all for the advice and encouragement. It's nice to hear that I may not have screwed up after all, lol. I checked the bag of African Violet soil I bought at Giant and found that it wasn't the right blend… So I went to Lowes today and bought some different soil that was perlite and peat, and got some small pots for them. They've all been repotted in the correct soil and their new pots, and placed back in their bags. And that's where they're staying. No more potting for these guys! What I've decided to do is leave them in their bags for a week just to let them adjust to a new pot on the half wall in the living room (where they will get light without "cooking"). After a week, I will open their bags and let them readjust to the new room. and gradually remove them from the bags :) Hopefully they'll do much better now that they've got the right kind of soil and the right size pots! I've included a picture of my plants. The biggest ones have some really neat ceramic pots made for african violets. There are two parts to the pot: the outer round part and the pot part that settles inside. It supposedly self waters so I'm interested to see if they work well or not :) ---- @Karin: I found the commercial mix was also staying wet too long. The new perlite mix I bought today seems to be much lighter. As per your advice, I've put them in smaller, more suitably sized pots, so hopefully that helps :) And I'd seen someone do that with the cupcakes you can buy at the grocery store that come in the plastic boxes! It seems really convenient :O too bad my house is in diet mode, at the moment haha. Thank you for the support! @Diana: I haven't, mostly because I wasn't sure how much to give them, nor if the soil I was using already had fertilizer. I think once they're weaned off the bags, I might give them food. I'm certainly done potting them :P Thank you for the tips on the fertilizer :) And in response to your second post, I think that's what I meant? I took the plants off the mother leaves and found that it had split into multiple crowns in one pot, and repotted them. @Linda: I didn't realize that you had to let them get used to their new climate (though I should have, given that I own an aquarium). I'm more confident in them now that they're in a lighter mix. To answer your question, yes, they split into different crowns. After I cut the parent leaf off, I noticed they'd split into different crowns so I removed them from their pots with the intent of cutting them apart. For the first time since I've had AV's, the different crowns just… fell apart. I removed the plants from their first pot and all I had to do was tug on the crowns gently to get them to come apart. The second pot, well, they just kept coming off! I was almost starting to get annoyed by how many there were, haha. I suddenly went from (what I thought was) 2 big AV babies to 7 much smaller but very much independent babies. I'll give solo cups another try if I need another pot size for my tiniest ones and the local stores are out :) Thank you so much! Your advice has been really, really helpful and I'm gonna keep hanging in there! (PS I always want more more more, haha) @Irina: I don't know if there is a club in my area, but I'll consider looking into it. You all have been really pleasant so far and it's been really nice to meet such kind, knowledgable folks :)

All of which goes to show....do what it takes not to fight with your neighbors. They may be unreasonable (one of ours called the cops to report an abandoned car parked in front of our house....that belonged to my daughter who was on vacation). They may be dead wrong (one of ours thought that, because their property is subject to an easement for use by their adjoining neighbors, they had an easement to use my property). They may even be right (when we were first married more than 30 years ago, another of ours objected that our dog, who we had trained to retrieve the newspaper, was taking their paper. She was.). We have learned to be considerate. When their wishes infringe on our right to live as we please, we set down boundaries, explaining why and what we are doing, accommodating what we can. Neighbor doesn't like cars parked in our driveway? Too bad. We have friends. Neighbor likes to spray the property line with Roundup? Fine, so long as not one drop gets on my plants planted along the fence line. Neighbor doesn't like the view of my yard from their living room window? Fair enough. We do what we can, planting screening to soften infrastructure installed by the developer. Of course I wonder why they didn't do the same on their own property. But I screen nonetheless. It's all part of being a good neighbor. Funny how barking dogs and trash containers get people nuts. We have neighbors who seems to think that leaving the emptied trash containers up on the street for an hour past trash pickup is a sign of poor breeding. Oh well. The green can is so heavy that I cannot wrangle it up the driveway. I get half way up, and it rolls me right back down. So when my gardener fills it, he also does the service of putting the green can up by the street. Neighborhoods used to be organized with those wonderful alleyways at the back of the property. We don't live in that world any more. As for dogs, there's a big difference between a young dog learning to enjoy staying in the yard alone for the first time and a dog that barks all day, every work day while its owner is at work. But not to my neighbors.

I agree with Mona, they are even prettier in person. lol, Kathleen -- hiccups, indeed! The last picture I posted really does the cupcakes a disservice. I just wanted to try out the idea of a cheese dome on the little footed plate. I thought using the gold pillows would help the cupcakes stand out. What can I say -- I was wrong! Hmmm, cupcakes for a carpet... Let me think on that one. Luvs, aren't they just the cutest things? I need to tend to my cooking. If I burn up the food, DH might not be very happy! Silly man, he doesn't understand what is *really* important!

Alexa, first attempts don't turn out like that. You must be a natural. Annie, you nailed it in your last photo. Keep in mind that for sharp detail, the icing should be of medium consistency (not to soft/ not too stiff). Try my buttercream if you keep having trouble. You mentioned having trouble finishing it off. When you're close to the end, release the pressure in your hand, then barely tuck the icing tip to the last row of icing on the cupcake, and (without applying any pressure) pull away. I haven't made buttercream rosettes since Sam was little, but it seems to be making a big comeback. And I suddenly want to decorate cupcakes again. Sol