Such a marvelous shade of red on that one..And your close ups are perfection..thanks for making me WANT MORE...marigene

Frozen in Time is one of my favorite plants. Also, I love that your daughter is interested in violets! In my club, we have members of all ages, but our youngest member is only 10. She has her own small collection of violets and knows how to look things up on FC2 and actively participates in the meetings, mostly the "hands on" portions - like separating plantlets, or repotting, etc. It is a joy to watch! Hopefully this is a hobby both she and your daughter will have throughout her lifetime.

What metal did you get for your cabinets and faucet? A possibility would be to use the same metal in the backsplash and that way you could get texture and design. Another choice would be muted caramel color, look at colors in that line. I don't think the countertop is too busy, it reads as a solid with teeny speckles. I have the Sony staron in a similar pattern and I love it with a soft gold backsplash.

My plant is pubicalyx "Red Buttons" :) Tomorrow, when I get a chance, I'll take a picture of the whole plant. It also has long thin leaves. I have 2 Red Buttons. One came from Sylvia & the other came from Carol. They both get the same new spotted growth & have the same flowers. The flowers are sometimes spotted like this depending on how much sun it's getting. I've seen pictures of Red Buttons & Royal Hawaiian Purple somewhere (don't remember where) on the net and the flowers were also different colors like this. (I don't mind having a weird Hoya!! The weirder the better :D