Yes Drama Girl is a very strong grower, once established. It grows several inches a year, and it gets very big very quickly. Sawada's Mahogany is one I don't have, but the ones I have seen are more compact and average height. You may call Bobby Green who found it on the old Sawada homesite and named it. I am sure yours came from him. It is strikingly different. You may see some good examples of these at the Bham Camellia show on Feb. 12-13 at BBG.

I'll admit, I don't bake my eggshells...but I buy local eggs, and wash very thoroughly (if they had salmonella, my dogs would get it from the eggs, which I also feed raw). But I would imagine birds would be much more sensitive to anything on them than my dogs might be, so baking is a good idea. I had read that the baking was just to remove mineral oils put on the shell to help preserve the eggs and dry the shells out well, not to guard against salmonella. I just wash them out well with hot water, then store in the fridge until they're really dry. Then I grind them way down into a powder for the dogs...since I mix it with their raw food (one of my dogs can't have whole raw bones, so it replaces the calcium). It takes no time at all in the magic bullet to grind them to powder, if that's what you decide to do. I actually bought the food processor specifically to make dog food with (pulverizing veggies/chopping meat). I can't imagine using the MB for that...it would take me hours with those small quantities! :-)

EM 2 is very easy to use to make lettering, it is also easy to learn to use the digitizing part of the program but to digitize a good design takes learning, skill and practice. An example of what I am saying is that - for a artist to paint a picture, all it takes is some canvas, paint and brushes (these supplies and tools are easy for anyone to use but it takes learning, practice and artistic skill to paint a beautiful picture. The EM 2 program is easy to use but to digitize a good design takes learning, practice and skill. By the way, one of the best ways to actually learn how to digitize a good design (not the same as how to use the software program) is to watch a good design stitch out and see/learn why the digitizer does this and that as the design stitches - we have lots of good designs (learning tools) as you may have noticed or our web site. Embroidery Magic 2 is a "free standing digitizing software program - ie - it works on it's own on your computer" and saves designs on/to your computer in the dst format - dst is a standard format that converts well to almost any format or can be used directly by most software that sends a design to an embroidery machine via a memory card, floppy disk or direct connect. Most any software or boxes that send a design to a card and can use the dst format will work. If the software that sends the designs to the machine can use dst then conversion is not required, otherwise the design or lettering must be converted to a right format for the machine so it can be sent to a card or machine. There is a very good conversion program available for free if you need it. Just email us for the link after purchasing the EM 2 software. See mor info at this site > http://www.threadartist.com/embroidery_magic_2.htm Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.threadartist.com/

I have not seen or used this system, but would not trust a suction cup to hold anything up. Maybe a few little decorative spoons, but nothing more.