Violetta, you are one year ahead of me. I just planted my first clems this year, including Venosa Violacea. Your pictures are so pretty...I'm so anxious for the time when I can actually enjoy the view of my own. I did so much research over this past crummy winter, never having owned clems before, and now I have 19 of them, and I'm happy to say that all of them are type 3's, and a good number are Viticellas. Good luck with your clems.

This one is growing warm. Now, without any special effort it photographed black, the Dracula Raven despite all different angles and lights never did, always a little brown. To the naked eye, both look the same. Does the different photographing characteristic imply that one is darker, more black? Nick

I have rug #2 (though don't have it out atm due to repainting the room it was in)and it is very pretty in person. The base color is a bit more of a cooler green than it appears in the overstock pic online (on my monitor anyway). All the rugs you posted are nice, so think it all just depends on the overall look and color scheme you are trying to achieve.

nosoccermom - thanks for the great ideas! Very interesting info about printing a glass backsplash (!!), and attaching it. I think there's quite a range between attaching a piece of glass to go behind the range, vs a professionally installed glass backsplash. I looked into some aspects of this as well, and found that Starphire glass doesn't have the blue tinge, which adds a strange colour element (may or may not be desirable). I guess glass isn't something I can completely rule out. raee_gw zone 5b-6a - thanks for chiming in. Good to know that paint has worked for you! cpartist - to my eye, materials like Neolith, quartz, etc. don't really look right beside my granite counters. It's hard to tell from the photos, but there is some translucency and depth to the natural granite that makes a lot of manufactured materials look unpleasantly flat beside it. cluelessincolorado - thanks for sharing that inspiration photo...very beautiful.