A Visit to Phipps Conservancy and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh

Good morning and happy Monday to everyone!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mine consisted of hanging out at home and snuggling with my cats and then a few visits with friends!!!

There is nothing better than that!!!!

On Friday night I met up with of my very favorite friends to visit a Pittsburgh attraction!! In all the years I have lived here in Pittsburgh, there are a bunch of attractions that my friends or myself have never been to. We have made a plan to get to all of these places over the next few months and I am so excited!!! 

The first place on our list is Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens!  My friends have been there but I had not. We learned that it was the annual orchid display so we made a date for Friday night!

When I arrived, I parked in the middle island outside the venue (the parking is free there and very convenient).  This is Phipps from the outside. We met in the lobby and ate at the restaurant there in Phipps. It is all very delicious food. I had the salmon salad and it was amazing!

Then we walked through the venue! There were soooo many beautiful orchids!!!

We loved these little hanging globes!!! As we were discussing how we could recreate these; a woman that worked there came up to us and explained how to make our own (I am going to try it and use it as a future post). She also offered to walk with us as a "tour guide". It was great! She was soooo knowledgeable about every plant and orchid! She was lovely!!! 

A super cool plant that looks like a turtle - what?!?!

This photo is a photo of the oldest plant at Phipps!!! It was brought in 1893!!! It is a type of palm tree that was purchased at the World's Fair that year and was the first plant at Phipps!!! So cool!!!!

And this is that same plant looking upwards!!! Such amazing history!!!

This is a tiny replica (with a train running around it) of the original Phipps

I can not live with this tree in my life!!! Ahhhhhh...

Bananas!!!! I saw one of the in the wild in Hawaii!!! Our "tour guide" explained that it only takes 18 months for a shoot to turn into this size banana tree!!! If you live in warm climate- get yourself a banana tree - they grow fruit quickly!!!

I had to take a picture of this!!! I want a clipping from this tree and I want to try to grow it indoors at home! We ate these in Hawaii right off of a tree when we were ziplining and they are so yummy!!!  The "tour guide" sadi I should call and ask for one...I am going to give it a shot!!! PS - I keep saying "tour guide" because I unfortunately can not remember her name!!

This is jasmine...it smelled awesome!!!

More orchids...I loved these striped ones!!!

Such cute displays everywhere - even hanging above all over!!!

This is the main lobby after you enter the gardens...this is our little group (L to R...Me, Carol, our new friend and tour guide and Kathy) ...Please excuse this awful picture of me!! Goodness I need to lose this extra weight!! UGH!

Beautiful...

This gentleman donated and dedicated an entire room to his daughter that is there  all year round and they just happen the make the best chocolate in the world - Sarris Candies!!!!

 Nature is so cool...

 A cute little bonsai tree that grows oranges!!!

As we were leaving I got this shot of the building at night - cool, hugh?

It was a great night with such good friends!! I cannot wait for our next adventure!!!

Have a great day!

What is your favorite flower? How was your weekend? What is your favorite candy?

My Fun Week

I made tutu's this week - four of them to be exact!!! It was fun and easy and actually pretty cheap!  I just followed directions from google.  We are running the Color Run in Pittsburgh in October and decided it would be fun to run in tutu's so I made them for my whole group!!! So me, my sister, my two nieces and their friend are all set with a tutu (even if they dont want one!)!!! Soooooooooo fun!!! 

This was the perfect activity this week as I wanted to stay in a few nights to watch the last two Big Brother shows and the premier of Survivor! The tutu making fell in perfectly with that plan! Very mindless looping and cutting strips of tulle!!

Here they are hanging and waiting to be worn!!!

 

 Last night I went to the baseball field with my boyfriend to watch his sons team play for Cecil little league! They won 11 to 10 in the last inning! It was a great game!

 

 This is his son Matt when he was pitching.  What a sweetie!!!

After the game we flew (literally) high speed to get ice cream before it closed.  This is the leftover of my Sarris sundae! YUMMO!!!! I got peanut butter chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate hard cap from a local favorite stop in Canonsburg, PA. If you ever get to visit there, you will NOT be disappointed!!! It it a candy shop (they make all the chocolate on site) and an ice cream parlor!

 

 This is a picture from this morning at work! It is Fun Friday and the theme was back to school! I brought in ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and choc chips).  Other stuff was Capri Sun drinks, puppy chow, egg salad sandwiches, pb&j sandwiches, chips, crackers, cheese, brownies, cake, hoho's and twinkies! It has been a glorious morning and I think I gained 100 pounds!!! HA HA!

 

This is my favorite new shoes!! I stopped at the mall last night when I left work to get my free VS body spray (full size!! This was awesome) Anyway, I ran into my hairdresser, Ann, and she had on the cutest shoes! She said they were from Charolette Russe and they were on sale for $15!!! Anyone who knows me knows I love a great deal so I ran right down there and got a pair!!! Thanks for the heads up Ann~~~~ PS - I also got two other pairs for $9....all shoes on sale right now!!!!

Hope you all have an amazing weekend~~~~