Charleston, Blendabilites and Endless Wishes

I was in Charleston last week and had a great time.  We met Ashley there.  She was attending a medical convention of some sort (and was one of the lecture-ers!)  But she still had time to spend with us.  We took a  bus tour around the city Wednesday morning before she had to go to work.  On Thursday our plans got changed around a bit. Originally, Sonny was going to go to Fort Sumter with one of Ashley's friends who was flying in from Houston and I was going to go to one of the local beaches.  Well, best laid plans .... first off, it was pouring rain most of the day Thursday so the beach was out. And to top it off, Julie missed her flight and instead of arriving in Charleston at 11 a.m., she didn't arrive until around 5 p.m.!!   So Sonny and I drove over to Wadmalaw Island to tour the Charleston Tea Plantation where Bigelow American Classic Tea is made.  It was very interesting to see what goes into making a tin of tea.  I didn't realize that tea is grown from a version of the camelia plant.  Right down the road from the tea plantation, we found the Firefly Vodka Distillery!  They have a tasting room where you get a tasting shot glass (to keep) and you can select 6 alcohols to test.  I had only heard of Firefly sweet tea vodka so I was surprised they have many flavors of the sweet tea vodka but also rum, bourbon, liqueurs, and moonshine, too!  You do only get a sip of each, which ends up being about a shot in total.  Despite the fact that Sonny is not that into infused vodkas or 'fruity flavors,' we both had a fantastic couple of hours here. Indeed, at the end of it, the tasting was just a very small part of it. We walked away with Lemonade Vodka for me, Apple Pie Moonshine and Chocolate Pecan Pie Liquor for Sonny!  For a beer drinker, he surprised me!  The Irvin House Vineyards was next on our list!  It is owned by the same people as Firefly.  Sonny does not drink wine so he came in and sat next to me during my tasting.  The wine was right up my alley .... a sweet muscadine wine!  They have 5 varieties of wines and I walked away with the Magnolia Wine (for my health you know)!! Muscadines, once thought of as "the fountain of youth", have been praised for its significant levels of resveratrol, an organic molecule and powerful antioxidant. A study by the National Institute of Health found that muscadine wines have seventtimes more resveratrol than other wines.  

Good to the last drop!

Vineyards

Me and Waddy having a "cuppa" tea

 

tea fields

I was playing around last week with my Blendabilities.  I really love them!!  They blend really well and makes me look like a great water-color-er (is that a word???).  Anyhoo ... here are a few images I colored using the markers.

For the Birds stamp - Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities

Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities

Pumpkin Pie Blendabilities