Present of pretty petals

I just have to share with you a very special gift that I received on Christmas morning.  Many of you know how my boy's built a cottage garden for me in the spring and how I loved planting flowers in it.  Of course, I had favorites ~ too many to count.  Flowers are all so different and lovely.  But my husband knew just which ones I loved the most. 

purple coneflower, gallardia, & verbena on a stick

And he had original artwork drawn of my favorite flowers.  Unbelievable!  I was soooo surprised!  They are absolutely gorgeous!  The artist is a blogging friend, HollyHox, who lives in Montana.  We have never met but have enjoyed getting to know each other in the blog world.  I have admired her work for some time and was so disappointed recently when she had a contest and I didn't win one of her prints. 

And then I got three of my very own originals.  Being a fellow artist, I know how hard it is to part with originals.  Thank you, Holly!  I really love them~

The funny thing is they have been scheming for months to the point that he got an additional email address and she sent him secret messages in her blog.  I even saw a picture on her blog of the creative package that my gift was wrapped in for shipping.  Wayne knew this so he wrapped my gift in a box in layers. 

First, the cute little "thank you" tag framed.  I knew I had seen it before but didn't know where.

Then the black cardboard painted with whimsical blue swirls.  "It's from Holly!" I could never forget cute packaging like that. 

Then the lovely colored pencil artwork:

Pretty Purple Coneflower

Graceful Gallardia

Statuesque Verbena on a Stick

And at the bottom the very entertaining correspondence between the two of them over the past few months.  I really enjoyed reading it.

Yep, that husband of mine is a keeper.  It was an very special Christmas gift.  One that I will never forget.  Thank you, Honey.  And thank you, Holly.  If you haven't seen Holly's work, head on over and visit her etsy shop.  I bet her prints will look great in your home.  I'm going to hang my pretty petals in the master bedroom.

Update ~ And here they are framed...

Love 'em!