Mall Fun with Hats

Us girls had a little fun yesterday trying on hats at the mall.  First there was the ear muffs, bow and sunglasses.

Followed by the badger hat, I think...both girls had to try this one on.

This was followed by the sock monkey hat, which came home with us.

She also wore it through the mall having a "little" fun with the front strings! 

The most fabulous though is this next one...

I adorned this one as well, but hey...only one person can video!

Hopefully this works...make sure to turn the volume up!

Daughter #1 walked out of the Hallmark store on this one, I guess she has her limits! Party pooper!!

When I was downloaded these from my phone, I realized I had his one too.  While they're technically not hats, these cornucopias sure looked cute on the girls heads during a visit to Hobby Lobby!

It excites this mother that her girls are finally appreciating her crazy hat fetish!

Job Change

My posting and visiting other favorite blogs has been sporadic over the past few months.  For a while I had not been happy at the job I was at.  I wanted to make a change, but kept procrastinating the inevitable.  Finally, this past summer, my husband and I decided that I was going to just put in my notice and take a few months off while I looked for another one.  I was looking, but I just just too stressed out all the time to put too much effort into it, much less get online when I got home.  I put my notice in the first of September and my last day was the 16th.  On the 15th, I got a call from a lead that I had originally missed getting my resume into because of timing, but they wanted to see me.  I went for the interview that following Monday and was offered the job on Tuesday.  This was a little overwhelming because I had come to a place in my mind where I was going to be off a few months.  I have several good friends who have been without a job for months, so I certainly didn't expect just a week off. 

I  had brilliant plans of cleaning out the house top to bottom, having the biggest garage sale of my life and spending some much needed time with my succulents.  Not to mention the books I wanted to get caught up with!  As soon as I accepted the job offer, I let my husband know right away that the week would not be spent tearing apart the house.  Heck no, I had books to read and shows to get caught up on!  I also got to spend half a day in my backyard with my plants; the cheapest therapy I've ever had!

It might sound strange, but I knew that this was the right time.  At church, it seemed like the messages were all aimed at me trusting that God had my back.  That was the same feeling that I had in my quiet time at home.  When I put my notice in, it was as though as switch flipped and I was back to my normal self.  The last week was a tough one because I started double guessing myself.  I refused to go backwards though and was really ready for the downtime.  All in all, I now know that all of this was just a trust thing, and I'm so glad that I took the leap of faith!

This past week was my first week at my new job, and I think I'm really going to enjoy it.  The funny thing is, it's just a street over from where I was previously.  That means that I still get to have lunch with my coworkers friends a few times a week, and that just added to the great week. 

All that being said, I am looking forward to getting back to my computer time in the evenings.  I've missed reading everyone's posts as well as putting my own together! 

New Succulent Additions

While I was at Rainbow Gardens for the sole purpose of identifying my Jewel of Opar, I couldn't resist a walk through the succulents.

First I found something that I've only seen once and that was at East Austin Succulents and also not for sale.  It's a Kalanchoe tomentosa, but not the usual Panda plant, Chocolate Soldier or even Golden Girl.  No, it's the giant leafed, super fuzzy one!!!  It's so fuzzy that it's actually kind of scratchy when it rubs against your skin, and it's leaves are huge compared to the other varieties that I have.

Now to find the pink tinged one that I've only seen online. 

They also had a few of the Kalanchoe 'Fang' variety.  My large one froze last winter, and the puppies decided to pluck the babies that I was growing up a few days earlier.  Of course I needed another one.

This next one is new to me.  It looks like it might be a Kalanchoe variety, but I'm not sure what.  I just really like the color, it reminds me of Kermit the Frog.  I'm thinking Kalanchoe because it looks a little like my Flapjack variety, but maybe not. 

The weather man keeps promising that we're past the triple digit heat, so maybe, just maybe these won't get fried!  It's funny how quickly they respond to the reprieve from the heat.  My Flapjack's have been stunted all summer...they're all nicely red around the edges, but wouldn't grow.  Just in the week that it's not been so hot, I can see where they've already started growing again.  Friday and then again today, we were blessed with some much needed rain.  I'm expecting nice changes as a result of this treat in the coming weeks also.

Jewels of Opar...Mystery Solved

She has a name!  She is a Talinum 'Jewels of Opar'...isn't that a pretty name!  Thanks to Karen at Life is What You Make It for the common sense suggestion of going to a local nursery to ask and to Amy at Go Away I'm Gardening for giving me the name and confirming that the guy I talked to at Rainbow Gardens is a genius! 

I've read a little bit about it today, and it used to be classified it the Portulacacaea family.  I can confirm with their consensus that it is a drought lover!  This has been a horribly trying summer with I think 53 days of triple digit heat with no rain to speak of, and this one has looked fabulous all summer.  My bougainvilleas and hibiscus didn't ever come close to looking as happy and content as this one.  I also read here on Dave's Garden that it can be a bit invasive by a few unappreciative people.  Evidently with all it's lovely wands of blooms and then seed pods, the seeds get scattered and end up all over the place.  This is the first year that mine's been so big since I had her in a tiny pot before, so I haven't experienced this.  Considering my fondness of the various Kalanchoes that do this very thing, I doubt it will bother me much.  That will just be more plantlets for me to pluck up and share with friends.  I warn them when I give them plants like this so there should be no hard feelings if they take over! 

Regardless, I adore mine!! 



Mystery Plant

About a year ago, I picked up a really cute little plant from the guy that does plant sells at his house.  I kept it in a small pot and it was doing good, but wasn't really getting too big.  Earlier this summer, I moved it to a larger pot and it's taken off like crazy!  He called it a Fireworks Plant, but I have yet to find anything similar by that name online.  The last time I went by, he told me he couldn't find the name, so that's just what he called it.  I'm going to take it by a nursery, but thought I'd see if any of you know what it is. 

I can see where he got the firework's name, that's really what they remind you of.  The flower stalks shoot up with little offshoots and the blooms are little balls until they open up to 3 petal pink blooms.

Of course, the puppies kept moving the plant and so it was challanging to get a shot that wasn't blurry!  Here's a close up too of the leaves.

When the blooms are done, the seed pod remains and it's about the size of a pinhead.  I also stuck a piece that a puppy who will remain unmentioned ripped off in some water and it's rooting quite nicely.  The only thing irritating me right now is that I have no clue what it is. 

Anyone have any idea? 

Puppy Happenings

It's been a while, but I wanted to share some sad news and happy news. 

At the beginning of July, I had to put my Goldie down.  I don't talk about it because I still cry.  To be quick about it, she had been walking funny and seemed like at times she didn't know what was going on.  I took her to vet knowing what they'd tell me, but thinking I was over dramatizing the situation.  She was getting very close to 15 and for a Corgi/Shelti mix, that's pretty old.  They told me that she had arthritis and hip issues as well as what sounded like dementia.  Her spine was riddled with it, and I couldn't handle knowing that she might fall down while I wasn't there and be stuck for what could be hours.  I went home that morning without my girl.

When the girls came home, I told them when I was ready that we'd look for a puppy.  I knew what I wanted.  Either another Corgi or a little Westie.  So much for my opinion!  Last weekend, I had the brilliant idea to take them to the animal shelter "just to look".  We fell hard for a brother and sister in the puppy section.  They were 12 weeks old and adorable.  I came back home and asked my husband about it.  He's objection was still, "Why do you need two?".  I have been trying to explain to him for years that we needed two since we're gone so much and they need company during the day.  I reexplained my point and off me and the girls went.  I took Amy with me and that was probably a good thing since I bawled through most of the paperwork.  The whole thing just made me really miss my girl. 

So much for small...meet our newest additions to the family, Lab/Shepherd mix puppies...Charlie and Molly. 

Charlie is the brown one that I lovingly refer to as "my little Marmaduke" and Molly is the little black one who's looks are very deceiving.  She is the instigator of the pair and he's just pretty laid back and stubborn.  She looks and feels just like a Lab with the smooth, soft hair and Charlie takes after the Shepard with the shorter, courser hair.  He's huge...so much for small! 

So far, so good, but I did pick up a copy of Cesar Millan's puppy book this weekend and keep telling them that good puppies do not bother mommy's plants!  We're still working on that one. 





Huernia Excitement

I will be honest, when my neighbor brought down what I now know is a Huernia schneiderana 'Red Dragon' last year, I looked at it and gave Amy the "best" one because I thought it looked really odd.  For one, it looked prickly (it's not) and was a little wild for my taste, or at least I thought it was.  Mine didn't do so hot and I lost it over the winter.  Amy's however, was doing fabulous and I'll admit it, I was a little jealous that it liked her so much.  Said neighbor, aka Plant Fairy, was more than willing to share some more with me this spring, so I was once again in business with my 'Red Dragon'.

Huernia schneiderana 'Red Dragaon'

This was from the first one she gave me last year, the others are still in the "nursery" section of my yard waiting for me to put them in the spectacular hanging basket I bought for them.  I took some of this to my sister and she calls it the "scary looking worm" plant. 

I bought another Huernia from a local succulent/cactus nursery earlier this year because it had a different looking bloom to it.  I think it's a Huernia saudi-arabica or campanulata.  It was marked Huernia procumbens, but none of the pictures look like mine.  I re-potted it and she's bloomed several times since. 

Huernia campanulata

Like the 'Red Dragon', this one isn't spiky either.  It's also a lighter shade of green than the other. 

On another adventure, I found another one and bought it because I thought it was different than what I had.  At first I was disappointed because it's the same dark color as the 'Red Dragon'.  The difference is that it doesn't get long like the 'Red Dragon', it stays more compact like the Huernia campanulata, although not so much. It does have a few prickly spikes in addition to the soft spikes. It's blooms come off on little shoots as well, unlike the other two that bloom close to the plant itself.   I noticed it was getting ready to bloom the other day and have kept a close watch.  It opened yesterday, and OH MY GOSH...I've never seen something so spectacular!!!

Huernia hystrix

It looks fuzzy because it is fuzzy!! 

Huernia hystrix

This is not good...I have spent quite a bit of time online, first searching for the names of the two and then finding others that I simply have to have!  The one I've got my eye on is called a Huernia 'lifesaver'...it looks like there's a lifesaver in the middle of it.  I found one online retailer that has some in stock, but got sidetracked and didn't order it yet. 

Moral of the story for me, never, ever snub my nose at any odd looking plant ever again...it might just become one of my favorites!  

Mandy