HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND A MYSTERY MUSHROOM?????

We have decoated the back table for some fun tonight. Our centerpeice is our fabulous haunted house made last year out of diaper box! We have added new things this year, the most spectacular is the large black kitty....a painted gourd by my DIL's mom!  The grands and I have crafted the other new items....purple bat and spider from craft kits at Micheals.

Anyway, while we are trick or treating, my daughter will be home making our spooky dinner (mainly for kids and grands), of BBQ worm sandwiches (made from boiled strands of hot dogs), apple monsters, and cheese witch fingers! For dessert, pumpkin bread with whipped cream, and sprinkled with Reeses Pieces for prettiness, and hot chocolate.  It is supposed to be down to 64 degrees by 9pm!

I wanted to show this really strange thing I found (actually 6 of them), that looks like a lantern....with a ball on top, and roots!!! It felt a bit mushroomy to me when I pulled it out. Has anyone ever seen anything like this????? Super si fi, if you ask me!

Well,  I hope everyone who celebrates Halloween, has a fun amd safe night!

Xoxo....Julie

Succulent tire revisions done....yeah!

This morning I dragged myself over to Lowes to order a new dryer. While there, i had a 10 dollar off card, so I went shopping in the garden center, of course!

I found 2 large begonias (one red and one white), which were on the discount rack for 3.50 each. They are perfect for our cooler weather season down here....I think they will be so gorgeous when replanted, trimmed amd fertilized.....just in time for Christmas!!!!!

Then i picked up 3 new flowering plants for the tire garden. One is a small pale pink mum, one a dark pink coneflower, and one is the very hot electric purple pink thing in front of my multicolored zinnias!   It makes that tire POP!  I have the name of it on the little stick it came with, but I cannot make myself go back out to get it.

I decided to revise the succulent tires, because all of the heavy rains we have had, washed the soil down tooooooo much!!!

I made a command decision to eliminate all of my cactus', because I am tired of being poked. I feel I have just reached a stage in my life where I just can't deal with it any more.

My towering euphorbia lactea has it's own tire now, surrounded by shells for a top dressing.  I plan to get more, as my supply is dwindling.  I lose my shells, pebbles and such under the soil over time.....

If you ever want to have fun (not) treasure hunts, this is one way.....as I had to remove the plants and dig and hunt for all of them. I placed them in my wheelbarrow, washed them, separated each color (I have white, rose, black and blue stones, and the shells. It was a job, believe me.

I think everything looks pristine now, so my brain can shut down the anxiety over it. Whew.

There is a pic of my 1 current Gretel eggplant. That plant is a year old and still producing.

The Black Knight is blooming now for me for the first time!  I had given my aunt and cousin some, and they live in mid west Florida and they report theirs are also in bloom! How fun!

Now to get back to the unending laundry......

A day at the beach with the grandkids!

I am posting on my phone so pics will be random. We had subs for lunch at Subway, and went to the Turtle Center at Loggerhead Park in Juno Beach, Florida today. We saw injured turtles that are brought in for treatment and released back into the ocean when healed. Sadly there are so many. There is a great informational indoor area, and the turtles are outside in tanks.
After that, we hiked a few short beach trails there, to a nice lookout where we could see the Atlantic ocean for miles out. You can see we were on one paved path amongst a sea of scrubby palmettos! Quite a thing to see! Got a picture of the beach side where the waves were rolling in nicely with the pier in the background.
It was a lovely afternoon.

Flowers, embroidery, sushi and fun.

Oh, man....i am elated right now regarding learning a new way to move photos from the gallery on my cell phone, to email.....and now directly into a post here!!!!! Crap! The old way was so time consuming!!!! Well, anyway....i am such a happy camper now!!!

This post is being done on my phone, so it will be all type, then photos. Maybe one day I will find that this Blogger App allows me to place the text aroun the photos, but so far....it's a no go.

I took a close up of pink roses cut in my kitchen window this morning with light behind. They are so pretty here in the kitchen.

There are two shots of the inside of a new sushi hangout for daughter and I. It is called Saki Too, at Traditions, in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The food is devine, great prices, and the decor looked much like how the inside of my house should look!!!!

I noticed that I do have some of the same touches (a floral couch, and a love of the same colors).  There is a wall in my livingroom i have been wanting to paint a bold color.....so I may just do it now! It would only be a few hours worth of time.

There are a few pics here of my DIL sewing and showing a beautiful embroidery she completed, and made into a pillow with envelope back, and inserted a pillow form. She created it for a friend who does roller derby,  and  her RD name is Mocha. Didn't it turn out great????

Here are also a few pictures of my DH, and the grands at a neat fall market that offered a corn maze, hayrides, a pumpkin patch, food, carmel and candy apples. I have to say that it was a lot of fun for us, as these type events just are not available in south Florida.

Bedners Market, and farm in Boymton Beach, Florida will be continuing this fall fun through Oct.31, and then........watch out.....the Christmas festivities will begin not long after!

I was walking by my friends house down the street, and discovered she had two huge Donkey Ears (Kalanchoe Gastonis Bonnieri)...one on each post framing her front door. I gasped, looked closer, and took a picture. WOWZERS...it was nice to see these big beautiful specimens! I especially wanted my blogger pal, Mandy from A Few Of My Favorite Things, out in Texas to see. She sent me some plants of this species a few years ago, and mine are still small. I need to transplant and give them a bit more love and attention I guess. Obviously mine have been in semi shade, and it looks like they need full sun. Now that the weather is cooling down, I will move it out. Hope you all enjoy seeing this lovliness!!! Julie

Pumpkin carving and painting!

Donovan and Emily had fun today when their Mom took them to the pumpkin patch. They both picked one out, and Emmie painted hers. Dono drew out his face and his mom cut it out for him. They even made ears!!! Too cute. They lit the big earred guy up tonight too. He looks scary!!!!!

Zinnias and Roses

Hello to everyone! I have been so busy! Update on my knee: conservative treatment only. This is good. Went to physical therapist....will only do exercises to strengthen it, and open up my knee joint....sounds like fun, eh??? Just 2 weeks. I can walk, so I am happy.

Looking forward to some fall fun. A corn maze in November, with hayrides, and get this.....a hayride with paintball guns to shoot zombies (for the younger adults in the family), a train ride for the kiddos. It will be nice in the cooler weather to come.

Creatively my DIL and I have been embroidering. It is done late at night in the few moments between getting kids to sleep, and us nearly falling out ourselves....still we like to squeeze the time in there. We are both working on surprise gifts for friends.....I will get pictures when we are done, for sure!

Life is good.....even with temperatures that reach into the 90's some days!  We have been getting some rain every day it has been nice not to have to water.  Here are a few pics of the tire garden (the tires with flowers).  Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Xoxo- Julie