Favorite Flora Friday

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Hi readers! Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! New readers, on Fridays we discuss STUFF – the material parts of life that make living grand. On Friday, I mention three of my favorite things, songs, websites, books, etc. etc. and I ask you to add some of your favorite STUFF in the Comments section. Please check out previous Friday posts (there are a lot of them by now), for more favorites.

I grew up in Pennsylvania. In the summertime, in Pennsylvania, people have flowers galore. It is truly lovely. I spent my thirties in North Carolina. Carolinians enjoy beautiful flowers in the summer time, too, but due to the heat they don’t plant quite as many of them, as the northerners do, in my experience. When I lived in NC, I fell in love with the Crepe Myrtle bushes/trees. Carolinians plant those beauties everywhere! Then in my forties, we moved to Florida. I was shocked to see that people didn’t plant a whole lot of the traditional flowers that I was used to seeing. You see, Florida is just too damn hot in the summer and delicate flowers like impatiens, just wither and fry down to nothing, unless they are connected to a drip, containing gallons of water. And even then, there are no guarantees. However, tropical flowers bask and thrive in the Florida sun and grow at exponential rates, so much so, that soon a machete becomes a much needed gardener’s tool.

Above are pictures of three of my favorite Florida Loving Plants. Here is why:

Bromelaid – I bought one small bromelaid with its gorgeous pink flower, a few years back, to support breast cancer awareness. Well, now we own about 18 of these beauties from that one small plant. These plants put rabbits to shame in the field of reproduction. Their flower is so dramatic, and bursts with color and energy and it blooms for a long time. I love, love, love this plant!!

Musical Note Clerodendrum – This plant is fabulous. It’s blooms are white puffs that look just like musical notes. It constantly blooms as if it is constantly singing. Ours really took off when we planted it in a flower bed, by the small lake that we have out back. It looks delicate, but it can’t help but thrive and bloom and burst with its song, in our tropical environment.

Chenille Plant (red-hot cattail) – I have this plant in a jardiniere (remember that word from last week, friends??) by my front door. It just grows and flows like a little waterfall full of pink, fuzzy caterpillars. It does just fine in hot Florida, although it does require a fair amount of watering. (I sometimes pour a little ice in it, and it seems to appreciate the effort while it withstands the sunshine)

Enjoy your weekend, friends! As always, thank you so much for your support and validation!

The Face of Friday

Then I would love it even more ❤️❤️❤️

I couldn’t resist this one, guys! I am going to see Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood tonight and I am looking forward to some great acting! New readers, there is nothing but surface stuff here on Fridays, at Adulting- Second Half. On Fridays, I pick three of my favorite items, foods, songs, books, etc. and I encourage you to share your favorites in my comments section. Please see previous Friday postings for over a year’s worth of my favorites!

Today’s favorites:

The Original Make Up Eraser – This is a miracle cloth. I have sensitive eyes, so most make-up removers tend to burn my eyes or make them swell. This item is just a cloth that you dampen slightly and it removes your eye make-up in an easy couple of swoops. I am shocked that it works as well and as easily as it does. It is sort of like a slightly shaggy washcloth, that can be thrown in the clothes washer to clean it. Love it!

SouthEndGirlArt (etsy) – I bought a small woodblock piece of artwork from this artist’s adorable collection and I adore it. The artist, Tiffanie Seiler suggests that their small size is perfect for closets or other small spaces. I actually keep mine in my car, so that every time that I get into the car, a beautiful, whimsical, spiritual looking woman smiles at me with the word NAMASTE resting beneath her ethereal presence. The artist has actually licensed her whimsical mermaids and little girls and cute animal images and they have been featured at Trader Joe’s and even on a wine label. Pick out your own one-of-a-kind piece at her etsy store!

Jardinière – I took Latin, so I just learned this word last week. It is the French word for gardener, in its feminine form. I bought a wonderful, old, interesting vintage flower pot adorned with two dragon handles from a cool retro store in the artsy end of town, last week. The tag had this word on it and I thought that it referred to the actual artist or maker, but I was wrong. Jardiniere refers to any fancy variety of pottery used to house plants. There are a lot of collectors of Jardiniere in the world, and I just discovered that I am one of them and that I have been one of them for quite some time. There is nothing more delightful than a beautiful flowering plant, housed in a unique, eye-catching pot – the house that the plant deserves and where it will be happy to flourish and bloom. Don’t just settle for generic terra cotta pots – you and your plants deserve more! Jardiniere it, baby!

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Feeling Friday

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Hi Friends!! Happy Friendly Friday!! Yay, Friday is finally here!! On Fridays, at Adulting – Second Half, we keep it Frivolous! Frivolous Friday!! On Fridays, I list three favorite products, services, websites, songs, etc. and I encourage readers to add some favorites to my Comments section, so that we all can have some Friday fun! Please see previous Friday postings for more ideas. Here are this Friday’s Favorites:

Secret Box New York Constellation Earrings – I love these earrings! They take your zodiac sign’s star constellation and make them into a pair of intriguing, mismatched earrings. One side is just the major star (one CZ) and the other side is the rest of the constellation. These are fun and definitely conversation starters. They have constellation necklaces to match, as well. Unique, and can be dressed up or down!

Chanchitos – “In the small village of Pomaire, Chile, it is believed that “chanchitos,” little pigs, bring good luck. Three legged chanchitos are especially fortunate and are traditionally given to friends as a token of goodwill and love.” I found these sweet trinkets at a little souvenier shop recently and I brought one back for me and my kids. My little chanchito is smiling at me right now, as I write my blog. They are inexpensive, cute reminders of just how lucky we all are, just to be breathing and soaking in this miraculous experience called Life. You can find similar ones to what I bought, at Many Hands Gallery, on-line.

Emu Oil – I recently bought some emu oil cream because I was in a climate much more dry and less humid than me and my skin are used to being in. I have used it before, but I forgot just how emollient, and saturating and healing, emu oil really is for our skin, the largest organ of our bodies. One person told me that emu oil healed her sister’s scars after a sledding accident. It is particularly good for sensitive skin. If you have spent a little too much time in the sun lately, you need emu – emu 4 u.

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Oh Yes!

oh yes...it's FRIDAY!

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! What a nice little, easy, short week a lot of us have had with The Fourth being on Thursday and a lot of people taking today off, as well! Here’s to 4 day weekends!!! May they prosper and multiply!!!

New readers on Fridays, we keep it light, simple and materialistic. On Fridays, I list three favorite things, music, websites, books, etc. and I encourage you all to add your favorites to the comments section. Please check out previous Fridays, to peruse more favorites, to make your Friday even more fun.

My husband loves bees. He loves honey. He is just fascinated with bees. Therefore, I have a lot of bee motif jewelry and I have no problem with that part of his obsession. I have jumped on the bee bandwagon and I have filled our home with bee trinkets, as well. Here are some recent bee purchases that I highly recommend to anyone who is also entranced by bees.

Costco Native Bee House – This cool wooden and bamboo contraption is like a bird house for mason bees (great pollinators, but these bees do not produce honey). It looks adorable hanging on our fence and we have seen a couple of bees looking at the real estate with interest. There is even a slot for butterflies who are the flamboyant tenants that I am really hoping take up residence.

Wisteria Beehive Hose Holder – I love this hose holder so much, I would bring it inside. It is absolutely adorable, yet functional. The shape of it reminds you how they got the name for the 1960s beehive hairdo and it has little statuesque bees all over it with springy wings. Sometimes, I just go around the corner of our house, just to gaze at this adorable container.

Laguiole French Home steak knives – Not only are these steak knives divinely sharp and functional, they are beautiful works of art, with lovely handles. The bee part comes in, with the fact that the top of every knife has a bee ornament on it. I think it is the small details that can make something go from ordinary to exquisite!

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Friday Blues

Happy Friday, readers and friends!!! Happy Friday all!!! Honestly, this particular Friday is the first Friday, in a LONG while, that I wish it weren’t Friday. This Friday marks the almost end of a wonderful, memorable family vacation. It marks the end of something that we all have been looking forward to and anticipating for a long, long time. As my family grows up and out, I realize that each of these vacations are even more precious than ever, as our six schedules are becoming more and more complex to allow these long, interrupted periods of time with each other, to even be a possibility. Since I am experiencing my ultimate favorite thing – uninterrupted adventures with my family, I am going to stop posting and start adventuring and I won’t be listing my three favorite things. Please don’t let that stop you from sharing some favorites in my comments section and new readers, please check out previous Friday postings where I usually list three favorite products, tips, websites, songs, etc. that have wowed my world.

Happy Friday Friends!! Enjoy your day and have a wonderful weekend!!!

Life Gets Better

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Happy Friday!!! Happy First Day of Summer Friday!!! Can it get any better than that?!? New readers, we keep it light and surface-y on Fridays, here at Adulting Second-Half. On Fridays, I discuss three favorite products, websites, songs, TV shows, foods, etc. that make my material life just a little more “Life gets better.” I strongly encourage you to add your favorites to share with us, in the Comments section. Please see previous Friday posts for more fun ideas. Here are today’s favorites:

Buxom Wanderlust Primer-Infused Blush – If you want blush with staying power, this will become your new holy grail. As I age, I now understand why older women’s make-up gets brighter. We get paler and ashier, as we age. This blush brings us back to our youthful glow and it stays on (even through summer perspiration)! I get mine at Ulta and Ibiza is my shade.

Red Clay Gourmet Pimiento Cheese – One of my guiltiest pleasures is pimiento cheese. I got addicted to it when I lived in North Carolina. (Shout out, Charlotte!) This brand is particularly tasty. My daughter mixed some up in her macaroni and cheese the other day and I have never seen her eat so fast and happily, in my life. I get it at Earth Fare, so it is free of all artificial anything. So yum!!

Medium – If you like reading my blog, and articles like my blog, you will love Medium. It is a writer’s/reader’s heaven, chock full of short, interesting articles tailored to your interests. When I go to Medium, it never fails, I start reading and then I look at the clock and at least, two hours have passed . . . .

Have an amazing weekend, guys!!! I get to spend the upcoming week with my awesome family! As I age, I understand that these are rare opportunities that I can no longer take for granted. I plan to savor every moment of just being in my family’s presence. If I end up being short and spotty with my blog, please forgive me and don’t worry about me. Know that I am in my bliss. Love to you all!! Happy Summer!!!

Fried Egg Friday

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Hello friends and readers!!! Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!!! On Fridays, we keep it light and crispy here at Adulting – Second Half. On Fridays, I list three “favorites” – things, songs, TV shows, books, etc. These favorite things make my material world all the better! Please check out previous Friday posts for other favorites and please, please share you favorites, as well. Because like Madonna says, “We are living in a material world . . . . ” Here goes – today’s favorites:

HBO’s Chernobyl – Amazing TV series! Captivating, awful, excruciating, yet hopeful. The acting in this series is absolutely exquisite. This production came in right under Game of Thrones as one of HBO’s best productions, in my mind. It is definitely worth some of your weekend to start to watch this show and ponder its magnanimity.

Should I Answer? App – I have been on the pointless “no-call list” (HA!) for a long time, but now my cell phone seems like it is THE hot number for anyone selling anything, to call. I want to kiss this app’s feet. So many pointless, ridiculous, aggravating calls have been blocked since I downloaded it. I have proof from the list of blocked calls that it keeps every day. Numbers that are known to be telemarketer/spoof dialers have angry red faces on them, and they cannot get through. Love it!

“Things Are As Big As You Make Them” – This was the best piece of advice I received as a young mother, by another young mother, when we were embroiled in neighborhood drama that was probably rooted in the lack of sleep and the lack of solitude, young mothers get, when they are raising their children. I never forgot this piece of advice and it has helped me, many, many times, keep things in perspective. Now, some things actually do need to be made BIG (to make a point), but most things do not. This little mantra is an excellent reminder of this.

Let’s end Friday, with these “wise” thoughts:

“For Children: You will need to know the difference between Friday and a fried egg. It’s quite a simple difference, but an important one. Friday comes at the end of the week, whereas a fried egg comes out of a chicken. Like most things, of course, it isn’t quite that simple. The fried egg isn’t properly a fried egg until it’s been put in a frying pan and fried. This is something you wouldn’t do to a Friday, of course, though you might do it on a Friday. You can also fry eggs on a Thursday, if you like, or on a cooker. It’s all rather complicated, but it makes a kind of sense if you think about it for a while.” 
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

Fur- riday

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Hello readers and friends!! Hello Friday is right!! New readers, Fridays are fun here at Adulting – Second Half. We call them “Favorite Things Friday”. I keep things on the light and bright and I typically list around three things, ideas, websites, songs, etc. that I recommend highly. I also highly encourage you to give us some of your favorites in the Comments section. Please also see previous Friday listings for more favorites to make your Friday even more fabulous than it already is . . . . here we go:

Farmhouse Culture Ginger Beet Gut Shots – Let me preface this by saying, I hate beets. I don’t like the taste of this concoction at all. My husband and I drink this in one full swoop, from shot glasses every morning and I pinch my nose. (this is the only kind of shot that we can still handle at our ages) However, the key word here is “gut”. This liquid really, really does help with digestion and making your stomach feel good. I like me a happy tummy! My husband first discovered this at Costco. I have since bought it at Earth Fare. It’s not cheap, but a little goes a long way. So, these gut shots have now been added to our daily regiment of the other 6,592 supplements we take on a daily basis. (recently my husband asked into the air, “I wonder which of all of this stuff actually works?”)

RecoverT Wrap Bracelets – I found these bracelets at a local art fair and I love them, and I’ve given them away and I always find a reason to buy more of them. Wrap bracelets are something that I wear almost on a daily basis and these are particularly neat. Most of them have charms that have uplifting words, prayers, scripture or symbols on them. The braided cords are made out of colorful recycled t-shirts, so the bracelets are pliable and easy to wrap around your wrist as many times as you need to do it. The best part about the bracelets is that they are created by women in recovery. The shop is found on Etsy and this is their motto: We are “Recycling T-shirts and Recovering Lives”

Erno Laszlo White Marble Dual Phase Vitamin C Peel – Okay, this stuff is pretty pricey. However, a little bit goes a long way and the difference in your skin, especially right after you use it, is truly remarkable. I’m forever wanting the skin that I see on people which looks like it was just taken out of the package and put on their faces, that very morning. You know what I mean – “the shiny, happy people look.” I don’t mean shiny like sweaty, I mean shiny, like brand-spanking-new and sparkly. This at-home product really helps to take your skin in that direction and it does not burn or sting.

A week ago, when my eldest son came home for his brother’s graduation, our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, discovered our eldest son, early in the morning, still asleep in his bed. (my son had gotten in really late the night before and Ralphie was already asleep in his crate at that time) I’ve never seen Ralphie more joyously happy than in the moment that he discovered that our son had come home. His tail was wagging so hard that it was swinging his hips, back and forth, like a pendulum. He kept jumping up and down in mid-air. He licked my son’s face like it was the last T-bone steak on Earth. Ralphie kept looking back at me, like he was saying, “Mom, do you see who it is?!?! He’s back!! He’s back!! Can you believe it?!?” Ralphie got three toys in his mouth at once and offered them up to my son, like they were gold, frankincense and myrrh. Ralphie perfectly portrayed everything that I was feeling in my heart. I say this story to remind myself to live and love with reckless abandon. Have a Ralphie kind of Friday, friends! Heck, have a Ralphie kind of a weekend, if you dare!! See you tomorrow.

Ehh, It’s Friday

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Happy Friday, friends and readers!!!  This one felt “long in coming” didn’t it?!?  New readers, I love Fridays.  We don’t go into deep subjects on Fridays here at Adulting – Second Half.  On Fridays, I discuss three favorite things/songs/websites/ideas, etc. and I highly encourage you to share your favorites (anything goes!) in the Comments section. Please check out previous Friday posts for more favorites.  Here are today’s favorites and they are all random and in no specific category:

Sconza Chocolates Lemoncello Chocolate Almonds – My family  first had these “euphoria for your mouth” almonds in California last summer.  I was absolutely delighted when Costco started carrying them, although I have the feeling that they were a limited special purchase.  Get these yellow nuggets of gastro gold, however you can.  Find a way.  I would beg, borrow and steal for this candy.  And you know, on a happy note, almonds are a super food . . . .

Next, by now, you regular readers know how much I love Think Smarter on Twitter.  I attribute 60-70 percent of my “smarts” to this feed.  Below is my favorite post yet.  They posted it just a few days ago.  I LOVE when a few words can encapsulate a feeling, or an experience, or a nuance that we all can relate to:

 

(It’s not just “human” that this applies to – our dogs have idiosyncrasies that evoke the same smile in my heart)

Final favorite this Friday –

Frontgate Ultralight Slimline 4-Step Ladder – I may have shared this one already, this is how much I love it.  It bears repeating.  This is not your average step ladder.  Granted, it is not inexpensive but it is worth every penny.  It is as sturdy as they come, and the best part is that it folds up so skinny that we keep ours in between our washer and our dryer.  This ladder is so skinny, that if it were your friend, you’d secretly hate her.  It is light and easy to carry from room to room, too, so you really only need one of them and it comes in all sorts of color choices.

And a final thought for this Friday as you head out to festivities for the night:

“At every party there are two kinds of people – those who want to go home and those who don’t. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other.”– Ann Landers

Friday Frenzy

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*****Ugh. I lost my entire post into the abyss and I had to start all over again. This has only happened to me one or two other times. My mouth needs to be cleaned out from the filth that was erupting from it.*****

Here we go again! Happy FRIDAY!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday, friends and readers!!! We keep it silly and surface-y, here at Adulting -Second Half, on Fridays. (I just hit Save Draft) On Fridays, I typically list around three favorite anythings, whether they be products, websites, songs, books, etc. etc. that have helped keep a spring in my step and joy in my life. I encourage you to add your favorites to the Comments section. Please also check out previous Friday posts for more favorites. Share the love!!

As my regular readers know (I know that you are getting really used to my complaints), we have had a little renovation project going on here at our home, that we are finally wrapping up. (I just hit Save Draft) The final touch to most projects, is the paint. I am very happy with the paint colors which we have chosen, so I thought that I would pass the paint colors on to you. All of these colors are neutral, background, subtle colors. None of them are color popping, statement colors, just so you know. (I just hit Save Draft) Some fun, helpful painting tips: Paint the color sample on to a white piece of poster board and tape it to the wall. This helps from the distortion of the color that may happen, if you just paint the color on the old paint, underneath the new paint. Also, the magical internet has pictures of rooms painted in the colors that you are considering and often, you can find more than one picture in different lighting. Finally, artists and crafters are happy and grateful to take the little containers of paint samples off of your hands for their projects. Just advertise them for free on Craigslist or neighborhood social media venues. (I just hit Save Draft) Win-win for all, including Mother Earth!!

Here are my paint color recommendations (they are all Sherwin Williams, as that is the brand of paint that our painter likes to work with):

(I just hit Save Draft)

SW6099 Sand Dollar – warm, slightly tan, slightly peach, glowy, dreamy. This is the color that you would have picked out of a crayon box, as a kid, to depict white people’s skin, but not pasty people.

SW7013 Ivory Lace – creamy, warm, glowy, very slightly pinky/ peachy. Matches anything. Clean and bright.

SW9166 Drift of Mist – slight, slight gray. Mist describes it perfectly. Bright, light, clean, crisp tint of gray.

(I just hit Save Draft)

SW7656 Rhinestone – the whitest of white, blues. White that might be a little bit blue. Subtle white, light blue. This does not scream light blue, it hints at it . . . .

I hope that you all have a very colorful weekend, as colorful as what was coming out of my mouth when I realized I lost my entire first draft. (I just hit Save Draft)

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