LOLA

Tag: houseplants

  • No. 41 Scam vibes, muumuus, and my Limelight

    OMG Yalllll. I’m back over here and I ain’t never leaving again! I learned my lesson the HARD WAY! Lemme tell y’all what happened. So y’all know I sew right? Right. I wanted to incorporate my houseplants somehow into my blogging. If you didn’t know I grow over 150 houseplants and they are so pretty y’all OMGGGG

    Anyway, after milling over ideas of how to share ’em like I share my sewing I thought I needed a new blog dedicated especially to them. Don’t ask me why I just didn’t use this one; I knew I should’ve. I told myself so many times before I actually agreed to that foolishness that I shouldn’t. Chileeee against all my better judgement I did.

    Now I didn’t want to immediately complain but I have no choice in this situation. As soon began to build the site I got irritated. The site was so fukkin BASIC. I didn’t think it would be so fancy because the site itself looked prehistoric by damnnnnnn. The features were so difficult and downright odd. Whole site just seemed to be against any user ever. After studying how to personalize everything I managed to get a post up. It was an absolute mess too! Everything was out of place. I never seen anything like it! I was irritated ASF to say the least and after a short while I decided I would cancel the subscription effective immediately.

    *Blood pressure rising rapidly*

    Attempting to cancel the subscription was the most ridiculous part of the whole embarrassing debacle that was my houseplant site. Now of course there was no one to talk to about cancellation; only AI and an email. It took me over a week to actually get the “subscription” cancelled because it took them over three days to answer the mandatory email I had to send for help!–insert eye roll– Imma stop here because I can literally go on and on smdh Anyways, I decided to incorporate my houseplants into this blog. I have a subscription for this one too and TBH I’m not sure why I even wanted another one. This one never presented a single issue; the other site WAS an issue. I kinda thought it would kinda be better to keep them separate. I do want my two loves together in one place though! Expect more of my tropical family along with my sewing okay? Okay.

    *Blood pressure rising rapidly*

    Now lemme update y’all on my sewing stuff. I’ve only finished that striped dress that I blogged about last as a patterned project. I free-styled a muumuu for myself a couple weeks ago too. I used a piece of olive green colored linen blend that had been in my stash for eons. I kinda wanted to test a few decorative stitches on one of my machines so used my impromptu muumuu project to do that. I used purple thread and it ended up being so cute. No pictures though; it really wasn’t for show. (I can show you guys if you insist) What I have been doing is a lot of mending; for myself and my bestie. She bought a whole buncha ready-made muumuus but they were too long. A few of them were gifts were other folks too. I fixed those up. She came and got those and brought a few more of her own for hemming but they’re still on my sewing table LOL I’ll get to em soon. I do have a matching separates idea in mind but I need some kinda fleece something to pull it off.

    I didn’t plan on including any photos in this post either y’all; it was mainly to gather my peeps in one spot again. My plan is to take a few photos of my most recent plant purchase and share with you guys. So that means I’ll be back soon. I gotta get a few photos of this pretty gal. I’ll give you a clue who it is. Some of my folks that follow me elsewhere may have seen here already. She’s completely NEON and her leaves are on the larger side. Feel free to add your guesses to this post. I’ll be back soon too share her pretty self and some information on her journey here!

    Talk soon,

    Christy

  • No. 40 *Cough cough* Is this thing on?

    Yallllll I am so sorry I’ve been MIA; again. And no life hasn’t been “lifing” Ive just been hanging out and working to be honest. Nothing fancy at all but nothing horrible. I haven’t been sewing much at all either; but I do have a table full of UFOs and a half finished dress pinned on Jayde per usual. I did manage to do a couple repairs last week because the sewing bug was biting a bit but that’s about it lately. After that I felt like sewing but I couldn’t come up with anything I wanted to sew up. I go through that sometimes; just no ideas at all. My sewjo will be back soon like it always does.

    Now this post isn’t about my sewing though; its about my plants! I have a ton of plants and I show em every day on my other socials but I don’t believe I’ve hardly ever shown my plants on my blog so I decided to come crawling back to my space with my plants in tow. Accept photos of my purty plant collection as a peace offering for my hiatus y’all now I said please LOL! *insert happy face*

    Any way I figured today is as good a day as any to introduce my first blog plant; I actually got two new plants recently; one of em I’ll be showing y’all today! I’m only going to share one plant at a time though; just so y’all don’t get overwhelmed. I’ll be showing my dresses and other sewing stuff right along with my plants; half my collection lives in the sewing room anyway!

    Now lemme share a little background into my plants really quick so y’all have an idea about em all. I don’t want y’all thinking I done lost my mind. I currently I grow over 100 houseplants. Now some of y’all might be like wtfff but it’s totally not crowded here; and this is totally not my first time having hella plants. When I first started growing plants back in 2004 I started my first serious collection. Life happened and I had to leave all my beloved plants behind. Life happened again back in 2019 and I have to leave my second major collection behind once again. My veggie plants and all 😦 Fast forward to this beautiful Sunday morning and I have one helluva houseplant collection over here! I do have a few from my second collection I was able to salvage and luckily they survived the bullshit and they’re doing so well! They’ve grown so much and tbh I have too! With this collection I made sure to add my favorite plants I lost back into my collection including my Madagascar Dragon Tree and my Lemon-Lime; both Draceana varieties. Y’all done let me yap so long I haven’t even started telling y’all about the plant I wanted to share (remember I’ll tell y’all about the others in futures posts). Okay lemme tell y’all:

    In this collection of plants I grow Hoya. Now I had previously never grown nor liked Hoya like at all because all I have ever saw at the big box stores were that horrendous Hoya carnosa; y’all know that rope one I’m talking about? **In my opinion, that is thee ugliest Hoya there is and I will be saying nothing further on the subject** I honestly didn’t notice any other varieties back then. Remember I started growing houseplants when online shopping wasn’t really all that popular. Nowadays I have my favorite online plant shops delivering cool plants all the time. Before my most recent Hoya delivery I was already growing four other varieties: the Pink Flamingo, the Black Margin, the krohniana Black, and the DS-70.

    The Hoya Imma show y’all today is the super cool Hoya Finlaysonii or the ‘Chicken Farm’! Now I have always bought things if they have a cool name and I promise you this plant was no exception. However, when I did a little research I learned this plant’s background which makes it a millions times more cool to have in my collection. This plant’s name has a direct connection to where it originated from. This Hoya variety was discovered in Borneo in 1997 near an actual chicken farm! They sold me with the name and when it arrived I instantly loved it. It’s one of the easier, thick-leaved Hoya varieties; which are my faves to grow. The thinner leaved Hoya tend to be finicky; especially if you have a tendency to over or underwater. If the pictures below make you wanna track one down lemme share some care tips for ’em really quick:

    1. This plant likes bright, indirect light and cannot handle full sun. If this plant is placed in full sun it will burn and crisp up. (**if the plant gets reddish/purple coloring that is okay; that’s a process called “sun-stressing” and if you like the look try placing your plant in brighter light to make it happen! If you don’t care for the look just grow your plant in a place with less light**)
    2. For my Chicken Farm’s soil I added small perlite, Coco, and bark. Hoya like a well draining mix; water thoroughly until the water runs out of the bottom of the pot. Drain well! I let my plant dry out pretty much all the way between watering. Essentially allow the plant to dry out quite a bit between watering to prevent root rot and leaf drop. The Chicken Farm is one of the more easygoing Hoya!

    I’ve been talking and talking; y’all know how I do when Im gone too long but any who ask any questions, share any comments, and please show off your Chicken Farm if you grow one! Pictures of my cutie patootie chicken bootie below! (I named him Chanticleer after the rooster on Rock ‘A’ Doodle! )

    Be back soon I promise!

    Love, LOLA

    This is my last attempt to sew something. I just fell completely out the mood and that was months ago smdh its just a house dress but still….