Variegated Graptopetalum Paraguayense Needles + Leaves

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly two and half years since our last blog post! How on earth did that happen?! Well, there are a lot of reasons, but mostly we've had some amazing opportunities to grow Needles + Leaves in other areas. From creating our hearts out for local craft shows, teaching workshops, doing custom business installations, opening our online succulent retail store, and raising the six kids we have between the two of us, we've had our hands pretty full! All that being said, we unintentionally put adding to this space on the back burner for way too long!

Needles + Leaves succulent booth at the Carlsbad Street Faire Spring 2018

Looking back, we wish we would have treated this blog more like a journal so that you could have come along with us on all of our succulent adventures as they happened. Plant shopping, coming up with new DIY ideas, exploring cute Instagramable (that's a word now, right?) cafés, setting up shop at craft shows, and building our home nursery, are just a few of the things we should have been documenting.

So, what's changed? Why start now? Well, over the past couple of months a lot has changed for us. We went from spending nearly everyday together, to living about two hours apart. The move was pretty unexpected and a little devastating at first. We closed our shop and we both cried. (Which is shocking if you know me!) We figured that was the end of that. We had some people offer to buy the business, but the more we thought about it, the more we could't imagine Needles + Leaves existing without us! I mean, we ARE Needles + Leaves! We started brainstorming on how to make it work from a distance. We came to the conclusion that a two hour drive would definitely make running a business together more challenging, but not impossible.

Krista taking inventory at our home nursery.

A big part of our plan to keep Needles + Leaves alive is placing a bigger focus on the blog, which is how this whole venture started for us anyways! As much as we love going through the creative process together, blogging is something we can do together but separate.

We are so excited to be officially re-openeing our shop in the coming days! We love being able to bring you the most beautiful succulents Southern California has to offer. We are always amazed to see where our customers live around the country, from down the street to New York City! We get so much joy from sharing our beautiful plants with you all.

Please check back in to see what we are up to in the coming weeks and months! We can't wait to begin sharing projects and information with you again!

Happy Planting!

Tawni + Krista