Pantry Progress & Succulent Fever

I have been late on my post lately!! WOW! Sorry for the delay folks, life's been crazy. Work's been nuts, family coming in and out of town, barely got time for myself or to eat!! I started this a while back and never finished this post. Here's the latest on the pantry.

(Oh boy was the paint hard to get off these frame faces)

(Literally years and years of paint caked onto these cabinets)

(The Man has big plans for that large opening! Hopefully it turns out like he imagined
because it's taking a long time!)

(So the Man has gotten me into yet another thing, succulents. Succulents, I thought, were
boring cactus like plants who don't need water. Turns out, they are quite exquisite,
strong and very hip!)

(Went on a West Side Home tour and saw succulents being displayed in every house. Popular thing.....)

(So here's my design! Succulents!!)

(The pretty bowls are from Target)

(Our tomatoes have been flourishing! Can't keep up with them!)

(Who's this little creeper!! It's Stalker Puna!! This photo makes me laugh so hard)

(I think the Man wants a dog.....and we would love one!)

Summer's passing me by,
The Lady

Photo Dump

Lately, lots of things have been going on and it's hard to have the time to blog! Nonetheless keep up with daily activities, work, work on the house and still have time to sleep. How do my friends with children do this?!

Being lazy, here's a photo dump of photos from our lives lately. Not a particular topic but lots of topics in one blog entry!

(A particularly well taken picture of my grandma and I. We have similar eyes)

(It's been a month today since we've discovered his "growth" and he is healthy as a horse!! Thank goodness!!
I love this little guy to pieces, my sweet pea)

(Well, the second round of lettuce has sure been doing better than the first round)

(Same with the basil, looking good and healthy! Can't wait for caprese salad all summer)

(Speaking of caprese salad, our tomatoes have finally started turning red and ripening!)

(We've enjoyed our peas in many dishes already. Really sweet)

(Our baby niece Aly, she's so darling. We had a chance to babysit her for a few hours
and boy was she lots of fun!! And so adorable too! Full of energy this one)

(She loved looking at the colorful fish at the pet store, the Man holding onto this cutie.
She's actually quite heavy, I got tired of holding her after 10-15 minutes! What a
workout!)

(Of course we had to take her to see the Punas or Robo hamsters!! It's the Puna's uncles!
They were so cute and she was fascinated with them!)

(We took a little time out from the house work and checked out a music festival in Pasadena. We stopped on the
Suicide Bridge/Colorado Street Bridge for a photo op and to enjoy the view)

(Google's fun. It put together this gif of us taking selfies at Vista Hermosa park in DTLA.
We took a Sustainable Landscape tour this past weekend and checked out this gorgeous
park! It was amazing to find such a gem in the middle of busy DT!

June Gloom Go Away,
The Lady

Little P and The Garden

My little P....thank goodness he is a fighter too. What a strong boy he is. It's been about 1.5 since we discovered his growth and took him to the vet. The incision made by the lousy vet is now healing up nicely, but the growth is still very prominent. He's been refusing his antibiotics too. In the beginning, he used to take it quietly without protest, but lately he's been fidgety and frantic. I guess he is "genki" again (which means well in Japanese). He has about the same amount of energy, jumps around everywhere, eats normally, drinks normally, sleeps well. He just has that weird growth on him, which I'm hoping doesn't affect him too much. I love him the way he is, and I hope he stays with us for a while.

In other news, the Garden has been thriving beautifully!!! I'm so happy to see so many green tomatoes!! And for the first time, we have PEAS!! Yay for our little veggie garden! We have 2 small pods of peas right now. I hope they continue growing. Cilantro's doing well except there's small white flowers growing on them and the squash is still growing, no flowers yet.

(small pod of peas)

(so excited to see this!! Yes peas!)

(gorgeous cluster of cherry tomatoes)

Feeling Happy,
The Lady

The garden state

Well, a week being gone and some if not most of the veggies were just destroyed by pests and insects!! The butter lettuce, gone. Absolutely obliterated. Basil, non-existent. Kale, goodbye. Cilantro is doing okay, but needed some TLC. The peas were half eaten, some are surviving but it's not looking too good! So sad!! The only thriving plants are basically the tomatoes. Lesson learned about this......there is no such thing as organic planting. One cannot grow veggies without using some form of pesticides or pest control :(

(At least my tomatoes are thriving, if nothing else)

In other news, of course I've been enjoying my grandma's company while she is here in the States, as well as her home cooking. She's the best cook ever! I love everything she makes, including her world famous (just kidding) Potato Salad, which the Man loves as well, her Kinpira Gobo (burdock roots and carrots) and Shirae (tofu mixed with spinach and sweet miso). All my favorites!

(Chikuwa brought from Japan!)

The Man also finally finished (well almost) his work table project, which we started in February. It came together quite nicely but it's heavy and sturdy as heck. It took both of us to flip this table over.

My grandma loves organizing and one of her things is cleaning up the unwanted weeds and growing plants. She basically took off all the fern on the shared fence so the tomato plants could get better sunlight.

We also planted more basil since the original ones got all eaten up. I also brought back some Shiso seeds from Japan which we also planted. Hope they come out well this time!

Green thumbing it,
The Lady

The Man in Germany, Lady in LA

So the Man's been gone on a business trip to Germany all week, but comes home today! Yay! A week long trip for work in Frankfurt, Germany. I admit, I am a little jealous. I love travelling and any excuse to do so, I'm game! Wish I could've joined him but he was mostly working the whole time.

As for the Lady back in LA, it was pretty uneventful. My veggie garden has been growing tremendously, making great strides! So lame but this is super exciting for me. Who knew gardening could be such joy! This must be how people feel playing Farmville, except with real life Farmville, you get to eat your veggies once they grow!!

(Peas!)

(Peas!)

(Butter lettuce)

(Cilantro, was worried about these guys because they were late boomers, but
they've finally sprouted!)

(Kale)

(Can't wait... Basil! Pesto all summer!)

(First bud on the tomato plant!)

(The Lady's humble garden)

(This little guy's been keeping me company all week. Little P actually let me pet him this week).

Excited the Man is back,
The Lady