First bonsai experience

For whatever reason, Graham wanted a bonsai - which is an art in itself.  It is a Japanese art form, where according to Wikipedia... uses cultivation techniques to produce small trees in containers that mimic the shape and scale of full size trees.  I'm not too sure about this statement because some of the bonsai that we saw at this Bonsai Fair were quite large!

There was a free bonsai giveaway for 15 newcomers at this Bonsai Fair a few weekends ago.  Since Graham had baseball, Charlie tagged along with me to claim one for Graham. Unfortunately, we were too late! But we stayed for the workshop.  Can't pass up free donuts!

Like I said, these bonsai are not small:

This is what I am more familiar with, as my dad did a lot of bonsai-ing when I was a growing up in Malaysia:

Here was the free giveaway and each "student" would get some assistance in transforming this plant into an actual bonsai:

Time for a we-fie!

Charlie got bored so he asked for my phone to take a few photos on his own. Looks like he needs some photography practice!

Looks like he is also practicing on his selfies :-)

Much better!

Charlie actually took this one - totally focused!

We were roaming around the bonsai sale area and picked out a couple of bonsai and also new pots. Unfortunately they didn't accept card as a payment so we had to go out looking for an ATM machine!  And of course, the one next door by the police station wasn't working.  So... anyhow, it was a nice walk around the neighborhood.  I am glad there were no pine cones yet on this tree. The warning says:

FALLING PINE CONES

VERY HEAVY 10 lbs

WATCH YOUR HEAD

YIKES!!! 

I love these trees with the red bristle-like looking flowers:

I hope these bonsai survive! They seem really delicate:

On the way home, we stop by for some noodles.  A friend of mine mentioned that this restaurant has yummy noodles. And who knew they had lots of other kebabs too!

I am glad Charlie enjoys noodles as much as I do!

And he likes "boba milk tea" too - it's milk tea with what looks like little tapioca balls or pearls.  Also YUMMY!!! :-)

The next day, we are back at the bonsai fair.  This time there are free Cheetos:

This bonsai master is over 90 years old!

Okay... our turn to tackle our own bonsai projects:

Currently, this little one seems to be struggling a bit.  Maybe not enough water??? The leaves are drying out a bit.  Not sure if you can see it, but there are wires wrapped around the stems.  That is how you can shape your plant:

This other ones seems to be doing well.  This is a persimmon plant.  Perhaps it's doing well because there is actually a worm in its soil?!?  It came with the plant so we decided to keep the worm in the new pot :-D

More additions to the yard is my new frog!  I saw it months ago at a store but decided not to buy it. And then, I saw it again just this past Friday and still didn't think it was worth it.  But then of course I mentioned it to Bobby and look who has a new home!  I am calling it my "Serenity-now Frog".  And yes, it brings me JOY (in reference to Marie Kondo who is a Japanese organizing consultant, who seems to be quite popular these days):

The Bonsai Fair was also selling succulents as bonsai.  I will have to figure that out since we obviously still have lots of succulents around the yard too.  Wish me luck!

Recent home projects

There is always so much to be done around the house!  I finally got around to recaulking the boys' bathroom.  The removal of the old caulk and then taping/prepping with the blue tape always takes so long:

And then, one night this past week I got really tired at looking at the moldy caulk around the kitchen sink so at like 9pm, I was still trying to remove old caulk and blue-taping!

And earlier in the week, Bobby finally got tired at looking at the duct tape on the front stoop.  I had put duct tape there because the edges on the tiles were quite sharp. That was probably 4-5 months ago and the duct tape was actually starting to peeling off:

Well... finally got down and dirty into mixing cement and fixing the broken tiles:

Tada!!!  Not very even but then again, this is still a temporary fix. Eventually we are going to take all these tiles off and do something else.  

But until then, this will do. Check another item off the to-do list. YAY!!!

Back yard/patio cleanup

Can't believe it has been 6 months now since we have moved into this house.  I know this because our water filter by the kitchen sink is blinking and needing a new filter! 

I finally called the local disposal service to pick up some big items and come to find out, we didn't start our service with them and haven't been paying for trash collection.  Oops!!!

And old antenna, a couple of sliding doors from the laundry area,...

and also the previous home-owner's dishwasher! The plumber was suppose to pick this up but never did.  Oh well!

During cleanup, I picked up an empty bag of sand (which I had emptied out for the patio) and looks what I found.  Mom/Barbara... you might want to just keep scrolling to the next photo!

At first I thought it was 2 lizards making out, but after looking at the photo more carefully it looks like a lizard biting a snake on its head??!  Well, I think I did the right thing to just cover these reptiles back with the same bag. Ha ha!

Yes, another project for a new rain barrel stand.  I found it at the Goodwill for $3!

I haven't really figured out what sort of bin/canister this is.  It's part metal and part cardboard maybe... but seems sturdy enough.  I guess only time will tell when the rain barrel gets filled up again. It hasn't rain much at all lately:

The previous home-owners left this filing cabinet in the shed so I decided to repaint it and bring it back to life:

Here is the condition of the shed, by the way.  Or "she-shed" as the boys call it (referring to a TV commercial):

And the clean-up after!

I  know it's not looking like much, but at least the walls have been painted and sealed and hopefully water-tight!  I also moved Bob's old computer table (from Phoenix) into the shed.  And underneath it is something I picked up for FREE.  More space to put more junk.  YAY!!! :-)

I repotted this Valentine's pot with another succulent from the yard.  The previous one from February didn't last indoors.  Oops!

Other fixes around the house... I put a tarp underneath the trampoline.  We got tired of weeding underneath there!

I decided to spray paint my wicker chair as well.  I believe this IKEA purchase from years ago (also from the Phoenix house) should have been an indoor furniture but we don't have any more space inside!

So I went out and bought some outdoor paint.  Somehow the purple color was calling my name.  Maybe a bit much but hopefully once I can find the pillow, it won't look to bad.  Fingers crossed ;-P

In the meantime, I also had to clean-up some dead plants.  I can't believe this mint plant didn't make it! Mint plants are like weeds!!!

And this was previously a lavender plant.  I guess I may have jumped on the purchase too soon as I didn't get it into the ground quick enough.  Somehow neither one of these plants have done well indoors!

I did put these succulents together - think I did a pretty good job!  The glass bowl is from a lady whom I met when I posted a note about recycling bubble wrap online.  She was moving away and gave this pretty bowl to me before she left.  Hopefully these succulents will survive indoors:

I was using the glass bowl as our water fountain but found another Goodwill purchase for that instead. Quite the steal for what looks to be a big popcorn bowl for only $4 and this plastic one will be safer too:

The roses planted by the previous owners are blooming!

It's quite a mess but will get to it later.  But check out these two roses - one white and one yellowish orange on the same stem!

The milkweed is growing too. I saw some mature milkweed plants at Home Depot and was so tempted to get those instead!

And hey look!  There are new leaves from the poinsettia plant - also left in the garden by the previous owners.  I almost threw this out but moved it in the front yard instead.  Haven't really even watered it consistently so perhaps it just needed some time to recover from its transplant perhaps 4 months ago:

Lots of exciting things happening in the yard! :-D

First weekend BBQ

We finally had our first grill-out in our backyard over this weekend!  Our old neighbor back in Phoenix actually gave us their grill when we were moving out of our "Phoenix house".  I finally cleaned it out a few weeks ago:

We tried to buy new grill  grates but somehow I couldn't even find generic ones that would fit???

Shiny!!!

Grates are nice and clean(er) with lots of scrubbing:

Unfortunately, my disposable gloves ripped by the thumb and index finger.  It took a week or so to finally get all that grease out of my finger nails!

Daddy has his work cut out for him as the boys want to have s'mores as well on Saturday night:

Hooray on grilling! Graham and Charlie picked out a new LA Dodger grill spatula as well:

Eventually, we will get the grill in this paved area:

I was hoping to have finished paving by now but looks like I need another 100 pavers!  It's not looking very even right now but I wanted to be sure how/if this pattern would work. It is slightly on a slope but hopefully not enough for our burger patties to roll off the grill. Ha ha!

Hopefully this will be the last paving project for a while.  Although I have to say, the backyard is coming along nicely - including the weeds. LOL!!!