I never thought I was a cat person (blame that on Mom for not allowing pets), but then there’s this cat. She acts like a dog, she thinks she belongs here and she makes herself at home. She even walks into our home. Her real name is Vicky and she came from our neighbor. They didn’t neglect her, she just decided she liked our Grandma better.

No one knows for sure but she has to be somewhere between 12-15 years old. She’s had litters of babies, got into a dog fight, and survived jaw surgery. She’s brought us many “gifts” with feathers and tails too. Vicky fits the description of the ladies that live in this house. Independent and tough bitches that do what they want. Her old age has turned her into an inside/outside cat and if that’s what the Queen wants, that’s what the Queen gets.

Soon the sugar cane will disappear, so any photo op with them is going to be a photo op taken. These fields mean a lot to me and it goes way past just the sugar industry.

Thanks to Claire for wanting to adventure in our own home. We went up for the goats and came down for the vodka.

Actually, not that sweet, at first. Just like going to Grandma’s, going to Uncle’s you never leave empty handed. “Go make lemonade,” he said, washing bunches of lemon and putting them in a plastic bag for us to take home. So I did.  Under the direction of my oldest boss, G-Flo, I made lemonade. Five lemons later, I had more than enough juice for a pitcher of lemonade. G-Flo commented, “I think that’s a lot of juice for that small pitcher. Needs plenty water you know.” Eye roll. She’s the boss for a reason and always thinks her way is the right way. The first taste was sour, like really sour. A spoonful of sugar later it was still sour. Another spoonful didn’t make much of a difference. “How does it taste? Still sour yeah?” She asked, and I lied. “It’s perfect!” The truth was, it probably needed more water but no way was I going to admit that to G-Flo. I just poured myself a glass, drinking my sour juice which was perfect for my slightly sour attitude.

Bringing home these lemons from Uncle’s house was a treat and making lemonade with G-Flo–priceless. My new location comes with a lot of commentary and critique but I can’t complain. I came home for this and even after days of sour lemonade, it’s always pretty sweet.

Tomatoes from the same bunch seen here, only this time they quadrupled. This tomato squad is gonna look good in salads all week. Living that #fitlife or as Maui Mike said, “eat salad you going live long time.”

When the vog got you down, nothing like a colorful drink to reverse that frown.

There was a duck phase in my past and I still have this blanket to prove it. It hides under an all-white bed now. Fifteen years old and so. damn. soft.  Today it also doubled as a photoshoot crime scene for this Matsumoto Studio post. A shout out to our big brother because he’s the only boy of this house and all us ladies love him.

On Maui you can go from the ocean to the mountains in an hour or less. You can from baking in the sand to enjoying crisp mountain air. I would have never realized this if I didn’t move away. Living from the west coast to the east coast you have to go F A R sometimes for a great escape. Especially in NYC. Woods and the water in the same day? We are really lucky to live here.

This is unlike me, but this needs to live here. Gecko courtesy of Wailuku Heights, Emoji placement thanks to Snapchat. Go ahead, make a meme.

Drake isn’t the only person who can play with words but he might be one of the first to start talking about #SummerSixteen. But before that, I have to talk about when he used to call me on my cellphone.

While that never happened, I can’t tell if I’m being a hater or an admirer. Well, definitely both. I’m confused because when Hotline Bling started ring-ring-ring-alinging out of speakers and radio stations everywhere I really didn’t like it. I didn’t really like that it was about some girl who started dissing Drake and started partying it up with who knows who. That might have been her wrong, but girls seem to always the target of bad news. Then I didn’t really know what I thought about the beat. But the designer in me thought, why pink? Then the music video came out and after having no expectations, I also felt like I would leave feeling something more than–“Was that it? Just Drake dancing real bad?” Nope. (more…)

In San Diego we knew what it meant to have the fog roll in. The sky disappeared and everything was less clear. Planes couldn’t land and crossed our fingers our late night arrivals did not end up in LA. Maui’s been extra voggy recently. That’s volcano + fog = VOG. The mountains are less clear and in some places disappear. We get this a lot on Maui, but this past week has made the sky extra voggy.  I’d take this over the street smoke in NYC any day.

Sisters. (and awkward hand candids.)

I feel for all of you in 30″+ of melting snow and I got as close as I could to a “snow day” in Hawaii. The east coast got showered with record number snow this weekend and all I could think about was “LET’S EAT SHAVE ICE TO CELEBRATE!” (Ululani’s, of course). This is my first winter in four years that doesn’t involve slushing around melting snow, dodging ice patches on the sidewalk, wearing a sleeping bag for a jacket, and dreaming about what it felt like to be warm. I enjoyed cold winter walks and the newness fresh snow brought to the busy city. I’ll miss dressing up to be warm, but let’s be real, this view isn’t too bad either.