Trees

Hellloooooo!! We've been having some hurricane and tropical storm problems here.  Our neighbor island Hawaii island wasn't so lucky  a couple weeks ago.  They were hit by Hurricane Iselle, and 10 days later some parts of the island are still without electricity.  If anyone would like to help out those affected by the storms, here is some info on how to make a donation.  No donation is too small.  

Since a lot of the damages were from trees being uprooted and knocked down, I've been thinking about trees a lot lately.  Trees are so beautiful, and although in this case they caused a lot of heartbreak, they are really a beautiful part of nature.  This weeks pinspirations are all about the treehouses!  I'm obsessed with the show Treehouse Masters!  It is so awesome!  People are able to create the treehouse of their dreams!  I've seen them do all different trees too, I wonder how they would do a palm tree? :)  I have picked 7 treehouses that caught my eye in some sort of way.  They are all awesome in their own way.  I sit and daydream, of having a treehouse!  With all these hot days we've been having, at night I often think how nice it would be to have a treehouse to go sleep outside in.  On how great it would be to watch shooting stars from a treehouse!  I just think of peace and tranquility when I think about a treehouse.

I am so crazy over treehouses, I've created a board on pinterest dedicated to it! If this is something that you're interested in or if you have a board on treehouses, leave a comment and I would love to follow you! I hope this add a little smile to you day! 

Summer is slowly coming to an end, and I can only wish for an endless summer, but with the days getting shorter and the wacky weather we've been having, I know that in a blink of an eye, it will be winter! 

Happy August!

Treasure!!

I know that this is a little late, but I just had to share!! A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough to see Bruno Mars live in concert here in Hawaii!! To sum it up in a few words, I will say that it was AWESOME!!  It was so much fun! After his SUPER performance during this years Bruno Bowl, I mean Super Bowl I knew that seeing him live would be AMAZING!! Even though my tickets weren't the greatest and a bunch of our tickets were single seats, it was still so good!! He had 3 shows, I went to the Saturday show.  I have to admit that I was so excited that I couldn't sleep the night before.  I woke up so early for a Saturday, excited with anticipation! All day long I was anxiously awaiting the coming events!  We left the house at 4:30 to arrive early to get good parking.  Angela Johnson had 2 shows at the same venue that night, so the parking would surely be an issue.  We planned to go to Doraku across the street for Happy Hour, but with everyone having the same plan the wait was 2 hours. :(  That was not going to put a damper on my night! We walked a little ways down, and enjoyed some Margaritas and tacos at Wahoos! We walked back to the venue and to our surprise the line was already wrapped around the building.  The line went very swift and was very organized! In no time, we were inside standing with hundreds of others looking at the merch table! I made a bee line for the concession while the rest of my party split into bathroom lines, merch lines, and entrance to the arena lines.  With concert prices I was gonna make sure that I got the most bang for my buck, and ordered a Long Island ice tea! I was for sure guaranteeing myself a gnarly hangover the next day, but chopped it up to being so worth it for the sake of BRUNO!!! Still untangled in excitement, I was so ready for the concert to start! We went in to find our seats, and The Green went on! So happy for them, that they opened for Bruno!! Enjoyed a couple more drinks, I guess Long Islands made me feel like I was 21 again! haha! Finally when the curtain went up and Bruno hit the stage, it was on!! Let me tell you, he did not disappoint! It was the best concert I've ever been too! Even better than Michael Jackson! eek! Did I really just say that?? I think I did....don't get me wrong, Michael is and will always be the all time King.  It was the atmosphere, the intimacy of a smaller but packed venue that really made an impact! I really also think that because he's from Hawaii, and being home that he was more relaxed and at ease.  Seeing him up there, I really felt happy for him, and for how far he has come.  Even though, he has won a Grammy, and performed at the Super Bowl and all over the world, to see him at home on the stage where it pretty much started for him...he really has come full circle! I was so excited, half way through the concert, I was looking for a ticket to go to the Monday night show!! If you have the opportunity to see him live, DO IT!!

 It was amazing!

 

This is my favorite song from The Green!

I apologize for the poor quality pics, I was so excited none of my pics turned out good! 

Cheers! to the local boys from Hawaii! Representing us well!! Bruno Mars and The Green!! This was a great night, one that I will surely TREASURE!

A-L-O-H-A

Live ALOHA!! 

Postcards from the edge! 

Send some ALOHA!

This pic was taking on the shores of the island of Molokai! There's something about the simplicity of a lone coconut tree high up in the powdery blue sky, that can convey a beautiful feeling!

A greeting, salutation or farewell is the common use of this word, but it is so much more than that! It's a way of life! A code in which we live by!  We practice it everyday, whether it be at home showing your family how much you love them, at work lending a coworker a hand, giving your friend some advice, helping someone out at the grocery store, these are all ways of practicing Aloha! Going out of your way to do something for someone else without expecting anything in return.  If everyone could spread a little Aloha everywhere that go, the world would be such a better place! Give the gift of Aloha! 

Now available in the shop! This is a postcard, the back is blank so you can write your own special greeting.   Send some Aloha via snail mail! It could also be used for scrapbooking or decoration!

Happy Hump Day!

Cheers and Aloha!

It's Going To Be A Great Year!

Well...I haven't been here in a while!! I just wanted to start off by saying Happy 2014!! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holidays!! I just wanted to share a few things that I want to implement for the new year! I'm not going to be too ambitious and list a whole whopping list of resolutions and stuff like that.  I've realized that I need to take small steps in the right directions to make things happen.  Plus too, I've already broken some resolutions that I would put on the list! eek!!

The 1 thing that I do want to mention, is this money saver that I'm going to do immediately!  I will be $1378 richer by the end of 2014! :)  This is news to my ears, because at the end of the year, I am always broke ass!! With Christmas gift buying and celebrating in all the holiday cheer, there's never any money left for any extras!  I read this article on The Broke Ass Bride  about 14 ways to save money this year! It's very practical and really puts things realistically into perspective.  Every week of the year you put the amount of what week of the year it is.  Week 1 you put $1 in, Week 2 = $2, Week 3 = $3, and so on all the way until 52 weeks.  Totaling $1378 by the last week of the year.  I am excited to do this, because it's hard to put yourself on a structured money saving plan.( well for me anyways)

Here's a helpful reminder to look at and help reach your goal! 

Another money saver that I do is when I'm in the car and going to McDonald's or some other fast food joint, and there's couple dollars change I put it on the side and save it for things like parking money or for those rare occasions that I do valet and need some tip money.  It had come in handy on more than 1 occasion this past year, and boy have I been grateful for those few extra bucks.

For my first parting shot of the year, I wanted to share a rather hard to see shot but one that I find symbolic in hopes to a great year!  

 

This was my drinking cup on New Years ever, after the big bang at midnight when I went to grab my cup I was surprised to see that I had pieces of firecrackers in my cup!  For those of you that don't know, in Hawaii for New Years there are a lot of customs and traditions that we partake in.  One being popping firecrackers to ward off evil for the new year.  Being the big traditionalist that I am, you can see why I am excited to have firecrackers land in my celebratory drink!  

Cheers to 2014!!

It's going to be a great year!

Blame it on the VOG!

 

Just wanted to say Happy Aloha Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend! The weather is still all over the place, and I'm sick!  I went on a little staycation last week, with little rest and now with the vog I am miserable!  It's strange, because I was never bothered by the vog before, but now it's becoming a constant nemesis of mine! :(

Here are some pics from the last couple weeks.

Some Easter goodie bags that I made for my friends babies!  It was a quick throw together, but I think it came out cute!! Love the little bunny cottontails!

Some scenic pics from the staycation! Nature showing off!  This is what we mean, when we say "lucky we live Hawaii!"  

Easter Egg Hunt!  I really hope they found all the eggs!

Went on a little hike!  No, the pictures aren't blurry!  It's that damn vog that I was talking about!!  I was literally sucking wind on the way up!  Not that I'm out of shape or anything! ;)  It's the VOG!  I think I'm starting to like blaming things on the vog!

Parting shot!

Took this pic of a lonely coconut tree, so I decided to accessorize her! 

Aloha!

Home is where the heart is

 

I have been wanting to do this project for a while now, and finally got a chance to do it.  It was actually pretty fun and wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be.  For those of you that don't know, this is the island of Oahu!  The heart is the part of the island where I'm from!  It actually looks bigger than it's true size, and I actually wanted to make it a little bigger.  I guess it's all trial and error!?  I went to the hardware store and got this wood circle, took it home and painted it.  While I was letting it dry, I drew out the outline of the island and placed the heart where I wanted it.  Once the paint dried, I transferred the image to the wood circle.  I used pins instead of nails for this first run, it was something that I had a plentiful supply of.  I started hammering the pins around the image, spacing them out not too far and not too close.  Once I had them all where I wanted them, I got my hemp for the island part and started stringing.  It was actually very therapeutic!  When I had it where I wanted it, I moved on to the heart.  For the heart I actually used baker's twine!  I was going to paint the hemp red, but found the twine and decided to give it a whirl!  Still not too sure if I like the pink?!  Still deciding what to change for the next run!  I know for sure, the next one I will make larger to show off the heart better! I will also experiment with painting the wood in different colors and also more than 1 color.  Trying to decide what to use for the stringing part?! Any suggestions?!!