Two in one.

Hello again, two in one day. Lucky you!

      So really, I've been keeping myself busy. This will be a quick post with just a few pictures. So I found this ugly old lamp from the 70's at a thrift store, picked it up for $3. It was ugly bronze color and scratched and get this, it didn't even work. So I took it apart and kept the cool glass ball that was on the lamp. Well I was starting to think about tossing out the glass ball because it was just taking up space. Until a random idea popped into my head, hanging glass planter. All I needed was string to hang it with. It took a total of 10 minutes to make once I had all the things. Here's the process and final product......

I LOVE how it turned out, couldn't be happier. Now just to put some dirt and seeds in it! :)

Love,

Maddie

Busy, Busy

Hey there! Long time no blogging..... :)


        Once school started I've been beyond busy and haven't had time to blog at all! I feel like I've neglected the blog! Lately I've been busy with school but also with baking! This past Friday I went baking crazed. I've been on Pinterest, a lot looking at all the delicious recipes. I ended up using this recipe here. For the cinnamon rolls I made. I also made Lemownies (Lemon Brownies) which were amazingly good. Here is the recipe. So as I may have been neglecting the blog I have been keeping busy doing other stuff.

First I did the Lemownies.... 

The frosting was so amazing

 mmmm, so amazing....

I then worked on the cinnamon rolls.

 I added some blueberries to a few cinnamon rolls...

Boy, did I make a HUGE mess :)

My sweet little kitten Dewey sat above and watched me bake :) 

He really liked the lemownie frosting. 

So I'm going to start trying to blog at least once a week on things I've done wether interesting or not, I'll make it work. Hope you enjoyed! 

Love,

Maddie

Restocking the warehouse

Well, we spent two lovely days at the beach picking shells. The weather was perfect...not too hot and not too cold. I have not spent much time picking shells in the winter. The west side of the island gets the waves this time of year but I wanted to see if the shells were different. It was a little easier with the sun not as strong as in the summer.

This is the tree we were married under less than a year ago. Kaupoa beach is my favorite beach on Molokai. It has a nice swimming area during the summer and tide pools that stretch along the rest of the beach. Many times you share the beach with a monk seal.

The sand is more steep in the winter and much of the sand has been sucked out to sea. There was still a nice debris line for me to plop down by and start picking. We kept our ears and eyes open to the waves as we didn't want any surprises. We picked until our legs and backs were sore, enjoyed a quick lunch break under our wedding tree and decided to take a hike south towards La'au Point.

There is an old ranch road that goes south from Kaupoa. We have not had much rain this year so the area still looks like summer. It's about a 15 minute walk to the first beach. In all the times I have been along this road I have rarely run into any other people and I have never seen anyone surfing. WOW !

As soon as I got home I had to look this up. It turns out it's called Egusa's. These guys were enjoying a perfect break...alone. We had a high surf advisory that day which called for west waves to be 12 to 15 feet. They were even larger on Wednesday but we didn't hike out to see them.

We hiked a little more to Aholehole flats and found a monk seal lounging on the beach. He wasn't very happy to see us so we stayed away. A few weeks ago we had a monstrous swell so the sand was free from debris and we decided to return to Kaupoa. When we returned the following day we were still exhausted from the first day so we just spent the entire day at Kaupoa. The waves were huge !

So, here they are...two days picking. Mahalo Kaupoa !

Ni'ihau Shell Lei - Molokai kine

What started out as an appreciation has turned into a passion. My first exposure to these amazing shell works of art was some 20 years ago during a visit to Kauai. The size and color of the shells was almost unbelievable to me. Then add the intricacy of the work, the patterns AND the fact that they were made on "the forbidden island", it was just too much. It took me years just to find this book...remember this was before the time of Amazon.com =)

Over the years I have poured thru the pages. I still to this day use it as a reference for shell colors and sewing pattern names. The shells are most plentiful on Ni'ihau but are also found on Kauai and here on Molokai.

Shell picking itself is a bit of an art. For me it is done just by luck. Sometimes when I go there are huge patches of shells and sometimes just sand. It's never a bad day at the beach so no worries. The shells are very small. Kahelelani average 1/8 of an inch. It requires lots of patience...the passion is helpful too.

I started off the year with a custom order on etsy. One of the items was a 20 inch mixed shell lei. I have already started the process and thought it would be fun to blog about the project. I'm sure many people wonder why these pieces cost so much, well this is your chance to find out. The shell picking and sorting had already been done. I'll blog about that in another section. Needless to say countless hours were needed for that.

This is a photo of the last lei that I made that was on the etsy listing. The shells collected for the new lei are very similar.

Here are the collected and sorted shells.



I am starting with the single strand of laiki lenalena which you see above.

First I clip the end of the laiki shell off.

The sand must be cleared from both ends to make a path for the string.



The shells are strung on double #30 lb beading string for added strength.

Here they are...20 inches of precious laiki lenalena. They are so beautiful and shiny and have a lovely feel in your hands. The Hawaiian word laiki means rice. As you can see they are about the size of a grain of rice. Lenalena is the word for yellow.

A hui hou kakou !

Karen

Jet Setter

Hey there! I'm back in California, but only for a few days then I will be back in Arizona for college. Photography as most people who know me is my life. All I do and everything I see is a possible picture to me. I am constantly taking pictures and if I don't have my camera I am using my iPhone. A photographer, Dewitt Jones and his amazing iphoneography had me convinced to purchase an iPhone. He has amazing style and uses his iPhone to take these breath taking images. As a photographer he has been such an inspiration and has only tempted me to become more artistic when taking pictures both iPhone and on camera. So I travel a lot, its a given having school in Arizona, a father in California and a Mother, Sister and Step-Dad in Hawaii. I HATE flying, and don't enjoy the traveling at all but do it anyways to be with family. I usually drive when I have to but when there's an ocean or when offered to fly me, I fly. I have started taking pictures of my little feet with the different floorings I step on. This is my "Travel" series and hope that it grows throughout my travel lifestyle. What started this was my trip to San Francisco when I was nervous and looked down at my feet and noticed the carpet, it was swirls and caught my attention, I didn't want to take just a picture of the carpet so I added my feet, and eventually that turned into something I really liked and well, now I have a small collection of airport/transportation pictures.

 I hope you enjoyed them :) I love it how they all tell their own little story. What do you think they are saying? Anyways, this jet setter needs some sleep! 

Love,

Maddie

Crochet, Crochet!

Today is my last day here on Molokai with my wonderful family. I've had the most amazing trip yet! I definitely have high expectations for the next vacation I have here! I was looking over some old photographs and realized how much I accomplished this trip, usually I am unproductive and very lazy. Although I did sit on my bum the entire time I was extremely productive making myself scarfs and headbands and hats. My mom just recently got seriously into crocheting, she's always known how to but recently she's been an addict. For a while now I've been stubborn and just sending her ideas and free patterns for HER to make me stuff. This christmas I was sitting and realized, I need to learn. Why not right? So she taught me and right off the bat I was creating things with my hands. I enjoy the feeling I get and can't wait to continue making more! I am now, a crochet addict...oh and I'm obsessed with yarn! =)

Here is me working on my first project! It was fun learning how to work with the yarn and how to hold the hook correctly which I don't anymore because I found an easier way(for me) to hold it!

My first finished project! A headband! Which turned out way cute and really comfortable! This was one of my many things on my mothers list for her to make me! Being able to make it myself was so amazing.

Here is my second project, which was kinda rough because we ran out of that color yarn and I couldn't finish it in one round, knowing me I am really good at getting into something and never finishing it. Luckily the yarn came and I was able to pass my stubbornness and finish my hat which turned out mega cute!!

Here's my next project! An infinity scarf. I used with the same crochet technique as the hat because I liked the way my hat looked with the dainty open holes. This yarn was from an Alpaca farm and is made with the fur of an alpaca, which by the way is SO SOFT. 

 So basically you can't have a scarf without an adorable matching headband, I am way stoked that it came out just as perfect as my scarf. I'm not trying to be cocky but I am excited that these came out so nice being my third/fourth project! =)

Ok ok so I might be obsessed with making scarfs....and headbands, I used this beautiful mustard colored yarn to make myself a thicker infinity scarf and a matching headband (: I think I might have a problem!

 Here's my ongoing project that will probably take until the end of summer to finish. Picture it, a african granny square teddy bear....There's a picture for it with a pattern that I am using, you can find that here! I am beyond excited for this to be done with (I am very impatient) I can't wait to be able to say "Yep, I made this" with a big dopey smile!

All in all its been such a wonderful trip and seriously can't wait for summer to continue my crocheting adventures with my crochet crazed mother who has now rubbed off onto me!















Love,
Maddie