Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Daisy's Little Cottage: Banner Give-Away !!!

Daisy's Little Cottage: Banner Give-Away !!! here's a sweet giveaway for anyone interested ( & her blog looks really nice as well...) Check it out & good luck to all!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Hau'oli La Hanau...



Hau'oli La Hanau...

DUH!!! Forgot to shout out some "Happy Birthday "wishes out there...

Hau'oli La Hanau to :

My Niece Jessica (Friday April, 25th)

My OLDEST Brother John (Yesterday April 26th)

other April birthdays (in case I get senile again...)

My Nephew Adam, April 29th

One of my best friends Dawn (Kopstain) Bintz, also April 29th

My Eldest Jasmine turned 11 on the 4th of April so happy belated girlie (she had a blast on her birthday, my youngest & I made her a birthday cake made up of her favorite cookies, because she didn't want a birthday cake....she was spoiled & went out to lunch with daddy too...JUST daddy, she didn't want ANY of us to go....how SPOILED is that?)

Anywho, sorry about that ohana, but hope all your birthday wishes come true!!!

Aloha Pumehana & Malama Pono,
Tina

Sunday....

Aloha everybody,

well another weekend has come & gone. Not too much new over-by-here. Got some things done around the house (in fact, still doing stuff around the house...)

...but a commercial about the new Iron Man movie came on the telly & reminded me that the annual "Free Comic Book Day" should be right around the corner & sure enough, my memory finally has served me well. I know Marvel comics likes to come out with their new movies around this time of the year (heard it was because of Stan Lee's birthday, don't remember where I heard that, or if it's really true...) but anywho, ever since all the Spiderman & X-Men movies came out, it has started a new found love of comic books with my daughters ( & given me reasons to dig out my old ones over the years too...well, that & signing up for swaps at swap-bot pertaining to comic books...) Anycrap, once we found out about free comic book day, my daughters & I try to go to whatever store is celebrating it! Turns out there's a store not too far from home, so will be hitting that one on Saturday! (Saturday May 3rd is this year's date....I think it's the first Saturday of May every year....) Anywho just wanted to share that tidbit with whomever may be interested....

Again not much else new, finally getting my sewing corner back to normal (whatever normal was...) thanks to hubby's help. He made a shelf above my sewing table & a small bookcase for me to have a place to put some of my junk so it doesn't clutter up my table. (Poor guy will do anything to help me fix all my clutter! )

I'm also hoping to download some more pictures (hope to have some new ones up tomorrow...) to put on the blog...

Had Hula yesterday & we ended up playing ukulele for most of class time ( which the ladies did enjoy, so will be adding that into class every now & then...)

well that's all for now!! Hope everyone had a great weekend & hope your week is full of possibilities as well....

A hui hou,
Tina

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Oh Those Hula Blues.....


....tell me have you ever heard those hula blues... oops sorry 'bout that, just had that song in my head for some odd reason!




(ok, not the same song here, but the sheet music cover was cool....)



...well, it's been a while since I've written anything here, I mean when I first started this blog, I was trying to write SOMETHING, ANYTHING everyday....man, seems now if I remember to write anything, I'm a happy puppy! :)




Anycrap, things are getting busy with our halau for the competition in Florida. It seemed not so long ago, we had PLENTY of time to work on things & now...heck, it's almost 3 months until the competition! AAAHHHHH!!!!! (no, don't worry ladies, I won't panic just yet....I'll let it brew a while longer.....) at least this time around ( & for the 1st time...) it's just OUR halau entering! It was way worse when we had combined groups together, then you had to deal with everyones methods of dancing, costume making, playing all "nicey-nice" in front of everyone, just to get your teeth knocked out when you turned your back, so already, there's NONE of that kind of CRAP to deal with, so it's a WAYYYY better feeling this time around....it is Pono!!







(an image of Pele,found on the internet.... the fire goddess, or Goddess of the volcano, she resides in Halema'uma'u crater near Mauna Loa....one of the Goddess' we are dancing about in Orlando....)



...I think it's just nerves & wanting everything to go just right, so that's the stage I am at right now....but things are going right, we got our music to practice with, when we found out ohana couldn't play music for us, well then we were able to hire the house band....when we had a hard time with the costumes, we worked all that out as well. It seems like everyone was getting the dances down great, even though we are physically in 3 different states, everyone is on the same sheet of music now, so it's all good! We are all in this together for the same reason, to finally do it RIGHT! To finally be a part of something like this, with our hula ohana who share the same love for hula that each of us have! IT'S ALL GOOD! It IS pono!!!!







(an image of Poliahu I found on the internet...the other goddess we are dancing about in Orlando...she is the Snow goddess of Mauna Kea....)




just needed to get that off my chest today! Sorry for the babble....

Anywho, will try to keep up with the blogging best I can...
a hui hou,
Tina

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Spring break is OVER!

Aloha Y'all :)




Well, my eldest two are (finally) back in school & we are playing catch up on all the stuff we put off all week long! Ya know stuff like sewing, hula, yard work, all the things we THOUGHT we could still do while all the kiddies were home....yeah. RIGHT! But we did manage to get away for the weekend, so we went to Savannah! Let's rewind a week, shall we?




Well the last time I wrote, we were hitting some of our favorite thrift stores, stuff like that ( I really can't complain, cause the girlies DID let me shop a wee bit & I WAS able to add to my fabric stash, without going into debt, stuff like that...) & got in some library time,that was Mon & Tues. Wed I had hula, so we didn't go anywhere. Thurs took the girlies to Monkey Joes, I assume this is a chain-type of establishment, kinda like "where a kid can be a kid" place (you know what I'm talking about....) anywho, instead of coin operated-type rides, this place is FILLED with giant inflatable slides, at first my eldest said "this is a little baby place, I'm not going on ANY of these STUPID slides" so the other two, QUICKLY took off their shoes & couldn't get on a slide quick enough. My middle daughter,even told my eldest "sucks to be you" which I would have told her to watch her tongue, but sadly, she was right, my eldest was being downright pissy before she even gave it a chance....anycrap, she changed her tune & finally decided, ok, "I'll TRY one, but it won't be fun" Well, 3 hours later, lots of hooting & hollering & sweat, they ALL had a blast!











& my middle daughter figured out the HARD way, that it's not a wise choice to wear a dress to a place like this...























but that didn't stop them & they had a BLAST!!!











Then, my hubby had some work to do Friday morning & we left for Savannah...





we headed to Tybee Island first...





Now, the kids & I have never been in this part of Georgia before (hubby had gone there a couple times for work...) So we didn't know what to expect, I figured we'd go to the beach, but I wasn't completely sure how "the beach" would be here in the South ( I know that sounds stupid, but I'm use to beaches in Hawaii, so I didn't know if the Atlantic coast would be the same...I've seen some beaches in Florida & vowed I'd never swim in them, cause you couldn't see through the water....) Anycrap, the girlies asked how come we didn't bring bathing suits, I said cause I didn't know what to expect (thinking in the back of my mind, we wouldn't be swimming there...) Boy was I wrong, it was BEAUTIFUL! The weather was beautiful, the beach was beautiful, & even though we didn't bring suits, that didn't stop us from jumping on in & enjoying the beach!































spent a couple hours there, found LOTS of shells, girlies got to make their sand castles, swim, all the good stuff you do at the beach...




hubby, doesn't really care for the beach, so he decided to guard our junk...

















but all in all, it was good!







Then we checked into our room ( stayed overnight there, cause we got in kinda late, but we were planning on staying a night anyways..) washed off all the sand & went down to River street for dinner & despite the fact that I had the camera on me the WHOLE time, I didn't take any pictures that night ( which I could just KICK myself for doing...) saw a couple HUGE ships going underneath this HUGE bridge...all the time thinking to myself, there's NO WAY that's going under, but DUH of course it can otherwise it wouldn't be going that way now would it? Didn't really know where we were going, but ended up in a pub-type place for dinner & it was pretty good (do I remember the name of the place? of course not, can't even remember my name sometimes & ya expect me to remember the name of an establishment???) anycrap, went thought a couple stores down there too, ended up going through a candy place & this guy was making taffy & tossing out little wrapped pieces to people passing by ( which of course would make anyone in my family just LOVE Savannah even more! I mean Free candy, can we live here? You can even walk around with drinks outside as long as they are in plastic cups, now add a slim Jim & a twinkie & a bathroom, my ENTIRE family would move there in a heartbeat!) Anycrap, we were just walking through little shops ,of course ended up buying some more taffy...it was excellent! & a few chocolates....the little ones were thrilled to have their little glass coke bottles ( it always did taste better in glass bottles if ya ask me...I know you didn't, but pretend ya did!) Anycrap, it was getting late & we were all tired from driving & going to the beach & all so we went back to the room to get some shut eye.







The next morning we decided ( with the advice of a co-worker of hubby's..) to take a trolley tour of Savannah. Now I'm not usually one to do touristy type stuff like that, but I didn't really know the area, & there was so much to see so we didn't really know where to start, so a tour sounded pretty good! & we were glad we did, we learned quite a bit about the area in a short period of time, were able to get off & back on for some of the places that we decided to spend a little more time ( & actually look inside some of the homes instead of just the outer parts...) My eldest daughter wanted to go to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace ( she was the founder of the Girls Scouts of America) & it was pretty awesome, I never knew much about the woman, but she was a truly talented artist besides just what she was known for... there were all kinds of portraits, busts, & woodwork things she had made throughout the house that really should be in an art museum somewhere ( which is why they probably show then there at the house...)& her parents were envolved with founding Chicago, which I never knew that...anywho, learned quite a bit there!
They don't allow picture taking inside the house, but there was a beautiful garden outside, that ( & I DID ask first..) I took some pictures of...






everyone was kinda camera shy, but I wish someone stood in front of this plant, IT WAS HUGE!!! I mean I'm roughly 5'5" & this thing was taller than me! It looked like a huge aloe vera plant, but not sure, since I've never seen one get THAT big! It was definitely a cactus if some sort but it DID look like an aloe vera plant to me...














& this was a close up of a potted plant out in the front, kinda blurry, but it was what the Hawaiians call "Kika" flowers (cigar flowers, I don't know the REAL name, but that's what we call them....) they were beautiful, but not nearly enough of them to make a lei....not that I was going to :) the flowers are very tiny, but they were pretty...





Anywho, by then we were all getting a little hungry & thirsty so we hopped back on the next trolley & went to a shopping area that had some restaurants & went to an open cafe type place had a slice of pizza (sadly, New York style....MAN do we miss Pizza.....) It was ok, though, walked around to a few shops, saw some carriage tours go by...






it was starting to get a little grey out & the wind was starting to kick up. so we hopped back on the trolley, just rode the rest of the tour out (the girlies were getting a little tired anyways...) so we marked off a few more places to visit next time & just enjoyed the ride...



after the tour was over, we decided to head for home, but before we left the area we wanted to see Fort Pulaski...






sadly we got there kinda late (about 20 minutes before they were closing the gate..) so we didn't get to go inside, but we will next time...

by now it was starting to drizzle , so it was a good time to go.

So for a day & a half ( we got there roughly Friday afternoon & left early Saturday evening..) we got to see quite a bit of Savannah & one thing is for sure, we'll be going back again soon!!!

Everyone had a blast & wants to go back so all in all, it was a great weekend adventure!

So quite a good spring break was had by all, even if it wasn't really planned out, we had a nice mini vacation & the girls didn't end up staying home & saying "WE'RE BORED" everyday!
Sometimes things work out better if you don't plan them!

But now, back to life, back to work,etc, etc, etc...

Malama pono & a hui hou to all!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Spring break!!!

Aloha kakou,



Well the girlies are on spring break now, so my blogging as been neglected lately..tried to get up early & get a head start on things today...
so needed my "GO-GO" juice as my girlies like to call my coffee...hubby & I were able to enjoy a cup before he left for work ( girlies were still asleep cause they can this week!)
anywho me & the girls hit one of our favorite thrift store yesterday & of course I found some fabric...
these were just some scrap pieces ( that will most likely become some more tote bags...)
but these lovely cuts are at least 4 yards each...
then my middle daughter ( the dog lover...) found this amongst the fabric (I think it might have been an outdoor flag or something like that...it has a casing at the top & is made from a nylon-type of fabric..) anywho, she wanted it to hang on her bedroom door....
then found a couple baggies of these keychains...
which inspired me to make this for my best friend who happens to be a Mickey Mouse NUT!!!...
here's an inside shot of the bag....
Anywho, my eldest found a little baby doll ( a new friend for her American Girl doll...) & my youngest found a new little puppy who just "had to come home with us"... She feels the need to "adopt" a new doll or stuffed animal every time we go there...
plus we all found quite a few books ( they sell all paperbacks for a quarter & ALL hardcovers for fifty cents...ya CAN'T go wrong with prices like that....)
Anycrap, all in all, we spent $12 for the whole hoard...( $4 for all the fabric....which of course my husband called me a nut for getting MORE, but at that price, how could I NOT get any???) I mean I got OVER 20 YARDS of fabric for only $4....ya can't possibly go wrong!
Anywho, all the fabric was washed yesterday & I thought I'd be able to do some sewing today, but sadly, we got side tracked (as always..) & ended up going to the post office (AGAIN) for more swap bot stuff, ran & got gas, ended up going to the commerce place to pick up some brochures on places to go for a possible weekend getaway with the girlies ( since they ARE on break...) headed to the library ( our other FAVORITE place to go...) I mean , by the time we got back, had lunch, cleaned all the dishes from breakfast & lunch, started making dinner & then the rest of the night kinda just slipped away...Jeff even came home early to mow the lawn & then we started doing other yard work, the girlies wanted to go to a friends house to play for a little bit before dinner...I mean WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DAY??? Next thing ya know, we're sitting down to eat dinner & the girlies are taking their baths & getting ready for bed & I still feel like I haven't gotten anything done!!!
oh well, tomorrow's another day...maybe I better try to get a head start again & see what really gets done....
Anycrap, just another day down south for me & my ohana!
Have a wonderful day! I know I will sooner or later....

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Aloha Everybody!

Aloha kakou,

I'm back from yet another weekend of hula, this time practice with my haumana up in Chicago ( & KC was represented too...) But it was a great relief to know you ladies are practicing & yes we ALL have to keep practicing :) but it's coming along well! We'll knock their socks off in Orlando this summer!

I have my homework (getting the dresses ordered, looking for fabric for kahiko, etc) & you ladies have your homework as well ( kahea's & now the ka'i & ho'i...stuff like that..) but it's all good!

I will keep everyone updated as things happen on my end & will be mailing out our practice cds by the end of the week...

Heard from Linda, she's on the Big Island now ( guess she was one of the Aloha Airline travelers...Aloha shut down business this week & of all weeks MERRIE MONARCH WEEK!!!) so halaus are having troubles getting to Hilo for the competition, stuff like that... Linda & Walter were able to switch to Hawaiian Airlines, but I'm sure EVERYONE is trying to get around on Hawaiian now too....what a mess! Anywho, Linda is getting her Poliahu & Pele fix ( & it's great timing since we're dancing about those two goddesses, so what better time to be on the Big Island...) I know we all just wish we were there too.....oh well, there's always next year! :)

anycrap, Mahalo goes out to Masae for having Debbie & me stay over this weekend. I appreciate it very much & mahalo to Corinna for taking Sunday at your house as well. I was so glad everybody was able to get together for the entire weekend, cause we only had 1 weekend together since last November ( & even then, we weren't ALL able to make it...) but working on getting EVERYBODY together for one last practice before Orlando as well ( our 1st & last practice together, so we'll have to make it a good one!!) :) As I have stated in other posts, I know it's a chaotic way to practice for our halau (being split into 3 different states...) but so far (knock on wood!) It's working!!! If there were anyone who could pull all this off smoothly it's you ladies & I am SOOOO proud to be your kumu & have such wonderful talents in our halau!

Sorry there's no pictures to share on this post, but will try to keep up on my blogging too....

That's all for today, just wanted to let all know we made it home safely (even if I didn't get out on the 1st flight..) but got on the 2nd one & Jeff still was able to put in a half day on Monday ( so keeping hubby happy= me getting to travel around more!) Besides costumes, we will start fund raising on our end as well ( trying to keep costs low from our pockets...so GA girls are helping out with that one....)

So a hui hou GA-IL-MO girls & keep practicing!
Laters,
Tina