There's a giveaway going on...

...over at Gahan girls, & hopefully I linked it properly :) Anywho, it's a blog that I lurk often & sometimes have made comments on ( which I usually feel stupid leaving remarks for people that I don't know...) but, I guess that's a part of blogging, huh? I have had so much inspiration from complete strangers...I can't even explain it, but it's addictive! Anywho, have a look around her blog!

Other than that, I have finally caught up on swaps over at swap-bot! (ABOUT TIME!!!) :) & now I sadly still have 2 Christmas presents to send out ( I am terrible, I know!) Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll have them out tomorrow before I have to go to Girl Scouts with my littlest monkey!

The weather is starting to dip down here, it was in the 30's this morning ( ok, I know that isn't too bad...& if any of my ohana is reading this, I'm sure they're ready to throw a brick at me or something...) but, for those who have been here for a while, or, for those FROM here, it's downright FREEZING!!! I believe our high was 50...anycrap, I'm not complaining, just letting y'all know, it CAN get chilly in Georgia :)

That's all I have for today, I'm sure I'll have more to babble about tomorrow. Hula starts up for us down here this Saturday, so I'm sure I'll have things to talk about there!
Til then..
a hui hou,
Tina

Finished projects...

Here's some stuff I have been working on, over the holiday season...

this is a tiny dotee doll I did for a swap...

here's my first reconstructed t-shirt I did for my eldest & I'm rather shocked that it came out nice ( ...not trying to gloat or anything...she LOVES it!!)

this is a re-enactment of what it looked like, because I forgot to take a "before" picture, it had short plain black sleeves originally...but it was a freebie shirt I had gotten from buying Kiss cologne. On the front it says"you never forget your first..." & on the back it says "Kiss" & has a picture of a woman's face painted up like Paul Stanley (which is my daughter's LOVE of a lifetime...) anywho, she out grew it last summer, but I know she absolutely LOVED this shirt, so I hung onto it in hopes to turn it into a pillow or something, but I kept reading about how people reconstruct clothing, so I thought I'd give it a try so here's what it looks like now...

sorry these are kinda blurry, but here's a closeup of the sleeve...anywho, it was hard to match the black, cause it was so faded from use...but I thought I'd try to match the red from the face...she loves it & is happy to be able to wear it again...i added a red panel on the sides to blend it all in together ( also to make it fit...) & hopefully she'll be able to enjoy it for a little while longer...

some ornaments ... I made a BUNCH of other ornaments for a swap I did, but forgot to take pictures of them before I sent them out ( I know...bad habit!) they were little teddy bears made form wooden beads & pipe cleaners, they came out pretty cute, so I'm sure I'll make more of those...

& some fleece slipper socks, I used fabric paint to make the flowers on the bottom so they can be used like a non-slip sock...gave some of these away as presents this year...

I'm currently working on these pins for girl scouts....our "Thinking Day" is coming up & I guess everybody gets a country to represent & ours is China, so I was asked to come up with something to make for a swap, so I messed around with some felt scraps & made this little pin. They liked them, so next week I'll show the girlies how to make them & they will use them to swap with other troops...

I apologize for the blurry pictures, still using my camera phone, it works in a pinch...anywho, that's some of the stuff I've been working on for the past month...now onto Valentine's day things, etc....

Have a wonderful day!

A hui hou,

Tina

New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY 2009!!!

OK, why do we do this to ourselves every year? I mean, I know we all have good intentions, when it comes to making resolutions, but I know, I tend to make them & sadly they fall apart as quickly as they were made! But this year, instead of making typical resolutions ( ya know, like, lose 50 pounds....lose 20 pounds....lose A POUND....) this time, I am trying to just make simple changes in my life ( A.K.A. baby steps...) so here's a list of things I will seriously attempt to do this year:

1. Blog more often...even if it's just dribble, I kinda liked babbling online (even though I took a few month break...it was rather fun to get things off my chest...kinda like keeping a diary I suppose....)

2. Keep in touch better with friends & family. This is a VERY hard one for me...I am horrible at calling people back in a timely manner, answering e-mails, etc. I don't know why, I just am. I might e-mail back & forth, or call & then , I tend to just fall off the face of the earth. No excuses, I'm just bad like that, but I hope to break that habit this year....Wish me luck!

3.Sign up for a Hawaiian language course...every time this opportunity has come, something would happen & I end up NOT signing up for it ( usually lack of money...) but for personal reasons, I really REALLY will sign up for one!

4. Take a REAL vacation with JUST my family. Sounds kinda bad, I know, but it has been YEARS since we've taken a real vacation, where it's just us, in a different place & no agendas, no having to worry if we have Internet connections, so hubby can work, no, an honest to goodness real vacation, where we don't have to spend all our time running here & there & everywhere to catch up with family, etc...

I'm sure I could think of HUNDREDS of things to add to this list, but "baby steps" first & hey, if I can accomplish some of these, then there's always room for more! It IS only January....

Anywho, tell me some of your resolutions ( if you like...) sometimes seeing them in print helps them to become REAL, if that makes any sense....

'til next time, A hui hou,
Tina

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a joyous Christmas as well!!! Things were uneventful here...well, then again, I guess most days are uneventful here. Or at least, uneventful to most. Nah, we actually had a nice Christmas & a very calm New Year's Eve. The weather was beautiful, & I still can't believe how lucky we are to be in Georgia, as far as weather goes. My ohana up north has been dumped on a few times by snow, only to have a day or two of decent weather, then have is freeze over again....(MAN! I don't miss that crap!) but, then again, we missed our ohana as we often do, during the holidays. It was nice to go up during the Thanksgiving break & see everybody that we did, but it was very tempting to go back up for Christmas too ( until the snow hit...then we were kinda glad that we chose Thanksgiving over Christmas...) ok, ok, enough babble about the weather....cause what seems to be cold to one person, might be wonderful to another, so I guess it's really just a matter of what you like or can handle!

Anywho, some of us are battling a cold that has been a most "enjoyable gift" my eldest daughter has given me over this holiday break...which I am now sharing with my hubby & I think our middle child is showing signs of it too...so our youngest is trying her best to stay away from us "sickies" as we have been called!

Our daughters were SPOILED over Christmas & have been enjoying the buying power they have received from various family members (through gift cards they have gotten...) We decided to buy one "big" gift for all the girlies this year, & with the help of my mother-in-law (she went in halfsies with us on it...) we got them a Wii system ( now the girlies fell in LOVE with the Wii, after they played the one at Aunty Masae's house during Thanksgiving break....) so we knew we had to try our best to get them one! Well, I was able to do some volunteer work at the scholastic warehouse a few weeks ago & got them a couple games to go with the Wii & they have bought a couple more with their gift cards & have been playing it everyday since they opened it! They also got a plethora of books from scholastic too ( I mean literally BOX LOADS of books...) & so did all the little keiki's in our ohana. Books, klutz kits, stickers, pens & pencils, pretty much anything you could possibly get from a book sale at a school, I was able to earn from scholastic!!! (ok, actually, some of the little keiki's haven't gotten theirs yet, cause they're still sitting in boxes on our dining room table to be sent out.....but they'll get them soon!...I know, I know, BAD AUNTY!) The eldest also got a cell phone for Christmas ( we just added her onto ours...) & now thinks she's SOOOO cool!! (in fact it's rather scary...she carries the thing EVERYWHERE....) Anywho, the middle daughter got her promise FINALLY after about 5 years of BEGGING us for a puppy, my hubby broke down & is finally letting her get one, BUT!!!! she has to read up & get prepared on how to take care of it...so, (thanks to scholastic...once again....) I got her a book on how to pick, care for, feed, etc...a puppy. She (so far) used some of her buying power to get a dog bed, leash, & some other small toys for her puppy to be...(Santa also got her a bag load of doggie items for Christmas...) So she is in HEAVEN!!! The littlest monkey got an art easel, that has a chalkboard on one side, a wipe off board on the other & a roll of paper that attaches to it, so she can draw her heart out on it! She LOVES it!!! & they all got clothes, did I mention TONS of books??? :) & candy & all the usual junk...so like I said THEY WERE SPOILED ROTTEN!!!! Not to mention that even the neighbors, some of their classmates, the hula Aunties & of course the rest of the ohana added to all the SPOILING!!!! I mean these kids are too lucky!!!! So needless to say I think we had a very Wonderful Christmas.

ok, I think this seems to sound rather snob-ish to rant about what we got....but we kinda had a hard time for last Christmas. Without going into details, we didn't have such a wonderful one last year, so I guess I'm babbling so much about this year's one...but I also decided to kinda share the wealth this year (thanks again to scholastic....) with all the credit I earned, I was able to get things for my family, some of my extended family, our girl scout troop, & have gotten together 2 box loads of books for our school & public library ( which in my opinion, really needs to add more to their collection....) to kinda give back what I can. It may not be much, but it feels good to give to the school & to everybody else, through the library.

& did I mention Scholastic books??? Man, I wish I knew about this whole volunteer stuff YEARS ago....but if you go to their website ( I believe it's here ) you can find out more info on their warehouse book sales. They have locations pretty much everywhere. sign up for notices, & they also send you coupons for the warehouse sale. Plus this time, they asked for volunteers to help set up the sale & they offered credit to purchase stuff for giving up your time for working it! Oh MY GOODNESS can you say FREE BOOKS?!!!! That was enough for me, I think over all, I put in about 50 hours of work there. ( I even filled out an application for permanent work as well....who's it gonna hurt?) So if you didn't already know about it, check it out. Either way it's a great way to get books whether you volunteer to work & earn credit, or just flat out buy books ( most are at least 50% off cover price....some 80%-90%...)

Well, I think I am starting to make up for the lost time here...one of my new year resolutions is to get better at blogging, this year (another is to try to keep in touch with family & friends better....) I have a few reachable goals for this upcoming year, so I hope to fulfill them all (hmmm, maybe this could start my blog for tomorrow...???)

Anycrap...again, Hau'oli Makahiki Hou to all!!! Here's to the start of a WONDERFUL new year!
Peace & love to all!!
A hui hou,
Tina