Happy Halloween!

This past week has just blazed by and I feel as though I barely have enough time to come up for air! The Hubs and I are busy juggling work, entertaining, enjoying my Poppa and stepmom's visit as well as welcoming the first arrival of some Bay Area friends. It's been a crazy busy week, but we are enjoying it nonetheless.

I am missing blogging (actually commented to Phil in the car today that it has been a whole four days since I've been on here - gasp!) and catching up with some of my favorite blogs, but when it comes to family and friends...well, it's a no-brainer. :)

Today, we still managed to purchase and carve pumpkins in between a morning fishing trip, lunch with my parents, our friends arrival at the airport and a last-minute drive back into town to pick up a new wireless router (we have had THE worst technological luck lately!).

Pumpkin Art!

Even Phil played along:

Have a safe and Happy Halloween, peeps!

Breathe in, Breathe out

Today marks the beginning of a flurry of events; lots of wonderful things on the horizon, but this also means that my days will be full and time will be a precious commodity. For starters, my Poppa and stepmom fly in this morning to visit us for a week (YAY! I'm so excited to spend some much-needed quality time together). We will celebrate my Poppa's birthday while they are here, and then they're off to the mainland on 11/1. In the meantime, we have friends flying in to visit on 10/31 for their annual 2-week trip to Maui. They'll stay until 11/16 and will help me to celebrate my birthday as they do every year! The following week is Thanksgiving, and let's be honest...we all know that once Thanksgiving arrives, the rest of the year flies by in a fast-forward parade of images...a full-on feast for the senses.

I love this time of year, but really wish there were a way to slow it down; there is so much to enjoy, and so little time to do so. Sometimes I wish Life had a "pause" button so that I can give every moment the time and attention it deserves.

The next best thing is taking 10 minutes this morning to do a journal entry (yes, I still have one of the old-school variety!). Not so much a journal as it is a blank book with room to doodle and unleash a stream of consciousness. I free-write, I unleash. And clearly, today, I then blog about it. ;)

Have a lovely day, peeps!

Maui Love

A quick, drive-by post: Reason # 976,348 why I love Maui:

Spending time chilling with a beach buddy!

The Hubs and I spent all day Saturday at the beach for a work-related kitesurfing event...in the afternoon, this sweet honu crawled up along the waters' edge to nap on the beach. My kind of guy!

Today we're staying out of the sun and spending time at home, cleaning and prepping the house for tonight's dinner with 10 of our friends. Filling our home with friends and their bellies with food makes me happy; it's such a great way to wrap-up the weekend.

How are you spending yours?

Frozen Yogurt in the Rain

The Hubs and I met some of his friends for dinner in Paia last night. It was one of those last-minute invitations that quite honestly, I wasn't feeling, but being the ever-dutiful wife that I am, agreed to accompany him. We met up at the restaurant right after a long day of work; I was spent, mentally exhausted and feeling particularly hideous, but whatev's. I rallied, walked hand-in-hand with Phil and put on a happy face. 'Cause I'm a trouper like that. And in hindsight, it wasn't that bad.

If there is one thing that I have yet to learn, it is this: spontaneity breeds serendipity. I'm a Type-A planner and obsessive list-maker by nature, so last-minute wrenches are not my friend. But I'm trying. I'm trying to be a little more adventurous and a little less anal-retentive. A little less..."structured". I'm still learning to embrace the ideology that Life is filled with the unexpected, so I may as well make peace with this fact and just enjoy the ride (carpe diem, right?).

So I did. We talked, we ate, we laughed. And it was all good--the food, the conversation, the company. And when we'd finished and waddled our full-bellies out of the restaurant, we decided that frozen yogurt was a perfect way to end our evening. I was full and had no business ordering dessert, but when in Rome...

(Mango Lilikoi)

It was a warm and muggy evening, so we sat outside to enjoy our sugary night-caps. Midway through my frozen yogurt, it started to rain. So like any grown woman would do (ha!), I got up and stood in the rain, allthewhile eating my yogurt and smiling like the Cheshire cat. That's the beauty of being an adult---you answer to nobody and can do whatever you want (sorry Momma). And in that moment when I'm getting soaked and stuffing my face with a frozen yogurt that my stomach neither wants nor needs...I realize that I'm just feeling blessed. And happy. We're together, satiating our appetites with friends and food. It's bliss, baby.

Life is too short NOT to appreciate the little things.

Have a great weekend, friends. Get out there. Eat. Drink. Be Merry.

Snippets of Fall

Despite our lack of foliage in shades reminiscent of burnt sienna, Fall still has a way of reminding Maui that we are neither forgotten nor exempt from its splendor. And although we don't participate in the changing of the clock, Fall for us is still earmarked with shorter days; the sun now slips below the horizon just shy of 6:00pm.

This time of year brings me so much joy; I have to remind myself to savor each moment, because once Halloween arrives and the last of the bite-sized candies are passed out to little-people in costume, the rest of the year is a blur. I'm all for living in the moment and making the most of the here-and-now, but I'm also lovin' that stores are slowly coming alive with all-things-Christmas...and it's only October!

But today, I'm relishing in the fact that gray clouds rolled in, bringing balmy showers and temporarily cooling the earth. Fall has arrived. Visually, it's the kind of day that makes me want to "hermit" at home in my PJ's, my nose buried in my newest book and tea steeping in my favorite mug. In reality, the PJ's and book await me...because like many of you, I work. But it's all good, because I am incredibly grateful for my job. It enables me to make guilt-free, frivolous purchases:

The return of simple pleasures!

October showers warranted a trip to Starbucks, where I'm quite certain I heard the Pumpkin Spice Lattes calling my name. In an act of blatant disregard for waistline-discipline, I (of course) obliged and handed over my $5 bill to the barista. A little sugar won't kill me.

Besides, you can't put a price on Happiness in a cup now, can you?

Hey...does anyone know when the Peppermint Lattes are available? :)

Reminisce...and Write A Letter.

Have you seen this?

Want to be inspired?

Then you need to watch this. It only works if you have Google Chrome (if you don't, it only takes a couple of minutes to download) and you'll need to close out any open applications for it to work properly. If you're pressed for time, then you may want to wait until you can watch it at your leisure...I promise, it's worth it!

The first time I watched this, I had to fight the knot from forming in my throat and the tears that threatened to spill over my cheeks. It is beautiful and inspiring and hand-to-heart nostalgia, all at once.

Life changes so fast.

Write a letter.

Operation: Back on Track

It has been a month since my stress-fracture diagnosis; four solid weeks of NO running and ZERO cardio classes at the gym. And I'm craving an ass-kicking, heart-pounding, hurts-so-good workout like you would not believe. It's amazing how quickly your body loses its strength and stamina when you fall off the workout-wagon. Granted, the extra glass(es) of wine, the excessive cheese intake and saying "yes" to dessert when I should be saying "no" didn't help, but the backslide into caloric leniency is oh-so-easy when you're nursing an injury (or so I tell myself).

At present, my foot is happy and I'd like to think it has healed up nicely in the past month. I haven't felt pain in a long time and I'm SO anxious to get back into my running shoes again. Soon.

For now, I'm focusing on getting us back on track, foodwise; we've had a month-long reprieve from our (usually) healthy menus/eating habits and discipline has reeeeeeaaaaallllly fallen to the wayside. Case in point? I was craving sugar in a bad way last week, so on my way home from work, I hit up the Krispy Kreme Drive-Thru to pick up dessert. No joke - I couldn't even be bothered to walk in! I practically inhaled my dinner in an effort to get to the glazed donuts (yes, plural) that were calling me from inside their box. And when I finally got to them, I ate scarfed down two of them. I could have easily - and shamelessly - eaten more if I had them...they were that good. Just keeping it real, folks.

The Hubs and I are in agreement that eating crappy food for the sake of convenience (or weakness) might be temporarily gratifying, but in the end, it just makes us feel pretty gross. So we're back to eating "clean" again.

Tonight's menu: Garlic dijon tiger prawns and spinach salad with local/organic tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper, carrots, avocado and sliced almonds. Healthy, clean, filling and delicious!

Gym tomorrow, Operation: Yoga!

Finding Fall

What is this "Fall" you all speak of?! ;) Here on Maui, we're Perma-Summer folks, so while you're all experiencing the change of seasons and "spring(ing) forward and fall(ing) back", we're roasting in the sun. All. Year. Long.

I'm a total sunshine person by nature and love me some natural Vitamin D, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't sometimes (secretly) miss the onslaught of goodness that comes with the arrival of Fall. Of course, Northern California has nothing on the Fall foliage of the East Coast, but still...it delivers (albeit on a much smaller scale).

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, and I remember with fondness my love for the Fall and the cooler temps; that moment when your wardrobe transitions to warm, wooly sweaters and turtle-necks, knee-high boots, cute peacoats and houndstooth newsboy hats (Ugh! Is it obvious that I miss my Fall-wear?!). I remember my love for the cool, crisp air biting my skin...the joy of watching the Japanese maple trees shedding their leaves and the satisfying sound of the crunch beneath my feet only days later. I remember the distinct scent of the seasons' first batch of firewood, burning and crackling in the fireplace...and the taste of Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte on my tongue. It reminds me of evenings huddled around the table where long conversations trail behind empty plates and glasses that need to be re-filled; evenings where the sound of the gurgling coffee-maker in the kitchen and the scent of warm, pumpkin pie beckon and compete for the attention of your senses. This season of Fall that we all speak of? It reminds me of FAMILY.

For us, our "immediate" family is here: it is God. It is my husband, and me. It is Grace. It's Us. Here. It is the gathering of our closest friends and the compilation of those soul-stirring emotions: Joy. Gratitude. Love. And the sweet anticipation of days in our future where we will find ourselves reuniting with extended family; embracing one another, eating, laughing, sharing...loving. And savoring every moment.

And until then, where Maui lacks in crunchy foliage and the scent of burning firewood--both so very quintessential of Fall--we will make up for in the abundant blessings of amazing sunsets in multiple shades of orange and pink.

And we will take these moments into our hands...

...and drink up the vision from our balcony...

...and we will live each day as we agreed; with gratitude and Aloha.

And for those moments when we need a little "something extra", we will light candles and bask in the afterglow of this beautiful, autumn sunshine.

Happy Fall, my friends!

Wednesday: Where I want to be

I want to be at the beach, toes in the sand, soaking up the rays and playing under the sun. Instead, I am sitting under fluorescent lighting, in an overly-air-conditioned office that is so cold it feels like a meat locker, drinking a Red Bull Energy drink because I'm feeling blah, and day dreaming. And now feeling guilty because I should be working, not blogging.

;)

10-10-10: Worldwide Moment

Did anyone hear about this? The Worldwide Moment: 10-10-10 @ 10:10am GMT. I knew nothing about this until a friend of mine texted me yesterday, asking me if I was in. I'm a total softie when it comes to feel-good, heart (and art) inspiring, people-banding-together-for-good, moments of togetherness, and after I did a little research on their web page, I thought: Hell yeah, I'm in.

In a nutshell, it's a simultaneous photography event to create international peace, art and cultural awareness. This is the 7th year in a row that they've done this (last year it was done on 09-09-09 at 9:09am); at precisely the same moment around the world, we were supposed to snap a photo at exactly 10:10am, Greenwich Mean Time. Clearly, it would not be 10:10am for everyone (so you had to check for corresponding city/time zones), but to know that so many people around the world were snapping a photo at that exact moment? That idea alone...it makes me smile. :)

10:10am GMT meant it was 12:10am for us on Sunday. Completely spent from the day, by midnight, we had already retreated to bed. We would have immediately fallen asleep had it not been for my need to stay awake for another 10 minutes to actually make it until 12:10am! The Hubs laughed at me and my attempts to take the photo while laying down, limbs extended, blood rushing to my chest and the pins-and-needles effect on my arms as a result. But I got the photo at 12:10am...that's all that really mattered!

My photo for 10-10-10 @ 10:10am GMT:

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It's kind of a neat moment to think about; after 2012, we won't have dates and times like this to experience. So next year, on 11-11-11, spread the word. Wherever you are in this world, snap a photo at 11:11am GMT. Get involved.

ETA: My photo has been sitting in a queue waiting to be published, and it's finally up! Check out their gallery...pretty cool shots!

Thrift Store Alternatives!

In a previous post, I wrote about the PB inspired decorative vases I scored at a thrift store. I've made a couple of visits to this thrift store recently (*with nothing in mind that I needed) and ended up leaving with an armload of decorative glass bottles in soft shades of blue. They've all since been washed and I have them displayed throughout our home. I'm cheating and showing you the end result, first:

I picked up these two little cruet style glasses for .50 cents a piece:

And these gorgeous, tall corked bottles for $1.00/each:

The corks are in perfect condition and the glass has amazing detail:

I do have to throw the caveat out there that "thrifting" can be kind of addicting. I mean, most of the time, you end up buying things you didn't even want (or need) until right-then-at-that-moment, when the deep-discount price is taunting you and you're convinced it's the best deal, ever. I'm all for scoring great bargains, but I try to give myself a reality check every now and then, just to remind myself that what we choose to fill our home with should be functional, purposeful and something that we can both live with. And although I never set out with the intent to find (and buy) these decorative bottles, I'm really glad that I did. I think it's $5.00 well spent.

What do you think? Ya dig?

I'm linking up with my friends Linda at Coastal Charm , Jane at Finding Fabulous and Bex over at Kindness Inspires.

If you want to be inspired, check out their blogs - they're full of great ideas, yummy recipes and so much more!

Date Night: Bellies. And Balls.

Yeah, The Hubs and I like to think that we're still young. And hip. And we like to take Date Night up a notch. You know, go wild. We're gettin' crazy up in the Hizz-ouse!

It's been a loooooong work week, and frankly, I'm fried. We both have the next three days off work together (yeah!), so tonight's date is one that warrants ratty T-shirts, "fat pants" PJ bottoms and leftovers from the 'fridge.

The fun hi-lite of tonight's date are The Hubs and I laying belly-down in the living room and kitchen (respectively), and playing with the kitty, tossing and flicking tiny balls back and forth to one another while Grace chases them. She had fun for about 15 minutes and then promptly became bored, which essentially meant that The Hubs and I were playing a game between ourselves. Clearly, it takes very little to entertain us!

So, yeah. That's how we're spending tonight: unwinding and decompressing...having "family" time. :) And gearing up for the weekend. 72 hours of freedom!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm signing off for tonight. The Hubs and leftovers await. Happy Aloha Friday, peeps! Have a great weekend!

Disconnected.

Not having the best of luck lately. What is it with me and faulty technology?

Yesterday, after getting home from work and settling in for the evening, I tried logging onto the internet only to be met with that super-annoying error message. I am (admittedly) inept when it comes to electronics. All I see are little black boxes, a multitude of cords, flashing lights and buttons galore. With this in mind, imagine me trying anything and everything - plugging, unplugging, pressing power buttons - to reboot the modem. I had no idea what I was doing and all efforts were futile.

The Hubs gets home from work and before he can even put his bag down and receive a hug and a kiss from me, I'm reporting that "Something is wrong with the internet. Can you please fix it?" (I'm totally embarrassed admitting this) So he does what he can, only to announce that the modem has croaked.

This declaration is met with slight lunacy on my part and withdrawal-like symptoms followed: anger, irritation, annoyance. And then shame. Once my tantrum has run its course, I have a moment of clarity: I realize that I really don't like what my reliance on the internet has made me become. I needed to get it together.

Fortunately, I came to my senses and survived a night without internet. I brought the modem to our cable company this morning and all is well in the internet world again.

Somebody please tell me I am not alone in this.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

This weekend didn't exactly go as planned. I had an ambitious To-Do-List mapped out for both days and do you want to know how many things we managed to cross off this list? Try ZERO.

Normally, this is enough to get under my skin and send me straight to cranky-mode, but I'm really trying to learn to just relax and embrace the itty-bitty moments in life where we give ourselves permission to shirk responsibility.

Sure, we may not have accomplished all that I'd hoped we would, but the impromptu list in exchange wasn't so bad: on Friday night, we attended a last-minute BBQ with friends and our new neighbors that stretched late into the night and had us laughing until our sides ached. On Saturday, we actually slept in past 9:00am (I can't even remember the last time we did this) snuck in some beach time and bookstore/coffeehouse time, and came home to an early dinner. Sunday found us doin' a whole lotta lounging and lazing in our PJ's until almost noon (!), another jaunt to the beach, some artsy stuff in the evening, and breakfast for dinner.

So, no. The grocery shopping never got done. Grace never got her bath (yes, she's indoor-only and we still bathe her). The baseboards didn't get dusted. My DIY project that I've been meaning to do-it-myself for over a month now, still sits untouched in the spare bedroom. The agreed-upon paint swatch from two weeks ago is still taped to our naked, living room wall and the paint has yet to be purchased (I kinda wish our living room would paint itself). The box I needed to ship over the weekend is still unpacked, unsealed and unmailed. And that's just off the top of my head.

But it's all good. No worries. All this will be waiting for us tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day...we'll get to it when we get to it. Life is life. Sometimes it's ok to say YES when you should be saying NO. And if I had to do this weekend all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

[Weekend Moment # 875: Playing with the wind and taking photos of my hand while The Hubs drives us home. And smiling when he reaches over, squeezes my leg and says: "you and your childlike fascination"...I love that he gets me.]

Art Vlogging

Have you ever taken a hiatus from something only to find yourself returning to it with fresh eyes and a new perspective? That happened to me yesterday.

I logged onto my YouTube Channel and noticed that one of my three art videos was listed as a "featured" video. I'm still not totally clear what - if anything - that means, but I'd like to think it's something positive (humor me?). It has over 6,000 views, so I'm thinking that at the very least, it is sharing my art with a much bigger audience...and as scary as this is, a little dose of fear is healthy, right?

I created the YouTube account purely for experimentation purposes and I quickly realized that editing footage is SO not my thing. It is a tedious and seemingly endless project for which I have very little patience, unlike The Hubs, who does this fairly regularly for at least one aspect of his job. I do have to admit though...the end result (no matter how amateur) is still pretty gratifying to see.

Here is my first video from a few years ago; the editing is choppy and leaves a lot to be desired, but it is interesting for me to look back and see how much my art has evolved over time. And while my style and technique might be different today, mermaids are still one of my favorite subjects to paint!

I do a lot of visual "art journaling" in varying forms of mixed media and filmed a couple of these to give viewers an idea of what goes into an impromptu journal entry. Because the entry itself is fairly spontaneous, it is a much smaller project than editing footage of an original painting from start to finish...and I have to say that watching these kinda makes me wanna start filming again:

* * *

I have the next 3 days off work and just want to spend it painting and creating and taking pictures and just being...crafty. That's not too much to ask, right? :)

Happy Aloha Friday, friends. Any fun plans for you this weekend?