Spreading the Word

Just wanted to give a heads up.

There is a fun camera site called Photojojo. They have all kinds of cool camera and cellular phone camera  doo-dads.

It's amazing...the things people come up with!

The camera will follow your movements....perfect for shooting that how to video!

I know they didn't come up with this...but they offer a bunch of other cool stuff like this.


Now here is the part where I want to give you a heads up. Right now they are offering an iPhone photography class.....for $5

Is that cool or what?

When the class is over you get a $5 gift card for their site....

Cool again, huh?

I am on lesson two and I'm learning and having fun

How to make a double exposure with HD

Composition, Rule of thirds and taking a squirrels eye view pic

Looking forward to the next lesson!

I'm not getting anything to promote this.....just thought I'd share

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Better Pics

First off, thanks to those that that commented on my closet  (and all my other posts) - means so much to me. THANK YOU!

My friend Peggy went back to get a better pic of the closet for me, to see the whole thing...or almost the whole thing.

Here is the before view again

Here is what it looks like from a similar angle

A couple more views

Love, love love it and can't wait to see it for myself!

Aloha a Hui Hou!!

Last Big Piece of the Puzzle

One of the reasons that we fell in love with our house was because of all the built in storage.

Even love the period typical closets.

This is, as you can guess, the one in the wood room. The closet is smaller, but there is a built in dresser, complete with dividers in the smaller drawers so you can organize your undies and such.

This one is going to stay just the way it is. The wood has aged together, so it should stay together.

The one in the bedroom is a different story. The doors are all chipped, they don't stay shut and the drawers are worn down.

Sure, I could have torn the built in out and put in a modern closet like this. But we are trying to maintain the character of our home, not take it away.

I wanted something rustic looking that would go well with our little farm house. The carpenter that did the rest of the work in the house has been very sick so I had to look for a new one.

Carpenters must be very busy in that area because I didn't get one response. From all those that I contacted, not one.

It's not like we were in a hurry, so it was ok for it to stay the way it is. When I painted the bedroom I did take off the doors and put them out in the shop... might be able to put them to good use later.

Last Fall, before our last trip I was browsing craigslist and came across an ad for a carpenter offering his services. They had a website and I checked it out, looked like good workmanship, so I contacted him.

To my great surprise he got back to me and we arranged a meeting for during our trip.

And this is what came out of it. TA DA!

I love the wood grain, love the farm look of it. I also see that I will have to touch the wall up a bit too.

So, for the top, I decided against putting the doors back on. I want to put curtains up and wouldn't be able to open the door fully because of the curtain hardware. I know that I would wind up getting the door all dinged up, so no doors. Right now I have my winter clothes stored in fabric boxes that I'd like to put back up in that open space. I'll hunt till I find the right thing to put up in there.

Just like in the kitchen, I don't mind keeping the old insides....for now.

But I will save my pennies, better my carpenter skills and somewhere down the line I'll line it with cedar.

Hoping to get pictures from a bit further away soon! I just couldn't wait to share.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

PS: Thanks to my friend Peggy for taking pictures for me!

On to the Basement

Right now our basement stairs are a hot mess.

Look at the top left, there is a large hole in the wall. That's now closed. The top landing and the two steps up to the kitchen are tiled with the same tile as in the kitchen.

You can't really see it here, but the stairs have rounded corners....LOVE that detail and I want to kep that.

On this last trip I removed the 2nd handrail (one on the right). Stairs are a lot roomier now.

But I am planning to tackle them next time. As mentioned, I want to paint the risers, each one a different color, using the paint that I used in the other rooms of the house.

The treads have textured paint on them and are a bit chipped and worn.  For safety sake I will find a can of the textured paint and just freshen up the treads.

For the rest of the space I was thinking of something like this, just keeping our metal banister.

I just plan on using bead board WALLPAPER, instead of real bead board. Will be so much easier to cut and put up and I'll have less waste.

On my first trip to Egypt in 2000 I bought this papyrus and plan to hang it across from the door.

As for the wall color, I was thinking of a sandy color

So, that's my plan. We will have to wait and see how it turns out.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Rain, Rain Go Away

I'm sure you haven't heard, but we've had a bit of rain over here.

We're not called the rainbow state for nothin, ya know.

Anyway, we have a stream that runs behind the apartments and we've had so much rain that the stream and the marsh are now one.

Bad thing is it makes the water really dirty and don't think it's a good idea to harvest any of the avocados that are falling in there right now. Pretty bummed about that.

Good thing is that the there is a lot of water and on this wind still day the reflection of the mountains is just beautiful.

Just takes your breath away.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

About CFL's

Ok, we are told over and over again that CFL's are better than regular old lightbulbs.

My employers say we can save money, use CFL's

After reading and viewing this, I'm not too sure anymore.

Click photo to go to the article

If you don't have time to read it all, at least watch the 3rd video and share your thoughts with me.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

A Stitch in Time

Dating myself here, but I'm a child of the 70's...and a sewing box was something we had to have for Home Ec class. All my classmates had these tiny sewing boxes and I had a HUGE green monster. Knew that sewing would be in my future and would need the storage. 

Well it made it to Germany, but didn't make it to Hawaii with me. I miss it and couldn't find anything like it on the modern market.

I checked ebay and they were there, but the sellers wanted 40 bucks plus shipping...just wasn't willing to pay that much for it.

I continued to dream that I might someday find one.

On a trip to the butcher in Meridian we saw there was a Youth Ranch thrift store that we hadn't visited yet and decide to stop in. 

Image my joy when I found this in their craft department! 

Yes, you read right, a thrift store with a CRAFT department!! I was really amazed by what they had, stamps, beads, patterns...lots of cool stuff.

Anyway, I checked it over and it was in good condition and wait for it.....

They were asking $3.95.

Mine, Mine, Mine!

Now I just need my sewing machine and notions over there and I'll be all set!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

This and That

We found a few more items that go well with our style...

Found this octopus over at onekingslane. com. Since we both love to interact with octopi - it has a lot of meaning to us.

This phone also came from onekingslane. It is a replica with buttons instead of a dial, but it's nice and heavy, just like real old phones used to be. Can't wait to hook it up!

Now that we have the dining set in the wood room, we've crossed the murphy bed off our wish list - but we did want to have a guest bed. Found this beautiful, all wood, day bed at the World Market store. It will be in my craft room so I have a place to snuggle up and let those creative juices flow. Don't worry - over time we will be finishing the basement.

Every time we leave it's getting harder and harder to do so and my new knick knack says it best.

 Aloha A Hui Hou!

My Poor Lamp

I was so happy with the driftwood lamp I made last Summer. It looked so unique and special and was so us.

When we returned in December I was sad to see that the driftwood couldn't take the tension of being clamped around the inner post of the lamp and it cracked.

I first tried screwing it back together, but I couldn't make the screw go where I wanted it to go and it didn't look good.

Next try was to glue and clamp it together. Did that and when I took it apart the wood just pulled apart again.

What to do?

Then I thought, we have so many shells, I could wrap silver wire around the wood to hold it together and glue a shell over the twisted wire.....that might do the trick.

On the day that we were out and about I found a box of small porcelain shell ornaments and hubby and I both agreed that one of them would work out perfectly. And it did!

What'cha think?

Aloha A Hui Hou!

A Little Somethin, Somethin

Not an exciting entry, just what I drew on the chalk wall for Christmas.

I couldn't think of anything spectacular for New Years, so right now it's just a chalk-ie mess.

I'm going to have to get a spray bottle to clean it up as the eraser is ripping up on the magnet paint and when I wipe it with a wet sponge, the sponge falls apart and I just have a chalk mess.

That's all for now folks!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Got to Use Some!

Now with all these green vases, I hoped to get some flowers, and that I did.

I had a nice bouquet for our Christmas table

And a friend brought another

Can't wait till I can use the vases for flowers from our own garden.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Wild Life

Never thought that we could just sit and enjoy watching birds from our kitchen window.

But we did!

In addition to the chickadees we had Eurasian Magpies.

click photo to find original poster of photo

These birds are huge! 

I hear they are not very nice birds, but they can't be shot because they are protected migratory birds. I guess I'll be chasing birds.

We also had a pheasant stop by for a visit.

I think it has a nest in the high weeds behind the tree.

On our last day we found a hawk in the shop

We have a hole in the roof where the chimney from a wood stove used to be. We used to have something stuffed in that hole, but the sun and the heat broke the plastic down, it crumbled apart and the hole is open again. We're guessing that she (guess it's a she) slipped in thru that hole and couldn't find her way back out. 

We left the garage door open so she could fly out and stuffed that hole right up again. Hope it doesn't fall in before we come for our next visit and trap another bird!

Looking forward to seeing more wild life....wonder what we'll see next.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

More Glass

I was sure I had enough green glass, I was really sure....but I couldn't help myself.

Two of them have the same coloring and I would say that they are originals, the third one is a different green and it's a good bet that it's a replica. But you never know when you need two of the same size and at 65¢ it was a steal

These two look like they are hand made. They have inclusions in the glass and both have a swirl pattern on the bottom.

I had one and now found a smaller one....never know when it will come in handy

You can't tell by the picture, but this vase is actually oval, the opening is round and the vase base is oval. Thought that was pretty unique.

This was a pretty unique canning jar. It has a peak - a - boo lid with a blue glass inner lid. It also has the good housekeeping seal of approval on it.

Have you every seen one like this? Know anything about it?

I'm going to have to research it a bit.

If I buy anymore green glass I'm going to have to find more storage!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

Back when I was living in Germany I used my fathers army chest as my couch table and loved all the extra storage.

I was hoping to find something just like it for the house.

When I saw this on Craigslist two years ago I thought it would be perfect.

But as you see, it's taller than the couch. Won't work.

On this latest trip we discovered an Antique Mall.

Oh My Goodness! What wonderful stuff!

While there hubby discovered this beauty

It's a ceder chest with a tray and a storage compartment. A great place to store our games and other things we might need in the front room.

Naturally I had to put my own stamp on it and decided to cover the tray with the same pleather to match the side tables I covered last Summer.

Also perfect for playing Yatzee!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Put to Good Use

This trip I was able to unpack and put some of my finds to good use.

Here I used the antique silver tray and one of the blue vases we found at Savers for a little bathroom aroma therapy.

What do you think? Do you like it? Do ya? Do ya? Huh? I do!

I did discover that the little claw feet make dark marks on the sink top.

What to do?

They're too small to stick little felt pieces to them so I just put a dab of hot glue on the bottom and flattened them right away. Worked out great and no more dark marks!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Frozen Art

As I posted a while back, the woman that once owned our house was a metal artist.

Last year while mowing the back part of the yard Hubby hit a piece of metal and it turned out to be a Rooster that she created. Our neighbor wanted it really bad and traded Hubby for it.

I don't really know what it is, but on the top there's a stage coach and horses.

On tis morning it looked amazing with a layer of frost.

Said it before, I'll say it again...sad that she can no longer create her art.

Aloha A Hui Hou!