Our day trip to the North Shore *Linky Party*

I'm ashamed to admit that its been almost 3 years since we went down to the North Shore of our island. It feels like a long drive and you have to make a day out of it. Those of you who commute are probably laughing at me right now, but it's about 50 miles.

Since it was a long weekend, we decided to pack a lunch and make the drive.

It was so beautiful, despite the rainy weather.

The Hanalei Taro fields right off the side of the road.

Hanalei Pier is where we stopped for lunch and some play time in the sand.

We walked to the pier and my son tried to find fish. No such luck, you couldnt even see the bottom from all the rain we have been having.

Do you recognize this picture??

Need a hint?

{here}

It was pretty rainy and we couldnt stay on the beach for very long with out a huge down pour coming down on us, but it did make pretty waterfalls.

I had to climb under the pier and get this shot.

I was so bummed that I had forgotten my good camera that day.

After the rain we decided to drive further to the end of the road and check out the sights.

This is one of two wet caves off the side of the road. I've actually been swimming in one of them. Ice cold mountain water! 

This is a pretty little swimming hole just off the side of the road.

Even with the rain it was a gorgeous day!

We had a great time with our little family.

I'm so thankful to have the chance to do this.

What did you guys get to do this holiday weekend?

Link up and tell us what you guys did!

Weekend Deals and Steals!

Today is MEGA SWAGBUCKS day!

Which means your chances of earing swagbucks are doubled!

Have you signed up yet?

Here are some other great deals out there for this lovely Memorial Day Weekend:

Thanks to Babble for sharing the 411 about an aswome sale over at Dwell Studio.
Love me some Dwell Studio, my son's crib set is Dwell Studio, but they are a bit expensive for my wallet so I usually shop Dwell Studio for Target.

I like this kitchen set why can't I find this exactly in green?

Look I spoke too soon...

Super cute they even have matching aprons!

Also you can enter to win a $200 Pottery Barn Kids gift certificate over at The TomKat Studio!

And going on right now Pottery Barn Kids has a 75% off sale for Memorial Day Weekend!

Grab a free sample of Pull Ups Flushable Moist Wipes {Here}

Print a 50% off one item at Michael's {Here}

We dont have a Michael's here and I'm so jealous of you people who have a Michael's so think of me when you get that super sweet deal on some total awsome item that I'll never get my hands on.. sob.

What are your plans this Memorial Day weekend?

We're planning a drive to the beautiful North Shore tomorrow.

Pack a lunch, our suits and towels and just hang at the beach all day.

Maybe even splurge a bit and what better way to indulge than this decadent

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie and Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar from Kevin & Amanda.

A total sin, no not yet have one of these Frozen Hot Chocolate

That is what you call over indulgence!
I hope you all have a great long weekend and stay safe!

I'll post pix of our trip to the North Shore.

And don't forget to remember our military and all they have done for us!

Do you swag?

Well you better get with the program!

Swagbucks that is!

Ok, I'm just sharing this because I totally love swaggin'

You sign up for an account and use them as your search engine.

They randomly reward you with Swagbucks.

Collect Swagbucks and then trade them in for awsome prizes.

I traded mine in for 6 yes 6 Amazon gift cards for $5 each!

Thats $30 worth of Amazon gift cards!

NO JOKE!

You can put them towards some cricut cartridges

Cricut Cartridge, Stretch Your Imagination

This one is in my shopping cart!

Or a new bathing suit for summer

 

Monokini Swimsuit Pink Size Large

Cute and sexy and still hides my baby bulge tummy I never got rid of!

Amazon is one of my fav places to shop, since you've heard me say over and over again, we have NO selection here. Honest we have no where to shop.

You have nothing to loose, I promise, go ahead and click on the banner below and check it out for yourself.

Also, Friday's are Super Swagbuck days and your chances of winning are doubled!

 



So Stoked!

Remember the Spice Rack I turned into a nail polish holder?
You can refresh your memory {here}

Well that lil darlin Meg over at A Little Knick Knack featured it!

Yay, how exciting!

One thing I have noticed, I must start taking better picture and stop photographing in the wee hours of the night, my pix look just awful!




Anyway, THANKS MEG!!!
And don't forget to go check out all the other awsomeness on her blog as well!

oh no over ripe bananas again!?!

Don't you just hate when you have a great bunch of bananas and they get over ripe before they even turn yellow?

Sorry I know the pix is crooked I dont know how to fix it.

So, how do you save a bunch of over ripe bananas??

Make banana muffins!

Got the usual suspects for baking...

Mix em all up, or better yet get a helper to do the mixing for you.

A young child preferably, they are cheap labor and the younger they are the more they think its fun.

Watch out though, not just for child labor laws but when you turn your back to wash the dishes... this might happen.

It pretty much went all down hill from there. I forgot to take pix and the muffins just didnt have enough taste, I'll remember not to use that recepie again.

The story of my end tables

Once long, long ago there lived these black lacquer end tables.

There was a pair of them and they moved from Aunty "D's" house untill she kicked them out and they moved in with "mother". Then "mother" kicked them out and they ended up at MY house. I actually really liked them, they were asian looking and they were FREE!

Only problem is they were very visibly worn and beaten.

I jumped in to rescue this thrifty find and I used some paint remover gel.

I painted it on and it immediately made the paint bubble.

It looked so weird and creepy I had to touch it... take my word for it, you don't want to do that.

The stuff burns! Then I took a scraper to it and the laquer just pealed right off.

It didnt completely come off so I had some sanding to do to make it smooth.

Ok I'm being nice, I had a freaking ton of sanding to do, I'm sick of sanding!

I spent almost 4 hours sanding one day!

BY HAND!

The problem with this baby is that he's got a ton of curves and round edges and corners so my hand sander was completely useless.

Ok, fast forward like 2 weeks and I finally got the darn thing all sanded and ready to go. I even used some putty to fix up some of the busted up edges. Then I primed and painted in this soft green color. It's called Dried Thyme. Orignally I saw {this} gorgeous side table redo and loved the color, that one is called Rosemary. When I went to the Sherwin Williams store the paint swatch looked too dark and I was afriad it was going to be too dark next to my black couches.

Here's what it looks like:

A bit lighter than I expected, should have gone with the Rosemary!

I still can... without guilt that is. I bought their sample paint and it's only $5 and you get so much paint! I probably could have painted a small room with the amout they give you.

I moved him into his old spot, sorry for the dark images it is about 10pm when I took the pix.

So lets see before and after side by side:

Yup, theres two of them and now I just need to do that whole process all over again! Ugh...

Anyone want to help? If you come here and do all the sanding for me, I'll put you up :-)

Linking to the parties {HERE}

Hoo are you no. 42

I've got two posts coming at ya today.. got another project done as well, but I have to save something for tomorrow!

So lets start with our weekly...
Hoo Are you?

 Here are this week's questions! 1.  What is your favorite thing cooked on the bbq?Oh boy, what don't I like cooked on the bbq? We grill everything over here. Atleast once a week that grill is hot and were cooking something up. I love a good rib eye and potatoes and some corn on the cob. A hot dog should always be cooked on the grill, theres just no other way to have it! 2. How do you celebrate Memorial Day?I never made plans before since my hubby would go to either Maui or Oahu for races but since he doesnt race anymore we have the long weekend together... NOT. Now he works in the tourism industry so he doesnt have the long weekend. We are planning on packing up the car and driving to the North Shore this year and packing a picnic lunch and just hanging out for the day. Its been almost 3 years since we drove out to the North Shore. 3. Do you like your handwriting?not really but I've been told its really neat like a teachers 4. Do you still have your tonsils?yup 5. Do you unite your shoes when you take them off?Well I hardly ever wear shoes since I thankfully live in Hawaii and can wear SLIPPERS! yay!But when I do wear shoes no, I dont untie them

Monday Music Moves Me!

Hello Monday, why did you have to come so soon?

One thing I look forward to on Mondays is....

I love the message in this song, but Lady Gaga's video is just a little strange for me.




I'm feeling a little old skool



a little bit of fiesty in me...

Coat Rack for Extra Storage

This was a real quickie project I thought up to clear out some room in our spare room closet.

That closet is FULL of jackets, FULL! Don't ask me why we have so many, I mean we live in Hawaii, why do we need so many? And on top of that we live on the West side of the island which is like the desert.

We have some extra room on one wall in our closet so I thought of making like a coat rack or something. I got a piece of wood for a few dollars at Home Depot and spray painted it pink, bright pink cause this girl in a house full of boys needs some pink in her life.

Then I picked up some hooks from Walmart, not exactly the hooks I'd been dreaming of but we have NO selection over here.

I attached the hooks to the piece of wood and asked the hubby to screw it into the wall in our closet.

He wasn't thrilled on the pink, but lookie lookie who was the first to put their jackets on the coat rack...

Just right for some extra storage! Yay!

I'm linking to the parties {HERE}

writers block...

I'm having some serious writers block today!

I had planned on sharing a little project I did in like a half hour but I just can't seem to find the pictures I took. So I decided to share my experience making The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls.
But then I can't get on the P-dub's website and I lost fight.

So I took a break and downloaded the pictures I had on my phone... isn't it interesting when you look back at the random things you took pictures of on your phone?

Well I found pictures I took of our lunch for Admin Professionals Day.

But first.... Breakfast of Champions!

Chocolate cake!

This was waiting at out table when we got there... nothing better than a pineapple and hibiscus mojito with strawberries at lunch.

We just love this place, it's called 22 North.

Amazing fresh food and the BEST drinks ever, their bartender is a GENIUS!

We just had to try the blood orange, sage and thyme mojito too.

It's sitting next to my completely wiped clean lunch plate, I had an open face poached tuna sandwich with capers and a poached egg on top...delish.

The absolute best thing about this place... tied with their drinks is dessert!

Homemade doughnuts with a coffe creme sauce, to die for.
I think I need some now, seriouslly I really do.