Grab somebody sexy tell em hey....

It's Monday!

Time for Monday Music Moves Me...



This week's theme is songs from ONE Name Singers or Groups.
This song is one of my new favs at the time from Pitbull the others are really random, cause thats kinda how I am too.

i love your smile

A while back I bought a box of teeth whitening strips. Of course I had every intention to use them and well it never happend. As I was cleaning my bathroom I found them and figured I'd better use them before they expire... hopefully they havent already.

Ok so here is the gross mouth shot, why is it that you can never take a flattering mouth shot?

I'm like the worst ever, I do everything that stains your teeth, in fact I'm drinking coffee as I write this!

Here's the box, and NO Crest did not sponsor this post nor do they have any idea who I am and that I'm doing this. I just thought it would be good to share my thoughts and experience.

Here I am wearing them. It felt a bit awkward at first and I was being super careful so they wouldnt come off. They were actually very easy to wear, and if you dont go off on a bunch of words that begin with 'S' you'll have no problems.

See hardly noticeable!

So I'm on day 3 or 4 and I'll keep you updated on how its coming along!

Flying Saucers

Flying Saucers

This food item deserves its own post.

I dont know what it is about 2 pieces of toasted white bread filled with a kind of manwich mix and cheese that drives people insane!

No really, I'm serious.

You find them at Bon dances and carnivals.

Everyone has a slightly different recepie but its basically just manwich mix.

They sell for $3 each and we have to put a limit of 10 per person if not they buy them like they'll never see them for the rest of their lives, even though the bon dance the follwing weekend will probably be selling them as well.

People stand in line for an hour or more even to get some.

Here is the stash for the "slow night" and this is only half since they have to precook as early as they can since they sell soooooo fast!

Rows and rows of pre buttered bread and stuffed with the filling.

This is how they are cooked.

In special made molds that are held over a fire and tuned back and forth till they are toasted just right. You cannot miss the unmistakeable clacking of the molds as they are open and closed and flipped over and over.

So here's how they do it. They put the sandwiches in the middle of the molds and then the edges are cut off with a butter knife.

Then over the fire they go, flipping and clacking.

See one peeking out below.

They are slipped into little paper envelopes and are sold individually.

Sorry I dont have a picture of the actual flying saucer, I had to get busy working and they sold out in 2 hours!!!

If you ever get a chance to try one, its a MUST!

I think I'll have to make some and share it with you... hmmm project?

O Bon Food

In Hawaii everything is celebrated with food.

It's not a celebration without a ton of food.

And where is the best place to get simple celebration food?

(I'm not talking luau food... thats a whole seperate post... another time)

At a Bon Dance of course!

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake which is pounded into a paste or you can use mochiko flour.

It is slightly sweet and very sticky and this version is filled with black beans.

Maki Sushi here is vinagared rice, tuna, egg and dried shrimp wrapped in nori.

My fellow food booth workers prepping the food for sale.

Pronto pops are every kids fav! We even had this at my son's first birthday party, made from the batter from this very church. Pronto Pops are just like Corn Dogs but the batter is slightly sweet and more cake like.

Saimen! Gotta have saimen, with noodles and home made soup.

Gandule rice, not a japanese tradition but a crowd favorite.

Sticky rice flavored with achiote and mixed with pork, olives, cilantro and gandule beans.

My son's favorite is the saimen.

Here he is dressed in his hapi coat.

Now when he gets older, I'm signing him up for taiko lessons!

O Bon Festival

O Bon is a Buddhist tradition that honors one's deceased ancestors.

It has been celebrated in Japan for over 500 years, I remember this for nearly my entire life. Friday and Saturday nights during Bon Season would be spent at the Bon Dance.

The temple decorated for O Bon.

My son was so excitd with all the lanters linned up.

This is the name of the church. They had it displayed in the hall where they set up for people to eat and the dancers to rest and eat as well.

The festival about to begin.

People start to line up infront of the food booths, dancers getting ready in their kimonos and the taiko drummers setting up inside the ring.

 

I love seeing all the women and men dress up and dance.

When I was young, they would go all out and dress in full kimonos.

Nowadays, you usually find them using only hapi coats.

What else do I love about O Bon?

The food!

Stay tunned for more on O Bon food!

I suck but, I'm back with Monday Music Moves Me!

 

Hi, my name is Rhiannon and I've been a sucky blogger recently and I'm sorry.

There's been so much going on between work and home and my husband's new schedule, I've still been busy doing small projects here and there and getting ready for our big project ripping out the flooring in our entry way and kitchen.



I have a lot to share so just bare with me please!

Today is Monday and I'm getting back on the train!

This week is freebie and this is my newest fav song

O Bon ~ Wordless Wednesday

* I Rocked the Bump! *

Shell is having a fun party today over at Things I Can't Say

It's all about rocking your baby bump!

Now that I'm a mother and I've been there, I can say that I just love baby bumps and labor stories. I guess since I've been there and I can relate.

This picture was taken at Kula Botanical gardens when we went to Maui for our friend's wedding. I was 29 weeks pregnant.

I actually went into premature labor after this trip and ended up with a stay in the hospital the day after we came home. I also got the strict no more traveling!

The pix below I think was taken a week or two later, and we used it for our christmas card that year. I thought I was huge... I can laugh at myself now.

I took these maternity pictures 1 week before I gave birth so I would be about 36 weeks pregnant.

Yea I rocked my bump and I was loving every minute of it!

Go check out the other baby bumps too!

Cheap easy planter... pain in the butt post

***UPDATE***

I finally found the photos of before that I was looking for.

I've been wanting to share this super fast project I did for a while, but for some reason blogger has been giving me issues. It's flipping my photos around and not allowing me to leave comments on other people's blogs. And Ive been seing some pretty amazing stuff recently and I want to leave some love on their blogs but just cant! Total bummer.

So here are my upsidedown/sideways pictures... oh and one other thing, I just cant find my before pix either!

I got this planter box at a thrift store for 1.50 it was red so I sprayed it with a couple of coats of black paint.

I should have gone out and got me some craft foam, but it was late at night and I wasnt going to run into town to get some and our one and only craft store closes at 7pm anyway.

So I cut up a cardboard box and it just had to do!

I stuffed it inside so I had a flat surface to work with and I got to work plucking greenery out of this vine.

I got this vine a while back when I had a $5 off coupon.

I knew I'd use it some day and it was today.

I used my hot glue gun and put a glob of glue on the end and held it down to the cardboard till it would stay without falling.

For now, it sits up above the kitchen cabinets, until I can figure out if I want to keep it there or move it somewhere else.

Hows that for a fast and cheap project?!

Did you see my lil pitcher next to her that I told you guys about a while back?

I'm linking to the parties {here}

Kale

Yup, I said Kale.

Kale is a form of cabbage and is considered to be a highly nutritious veggie.

It is a powerful antioxidant, it is an anti-inflammatory, is high is beta carotene, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Lutine, Zeaxanthin and Calcium.

(dont ask me what the two before Calcium are, I aint got a clue!)

My friend Julie has been cooking with Kale alot and I just had to give it a try.

I washed them, roughly chopped it up and threw it in a pan with a little bit of butter and olive oil. I tossed it around for a few minutes and at the end added a pinch of salt and some garlic.

It was actualy very delish.

Kinda rough and chewy but otherwise good.

I would definately have this again and serve it to my family knowing its great nutritional value!

I'm linking to what we ate wednesday at Buggie & Jellybean

And just look at that beautiful ornamental kale

Photo & info from Wikipedia

How Great Thou Art

 I saw this video on Unexpected Elegance and I just absolutely loved it.

One of my favorite songs and I just adore Carrie Underwood.

This song reminds me of my grandfather. He would sing it in church and at funerals and it was the most amazing thing to see him sing it at my grandmothers funeral. I'm tearing right now thinking of the memory.
When he had passed I had wished I could have sung it for him.

Just had to share with all you.

I'm linking to:

Rice Bag Art

 I'm not sure how many times I've talked about the frames I gave a new life to {here}

I bought a bunch of them for like $5 each and I'm sooooo glad I did, best 5 bucks spent let me tell ya! So, I took another one of them out of my closet and sprayed it with Rustoleum's Heirloom White.

Years ago my grandmother gave me a bunch of old cloth rice bags. Incase you dont know, rice is big in Hawaii... huge. It's a staple and you'll see it on the table atlest one meal a day... at the least! It is a local thing, but it comes from the Asian roots here in the islands.

Back in the day, rice would come in these cloth bags.

My grandmother kept a bunch of them in almost perfect shape. You could find these in pretty much any grandma's kitchen, as they made great dish towels. With frequent use they would get softer and softer and quite absorbent and would dry very quickly.

Mine, was a piece of history, I had to frame it!

I spent a lot of time trying to iron it just right.

Yoneji Store is no longer, but I can still remember going there when I was young.

We could get candy necklaces for 5 cents.

It even has the location on the bottom; Lihue, Kauai 96766

I hung it right above our dinning table, what better place as rice has such a huge place on any local table.

Please forgive the awful flash, I just couldnt get a good pix without the flash.

I'm linking to the parties {here}