Random Junk

I dropped my hubs off at work one morning and I saw this big pile of junk next to their employee parking lot.

I thought gosh, they let customers see this junk! What an eye sore!

But then I saw more...

Luckily I had my camera in the car.

(Note: I have to start never leaving home without it, I'm always missing great photo ops, like yesterday in the parking lot of walmart there was a family of about 8 chickens sitting in a shopping cart in the parking lot)

Apparently I have a thing for moss..........



Then I thought to myself... have I been stalking Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors too much to see the absolute beauty in these?

Labor Day Weekend Pt. 2

Im a little... ok a lot late getting this post out there.

Just wanted to share more of our Labor Day weekend.

My son, I love him.

But he also makes me understand why female animals sometimes eat their young.

I'm kidding, Im kidding dont get your panties in a bunch.

He's a very active and curious lil boy, I sometimes forget he's only a year and a half.

I remember my neice being so much more of a baby at that age.

Here he his with his first Oreo... atleast I think its his first Oreo, I've never given him one before this.

Oh how junk food makes kids so happy!

We try not to give him too much sweets, cause well he's active enough as it is we dont need to make him hyper. And I like to keep things healthy around my house.

In the begining of summer someone in blogland posted a week of towels. oh for the life of me I just cant remember who it was! I'm so sorry if anyone remembers who it was please tell me so that I can give them credit for this idea.

I enjoyed her ideas for towels, one week straight from hanging towels to making towel wraps.

 It was very cute.

Its been in the back of my mind since and so when I saw these cast iron fleur de lis hooks on ebay I instantly thought towel hanger for our backyard!

I picked these babies up for $10 and we hung them in our back patio for when we set up the pool for my son to play.

Yay serves its purpose and looks good too even when theres no towel.

 

I sat here under my umbrella that I got from CSN Stores with my winnings from the giveaway that Rachelle over at Fingerprints on the Fridge hosted and enjoyed my sunday.... actually it was Monday. Thats whats great about long weekends you just cant remember what day it is :-)

And watched my rascal run around the backyard and almost completely ignore the fact that I spent a good 15 mins blowing up his pool.

Must finish the day off with a popcycle that my neighbor actually snuck between the fence!

HAHAHA Classic!

It was a nice long weekend, cant wait for another one!

{Remembering}

September 11th is definately a day to remember.

 Most people remember that horrible day 9 years ago that changed our country forever.

Whether or not you lived in NY what happened on that day affected each and every one of us someway or another and touched our lives.

Photo courtesy of windsofchange.net

9/11 also holds another meaning to me and the people of Kauai.
18 years ago we were struck by what they called at the time the 3rd largest and most devastating hurricanes in United States history.
Hurricane Iniki, which means strong and piercing wind, was the strongest to ever hit the Hawaiian Islands.
The eye of the storm passed right over our island of Kauai.
It was a category 4 storm and had rumored winds up to 225mph.
Hurricane Iniki left Kauai with $1.8 Million dollars in damage, destroyed 1,400 homes, damaged 5,000 and left 6 people dead.

Doesnt seem like huge numbers compared to the Twin Towers tragedy
 but for a small community, it was huge!

Photo Courtesy of Bishop Museum

Kapaa Town

Photo Courtesy of Honolulu Advertiser

What still amazes me and touches me is how our community worked together.

A lot of us were left without homes, all without electricty, running water.

Even so we rebuilt our homes, our island, our community.

It was back to the basics, sometimes you have to start over to move forward, and that we did.

I just wanted to share this video that till today give me chicken skin.

Enjoy and remember to live Aloha!

Mirror Mirror on the wall

Yes, I said I was going to play over the long weekend, but how can I have a long weekend and NOT get a single project in there? I cant so here's what I did.

A while back I saw this project from Katie over at Impatiently Praying for Patience.

I since seen it all over blogland, but Katies project was the first that caught my eye.

I really enjoyed her tutorial, it was very easy to follow and she said shes never used a miter box before... just like me! I had my mind set that I was going to do this!

So here is my bathroom mirror before, glorious isnt it ;-)

 BORING!

And there's two of them, one in each of our bathrooms.

But a nice framed mirror for our bathrooms just isnt in our budget.

So my happy self went to Home Depot to pick out some molding. I walked to the isle and found a gentleman working and asked him, "if I pick out the molding will you cut it for me?"

and he says, "no. you cut it yourself in that station over there" (he was nice about saying no atleast)

I got nerrrvous!!! What?! I gotta cut it myself? What if I make a fool out of myself right here in the store?!

I sucked it up and went for it. Good thing I didnt play damsel in distress, cause boy was it super easy!

 I wanted to go back and brag to the guy that told me no that I did it all by myself, but then I thought I'd feel even more embarrassed cause he'd be thinking duh an idiot could do it.

 (hello, that would be me)

So I brought my moulding and my brand spanking new miter box home and went for it.

10 mins later... done :-) with purdy 45 degree cuts, yay!

(just had to add that it took about 10 mins for all the cuts not just one)

Ok, here is where I offer a word of advise.

BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR CUTS!

I went for it and didnt check if they matched up and guess what they didnt! I had the thick part of the moulding matching up to the thin part it was a mess, I was frustrated. But luckily I had only made 6 cuts at that time and there was a chance to save what moulding I had left. My hubs jumped in to help and we matched 4 pieces for one frame with the thick part all on the outside of the frame. The other 2 pieces would have the thick part on the inside so we cut the last 2 pieces to match that.

Whew! That was a close one!

Then I got out some left over paint.

Dont forget to paint the back side of the moulding also because you will see it in the mirror.

                          

Do you like my super high tech painting devices?

I used Brown Tepee from Behr Paint, left over from my son's room for the spare bathroom that has absolutely no style or theme whatsoever and were still clueless on what we want to do.

Then I used this left over paint from our bedroom, I think it's called Brown Bear for Behr also.

(Love that paint, very easy to use, good quality and great price)

Note: Behr did not pay me to say that, nor did they compensate me in anyway. I'm pretty positive they dont even know I exist.

I had to get a pix of this. Of course, theres my "handy hubsters"

Hang a screen door he cannot, find a use for the paint opener to open his beer... OF COURSE!

I just finished praising Behr paint and notice my Devoe opener, hehehe.

On another note... if you ever need specialty stains, thats the place to go.

Ok getting back on track...

 I put on 3 coats of paint so it took pretty much a day to paint and dry in between coats.

Then we brought it inside and used liquid nails to adhere it to the mirror.

BTW, there is such a thing as liquid nails for mirrors! I did NOT take notice of it till after it was too late.

Dont forget to prep your mirrors by cleaning them with alcohol first.

Hubby had to get in on the action. I think he just secretly really wanted to use the caulking gun.

Sorry for the indecent pix, it was hulluva hot in our bathroom that day and well, we live in Hawaii he hardly ever wears a shirt at home. Cover your eyes for the next two pix.

We attached it to the mirror, put some pressure on the moulding and he held it in place while I put up some masking tape to hold it in place till the glue dried.

 I would recommend using painters tape, but we were fresh out that day.

Ok were back to rated G.

Another word of advise, dont get the glue too close to the edges. The first piece we put on was a total mess! Glue came ooozing out all over the mirror, and as you can see below this is what you'll be looking at if you get it too close to the edges.

ANOTHER word of advise, keep some kind of adhesive remover handy - you WILL need it.

So tada! Here it is with all the pieces up. I still have to caulk and touch up the corners but I was too anxious to share my transformation with you.

What do you think? Big difference, small price.

Above is our master bathroom and below is the spare bathroom.

I luve it! And I can say we did it ourselves!

Oh and you gotta love the cost, for the moulding and the liquid nails (ok and the miter box)

total cost under $25

Ok so here it is again:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now, it seems like it emphasizes the fact that our light fixture is TOTALLY crooked.

(DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW EVERYTHING IN OUR HOUSE IS CROOKED)

(and no my hubs didnt build it)

When there was no frame I could overlook the fact that it wasnt centered, but now it really stands out.

Guess thats another project on the list...

Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did!

Im hooking up with these parties:

Feature Yourself Friday

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

The Shabby Nest

Frugalicious Friday

Saturday Night Special

Saturday Soire

The DIY Showoff

Get Your Craft On

Labor Day Weekend

We went camping for one night during our long weekend.

(note to self, dont camp for only one night)

Look at that beautiful mountain.

This was the views behind us, and infront well.. just see for yourself...

Ahhh breathtaking isnt it.

Where in the world do you know of where you can sit at the bottom of a mountain and have your toes in the water?

(Toes in the water A** in the sand, not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand, life is good today - gosh I love Zac Brown)

This is what my son thought of it all

It was his first time camping after all wouldnt you feel that way too?

He played in the sand and ate junk food, what else do you do while camping

My hubs got in some fishing as well as everyone else on the beach

and it just wouldnt be camp without a campfire

It burned from the inside out, it was so.... trippy.

I fell into a restless sleep with the sound of waves crashing on the beach and gun shots in the distance. Gun shots you ask? Well it is goat iradication. Strange combo I know, waves and gun shots.

Saturday night is in the books for this 2010 Labor Day weekend, nite ya'll more to come.

Back to reality

Welcome back to reality!
No internet for 4 days!
And no cell service for 2!

It was a great long weekend, of course could have been longer.

I'm still trying to catch up.

We took our son camping for the first time!

Just one night, dont think I had the energy to keep up with him any longer.

Had some friends over for a casual dinner and as much as I said I wasnt gonna work,

I did work on a little project.

More on all of it later!

Hope you all had a great weekend, what did you do on your labor day weekend?

Bakerella Love..

Love me some cake pops

Thanks Bakerella

I dont think I'll ever make a cake again!

{UPDATE}

I forgot to add this pix...the after