rockin' stars...

I really, really, really wanted to make a pair of starfish slippers 'cause summer's up next in this endless stream of seasons and I'm feelin' like rockin' some stars.

Here's a link to last weeks post, the original star fishyness...

http://www.localsugarhawaii.com/2012/04/wish-upon-starfish.html

and the silliness that followed

http://www.localsugarhawaii.com/2012/04/bonging-captain.html

and here's the tute as promised so you can rock your own star.

Supplies:

1 Plastic Ice cream lid

In honor of Earth Day and my cheapness I backed these with a re purposed ice cream lid

1 piece of felt

Glue

Paint Brush, or tool to apply glue

Glass Beads

Scissors

Hole Punch

String

Small plates or trays to work on 

First I came up with a shape for the starfish that would fit nicely on top of the slippers I had.  (note: I actually would've gone a bit smaller in retrospect with the plastic backing, for comforts sake which is super important-- you won't feel so very rock starish if you've got plastic rubbing against your toes with each step)

Then trace the starfish pattern on the felt and plastic lid, using chalk, if you're working with darker felt, or a pen.

Cut these shapes out and be sure to fit them against each other and trim as needed. 

Punch two small holes in the plastic lid and use a cloth string to tie them on to the slippers.

Working in with a small section at a time glue the beads on to the felt in the desired pattern. 

Let dry completely and then apply beaded starfish to plastic backing.  I applied a generous layer of glue to the plastic backing as well as the back of the felt and then "married" the two.  Hold in place for a moment, if need be use a clothes pin or large paper clip to keep the starfish in place until completely dry.  

When I made these it was incredibly damp in Hawaii.  We've had the strangest spring and we were in the midst of a little down pour so the drying time ended up being a full day.  But after that... 


Ta da!

Rock on little stars... rock on...

live sweet,

n

update:  If you're handy with a needle and thread you could stitch these beads on to the felt and then use another felt piece for backing which would make for longer lasting stars.

update on the update:  Wouldn't these be just lovely on a myriad of other things, hair clips, an accent piece on a summer wreath, a beach inspired headband...

sean says...

When in doubt...

Show up to the party with bubbles on your head.

Trust me.  Would I lie to ya?

Oh, some may scoff. 

Others may wish there was just a teensy bit more to your outfit.

But, trust me... on the bubbles.

Oh and your mama's hand me down tupperware-- yeah, that too. 

Just in case someone insists you take that last slice of PB and J with ya in your car seat for the long ride home.

That's what Sean says.

live sweet,

n

just the way you are...

found this little number...

'thought you should know...

just how wonderfully amazing you are... 

just the way you are...

this very moment...

You, know, if Bruno Mars says it... 


it must be true...

Believe it...

I do.

live sweet,

n

cute as a button...

We're proudly posting our "bloggin' in Hawaii" button thanks to 

http://www.anewview365.com

Isn't it just too stinkin' cute?!

bonging the captain...

...And other fabulously awesome frippery

So, back in the long ago day when I was a flight attendant, oh yes, passing out juice and gourmet meals on hard plastic trays and vowing to save the life of every person on board including the oh-so-many who couldn't be bothered to listen to the three minute safety demo, yes, that was my once upon a time jobby job, well back in those days I sat through a presentation on words.  

It wasn't a bad presentation, in fact, really it was quite good, although, unfortunately, it wasn't a presentation on bad words-- 'cause I'm thinking that could be a whole lotta fun.

Anywho, the presentation was on words not to use on an airplane, words like "crash" and "emergency" and phrases like "holy sh*@, we're going down"-- o.k. I just made that one up, but I know we were all thinking it might just be a little fun on a particularly bad day to whisper it near a particularly rude passenger.  

Well, towards the end of the day the presenter asked if we could think of other common industry phrases that while very clear and meaningful to us, might be misinterpreted by someone not familiar with our lingo, (read as: confuse/ scare the heck out of unknowing passengers).

And then someone, I don't remember who exactly, but I wish I did 'cause I'd find them and thank them and have a good laugh with them, but alas, I don't recall so can I just share this little laugh with you?... 

Well, then someone, at that very moment, raised their hand and said "Oh, you mean like 'bonging the captain'"?

Oh, we had all "bonged the captain".  In fact we would ask each other several times before take off to be sure someone had "bonged the captain" and if not, well one of us eager to please, fresh outta ground school, newbies would happily volunteer to do the deed. 

And so it was done, our secret was out.  

We had all been holding it in, this little secret of our regular "bonging (of) the captain"--we did it several times a day, actually.  


The look on the presenter's face confirmed that this was the most absolutely awesome example of her entire presentation. 


Which was affirmation we all really needed 'cause, when we first started flying much more seasoned, (way too often-- way too uptight), senior flight attendants would ask us if we'd "bonged the captain yet" and they'd expect us to answer in the affirmative completely straight faced and professional as if there was nothing even remotely ambiguous or funny about the phrase.  


And her little nod of approval at our shining example somehow absolved us of every time we had giggled, on the inside, the first one hundred and fifty one times we'd heard "bong the captain" used, (sadly after that many times it becomes a bit old and the funniness wears off replaced by a "I don't get the joke" matter of fact usage of the phrase). 

In truth "bonging the captain" was just a quick easy way of saying we had signaled the cockpit, (hmm... now there's a word for ya),once the cabin was secured and ready for take off.  The signal made a "bing bong" chime and while "bing bonging the captain" sounds fun too, somewhere along the line the bing was dropped for sake of the bong. 

So, the whole point of this long drawn out story, other than to share a funny with ya, is to say sorry if "I bonged the captain" yesterday in my "slipper" post.  

I realized after the fact that slippers outside of Hawaii may mean something along the lines of this:  

Slippers, or slippahs, in Hawaii are these:

And, can we all just agree that no matter who says "slippers" none of us are visualizing these bad boys right here:

Should I ever "bong the captain" again here, please feel free to let me know.  I'm so glad to be writing about Hawaii, it's beauty and culture, but making Local Sugar Hawaii accessible to every one on this whole entire planet is super important too-- we all share this local and if there's a joke or a post or a project, well, I wanna be sure we're all in on it together here. 

Plus, I'm pretty sure if you get a chance to say "bong the captain" at least once in your day, well, that could pretty much change your whole darn life. 


So, feel free to let me know, or if you just feel the need to say it here we'll forgive ya, the first few times at least...

live sweet,

n

wish upon a starfish...

So, summer's just around the very next corner...

And while we're pretty much flip flopping our way through paradise everyday, trust me in this house we have our slippahs and then we have our "dress" slippahs and not much else, 

I thought it might be kinda cool to get a little trendy.

 And, well, starfish seem to be popping up every time someone says summer.

 So, I went on a hunt for cute starfish slippers, 

and I found these...

$150.00

sandalworld.com

$59.99
thebestofeverythingforyou.blogspot.com

$650.00 MiuMiu
Saks Fifth Avenue

Well, those are just lovely aren't they, 

I mean, I could drool over any of those in a well-polished glass store window.

And then, I'd have to get the flip to the floppin' and take my rubber slipper wearin' self to Long's for a pair of of black locals. 

'Cause if I'm gonna spend six hundred and fifty dollars on something, anything, it's not gonna be shoes-- and certainly not slippers (okay, technically those are sandals, I suppose,but really?...)

So, I made these little starfish and attached them to a pair of slippers I already rock (read as "they're very well worn").

Let's meet Monday for style and we can make a pair together.

live sweet,

n

I hope you've entered our "Color Your World Beautiful" Giveaway.  

Scroll down for details on how to enter.

oh, we're going to the hukilau...

Sometimes, when the sun is just right and the tide is oh so high... sometimes, you just have to go to the Hukilau.

So, that's what we did today.

Well, and then there's this little thing.  

Isn't Bing Crosby and his ukulele just the dreamiest?

live sweet,

n

If you’re a local here at Local Sugar Hawaii you may be wondering where our usual Monday “local style post” is… it’s coming, ‘promise.  And I think you’ll really, really love it, it just wasn’t quite ready for today and I wanted it to be just right… so, I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for some local sugar style.

happy earth...

Be still my earth lovin’ soul. Here’s a local mag. I just love, love, love, ‘cause:                  1. It’s free at most Hardware stores                    2. Tons of pretty pictures                  3. It’s free                   4. This month is their “Green Issue”. If you’re not on O’ahu and want a sneak peek in to real island homes let me know and I’ll snag one for ya and send it in the mail. Really, they’re that good and I luv ya that much.

earth love...

You + Me + the earth = a sweet place to be

Thanks for making this planet...

such a groovy place...

to be.

Happy Earth Day

live sweet,

n

lend me some sugar...

I am your neighbor.

So here's a little something I came up with 'cause I needed a little something... just a little... something... to share with our Local Sugar Hawaii neighbors.

These are giant marshmallows, I found them at Walmart-- yup, the Wal-to-the-Ma-art.  

I'm doing a fist pump right now, you can't see me, but I'm doing it-- your welcome Walmart.

In Hawaii these cost just over four dollars for a bag of about thirty, 'kay now I'm super jealous of you non Hawaii folk 'cause I'm thinking you'll probably pay way less. 

Oh, the joys of shipping.

Did I mention these marshmallows are giant?  Really, really giant-- like giant cupcake giant... yeah, giant. 

So here's how the assembly went-- trust me you'll wanna assemble these cause they're fast, easy, yumminess plus, they have this major wow factor aspect that is like, wow.  

Super short story... 
We had a birthday party for Tyty at Ice Palace Hawaii on Saturday and several people came up to find out what these were, (his were favors for the party guests and were presented like cakepops topped with rainbow sprinkles), and where can they get some, and do I make them to sell.  
After blushing a most ridiculous blush and doing my "you can totally do it cheer" I told them they could meet us here and we'd make them together.

So, here we go.

Ingredients

Marshmallows

Chocolate chips for melting

Desired garnishes

Place some chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.  I used white chocolate, for a cookies and cream variation, semisweet and milk chocolate, for two different types of chocolate based ones, and peanut butter chips for, well, peanutbuttery ones.

Melt chocolate for two to three minutes on medium high.

 Remove chocolate every minute to stir and distribute the heat.  

Dip each marshmallow in the chocolate of your choice.  For several of these I have to confess I double-dipped, first in peanut butter and then, after letting the peanut butter layer firm up just a bit, in a milk chocolate.

It's totally fine to be creative, you know what you like better than anyone and there are so many flavor combination possibilities.

I work with about six at a time letting the chocolate firm up just a bit before garnishing.  The yumminess above is dipped in milk chocolate, topped with piped melted peanut butter chips, a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wedge and chocolate sprinkles. 

Here are a few variations we made:

Double dipped peanut butter and chocolate 

topped with a peanut butter drizzle and Nutter Butter slice

Cookies and Cream

Peanut Butter Cup

I'm off to share some Aloha with the neighbors, 

'cause, really, what is Aloha if not shared?  

live sweet,

n 

sending some sugar...

Today we say "Mahalo".

Thank you to all who heard our call and came to "join the ride" at Local Sugar Hawaii.  

We will grow in a myriad of little and big ways over the next few months and years but not one of them would be possible without your being here at this moment of our beginning.

Our "Sneak Peek" Give Away winner is Tina.  We will be contacting you by email and look forward to sending you over seventy dollars worth of sweet Hawaii sugar by mail.

live sweet,

n

To learn more about how our winner was chosen visit 

http://www.localsugarhawaii.com/p/sneak-peek-giveaway.html

tomorrow we share some sugar...

'cause we are just overflowing with gratitude, at your willingness to come "join the ride" in these very early days of 

Local Sugar Hawaii.

Mahalo  

our time in the sun...

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life.  

Within decades we must close our eyes again. 

Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we came to wake up in it?

Richard Dawkins

However you may feel about how we got here or our reason for being here... we're here. 

 And we're all on this big, beautiful, amazing planet together.  The earth is our home, it's the "local" we all share.  

I hope you'll join me in celebrating Earth Day on April twenty-second. 

I'd love to hear how you are using your 
"time in the sun".  

live sweet,

n

________________________

Here are a few things I thought might help get ya excited:

Target will be giving away reusable shopping bags on Earth Day

and 

$50 in coupons for earth friendly products all "Earth Month" long.

http://www.target.com/

15% of these  Heather Brown designed, 100 % post-consumer recycled plastic, phone cases will go to support Jack Johnson's Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/  

Your little something + my little something = a much bigger something.  
Here's the official site for Earth Day, which was first observed in 1970.

http://www.earthday.org/

http://natsknapsack.blogspot.com