and...

Happy Weekend.

I spent the day at the market "hawking our wares" and spreading the word about our little project here and the boys spent it eating their weight in breakfast burritos and cheese quesadillas with the salty surfers two stalls down-- go figure.  

It was hot and beautiful like only a day spent on O'ahu's north shore can be and I think these four tired souls, well, I think they just about loved every second.  

Here's a photo peek at bits of our funk{e} stall and a few links to enjoy while we recover, Charlie out by the grill, Sean and Ty with an early night's rest and well, there's this book from a dear sweet friend I've been meaning to finish, perhaps tonight... perhaps.  

This, this is too funny and also I think I see myself in that little impatient redhead at 3:18, hmm... if I wasn't so pooped I'd analyze the connection for deep hidden meanings and such.

This clip of the beach across from our market, well, it just kind of sums it all up.

And, next time I think you should come with and we can recover together here, don't ya think?

But mostly...

Happy Weekend.

live sweet, 

n 

Oh and you must tell me ALL about your week's end and geesh it was hot today and so I'm dying to hear all about your crisp fall days.

oh hat...

I'll be taking a trunk show's worth of funk{e} items from our little shop here to market this weekend, and I'm oh so nervous.

  

I've added a small collection of hats featuring our Large Bands, which are so incredibly versatile they truly can be as funk{e} as you can be.  These will all be packed up this weekend for our little showing at the North Shore Market but I thought I'd introduce them here first, 'cause this is our little project and, well, they sort of belong in our little space, ya know?...

It'll be the very first time we'll present our little line of earth friendly accessories exclusively to our Hawaii community and it'll be the most amazing opportunity to share our story. 

And also,

 Feet and heart and soul don't fail me now...  

Wish me luck, I'm getting ready to jump.

live sweet, 

n 

If you'd like, you can visit our store here and read up on our journey to this moment.  And if it speaks to your soul, well, you can "heart" the shop or shop the shop and know that it means the whole wide world to have YOU on this journey with little 'ole me.

steppin' out in the rain...

Sometimes when it rains all weekend long and you are sharing twelve hundred square feet of living space with three other bodies, well, sometimes you just gotta get to steppin' out in that rain. 

And that is how we found ourselves at Sea Life Park Sunday afternoon.  

Oh it was such an incredibly magical way to spend a rainy afternoon.

live sweet, 

n 

Join me if you please for a sweet link up with friends.

"no soup for you"...

On learning to love and leave the "no's".

You know what I have been getting an awful lot of lately, those "nos".  
Loud and clear and oh so purposely spoken.   

It's like someone made an old school mixed tape of "no's" with varied pitch and tone. 
A tape that would too easily play on:

me: hi

tape: no.

me: would you...

tape 2: No-oo-o.

me: hiwouldyou... 

 (in a very hurried get it in because you know IT's coming...)

tape 3: NO!

Right, then.  

I've been trying to not let them settle in my little soul, but it may be a bit more delicate than I'd like to admit, that little soul of mine. 

There's a point to this, 'promise,  except that that "no, no, no "ing"" has been playing in my head so long that I kind of sort of forgot the point except that now looking at that title up there I realize this post was gonna be about the soup nazi, you know from Seinfeld, a completely worthy of 7:43 minutes of your life clip can be found here.  

Just the other day when I was watching it and remembering and thinking "holy moly that's funny" and also "I'm living in that soup line right now", and while watching Elaine from 6:59 on, well, I realized "I can make my own soup", ya know?  

I contacted a gazillion places, said a quadrillion prayers and well, learned that "no" is a perfectly good answer, sometimes.  Oh, it CAN be painfully disappointing for sure and awkward and sucky and some how all the while being good.  That God, he may be onto something with his subtle nudges towards just the right "YES". 

  My "yes" came in the form of Queen's Medical Center Cancer Center and their willingness to collaborate with Local Sugar Hawaii on an upcoming campaign, but it only came after many a "no".  And so, in the end, that sweet little "yes", well, it was made all the more sweet and oh so right by the "no's" overcome along the way.

Do you struggle with the "no's" or have you already learned their sometimes painful usefulness?  
Of course you have you sweet wise soul.

live sweet, 

n 

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us

--Helen Keller

a little about the weekend...

If you played this right here in the background, whilst mulling through that post down there, well, perhaps it could be a more beautiful sort of thing... perhaps.
___________________________

There are moments when life is big huge beautiful, like really big huge... we didn't have any of those this weekend.  

Nope, there was not a single big huge beautiful thing about this weekend just a stringing along of the littlest of moments that meant the big huge world, you know when viewed and stretched out across the days through that powerful magnifying glass that love can sometimes be.

It rained a lot and so we found ourselves cooped up in our little beach town cottage of a home a lot.  Which means we also stepped on each other's little toes a lot and apologized in cuddles a lot and it turns out we needed that, a lot.

What is it about the rain, or the snow or pretty much the gentle falling down of anything from heaven above that seems to transform this little bit of world that we occupy into a snow globe like existence, fluid and slow and magically curious.  I like that, and I like too that I was trapped in that snow globe of a weekend with three silly boys who I so needed to slowly pass that time with, ya know, for just that little bit of a slow going week's end.

live sweet, 

n 

  And this too, with those books surrounding and their voices pleading, and the rain I imagine outside falling, and also that "f" word, I don't believe I've ever heard the "f" word sound so unapologetically beautiful as it does here.  
Be forewarned the "f" word is no slight minor chord here...   

reduce, reuse, upcycle...

Oh this little post is a shame, a down right shame...

It turns out, you see, I so completely suck at waiting and this right here is testament to my being a lover of haste and of it's rigid hold on me in my ripe old age. 

And so, well, here you go a quick little upcycle post that really should wait 'til next month but, well that waiting and I we just don't seem to quite see eye to eye on any occasion really, but most especially Halloween.

If you are a lover of Halloween and, or, also, perhaps, if you have a house full of littles who love that most bewitching of holidays... well, it's likely you have a handful or two of little plastic spider rings, left overs from hauntings of years past.

Pottery Barn-esque Glitter Spider Vase Filler

  

   

Supplies

Small plastic spider rings

Scissors

Spray Glue

Black Glitter

Three large sheets of paper 

or other

 disposable work surfaces

One.  

Try on like all of the spider rings at once just for funs... and also because it's quite unlikely you will get away with the next step without first slipping those little plastic rings on all ten fingers, and perhaps all ten toes, of any littles in the nearby vicinity.

Two.  

Cut off the circular rings using a sturdy pair of scissors.

Three.  

Lay out the spiders on a disposable work surface.

Four.  

Working with one spider at a time generously spray with glue.  

Five. 

Move spider to a clean sheet of paper, (a sheet of paper works best to easily pour excess glitter back into the jar).  Cover with glitter.

Six.  

Finally place spider on a clean sheet of paper to dry completely.

I've found that spray glue is best used outside for lots of really good reasons that Charlie keeps making it his job to point out, easy clean up being paramount.  Also, a pair of not so precious tweezers will help keep sticky spiders from creepily hanging on to your finger tips whilst being transferred.

You can find a link to the real Pottery Barn Glitter Spider Vase Fillers here, which obviously are real cute, but also, real expensive.

I'm in love with this pumpkin spice latte recipe here, because, probably, this project plus a sweet fall latte would make for the bees knees of fall days, ya know? 

And this, oh it's far too early for this kind of fun so of course here ya go.

And... 

Happy Weekend too.

live sweet, 

n 

  

sometimes i just know...

God laughs to the point of crying, and then it rains.

That God he's been "ha, ha, ha"ing a whole big bunch right over my little house lately.

Ice cream cones are so WAY better on the front porch, with little boys.

And, also with sprinkles, lots and lots of sprinkles.

When the nine year old says "cuddle" you cuddle.

And when he says "don't cuddle" you cuddle anyway.

And also I think, sometimes I just know...

 that these days they are a passing, minute by minute by minute, and if I could I'd bottle them all up and label them in all caps "CHERISH THESE", "THIS IS LOVE", and I'd tuck them away in some dusty old box to be discovered and pulled out and opened up when everyone has long since moved on and the picture that I kept folded in my mind of these sweet days is tattered and faded from the regular folding and unfolding.   

And seeing them preserved in that jar like the very sweetest of jellies I'd twist and turn and pry them loose and spread them across the days ahead making those future more grown up days just a bit sweeter, by the remembering of these right here.

live sweet, 

n

objects in the rear view mirror...

There's this old loft we used to live in.  
Oh, it was a tiny little place right across from the ocean, with views of the surfers in the winter and the waterfalls off of the mountains.  And there was this giant mirror propped up along the roadside because sometimes merging into traffic along the highway there at that dangerous curve along the island's coastline, well, sometimes it required a sort of simultaneous glancing back while bravely moving forward.

We've successfully merged.  We've joined the steady stream of lives moving along on this road.  But, I found myself driving into that old lot today to take in the views and brave the oncoming traffic for a closer look at those objects in the rear view mirror.

live sweet, 

n

Join me, if you please, for a sweet little link up with friends.

grateful girl...

Oh I am so spoiled, so rottenly spoiled.

Every year for my silly little birthday my sweet, sweet sister sends me a handbag from Anthropologie, squeals!  She really doesn't have to and of course she shouldn't have and I truly find it all too much to accept but she's done it for the past five or six years and I have come to expect this most luxurious kind of spoiling, and so when the box arrived in the post, well, I convinced myself that it would be oh so fine if it were an afghan or such and then I tore through the packaging, oh the sweet packaging, have you ever seen such sweetness, and...

I'm a grateful girl!

live sweet, 

n

 That last silly shot is of birthday girl me in Waikiki sporting last year's bag and a slightly martini induced smile.

a cupcake war...

And a really quite ridiculous panel of judges.

I got all dolled up a week or so ago and announced that I was going to go to the 10th Annual Woman's Expo, oh but doesn't that just sound oh so official.  And when one takes just one little look at the sticky floors and such and starts desperately grasping at excuses to so very quickly vacate the premises before any sort of chores start being doled out, well... announcing that one must be somewhere "official" sounding, well... that helps.

So off I went to spend the better part of a Sunday afternoon being all girly in the name of "blogging" and "business" and "momma needs to get out of here before momma starts to lose it"-- which in truth would be more like "give momma a break before she loses that teensy tinsy ounce of sanity she has left", ya know?  

And isn't it true that just a moment to yourself as a mom has you missing those littles and their suddenly "cute" little messes oh so much.  And so while at the expo I hunted down a trinket or two and then got right on with the very serious business of finding goodies for the boys, who I missed oh so very much and who I convinced myself needed cupcakes.  

And oh boy oh boy did I find cupcakes to bring home to them.

There were these sweet little gems from Hokulani Bake Shop, who, it turns out, actually entered the real Cup Cake Wars on TLC and won, for their yummy red velvet. 

  

And these from up and coming Legendary Taste, oh these were oh so good and a buck a piece less than the Hokulani cupcakes which were over three dollars each and geesh is it just me or is three an awfully big amount of dollars for something that is gone in just two bites.  That's a buck fifty a bite guys-- well, actually a bit more.

And so we assembled, gathering around our living room coffee table with cupcake eating utensils in hand.  Taking our cupcake tasting duties oh so seriously.  We hummed and hawed over the flavors and textures and used big words like "overwhelming" and "subtle" and also "really yummy".  And then we, in our pajamas, it was pushing eight thirty yo-- on a school night, announced the winner, oh it was all so very exciting...

Hokulani Bakeshop's Red Velvet 

for it's not so overwhelming sweetness and subtle balance of flavors

And...

Legendary Taste's Cinnamon Roll

for it's being "really yummy"

live sweet, 

n  

  

scribble, scrabble...

And Happy Weekend.

When I was a wee little, little my parents had this incredible tolerance for creative messes.  They would proudly display my awfully constructed bits of scribble scrabble on the kitchen fridge as if Pablo Picasso himself had never created a more beautiful sort of distorted coloring outside of the lines.  And I am forever grateful for their, well, what I can only describe as, blindness kindness.  

I see what it has meant for my life, for the kind of living I have embraced as an adult.  Somehow assigning my little "masterpiece" a prominent spot on the fridge through their shuffling of church bulletins and school notices and such-- well, somehow it impressed upon my little heart the sweet message of the beauty of life's little messes.  

Here are our beautiful messes for this week...

Mama Duck and Ducklings.  

In Wax Crayon by: Seanzy

This piece is currently on display on our kitchen fridge.  Viewings by appointment.-- but, bonus... you can help yourself to a glass of milk while enjoying the artwork.

A sweet little princess inspired collection.  

In Wearable Mixed Media.  By: Me

These pieces are available here, in our sweet little shop. 

Oh I do so hope you'll go out and create beautiful messes in the days ahead.  I turn twenty nine and a half today for the fifth year in a row, well, actually I've turned twenty nine one too many times, (Tyty is catching on), and since one cannot stay twenty nine forever, well...you see, I am now twenty nine and a half.  

I expect many a beautiful mess will be made as the boys and I celebrate another year of living.

Oh and you must tell me all about the beautiful messes you'll create over these sweet weekend days... I can't wait to hear ALL about them.

And...

Happy Weekend!

live sweet, 

n  

lucky...

I think this may be my new favorite version of this little song right here.  

Is there ANYTHING any sweeter than thinking that life has let you down-- locked you out of a concert, a moment, that you so wanted to be a part of only to turn around and find that while the concert wasn't yours to partake in, the singing a duet in an alley with Jason Mraz was the sweet moment intended just for you?  

When one door closes...  

live sweet, 

n

Join me for the very sweetest link up with friends, an opening up to the possibilities... 

i remember...

I remember waking up to the sound of the t.v. morning news and wondering as I stumbled down the hall, why Charlie was still home.  That Charlie had been working in Maui since our wedding day just two months earlier and so, was typically on one of the first flights out in the morning and one of the later flights home in the evening.  It was all I had known as a young wife, his flying and working, during the day, and our "passing in the night" sort of existence.  And then that morning he was just there, on the couch, silent and alert, strangely, terrifyingly, alert.  

"A plane flew into the World Trade Center" he said without looking up "the airport's closed".  And I remember that being the moment I was afraid of the world and ached for my country and thanked God that Charlie had been grounded, on our couch and not in any airport anywhere, for the days that would follow.  When we were, as a nation, too afraid to move, so unsure of what was happening and so overcome with the questions of "why" that we would not allow ourselves to fly.

I remember.

n

If you please, this space is yours to remember, to share your story of 

9-11-2001.

happy weekend...

What a beautifully full week. 

With the help of some of the very sweetest of friends and with all of wonderful you, of course, we launched Local Sugar Hawaii (the shop). 

Oh, the nerves that shook and rattled in this little soul of mine as we got ready to open up shop and officially put these sweet little creations here, out there in the big big world for all to see and own a little piece of, and oh, the complete melting away of fears as the dearest of friends and family and sweet strangers too, became a part of the story of funk{e} and the aloha we share...  

Thank you, just... really, truly thank you...

 For providing just the gentlest of nudges as I teetered on the edge of that great abyss of the unknown.  And, for scooting up to that edge, that moment, with me... and for leaping. 

And, oh the sweet ride we will have together...

You can shop the shop here.

Find the winner of last week's beautiful yoga giveaway here.

Enter this week's giveaways here and here too.

And after a beautiful, but long, week the littles and I just might dance in the living room tonight to this right here before putting those lions, and fears, to bed.

And happy weekend too!

live sweet, 

n

local sugar hawaii (the shop)...

Grand Opening Giveaway.

We did it you guys!!  Today is a day for celebrating and giving thanks and well, just being in this moment together as we open Local Sugar Hawaii (the shop) and begin to write a most amazing story of hope and aloha together.  

I've gathered the very sweetest of friends who have oh so generously agreed to help me open this little online store right here.  And what grander way to open up shop than with a Grand Opening Giveaway.  

One lucky person will win ANY item of their choice, yup anything, at all, what-so-ever AND an Upcycled Infinity Scarf in one of the seasons most celebrated colors: Royal Blue.  

You can join the celebration by entering below in as many ways as you please.  

You can read more about the journey to this moment and the story of funk{e} here, here and here and probably a whole bunch of other places too, but, well, you get the sense that it's been a bit of a journey, a ride, and I am oh so glad we've been on it together.  

And if you can't wait for the contest to end, and want to be sure to snag one of the oh so very limited edition pieces before they are gone, you can shop away and enter LOCALSUGAR2012 to save big at checkout.

Big Huge Luck to Ya, 

and 

Thank You, for being you and for letting me be, well, little 'ole me.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

cute and not so cute...

 Cute is scribbling "aloha" in the sand on a sunny summer beach day... 

Not so cute is visiting that same beach a few weeks later donning a big chunky sweater and a distinct sense that Fall is well on its way, even in paradise.

Cute is flipping through these next few photos j-u-s-t so and enjoying a little "flip book like" series of tummy squishing goodness...

Not so flippin' cute would be this mommy doing her own version of that right there.  

Why do those little squishable tummy spots lose their cuteness, right?!

live sweet, 

n

feeling blue...

Royal Blue that is!

I am a lover of the blues. 

But deep beautiful royal blue is, well, not so much me, perhaps it's just too much commitment to one shade of loud and proud and royal.  Perhaps, I've been just a bit intimidated by the shade.  Perhaps, I just needed to spend hours looking at it anew from beneath a pile of spaghetti like strands of it to find it's perfectly "feature worthy" beauty.  

And that's just what I did, ya know?  Spent hours and hours with those royal blues.  We got up close and oh so personal and, well, I'm thinking I may be falling hard for that most royal of shades.  

All of the items featured above are from funk{e}, our new line of earth friendly accessories.  

You can enter to win a Royal Blue item of your choice from Local Sugar Hawaii (the shop) by visiting it here and "hearting" the royal blue item you "heart" most and then coming back and leaving a comment, one comment for each entry.  
Extra entries for pinning this collage, and for following me on facebook, twitter and/or pinterest.  
You must be a follower of Local Sugar Hawaii to enter, but you can follow from anywhere on this beautiful planet and I'll be sure to get your prize to ya.

Good luck to ya.

AND, if ya can't wait you can use our exclusive 25% off code and get your blue, or any shade of YOU, on today by entering LOCALSUGAR2012 at checkout.

live sweet, 

n

And then there's this, join me for a sweet little link up with the very sweetest of friends.

the thing to do...

On a long weekend in Hawaii.

 Well, the thing to do is of course to go to the beach.  

There's always beautiful surf and sand and sun and so WE, of course, turned to the mountains and hiked our way through a holiday's worth of gnarly roots and muddy paths.

We slipped and slid and laughed and used the hours of an early afternoon to weave the story of our lives a little more tightly together. 

Lessons learned from a Sweet Hawaiian Afternoon Hike:

(These are mostly stolen from careful observation of one of my favorite people.  Thanks Aunty.)

1.  What goes up must come down... eventually.  And if you are climbing a mountain, well, "eventually" may seem especially "forever like".

2.  Stopping to smell the roses or to point out the umpteenth giant fern is a perfectly acceptable strategy for working in a break without conceding that a break is required.

3.  Laughter helps.

4.  Falling down helps conjure up laughter.

5.   Stories told between desperate gasps for air during up hill climbs are mostly unnecessary and also, who are we kidding guys, really?  

(Yet, strangely are extra appreciated due to the required effort).

6.  And then again, that laughter... how sweet it is echoing off of a lush valley and the full hearts of the ones you love.

live sweet, 

n