A Fancy Feast

Here's a roundup of my Thanksgiving inspiration.  It's our last turkey day here in the isles and my dream of a fancy dinner on the beach might actually be coming true (weather permitting!) so cross your fingers with me and pray for a light breeze, plenty of Hawaiian sunshine and, either way, great food and wonderful friends! 

1 dinner with friends / 2 place cards / 3 the Turkey / 4 Butternut Squash Soup / 5 Parker House Rolls / 6 Watermelon and Grapefruit agua Fresca / 7 My very own Angel Food Cake with Mocha Mousse filling

So there you are.  We'll see how this goes.  Needless to say, regardless of wind or rain or sand in our food this day will at least be spent with great friends in the most beautiful place and I really couldn't ask for more than that!

MOVING

The time has come to begin our moving phase.  Well, technically the time to begin has come and gone so now we're down to the wire.  I keep putting it off because it doesn't feel real.  We have spent over two wonderful years here in Hawaii.  Laie has been our first real home; we've never lived anywhere as long as we have lived here. In our almost five years of marriage we've lived in five places and while that may not seem like much to some, it seems like a lot to us.  I'm ready to settle down; to buy (or rent!) a house, find a good school for my children, fix up the yard, get an annual pass to a museum, etc. - you know what I'm talking about.  But that seems so far away.

I took this picture of Bannock right after this story:

During nap time yesterday I was going through books to keep and give away and got a little weepy.  I couldn't bare to get rid of ANY of them (hence the multiple large "keep" piles on the left).  Each one has a special memory... even the 'How to draw Cars and Trucks' book made it into the keep pile because of the hours Bannock spent just looking at the pictures. This little library is a treasure to me that I want to keep forever.  So the tears fell as I recalled special moments with each one; Bannock reciting the words of 'Goodnight Kiss for little Fish' when he was two, explaining to everyone and their mom the functions of all the construction trucks in his 'My Big Truck Book', quietly reading 'Moon Plane' all on his own, Brecken babbling at the pictures of animals - if I gave away these books it would be like giving away the memories. 
So as I quietly cried Bannock slipped out of his room and silently put his arm around me.
I said: "I'm sad Bannock."
B: "Why are you sad mommy?"
Me: "Because we're moving and I'll miss it"
B: "It's not sad"
Me: "Why is it not sad?"
B: "Because we're moving to Caaaalifooooorniaaaaa!"
He sang the word California like game show announcer, like I had won an amazing prize.  Leave it to children to look on the bright side of things.  I have spent so much time and energy focusing on the sentimental things, the things I'll miss, all the memories and friends we've made, how life will never be like this again. But his perky little demeanor quickly showed me that it's no fun focusing on the past.  We have endured a lot here - we might have lived in paradise but we've struggled more than I thought we would.  We have so much to look forward to and while I might get a little teary during this bittersweet time of transition, I know that my outlook on what is to come will ultimately decide my happiness.  So here's to lessons learned, wonderful friends made and a beautiful bright future.

The Forge Giveaway!

I have been incredibly lucky to be a part of an amazing giveaway!

Beautiful and sweet Sophie of The Forge discovered some of my products via Instagram and asked if I wanted to be a part of her giveaway. To which I responded with a resounding yes! This is HUGE for me and I am thrilled to be a part of it. 

Sophie is awesome.  Her lifestyle blog is filled with great fashion, cool crafts/projects (I'm going to be making this and this) and lovely pictures of her adorable son and beautiful home (Check out how cute this nursery is!)  One day I hope to have a blog as great as hers ;-) But in the meantime.... go check out this awesome giveaway! Where you can enter to win one of my painted driftwood jewelry holders as well as cool jewelry, headbands, an amazing calendar, and much more!


 Go here:

The Forge: 500 Follower Giveaway     

HALLOWEEN

Hi there.

 Hawkeye and The Hamburger - I went store bought this year and it was sooo much less stressful.

Went for a jog to the local cemetery yesterday morning and snapped this pic.  Sidenote - Bannock loved the cemetery. Weird, I know.  He actually said "Mommy thank you for taking me to this place". But also cool because he was very comfortable talking about how that's where we bury people's bodies when they die.  He also walked around and righted all the vases that had tipped over in the wind and put all the fake flowers back in their planters.  As odd as it might sound I think we might go back more often as a mini service project.

And my wonderful husband kindly played along this Halloween (not that he doesn't, I've just never asked) and "dressed up".  Last minute costumes using stuff you already own are probably my favorite.



So we've only been home for about an hour but I'm already looking for ways to get rid of all this candy. Don't get me wrong, the trick-or-treating is so fun and of course I'll let my kids eat some and I love candy, LOVE candy.  For awhile it was my go to snack (terrible, I know).  But I don't think we (especially my one year old and my three year old who just had four fillings!) need all of it.  So I'm thinking we'll pick out our favorites and do something special with the rest.  I found this article on Coolmompicks.com to give me (and you!) some ideas. Like:

- Sending your candy to the Troops through Operation Gratitude
- Or this cool site HalloweenCandyBuyBack where you can search for a Dentist near you who will "buy" back your Halloween candy! (In some places they give cash in others they'll give you goody bags, either way they send your candy to the Troops)
- There's also this article on Real Simple that gives great recipes to incorporate that left-over candy

Plus a few more ideas.   Anyway, I hope that helps!
Hope you had a fantastic and safe Halloween!

Mormon mom bloggers and how I want to be one

Hi there.

So my husband recently sent me this article which then led me to read this one which spiraled out of control on a click-fest of blog discovery (a click-fest which has been happening far too frequently for my taste).  So before you read any further I suggest you follow those links.  They're about a new fad called "blogging" and more specifically "Mormon Housewife blogs".  Yes.  Serious. (Oh by the way, if you don't know, I'm Mormon.)

I'm not going to summarize because I've provided the links and I think you should check them out for yourselves. But I want to know what people think.  And I really hate FB conversations in the comments section.  A couple interesting things Emily Matchar (author of the Salon.com article) brings up are, one, that Mormon women are amazing bloggers because journal (record) keeping is such a huge part of the Latter-Day Saint culture and second, they're on the rise because LDS women have been taught from the time they could walk how to craft and upcycle - in her words "with the rise of DIY culture across secular America, all of a sudden those skills have become trendy, even bankable."

Here's my reason for this post: as I read these articles I thought "Oh no.  That's ME.  Or, at least, the me I'm trying to be. The me that wants to say 'Hey, look at my life! I have cute kids and I'm crafty and I just love love LOVE to bake and isn't my husband great!?' " Don't get me wrong, I do want to identify with this (obviously) - I've always been a follower of trends. While I may always follow these trends there will always be a rebellious part of me screaming "NO! You're different!" But here's the thing; I may have been that rebellious and "different" girl years ago (maybe I'll post about that in the future?) but I'm not anymore. So this is my attempt at embracing that happy-Mormon-housewife ideology.  Because while it may have disgusted me at first to think of myself as wanting to be a part of the masses - I realized that in occasionally pretending to be a happy domestic Goddess, one can actually become a happy domestic Goddess.  No, I'm not there yet, nor will I ever be.  But I know that using a blog to reflect on one's life, love, family and baking/crafting/scrapbooking/photographing capabilities can be an addicting mood lifter.  And there's nothing wrong with that. I said this in another post but finding your identity is good for you, doing things that make you happy is good for you.  So even though I may be just like a thousand other crafty Mormon moms, and the things I do may not be unique, I can still feel unique while doing so.

 So after reading that article I wanted to take the opportunity to tell my (all of nine) followers about what you'll find here in the future and maybe get some feedback on what you might want to read (please?). Here are the things I'm interested in sharing, as a friend and blogger, with you:

- Photos/Family events (I WILL NOT POST FIFTY PICTURES OF MY WEEKEND/KIDS - THAT'S OBNOXIOUS!)
- Projects I'm working/craft ideas
- Internet finds (which will vary from cool bloggers to Pinterest Picks and stuff in between)
- The rare Recipe once in awhile (quick and easy is my specialty)
- Social commentary surrounding the theme of motherhood, parenthood, relationships and perhaps religion (but no politics)


The first and the latter will probably be the majority of it. This blog is mostly my creative outlet but I will also use to inform family and friends about the goings on of my family. I'll keep it interesting as long as my life remains interesting.  And when it's not I'll post a recipe or two to keep you coming back for more ;)