Seascape Release

Hiya!! I'm soooooo excited because I'm finally able to release my Hawaiian Seascape paintings! Yay!!

Hawaii is the type of place that captures your heart & never turns loose. So, while I'm sitting here in Chi-beria, waiting on Spring, I decided to paint some of our favorite beaches in Hawaii.

8.5x11" Prints are available now in the shop, and the original acrylic paintings (most are 16x20") will be listed in the next few days.

Hope you enjoy them!

Hamama Falls Hike, Oahu

I thought I'd continue sharing some of the things we did during the three short, but magical years on Oahu. Hiking quickly became one of our favorite things to do. Some of them were pretty steep, but once you arrived at the top, the view was well worth it!

This one is called Hamama Falls. Let me put a disclaimer out there and say that at the time, we did not know it was illegal to hike this trail. Most of the time, the state makes these places illegal because they do not upkeep the trail for the public's safety. If you are going to hike it, know that I warned you! I'm not responsible for any citations that you may get if you get caught. That being said, let me tell you about this hike.

Source

That's the trail in the image above. It's about 3.2 miles round trip. Time to complete depends on your athletic ability, but it took us about 2.5 hours. We did spend some time at the waterfall and of course I had to take a zillion pictures. Now, PLEASE Print out a map of the trail. Also, check on other trail sites for tips and path markers as I did not post about those. Just do your research people. You don't want to be stuck on a trail over night because you veered off the trail and didn't know how to get back! Safety first, even when it annoys your Husband like it does mine! :)

This trail is on the east side of the island. Remember the gorgeous building, Valley of the Temples, I posted about here? It's in the area, so if you want to get two beautiful spots in one day, I'd go to the Valley of the Temples first, then hike after. Directions to Hamama Falls:  Get on either the Pali Highway or the Likelike Highway and drive toward the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park in Kaneohe. You’ll pass the historic Hygienic Store,  near the intersection of Kahekili and Kamehameha Highway. Right past the Hygienic Store will be Waihe’e Road, turn left here. The road ends at a metal gate. This is the trail head. You’ll park in the neighborhood, but be respectful of the folks living there, don't block their driveway or get too close in their yard.

OK, this is the info you'll need, directions above and a couple of tips, ALWAYS bring water and any other first aid kit anytime you go out on a hike. I have a small backpack that I bring (thanks to The Mr. for always taking it when I get too hot) and I have a printed out map of the area, as well as a small compass/orange whistle and a granola bar in there with our cell phones. OH! And for this hike, bring mosquito spray. They are HUGE in the jungle parts and they will attack! Also, this trail is pretty wet, so use common sense here. Don't take your kids or elderly or even someone with a condition on this hike. It does get pretty steep in some spots. Just be smart out there, folks.

Now, on to the pictures! WARNING: as with all of my travel posts, this is very picture heavy with 2 short videos of the waterfall.

A 30ft waterfall doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you are standing right underneath that sucker, it's massive! And that water was colder than ice! They had just a puddle under it, and you had to stand in the cold puddle to get close to the rocks.

Even after all of the trouble of hiking, mosquito bites, and the ice cold water, it was a hike of a lifetime!

So sorry this video is sideways! I don't know how to fix it. 

I hope you enjoyed your virtual hike and waterfall experience! 

Have any of you ever been to a "real" waterfall?

Home Tour- Coastal Decor

OK, listen up, I LOVE the SEA. I think I may have been a mermaid in another life, if reincarnation exists... or mermaids for that matter. I love the smell of the salty air, I love the feeling of sand between my toes, collecting treasures from the shores,  the sounds of waves crashing... ahhhh...

SO, while I'm stuck here in Antarctica, I mean, Illinois, I needed to feel as if I was close to the water while I freeze to death. And I had a ton of sea glass and shells from Oahu that were just sitting in a box, feeling a little lonely. So I decided to go... Coastal. (See what I did there?)

Warning: this post has about 18 pictures, and I'm X-large-ing every one of these babies. I'm also putting a video of one of our favorite bands, Irration (one of our first dates was going to see them in concert in Honolulu!) on here, so click the video, and listen to the song as you scroll through our living room tour!

Hope you enjoyed! I realize I focused most of the pictures on the mantle. That's because it's the prettiest mantle I've ever done! The rest of the living room consists of a beige sofa and love seat, blue recliner, and blue rug from Ikea. Pretty boring compared to the mantle!

How do you display some of your souvenirs?

Find Beauty Friday- Serene Hawaii

I wanted to share with you one of my most serene places on Oahu.  Even though I am a Christian through and through, it was such a peaceful feeling and one of the most beautiful structures I've ever been to. It is no secret that I absolutely adore the Asian culture, and this place is the epitome of that.

Depending on where you stay, Oahu can be incredibly busy and touristy, Waikiki especially. If you find yourself there, please only stay in Waikiki one night. Or at the least, get a rental car the whole time and go explore every part of the island! This Valley of the Temples, is on the East side of the island, and is well worth going through a tunnel under the mountains! Even though it's pretty scary!

And instead of a long, picture loaded post, I've decided to make short movies for you! Please let me know what you think, and if you'd rather a movie than still photos! I aim to please, my friends!

I hope you enjoy, and if you are ever on the island, do yourself a favor and go spend about 2 hours just enjoying these grounds.

Peace

Good Morning, friends! Today I want to share a little about peace. Not the world peace kind, but inner peace. It is such a fickle thing that, while I can't speak for everyone, for me, it is near impossible to get that feeling and keep it all day. Am I right, or is it really just me?

 I'm studying the Beth Moore book, Breaking Free, and in chapter 6, she speaks about experiencing God's peace. By the way, if you need a good, hearty devotional book- this is the one! She's striking cords with me left and right.

So, back to the chapter. She quotes Isa. 48:18, "If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea."  And she goes on to explain that a river and a peaceful life doesn't have to be like a pond, a boring stagnant pond, your life will be like a river, white water rafting type of river. It's a really good point she makes! Who wants to be stagnant? I don't! But, I do want the peace to be with me always, and not with me for brief periods of the day.  And how do we achieve this peace? By following his commands. Sounds simple enough right?

 Wrong! My word for the year is "Relax". I really think that with all of the technology and things going on in our daily lives, that it's so easy to become desensitized about things that shouldn't be in front of us, and that makes it hard to follow commands or to relax. To unplug from things makes it easier, and I have contemplated hard about deleting Facebook and twitter. It's just this constant barrage of things, good or bad, that just makes you feel something. It could be happy that a friend from high school just got engaged, but it's not like you actually have had a conversation with this person since high school. It's unnecessary junk clogging up your brain when you could be relaxing and just focusing on you, your family and close friends (and your blog)

Just this week, on Facebook (a post about social media will be published next week) a person from my home town had posted a video of teenage girls fighting. I think this is a hacker job, like they clicked on another video and because they did, their account was compromised and the hackers posted other videos without their knowledge. But, they had to click on a video first in order for this to happen. And all of the videos are smutty, a girl with a rather large derriere, a teen girl fight, or some other smutty thing.  I was in shock! In my mind, no way would this person every do such a thing, but there was the proof, right before my eyes! I remember, during my childhood, my mother would watch the soap operas and when the actors would kiss, we would have to turn our head and cover our eyes. Now, children see much more than a kiss and they don't seem to be bothered by it! My question is... if we are a society that is so desensitized to various things, how will we be able to follow the commands of our Lord? How will we hear the Holy Spirit talk to us A.K.A. our conscious, and know right from wrong? And how will we ever experience the peace like a river, and well-being waves of the sea? 

Sunset Beach Days

I just took a stroll through our hard drive, and realized there is an obscene amount of travel photos that I need to share! We have tons of photos from living on Oahu for 3 years, and I still have to finish our Europe Trip from last year at this time!  So get ready, it's going to be a lot of travel posts coming up! Don't worry, I will still throw in recipes and crafts. Like I could live without those! OH! This week I MUST post how to sew a doggie sweater custom to your dog! Ginny is long, but not so much big around her chest, so it was impossible to find a store bought one, I had to get creative! That will be later in the week.

Today, while Part 2 of the Polar Vortex is hitting us, I am going to share a  normal, Hawaiian beach day with you! This beach is called Sunset Beach. It's on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. During this time, I had torn ligaments in my ankle, and had the dreaded "Moon Boot" walking cast on, so I had to wrap it up to enjoy the beach! (you'll see) Which is a great tip, wrap your moon boot up with your beach wrap to avoid getting sand in there and enjoy the beach!!

Warning: this post is extremely photo heavy, and has a video of the waves (hopefully, if it loads correctly)!  I hope you guys enjoy!

 

 

Tell me- What is your favorite beach?