'twas the night before christmas...

'twas the night before christmas and all through the house, 

the creatures are stirring, especially my spouse.

the stockings are in storage but were boxed with care, 

i hope that st nicholas won't stop there.

the baby is nestled all snug in her bed, 

i wonder if visions of new toys and books dance in her head.

santa and his reindeer are on their way,

when he finally arrives, we'll yell hip-hip-hooray!

there are cookies and cupcakes, hope mr nicholas takes a bite,

happy christmas to all...and to all a good night!

diy cake (or any other food) stand

presentation is everything and food always tastes better when it's served on something pretty!  

i love vintage cake/dessert/whatever stands, especially in milk glass.  luckily, i've never purchased any for fear that it will fuel my desire to start a collection.  a few months ago, i came across some cute dessert stands made from repurposed kitchen items and thought, what an easy and brilliant idea...and decided to make some myself.  presenting...the diy cake (or dessert, food, flowers, whatever) stand! 

this is my holiday set!  i found some awesome vintage christmas plates made in England by Strode at a thrift shop for only $1 a piece (most of the ones on ebay are $10/plate)...score!  i also purchased the cute glass cups for $1 a piece as well.  i used epoxy to glue the cups (upside-down so there's more surface area to glue and support the plate) to the plates and let sit for 24 hours.  sooooo easy, sooooo cheap and sooooo cute!  

the prettier the details on the plates and cups, the prettier your stand will be!  you can make this using any cup or vase for the base (wider is probably better for stability) and any plate or bowl for the top surface.  i used epoxy to glue the cups and plates but there are probably other variations on the web.  i personally love epoxy because it works like super glue on 'roids.  just remember to use it in a well-ventilated area.  i think its toxicity dissipates after it hardens.

sara, i think this project is calling your name.  a huge christmas bowl on a chic fluted wine glass is an awesome way to serve your peppermint popcorn!  

save vernazza

in 2009, the hubs and i visited one of the most beautiful places in the world...italy's cinque terra!  here we are standing on the hiking trail to monterosso, overlooking the beautiful city of vernazza!  

 

on october 25, 2011, the towns of monterosso and vernazza were heavily damaged by unusual heavy rains and flash flooding, with some areas buried in mud/debris up to 12 feet deep!  three lives were lost, residents were forced to evacuate, and the town continues to be in a state of emergency :(

below are some before and after photos.  it's so hard to fathom the destruction, especially to vernazza's main piazza (city square), an area usually filled with hundreds of residents and tourists.

all photos above from savevernazza.com

i watch the news regularly and had no idea that this happened until i received an email from the savevernazza.com group recently.  i don't think that this tragedy was heavily reported in the news :(

my heart aches as i look at the devastation but i am so happy that the people of vernazza are hopeful and determined to rebuild their beautiful little town to its original glory and plan to welcome visitors back as early as the summer of 2012.  if you or anyone you know has a special place in your heart for italy, especially the cinque terra, please consider donating something to help save vernazza :)

gag-alicious (aka invisalign impressions)

if you're eating breakfast or lunch right now, i'm sorry if these pictures just made you lose your appetite (or barf?!)!

top left - open wide for exterior teeth photos
top middle - holding the huge ass tray (for FIVE minutes) to take my upper impression
top right - open wide for pictures of the inside of my mouth
bottom - bite impression & upper and lower impressions from the nasty orange goop

soooooo...i finally completed my one year of invisalign (in addition to the 8 months i did pre-prego) and was ready to pop the bubbly when i realized that i had a little gap between two of my lower teeth & one of my uppers didn't rotate completely.  gah!!! my dentist gave me the option of doing a refinement based on photos only or take another set of impressions to get an accurate assessment of where my teeth are presently.  

i really, really, really, really, really didn't want to take another set of impressions but knowing that it would give me the best result, i ended up doing it.  and just like the other two times, i gagged like craaazzzzy during the process.  the goop tastes horrible and the tray that holds the goop is sooooo big that it makes me gag to the point where i'm about to barf and my eyes get all watery!  yes, a tad bit embarrassing.  but it's done and this is the last time i'm going to do this...ever!

minus the horrible 10 minutes to take the impressions and all the hands and fingers in and around your mouth during the photos, invisalign is the best thing ever :)  the things we do for vanity.  

T minus 11

holy moly.  there are less than 11 days until santa comes to town and...  

• i still need to unpack the last of the boxes and put stuff away.
• i have random christmas decorations scattered throughout the condo.  i don't know if santa will be able to maneuver himself amongst the mess.  
• every time i clear a surface, something else ends up landing on it.  it's a vicious cycle and it's driving me nuts!  
• i haven't started my shopping yet.  

it's so crazy how christmas can sneak up on you so quickly.  time to hit amazon...ta-ta for now!

sunset from the hotel

one of the greatest perks of living at the hotel is the totally unobstructed view of the ocean which makes for some incredible sunsets!  this is what we see every night along with all the boats and catamarans going out for sunset cruises.  i've never seen the sun so defined as it gently fades away to make room for the city lights!  it's quite spectacular...but i still very much miss our old house and living on the ground.  heheh.

the magic

the tiramisu played with her first glow sticks at the parade!
she saw another kid playing with them and wanted some so i had to give in :)  

one of the best things about having children is the opportunity to create magic for them!  the tiramisu is a bit too young to understand and believe in santa but the christmas traditions have already started for her :)  this year, i took her to the city lights parade and tree lighting ceremony.  it was my first time attending the event in the 24 years that i've lived here!

i had absolutely no idea how many people would be there!  honolulu hale is within walking distance from our condo so at least we didn't have to worry about parking. but we did have to fight amongst the throngs of people/strollers/wheelchairs/scooters to get a good view of the festivities.  people must camp out hours prior to guard their spots...and many of them save "seats" for others.  it was craaazzzzy.  luckily, a family in front of us made some space so i could squeeze the stroller up front so the baby could see what was going on...even if it was 20 minutes after we were standing behind them :)

if you missed the parade, here's a short video clip.  the majority of the parade wasn't as lively as i had anticipated it to be (it definitely wasn't the disney electric lights parade) but it was okay.  the baby wasn't overjoyed but the lights and sounds definitely kept her interest.  the dog, on the other hand, was so scared that she jumped out of the stroller and trembled the entire time we were there!  good thing my parents came with me and took turns holding the dog.  sometimes, she's more of a baby than the human baby!

pictures with santa

the line was looooong, the weather was hot, dogs were barking and peeing everywhere, daddy was sweating through his shirt, the tiramisu was hungry and fussy, and jasmyn's personal space was often invaded while sitting patiently in the stroller. but mama insisted that we wait in line to take our 2nd annual santa paws family photo.  

i had no idea that the tiramisu was  harassing jasmyn during most of the session until we got home and looked at the photos.  no wonder jasmyn was wiggling around so much and wanted to get down.  we couldn't get a grooming appointment last week so her hair is kinda messy.  i love the tiramisu's different looks, especially her wicked stare at all the strangers trying to get attention.  mommy and daddy need to practice keeping their eyes open.  the drool on daddy's shoulder is kinda funny.

we tried to get a picture of just the kiddies with santa but the baby wasn't going to have any of it.  she started crying and thrusting her body away so that was that.

*sigh*  better luck next year.  heehehe.

it's beginning to look (and feel) a lot like christmas

it's 1:29 am and the moment is sweet.  everyone's asleep (including the dog, who happens to be laying on my side of the bed) and i'm sitting in the living room alone, gazing at our purdy tree amongst all the city lights, smelling the lovely pine scent emanating off of it and listening to christmas songs on our little bose system.  i loooove the holidays!

don't let jasmyn's looks fool you.  she is thrilled to be modeling in front of the tree.

after 3-1/2 days of chaos, our tree finally made it home!  on friday afternoon, i headed to ala moana to make sure my tree was still there (given all my flocked up tree luck) and ready to make the short trek to its new home.  i found my favorite salesperson and he prepped the tree for delivery by wrapping it up in plastic, making a fresh cut on the trunk and changing the tree stand to the one i provided.  the tree was then delivered to our condo and i haven't stopped looking or smelling it since!  i just adore flocked noble firs :)  they are the prettiest trees ever and only require a nice string of warm lights to look divine.  if i had my way, a noble fir would be a permanent design fixture in our home all year long!

home at last

our gorgeous tree is finally home!  hooray!!!  more details to follow :)

flocked up christmas tree - part deux

omg omg omg.  after yesterday's fiasco, i went to pick up my christmas tree this evening and came home with this...an empty christmas tree stand!!!

apparently, there was some miscommunication or lack of any communication which resulted in a christmas tree that looked 99% the same as i saw it yesterday except for some extra flocking on the top of the tree.  i nearly had a cow but kept my composure because after all, 'tis the season to be jolly.  i asked the dude what the flock happened and he said that he was only given instructions to add snow to the top of the tree.  omg!  i had a nice chat with the owner about the flocking disgrace and he quickly instructed his guys to move the tree to the the flocking booth immediately and allowed me to watch them flock it to my satisfaction with my own eyes.  

so now my tree is spending another sad night in the parking lot of ala moana while it dries.  i'll be taking a jaunt down to the mall tomorrow to make sure my lovely tree is still there and is loaded up safely before they deliver it as a courtesy after two days of mess-ups!  gaaaahhhhhh.

every wonder how they flock a tree?  here's a short video that i shot tonight. my first blogger video.  whooohooo!

view from the hotel

this picture isn't the best (click the photo for an enlarged version) but this is the pretty ocean view we look out to from our living room.  our unit has floor to ceiling glass windows on three walls and it took some getting used to but it definitely makes the space feel more open!  the sunsets are pretty spectacular as well but my favorite is the view at night...tons of scattered lights all over the city from diamond head to ewa beach and beyond!  kinda reminds me of my favorite city...the city of lights :)