Caught YA! 

Koa 

A trip we took to the Maui Aquarium in August.  

My nephews Koa and Kana 

This is my mom with my nephew Koa. He and the big fish on the right were having a major stare-down that went on for quite a few seconds...finally the big fish opened his mouth super SUPER wide and then closed it. Koa was so serious..he frowned and shot his hand out straight like he was gonna jab all five fingers in the fishes mouth lol! Everyone was laughing..but he didn't find it funny. I guess the fish offended him! 

Life can't get any better then this...

Oh to be a kid again...simple pleasures such as these could just make your day :)



My nephew Koa and his new red tricycle..how exciting!!  

..and french toast, whip cream and peaches! What a nice mommy they have :o) love that morning hair Koa! lol!  

Girls Get-away Maui 2005

I finally have a few moments to blog a bit and post some of the pics I've promised about my 'vacation' to Maui lol! Even though I live here, taking a week+ off and pretending to be a tourist was really cool! I'm sure it was the company I was with though..they made it all so fun..and seeing them appreciate for thier first time the beauty that surrounds me everyday was fun as well.

My pics didn't turn out so well because the battery on my digital camera died..so unless it's plugged into a wall I can't take pics. So I had to buy a bunch of disposables..but it was cool cuz I didn't have to worry about loosing it...and of course all the girls had thier cameras..so I will have more pics coming in soon hopefully. Melanie sent me her pics already on a disk..she took some nice ones. I've still got to burn my pics for the girls...started to once but my computer freaked and had to get on with stuff I was behind on from having all that fun. First I had to finish up with this wedding order:


Latest custom wedding order...white coin, pink rose petal keshi and pink potato pearls with opal Swarovski crystal accents hand knotted on brown silk cord...matching earrings are on sterling silver wire.

and then had to finish my wholesale order for the Natural Hawaiian in Waikiki...just finished that last night but am waiting on some gold filled lobster clasps so I can finish two of the bracelets..hopefully they get here soon!

Back to the vacation pics...I"ll just start with what I have from the 1st day of their stay:


This is Felicia and Lisa on the airplane to Maui. Felicia has been here before but it was still a good 7 years since I'd seen her. Lisa and Felicia are cousins...Lisa was my roommate right out of highschool. We all lived in Redding California together and had so much fun. Lisa moved away to Missouri with Melanie when my son was 4 months old (he is now 14) Felicia moved to Washington I believe not too long after.  


Michele and Melanie on the plane ride to Maui. Michelle is Felicia's sister. She has been to Maui a few times before...this was Mel's first time. These girls also lived in Redding years ago. Michele is in Washington now too just like her sister.


I hate to fly..but I'm sure I missed out on a fun trip..They even brought thier own party plates and umbrella straws for thier airplane food!


Lisa and I at the Kahului Airport! First time we'd seen each other in forever! It was so cool! Hopefully someone elses pics came out better..I look like I'm bald!




Kaewakapu beach...only cloudy day we had. There were 3 storms hanging out..I beleive two were hurricanes...Jova, Lidia and Kenneth. This was Sunday...we thought that Monday would be our only day of good weather...but the hurricanes never came and kept the weather awesome for us..no wind and perfect snorkling the whole week.

Thats all for today..I have to burn thier picture cd's and get some packages ready :)

Countdown to Fun!!

Only 2 more days and my freinds will be here! I'm so excited!!! I"ve got 4 of my bestest freinds: Lisa, Felicia, Melanie and Michele coming to see me. Lisa was my roommate right out of highschool. I have not seen her or Melanie since my son was 4 months old..and now he's 14! Michele and Felicia are sisters..and they are also Lisa's cousins. I was close to them as well...they have have gotten to come out here a few times over the years..michele was just here in January. They have a 'girl's get together' every year..but I am so afraid to fly and to leave my son that I never go. So now they are all coming to me!! It gets pretty lonely being trapped on this island..so I"m so stoked they are coming here!

Now..should I tell them there are TWO hurricanes out there in the pacific and one is scheduled to hit while they are here? One of them, Michelle, has been obsessing about the weather..she told me she didn't want to look online about it anymore cuz it was driving her nuts. So maybe I shouldn't! We haven't had one actually hit since Huricane Iniki..that hit 5 days after I moved here..boy was I freaked! Hopefully these will die out as well. I guess one was only a tropical storm...I think that was called Jova...but it was soon to be a hurricane..and then Kenneth was just a catagory 1 hurricane with sustained 75 mph winds. Not too bad..but one make for good waves..2 of my freinds coming have reserved thier spot for 2 surfing lessons on the south side. eh..maybe I better tell them about the hurricanes!

Needless to say I've been cleaning like a mad woman and not making any jewelry. I strung up a few anklets but have yet to photograph them. I've basically given my house a major spring cleaning..trying to de-cat-hair it because one of the girls is allergic to cats. I have two cats..and one of them sheds so bad.

Now I've just got to finish getting our 80's music together..we plan on doing a lot of reminiscing and that includes a lot of dancing :)

Guess I'm not normal...hope that's a good thing

You Are 35% Normal (Occasionally Normal)

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?

LOL! I kinda figured that was the case..actually I"m happy to be 35% normal at least! I never do feel that people 'get' me :\

Anyways..lots going on lately. I was finally caught up pretty good with the jewelry shop..my goal is to have 7 new pieces a week...made, photographed, priced and uploaded to the site. It's not too hard if I can do a couple of pieces some of the days and just one the other days. But I always fall behind.

Now I've got other things I must concentrate on..it's my little sisters 10th anniversary tomorrow! Happy Anniversary Sis! I can't beleive she's been married for that long...it makes me feel old! So my mom's got this big major pasta dinner planned with all sorts of sauces. I"m to make the alfredo sauce...it's been a while..hope I don't screw it up :\

After tomorrow is over, it's time to concentrate on preparing for my company that will be here on the 18th. I'm super excited..one of my bestest friends, Lisa, is coming to see me with 3 more of my real close freinds. I have not seen Lisa since my son was 4 months old. Well we saw each other once when my son was 2, but only for a couple of hours. Can you beleive we both took a trip to our old home town at the same time..but didn't know eachother was there? She had been there a week and so had I..but I found out the night before she had to leave..so we spent just a couple of hours visiting. Thats what we got for not keeping in touch good enough. So now this is going to be the best visit ever....and I'm going to pretend I'm a tourist on vacation :) Even though I live here..I don't get the time to really enjoy Maui. I admit I've grown bored with it here..so it will be fun to see it through my freinds eyes..it will be her first time as well as one of the other girls coming too.

Then in October I will most likely be flying out to the mainland..my son will go with me..as well as my mom and my sister. We are going to go see my grandmother...she is getting up there and it's hard for her to travel now. I HATE flying and I"m already having anxiety about it. But my grandma did it almost every year to see us and she hates flying too..so I keep telling myself that I can do this. But I so wish there were a road..I don't care if it took a week to get there...I just hate flying :(

Well it's a big day tomorrow so I better get some rest. Especially since I've been up since 5:25 a.m. Got one of those telemarketer calls from the mainland..I hate it when they forget to check time differences! I had a hard time falling back asleep this time... the husband was snoring..and the cat was using me as a spring board...I plan on doing some serious snoring myself tonight! :)

Sweetest little thing!

Just had to share this pic of my friends new 'baby' :) I guess the story goes that someone handed her friends little girl a box and said "hold this for a sec" but they never came back and in it was the sweetest little gray kitten. He was too young to be away from mom...no teeth yet, so my freind Jei took him in and has been his mommy ever since. You can see more of little Blue and watch him grow at his very own blog



Blue 

Crafters Can Help

Creative minds join forces for hurricane Katrina Relief: Crafters United

Also I wanted to share this last week but haven't had the chance:

Baylie for Brains
A sweet little girl and fellow beader..only 6 years old was diagnosed in Feb. 2000 with Chiari Malformation (a rare brain abnormality) and in June 2004 with Pseudotumor Cerebri (high intracranial pressure). She's been beading bracelets to sell to raise money for research on her condition and has gotten literally thousands of orders! They are asking for donations of beads, beaded bracelets or time as they can not keep up with the wonderful response they got. Check out the site..she's such a cutie!

Mean Doggies and Turtle Poop

So much has been happening I feel like I've been in a whirlwind..yet it's been nothing really important..just stuff..stupid stuff at that. It would take me pages to explain the title to this blog post and frankly I just don't have it in me right now..maybe later because while one of the stories has really been stressing me out..the other is quite funny. But for now I"ll just say hello...and apologize for being gone for so long. And I'll post some pictures before I go off to see what all my long lost blogging pals have been up to.


my nephew Nakoa...he's such a doll! Actually he's quite a stinker..so he's lucky he's so cute! lol!


dorky smiles

And now for some jewelry fun :)....playing with autumn colors...

What's Your Ideal Career

I got this off of KTBugs blog:

heheh..I could have been a DJ!

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor - Art Teacher - Book Editor Clothes Designer - Comedian - Composer Dancer - DJ - Graphic Designer Illustrator - Musician - Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

What's Your Ideal Career?

This is the little thankyou pic I got in an email from my neice Kilynn..she lives on the mainland. She's wearing the little kimono style dress and playing with a japanese fan and a little silk purse...I sent her these because she loves to play dress up :) I used to love to play dress up when I was little :) I was going to send her a hula skirt but someone already beat me to it :(  

New Pearl Charm Bracelets

I've been sick AGAIN...so was stuck in bed and managed to make this..I absolutely love the rich colors! Not too fond of doing all the wire wrapping, but the end results are so worth it :)


This bracelet was made using the new bright emerald green coin pearls I just purchased. The color is gorgeous..I should have ordered more. I'm also in love with the huge chocolate peacock semi round pearls inbetween each coin. I have been saving them for just the right piece and felt this was it. Dangles are more pearls and olive and smokey quartz Swarovski crystals
available here 




and this one has white coins with very light pink potato pearls inbetween. Dangles are pink nugget pearls with opal aurora borealis Swarovski crystals.
It's available in my shop here

My head isn't quite as spacy today so I'm hoping to get to creating with my other new pearls I showed you. Either that or I received another pearl shipment in yesterday and was very pleased with some giant magenta keshi (aka 'reborn') pearls...they are so beautiful and so different looking from other keshi pearls I have... I hope I can do them justice.

New colors to play with :)

I've been wanting to get my hands on some deep purple peacock coin pearls..but the ones that came in were more green and had too many broken or popped blisters on them for the expensive price so I sent them back. I did end up with two new colors though and am anxious to create some new jewelry:



Bright Emerald Coins


Lilac Noir Coins
I've had light purple before..but this purple has more red then blue in it..so I'm hoping for some new inspiration :)

I finally posted a few pairs of ear threads to the site a couple of weeks ago. I'd sold out of what I had at the craft fair. They are a real fun style...you pull the whole chain through your ear :) Today I got in some vermeil ones..I think my pink tourmaline will look great on those!


lime chalcedony on 3" sterling silver cable style chains


wedgewood blue pearls and blue sapphire Swarovksi crystals on 5" sterling chain. This is a very silky sparkly type of box link.

Champagne dancing pearls with light Colorado Topaz ABx2 Swarovskis, tiny pink pearls and light pink AB seed beads.  

It's hard to capture it in a picture, but I just love the slight pink highlights on these champagne coin pearls...this bracelet has 3 champagne coin pearls and 3 light pink ones (one is dangling while two are on the bracelet)..the Swarovski crystals are called light Colorado Topaz with a 2x aurora borealis effect. This causes flashes of pink on the light topaz color..they go perfect with the flecks of pink in the champagne colored pearls and are one of my favorite Swarovksi colors. 

For you Star Wars fans...

This was fun..it worked for me the first time...but the second time I beat him. Maybe I was to specific..I believe he asks you not to be too specific.

http://sithsense.com/flash.htm

Are you right brained or left brained?

Here are my results:

You Are 30% Left Brained, 70% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

more jewelry

I'm behind on putting up new pieces..so here's a couple more for the day...


available here


available here

taking pictures outside

This is the best way to photograph jewelry. For one it's free (as opposed to other set ups like light boxes and that cloud dome thing..which I hope to obtain in the near future) and it brings out the natural colors in the jewelry. I rarely do this however because it's more of a hassle then it's worth right now in my situation. I usually scan my jewelry (a practice very commonly used by online jewelry shops)..it's so easy and so convenient..everything is right there were I need it. However while it gives a really good detailed picture of the piece..sometimes it inhibits certain colors or doesn't allow the reflection of some of the beatiful stones or especially mother of pearl and abalone to be seen.
My digital camera is 5+ years old and while I think it works great still, I never purchased an upgrade on the memory card so it will only hold about 12-16 pics. This doens't work out so well when I come back to upload and find out that some of the pics were blurry or what usually happens is a reflection is picked up from the tan muslin I use as a background and it causes a full on haze to go over the jewelry. I'm not quite sure what causes this as some come out this way and some don't.
My last trip outside to take jewelry...I ended up with maybe 2 usable shots. Pretty depressing after trucking out all the jewelry, the displays the backgroun cloth, the power cord (since my rechageable batteries have died.) And then they weren't as nice as I remember getting (before I knew you could scan jewelry)in the past when I only used to take pictures outside. I wonder if my camera is getting old..if that would affect it.

Here's one of the recent outside pics that turned out just okay:


available here

and this one...I think the sun came out better for this one:


available here

This one was taken on the same piece of wood, but inside with a bright light on it. Even though I'm not as happy as I have been in the past with the first two taken outside..I can see a bit of a difference. However I don't know if it's better or worse because the jewelry looks brighter on the outside pics..but the background too bright and kinda takes over. Perhaps I need to find someting darker to put in the background of the outside pics.


available here

At any rate...I have A LOT to learn when it comes to photography.

I got tagged...

So I got tagged by Pink Plumeria ages ago..I'm so sorry I flaked! I didn't mean to..just no time lately :
So I guess this tagging is a blog game...here's the deal: I have to pick 5 or more of the following occupations and post my answers here. Then, I tag 3 other people to post their answers on their blog. Here are the questions:

If I could be a scientist...If I could be a farmer...If I could be a musician...If I could be a doctor...If I could be a painter...If I could be a gardener...If I could be a missionary...If I could be a chef...If I could be an architect...If I could be a linguist...If I could be a psychologist...If I could be a librarian...If I could be an athlete...If I could be a lawyer...If I could be an inn-keeper...If I could be a professor...If I could be a writer...If I could be a llama-rider...If I could be a bonnie pirate...If I could be an astronaut...If I could be a world famous blogger...If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...If I could be married to any current famous political figure...

And here are my answers...I warn you I'm not quick whitted like most bloggers:

If I could be a painter: I would be really happy to create lots of beautiful colorful things and I wouldn't have to worry about coloring in the lines or with the 'proper' color..just like doing art as a kid again..and it would be considered really cool art cuz hey I'm a "painter" ;-)

If I could be a chef: I would get to eat all those gourmet flavors I crave but rarely get to eat and I'd probably gain 20 more pounds! I would also get to spend more time with my husband because sometimes we do enjoy cooking together.

If I could be a psychologist: I would be an art therapist for children. I learned about this profession in art class when I was 16 and have always wanted to be one :)

If I could be a writer: I'd have more words to express myself then just "that would be really cool"

If I could be an astronaut: Then maybe I could join John Luc Picard on the Enterprise..or SG1 and go through the stargate! (I'm a sci fi lover)


Thank you (I think) Pink Plumeria for the tag! I have to think about who I"m tagging..you already tagged ktbug..darn! lol! I'll announce it after I take my son and his friend swimming.

**added later**
Okay..I've tagged Stefani, Josh, and Chris

Have fun guys..I'll look for your tag posts :)

Just because it's so pretty :)

This one sold pretty darn quick..I still wanted to share though because it was so pretty.



The matching earrings sold with the necklace...

Thank you ktbug!! :)

I just wanted to say thank you to ktbug for sharing some wonderful pictures of herself wearing one of Jonara Blu Maui's creations to her graduation from Dental Hygeinist school. Her wonderfully sweet hubby found out she'd been wanting this necklace and secretly purchased it for her for a grad present :) You can see the pics here

Isn't she cute? Congrats Katie!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As far as my abscense goes...we've had a bought of sicknesses, then relapses then our freinds were moving with not much notice. Their landlord decided to sell their place and the new place they found, they had to move in within a week or they would loose it to someone else. With both of them working during the week there wasn't much time for packing. So we have been over there packing and moving and cleaning and painting. It was a lot of work..but I"m happy they are now in the same neighborhood as me :) but between that and getting ready for the craft fair we just went to..it hasn't left me much time for blogging. Hopefully I'll be able to share some new pieces soon and check out all my blogging buddies blogs as well!

update on cell phone directory

Well it turns out there is some info on this cell phone issue at Snopes. I can't get the link to work for some reason so you will just have to cut and paste this if you want to read it: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

I guess it's a voluntary thing..your cell number won't be automatically added..though I can't for the life of me imagine it being a very big directory. I mean who do you know that's waiting for the day they can get their cell number in directory that telemarketers are chomping at the bit to get their hands on? Maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture..there was too much to read in the snopes article so I skimmed over a lot of it.

At any rate..I put my numbers, including my home number in the no call directory thing..hope it works cuz I'm pretty tired of all the telemarketing calls we get everyweek.