Cool Retro Chairs from Craigslist

I'm always reading Christina's blog This Girl Beads and am jealous of all her cool thrift store finds.(Not to mention I enjoy her taste in etsy finds and beautiful jewelry projects) We don't have a lot of places to find cool vintage stuff on Maui though so I was very excited when I found these really cool authentic retro chairs through craigslist for only $25 for the pair!



I didn't realize the chairs were so authentic until we got to the sellers house..they actually fold...my aunt has a card table and 4 wood folding chairs that she has had ever since I can remember..these seem to work the same..



I want to change my living room from all of it's deep purple and olive green and it's hodge-podge of bohemian beaded lamps and frames to a more clean retro look..although I don't wanna go too over board with the retro. And I want color..it seems so dark in my living room. So about 6 months before I found the chairs..I got this pillow at Pier One Imports as an inspiration for my color palate. I'd like to have a base of dark brown so I can really toss in any color accents I want...change them up or whatever..kinda like I do with my jewelry.




Oh and I also love reading Frecklewonder's blog she is a vintage diva! Her pictures are so fun and colorful to look at and all her finds are so cool...for some reason it just makes me happy. Perhaps it's the childhood memories the images bring up. You catch glimpses of her own house and how it's decorated..even how their table is set for family meals with dishes and tablecloths my grandmother and mother used...it really takes you back. I wonder what she would think of my chairs? ;)

Keshi Pearl Charm Bracelet Spotlight

This is one of my favorites..it's hard to capture in a picture the amount of actual sparkle and the way the pink keshi pearls and aurora borealis play in the light. The Swarovski crystals are a color called 'light Colorado topaz ABx2' so they are a light topaz color with a double coating of the aurora borealis effect. It makes the crystals appear more pink then they do the light tannish color of topaz..yet the topaz base makes it a very natural pink..it looks great with warm tone of the 14k gold filled metals. If you are interested this piece is available here

Wedding Season

It's that time of year again...time when all the wedding requests start coming in. My sister of Aihara Visuals Photography just got back from the huge wedding fair on Oahu at the Blaisdell Center..it was packed!

In anticipation of this season I had begun to make more wedding oriented pieces..however my wholesale account in England snagged up all I'd made so far for a bridal show they will be going to over there. And now I've been busy with getting my tax papers together and working on special orders so my bridal jewelry selection is begging for more attention. So yesterday I made these..and hopefully will have more soon:


Beach bride anklet available here



Heres an alternative if white is not for you..perhaps a little pink. This and the earrings below have not been listed on my site just yet..so you are getting a sneak preview.

'Pink Splash' earrings available here


This one is from last year and on sale for 50% off...it's perfect for that beach wedding you have been dreaming about. Available here

And here is my first custom wedding request for the year... The bride picked out earrings similar to these in my shop only she wanted the olivine Swarovski crystal replaced with a fuschia one to match her green and pink garden wedding. We made her 6 pairs of these :)

Turquoise Medley

A fun bright mix of turquoise...




available at Jonara Blu Maui

Totally Handcrafted Ceramic Beads

I'm selling off my collection of hand crafted ceramic beads. I used to work with a ceramics/jewelry artist here on Maui and learned out to make these babies. They are a lot of work and very unique. I'm done with this craft though as I've moved on to other things. If your a jewlery artist and your interested in some unique beads to work with come check them out at Jonara Blu Maui's Etsy Shop

I'm selling them in sets of 5...so they would be good to use in bracelets. Here are a couple examples of what I have up in the shop. I will be putting more up...but supplies are very limited.





Here are a couple of examples of what I've made with these fun and interesting beads in the past:

Snow on Maui!

It's been so cooooold! Sometimes I think I forget how cold it can get here in the winter in upcountry Maui...but I really don't think it's been this cold for a while. Yesterday in Makawao it was 54 degrees outside at 10:30 a.m. I know thats not cold for most who live on the mainland..but my body is not acclamated to it nor do we have heaters. So I'm walking around in layers of clothing, double socks and my wonderfully warm chennel scarf that my friend Tina of Belle Adorn knitted for me.

We got snow too! It's way up on the volcano Haleakala...we do get it every once in a while. I've always heard that they close the road so don't even try going up there. I also heard that the only way to get to the snow is if the weather is acting like it is gonna snow up there possibly overnight..go up the day before and camp at Hosmers Grove and then you may be fortunate enough to wake up to snow. I'm not sure if it's true though. My son and my nephews have never seen the snow..I sure would like to take them up there. I'm not ready to turn into a popsicle in my tent for a couple inches of snow though.

Heres a pic my mom emailed me this morning..



and here are a bunch of pics on KITV.COM click on the link that says "see viewer photos" under the photo of snow covered Haleakala to the right.

family milestones/odds and ends to share

I'll start with the awesome rainbow we had at the end of our street. It was actually a double..you can kind of see it..but the pic did not do this amazing glowing rainbow justice. We have rainbows so much here on Maui..it's even on our license plates and drivers licenses..but I never get tired of looking at them. And sometimes they are just so intense they seem unreal.



Kobryn says hello! This is my newest nephew! One of my very very bestest ever friends..she's practically my sister..is having her first baby! And of course since our family adopted her and her hubby as our own..she's having a boy..our family only seems to make boys!



My son got his first car..it was a freebie he and his dad are going to work on. The woman got a new car and didn't feel like messing with figuring out what was wrong with this one. My husband is really good with fixing cars..so that will be a nice little project for he and Cameron to do. Now we just have to get Cam his drivers permit..just the thought is freaking me out!



My 4 year old nephew Koa finally decided he wanted to try and string some beads rather then toss them all around or tie up my superman action figure with strands of pearls ;-)


Thats all for today..next time I'll post more jewelry :)

Married on a Maui Catamaran - Robb and Erin

I had the pleasure of creating Erin's bridal jewelry as well as her bridesmaid's jewelry. Robb and Erin were married on a catamaran here on Maui..I can only imagine what a beautiful experience it must have been. I know the pictures they shared with me were amazing! They were also very thoughtful and sent me a few that featured the jewelry I made to share with everyone.











Thank you Erin and Robb and Erin's mom, Therese..for sending me these pics to share and for letting me be a part of your very special day!

here is a close up on the jewelry created for Erin and her bridesmaids

Flowers from a friend :)

My friend Angel stopped by today and brought me these flowers she said reminded her of me...they are so cool! So bright like crayola crayons!




the purple vase I put them in didn't show up..but it's all quite colorful!

Maui Storm

We had a whopper of storm last wednesday....my camera with the video on it is on it's last leg...but I managed to tape some of it:

*note...not sure why this video isn't showing up. It shows up when I go look at it in editing posts..I guess I'll leave it up for now and see if it corrects itself...

Sorry we missed the craft fair...

I wanted to apologize to our regular customers that we see each year at the Ben Franklin Craft fair. If you looked for my sister and I ..you are right..we weren't there. I worked really hard to bring lots of fresh new designsto this years fair..however I had some health issues with my heart that put a damper on things. I've dealt with palpitations off and on my whole adult life...but recently they've gotten worse. Longer bouts of them and more frequently throughout the day. This recent episode has lasted me a month. A few days before the show I had some major ones that almost caused me to pass out. So needless to say I didn't think the craft fair would be such a good idea for me right now. I'm fine..they are harmless...the docs got me on an event recorder for a month. I've had EKG's and the heart holter..but never was able to capture one for the doc to review. with this new little deal I'm catching tons of them for them. They say they are early heart beats and are minor. Just unsettling..so I hope they go away soon.

I do have lots of new jewelry that I'm putting up in the shop little by little..so keep checking back.

It's late and I'm sleepy so I'll have to share pics later ....night!

Winter time FINALLY!

It's finally cold and raining here..we've been under a 10% water restriction since the summer. My plants are all croaking and my car is always dirty :\ But today we are finally having an awesome storm. I saw it coming this morning..but figured like they always do that it would just pass right by us. Nope..it's been pouring all morning..even thundering! I love it! I only feel bad for all the visitors to the island..this is not way to spend your Hawaiian vacation. Sorry!



But with winterime that means lack of fruit. We do still get our pineapples and mangos and papaya..but I've grown really tired of them. I love the nectarines, peaches and plums from the mainland..but dont' like to buy the ones that come from Chile...they use that pesticide that the US has outlawed..then the US goes and buys produce grown with the stuff. I just don't understand it. So I try to stay away from fruit and vegies from mexico area during the winter. Thankfully I've come across a few generous souls lately willing to share fruit they've grown themselves locally. Here you can see my fruit bowl with a yummy jabong aka pomelo..it's like a grapefruit but with out the bitter taste and we have lilikoi in purple and yellow...thats also called passion fruit. Those are my fav :P and I have to admit our apple bananas are much tastier then reg bananas.

Under a red Hawaiian moon...

Okay..so of course our moon isn't red...but during the lunar eclipse the other week...once it was completely covered..it turned red! My camera didn't like that there was no light once the mood was covered by the earths shadow and I didn't understand how to change the shutter speed..so it's really blurry..but when you get to the last of these pics you will see how red the moon turned. pretty Trippy! The moon got really bright too as soon as the shadow even touched the edge of it.

Networking for Indie Designers

I found a really cool new corner of the web..it's like MySpace...but for indie designers...it's called IndiePublic

Heres a screenshot of my page:


It seems to work a lot like MySpace but with out the meat-market atmosphere. Everyone there is to promote what they make and sell. You link with friends and post comments...ultimately advertising for yourself on each others pages.


I'm not sure how much this helps with marketing yourself...it certainly can't hurt. I've gotten really lazy with marketing Jonara Blu Maui so this summer during slower season I've been trying to spend some time with it. So many new places have popped up in the last few years, it's much more fun and exciting.

I also just joined IndieDesignerLables it's more of a group of links for indie designers. Free to link if you put their link up on your site..otherwise a $25 donation. That will also get you on the front..for I think a month? I'm not sure..actually I was suprised when I saw myself up on the front. I only paid because I can't link back to them with their graphic like they want you to (Rubylane where I sell only allows text links) So I submitted the wrong size graphic not realizing it would be put on the front as well and it got shrunk to fit so it's way too small and not very readable. Still kinda cool to be up there when I didn't expect it!

situation averted

I'm happy to report no hurricane! Thanks to our trade winds it got ripped to shreads and now is only a tropical storm. We aren't even getting the rain we needed so bad. The trades have stopped too...wierd cuz if they had stopped the hurricane could have turned up north and hit us like Iniki did...but they did their job and now it's like they are taking a break. The news says we will still have strong trades with gusts up to 60 mph with this storm..but as of 5 a.m. it was going by Maui and I don't see any signs of it. We woke up to dry ground.

Here is what I woke up to this morning...this is perfect sky to take pictures of my jewelry in..the cloud cover works like a light difuser. but I have no new jewelry to photograph...darn

Waitin' on a hurricane....

It was Cosme about a week or two ago..now it's Flossy. Cosme like so many other hurricanes died out and became a tropical storm before it reached the islands. Flossy though, they say is supposed to remain a hurricane and not turn into a tropical storm until it passes the island chain. In fact this is the first time in years I made my way to the store to buy hurricane supplies. We got our batteries, extra water, some non perishable food...stuff like that. And I had definite plans to put my jewelry making supplies and computer in a safer area lol!

Thank goodness it keeps weakening though...it was a catagory 4 and they were calling it 'highly dangerous', then yesterday sometime it got downgraded to a 3 and now it's a 2..but still with sustained winds at 104 and higher gusts. It's slowing too..it had been moving at about 16 mph for a while there..now it's down to 9 mph.

Kona is being affected by it right now...high surf and they are supposed to get up to 10 inches of rain in some parts. Oh and poor Kona had a 5.3 earthquake last night as well! We didn't feel it this time here on Maui. At least my family didn't. We need rain badly here on Maui..so hopefully it will be enough to end our drought and 10% water restriction. I have no idea how much that will take.

If you are interested.. here is the NOAA update link:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/pages/prod.php?file=/data/HFO/TCPCP2

and here is a picture of our islands and the path it's taking so far. Now..hurricane Iniki took a sudden 90 degree turn in 1992 and hit the island of Kauai..but they say that the weather systems out there and our strong trade winds are keeping it on it's path and they are nearly 100% sure that it will remain the way it's going with out turning into us...I hope!:

Announcing Jonara Blu Maui's new Etsy clearance shop!

Have you ever wanted a piece of our jewelry but have been just a little too short on cash? Well now is your chance! We've opened a clearance shop on Etsy for our precious little pieces that have insisted on hanging on to 'mom' for just a bit too long. They need new homes so they can go out and experience life!

These little treasures are beautiful quality handmade pieces just like those you see in our regular shop Jonara Blu Maui...just ones we would like to see finally make it out there into the big bad world and do their job of brightening up someones day. Their creators here need to move on and make room for new designs.

So bookmark Jonara Blu Maui's clearance shop and keep an eye out for new sales to be uploaded ;-)

Here are some of our newest sale offerings:


Birds of Paradise - Multi Gem Beaded Earrings
Originally: $26
Now: $15



Barely Pink Coin and Shell Pendant Cord Necklace
Originally: $68
Now: $46


Sunrise Hoops
Originally: $32
Now: $18

New Logo..finally!

It's been long overdue...but I've finally updated the look of my logo....now I've just got to design new business cards and earring cards from it. Tags are easy because I just shrink it down. I'm embarrassed to say that for 4 years..I haven't had my shop logo and box tags match my business cards, jewelry tags and earring cards. So I'm pretty stoked to finally look a little more with it lol!

Everything will be designed using this:



My shop sign has already been designed and put up..and thanks to my son he figured out a way to use some more of the space allowed me by rubylane..I'm allowed 100 pixels high and 200 wide..so that put all this empty space on the side. He fashioned it in photo shop so that it looks like a frame. here is the pic of it..but check it out on my site Jonara Blu Maui because the white part is hidden with a white back ground and it looks better