I've been published at AisleDash!

I'm so excited..I've been published for my very first time at a wonderful wedding themed e-zine called AisleDash



This wedding blog has so many fun articles posted each day from all sorts of tips to celebrity wedding gossip to interesting finds like superhero cuff links (I need some of those..I love superheros :)) It really makes for some fun reading for anyone, not only brides to be.

AisleDash writes different articles each day as you would see in a regular blog. You can have fun just reading what neat finds they've made each day, or you can click on catagories and suddenly you have a whole bunch of wonderful articles and pictures in that catagory to choose from. They also have a clickable image on the right side of a womans hand holding a manilla envelope and on it, it says "The Organized Bride - tips and tricks for the big day" and then once you click on that, there are catagories of tips and tricks to help you out like beauty and fashion, favors, DIY, the ceremony...etc.



Here is the article they posted about my jewelry with links back to both my shop and my blog:



They made a gallery of a whole bunch of my wedding themed jewelry even....it looks like they have galleries for everyone they write articles for. Thats so nice of them!


Mahalo Nui Loa AisleDash!

Jake Shimabukuro - Awesome Ukulele Player from Hawaii

Jake Shimabukuro (pronounced she-ma-BOO- koo-row) is a very talented ukulele player from Hawaii...I'm not personally into ukulele music..but living here for so long I hear it all the time and appreciate
it ;-) Jake Shimabukuro really caught my attention as he plays it differently then I've ever heard before...very unconventional. Here is a video of him playing and making his ukuklele sound like a spanish guitar..




If you interested in learning more about Jake..here's a link to his official website:

Jake Shimabukuro

Mermaid's Tear - Beaded Necklace

A shimmering mother of pearl tigers eye shell teardrop pendant with faceted amazonite, white top drilled freshwater pearls, opal and pacific opal aurora borealis Swarovski crystals and tiny aurora borealis glass beads.



the back side of the pendant is just as beautiful and quite interesting with the swirling ridges of mother of pearl. Many have told us they like to wear these pendants both ways!


Available here at Jonara Blu Maui

Wedding Waterfall and day at the beach....

I'm so excited...I finally found some really nice off-white/cream colored pearls. I guess you would call it a true antique ivory color. Not the whites that are called ivory or cream..but they still appear white. These are beautiful. The smaller ones are a slight bit darker then the bigger ones..but hardly..and they are the same tone so they match so well....plus it gives a little more interest in the necklace I created with them.



For more information on this necklace check it out here at Jonara Blu Maui

Yesterday my son and I played hookie from all of our responsibilities and took off to the beach. We went with my parents and my sister and nephews. The weather was too chilly for me to get in the water..but I'm a wimp and need it HOT to actually get in. The tourists were just fine as everyone was swimming and having a good time. I'm sure they have come from much colder climates so it was perfect for them. Our boys had a blast too..and it was good excersize for them. I really need to get to the beach more often.



At this particular beach..we call it Maui Prince Beach because that is the closest big hotel...there is not a lot of action for boogie boarding..so it's great for snorkling. However on the left hand side you can catch some fun little waves. That is the side we always sit under..it has a really big tree for shade too.



and this tree has on it a rope swing so it's double the fun for the kids when they are tired of the water.

Hiking a Rainforest on Maui

Sunday my husband, son and myself took a little trip to Iao Valley.






We hadn't been for a quite a number of years even though it's only 1/2 an hour away. It's a great place for a picnic and there is a paved hiking trail for an easy hike...or you can go off the path and hike along the creek.



I didn't remember these signs we saw posted along the stream...



I guess I never paid attention to them...beacause Iao valley is an actual rain forest, seeing these signs now made me wonder what this area got like during the huge storm we had Dec of 2005. That storm caused so much damage. A house was even washed off it's foundation. Here's a car that got taken by a flash flood caused by that storm..it's unrecognizable



This day we took the easy way and stayed on the trail..my son is just recooping from that flu so was not feeling too strong..he just needed some fresh air. I took it as an opportunity to bring my camera since I normally wouldn't want to be burdened down with it on a more intense hike. We went to the part where I used to take my son swimming when he was little..it seemed so big to him then ;-)



The air was cool and there was a slight breeze...it was perfect



Sadly my battery was getting weak so my camera lost the ability to auto focus..it took me a while to figure out how to do it on my own. But I did end up with some awesome pictures. This is just off the path..in amongst the trees are tons of ginger plants. They weren't blooming yet..usually they have white flowers and smell so sweet as you walk through...





After the Iao we went down the hill just a little bit to Heritage Gardens where we layed out a blanket and had a picnic. In this park there are monuments and different types of houses to show how the different races that came to Hawaii lived. They are fun to check out and look so pretty in the park

this is my favorite snapshot of the day:









There gardens are beautiful





and there is even a little bamboo forest to walk through





Good thing it's small and has a path..that stuff grows so thick!

New Unconventional Bridal Necklace

I have wanted to make some bridal jewelry using more of an off white colored pearl for some time, however I have had a problem finding that color of pearl..esp in coin pearls. Any ivory color I get in other shapes is so similar to white and with how small they are it's hard to tell a difference. Ivory is hard to find to in the all the shapes and sizes I want to work with. It's nice to have different shapes and sizes to add texture and design to a pieces. So I decided to mix some white and ivory and to put them with some tan silk cord and some golden shadow colored Swarovski crystals. It may not be for the conventional bride..but then most of my bridal jewelry isn't.

Here is the result..the little bit of tan coloring mixed it helps to take away from that conventional 'all white' look...perfect for a beach wedding...




This necklace is available here

Visit Jonara Blu Maui for more beach wedding jewelry.

Monarch Butterfly Coming in for a Landing!

Every morning we get monarchs and white butterfies flying around our grass..we aren't sure why...but guess that they are drinking the dew. Between the butterflies, the skinks crawling around our sandstone stepping stones and the cardinals...it's a fun little coreographed dance to watch while hubby and I drink our morning coffee. This monarch pic was snapped a couple of days ago while I was out taking pics of jewelry...



It's definitely warming up here (I know, I know...it was always warm compared to everyone else...but remember we had SNOW! ) Some days I'm hating how hot it's getting already..my bead room gets about 10 degrees hotter then the rest of the house..but most days it's still cool enough to be completely comfortable. Nights are still cool too..so right now the weather is pretty much perfect in my book ;-)

Flowers from my garden:

Green Pearls and Paua Abalone Shell

I made this necklace a couple of months ago to match the bracelet you see below and completely forgot to put it in my shop. So here it is...


Available here


Available here

Sapphire Dreams

I have finally escaped my tax prep prison and am back with some new jewelry to offer. I am in love with these new sapphire blue pearls..they are so lustrous as they shimmer blue with a hint of purple. I bought the petal keshi shapes about a year ago and had nothing to match them until recently when I came across some coin pearls and fat rice pearls at two different vendors. They all match perfectly. I'll be sad when I'm out of them. Coin pearls are becoming harder and harder to come by..esp nice ones like these.


available here


available here

Spring flowers for all you winter people out there

Christina from This Girl Beads suggested I post some pics of flowers blooming here on my sunny little island. We have had cold weather but not near enough to stop all the plants from blooming. My plumeria tree does go dormant every year though. And my gerber daisy's..I thought they died because of the drought..but with two weeks of rain one popped up and said "Hello!" Perhaps they go dormant too? A lot of plants bloom year 'round here.



More flowers from the yard:


Strange alien plant I have no idea what it is. Hubby brought home from a job one day a bulb that grows on top of the ground..we planted it and this is what grew. The bulb is huge now..like a football size.


This rose was so bright..in the picture it looks like I photoshopped it onto the picture..I didn't!


Geraniums amongst some heleconia stalks





Now for some spring earrings:


I love the powdered almond color of the Swarovski crystal faux pearls. They match so nicely with the champagne colored plumeria shells I use in my jewelry. They are new in my shop, just in time for wedding season. these would be so perfect for an island bride getting married on the beach.Available here

Lime green and pink are the epitomy of spring colors. These plumerias are carved from the conch shell and have lime green dyed tuquoise accompanying them. Available here


White mother of pearl plumerias with spring green freshwater coin pearls. Available here

Weekend stuff

I planned to not touch my tax stuff this weekend..I worked so hard all week that I felt I deserved a break. But here I sit...working on tax stuff again..there is just so much to do. I literally drowned in receipts every year around this time. It's so overwhelming but little by little it starts coming together. The reason it's such a pain is that I fall behind with my bookkeeping for both my jewelry business and my husbands business (Offshore Window Tinting) every year..so a lot of receipts need to be imput into the books. I never ever learn my lesson. I need to rest my brain though so I thought I'd add a post to the blog.

I don't have any new pics to share so I will share some of what my husband does for work:

here are just a few pics of the many things he does...

installs sunroofs




paints and repairs bumpers:




window tinting...


So not much going on this weekend... the family has been home sick. It seems everyone is getting this cough. I'm finally feeling better after 3 weeks..but still have an afternoon cough. Funny I'm coughing in the afternoons..our son is coughing at night so none of us can get to sleep and my husband wakes up at 6 a.m. coughing and wakes us all up. It's been very tiring! At least it's finally warming up and drying up..we had like 2 weeks straight of pouring rain. Now we really need to get out and soak in some healing rays at the beach. Hopefully next weekend.

Yesterday I made a big order of coin pearls from one of my new suppliers I was really excited about. They started having problems so I wasn't able to use them for a while. They made a move though and are now back in business..so I hope this order works out. I'm really excited about these as I've never had this color of coin pearl before..I hope it's as teal green as the suppliers pictures shows it here..its hard to capture the true color on pearls. Thats why I take my pics outside preferably in cloud cover..if not on the edge of the shade next to the sun..but never full sun:



Also on Saturday I completed the last 2 of 5 special orders I've been working on over the last couple of weeks. I should have gotten pictures of them today..the weather was so nice..but I forgot. So I will do that in the morning and send them off to my customers for final approval.

Hubby worked on the yard all day Saturday. It looks so nice. The drought had gone on for so long there were big dirt sections in our lawn. But now with all this rain finally it's really over grown. It looks nice all freshly cut..but I have to say I do love all the dandilions and other wild flowers that show up when it's overgrown. We have the cutest little raspberry skittle colored wild flower poofs that grow out in the grass. I don't know what they are..but I love them. Amazingly a lot of my plants came back after the drought. A lot of my potted flowers that my husband has bought me over the years that we had planted in the ground all made it. :) 2 of my 3 gerbers died though..and my pink carnations died. They were strange though..just kept spreading and growing leaves..but never anymore flowers. Also our red impatiens in the front yard died..hubby just replaced them all for me with pink ones.

I hung out inside to finish some custom orders. I watched some old Babylon 5 tv shows on the computer at In2TV - AOL Television . They have a lot of old funky tv shows you can watch for free. I go through and watch them sometimes when I'm tired of listening to music while I bead...just another background noise as it helps me to focus. I made 3 pairs of cute earrings but 2 are with gold and I'm out of gold ear wires. So today I made more orders for that kind of not so fun stuff to spend money on...findings...which are things like ear wires, head pins, clasps..etc. That stuff adds up big time!

I've got another bracelet layed out with paua shell, amazonite and labradorite with Hill Tribe silver...a combo that I love to do..but this time I'm toying around with putting in some white coin pearls and other white nugget pearls. Not sure yet if I will keep it that way.

Then I started feeling guilty about playing and rembered how BADLY I want to finish all this up by the end of February..so I got back to work. If anything...all this bookkeepign makes me appreciate getting back to jewelry making all the more. I've got 1/2 an hour before I hit the sack..hopefully I can reach the bottom of this pile sitting in front of me!