Aloha Friday

If you already read Tiffany's post on Hawaii today, you will know that today is Aloha Friday.  No, it's not like Good Friday before Easter.  Every Friday is Aloha Friday.  There's even a song about it.

I had big plans to share a little pineapple tutorial with you. Guess what...

I dropped the ball and was busy with activity a, b, and c.  The pineapple post will just have to be saved for the future.  

I did have a few thought of my own to share:

Why is it that anything with pineapple on it is labeled at "Hawaiian?" I'm talking burgers, pizza, and haystacks.  I had never even heard of a Hawaiian Haystack until I lived in San Diego when I was in my 20's.  They are pretty good, but no pineapple on mine please, or coconut for that matter.

Spam is a pretty popular "meat" in Hawaii.  It's just really salty and kind of like a hot dog. Not gross and really good fried up for breakfast with some sticky rice and eggs.  Lower your standards and try it some time.

Not everyone from Hawaii is Hawaiian, or speaks pigeon. We are a part of the United States and use U.S. currency. I have really had people ask me about this stuff.

Oh, and it's free to swim in the rec centers there.  I just about died when I had to pay to swim in a pool.  

There are so many great things about Hawaii that I miss.  I'm okay with out the humidity and bugs. But, I really miss the ocean and warmth of the people.

Happy Aloha Friday.  Hope you don't have to work till Monday.

Garlands of Flowers Everywhere

     You may be thinking, "This whole lei thing is nice Nikki, but I'm not making a lei!"

First off, don't be a party pooper.  Second, then don't make a lei.  Make some flower garlands. ;)

I'm always in awe of the things Patricia, from A Little Hut, can make out of paper. When I saw her recent paper flower, I knew it would make great May Day decor for my house.  

The small flowers in the top photo are from her tutorial specifications.  My big flowers are made with 4 x 4 inch petals. I love the scoring detail on each petal. The centers of my flowers are sub par, but I still think they look great.

I've rounded up a few paper flowers from blog land that I thought would look great in your house.

1. Paper flower tutorial from Dozi Design 

2. Pom Pom Vines by Anna Bond via Once Wed

3. Wallflowers from Made
4. Paper Flowers by Brittany via 100 Layer Cake
5. How to make a paper flower from A little hut
6. DIY Paper Flowers Tutorial from Blissful Fetes

***Your probably looking at A little hut's flower in number 5, and thinking that doesn't really look like Nikki's flowers.  It's called creative interpretation.  I did my best.


So, now that I've found you some super cute flower tutorials - jump to it.  
Make some flower garland.
Pretend you can smell plumerias and gardenias.
Celebrate May Day with us!

Candy leis make my DAY!

A candy lei is a great way to make a lei if you don't have access to flowers.

It only requires a few supplies, and it's easy enough for you kids to do on their own.

Supplies:
Assorted candy
2 feet of cling wrap
Scissors
Some yarn, ribbon, or string

1. Cut your cling wrap down the center to make two long pieces.

2. Line your candies pretty close together, but not touching, down the length of the cling wrap. Repeat for other piece of cling wrap. I like to alternate different candies.

3. Fold half of the wrap over the candy so that it is covered.

4. Now roll the candy to the edge of the cling wrap. You should now have a tube of candy.

5. Cut your string into four inch pieces. Tie the pieces around the cling wrap in between each piece of candy.

6. Follow the pictures above to connect the two lengths of candy.  You should now have a circle of wrapped candy.

Admire your work.  You did a marvelous job. 

I like to spiff up my leis with a tag or note. For this lei I added a silk flower hair clip. 

Presto...

Fancy candy lei.

Now find someone to give your lei to.  Don't forget to give them a kiss.

A homemade lei is a great present for Mother's Day, Teacher appreciation, or a birthday.  With the candy lei method your possibilities are endless.  I'm thinking a bunch of little Japanese food erasers would be a fun idea.  How about a lei full of hair accessories for a girly girl, or some match box cars for a little boy.

Take the idea and run people.  Go make a candy lei today!

Did you see what Simply Modern Mom made today? It is a must see!

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii

I have a hard time saying, "May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii" without singing it.
As a kid, all I knew was May Day meant leis and a dance performance.
Every school in Hawaii puts on a dance festival of sorts for May Day.  In junior high and high school you even have a May Day Queen, King, and other royalty.   This thing is a big deal.

2nd Grade May Day program

 People don't just wear leis on May Day.  

Leaving for a trip to Washington D.C.

 Leis are given for so many different reasons.  One of my favorite memories is going to the lei stand on our way to the airport.  Whenever someone visits Hawaii, we greet them with a fresh lei and a kiss.  In the picture above, I was leaving with two of my teachers on a school trip.  We were sent off with leis and well wishes. The flower garland around my head is called a haku lei.

6th Grade May Day program

High School Graduation

 Any kind of graduation celebration calls for giving leis. From pre-school to beauty school there will be leis.  Really popular kids, or at least kids with lots of family, will have so many leis you can't even see their heads.  This is not a joke people. Leis are awesome

Our wedding reception in Hawaii

In this photo, Mike is wearing a maile lei.  This is an open ended lei made of fragrant smelling leaves.  It is more common for girls to give their prom date a maile lei than a boutonnière.  Guys usually give the girls a big bouquet of flowers and sometimes a lei too.  I didn't get my first wrist corsage until a couple of years ago at my sister's wedding reception here in Utah.

Leis are one of the special and unique things about Hawaii.  Giving a lei is the way we welcome people, show love, respect, appreciation, congratulations, or even farewell.  A lei is the symbol of the "Aloha Spirit."

Tropical flowers are pretty abundant in Hawaii, and not so much in Utah.  Check back tomorrow to see my favorite alternative to fresh flower leis.

Don't forget to hop over to see Simply Modern Mom.  Tiffany has a great flower lei alternative for your idle hands today!

Easter 2011

My kids wouldn't go to sleep Saturday night, and they woke up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning. Davis wrote the Easter Bunny a note and left him a penny to exchange for a Webkinz. I guess the note worked because both the big kids got a new little Webkinz in their Easter baskets.

Our day was filled with sugar, church, sugar and cousins, a movie, sugar, sugar, dinner with family, sugar and more sugar.  I have a feeling today will have a lot of sugar in it too.

This is the first year there hasn't been snow on the ground at our house for Easter. But, our candy filled eggs were still hidden in the house. Collin was so tired, he wouldn't wake up despite his brother's best efforts. The kids left him a few eggs to find, and he was happy.

Now, on to the next celebration! Tiffany, from Simply Modern Mom, and I are going to be sharing some fun "Hawaii" themed posts this week.  Did you know Tiffany grew up in Hawaii too?  May 1, or May Day, is right around the corner.  May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii! Check back all week to see Hawaii action...

Can you smell them?

Fresh blueberry muffins right from the oven.

We ended up dying eggs with friends last night.  These muffins smell a heck of a lot better than my fridge right now.  Why do hard boiled eggs smell like you know, a fart?

Happy Saturday!

Spun Sugar

We have a cotton candy machine.

Doesn't everybody?

Spring break means all the rules are out the window.

We had cotton candy for an afternoon snack.

I was happy my kids didn't freak out when I told them they could only have one GIANT cone each.

Isn't sugar pretty?

I've been busy getting Easter things ready around here.

At the last minute I decided to make Tess an Easter skirt.  I was trying out some elastic thread in my bobbin, and messed up the tension. So, the last minute decision turned into another last minute trip to Old Navy to buy Easter clothes for my kids.  

I'm off to enjoy some sun while it's here.

Matchy Matchy

I whipped up this quick craft for an Easter present. It's not rocket science, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Supplies:

16 round wooden disks from the craft store

8 different patterned papers or pictures 

cut two of each paper into 1.5 inch or smaller circles 

Mod Podge

Small foam brush (mine was a little over kill, but it's what I had close by)

1. Slather some Mod Podge onto your disk. 

2.  Lay your circle onto the glue.

3. Press it flat all the way around.

4. Cover the top and sides of your disk with more Mod Podge.

5. Let dry.  I set mine on waxed paper.

The disks really only took a few minutes to dry and then we were ready to play.

I loved the snack paper from DCWV as soon as I saw it. 

 I thought it made a fun matching game.

Won't these little games be fun for Easter?  

If you need another idea for a non-sugar Easter treat check out my

 Tic*Tac*Toe* TO-GO.

Eggs our way

I'm not really into hard boiled eggs. Ok, not at all.

A couple years ago the kids and I decorated plastic eggs and that's kind of become our tradition.

Each child got a package of plastic eggs from the dollar store.

We got out our googly eyes, puffy paint, stickers and some yarn.

This is a great project for the big kids, but not so great for Babyzilla Collin.

This was a fun and inexpensive afternoon craft.

I even made a pineapple egg.  Isn't she cute! 

Style Issues

My issues are more about commitment.  Every time I get my hair done I do something different.  I don't really like change, except for when it comes to my hair and decorating my house.

My newest haircut is so fun.  It reminds me of a China doll I had when I was a little girl.  Mom, do you remember that doll?  She had a pink blouse and purple pants.  I think I need to go look for her in the attic.

Next time I get my hair done, I'm thinking about adding in some bright highlights....or maybe something else.  I have seven weeks to figure that out.

We have lived in our house for four years, and none of our rooms feel complete.  I'm kinda on a mission to change that.  My goal is to get the kids rooms repainted during spring break and finished up.  We only need a side table in the master bedroom.  So, basically we are really close, but I usually change my mind about something when Mike thinks we're done.  I need to work on my commitment!  Do it and be done, right?

My blog design is the last item on my 'can't make a commitment' list.  Have you noticed my new header and what nots?  Thanks to Noelle for helping me along.  I am really happy with the way things have turned out.  I'm not the most html savvy, but we made it work. This new blog look is going to stay for a while, I hope you like it.

Have a great weekend.  Maybe you should make a bird or two in your down time...

Tweet Tweet

We have some new spring birds at our house.  Not real birds, just colorful fabric ones. 

I had thought about selling these back in the day, and realized I am not a business person.

I don't do well with sewing for a business, and I would rather everyone enjoying making their own.

This is a great project to use up any scraps of fabric you have been collecting.  In my case it's called hoarding. I save everything. Don't ask why, it's for making cute little birds and what nots O.K.! 

This is a small fraction of my scraps stash.  I recently cleaned my craft room and threw a lot of little bits away.  

So on to the details...

Supplies:

Scraps of fabric 

Sewing machine

Embroidery floss

Needle

Template printed on card stock; label one side A and the other B

(there are two sizes to choose from, both fit on 81/2 x 11 inch paper)

Pen

Stuffing

A good attitude (I have to remind myself of this one)

1. Iron you fabric.  Maybe your scraps are all neatly folded, but mine are crumpled in a basket under my desk.  Ironing is a must for me.

2. You can either cut your scraps into strips, or piece them together and sew them a little crazy like this.

I used a 1/4 inch seam and stitched my strips together.  Stitch together your fabric until you get a piece that is big enough for two of your templates to be cut out.

3. Cut out one 2 x 2 inch square and two strips that are 2 x 3 inches.  The square becomes the beak and the other two are little legs. 

Fold your 2 x 3 inch strips right sides together length wise and sew closed. Turn them right sides out and iron flat.  Fold your square in half to form a triangle and then fold in half again.  Iron this flat.

4. Set the template on your beautifully sewn and ironed  fabric and trace.  BE CAREFUL... You need to flip the template over and cut a body piece for side A and side B.  I made one side striped and the other solid just for fun.  You really could do them all striped, all solid, or mixed like me. ;)

5. Gather your pieces together and make sure you have two birds pieces going in opposite directions.  If you want you can give your birdie eyes.  I've done them with and without, buttons and embroidered.  This bird didn't get buttons because I wanted the kids to be able to play and not worry about someone eating and choking on a button. 

6. After you eye decisions are done, lay your beak and legs on the body like the photo.  Next layer your other bird body on top right sides together.  Pin you legs and beak in place.  I started sewing the bird together just to the right of the legs.  Back stitching over the legs and beak is nice, but probably not necessary.  I stopped my stitch about an 1 1/2 inches away from the starting point.

7. Flip that baby right side out and iron flat.  Fill it with stuffing or batting until she's pretty fat.  Hand stitch the opening closed.

You can recruit young family members to help you make a few more. Maybe not sewing, but definitely stuffing.

In retrospect the orange eye is a little creepy to me.  I think it's because it's in the middle of the white polk a dot.  Oh well.

Now find a nice place to display your new spring birds, or hand them over to some super excited kids.

Enjoy!