My Week In Photos

Aloha! It's been a little crazy here in our little island life! Literally staying on the go! I figure that a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll just show you my week in photos! 

I've been spending a few mornings a week on our beach shell and beach glass hunting. I've even discovered new areas I've never seen! 

My fabulous friend Greta and I took a hike up the Lanikai Pill Boxes with her little pups Cosmo and Axel. This view and hiking Oahu never gets old to me! 

I'm sad to say that our little sunshine at Green Beans, Brienna has moved on to new adventures in Washington State. A few of us Green Beanie girls went to lunch to send her off with as much aloha as possible. We enjoyed the most delicious breakfast at Longhi's in Ala Moana. Oh my gosh was it an amazing view of the coast and that breakfast.. Yum!! 

I made it a goal to finish one honeycomb every day so I can have a finished blanket for my nephew Cayden when I head back to VA in two weeks. This quilting stuff is tedious! 

I got my hair highlighted for the first time since sixth grade.

Oh I got a Henna Tattoo! 

We celebrated Memorial Day by going to the Lantern Memorial in Waikiki. I'll share a special post dedicated to this beautiful experience. 

Beached it at Ko Olina with this little beach babe and her awesome mama!

And finally I made a diaper cake for our celebration of Chris and Amanda's baby Dean! 

As always, mahalo for reading and following!  

Erin

Randomness 'Round Here

Hiya! I'm off work on this gorgeous Monday morning and I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than stop on over to my little corner of the internet and let you know what we have been up to. A lot of randomness, that's what. 

We watched our neighbors pup for two weeks over Christmas vacation. The boys loved playing together and I loved poking fun at them.

Here is my daredevil craftsman using lighter fluid and fire to give his pallet shelves the right charred look.

I got these awesome shirts for all of Colton's ladies to show off how proud we are of him! 

Check out 3elove's website to see all of the other awesome products they sell! They are having their biggest sale of the year right now too so get on it!

We have enjoyed a beautiful beach day at our favorite beach, Bellows Beach. Brady's Dad and Bev are going to be here in the next few weeks so we rented a cabin on this beach. I cannot wait to wake up and walk out to this beautiful view.

These days, I've been waking up with the sun.

I have also been stepping up my cooking game.

 

I found this excellent recipe on pinterest for a garlic basil chicken over a bed of noodles. I seriously can't stop making this sauce. I'm also having a hard time staying away from fresh garlic in just about everything. I've added different ingredients such as spinach, rotel tomatoes for the mild kick, adding onions, and spooning it over chicken or fish. All of which, turn out amazing. 

Simple ingredients and simply delicious. 

I am pushing myself  to get back into my running. I don't know why I ever even stopped in the first place because it's so painful to get back into it. I'm also in the market for new running shoes that would make my high arched feet feel like they are running on clouds. If you have any suggestions please do share! I have been using my Nike Dual fusions and I can't do it any more. 

The crafty cave has been getting a lot of use. There have been many messy days and many cleaning days. 

The sewing is forever constant in the crafty cave as well. 

Brady is so excited about his new man cave. The pallet shelves he was burning have found a home on one of his manly walls. 

I am gonna try my hardest to post a few tutorials of the recent creations. 

If you haven't checked out my January Banner Promo on my craftygirlproblems etsy shop, get on it! The month of January is almost halfway over!

Well folks, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed the randomness that's been going on in our world!

Much aloha and as always, mahalo for reading! 

Erin

Holiday Crafting Frenzy

Aloha and happy holiday season!
This past weekend kicked off the official holiday crafting season and I've been a little wild with the crafting. When I say wild I mean I can't stop. Ever. I've been doing things this year a little different. Still doing my same 'ol Christmas thang but continuing to  venture out to broaden my horizons. If you follow me on pinterest you'd know that I've been pinning a lot of beachy Christmas ideas and a lot of burlap. If we are friends on facebook, you've seen a few of my creations as well. Since I finally got my little sewing machine (Sheila) back to this heavenly island, I've been putting her to so much use. Yes I named my sewing machine Sheila and yes I'm proud of her/it. Many of you don't know this but I pretty much prefer to teach myself how to do everything. In 7th grade I took a "Teen Living" class where I learned how to bake/cook and sew. About a year ago I picked the sewing back up and kind of retaught myself how to use it. I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm pretty sure my stuff wouldn't look as good if I was doing it wrong, right? I probably sound so ignorant to the sewing world, which I absolutely adore. Anyway I teach myself how to do things and I think the creating process and problem solving to get my desired outcome (along with the smiles that I get when my gifts are received) drive me to do the things that I do. Oh and the Christmas spirit. That spirit just takes me over. It all starts on that one little Friday. You know, that little last Friday of the month of November. The one where stores sell everything for amazing prices? Everyone hates on Black Friday shoppers. Everyone thinks they are crazy. I happen to be one of those crazy shoppers who pull all nighters or wake up at the butt crack of dawn. I feel on this particular Friday, if stores are willing to let me pay what my cheapo self really wants to pay for items, why wouldn't I take them up on this offer?! My bread and butter is a good Michael's store at 5 am. This Christmas elf can bring so much joy to so many people when she can buy like 300 bucks of supplies for 60 bucks. Unfortunately there isn't a Michael's on the island and I went to Ben Franklin's Crafts. I am thankful to have a craft store so similar to my usual craft store but Hawaii craft stores (just like every other store) is usually twice as much on prices if not three times as much due to it being imported. Let's just say this Christmas elf is getting more inventive and less into buying this years decorations. We're going all fabrics and lights this year. None of those hot glued creations with glamorous decorations, fancy picture tiles, big 'ol wreaths at every door, or painted and lit wine bottles. I will not post what ornaments look like this year family but I will say they are similar yet different to the usual. I do get to decorate my own home in my own rustic and burlap obsessed style. Here's the latest in my workshop.

 I built my own wreath for less than ten bucks when I bought all of these ornament thingys at walmart. Not too shabby!


I saw this crappy little stocking for a buck at a thrift store here and decided that I should make our stockings this year and use this one as a template.

I went out and bought a yard of white and red felt and traced out my stockings.

Stitched 'em right up.

Then I got all crazy and tried to embroider them with burlap. 

After that, I was like well... what the heck am I gonna hang all of our stockings on? Then the pallet addiction took over again.

I got really into the stenciling, the xacto knife, and the spray paint. Oh and the burlap, hand painting acrylics, bows, and silver paint. 

I made Brady his very own miniature fedora for his stocking, a flower for our room mate Justin and myself, and a cute little bone for Demo. They look like they are shaped weird when the stockings are empty but I don't even care! 

Sunday morning rolled around and I was looking at this beautiful stack of folded burlap dreaming about a table runner. Shortly after, I made it happen. 

I measured out on our table how thick I wanted it and pinned accordingly giving enough burlap for the seam allowance. Brady really loved the look of the zigzag stitch so I obliged and gave the man what he wanted. 

Check out Sheils hard at work.

Next, I measured a smaller strip of standard burlap color.

Sewed the seams and pinned it on for sewing...

I decided to wing it with ruffles.

Here's the finished product. Seriously impressed with myself! 

I've spent enough time blogging. I need to go get this Christmas crafting out of my system. I've got the cutest idea in my head, complements of my pinterest board. Mahalo for checking in and seeing the latest in my shop. Your Christmas cards should be in your mailbox at the beginning of this coming week family! 

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah.

Erin