Olivia.

So, I was able to do my nails...FINALLY! I really didn't want to do blue butterfly wings...I just had my nails in butterfly wings, but I have a lil "darling" that likes the butterfly wing design. A  Lot....so she has been asking me for awhile now to please make your nails blue and butterfly wings! So, here they are. I did ONE accent nail in a blue butterfly wing.

She won't be in my class much longer...and so I did this for her. They are a bit plain...but hey...there is glitter...and glitter can always make me smile. :)

It rained.

It rained today. Which means that I stayed inside with my keiki All. Day. Long. Oh my...if you have ever been in a roomful of energy-filled 2 year olds with do way for them to run off their rambunctiousness...then you have no idea the millions of thoughts that ran through my head today. Oh wow.

It wasn't all that bad. Not super bad...I'm not wanting another day like this again...but that's the beauty of working in a preschool setting...no two day are alike...but I do not fancy another rainy day. Not complaining though because it did give me more time to spend more one-on-one with my keiki...and that is never a bad idea. Exhausting at times...but not a bad thing.

I have this one little "cupcake" that reminds me a lot of...ME! She can't sit still...literally...she can NEVER be still...even in sleep she is constantly moving. It's cute really...but I have to say she was my challenge today. I just kept thinking...my parents were able to keep their hair with me...so I'm pretty sure I can handle this little "cupcake"...she is a cutie. :)

Once again my lil keiki has asked me to paint my nails blue butterflies. I don't want too. But she is pretty insistent that she really wants me nails to be blue butterflies. I have come to realize that butterflies is her favorite nail design...so when I have proper time I need to see what I can come up with. I know that I am not going to paint all my nails butterflies...but maybe at least one. For her. I do love my keiki so! :)

Well, it was another long day. I just got back from my wedding designing job...and wanted to say a few words before I went to sleep...so I will leave you with this song that I am currently listening to. I might have posted it before...but oh well...can't hurt to hear it again. :)

Orchids Galore!

I haven't had the opportunity to process flowers in a long time because of my work schedule...but today I "got lucky"....and was able to process lots and lots of orchids! Beautiful, beautiful orchids!

I also had to prep these vases with tea leaves...it brought me back to when I first worked for this company...I think this was the second thing I had to do ...put tea leaves in glass vases...it was SOOO far back ago...and let me tell you...it's not as easy as it looks! But I didn't give up...and wow, I had forgotten what it was like to do the "basics"...since usually I'm usually the one designing and putting together already...I miss this. The whole processing and prepping part of the job. Don't get me wrong, designing is super exciting and fun. I love it...but processing and prepping is also a big part of it all...and it was a good reminder.

Ed stayed with me in the studio as I did my work...and he made work fun. It's so relaxing to be able to go to the studio after a long day of work and the people that I work with are amazing. It's like very cheap therapy. No joke. Ed is a prankster...and I had to make him PROMISE not to do his death scream while it was only me because it seriously stops my heart...but I'm glad that he was there to keep me company. His "prank" that he left for Shilhi to find in the morning was her water bottle with a sticker of floral food. It's not...so no harm done...but Shil's reaction to things like this is priceless...and yes, I love her...as my boss and as my sister. :)

One Love.

So, I thought that I was suppose to work today for Passion Roots...but I didn't have to go in today! Yay! So...I had a day off....actually I had the whole day off...I thought I was suppose to work tonight...I seriously think that God really did know what he was doing when He gave us Saturday as a day of "rest"....which I sooo understand more NOW than when I was younger! But yes...I decided to get a head start on next months house decorations.

As you probably know (or not...) I'm not the biggest fan of Valentines Day. I'm not bashing it though...it's a special day for all those who have "love" in their life...I do....but I still am not a big fan of the day...which, is pretty ironic since my favorite song is "Valentine" by Martina McBride...such a beautiful song! :) But I still want to try really hard to decorate and make my house more of a home with personal touches....so I knew that it was going to be super busy the next couple of days...weeks really...so I decided to start with some "personal touches" before "shit hits the fan" once again.

So there is this area in our place right at the foot of the staircase where there is a book case. On top of that book case is this empty space...so I decided last December to utilize that place...bummer I didn't take a picture of the design that I put up there...but that is okay...I had chalkboard design "Baby it's cold outside" and put some Christmas decoration up there...so for the month of February I decided to do this:

I might switch the saying halfway through the month though...because I really like this other quote that I saw...but we will see if I have some time to make another. Love...I love how my name means "love..." :) But yes, "All you need is love...." and some other stuff too...but I think the most important is love...so there. I might change my tune later down the road...but for the time being this is what I say.

I made this smaller one for the piano. Love. One love...in so many things...ways...and yes. One love. (In case you were wondering...or not...I am singing that song...here...let me share it with you! Then you all can sing it with me! :)

Well...Let's all take a breath and get through this week with smiles...! :) "Lets all get together and feel alright..."

 

Before I go, I would like to give a shout out to a childhood friend: Happy birthday, Leah-girl...here's to the memories that we made together...and here's to the future. Miss you, girl.

Friday.

 When I use to teach the older three's-younger fours I use to sing a song with them every Friday..."It's Friday, It's Friday...OH! OH! It's Friday...lets shake, shake, shake and jump, jump, jump coz it's Friday! It's Friday! OH! OH! It's Friday!" and do a little dance with it. My kids loved it and they always would count the days until we can sing this little jingle. When I started teaching the 2 year olds...they could not yet grasp the fact that not every day was Fridays so they were wanting to sing this little song everyday. So I stopped singing it with them...just because. At least during circle time I had stopped singing this song. 

Through out the day on Friday though, I would sing it a little and my former students who are still in the school would hear me and drop everything and do the little dance with me or sing it with me. But today, during our morning playground time, I was being super hyper with my kids...and this song came up. I hadn't sung it in awhile and I have all new little ones who have not heard it yet. I have this little guy, whom I like to call "handsome" (side story time: When he first started in my classroom two weeks ago, I asked him what his name was--of course I had already known his name. He replied..."I am handsome." When I turned to mom, she said that he had just gotten a haircut for his first day of school and the hair dresser had said that he was handsome with his new hair cut and since then he liked to smile and say, "I am handsome" Cute story, ya?! :))...now he is a fun character! It made me sad because I was "warned" about his "rascal behavior"...I keep those warnings in the back of my head...but I come to the child with a clean slate. I like him....he listens to me and he is SO much fun. He is THE FIRST keiki that I have ever had that when I say "Sing handsome!" He takes a deep breath and just starts singing. Anything. Makes no sense a lot of times...but he still does...and he does this with the biggest smile on his face. I love it! :)

But back to my story. I sang my little Friday song once...then moved on to a new song that the kids wanted me to sing. Thirty minutes later playground time was over so we were walking back to the classroom. So to keep my keiki focused, I asked them what song they wanted to sing as we walked back to class..."Handsome" looks me in the eye...marches down the pathway saying, "Come on Friends...It's Friday! It's Friday! OH! OH! It's Friday...." Oh my goodness! He made me laugh! I just love my keiki...they keep me happy. :)

After work I decided to make myself a fruit shake. My friend had gotten me kiwi...since she knew I LOVED kiwi...so today I made myself a strawberry, banana, kiwi shake with Acai.

It was a yummy combination and the kiwi made it that much better! Yeah to fresh fruit, friends, and keiki who make me laugh! :)

Pink and Blue.

On my last post...do you remember the sneak peak of the flowers that I get to work with today?! Well, here is a better shot of those gorgeous spray roses that I got to work with today?! Wow! Much props to Ed, the one who process these babies...they opened beautifully. I brought some home with me so that my little preschoolers can have some and make arrangements of their own! Yay, fun flower time with the keiki! :)

There were at least 5 buckets full of these beauties...it's been awhile since we have gotten them to open this big! And yes, processing them does make a HUGE difference! So learning how to process the right way is a gem. I actually like processing flowers, but because of my preschool schedule, I'm never able to get out and get to the flowers when they arrive. Sometimes if no one is able to get to them, I have to go in later in the day...but it's best to process them as soon as possible because they were "that long" without water...and we need them to be ready when we work with them.

Today was a challenging day, wedding wise. Our flowers didn't arrive when they said that they would and so they came just a few hours before I we started to work on them. Ed was able to process them when he got them...but we had to wait at least four hours to even THINK about starting! Even then it was hard because our hydrangeas were still dehydrated...but we were able to work it. I started out working on the 5 bouquets. They were similar to the ones that I've done before so they were quick to do. Fun and beautiful. We have a new addition to our dream team and her name is Tokina...she was able to work on those low, small pieces...and I think that she did an amazing job considering that was the first arrangement that she made EVER! She is a fast learner!

After I finished my bouquets I helped with the many, many arrangements...look how lush and full they are! So beautiful! At first I wasn't too hot with the color combination...but I think in the end it work so beautifully! These weren't even half of it all...so much to do, in so little time...but that is wedding designing for you! It's not like we can do all these arrangements way ahead of time...they would wilt and die! So it's usually just 2 at the most days ahead of time if that...usually it's the night before! But I do haven an amazing team that makes working late a fun thing. :)

While we worked on the bouquets and arrangements, my boss worked on these taller arrangements...look at that! SOOOO lush, beautiful...and smells amazing! These "ball" arrangements were HUGE! The hardest part was making sure that they all were the same size! :) Didn't want to make one small or bigger than the others! These balls of arrangements were placed on top of a tall, glass vase...so transfer to the wedding location must have been a pain...which is why we have an awesome team who knows how to pack these babies so they won't fall apart!

Like I said earlier, I wasn't so sure about these two colors together...but once again I was proven wrong. They are beautiful together. I work with a lot of hydrangeas...and I would say that 95% of the time they are white hydrangeas...so it was fun working with these blue ones for a change...and those pink spray roses were beautiful...tomorrow, my little keiki will get to have fun making their own arrangements with the scrapes that we didn't use. :)

 

Long Day.

So, I pretty much know that this week will be a very long week since I'll be working weddings for the rest of the week...but I'm not complaining because I am very blessed to have two jobs that are my passion...BUT...I will say, I know that I will have lack of sleep so lets hope that I won't get TOO cranky and grouchy! *laughs*

It was a long day today. I had honesty thought that yesterday my kids would have been super "rascal" because of the long weekend...but no, they held off until today. It was a crazy day. There are basically two things that I do not have patience or understanding for...when the kids tune me out and pretend that they don't know their name OR they look at me like they can not understand a single word that I am saying...which I KNOW that they do! *laughs*...and when parents "baby" their children, because that makes my job that much more harder because I won't do it...I won't baby my kids because it will only hurt them in the long run...but then I get more temper tantrums and stubborn kids who think that if they cry and scream they will get their own way...nope not in my class. I don't want to "break" them...I just want them to understand that I will NOT tolerate spoiledness. I only have one rule in my class...well technically two...but basically it's just "Listen and obey." Thats it...and I always tell them, as long as they listen to me, they WILL have fun...because I like to have fun...so I will have fun with the kids...they are two years old, for crying out loud...but if they don't listen...that's just that much more time taken away from what we could be doing by just "helping" them to listen. We have fun in my class, don't get me wrong...but I do have to teach them their social skills..and it's a lot harder than the world thinks...but I have fun.

But it was a long day.

So, when I walked in the studio to work with my beloved flowers... I was blown away with the beauty of these amazing roses! Just look at them! How could you not smile after looking at these...and the smell...wow. Amazing!

My favorite, as you can probably tell from past posts, are beautiful, beautiful pink roses. Any kine pink roses...they just make me smile...and I love them. All roses actually are beautiful. Try look up the free spirit roses...now those just take your breath away!

Today wasn't too bad. I made two bouquets...three actually...but one is more like a wand like thing...but these two bouquets were something that I have never made before. I mean...all our bouquets that we make are one of a kind...but for the most part they are somewhat similar..except different flowers...these on the other hand were a little bit more different than what I was used to making. But I think they turned out beautiful.

For this particular wedding...the bride wanted her flower girl to not toss the pedals but to hold this King Protea wand like thing with ribbon trailing it. I'm not a huge fan of Proteas...but I have to admit they are beautiful...and this one was cute with the trailing ribbon. I think it was a cute idea. :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to work on the center pieces but I couldn't help myself but to snap a few pictures of the center pieces the rest of my team did! Here they are all done just sitting in the refrigerator. I like the pops of the pink roses! And although dusty millers aren't my favorite to work with they gave these arrangements a different texture that is so beautiful! Even the seeded eucalyptus! I know that I've probably said this a million times already...but I am so lucky to be working with an awesome team! Whoops forgot few words...let me try that again...I am so lucky to be working with an awesome, EXTREMELY TALENTED, CRAZY, FUN team. :)

And before I finally go to sleep...here is the last shot of my bouquets neatly tucked into the already bursting fridge of gorgeous flowers.

Sidenote: Do you see them!? The wonderfully processed pink spray roses?! Oh yes, I get to work with those tomorrow! They opened so beautifully...so that makes my job more easier. Oh, I just love what I do! :)

Easy Bake Ravioli.

So, yesterday my housemate was prepping ahead a time a dinner she was making for her boyfriend...and the house smelled so good...and it good me missing cooking. I use to have fun cooking and baking...and then I just stopped. I don't even know why...well, I do...I'm single and it sucks cooking just for one person. But I do miss cooking for my family...baking...just making the house smell SUPER yummy...so today, I decided to try something. I'm pretty sure that some person out there in the world has tried something like this...but I remember long ago talking to my sister about this and then seeing some ideas online and so this is my take one the Easy Bake Ravioli.

First I preheated the oven to 410 degrees. I just gestimated on this actually. I actually wanted to do it on 400, however I remember in the past when I cooked with this particular oven it didn't get as hot as it said it did, so I just always add a few more degrees.

I got one bag of 5 Cheese ravioli...and I think I like this dish because I didn't even defrost or precook the ravioli! *laughs*...and since I like red sauce AND white sauce (but if I had to choose only one, I would always choose white sauce!) together, I decided to use both of them. I also decided to add green onion an cilantro. Don't ask me how much I put in there...I just like guessed. *laughs* Then I just layered the dish. One layer of uncooked ravioli...spatter some red sauce (I used Vodka Safeway Select) and some white sauce (Alfredo Safeway Select)...then I put some shredded cheese on that and then some of the cilantro and green onion mix.

I was able to do three layers of that...if you are trying this at home...just do as many layers as you want. I do this all by trial and error and by eye, I guess you can say. *laughs*

So, this is what it looked like when I was finished doing all the layers. I think that it took me less than I want to say 15 minutes...probably not even that. But it looks so yummy already!!

So I covered the whole thing in foil and set the alarm for 30 minutes. I then took the time to read. I love to read...and I feel like I rarely ever have time to read anymore! But yeah, I read...because I hate waiting...and I was already starvin' like Marvin...and so reading helped passed the time. After the 30 minutes was up...I took the foil off and then baked it for another 15 minutes and took it out of the oven.

Then the hardest part....I hate getting my tongue burned, so I set my timer for 20 and allowed it to cool for 20 minutes...again, I took this time as "me time" and read even more. I'm telling you...it really did make the time go by faster! :) Doesn't it look super yummy though?!

After 20 minutes of cooling time (which you can skip by the way if you like to burn your tongue...:)), I was able to get some...I thought that it would at least stay together more...but it didn't...but it wasn't too soupy...just very saucy and YUMMY! Oh yes, it was yummy! Very easy to make and very yummy to eat. 

And guess what?! I didn't even burn my tongue! :)

Day Off!

You would think that I would want to sleep in during my day off...but I did sleep over my sister place again...and this little DollGirl woke me up early this morning...but how can I be cranky in the morning if this lil darling wakes me up?! Just look at her!

Doesn't she just make you smile?! There are times where I just want to stay home and just do my own thing...but I love this lil' munchikin soooo much and she can make my upside down day turn right side up with just one look at her. She is such a sweet girl too! My parents things that I spoil her...but I try not to...I don't.  I work with 2 year olds...I know how it is like to work with kids who are spoiled...it's hard. I know that it's sooo hard not to spoil them...but for their own good, you shouldn't. I am NOT judging any parents on how they raise their little ones...but I don't spoil DollGirl.

But when I do sleep over she wakes me up every time...and I love it. The best, so far, alarm clock! :) But I sleep with my itouch on to sleeping sound because I hate dead silence so she takes it and pretends that it's a phone...and she is so cute to watch. I love her!

Well, I had my leftovers for breakfast! *laughs* Along with this lychee tea...can't say that I liked that tea that much...I'm not a big fan of lychee period...so, this tea wasn't my favorite...very VERY flavorful though and one of my sister's favorite so I wanted to try it...but I didn't like it. But anyways, as I was saying, I had my pizza for breakfast. Hey! Don't hate! :) I have to say though I did NOT take the time to reheat my pizza the way that they "suggested"...but it still tasted so ono! :)

Since all of us had a day off we didn't really have any obligation so we decided to go to Hala'iwa, North Shore and just walk around there. I love walking around there...it's like Hawai'i's versoin of St. Helena...they have cute little shops and SUCKS! Because since my sister was going to drop me off at home right after I ended up bringing all my stuff out to the living room to bring it to the car...but unfortunately DollGirl got in my stuff without me knowing and took my itouch out of my bag...so I didn't get to take any pictures...oh well. I was able to take some of the beautiful drive home with my ipad...and NO I was not going take that around with me and take pictures with it...but from the car it was okay...*laughs*

The waves were HUGE! So beautiful! I love just going to the beach here in Kailua and even Lanikai and just sitting on the shore and just being around the ocean is sooo calming! I love it! It's so beautiful there...and there is something about the ocean that makes everything seem like it will be okay. Everything will be okay. I just love the ocean and everything that has to do with it.

And you know that you can't go to North Shore with out tasting some of the ono food! So we stopped at Ted's Bakery...it's one of my favorite places to grab some dessert. The food food is kind of more of the pricy side...but their pie is do DIE FOR! It is SOOO ono! :) So that Chocolate Haupia Cream pie is most definitely onolicious! You should stop by if ever! :)

We were able to stop at one of the many beaches that we drove by and I saw some pretty washed up coral and sea glass...and so I was able to get some for my collection. I love coral...they are just sooo beautiful...and so I am picky about the coral that gets added to my collection...and I wanted to try something with the sea glass...but we will see. It's amazing how the rubbish of some people can turn into something beautiful as sea glass...but I still don't think that you should throw rubbish on the beach. EVER.

All in alll...today was a very good, relaxing day. I was even able to talk to my parents. They are at my cousin's place right now. I miss them so much...and I hope that they are doing well. But here is to my day off and a wonderful time spend with family. 

Oh my days.

Oh goodness! So I knew waking up that this day would be a LONG day....but I was ready to tackle this day! Because I'm just cool like that. :) So, I woke up at around 5:50am to the wonderful smell of Cinnamon rolls baking in the oven! My sister knew that Amanda and I were going to wake up early to go to her jogathon that was happening early this morning. Oh yeah, we all spend the night at my sister house...so we were all there. My brother, Amanda, and I. My brothers went to go bike riding and Amanda and I took off to her schools jogathon.

SOO dark still that you can't even see my shoes...couldn't turn the light on coz I didn't want to wake everyone else up!

Just a little past six and this isn't even when I woke up! AND on a Sunday too; I should be sleeping in! *laughs*

So, we got to Kaiser Highschool in Hawai'i Kai at around 7:10...and Amanda and I started our day. It was a lot of fun...! So Amanda's school had a jogathon which lasted around two hours. I ended up being a counter. Meaning to say that I was to count the laps the her class did. It. Was. Hot. But it was so worth it because it was fun watching and cheering the little kiddos on! I was doing the 2nd graders...and they did a really good job! I am so proud of them! I had to keep moving myself because my shoes kept sticking to the ground if I stayed still so long! It was that hot...it got hot fast too! But everyone had fun and it was good.

When I got home I was sooo tired and I was starting to get a headache. I think it was because I didn't have my first coffee a black coffee. I ended up getting a Java Chip Frap from Starbucks...and then also I really did try drinking lots of water in the hot sun, but I don't think that it was enough so I get dehydrated and so when I got back to my sisters house I drowned myself in water and took a nap because the big game.

The 49ers and Seahawk game started at 1:30pm, so I was able to wake up myself to watch the game. I am sad. I am a Niners fan...it's all good...better luck next year...right?! So, Neal and I were a little bit bummed about the game (and I know a lot of other people were too! Come one now..BAD CALLS! BAD SPORTSMANSHIP! Just bad, bad, bad!!) so we ended up going out to eat at California Pizza Kitchen in Ala Moana.

It was a definitely a better experience than we had the last time we went to CPK! But I had my BBQ Chicken Pizza...put me in a better mood. I like Pizza. *laughs*

I also tried their Peach Lemonade...and I think that it's safe to say that I have a new favorite drink! *laughs* It was so yummy...a little on the tart and sour side...but wow, it was SOOO yummy. AND unimited refills...that was amazing! :)

Well, after we ate, we walked around a bit and I saw that Bath and Body Works was having a sale! So of course, I adore this store so I couldn't help myself and bought myself some stuff! So, all this was suppose to value at $60...but I only spent $20! I am excited...I always use the little hand sanitizers ALL. THE. TIME! I have to, working with kids is like that. I may not be a germaphobe...but I do get paranoid about all the germs that linger around the preschool! Plus, I need to watch myself because I don't want to get sick and see my lil DollGirl sick and get her sick...so I like to use A LOT of those hand sanitizers. 

LOOK! They even threw in a free lotion to boot! Yay for Bath and Body Works! I use to go here all the time on the mainland...but here in Hawai'i it's soooo far and so now I only go every so often...so I try to stock on on things that I know that I use a lot.

But tomorrow we don't have school in honor if Martin Luther King, Jr....so I'm staying the night at my sisters and we will see what we will do tomorrow.

Gettin' Crafty.

So, I had these picture frames that I needed to get rid of...I had used them for a craft project that I ended up not using anymore....so I wanted to clear them out of my room when I realized that I could actually use them for another project!

For a while now I had wanted to do something about my plenty of earrings that didn't fit on my earring holder that my brother had made me...I had just left them in this mesh thing that I had made that hung on a hanger that I draped over my bathroom door. It was getting quite annoying every time I swung my door and it would bang against my door and some earrings would fall off...so decided to do something about it. This is what my rough earring holder looked like in my bathroom. These were just the earring that I didn't have room for in my other awesome jewelry holder.

I liked these earrings and so I wanted to make something where I can put these ones as well. 

I also wanted to do something about my hair clips and flowers to, they were just hanging on a string by my sink. So what to do? What to do?

So, I decided to use those frames that I was talking about and so I got them out. I decided to just use the mesh and ribbon that I had used for the earring holder. That way I didn't really need all that much new stuff to make these new creations. I did have to get twine though...it matched nicely with the mesh anyways.

So, as you can see, the frames where from a project where you would write on the glass daily as an organizer thingy...but I didn't really use it all that much and so I was able to use the frames for something else.

So as you can see,  I just glued on the twine in lines so that I can hang my hair accessories on them. I also glued on the green/gold mesh on the other frames for my hanging earrings. As for the ribbon, I cut it up to fit on three stripes. I only glued the top part so that you can pull out the bottom part to remove the earrings and I put my stud like earrings on there.

So, I played around on how I wanted the whole thing to go on my bathroom wall. This is the arrangement that I liked the best. My brother-in-law saw it and said "let me guess, they are on there with thumb tacks?!" He is right! *laughs* He told me that he will get me nails to hang them up...I like thumb tacks though...*laughs*

So, here is the final everything! I like how it turned out! I love it! I think that I'll make my friends some of these for their bathroom, because I think that they might be able to use one for their bathrooms. And plus it's cute! :)

Well, to end this long post of randomness...well, not so randomness...let me show you this decal that I have in my bathroom. "Be your own kind of Beautful." Never forget that.