Here's a story...after hearing I'd need to be induced next week because of Assymetrical SGA (Small of Gestational Age), Jereme and I prepared for a hospital birth with petocin, an epidural, a prolonged labor, walking the halls, doula, maybe a c-section and all that. Our little man isnt technicaly due until November 4th so having him early wasnt quite what we'd planned.
On Monday night, we went to our third out of four Baby Birth classes and I told everyone I was starting to feel some contractions..braxton hicks? false labor? Something, but that I would probably miss the next class due to the inducement anyway. Well, let me just say that sometimes the plan and prep of parents and doctors and everyone gets completely thrown out when the baby decides for himself what he thinks is best. To put a long story short - I had sporadic contractions all that night, called labor and delivery at 4am who told me to I was probably dehydrated and to try drinking a liter of water first before coming in, my water broke all over the sofa at 8:50 am, and on the way to the hospital - I needed to start pushing, DH had to run a red light to get to the emergency where this moaning mama was run by a nurse down the halls in a wheelchair to the L&D and was told I was fully dialated. The only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme song. Less than 20 minutes after pulling up in a panic to the front doors, we welcomed 37 week, 4 day, 5lb, 5oz baby Arthur into this world. Crazy but true. We are all healthy and happy though still in some shock. We'd not found a pediatrician yet, I still have three more prenatal swim classes, not even fully picked out his name - but hey - sometimes babies know when it's time - even when they are still a tiny, cute peanut.
Check out that tree!
Aloha from Maui!
I've been spending the last few days in a whirlwind project with the always charming Aunty Ululani of Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice. I'm here to help her and her husband open up a retail area on the site of their second Lahaina shave ice shop. While the second location is practically within shouting distance of the first (should you be shouting), it's a lot more laid back, has a place to sit at tables and relax, and will soon include this project I speak - an area of which to purchase Ululani merchandise and even learn a thing or two about the history of shave ice in the islands.
Sleepy Lahaina Afternoon
Maui has a number of fun challenges, one being that you can't just go to the nearest Michael's Crafts or IKEA and get what you need for a budget minded project. It does have its small share of Craigslist finds and a few hole in the wall used/consignment places which I've been a little successful with. The real plus is that the hole-in-the-wall used furniture places are usually next to a hole-in-the-wall bakery which serves up such local delectables as chocolate haupia cake, cornflake macadamia nut cookies, or okinawan haupia sweet potato pie. I have yet to get up to Makawao's Komodo Bakery, but if I can fit it in to the schedule, you know I'll be on the plane juggling pastry boxes on top of my swellng pregnant belly (oh yeah, did I mention that ever? yes. I am hapai).
The second plus is that there are all these "Hawaiian" related products such as Home Depot carrying bamboo 8'x4' sheets in the style of woven lauhala and Walmart's extensive Hawaiiana goods including a variety of lauhala shades for cheap.
Aunty Ulu, see what I mean about the charm?
Oh, the third plus is that I'm in beautiful Maui. And my commute is along side a warn blue ocean filled with turtles and whales. Yeah, that's pretty nice too.
Meanwhile, here is a before shot:
The small room has to doubly function as a working area as well since the front door to it is the only way for the shave ice shavers to get in and out with large carts of ice and syrup, employees running to the restroom, and such. The back of this small space also has to incude two chest freezers which I'm having Dino the builder put in a couple of half walls to hide. On top of it all, Uncle David wants a history of Shave Ice display somewhere to house factoids and photos and his vintage 35lb shave ice machine. After seven months of them wondering how to work this space, I was called in and within a weeks time, we hope to have it up and running. Yeah!
More pictures coming soon....
Thanks to today's Apartment Therapy. These little things make me happy.
Ninety-nine years ago the largest steamship in the world gave itself up to the cold waters of the Northern Atlantic.
RMS Titanic was a passenger liner that struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, and sank on 15 April 1912. She hit the iceberg four days into the crossing, at 23:40 on 14 April 1912, and sank at 2:20 the following morning, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
I remember this year since my grandmother was born only two months later. I wonder what my great grandmother must have thought with the tremendous loss of life from something so bragged about as immune to acts of God.
This is supposedly the actual iceberg which sunk the ship - it had a smear of red paint on it similar to what was on the hull.
Find the poster at the top HERE. Otherwise be sure to check out my Titanic etsy favorites to the bottom right of this site.
My mom came to visit a few months ago and for my birthday brought me a couple of the tiniest contact sheets that had been taken and developed back in 1977. Luckily, they were good enpough to scan and so I thought I'd share them here. In 1977, my parents still had another year or so of marriage. At four, I was somewhat oblivious to any issues and problems, but I noticed later that pictures of us all together as a family from this time are hard to come by. Pictured above is my mom's workspace. Front and center is the desk my grandfather built for her and through the little opening to the right, the brand new kitchen he'd built by hand. The photo is funny to me since my desk today pretty much has the same odd mix of items on it as well: a calculator, paintbrushes, taped up designs, funky artwork, piles of paper, etc. Apparently it's in my genes to be so "creatively messy" with my desk space.
Here's my dad with his awesome tooled leather visor, 60s glasses and sporty pencil mustache. Also like my mother, I used to take photos of him driving. He was always a happy driver, even in the worst of Hawaiian traffic. The radio was always turned to KCCN, the Hawaiian station or to the Oldies station and he would croon along.
Along with these of my dad and our house was a moment of time I'd almost forgotten. I was four years old and our dog Pua was giving birth. It was the first time I'd ever witnessed such an event and I was terribly fascinated. Pua was a pitbull mix and probably one of the smartest and sweetest dogs I've ever known. She would run free in the neighborhood which was common back in the 70s, even for a pitbull. We lived right above a neighborhood grocery store which was owned by Mr. Mau, an ancient looking Chinese man who had hair growing out of a large mole on his face. I'm not sure how she went unnoticed, but somehow Pua would come home with steaks and loaves of bread still in the package. My dad would always cook up the steaks for her, since at that point, they were full of teeth marks and dog slobber. One time Pua even came home with a woman's bra which just so happened to be my mother's size. My mom admitted it was so comfortable, it became one of her favorites and she'd worn it for years.
Pua had four pups that I can remember. My sister may write and correct me, but if I recall, there was a couple of brown ones, a black ones and one pure white one which we named Solomon. They were born in a box outside on the back porch right in front of the dryer. Pua and my mother would let me cram myself into the box with them all and of course, I manhandled all the pups as much as I was allowed to. Funny how these photos brought back the snippets of your memory, the texture and color of Pua's fur over her swollen belly, the smell of puppies and newspaper, the pull of a puppy tongue as it sucks on your finger...
When they were old enough, my mom took the puppies to the Animal Clinic in Waimalu to be checked over and given their shots. While she was waiting, in came a woman who was also carrying an equal sized box. There was some talk between them about "that Daddy dog" who was making his rounds in the neighborhood and low and behold, in the woman's box were a black, two brown and one all white pup. My mom told me they both paused and looked at one another wide eyed and then burst into laughter until they almost cried.
What I was looking for:
After a decade of scouring used furniture shops, craigslist posts, and estate sales, I'm giddy to announce I finally found the elusive credenza to store multiple electrical components, blankets and other living room related accroutrement. Any mid-century furniture geek will feel great desire at the sight of a good one with molded wood handles and sleek teak design. They can range in cost from around $500 (if you are so lucky) to upwards of $4,000 for a solid near mint Danish one. It's almost cheaper to have one custom made which we were thinking of having Plane & Sqaure woodworker, Jeff Mangers do. However, I happened to come across this one which was a great deal.
What I got:
The photos above were posted by a Vancouver couple who'd put it on Craigslist with hopes to fund a trip to Mexico. And even though while moving it, the seller and I accidently dropped one of the wooden shelves onto the black hard top and chunked up an edge, it still looks pretty good hanging out with all of our other furniture (see below). It doesnt have the round legs that I really wanted but with the detachable shelf top section, it's pretty awesome to get a two-fer. It was also affordable, which in the end was the really the clincher.
The top part has now taken it's place behind the couch as a sofa/entry table for mail. The sliders allow us to have the components visible to our remote control without leaving a swinging door open and there are still drawers for smaller junks. The finger holes are inlaid wood and funny to make bunny ears/ peace sign to open and shut the doors. As both pieces are off the ground, items placed inside are all safe from the ravenous bunny. All in all it was a great find and well worth waiting a few years.
"I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end." Margaret Thatcher
Lovely free modern design desk wallpaper from Lushpad here.
Happy Chinese New Year! To celebrate, I'm offering a print-from-your-own-home design on Etsy for a whopping 50 cents. Mr. Owen Fluoride thinks this idea is tasty.
The year of the rabbit begins on February 3rd and we furball lovers are excited. The focus of 2011, says Chinese astrologers, will orient towards reviving the arts and culture, getting our financial house in order, cultivating intimate relationships, and building family and community. There's some unrest in world being that countries will be focusing inward and young people will be active. As in, lots of babies. To find out more about this year's Chinese forecast go here.
I was recently faced with this predicament and thought that with the upcoming holiday eating festivities, so might you. While ham hocks are generally what is called for, I made this with a leftover ham bone and it was delicious!
Portuguese Bean Soup
Your ham bone from xmas dinner. (or 2-3 medium sized smoked ham hocks)
3 cups chicken broth
1 pound Portuguese sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 large or two small sweet onions, coarsely chopped
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 cup chunky diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
4 cups coarsely chopped cabbage
3 15-ounce cans kidney beans with liquid
2 14.5-ounce cans diced organic tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
2 cups of elbow macaroni
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 bunch flat leaf (Italian) parsley
2 Tablespoons of black peppercorns
5 fresh bay leaves or 3 dried bay leaves
All amounts are approximate. You may want to add more or less of any ingredient depending on your own personal taste. Feel free to play with this recipe. In large stock pot, combine ham bone, onion, garlic, black peppercorns and bay leaves. Add chicken broth and just enough water to cover the ham bone completely. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer. Simmer covered for about 2 hours. After two hours, remove the ham bone/hocks and de-bone, dice any meat and set aside. Put the pot in a large bowl of ice or your fridge and after about 30 minutes skim any fat off the top. Return pot to the stove. To the pot, add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, beans, carrots, celery, potatoes, ½ of the parsley and ½ of the cilantro and all of the cabbage. Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. Add in diced ham and Portuguese sausage. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Add macaroni and cook until cooked through (about 10 minutes more). Serve topped with fresh chopped parsley & cilantro and cracked black pepper.