#toolporn

From last week:

I finally got my paws on a saw from Green Lion Studios! To be honest I've had the same rusty saw frame since I took my first smithing class.  I'm so exited to use this baby, all reports from sister smiths are overwhelmingly positive.   

My package was complete with stickers with inspirational power quotes on them...just the perfect messages at the perfect time.  Good mail day indeed.

Small Moments

It's the little things in life that make all the difference.  

Like salty skin and sandy feet...

Simple signs if a life well lived and loved.

Happy Thursday!

Aloha~

S 

Just a Few Words

Im a thinker...

Probably, scratch that, definitely an over- thinker.  Today I choose ease, peace, happiness, love, calm, fun, beauty, patience, and certainty. I'm leaving all the rest where it belongs, in the past. 

A new friend shared a very simple and powerful thought with me this week, at exactly the moment I need to hear it..."love is all around us"

Simple, powerful, and beautiful.  What these few words mean to you may be quite different than what they mean to me, or the person sitting next to you. I LOVE that! I'm taking these five words and keeping them in my pocket, where I can grab them and hold on tight when I need to, and pass them on to others when they need them. Here's to the love that's around all of us...

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Aloha!

Positive Vibes

It seems my mind is working overtime lately...I have a hard time quieting myself and focusing, feeling scattered, and a bit overwhelmed.  Sometimes I can roll with it, breathe it out and carry on, the past weeks it's been a little harder.  One of the most amazing things about living here is that the ocean is never far away, and she's warm and lovely...

Three out of the past five days I've gone to the beach, spending as much time as I can in the ocean, letting her soften my rough edges.  Sometimes I swim for a long time, feeling every movement of my body against the water, aware of each muscle that moves my arms as I take another stroke and swim until I can hear my heart beating in my ears.  Other times I will float, eyes open, staring up at the endless blue and taking in all that soothing heart warming color.  Sometimes I float face down, blocking out everything.  When I lift my head up and out of the water, and the sounds and colors of the world come flooding back to me, I feel lighter, more present, less static, more quiet.  

The ocean is a powerful healer for me, I'm grateful to have remembered this, and to know she'll always be there for me.  It's kind of wonderful that a simple physical act can totally change my mood.  

Here are some dreamy beach pictures, with some incredible shades of blue...Something about this color has been extra wonderful to me lately.  I feel like something in me is soothed when I see it, when I'm in the water and I can totally space out on the sky and the ocean, and my eyes take in all that beautiful color, its like a deep breath.  If you have a favorite scent, you know what I mean...when you close your eyes and inhale, you can feel it deep within, not just in your nose.  For me it's the jasmine, or the tahitian gardenia, and now this BLUE!  It's like taking in a deep breath, and when I exhale, I feel lighter, happier, and more at ease.

  

Desert Flora Appreciation and Other Musings

Looking through my phone at some of the pictures I took while in California, I was feeling nostalgic for the desert and wanted to share a few of my favorites. 

It feels great to be home, back in the humid tropical islands, swimming in the ocean again feels like a whole new version of coming home...I always tend to romanticize wherever I visit and immediately start imagining moving there, starting all over, and living a different version of my life in a place I've never been before.  I must have thought about it in every single new place we went on that trip, talking to friends about their neighborhood, looking on Craigslist for rentals to see how much things cost, and playing "what if" quite a bit ...Now that I'm home a few weeks, well actually, I think it was just a few hours after returning home, I realized that all those feelings faded away and that this is the place for me.  Maybe it was the "Seven Year Itch" of living here, or my wandering and adventurous mind, but I had been feeling like I was ready for something different.  Turns out maybe I just needed a good long trip away from home to properly appreciate what "home" is and means to me.  Needless to say, I love Hawaii, and I can't imagine living anywhere else... Though I have to admit, Jo and I are plotting and planning for our own little slice of desert land outside Joshua Tree,  saving our pennies will start immediately, and eventually we can turn a few acres of sand, rocks, and cactus into a humble getaway.  It's a beautiful feeling to be happy in the place you call home, in the physical house as well as that little spot on the map in the middle of the ocean.  It's a wonderful feeling to get on a plane after vacation and be so grateful for the place you call home, so YAY! Life rules!
Aloha~
S

Southern California Adventures

We've been to so many places and seen so any beautiful things on this trip.  

Here is a VERY brief look at some of my favorites...From Venice Beach, to Pasadena, and down along the Pacific Coast a highway to San Diego. 

Working

I'm in a serious groove lately in the studio, inspired by a handful of beautiful stones I recently purchased. Nothing like a little bit of turquoise to get the creativity flowing...

Stay tuned, I've got a bench full of creations that I can't wait to show you!

Catching Up

From a few weeks ago...

Sunrise hike in Lani Kai

Amazing early morning light...

Waimanalo beach baby shower

Evening dog walk and a little surf appreciation...

 

Water lover...

Recent Work in Blue and Green

I finally got my mojo back in the studio and I'm on a roll!!  I'm buzzing with new ideas and ready to buckle down for some serious hammering this week.  It's a lovely feeling to get pumped up about and idea and then manifest it into metal. To see something tangible, and wearable that turned out just as I saw it in my head. Believe me, it doesn't always happen that way, so when it does I call it out and soak it up!!!! 

Wandering Mountains and Valleys

This morning we set out with a few friends to hike a trail we'd never been on before.  Just off of the main road heading up and over the mountains, we parked off to the side and set off through the path of tall ginger plants.  A few moments on the trail and we were cruising through a thicket of vibrant green bamboo with bright yellow stalks and then the view opened up in front of us.  The lush green valley and wide open space was a surprise to me, which I LOVE.  I never expected this to be there, from the main road it looks like it's all dense jungle/forest.  From here we continued up, up, up the mountain under the shade of Eucalyptus trees, which are among my favorites and incredibly beautiful, despite being extremely invasive and choking out the native and deeply loved indigenous trees including Koa among other species.  It got a little bit steep, very very muddy and kind of sketchy at point.  There was a stream crossing or two and some very old stone steps and rock formations that used to comprise an ancient fish pond.  When I come upon things like that while hiking, I always wonder about who built them, how long ago it was, and what the area looked like in pre-contact Hawaii, which really wasn't all that long ago.  This place, it stirred something in me...There are a million beautiful places on this island, and for some reason I really connected with this spot.  Bare with me, but I felt like it's energy was something to be taken in and recognized.  I'm already plotting for this to be my new regular spot.  I can see myself taking Max there frequently as it was almost totally deserted,  the wide open valley with it's semi-flat trail will be great for me as I embark on a personal challenge of upping my running game.  All in all it was an amazing morning, I feel fueled up and high on nature love...