Friends

The cutest thing happened at a wedding I attended awhile back.  This kid saw his friends in the procession and decided to join them.   It was so adorable.

Daniel and Kenna - August 24, 2014

Kenna, the Bride

Jason, Aaron, Daniel and Jason

It was a HUGE day for my family yesterday.  My nephew Daniel (second from the right) got married. The official photographers and videographers were present from pretty early on, but I was there a smidgen earlier, and I managed to get a lot of my needed photos before they arrived. After that I tried really, really hard to stay out of the way. I loved being able to watch the pros in action. More pictures to come.

I Hope You Dance

I saw this sign in front of a liquor store at Ward Warehouse and it made me laugh. 

As you know from my Happy video, I totally cannot dance. And there are a lot of other things that I'm not good at, but if it's fun and it makes me laugh, I usually like to give it a try.

Ultimately, I would like to be like my friend Joy who sets aside her fears, steps out of her comfort zone, and can accomplish most anything . . . including traveling to far off countries and touring them alone.  She inspires me.

"I Hope You Dance"

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,

You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,

May you never take one single breath for granted,

GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin',

Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',

Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,

When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,

Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,

Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone.)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, 

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance. 

Dance....I hope you dance. 

I hope you dance....I hope you dance. 

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.. 

(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along 

Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)

Sunscreen

My mom always, always makes sure she puts on sunscreen before going out.  Now I know why she still looks good.



Thanks Rand!

Somebody Else's Filthy Oven

Okay, okay . . . I admit it . . . it's my oven.  Don't scold me.

Since I had extra time on my hands, I decided to try and tackle the oven window.  I do believe it does come in handy when you can actually see through it.




I went online and found out that a baking soda paste would work. You just add water to some baking soda and them smear on the paste like this.  


I left it on for a couple of hours and then used a paper towel to kinda scrub it off.


It worked!

Handmade Paper

As promised, here is my paper-making tutorial.

I started with two sheets of this cotton linter.  I think I got the linter and my paper-making mold from the toy store that used to be in Ward Warehouse. I forget the name . . . Child's Play?


I tore up the linter along with a sheet of dark blue card stock.  I put the pieces in a bowl of warm water and let it soak for a few minutes. 


Then I dumped everything into this old blender that I keep in my closet just for this purpose.  It's been quite a few years since I last used the blender so it shocked me that it still worked.  

I actually shoulda done half at a time and put double the water, but too late . . .  I ended up using a chopstick to shove all the stuff on the top down to the bottom.  


Here's the pulp.  If I had done it right, I coulda got it shredded finer, but nooooooo . . .  


This is my deckle and mold.  The screen part (mold) goes on the bottom and the wooden frame thing (deckle) goes on top of the screen.


I put a handful of pulp into each section and swooshed it around in a tub filled with water to level out the pulp.  


Then I removed the deckle and turned the screen upside down onto a felt sheet.


I removed some of the water by dabbing with a sponge.


Then I lifted off the screen.


I placed another felt sheet on top and repeated and repeated and repeated.


I placed the finished sheets of felt between two cutting boards and pressed them together over the sink to drain off as much water as I could.  I even put the boards on the floor and stepped on um to press out as much water as I could.


Then I separated the paper and let them dry.  It usually takes about a day to dry.


Here is the finished product. It came out kinda thick and bumpy. 


Here is the card that I made using the paper.


And same thing as with the "love always" cards, I made a whole bunch.  Let me know if you want cards . . . JalnaA@aol.com.  I'll send you some. Free.

Interjection

I would like to interject my "every other day" posts by saying:

SOME PEOPLE AT WORK DRIVE ME ABSOLUTELY KARAAAAAAZY!!!!

OMGAAAAAAAWWWWWWDDDDDD!!!!

Greeting Cards

I don't usually buy greeting cards 'cause I can make um. But my supply has dwindled and a few weeks ago I needed a wedding card so I got this one while I was at Foodland.  It was $3.99.  It's the cheapest one I could find that I liked.  Is that not a lot to spend on something that is gonna be enjoyed for just a few seconds?



I decided to bust out my supplies and make some generic "love always" cards that can be used for a variety of occasions.


And you know me . . . if you're gonna make a few, you might has well make a lot.


I also made some handmade paper and am in the process of using them to make more cards.  I'll show you how I did it in my next post. 

One Leaf

Now that I'm back to blogging, my obsessive nature makes me want to post something every single day, but when material runs thin I find myself scrambling around for ideas and I end up sharing something like "one leaf". 

So I decided to try to refrain myself and post every other day instead and hopefully I might last longer that way. See you in a couple days.

Kristen and Family

Hi everybody!  Thanks for being so patient.  I had a really nice break.

Wanted to return to blogging with photos of Kristen and her family. We met a few weeks ago at the Hawaii Railway Society in Ewa. They were such a fun group and were totally game to my suggestions despite the HEAT.  Thanks Kristen!  I had fun!