Ryan's 1/2 Ironman Triathlon

Whew...Ryan competed in the Honu 1/2 Ironman last Saturday.  He did great...such an effort...we're all very proud of him.  It's a huge undertaking...his goal was to qualify for the World Championships...and even...with a run he wasn't thrilled with...he did!  This race is a 1.2 mile swim in Hapuna Bay, a 56 mile bike along the North Kohala Coast...Hapuna to Hawi and back, and then a 13.1 mile (half marathon) run through the grounds of Mauna Lani.  Here are a few photos of the event...

The cheering section

mass start for the swim...1600 athletes churning the water

the swim finish

the bike ride

the run

the finish

the finish (yes, that's 4 hours 36 minutes of hard work)

And now...Ryan and his girlfriend Katie are off to Thailand for 

some fun and Vietnam to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity

Watercolors for Hawi

We've been here (the Hawaii House) a week now.  Just getting back in the routine.  I've been painting trying to build up some inventory for the gallery in Hawi (I've sold quite a few pieces the last couple of months...yipppeee) Now, just waiting on frames to get here.  I never seem to have the right combo of mattboard, frames or glass on hand so I can just paint, frame and hang.  But here are a couple of the new ones heading to the gallery

On a side note...Ryan is here to compete in the

Honu 1/2 Ironman tomorrow.  The 3 of us have

been playing a bit of golf...super fun.  Here we are at Hapuna,

even more fun because I beat the boys...

We played Waimea CC a few days later...payback...

they beat me :(

Hala-kahiki keiki (pineapple baby)

We're back in Hawaii...yipppeeee....for 2 whole months.  It's always fun to see how the yard has grown while we're away...and I was pleasantly surprised to see my first pineapple has really grown.  It's so easy to grow one...but I still got a bit of satisfaction seeing it there waiting just for me!

If you live in a warmer climate (Ca, Fl or Hi for instance)

I think this would work well.  Seriously, this is stupid easy.

Buy a nice pineapple at the market...

Cut off the top

and then...put it in the ground! Seriously.

You can get green thumby and soak it in a 

root stimulant for a few days...but I just scoop out a

 bit of soil, lay the pineapple top in and cover the 

cut section with the scooped out dirt.  Water a bit...then

let the sprinklers, the sun and nature do the rest.

These start to root after a couple of weeks, then after a 

couple of months the baby pineapple forms at the top amid 

the leaves...VERY exciting...

and when we got here Thursday this is what I found

now, the biggest worry...when to harvest

Macbook Travel Case

We travel quite a bit and taking a computer through airport screening can cause a bit of hassle depending on the individual TSA folks you meet.  I decided a cloth "bag" to hold my MacBook Air would streamline the process (many airports let the bag go thru x-ray without even removing the computer).  It is very simple to make, lightweight, padded enough to protect the computer and handy to carry when your arms are full of things in the security line.

I just took a 1/2 yard of fabric and freehand quilted it around

the cool Hawaiian design.  Added straps that I'd edged with bias tape and 

sewed velcro strips to keep it closed.

And...with all the cords that I take for recharging and

photo downloading I made a matching drawstring

bag.  Too easy and handy to keep all the electronics 

in one place.

Tile Coasters

I saw the greatest coaster "how to" on the super smart blog A Little Hut and just had to try them.  They're easy and clean and really cool. The tiles are from Home Depot (16 cents each).  I designed my pattern on the computer, created an svg file in Inkscape, converted it to SCAL (Sure Cuts ALOT) and had my Cricut cut them out in 2 minutes.  Lots of layers of ModPodge later and...

added little felt squares on the bottom...and Ryan's house 

has a set of nautical coasters.  But seriously...check out A Little Hut

Tee Shirt Rug

Wow...I started this rug in December.  I NEVER thought I'd finish it, but finally, today, it's all done.  I saw these on ETSY and thought making one would be easy and a fun way to use up old tee shirts.  That's all there is to it...rug canvas and 1"x4" strips of tee shirts.  Mine is white...but you could make any color, pattern or mix of colors...just takes some imagination and tee shirts. (I supposed you could dye them first for a really custom look)

I bought a packet of rug webbing (one package was enough for 2  2'x3' rugs)

and a package of rug binding. Sewing the binding to the edge of the webbing is very easy...

Then...just collect all the tee shirts you can find...

I think I used 9 for this rug...and cut into 1"x 4" strips

(a rotary cutter is SUPER valuable)

I cut a template out of card stock and used it as an aid

to make the cutting go faster

Cut off the hem

then just cut row after row of 1" strips

then cut the opposite direction to make them 4" long

Start feeding either end of the tee shirt strip through the 

webbing. (initially I did every square...but the rug

became too thick and heavy so I did every other row)

It's very time consuming...but definitely something 

you can do watching tv

see the darker square on the lower left corner

of the rug...ugh...thats from a pretty old dingy shirt...

may have to change that out.

We're in St Barths!

Here we are at Pinehurst!

We haven't been here for a couple of years (used to be a semi-annual trip) but with my illness and the Hawaii House it seemed like a VERY long trek from California.  This spring, Chris had a meeting at Duke (he's on an advisory board to the school of nursing) so we combined that meeting with a golf trip to Pinehurst and a few days relaxing in St Barths.  Little did we know that US Airways would be fairly disappointing...we sat on the runway in Charlotte for 4 hours yesterday for a 3 hour flight...ugh.  We ran like crazies through the St Maarten airport to catch our little plane to St Barths.  Made it even though Chris' suitcase didn't.  No worries...they'll deliver it today.  I took some pictures of the villa we've rented...it's nice...will hopefully be prettier when the sun comes out :(  Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day!

master bedroom

master shower

another view of the shower...very cool

open living area (notice how similar the ceiling is to the Hawaii House)

another shot of the living room

kitchen

The house has some pretty cool details...I'll send more shots later...

just have fingers crossed for sun...it's pretty cloudy right now