Maui Now....ee!

Last year we thought we were so smart when we booked tickets to Maui for January. And now, here it is, January and guess what. WE ARE SO SMART! No winter blues for us, we are leaving Saturday for sunshine and sand! 

Here are a few of our plans:

This is where we are staying. Wailea Championship Villa's - on the old golf course. We decided to stay up here at the course instead of down by the beach since we plan to play some golf, but also we thought if we stayed at a slightly smaller and less expensive condo, we'd spend the savings on golf all over the island and drinks and dinners and other stuff. And the beach is just a 10 minute walk down the hill - so that seems reasonable. I grew up going to Wailea in the olden days so I have very fond memories of this place and always want to stay on this end of the island - even though it is so much more built up than it used to be. Fine with me. I like amenities - not complaining.

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Here is the beach we will be enjoying. Nice thing about our condo rental - it comes with beach chairs, cooler, all the necessary goodies for hitting the beach. 

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Turtle Town! Just south of our beaches is Makena and just at the end of the beach down there are some reefs - referred to as Turtle Town. The snorkeling there is supposed to be great, and I have every intention of meeting these guys! Can't wait.

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This guy too! I'm meeting him - I already like him, I can tell!

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If the weather is good, we will do a snorkeling/snuba trip out to Molokini. Best when the weather and seas are calm, hopefully we'll find a window that works so we can check it out. Looks beautiful and supposedly there are lots of fish out there to see. And more turtles, and hopefully no sharks.

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I would like to see this little fella!

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One thing I really love and remember about Maui is how great it smells when you get off the plane. The Plumeria trees smell so good and are so pretty. This one is pink, but there are white ones all over the place too. Love them.

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Our first tee time is booked here at Kahili Golf Course. We got an early am tee time to beat the tradewinds. Hopefully we'll have a great day! 

This will come immediately after golf! Or during. Or every second throughout the trip. Good mai-tai's are an important part of the Maui experience.

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And, don't forget Hello Kitty. My childhood history of Christmas vacations in Hawaii has left me with a life long love of Hello Kitty. Hawaii is full of San Rio stores, and Hello Kitty was probably introduced to Hawaii before the rest of the USA found her. I remember combing those stores for every miniature eraser, wallet, sticker - for Christmas. Hello Kitty - I heart you!

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And lastly, if you are unfamiliar with Maui, here it is. Google Maui on the web, find out all the awesome things to do there, and book a trip! And gorge yourself on pineapples!

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Dreaming of Greenhouses

January is for sorting seeds. Right now, while the weather is really crappy, I like to start sorting through my seeds to figure out what I need to order for this year's planting season. It is a fact that seeds get old, and sometimes they won't grow if they are old. This sucks because you don't really know they wont grow until you try and then you are mighty disappointed when nothing comes out of the ground and you find yourself suddenly behind in starting your garden.

This year we are thinking about moving our shabby little cheap-ass greenhouse across the property so that it is closer to the big garden rather than where it is - in the little garden. I've had some success and some MAJOR FAILS with starting seeds in a greenhouse. Most of my problems happen because I'm not at the farm during the week so I can't control temperature and moisture in the greenhouse - and have at times gotten to the farm to find that all my seedlings have been COOKED because of unexpected heat. Other times, waterlogged. Other times, all the tops eaten off by a few bastard slugs.

My other problem is finding the appropriate amount of time to harden the seedlings off before planting them in the ground. What works best is a daily schedule over 5-6 days of gradual introduction into "nature". But, when the weekend is just 2 days, I have had to advance the gradual schedule and that often results in bolting - where the plants think it's suddenly end of season and they race to flowering before you get any of the growth. It's awful when this happens. A lot of cursing happens.

So, the point is, I might move the greenhouse to conditions that are better - more sun, less moisture. Also, I saw that Home Depot is selling a solar fan that will control internal temps in the greenhouse. I've figured out a watering system that seems to work, so if I can get them in a regulated temperature I might be ok. Then I might be able to control the temp into a gradual hardening off setting - we'll see. 

Anyway, it made me start dreaming about greenhouses, and if I could have any kind, what would I like. Check these out!

www.glassgardens.net

www.homedit.com

www.gothicarchgreenhouses.com

http://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary/greenhouses

Do Poinsettia's have feelings?

It's January, and if I have a poinsettia that is still alive at this point - well....frankly it's time to toss it out with the trash. Does that seem harsh? Well, sorry poinsettia, but you are a "seasonal" item, and your season is up. Hey, you don't hear the Christmas tree crying do ya? 

Now pack up your poisonous leaves and beat it! 

Make room for the heart shaped box of chocolates!!! haha.

Trolling Ebay

Ebay can be the best place ever for trolling for house things that you are thinking about. We really need a pair of awesome club chairs for the farm. I would prefer to get some old leather club chairs, but when I find them they are usually listed for $5000+ a pair and I haven't felt like I wanted to pay that much, but in fact, I really really want them. So, I check in with Ebay every few days or weeks and see what's new and if anyone is trying to dump something at a great price. Sometimes I search antique club chairs, sometimes Hollywood Regency Furniture, sometimes Mid century modern....and almost everytime I find things that are FABULOUS! 

Here's what I found today while poking around:

$275 to start for these mid century end tables. I think that is a great starting price
for these really good looking tables.

Awesome card table and chairs from the 60's. I would maybe re-cover the chairs
but I love the shape of the chairs and the table - $1,199 so not cheap, but pretty special I think.

These are GORGEOUS! Bidding was at $1,175 which I think is completely fair. I may check
back in on these because they are spectacular and if the color of the mohair works in your room, you
wouldn't have to change a thing! 

This darling settee is currently at $437 - a steal in a really light blue patterned
upholstery. I love this sofa. If you have a bedroom with room for this, you should
buy it ASAP.

These chairs are so good looking. I cant remember what they were priced at, but
really cool looking statement pieces - and would be great if you had a covered
patio or a sun room to put them in. I would put them against a wall in the
living room too - they are pretty fresh looking I think.

Road Trip

After Christmas we made a little road trip over to Sun Valley to visit friends. Normally at the end of December this would be a bad idea because the roads can be totally treacherous getting over a couple of mountain passes between Washington and Idaho. But this year, and sorry NE United States while you are buried in snow, we have no snow. Nothing! It's dry as a bone. So we packed up the car and took off. 

Here was our route:

Total time 9.5hrs door to door in pure sunshine and pure fog.

I-90 out of Seattle - pretty foggy!

Fog turns to sun over the pass near Ellensburg

All sun through Oregon

My driver and excellent road trip companion

Not much snow in Sun Valley either. This is Dollar Mountain - the kiddies ski hill

Looks like spring, not winter - we took a walk on the golf course

Who's a good puppy?

Meet Reece - a Wire Haired Pointer (4 months)

Grumpy's - a Sun Valley institution

Yes!

Very large beers at Grumpy's!

Nordic Skiing at Galena. Beautiful but not graceful. I fell on my ass several times!

Gorgeous weather!

And anything that ends with beers is good!

And the long drive home. This is near Hermiston, OR at the border of WA.
The fog was just a wall ahead of us and here it was just starting to roll over the fields.

And we drove straight into it, all the way to Yakima, then mostly dark back to Seattle.
Great trip and great catch up with friends.

Trip note: We didn't stop for food on the way over to SV. But on the way back, we got burrito's to go in Baker City, Oregon at Delicioso Mexican Restaurant . Awesome little discovery. I notice the reviews don't seem to be very nice on the google site, but the gals who helped us around 11am last Sunday were awesome, and while it's not really a "to-go" place, they were great about getting our burrito's ready for the road. So, in our opinion - great burrito's - go there!

Resolutions - Meh.

Well, day 3 of January and here's how the resolutions are going.

Got up late - threw on cords and a sweater (no jewelry, no lipstick, no thought put into it at all.) FAIL.

Nails look good. WIN.

Ruin Comcast - NOT YET. They are coming over between 1-3pm today to fix something that they didn't do right a few days ago. They are still in business, so I haven't won yet. Standby. 

And, as for budgeting, I haven't had a chance to buy anything yet so I'm in good shape. WIN. But, the day is young - there's still time to blow this one out of the water. 

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year! Do you make resolutions? I usually have the standards going: exercise more, eat less, boring ones…. In the past I’ve done a few good ones that were easy to keep. One year I tried to pick up at least one piece of someone else’s litter every day. One year I resolved to make my bed every day. That was only mildly successful. This year, I think it’s going to be about the details. I resolve to:

Keep up the mani/pedi. When I was younger, I used to be much better about having nice looking nails. Now it seems that I don’t really give a shit. So I walk around with chippy polish on my toes, and mostly no polish on my hands. That changes NOW. I did my nails yesterday at home, all by myself, saving the family money!!!

Plan outfits for work. I used to be better about this too. But it seems that lately I will just slap on whatever seems easy for work. Sometimes (a lot of times), it’s jeans and a sweater or shirt, all fine, but not planned with much care. And I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the “outfit of winter 2013/2014”. While all the other gals are mincing around town in cute low boots or high boots or over the knee boots in brown and black and whatever, I can’t decide what to get, so I don’t have ANY boots and I don’t look cute at all. WTF??? Why can’t I just pull the freaking trigger and get some boots? Here’s why! The boots I want are Prada and they cost $1400 f*ing dollars!!!!! Why hasn’t someone knocked them off yet so I can get them. I’m looking everywhere and apparently nobody has the balls to copy Prada for cheaper. C’mon people, I’m waiting. And hurry up, the trend is about to run out of steam before I even get started.

Accessorize. Seriously! I have cute accessories, bracelets, earrings, barrettes, hats, scarves, whatever, name it….. and I leave the house and can’t even get as far as lipstick for work. What the hell is the matter with me? Ennui? Perhaps! I have got to cute it up, man! So, I vow to make an effort. Get up a few minutes earlier, and get it done.

Ruin Comcast. Does anyone out there hate Comcast as much as I do? Those fuckers are extortionists! Your cable company may be different, but here in Seattle, we are forced to pay Comcast/Xfinity or whatever the hell they are called for lousy service and bad attitudes so we can watch Homeland. Or whatever. So, in 2014, bye bye Comcast, we’re cutting you down to basic cable and we’re closing you out for internet. We have options and you can’t screw us anymore. (We’ll see how this goes, I may be back later with a sad story about how Comcast won and I lost.) But for now, it’s on MFers!

See what a budget looks like. Yep, I said it. We are going to make a budget. For good reasons. Not because we are spending too much, but so that we can track and/or make a reasonable guess as to how much spending we should allocate where, and how much we can put away for retirement. This is a super boring one, but if you go back to how badly I want those Prada boots – you will understand that if I had a clothing budget I could actually save and get them instead of nickel and diming my way through Gap and Banana Republic for shitty clothes that don’t last. I want nice clothes and if I knew my budget I could get them. I WILL HAVE THEM. I’m not angry. :)

Ok, I think that covers it for the beginning of 2014. No need to overdo resolutions. I’ll let you know how it’s going. Should be awesome. Gotta go, It’s time to put on some lipstick. Wah!