Our Vacation in Paradise .. Day 1

Kevin and I have both been enjoying his radiation rotation for the month of February.  He has had a lot of time off, which makes my life a lot easier.  It also means that we got to go on vacation!!  Kevin's parents very generously invited us along to join them in Kauai for a week in paradise.  We had an absolutely fabulous week, and I'm going to share it here, day by day.


Kevin and I flew out of Syracuse on Saturday morning, stopped in Ohio, stopped in LA and finally made it to Kauai Saturday evening around dinner time (local time, it was around 11 pm to us).  After Kevin's parents picked us up from the airport, we enjoyed a quick dinner with them and then went to bed!!

The next day, well rested, we were super excited to get going.  Kev and I woke up early and took a walk around our resort and to the beach nearby.  We were staying at Marriott Waiohai Beach Club near Poipu Beach Park, and it was beautiful.  We enjoyed the sunrise and some early morning whale watching.

 

 

Poipu Beach, Kauai HI

After breakfast we set out for the day, our goal was to explore the East Shore and North Shore of the island.  Kevin was so excited to take the top off of the Jeep we rented .. and sure enough it rained 5 minutes after leaving the hotel.  He didn't mind because it was blowing in the faces of his mom and I in the back!

Our first stop was Kilauea Lighthouse, it is the northernmost point of the main Haiwaiian islands, had beautiful views, and was a great place to whale watch.

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From there we drove through the towns of Hanalei and Princeville.  I wish I had pictures of that drive because the area is really beautiful, it was a very enjoyable drive nonetheless.  We stopped for lunch at Hanalei Bay, which is a breathtaking beach.

We continued our drive until the end of the road ... which brought us to Ke'e Beach.  We relaxed on the beach for a bit, and watched the really rough surf (which is typical for the north side of the islands .. especially in the winter).

The Na Pali Coast is beyond Ke'e beach, and it is absolutely beautiful.  It is only accessible by hiking, helicopter/plane or sea.  Unfortunately we did not have the ability to see it any of those ways, so we would definitely like to return someday to fully explore that area.  The surf is too rough to go around the island by sea in the winter, but high on my list is to take a kayaking tour around the coast, while camping on beaches ... some summer, sometime.  We did take a quick hike up the beginning of Hanakapi'ai Trail, which had some amazing views, and was really steep!

 After our hike, we made our way back to the resort.  We had mai tais on the beach while whale watching, and then enjoyed dinner at Keoki's Paradise and an early bed time!!

Life's Tough on a Diet

Kevin and I aren't the only ones putting on some "winter weight".  Baxter and Emily recently had a less than perfect check up at the vet and were told they needed to go on a diet.  Needless to say Baxter is less than enthused.

He carries his bowl around trying to entice us to feed him more ... when we ignore him, he takes it with him to the next room and huffs and puffs (see video below).

If you want further evidence of how tough his life really is ... he no longer cares that he's not allowed on the couch.  We find him in this position every morning and any time we leave the room:

Poor Guy.

First Sewing Project!

Kevin's parents bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I was very excited to get started on some sewing projects.  I started with getting my machine set up (very easy and straightforward), they got me a Singer and I love it. 

 

To get my machine situated, I needed to clean our office; so I spent a weekend doing this:

I'm a little embarrassed to show this, but our office had become a dumping ground for everything ... and while I have started doing more "crafts" I did not have a good method of organizing them.

 I made a quick trip to The Dollar Store for some cheap containers, and picked up a shoe rack shelf from Target, and ended up with this:

Much better ... and I now know where all of my crochet and sewing supplies are
Other side:

Now for my project, I really would like to make new curtains for our bedroom, but I am waiting on enough of a budget to re-do the entire room before I make a decision on curtains, so I went on a mission to find another little project to do.

It all started with this idea from one of my favorite blogs: http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/2012/01/diy-makeup-brush-roll.html, a DIY makeup brush roll from a placemat!  Seriously, how smart is that?  It is also pretty relevant for me because I have just started using Bare Escentuals Makeup (which I love), which has increased the amount of makeup brushes I have.  We are also going on vacation soon, so having some new travel accessories will be nice. Instead of jumping right into the placemat idea, I did a little Pinteresting and some Googling and came across this website: Sew 4 Home makeup brush case and decided I was up for a little more of a challenge.  The tutorials on this site are super easy to follow, and I really feel like I learned some new skills .... like I had never attached a binding before, much less made my own.  I didn't do a full step by step because 1. I don't know what I'm talking about, I followed their instructions, and 2. I think you should just go off their website (I have nothing more to offer!).


I got my fabric (on sale) at JoAnn Fabrics(we have a nice, big, new store near us).  I picked from the "home decor" section because they were on sale.  The white is leftover lightweight batting I had from another project and for the interior "laminate" part of the case I used an iron on vinyl I had leftover from something else as well.  I just ironed it on to the green fabric after I had the correct size cut out.

 Cut out and ready to sew

 I used paper to make my stitch guides instead of the recommended wax paper, I would definitely go with wax paper ... the regular paper was really hard to remove.

 All done ... inside

 Outside

I am very happy with the results, even though I should have put the effort in to customize the size of the brush pockets.  I also have a boost of confidence after this project, so I am going to try and complete the Makeup Case and Flat Iron holder from the same website before we go away.  I'll keep you updated.