The Entry Rug

I'm starting to see how little things can bring some added joy to my life.  

Like I've said before, our home used to be one of my parents' vacation rentals. In the 2+ years we've lived in it, I've slowly converted/switched all the Hawaiiana pieces into things that reflect our style. After all, we're not on vacation here. Ivy and I were both born and raised in Hawaii and don't need to surround ourselves with fake palm trees and pineapples in the privacy of our own home. One of the last pieces in our home reflecting this touristic culture was a palm tree rug in our entry way. It was a little stained from where Ivy colored on it with black permanent marker a year ago, and from normal wear and tear (sorry mom). I was at Pier One earlier this summer, and fell in love with a colorful entry rug on sale for like $16.

Here is the before and after:

I can't believe how much more cheery the new rug makes the entry!

 Up close the various fabrics are so cute.

Ivy loves it too.

 And practices her 1st position on it.

Amazing what a new rug can do! Call me shallow, but I get so happy looking at it! Thanks Pier One, for brightening my day. (This is not a sponsored post, though I wish it were! All opinions are my own.)

Aloha,

Rebecca

Read more ...

These are a few of my favorite things... the UO edition

Living in Hawaii, it's hard to find cool things in our limited supply of stores. There's a lot more selection on Maui than Kauai, though, so lucky me. :) I love to shop at Urbanoutfitters.com. I first went to one of their NYC stores in 2006, and after that I was hooked. Here are some of my favorite finds.

I got this in August 2010 at the UO San Diego shop. i LOVE IT.

I just got 2 of these orange placemats. They're plastic and adorable and easy to clean. So new, the folds haven't evened out yet. 

I also own 4 of them in blue. Cailin got them for me a few Christmases ago. I love them.

Technically I don't have this rug yet... but it's on back order. I bought it for Cailin's b-day cause I know she loves Owls and it's been sitting in my online UO shopping cart for way too many of her b-day's and holidays.

This adorable mat was in our tub for quite a while. It got dirty kinda quick, but I still love it. 

This rug was one of my top pins on Pinterest. It went viral in minutes. I love it. It was on sale for $9.99! It's in our bedroom.

The rug beneath the sink is sooo fun. The perfect shade of sage with polka dots and lacey/doily-like edges. It was like $14 or something ridiculous like that. 

The jewelry hanger on the right is awesome. It's white. I almost got the turquoise, but I'm glad I got white because it goes with more. 

This yellow key hanger is so fun. I love 60's-70's style yellow and green accents, so this fits perfectly with me. The clock above it was my grandma's. It hung on her wall for as long as I can remember. It seems like the battery died about 6 years ago, haha, so when I got it last Summer the first thing I did was put a fresh battery in it!

These curtain pull backs were like $3 a piece or something ridiculous, and I got 4 for Ivy's room in the Summer of 2010. I want some for our room now!

Cailin bought me 4 of these plates at the same time she got me the placemats. What's weird is she got them for me right when we were staging Swan Lake at work!

I got these green ones (love the retro green pattern!) when we had our business on Kauai: Green Light Creative Arts Center. 

Okay... I think that's all for now. How many times can I say. "I LOVE IT"? 

Next week is Kit's bday and I got him something from UO, but I can't show it yet! 

First time buying something from the guys' section. :)

Aloha, Becca

Read more ...

Pure Indulgence... No place for the Aqua Birdie Pillow

I bought a cute aqua birdie fabric from Sew Special here on Maui a few weeks back. (I also got 1/4 yard of an adorable matching squirrel print... sounds weird, i know, but it is ADORABLE). 

I love aqua. All my dishes are aqua. But for some reason, it took me a long time to figure out what project was just perfect for this aqua birdie fabric! Well, yesterday I finished Cailin's pillows she requested, and I loved the grey I used in them. Pillows take no time at all to make, so I gave in and used the aqua birdie fabric... and some white... and the leftover grey... to make a teeny little pillow. I already had a random pillow insert floating around, naked without a pillow case. 

A few seams later-- tada!

And this black vinyl chair... I had plans for this chair... but I kind of like it as is.

It was $5 @ Salvation Army. Marked down from $13. 

The metal legs have a hint of rust, but like I said, I kind of like it.

And by the way, my pic of this Urban Outfitters rug under the chair from this post, was reposted a million (exaggerating) times on pinterest. It was my first pin to go viral... !

Back to the aqua birdie pillow:

So, I have my cute pillow... but it really doesn't go anywhere in our house. I think it's because grey is not really one of our home colors... Kit wants more black in our home, so maybe that will help... but for now, I don't care that it doesn't match anything. The pillow is cute. 

Aloha,
--becca

Read more ...

What Is It... unveiled... SHILOH

Finally... it's my day off, so I can do a substantial post. Here's the answer to the photo I posted a few days back:

Well... it's a WOODEN MIRROR, 

and what you see here is caulking to fill in drill holes, 

and blue painter's tape. 

 I picked the mirror up at a garage sale, for $2! It's a pretty good size, too. About 1.5' x 3'.

 I sanded it down... 

 

...then to get the blue stripe, I first painted this crazy aqua metallic blue across it... let it dry...

then put two widths of blue painter's tape over the blue.

Then I painted the whole thing in the color "Shiloh." Shiloh is this paint my sister-in-law brought home one day from the reject pile at Home Depot or Lowe's or something. It is now my absolute favorite color in the world. I think the name "Shiloh" (meaning 'peace') makes me believe having this color around me will bring me peace... btw- PEACE is the 3rd Fruit of the Spirit... ask Ivy). 

I loved this color so much, I had my sis-in-law paint an antique sewing machine table (that my husband picked up for $25 at Salvation Army) for me and I absolutely love it:

(green knobs are from Urban Outfitters, the metal pulls are the originals)

Anyway... back to the mirror.

It came out like this: 

I put it up in our bedroom, next to my side of the bed:

By the way, the jewelry box on the right was my grandmother's. She passed away last March, and this jewelry box was something we bonded over whenever I would visit her. We'd empty the whole thing out, and she would tell me all about each piece of jewelry and let me try it all on. It's really special to me, and so neat because now Ivy climbs up onto my bed and empties the whole thing out, and loves to try everything on. 

 Not the best lighting... but hey, it was taken with my iPhone... cause that's the easiest thing for me to document my life with.

On another note, here's a picture of the rug down below, which PERFECTLY matches this Shiloh color I love so much...

The rug is also from Urban Outfitters... as is the bed spread and the white jewelry hanger on the wall. The lamp and shade are from Walmart (can you believe that?!). And the dresser was my mom's when she was a little girl. So special. Oh, and the boots are from the Old Navy kids section... they're grey with pink zippers.

Okay, that's my post!

Read more ...