Work in Progress

The past six months have been insane for me! It is one of our heavier build years at work so I've had little time or energy to spend on personal projects, other than our home! We are finally getting to a point where I feel like I can start "showing" my home. This first photo is from when we first took over the house. Originally the walls on the main floor and downstairs stairwell were a sage green(not my fave and went with nothing we owned).

We found a color called Macadamia that we loved, kinda funny since my husband just started at Hawaiian Host(chocolate covered Macadamia Nuts).

We lived with it this color for some time, but we had bigger plans!

On our long empty wall we put up bamboo paneling and framed it out with split bamboo.

Then to get stuff up on the wall! We've had all our decorations in boxes up until recently since we had been waiting to get the bamboo wall up. Once we got up what we already owned we realized we still needed ALOT more to achieve full tropical perfection!

Our tiki bar is what really started this obsession. When my hubbie and I first moved in with one another we decided to build this bar. It worked perfect in our first place but is now too large for our house to use as a bar. Our plan is to take the front panels and make them into swing out doors so we can use it as  a storage area for our booze.

Now for a few of my favorite things:
This is our wedding "guest book" guitar and our new crazy Hawaii clock

I've become obsessed with all Treasure Craft of Hawaii items so I've started my collection with some amazing shell dishes. By the way this shelf is a temporary piece of furniture until we find something better. For now it can hold various dishes and odds and ends for me. Plus we are in search of a large piece of artwork for this wall.

And of course, some Treasure Craft of Hawaii hula dancers! My favorite pieces!!

We got this print this weekend, its high on my list as a favorite piece

Oh yah, the wall that is opposite to our bamboo wall is the one that leads to the stairwell and we did a half wall bamboo panel on that...which with all the mitered corners on the split bamboo drove my hubbie and dad nuts. And what tropical themed home wouldn't be complete without giant fork and spoon?

And of course, puppies!!! They match the decor perfectly as well.

It's going to be a never ending process of adding to our decor, but at least we are finally making our house a home. We have big plans for our fireplace and mantle next, so hopefully I'll be sharing that with you soon!

Aloha!

Lucky Zelda

A couple months back I did a little modeling for my friend's etsy shop. She is an amazing seamstress, plus just an all around great gal! She focuses mainly on her handbags which are super cute and very well constructed. However, lately she has been adding in more and more vintage style pieces that she creates either from vintage patterns or patterns she makes herself. She does custom sizing on what is in her shop and I'm sure could also do other custom work for you if you asked her nicely. So please check out her etsy shop, Lucky Zelda, and keep an eye on what she's putting in there.

Wool Skirt 1940s Style with Lace Trim

Retro Jewel Neck Blouse, check out the back!

Grey Wool Dress

Wrap Skirt in Purple Wool (Love this!)

One of her cute bags...this one is my favorite!

Viva Crunch Time

Well Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender is just around the corner and I've finally started planning what I need to make. This year money is tight since we've been dumping everything we got into the house. So I'm trying to make almost my entire wardrobe for the event myself and hopefully use fabric, patterns and notions I already own. I'm hoping that I can get each one done within a week since I'm so close to the event. I have also sketched out 2 of the 3 outfits I'm making so as to keep me motivated and on track.

Here is the one I've started working on and the fabric I'm using (this was a Hawaii purchase).

Eva Dress pattern 9662

This one I also really want to finish. I'm using 1959 Butterick pattern 9003 view A. If I don't have a brown fabric in my stash that I love then I will have to purchase some lightweight brown wool for the dress. I'm going to make a long wrap from some cheetah print fabric that I have in my stash. All my accessories for this outfit I already own.

Isn't the drape fantastic?

And my final outfit that I'm hoping to get made (although if any fall off the to do list this will be the one). This outfit was inspired by Jane Russell's outfit in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I will use my favorite shorts pattern that I've posted about before and use some black twill fabric I already own. For the halter I will use a pattern that I own or possibly purchase a top if it gets down to crunch time. For the swing jacket I'll use Butterick pattern 5716 and do a contrasting collar, I will probably do a turquoise coat with black and white polka dot collar and cuffs.

I adore all Russell's swing coats in this film.

Butterick 5716

Well I better get to work on these!!!! I'll keep you posted on progress.

Backyard Tropical Oasis

Yesterday was a beautiful day. And while most people (in the states) may have been planted in front of the TV watching the Super Bowl game, my husband and I were doing a different kind of planting. Our new home doesn't have much of a yard. Just a little side yard that is sandwiched between ours' and our neighbor's house. However, everyone that walks up to our front door will see it. For the past few years this yard has been a mess and in need of some serious TLC. We were finally tired of being embarrassed by our little yard and paid some attention to it.

Here is my hubbie with our dog looking on as we discuss our plans. We decided that we needed to move some of the pavers around to widen the path in some areas and give it a more natural curve to where it opens up into the wider area of the yard.

 Here is the path all cleaned up. As you know we love tropical and with our recent trip to Hawaii we were inspired to bring Hawaii to us. We purchased bamboo fencing to separate the path from the planted section. We put in a fern, a sago palm, a bird of paradise, some begonias and my favorite a Ti Plant. Now I just have to let them do their job and get nice and lush!

Our little dog checking out the work!

This little side section is what you first see when you open the gate to come to our front door. We used the bamboo fencing again. We put in some Kaffir lilies, a Birds of Paradise and a Fiddle Leaf Fig tree. The tree we are actually going to keep potted, for two reasons, one there is cement under where it sits so we couldn't plant it and two I think I'll need to move it in the summer when it'll get too much sun. We also poured red lava rock into this area to add a pop of color. Plus its a great home for Fred and Ethel!!

Lucky for me there was already some planters up on the porch by the door. So I picked up a few more colorful tropical plants to drop into those to greet me every morning when I walk the pups. And of course, I couldn't resist putting in a dwarf lime tree for all my cocktail needs!

Hubbie with the kids looking at what will be the more daunting task. Under that clover is more pavers. We are going to dig all the clover up and expose the pavers then pour gravel in between all the pavers. Unfortunately we didn't get to that on Sunday so it is still looming in our future. This section actually still has alot more work to be done. We ordered some planted bamboo to put in and I still need to pick up a few more potted plants. We have to figure out a good way to setup our smoker out here and find some great chairs to relax in. Plus what tropical yard wouldn't be complete without an amazing tiki statue...guess that means another trip to Hawaii in my future to pick one up!!!

We are very proud of how much we got done. Plus I realized how much I love living in Southern California because it means I have the opportunity to garden pretty much any time of the year. Within the next few months we'll be having the outside of the house painted, and hopefully by then our little oasis will be flourishing so that come summertime this will be a happy little space to hang out with a Mai Tai or two!

Fabric Paradise

A friend of mine at work suggested I go into a fabric store while in Hawaii. When I walked in I thought I'd died and gone to tropical fabric heaven. I dropped into Fabric Mart just west of downtown Honolulu, they even have a website you can order from fmart.com This is my haul, although some of this is for the friend who suggested the store. Lucky for me I was able to put my fabric purchase on a container at my husbands work that got shipped this week. So even though I'm having to wait for it, I didn't have to worry about how I was going to get all that fabric in my luggage and remain under weight! I figure once I use up all this fabric I'll be ready to go back.

On a Tropical Island

I went to Hawaii last week...I'm hoping to get a post up about it soon. I'm also making plans for outfits to make for Viva Las Vegas so I can get back to blogging on things I'm making.