what my phone saw-magical l.a.

hollywood blvd. besties

ummm, that's just cruel. you deserve to be socked in the mouth! for free of course...

i don't..., i mean..., how..., what...??  2 thoughts: gag and barf

i wonder who thought the best graphic for this would be a pedophile ?

i freakin' KNEW elvis was alive and living in los angeles! nobody listens to me!

the stockings were hung from the gutter with care????

dude is ty-ty!!!

post vacay blues

I haven't a clue why people always say, "oh, im so ready to be home again."

 i don't get that. not at all.

home?

 i mean, home is wonderful but vacation is pretty much one of the top 5 words in

our english language!

if i could be on a permanent vacay with my lovely sea-town friends and family i

absolutely would be.

the fam and i had such a great time in seattle this past week. we got to see so many people that we love dearly and though its hard to leave again we are so grateful we were able to be.

wouldn't you miss the heck outta these girls too?

I mean look at them!

oh sure, they are giving their "im so sweet" smiles for this photo but talk about good, not so clean, laugh til your sides hurt, "yep she really just said that", fun!

or trouble,

depending on whose asking!!

well, you know it's time to go grocery shopping when your kids have eaten popcorn for breakfast and are asking if popcorn is for lunch too!!! 

No, it's not good to be home, not at all......

my maui beach bag

this last week-end nicole from local sugar hawaii invited me on over to her corner of the blog world to guest post about whats in my beach bag.

i was happy to travel the pacific and spend a little time with her because as you know hawaii is my happy place and this summer we are skipping our usual maui trip for seattle so i needed a little of her local sugar love!

nicole has a fantastic blog-one of the first i found, started following and fell in love with. she sorta had me at hawaii, well, maybe it was sugar, any-hoo, check her out and return the aloha to my island girl for being so lovely here on the blog world and kind to her blogger friends.


oh, and speaking of seattle, i am officially on vacation! yee-haw!
that right there is the space needle smilin' at you. c'mon now, smile back.

this basically means if you see me this week i may or may not have clean hair, shaved legs, the same shirt on for more than 2 days in a row or make-up within a 20 yard radius of my face.
oh, i should probably mention that there may be moments of flash mobbing minus the mob and it just being me.
just trying to keep it real and if you witness any of this behavior or unsightliness i suggest just looking away or carrying on-its only gonna last the week.....

peace out cub scout! *see* ya next week!

lately i'm a fizzler-i own that

it's actually quite bad. aloha friday rolls around and i'm your girl!

i'm excited, i'm makin' week-end plans, gonna get stuff done and then all the sudden it happens. i fizzle.

i don't know what it is but when i wake up saturday i make my coffee and then i sit down to sort of think about all the things i am planning (actually it's my escape i'm planning) whether it's tackling a closet clean out, baking a new recipe, or here's a huge "fizzle fast kendra plan"-taking a hike. all these things sound so darn great on friday but let's face it everything sounds good on aloha friday.

you could be like, "yo kp, wanna hike 6 miles, hit the dentist office, go renew our licences down at the DMV then maybe end the day with cleaning out that drawer in your kitchen where you try to stuff as much crap as you can into it?" and in the midst of my aloha friday dance i would say, "uh, hecks yeah, yeah, yeah, i'm so down. i mean shoot, let's wake up at 4am, run a few miles and drink a nasty green shake while we are at it?" (i actually love green shakes at this point but not the ones with kale-or garlic, i actually had one with garlic-gag.)

sigh.

things just sound GREAT on friday. but, then saturday rolls out her cushy little non schedule bearing day-she shows me a cute little blonde girl on my sofa looking all morning cute and sends me over to snuggle. saturday also reminds me of how great the invention of yoga pants are and that i can just leave them on all day long, ya know, if i really want to and i don't even have to actually go to class. (shhhhhh). saturday also takes me to my kitchen and shows me how clean it is and says, "i mean, you can mess it up if you wanna but you'll just have to clean it (this part isn't true coz saturday knows shane cleans- not me- but i admire her selling tactics nonetheless) and then saturday sends me to my room and literally, get this, literally places my kindle in my lap. saturday then reminds me of my completely rad vanilla/amber bubble bath and sends me on in to marinate in my tub. 

 look at him stealing my spot!!

pretty soon all my inhibitions are gone. pretty soon its 4pm. pretty soon i realize i have wasted my day. on me.

she's a pushy girl that saturday but i loves a girl that knows what she I want.......

it's ok

it's ok that i haven't shaved my legs in 3 days, if i do it every day my husband wouldn't recognize me.

its ok not to like your dentist just coz he is a dentist, im gonna pretend its not his fault that his job has made him a mouth villain.

its okay to write a blog but not call your husband hubs in the posts

its ok to cry when you see a wedding on TV or a commercial that is sweet

its ok to go and buy yourself a watch when you really went to go buy new silverware

its ok to waste countless hours of reality television even though you should be doing laundry or anything else in the world

its ok to dance in the parking lot even when your kids plead with you to not be strange (im convinced they secretly love their weird mom)

its ok to say, "oh, i shouldn't" and then do it anyway

its ok to put on a dirty shirt and roll out

its ok that summer is cut short for my kids, i will have to make these days that much more special.

its okay to put a ban on all the normal rules in the summer and fly by the seat of your pants

its ok to sing karaoke and sound like a dying cat but think you're not half bad...

its ok for you to come on over and have a little brunch with amber today and waste a little morning time with me

http://www.brunchwithamber.com/

antique apothecary jars

i'm still ridiculously excited about my amazing find in palm springs about a month back. literally on our way out of town my friend and i decided to stop at an estate sale we had seen signs up for earlier in the day. we pulled up to the house after marveling at the cool old neighborhood architecture.

we walked in the house (my favorite part because as i designer i love to see other people's homes) and were greeted by a fairly young couple who were very friendly and announced that we should ignore the yellow tags as it was day 3 and they were getting ready to wrap it up. i sorta thought, "well, there probably wont be much left if it's day three", and it was sparse. i mean sparse. we milled around and really didn't find much. as i wandered through to the kitchen there was an entire counter of really old, really dirty and really kinda germy (sorry can't think of another word) looking apothecary jars.

we had a moment the jars and i. a real moment.

i love apothecary jars and this was really cool to see these all lined up and untouched. these had been here for 3 days and fortunately for me they were just grimy enough to scare everyone else off. my friend came around the corner and with big wide eyes i was like, "LOOK, aren't these amazing!!" she gave a "not so much" face and said, "uh, mmmm, not for me but you love stuff like this." 

i quickly went to search out the guy who was running the sale whom i later learned i was in his grandfathers home. his grandfather had been a contractor and was a very giving man who spent his life in palm springs. he was immersed in the community and even spent some time teaching classes to kids in various subjects even though he hadn't been educated past the 8th grade. not sure how that worked but it was really cool to hear about the person who had made this his home for so many decades.

i use to feel sad or uncomfortable at estate sales but i have learned so much in the past 5 years about how i feel about death and passing and where it is (i feel) we go that it has somehow made it all easier for me. anyway, i didn't know much about the jars but knew they were apothecary jars and they were old. i assumed vintage but other than that i just found them to be really cool.

i had no idea what i would do with them and tried picturing a spot where i'd display them.

i couldn't.

i tried to picture me having time to clean them as most of the lids were stuck and not budging.

 i couldn't.

somehow though i couldn't leave without them.

i couldn't.

there was probably about 25 jars and i picked out 6 i was really drawn to. i asked the nice guy, "ok, what do you want for these 6?" he answered by asking me what i wanted to pay for them. uggghh. i hate that. i don't know what to say to that because i didn't want to offend him by saying too little and honestly maybe they were really worth something but to me they were just gonna be cool displayed in my home. i answered that i honestly didn't know. he looked at me and said, "wanna pay me twenty bucks?"

wow. twenty? deal!

he even boxed them up to keep them safe on my drive back to l.a.

when i got home i took them out to show shane.
 "i know, i gotta clean them",  i said quickly trying to sell their "not so outwardly beauty" to him, "but aren't they so cool?" 
shane tipped one over and read the bottom.

"uh, kendra, these are from 1894".

huh? what? seriously? definitely not vintage. these are antique.

oh wow!

shane went to the computer and looked them up and we found a site that was selling them for about $100 each for some much much smaller than mine.

i definitely scored.

but they are mine now.

not for sale.

i really like them and they will stay with me and be loved and enjoyed.

the labels are gold rimmed and glass. glass labels! cool huh?!

a few of them still have paper labels on them from brunswig drug co. in l.a. where many people got their apothecary's filled back in the day.

so now i gotta find some time and figure out how to clean these and get them open without cracking or ruining them. is it strange that i kinda like them all stained and filled with old who knows what?? i might leave them as is which truly goes against all my beliefs as a semi-professional germa-phobe.

anyone know how to clean them or have any idea's send em my way please. 

the day the terrible thing happened.

its not as if i didn't know it would happen.

i just wanted to deny it and hope and pray and cross fingers, toes, arms, legs that maybe it would just forget to happen.

it didn't forget.

it happened.

my little maile moo turned 12 last week. no, this isn't the terrible thing. this is a great thing-although i hate to see my littles get older it is a celebration every year of their growth and life and thank God, health.

we had mailes birthday at sky high. its a huge gym where the floors are trampolines and there are dodge ball areas and a huge foam pit for spectacular face plants.

its fun.

good, sweaty exhausting fun.

i mean, clearly the kid loved it!!

maile asked for a vintage typewriter for her birthday and i had spent a bunch of time looking around for one that worked that wasn't $200. anyway, shane found one and she loves it.

moo (i nickname everyone, i probably have one for you) was sitting up at the kitchen counter this morning tinkering around on it when she told me how she was gonna go clean out her room and organize it so she could make a spot for her typewriter.

music to a mutha's ears!

"that's great moo, put what you don't want into bags and i will take them to the goodwill." 

as she happily plunked away it happened. the terrible thing.

"oh, and im all done with my barbies so you can take those to the goodwill too," she said.

she is done with her barbies??? 

she is done with her barbies. sigh.

it was the last bit of the little little girl i had left. i was really holding onto this. i loved that she would still drag them out, cut their hair, bend their legs in crazy yoga poses, strip them of their clothes and i didn't even mind that she had a naked ken on top of naked barbie most days telling her how much he loved her. i thought it was sweet.

we were done with dollies and nightlights, all our plastic toys had been passed on to other littles, even our blankie had been packed up and stored away years earlier.

we had long ago quit saying most of the funny toddler words and now had perfect speech and grammar. and ya know what? i didn't care if the speech therapist told me i should correct her- i thought the word "uggy" happened to be better than the word "ugly", it made perfect sense to me and was used quite widely between my family and friends for years coz stuff is uggy sometimes!!

i tried to reassure her that she didn't have to get rid of the barbies if she still wanted to play with them. i was trying to give her an out to hold on to them just in case this was because other girls her age didn't play with them any longer and she felt she shouldn't either.

but she said no.

she said it was because she was done with them. she said it just like that.

she doesn't know this is a big step for her mom.

she is just simply done.

im really sad about this. i know its a stupid reason to be sad. but im gonna take my sadness and just be real with it and when im done im gonna pack up the barbies (even the ones with no hair) and take them to the goodwill. but im notgonnalie- this sucks bigtime.

what my phone saw- mexico edition

looking through my phone today i have all kinds of photos from mexico that my phone took. 

she loved mexico! she was a little scared in puerto vallarta when she thought her owners husband was gonna get his nike's stolen (off his feet, by a local) but otha' than that she saw some fun stuff!!

it was actually a mexican cruise??? (shrug) i wont tell the aloha lei police....

 

tiniest baby crab ever. found this in a dish i bought. poor thing must have crawled across the street from the ocean into this store and got stuck in this bowl. he was the size of a pomegranite seed.

so they make towel animals on your bed when you leave your cruise cabin at night. this was creepy...like it was waiting...i made shane disassemble it right away!

coz who wants to eat sad food? oh, and the sign below seems to be trying to convince us that yes indeed, it IS happy food. im suspicious!

i'm big in mexico. i knew it would spread.....hugs!!!

who puts a disco ball on their balcony? someone funky that's who! i wish i knew them.

this is mollyes beach bag. the girl knows the essentials. afro wig. check. itch cream. check. schedule of cruise events. check. she is a walking par-tay!

i can only share these 7 photos from the phone.

she tends to take inappropriate photos. we had to have a talk about it.

silent sunday

five question friday-5qf

today im gonna go link up with http://fivecrookedhalos.blogspot.com/

and answer her five question friday. 
ive already posted my usual aloha friday

but thought this would be fun to join and since its aloha friday AND summer there really are no rules today folks!!

1. What's your view on men wearing sandals (yay or nay)?

-yay but no socks k guys? i know its confusing because they feel like a shoe but they do NOT whatsoever require socks. if you're feet are cold enough you feel you need socks then it's just not sandal weather yet.

2. What song do you love but are embarrassed to admit?

- ice ice baby by none other than vanilla ice. 

i can explain. 

this song brings back memories of cruising state street in the small town i grew up in. i remember singing it at the top of my lungs and laughing about everything but nothing at the same time. 

for the time, ice did have some swag. its easy to say he didn't now but you know you had a friend (or 2) that has had something shaved in the side or back of his head.

3. What summer camp should they make for moms? 

-camp 'dont-call-me-mom'

this would be held in vegas. moms can dress up in whatever they want (or can pull off) and nobody, i mean nobody! can call us mom all week long. THAT is rule #1.

we can sleep in until noon and stay out as late as we want without worry of 'oh gawd, they will be up needing me to make breakfast and find certain channels for them in 3 hours' at all. 

its gonna be good. 

i might start this camp. i prolly need a few camp counselors, ya know, just to make sure moms are keeping in line, staying up late, letting their hair down, getting all kinds of fun and crazy... you can apply whenever.

4. What is the most romantic song? (Not necessarily your favorite or your wedding song...)

-i might have to go with "at last" by etta james

it just seems like you should be slow dancing in a long flowing gown right?

5. Do you have an embarrassing pregnancy story?

-yes,  which one do you wanna hear? the one where i passed out or the one where i barfed on the floor?

aloha friday

hey, hey, hey!

i spent the better part of this week feeling sorry for myself coz after 7 days (6 of which i have had NO voice) i still have this nasty cold.

aloha friday is not meant for whining so the gloves are comin' off and im kickin some germ butt!!

 

-i got a few nice emails from some awesome bloggers. when people go out of their way to be kind i wanna just kiss them. i wont do it now because i am sick but just you wait....its coming....

-big brother season 14 started last night. i have a feeling i will be talking about bb14 way more than one should. you will get annoyed. i wont apologize because this is my favorite show eva' and i wait alllll year long!

-shane is learning snoop doggs 'gin and juice' on his ukulele-im gonna rock that number just so you know....

-we got a surprise package from family. it had some of the best teriyaki sauce ever in it. it comes from shanes uncle kays restaurant and it makes all other teriyaki sauce taste like cardboard. if you're ever in vancouver washington you'd be a complete dummy not to stop in to 'jett burger cafe'. it's the bomb and you can either listen to me on this or go through your life completely lost because you never tried it..... thank you duke and lori!

-i met a new friend, his name is nyquil. he promised me sleep without coughing. i wish i would have met him days ago but regardless we have become fast friends and he has not let me down since wednesday.

-my girls and i saw the katy perry movie. run dont walk and go see this movie!

 if you are not even a fan or feel kinda 'meh' about her you will leave the theater loving this girl. take some tissues. this girl is genuine and loyal and strong and my favorite, she is weird. 

oh, go see the 3d version so you can smuggle the cute 3d katy perry glasses out of the theater when you leave.

because this week was slim pickins on awesome stuff im gonna go work on my 'tude and kickin this germ outta my body. i will be leaving you with a video of my littlest of littles.

this is how i feel most days-it brings new meaning to '3 ring circus' but for her its fun and she practiced until she could do it. i have decided not to tell her that once she has a family she will be doing this trick in her sleep....effortlessly.

back the F off my cat!

oh, im pissed. and if you are a bird lover (which i use to be) you may not want to read on because immabout to open up all kinds of crazy here on a certain little feathered beast!

here's the story:

one day this mama bird decided to build a nest for her sweet baby birdies in my ficus trees in my back yard. so cute right? no. it sucks actually. this bird is taking the 'mama bear' role a tad bit too far.

this bully bird (it's an absolutely appropriate name-you'll see) has decided that every time my cat goes outside to lay in the sun in HIS yard she will both dive bomb him and peck his back while squawking in the most hideous, ear bleeding manner.

its ruthless! its horrid! she is a hideous monster!

why my cat doesn't pop those claws out and take one large swipe and bring her down is beyond me. i wish i had claws.

no that's not a fancy plume tail- its a bird swooping in to peck the cat's behind!

now, in fairness i will take you back in time. my cat use to be known as the bird killer. he has a bit of uh, a rep i suppose. this is true. however, he has softened in his old age and hardly ever bird kills anymore and he hasn't gone into the ficus tree once this season. so, there is that whole killing spree era but, that was like, a year ago. what? do these birds share stories and spread the word about the killer cat at 5110?

uh, and by the way lady, not to point out the obvious but if you are such a great mama maybe you, i dunno, scope out the area next time you build nests and take note that this yard belongs to a cat?? or maybe you don't get knocked up in my neighborhood at all? try a little bird control.

tell me this doesn't make you sad??

so here i am sitting in my backyard drinking my morning coffee and out comes my cute little kitty oatmeal (that's what you get when you give a 3 year old a cat and let her name him- she names him after her favorite food) to lay in the sun.

then boom! here comes mayhem and madness squawking (uh, like no wonder birdie daddy takes flight-i wouldn't hang around to listen to that crap either!) filling my whole yard and home with ear bleeding chirps and ugliness.

incoming!!! right to my oatmeal's back. i seethe. i yell at her. doesnt she have crap to do? like go collect worms to throw up in their babies mouths? which, uh, we wont even discuss how gross and not very lady like that is!

boom, more cat ass kicking occurs.

tell me this video doesn't make you sad/mad??!!

shane hears the birds from inside the house (i wasn't kidding about the ear bleeding noise) and does this amazing impression of gorillas in the mist-running out the door (all bow-legged like) and throwing his arms up yet making a lion's roar. its a confusing and amazing sight all at once. just trust me on this.

well, the bully bird mama flies away to the tree where she sits and waits for the gorilla/lion thing to leave then goes at poor oatmeal again. i do not like this bird. i wish her gone forever. sorry peta. my cat trumps this nasty squawker.

i'm signing off now because i intend to clean the paintball gun and bring down terror on her like she will never know again. never.
ok, not really, i could never wipe out a bird or any other animal. i realize she has babies to take care of and all but she best watch it coz nobody can be a mama bear like this mama right here....bye bye birdie bye bye....

road maps

i recently ran across this photo that showed a mother and her absolutely flat (and tan) stomach and check out that caption.

i read this saying to a friend of mine and explained how i call my "stripes" my road map. 

i call it my road map because well, it's basically a map that says where i've been. 

it says i've been in labor and delivery-3 times.
i've been up nights nursing and rocking and soothing.
i've been to countless zoo's and and parks and chuck e. cheeses.
i've sat in pediatrician offices and held tiny hands while tears welled up during annual shots.
i've placed many candles on frosted cakes.
i've said no more times than you can imagine and yes probably more times than i shoulda.
i've tied laces and wiped faces.
i've clapped, cheered, given the, "i know you can do it" pep talks and the "oh man you were awesome" high fives.
it says i've hugged and loved harder than i even knew i ever could.
i've reasoned and bardered successfully and unsuccessfully.
ive worn wings and left money under pillows. ive hidden eggs and taken bites out of cookies left on santa plates.

i've been a mom.
my road map says i've earned my stripes. every. last. one.

succulent wall garden UPDATE!

warning: this project may give you a huge head

i feel like a serious real life big girl right now.

hey y'all, like look what i can do- oh just make succulent boxes and keep them alive and stuff.
ya know, its not like i didn't believe in myself but i really just didn't believe in myself.

i felt like they were so pretty and almost too easy to create that i figured eventually they would either die or just never sprout and it would be a major bust.  however, my thumb is obviously boomin' green (that's a serious green, vibrantly green- crayola has no clue what this green is-its that green!) oh, and i'm totally bragging because look at my wall garden!

so about a week or so after i made my first succulent garden boxes our garden gal liz came by to check on other things happenin' in our yard. liz had just made her own garden box and was checking mine out. mine were chillin on their tables in the sun with about 5-7 more weeks until their wall debut.

well, this moment is what i imagine it would be like for a singer to stand in front of simon cowell and belt a tune. ok, well, maybe not as life changing as that, i do have a flair for dramatics. anyway, hang with me, this is going somewhere.....

ok, so back to holding my breath waiting for liz to tell me why my boxes wouldn't work and how they were wrong and how i was really kinda lame and should stick to my day job and get myself outta the garden. it was a very hurtful scenario where i would feel like a huge loser and i would run from my garden sobbing.

but, (always a but with me) liz kinda spent a minute picking around in my succulents, pulling off pieces and then she said, "this is really good kendra, you did it perfectly, this should be beautiful and ready to hang in about 6-8 weeks.......unless......" liz started to look at the chicken coop wiring and started picking around again. yes, yes liz, unless what???? is this where she says, "haaaaa, kidding, this sucks- dump it!" no. liz started to explain how i could hang this thing up tomorrow if i wanted to. liz is rad. period.

apparently all i had to do is go on down to jo-ann's fabrics and buy this box of greening pins and push one through the center of each succulent! i mean, i was spearing them and they still refused to give up life on me-we are bonded forever now.

lastly, you take some moss, weave it through the chicken wire being sure to get the moss around the base of each succulent (mostly the moss is so the dirt doesn't fall through the wire when you hang it as the pups will not have rooted yet) then hang it up on your wall and go on with life as if you are not an amazing bad ass garden girl. this last part is hard to do coz you feel rather special for a bit of time. you just have to kinda act normal. its a process.

anyway, just a few secrets for you instant gratification people like myself. i hope you try it, i hope you feel awesome about yourself and i hope you enjoy your succulent boxes all year long. now i must go and stare at my creation......

aloha friday

well looky here-friday already! 

now ain't that the best news you've heard since last aloha friday?!

here's what rocked my week:

-got home from mexico sunday and all the littles were waiting. they missed us. we are loved.

-the big brother cast bio is out! yessss! we are on t minus 6 days people!

-wednesday was a holiday. in the middle of the week! hows that for awesomeness?!

-as i am sitting here typing this shane is preparing a binder of sheet music and tuning his ukulele for our upcoming trip home to seattle. who wants to jam and listen to me think i can sing????? i get better as the night wears on-or is that my own made up story in my head? hmmm....

-i have a cold. no, but wait. lemme explain. this happens to be awesome because what i have here people is a whole valid reason as to why i can't do certain household chores on my week-end. huuh, huuh, whose genius now hey?!!!

-today is my littlest little's birthday. tomorrow is her birthday party. we gots all kinds of partying planned!!

happy birthday moo, moosie, moosie bear, littlest little, maile raymond bean, moomalina, lil mama.... you are so easy to love.