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painting, eating & exploring my way around Hawaii

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Watercolor-A-Day Progress Report:

10/02/17: Happy Birthday (top)- Beach theme- my BFF’s bday was coming up so I had to send some prezzos and a homemade card, of course!  I was in such a rush that although I managed to scan this card, I didn’t even take a normal photo of it before sending off.  At first after looking at it for a while, I thought maybe this would be a sellable card, but I think this ended up being a good trial at a sellable card.  I’ll need to work on centering everything a little better and maybe adding a crab or something in the foreground on the beach (a little cuteness?).  Didn’t mind how the water came out, but might need to work on my coconut trees a bit (left one looks a bit skinny at the top).

10/03/17: Breadfruit Surfboard “We Go, Brah” (top middle)- I had breadfruit noted on my list of cards I wanted to produce, but I kind of got tired of only doing nature for these cards, so instead of just painting a breadfruit tree/leaves by itself, I decided to make a breadfruit pattern on a surfboard.  I actually think I would love to own this board myself (if it could ever be made) because the pink with white breadfruit pattern is so cute!  (self props- hehe)  Pretty simple to paint a surfboard but it’s something I might keep doing- maybe as a set of cards, or a card/couple of cards with a row of boards.  Added “We Go, Brah” because I wanted some local island flair (pidgin) to kind of bring it down to earth.  I’ll be reproducing this card for sure and working on similar ones to maybe sell as a pack.

10/04/17: Brah! Myna Bird (bottom middle)- I know I already did a myna bird card, but I wanted to create one that wasn’t so loose.  This is an idea I had to potentially produce as an enamel pin- each part separately, or can be put together. (Myna bird alone, “Brah” talk bubble alone, or both together)  I haven’t seen any like these before so I think it has potential- and it’s something I would buy and wear myself.  I’ll definitely reproduce this one on cards as well, but this was a good start to the idea I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks now.  Enamel pins here I come!

10/05/17: Pink Flamingo or Sexy Pink Heliconia (bottom)- Drew inspiration from a photo I saw the other day of a lady swimming with this kind of Heliconia in the ocean off of the Big Island.  Having never seen this type before myself (normally I see the orange/red ones or the red/yellow ones) I did some further research online to find other photos of it.  I love how soft the pink of this Heliconia is and the soft almost mint color contrasting.  I tried to pair these colors with a deeper green background wash to accentuate the softness.  Sellable!  I’m working on pairing this with 3 other flower or plant cards to be sold together as a Hawaiian plant pack (can also be sold separately).  Hopefully I’ll start really getting this together and will be out on my etsy page soon!

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Recent Grinds: Fumi’s Kahuku Shrimp (North Shore)

Spent a relaxing day out at the North Shore recently at my favorite beach, Sunset Beach, and figured we’d gone that far, and we were hungry- we should just keep going to Fumi’s Kahuku Shrimp truck!  There’s a lot of debate over who’s shrimp truck is better- Giovanni’s or Fumi’s, but I think they’re both really good- I just prefer Fumi’s.  I’m probably biased because my most favorite person in the world, my late grandma was named Fumi (Fumiko), but the shrimp is legit.

We ordered a spicy garlic shrimp plate ($13) which comes with 2 scoops rice, side salad and a slice of pineapple.  Added 2 piece Kahuku sweet corn (Kahuku is famous for their delicious sweet corn- $5/2pc or $3/1pc) and split the whole meal.  To me, if you’re not extremely hungry- this is definitely the size of a sharable meal- you each get 3-4 pieces of spicy garlic shrimp (has good chunks of garlic right in there and on the rice!), one whole scoop of rice each, one corn each, some salad, bites of pineapple.  Good meal- decent price.

They have a fruit and smoothie shop right next to them as well where you can get fresh fruit smoothies, full pineapples, açai bowls, etc.  There’s a decent covered eating area- lots of picnic tables and benches and they keep the boombox on a local Hawaiian/Jawaiian radio station.  Good place to go for locals and tourists alike (and it’s right off the main road- don’t have to look too hard).

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Recent Grinds: Homemade food

Açai bowls (top): Costco had good deals on Sambazon açai packets, so we keep them in our freezer for when we’re really having a hankering for açai bowls but don’t want to go out.  This was our second attempt making home açai bowls- the first ones, because it’s so dang hot here all the time, melted too quickly and turned out to be soupy.  Second attempt, after we blended it (with apple juice, and just for a second) we stuck them back in the freezer to harden back up.  After 30 minutes or so, we took it out of the freezer and mixed it with spoons so the consistency was the same throughout.  Then we cut up bananas, strawberries, added granola and Hawaiian honey and voila!  Just as good as bought from a shop- and there’s always something nice about being able to make/put together your own food.

Apple Banana Banana Bread (middle): Because I said I would make an apple banana only banana bread.  It’s funny but you can actually taste the difference- and we noticed that the bread color overall (using the same recipe and same time cooking) turned out a bit lighter than the regular banana bread.  I’d say the apple banana banana bread is slightly more tart (?) if that makes any sense- to me it makes it taste better than ordinary banana bread.

Chicken Stir Fry & Japanese Potato Salad (bottom): My husband and I are trying to make somewhat simple dishes that taste good, don’t cost very much, and will make enough for leftovers- chicken stir fry seems to be our recent option for this.  Extremely easy to make (just bake or fry the chicken, stir fry the veggies & mix together!), and we used some local stir fry sauce to mix in- perfecto.  The Japanese potato salad was made by my aunty & the best part is that she had shredded crab and cucumber with it.  I’ve had Japanese potato salad before (always delish) but something about it being homemade with the added ingredients... ah!  Ate it everyday for a few days- has to be served really cold.

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Watercolor-A-Day Progress Report:

09/29/17: Hawaiian Monk Seal (top)- endangered species endemic to Hawaii.  Went with the same sort of style and techniques as the last few cards- much more loose than I’m used to, but I think it worked well with this card.  I figured out that I don’t mind background or foreground color not actually touching the subject, but instead having a tiny unpainted border around the subject.  One thing I did try this time was using my 0.3 mechanical pencil to draw in the face and whiskers of the seal while the paint was still wet- made the lines more liquid and easier to make faint lines.  If I had drawn over the face after it dried, I think the lines would be too harsh and not as subtle as they turned out.

09/30/17: Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin or Nai’a (middle)- inspiration from our recent adventure to Makua to swim with them, I took a still from the video I posted and painted that curious dolphin.  Next time I paint one of them, however, I want to emphasize their “color”- although they’re gray, I think next time I want to play with the sun reflection through water.  Sometimes the water reflection looks so beautiful on their skin- I want to emphasize that.  I’ve never attempted this before- but I follow insane water artists like Linnea Strid and always feel inspired after looking at her posts on instagram, but feel like they’re so insanely detailed that I couldn’t possibly attempt that.  Next time I’ll at least try and see how it goes.

10/01/17: Bird of Paradise (bottom)- because it’s so damn colorful!  This ended up being my second attempt at this, as my first attempt, I kept getting distracted and ended up over painting it.  I wanted to keep the painting loose and use the wet on wet technique- drawing the shape first and then filling in with wet paint.  Since I was so distracted on my first attempt, I actually learned from that attempt, making sure that this second attempt, I kept the paint where it should be, and mastered the colors better.  I’m starting to realize that I should probably keep a watercolor sketchbook on hand to play with color prior to painting a card, and really start working on techniques and watching how paint bleeds.  Good learning experience, and I think this card, although somewhat plain, turned out well- and is potentially sellable.

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Recent Splurge!

Found our way to a local dive shop: Westside Dive & Tackle in Waipahu- asked for recommendations on finding the best mask and snorkel.  The guy said simply- “The best mask is the one that fits”.  We each tried on at least 10 masks before settling with the types that fit the best, (which means they fit your face shape and suction to your face without much effort) then I had to inquire about tint.  The guy explained that his favorite was red tint, as it makes colors brighter in the water, but if the water is murky at all, the red tint adds to the murkiness, and maybe someone like me (a casual snorkeler) would find more value in blue/purple tint.  I went with his suggestion and purchased these along with a standard snorkel and Sea Drops, which are used before each snorkeling outing for anti-fog.  

After our little adventure to swim with the dolphins- I was ecstatic that I made this purchase.  The mask didn’t fog once, the tint definitely enhanced my vision underwater, and the snorkel worked perfectly.  Thanks Westside Dive guy!

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Last weekend my longtime friend invited us to come with he and his friends to Makua Beach (Pray For Sex Beach) to swim with some Hawaiian spinner dolphins or Nai’a in the wild.  We wanted to get their at prime time, which supposedly was 7am, so my husband left Pearl City super early and arrived at Makua around 6:45 am. (Takes almost an hour to get out there from Pearl City!)

We were the first to arrive for our party so we went and stood out on the rocks to look around at a few tide pools and scan the horizon for the dolphins.  Right around 7:00 am there they were- coming in for the morning!  We got our snorkeling gear ready to go, so when our friends arrived we could just jump in the water and swim out to them.  [Did I mention I got new gear?!  Super excited to have invested a few $$ in a decent quality mask and snorkel!  Will share photo of new gear in next post.]

Friends arrived- immediately put on all gear and started swimming out.  You could hear the high pitched sounds from the dolphins immediately after putting your head underwater for the first time, and it just got louder and louder as we approached the pod.  After having watched them a couple of times going in toward shore and then further to the right of the beach while we were on shore waiting, we knew in the water that we should swim just far enough out to be in their path.  Sure enough after being out and treading for some time, they were soon around us.

This video was taken after being out with them for maybe half an hour, and this dolphin was incredibly gracious to show me its awesome flips n shit.  Truly a breathtaking experience, and those few minutes of one-on-one time with that dolphin left me wanting more.  The pristine water, minimal amount of beachgoers (this was a Saturday morning!), and having this kind of experience with these mammals- I give Makua beach an 11/10.

[backhomehi]

Recent Grinds - Kalapawai Market (Kapolei Location)

The original location in Kailua has been around since as long as I can remember (looked it up- actually since 1932), and I used to casually get baked goods and juice as one of my friends growing up lived only about 5 blocks away.  Happy to find out they’ve grown and grown and now have a new location in Kapolei- maybe 15-20 mins away from where I live now.

I was just commenting to my husband about how we’re going to have to find a new sandwich scene, since Portland was so sandwich-friendly, and I really didn’t eat many sandwiches outside of my house growing up.  This is definitely a winner on that scene- everything is fresh with good ingredients.  They have more decadent sandwiches, and also simple fresh sandwiches.

The first visit here was with my dad and I chose to go with a lunch special instead of a sandwich.  I ordered the Furikake Crusted Fresh Fish [(top) (furikake fish with sweet chili aioli, pickled ginger and green onion- Market Price)], he ordered “da Tsunami” [(2 photos 2nd row) (tuna salad, capers, cucumber, carrots, sprouts, lettuce, tomato on 12 grain- $10.00)], and of course had to have a Govinda’s juice (chose the lilikoi that time $4.00).  The fish was PERFECT.  Cooked until it was just crisp on the outside, lathered in the sweet chili aioli, pickled ginger and green onion.  Those 3 toppings on this furikake crusted fish absolutely made the dish. Had a bite of the tuna sandwich as well- delicious!  Nice to have a few added ingredients to a typical tuna sandwich- you can really taste how fresh everything is in the sandwich- quite refreshing.

The second visit here was with my husband after we were STARVING after being stuck in traffic in Nanakuli (water main breaks on 1-2 lane roads = hours of traffic) and we both opted for sandwiches.  I ordered the French Dip [(bottom 2 photos) (roast beef, provolone on garlic baguette with au jus & horseradish; opted for tossed greens- $13.00)], Rob ordered “da Skinny” [(4th row down)(kalua pork, BBQ sauce, pepper jack, coleslaw on brioche; he opted for the shoestring fries- $13.00)], and of course, again had to have a Govinda’s juice (chose guava nectar this time $4.00).  The French Dip was good, and adding both the horseradish and dipping in au jus made it great.  However, I’m not a huge French Dip person, so I’ll probably choose another sandwich next time.  That being said, everything tasted fresh and I loved that it was on a garlic baguette.  Had half of da Skinny (because we normally split-split our meals)- now that is a good sandwich.  The kalua pork was sweet with the BBQ sauce on it, and the little pickles were a nice touch.  The brioche was soft and definitely enhanced the flavor of the pork.  Shoestring fries were plentiful and deliciously crisp on the outside, but still soft and warm on the inside- pretty perfect.

Excited to have this place nearby and to eat more food!

[backhomehi]

Watercolor-A-Day Progress Report:

09/25/17: Rooster (top)- because there are just too many around these days!  I’ve been trying out different techniques recently in my attempt to “get loose” with these cards.  I’m normally pretty tight and a bit of a perfectionist, so I tend to overdo things instead of letting the paint do what it does.  With so much color, it was hard to keep adding more and more paint to certain sections (although I have to admit, I did add some top layer shadowing because I couldn’t just let it be).  Just an OK attempt to me.  I almost wish I didn’t do any sort of “grass” below the rooster.

09/26/17: Ae’o or Hawaiian Stilt (top middle)- saw a handful of these birds at a soccer field nearby and almost forgot they existed!  These guys look awesome with such long orangey-red legs and stark black and white feathers.  I “drew” the shape of the Ae’o with water prior to adding paint (wet on wet & dry on wet) which was nice to see unfold.  I dotted black on the top portion of the bird and white on the bottom portion of the bird, then a few quick dashes of an orange-red mix down the legs.  I wanted to make the bottom portion of the paper look somewhat like water without overdoing it (as these birds typically wade in water when they hunt), and I think I did just enough to make it look water-like with subtle color reflections.  Might start doing other images with water reflection on future cards because this was a bit fun to try.

09/27/17: Humuhumunukunukuapua’a or Humuhumu for short (bottom middle)- this is the Hawaii state fish, and you can find them quite regularly when snorkeling around these waters.  The Humuhumu is a reef triggerfish - Humuhumunukunukuapua’a translates to “triggerfish with a snout like a pig”.  I particularly like them because of their blue line features which really stand out on their generally bland looking bodies (with the exception of their black geometric patches).  I again “drew” with water prior to adding color, but instead of drawing the whole shape of the animal like I had with the rooster and Ae’o, I decided to use the shapes of the Humuhumu to my advantage and only “draw” a one-color section of the body at a time.  To be clearer, I started with the tan and brown sections, only putting water on the paper in the shape of those sections, and then adding color to the water.  Next time for the pectoral fin, I’ll make sure the black paint is complete and dry, and then mix a white-blue color to lay over the black so it’ll look more convincing.

09/28/17: Myna Bird (bottom)- definitely the loudest bird around (jk I already forgot about da roostah!), and they can be a bit of a pest, but somehow they always remind me- in a good way- of Hawaii/home.  From my bedroom window of the house I grew up in I remember looking out and seeing 5-10 Myna birds regularly get into a circle and chat.  I remember how ridiculous it looked, that these birds looked like they were having regular meetings and getting quite rowdy, but doesn’t that mean they’re just pretty smart?  Anyway, I love them, so I painted one.  Same technique- drawing with water first, then wet on wet/dry on wet to add color.  Next time I attempt a Myna bird watercolor though, I’m going to do it my old way.

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Recent Grinds - Eating out- grinds to go!

One thing I’ve always loved about Hawaii is that food travels here... literally.  Most restaurants are extremely accommodating to to-go orders- many restaurants only serve their food in to-go containers, which is nice given some of the sizes of meals here.  Many of the plate lunches can feed 2 people or can be saved after one meal for a second leftover meal. (good way to save $$)

Zippy’s- Mini Chili Frank Plate (top): Pretty much my go to (others including somen salad, wun tun min, portuguese bean soup, any of their pacs- surf, zip, kokua).  I used to be hungry enough to eat a full plate every time, but the mini is surprisingly filling.  My only slight complaint (and it’s always been my only “meh” comment toward Zippy’s) is that their mac salad is usually a bit hard and a bit too mayo-ey. Regular plate comes with 2 scoop rice, mac salad, whole hot dog and double the chili of the mini. $6.75 mini, $9.10 regular

Zippy’s chili is pretty much a staple for most people here- and it isn’t the same as your standard canned chili you can find at the grocery store- or most chilis on the mainland.  Zippy’s chili is typically more mild and sweet.  After having to eat it on the mainland by way of-- going to asian food market- scouring their frozen food section- finding Zippy’s chili (2 pack)- thawing & heating up with rice- devouring-- I’m happy to finally have it fresh and ready to eat literally 24 hours a day.  Closest Zippy’s to our house is 2 blocks away (second closest less than a mile, 3rd closest less than 2 miles).  I recently heard Zippy’s referred to as the Denny’s of Hawaii, which I think is true in some regards; those being- typically open 24 hours a day, diner-y, variety of food, they serve pie; but I’ve been to Denny’s...  Denny’s is standard AF.  Zippy’s may be most famous for their chili- but most of their local or Asian food is good.  I don’t think I’ve eaten anything from Zippy’s I didn’t like.

Ninja Sushi- Udon Sushi Bento Set (middle): Ninja Sushi is my mom’s go-to for quick to-go sushi.  Everything always tastes fresh and they have good prices for the quality and sizes of their items.  [Can I just mention how nice it is to finally be somewhere where to-go sushi is literally everywhere, fresh, and made to order? I don’t even know how I did it for the past 6+ years!] The udon was delicious- they gave just the right amount of sauce, and the sushi was standard, but good! (standard is good here)  I couldn’t even finish all of it- which means this was a good size for the price! $7.99

Down To Earth- Amazon Warrior Açai bowl (bottom): My grandmother used to go to this store all the time to get their fresh peanut butter and other local produce- but it never seemed busy, and I wondered if the business would last.  In Portland, a store like this seems standard, where the whole store is vegetarian, many of their items vegan, and they pride themselves on having local produce in stock.  After being away for so long and finally returning- it seems like this business is growing and this trend of eating organic, local food is really catching on.  Heck, we even have 2 Whole Foods stores on island now!  I’ve had a fair amount of Açai bowls around the island, and so far this consistently ranks 2nd for me (1st being Diamond Head Cove Health Bar’s Hawaiian Acai Bowl- has Pa’i’ai or Poi w/o water in it $12.50).  Down To Earth or DTE’s Amazon Warrior Açai bowl has organic açai, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries (when they have them), banana, apple juice, shredded coconut, granola & honey- all for only $8.49.

[backhomehi]

Watercolor-A-Day Progress Report:

09/21/17 (top): Ombré background work to potentially use for a wedding invitation suite.  Mimicked a style I saw on Pinterest and thought it came out just ok.  The style I saw used blues and greens which I felt more adhered to the ombré style of these cards.  I’ll probably just scan them and have on hand if I ever want a background like that.

09/22/17 (middle left): Practice work for a map of Oahu that would go along with the invitation.  Request was for a few select places to be noted on the map along with some icons.  I created these two at first just to get a feel for what colors to use and to practice the shape of Oahu.  I used vellum and traced the outline off my computer screen in 2 different sizes to fit on one page.  The hue of the blue for the ocean wasn’t as green as I’d like- so I’m glad I gave it a practice round before attempting the real thing.

09/23/17(middle right): My only living grandparent, my grandmother on my father’s side, is now 97 and getting a bit forgetful here and there, but for the most part she has a pretty sound mind.  The other day, however, she was explaining that when she was young, she’d have to make sure all the males she would hang out with met her father and get the “ok” from him.  She said something along the lines of “he wouldn’t let any good for nothing scrimtoast types get through”- to which both my father and I frowned and said “what?? what’s scrimtoast?” She had already forgotten she even said that- we looked it up- it’s not a real word (ha!).  Had to pay some sort of homage to this new word by making her a little scrimtoast watercolor.  Oh to be 97...

09/24/17 (bottom): First attempt at the Oahu map with the few symbols completed.  Diamond Head, Honu near Hanauma Bay, and longboard near Haleiwa.  Had to make the map way larger than the first 2 attempts as the symbols were meant to be quite small (the image will be condensed and printed eventually onto a smaller paper to be included with the invitations).  I’ll have to scan and type over the image for each of the locations requested.  Decent looking so far, but I’m sure after I edit it, it’ll look much cleaner and ready to print.

[backhomehi]

Recent Grinds - Eating Out!

King Street Tacos (Top): Ordered the 2 taco plate- carnitas & chicken verde, comes with rice, beans & mexican slaw: $9.00 (+ side of guac $1.75). Meat was tender and moist, beans had a bit of cotija cheese (that’s a plus!), green sauce was mild but delicious.  Wasn’t the biggest fan of the mexican slaw- kind of didn’t see the point- but I’m assuming this is because I’m not used to eating slaw with my tacos?  [1273 S King St. Honolulu, HI 96814]

La Tour Cafe (Middle): I ordered the turkey & sun-dried tomato panini with a side salad: roasted turkey, provolone, spinach, sun-dried tomato spread, house pesto: $11.50.  Rob ordered the tuna & avocado deli sandwich: albacore tuna salad with cranberries, fennel seeds, capers, almonds, avocado & hummus: $9.90.  Little extra? 3 macarons: mango, lilikoi, pink guava! ($2.05 per)  We typically do a little split-split action when we dine together so we can both try 2 things off the menu- both the panini and the deli sandwich were delightful- almost too much food!  My second stomach did have room for half of each macaron, however, and that made me happy!  Lilikoi was decent, pink guava was better, and mango was legit! [Pearl City Location: 1140 Kuala St #108, Pearl City, HI 96782]

Kua ‘Aina (Bottom): Definitely been eating Kua ‘Aina for my entire life, but now that the only location on Oahu is in Haleiwa (prior other locations in Ward Center & Kapolei- both of which have now closed)- I gotta make sure to go as much as possible! (The original can’t close, can it?!)  Anyway, as usual I ordered the BLT w/avocado, large fries and large lemonade (to share of course), Rob ordered the avocado burger.  Being so engrossed in my BLT w/avo, I didn’t try any of his avo burger- but supposedly it was delish!  My meal combo never disappoints- but if you have never tried their BLT w/avo (which always comes with a large carrot slice), or their fries (which are shoestring-like & may be my most favorite in the world) or their lemonade, go there now and eat each of these things... now! [66-160 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712]

[backhomehi]

Watercolor-A-Day Progress Report:

9/18/17 (Top 4): Took some time to do a few trial runs at a wedding invitation background for someone close to me.  The main colors requested were yellow, peach and pink- which I did have some trouble creating with the watercolor set I have.  I ended up buying a small palette to help with mixing colors (why didn’t I buy one of these earlier?) - worked great!

9/19/17 (Middle 2): My parent’s 31st wedding anniversary just came around, and my mom requested a specific card to make to give to my dad.  It’s completely silly and basically an inside-Nicely Family joke, but he ended up laughing- so it worked, right?  Super fun to paint a little bi bim bap!  I’m used to making these sort of personal cards for my own giving, so it was nice to have someone else’s card idea come to life.

9/20/17 (Bottom): After some feedback on the trial run for the wedding invitation backgrounds, went ahead and made 2 more- one of which was the winner!  I do think they look much better than the trial run, and happy I was able to create one that worked!  It was nice to work on painting roses- not sure they’re very convincing as roses per se, but to me this was an improvement on what I’ve tried to paint in the past.  Loved working on creating colors as well- peaches, mauves, pinky mauves, yellowy oranges (are these even real color names?)- can’t wait to create more colors!

[backhomehi]

Recent Grinds - Home Cooking:

Growing up my mom didn’t really cook much as she was working hard all the time to make sure we had the opportunities we needed to go far in life.  My Grandma, however, cooked often, and, now that we live back in her house, I’ve been trying to cook more and more.  I’d really love to cook more local food, as the last 6 years (in Portland) have proven difficult to find adequate ingredients to do so.  With Don Quixote & Foodland down the street, we finally have access to an immense amount of ingredients.  So far I’ve just dabbled with local cooking- but my hope is to continue to study the stacks of local cook books we have in her kitchen, and cook cook cook!

Pork Lumpia (top): from next door neighbors- my parents have had a few bags of it in their freezer for a month or so, so we decided to cook some the other night.  Lots of vegetable oil to cook them, but they were perfect!  Mom made some homemade Lumpia sauce (vinegar based) and we paired with some sweet chili sauce.  When we run out, I might have to kindly ask for their recipe!

Somen Salad (middle): always a favorite because of how simple it is to make.  Cook somen noodles, put on ice or in fridge, cut up any toppings you desire.  We typically go with lettuce, cucumber, kamaboko (fish cake), green onion, and char siu.  Mom put together a dressing from a local cook book (vinegar based)- perfect.  Local dressing is way better than the store bought dipping-type sauce!  Perfect to eat on a hot day- cold & light.

Banana & Apple Banana Bread (bottom): Our bananas seem to almost instantly get soft here (something we’re getting used to in this humidity and heat) so we didn’t get to eat all of the bananas we bought before they were almost too soft. We paired the regular bananas we had with a few Apple Bananas to make this bread.  Added walnuts (for crunch) and voila! Turned out great!  Next time I want to use all Apple Bananas to see if you can even tell the difference.

[backhomehi]

Watercolor-A-Day Progress Report:

09/16/17: (Top) Uhu or Blue Bullethead Parrotfish (Chlorurus Sordidus)- I have to admit, I went a little cray cray with the background.  It’s almost too much texture & color for the background and make the Uhu’s colors get washed out next to the background.  Good learning experience- keep it simple!  If I did choose to do a background like this again, I’d choose a more solid colored fish so it would stand out more against that array of colors.  I’ll probably try this Uhu again in a few weeks.

09/17/17 (Bottom) Trio from my mother’s shell collection: Leopard Cone or Conus Leopardis (top), Marble Cone or Conus Marmoreus (left) and Tiger Cowrie or Cypraea Tigris (right).  After the previous day with the extremely busy background- opted for an extremely simple background- just one color.  Next time I think I’ll have to work on making the shadows much lighter- looking at it from far away it looks ok, but close up maybe quite flat-looking.  Since it’s a card, it most likely would be viewed closer up- so next time I’ll just make the shadow color a splash darker than the background color.  Leopard Cone seems somewhat accurate, but the Marble Cone could use some work with the pattern and texture (same with the Cowrie).

[backhomehi]

Recent Grinds - Eating Out!

Top: Andagi from the recent Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park; Andagi is basically a sweet fried dough (like a doughnut)- perfect crunch to the outside, soft but dense on the inside.  These were fresh and exactly what I was looking for at the Okinawan Festival.

Middle: Trio of Musubi from Ma’Ona Musubi; (back to front:) Spicy Tuna (tuna, spicy sauce, pickled cucumber), Saboro Pork (sautéed ground pork, shoyu, oyster sauce), Nori Ume (pickled plum, seaweed, hon-mirin sauce)- both the spicy tuna and saboro pork were delicious, but my favorite by far was the Nori Ume Musubi.  The musubi were moist (sorry to ppl that hate that word), perfectly packaged, a great almost “snack sized” musubi for a decent price!  3 of these for under $8.

Bottom: Aloha Fridays mean Hawaiian Plate (like... EVERYWHERE!) but I tend to find myself at Nico’s Pier 38.  Their Hawaiian plate has Pork/Butterfish Lau Lau, Lomi Salmon, Rice, Poi, and of course Kalua Pork.  I tend to like my poi a bit sour (which it was!) and my Kalua Pork without cabbage- which is why I can always count on Nico’s Hawaiian Plate.  Special of the day for most Aloha Fridays for $13.25.

[backhomehi]

Since being back home and not having obtained a job yet, I’ve been working on watercoloring.  The top photo is a watercolor I did last week from a photo I took at the Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park; of the Bougainvillea bonsai in the bonsai exhibit.

The middle and bottom photo are two cards I made yesterday and today.  My goal is to produce one watercolor card per day starting yesterday 9/14/17.  

9/14/17 - I found a diagram recently depicting the ocean wildlife in Hawaiian waters and chose the Hawaiian Spotted Eagle Ray (cuz it’s so damn majestic!)  Probably need to work a little more on creating depth...

9/15/17 - Bought an Oahu Mango from Down to Earth the other day and thought it looked so delectable sitting in my Grandma’s ceramic bowl, had to paint it!  It’s a light painting, but I think conveys what the mango looks like.  The hardest part for my brain to process and try to channel was the opaque look there is to the mango skin- added some white to part of the paint (which i don’t love doing) and it looked somewhat accurate.

What should I paint tomorrow...?

[backhomehi]

Hi! My name is Jaime Cunnane (formerly Nicely).  I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii until moving to Eugene, Oregon for college (Go Ducks!).  After graduating I moved to Portland where I met my awesome husband.

After 11 total years living in Oregon, I decided to move back home with a few additions.  Here’s the last family photo we took in Portland before moving back to Hawaii.  My husband Rob with Kiyo (Grey Tabby) & Howard (Orange Tabby), and myself with (un-pictured) Jimmy (Medium-Haired Tuxedo).  

This is our journey as we get settled in Hawaii together; this is our- eat, drink, create, hike, swim, explore, try to find jobs again- life. ;)