Journaling

 

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I've never been a consistent journal-er (if that's even a word.) I had to keep a personal journal on my study abroad and I loved taking the time to record my thoughts and experiences. I hope to find a good journal soon so I can properly document my scribbles and ideas in one place, I spend way to much time searching through bags and purses for that little scrap paper I wrote my 'great idea' on. I'd like to think I'm not alone in this...

Crushing

Have you seen the beautiful designs of Sasha Prood? Her water-colorings and organic illustrations make me weak in the knees! I would love to learn the craft of watercoloring.

MIA- Paper Cranes

It's been a while since our last post and I have to say while it's been good to take a small blogging break, I've really missed it. We're hoping to establish a more consistent posting schedule soon, sorry for being MIA lately. After my big test last week (Which I passed- woot!) my brain has been mush and I've enjoyed some down time. 

In the time since my test I've been helping a co-worker out by folding 400 paper cranes for her wedding. It's Japanese tradition to have 1,000 paper cranes at your wedding or the birth of a child as way of wishing you 1,000 years of health, happiness, or good fortune. Lucky for me she's already folded the first 600 and we've still got a month and a half to go! The picture below is my first one as practice, the real ones are on foil paper.

In other news, the last two weeks we've really expanded our efforts within the creative community here and are looking forward to really becoming a part of the creative scene in Honolulu. John has taken a role in the YAF (Young Architects Forum) and we are both on the committee for the USGBC's Emerging Professionals.

Hoarders

So we've done it again, somehow we've managed to gather quite the collection of chairs in our tiny little apartment. In Oklahoma City at one point we had 25 chairs... in a 2 bedroom apartment, not including the sofa's. I can't explain it, at this point we just embrace our love for mid century and modern furniture,  chairs just happen to be the most accessible. Last night we added two to our Hawaiian collection. Both are eames side chairs on the 4 star base. One is orange, one is black. They are both the naugahyde upholstered chairs, but there's something very different about the black one. The stitching and style are different than any Eames/Herman Miller chair we've ever seen. We've searched the internet and can't find another one like the black one and hope someone... somewhere can help us narrow down the year this chair was made and if it's really as rare as it seems. So if you're an Eames buff or you know someone who might point us in the right direction we would really appreciate your help!

The most notable differences are the padding in the top of the chair and the single stitch across the seat (more commonly there are 2 stitches in an X shape.)

Life on the Island

I thought it might be fun to do a little post ever-so-often about some of our favorite aspects about life on an island, specifically Oahu...

This time around it's about experiencing amazing Sunrise and Sunsets. We hiked and blogged about this same trail back in November, it was one of the first hikes we did on the island and it is still one of our favorites.

This weekend John and I joined Tami, Eric, and Pax on a camping trip in the Kuliouou Range. (Insert map of the island illustrating location here, hopefully I'll finish that up tonight to share!) 

Trail Facts:

Distance 1.66 miles, one way

Hiking Time: 2.5-3 hours

Elevation: 1929 ft

We hiked about half way up Saturday evening, dropped our stuff to make camp and then went to the summit for sunset. We woke up a little after 5am to hike back to the top for sunrise. It was a challenging climb in the dark but so very worth it.

It's an incredible thing to be able to experience both an amazing sunrise and sunset. We're already looking forward to many more.

My List

I make list all the time- for work, for grocery shopping, for just about anything.... with one exception. 

I've never taken the time to write out my future dreams and goals. It seems so funny that I wouldn't write all of that out as well. I guess the fear of failure has had the best of me for a while.

 I finally bit the bullet on a few things I've been really meaning to do for the last few months, or maybe even year. It feels so good to cross things off my hypothetical list. Doors keep opening for me to keep moving forward with my little creative side venture Fringe and I'm getting more and more excited about establishing my own brand. I've received such an amazing amount of positive feedback from people I've made gifts for. It's really gratifying to create something with my own two hands. Seems like the beginning of something really great!

1) I set up an Etsy shop. I'll share the link once there's actually anything in the shop,  but it's a first step!

 2) Getting business cards printed

3) Researching cloth labels

4) Found a local company that I can potentially sell my goods at, as well as my etsy!

Also, in 2 weeks I'm sitting for a test that will help me to be more marketable in my career and I'll be the first one in my office with those credentials. 

Untitled

It's been a while since our last post, and although silence on the interweb might make it seem like we haven't been up to much, it's actually quite opposite. In our 9 months (can you believe it's been 9 months already!?) we have captured so many amazing moments here through the lense of our Nikon. You've seen some of the best pictures here on this blog or on our flickr, but lately we've been feeling like so many photographs go unshared, tucked safely away on our external hard drive. In an effort to truly capture our experiences here we've decided to start filming our daily life and our adventures with our new Iphones. 

Without the obvious changes of the weather to signify a new season and the passing of time, we find ourselves nearing the one year mark on Oahu and can hardly believe it. We've decided to make a video every few months to illustrate the seasons of our life here.

I suppose if I could pick a name it'd be: "The sweet life of John and Rach" or "Don't hate us because we live on an island." Instead, I think we'll just let the video speak for itself and leave it untitled. This first video was filmed in only 1 weekend, but it really captures what this summer has been for us.

Enjoy.

Untitled from John Whitaker on Vimeo.