Monday the kiddos had their first dentist appointment ever and they did so great- so we took them to the Dole Plantation afterwards for a little Dole Whip and train riding. It was drizzling so we had the place almost to ourselves- there were only two other people on the train and five frat boys in front of us in line for the whip. You can see that the kiddos loved it- we need to go more often, it’s just up the road from our house a mile or two.
xo
elle
Tags: hawaii3 Comments
oh Re-use Hawaii, how I love you. Here is a place that is half hardware store, half thrift store. You can find 10 foot sliding glass doors and 1950′s mint green sinks. I like to go just to wander and dream.
When I decided to do this whole crazy studio in the backyard thing- I made the plans in jello to accomodate whatever awesome things we would find at reuse. What was planned as a childless one day shopping trip turned into an entire three day weekend in a rented truck with the kiddos. But find awesomeness we did. The most amazing thing we packed in that rented truck was 4 panels of pre-contructed maple gym flooring. Like- only-non-skid-shoes-please, stay-behind-the-free-throw-line flooring. Out. Standing. We also bought 9 doors, 7 windows, and a gazillion linear feet of cedar tongue and groove siding. It’s all sitting out in our driveway anxiously awaiting installation (shhhhh! don’t remind me that it’s March and I said I’d get it done in February…)
Garth and I have three + days this week to work on the studio so I’ll give an update at the end of the week. We’re looking at installing walls!
love ya’ll
elle
Tags: homeownershipping · making2 Comments
You are 18 months old!
I went back through my dear ginger posts and was totally ashamed to only find two. TWO. Totally unacceptable. So this here post is a whole year of your life summed up. There is one major thing that you need to know and that is that you are the most adorable little girl ever. You are a full fledged-running-around-the-house toddler. When we moved to Hawaii a year ago you were a pudgy little wiggler and now you’re a pig-tailed little lady who knows the difference between candy and cupcakes (that’s my girl).
I know! This is 6 months to 18 months in a dozen or so photos- but you know what? It feels like it happened about this fast as we were living it. Thank goodness we take photos and videos like crazy people so that they can fill in when our memories fail.
You loooooove candy & sweets. Just like Mama. In fact, you always ask for candy when we sit down at the kitchen table- and you seem to just know when I have some in my pockets.
Being that you’re so recently planted on this world there are so many “firsts” that we come upon just about daily. I love being there to participate in the fearless way that you throw yourself into life. You’re sensitive and sweet. You love exploring and are rarely sitting still.
We traveled a bit this year and you get to spend some quality time with cousins and grandparents. They adore you!
You love the water. The pool, the bath, the daily puddles in our driveway. You also love to be chased around the trampoline and you ADORE doing whatever Jack is doing. He’s not a fan on the attention. In fact, your very touch makes him come screaming to me in shrieks of percieved pain. He’s sort of a sissy, but you don’t mind at all.
This summer, at a family reunion, we raided a box of old photos and were sort of shocked to see a tiny Ginger look-alike in many of the photos- a little me! I was as pleased as punch to see that you look like your Mama.
And of course, we celebrated your first birthday in August! It was a very low key celebration. We went to the aquarium and had ice cream at Waikiki Beach- then we had strawberry shortcake and presents in the backyard.
Oh how we love you little darling. You are so so sweet and I am amazed everyday at how fast you’re growing and how quickly your learning. It’s pretty common for me to shout to your Dad across the house, “hey Garth! Ginger just said ______ (cupcake! you’re welcome! owie! chocolate!)” and he’s never very surprised. You’re a smart cookie. Yesterday you swiped my card at the checkout and then picked the pen up to sign for the purchase. Today you carried your flip flops around the house just in case you might want to put them on- in the swing, in your crib, and even in the car. You are certainly bringing adorableness and joy into our everyday lives.
We love you sweet pea.
Mama.
Tags: ginger3 Comments
This is the true story of the do-it-ourselves xoelle studio, part one.
We’ve had big plans for the house. They included a mud porch breezeway with a pocket door leading to a sunroom studio for me. With a loft and giant bookcases. And a deck with huge bed-sized porch swings, and a workshop for Garth. And a guest sleeping cottage. And built-ins and re-tiling, and adding appliances, and re-flooring. We’re 6 months in we’ve painted one room and installed a dishwasher and an attic door. And we live in Hawaii and we haven’t really done much in the way of beaches, luaus, and sunsets. The plans needed to change.
And it was a simple text message from my sister, Julia, that made it happen. She asked if she could come visit in the spring and I replied, “YES! Please!” and then I started thinking about what she and her husband would see when they walked in my door. And I started to dream. Within the hour I had a plan to just throw myself (and consequently my husband) into a crazy scheme to build a studio in the backyard within the month of February. 120 square feet in 29 days. Today, my inspiration.
We’re planning on building it almost entirely out of salvaged materials: tongue and groove siding, windows, doors, and flooring. I want at least one wall to be all windows- the front- and the other three with perhaps a window or two for airflow. The wall o’ windows will be in front and will be lined with one long skinny table to house my sewing machines and other work centers. The back wall will be floor to ceiling shelving with a rolling ladder. It is going to rule.
Those shelves are going to house all of the craftiness I own, some of it in milk crates, others in nice little displays. I will no longer have to balance myself one one leg while digging through something in the closet because the tool that I’m looking for might be behind a certain box way in the back. My current studio is a disaster. It’s the biggest bedroom in our house and it looks like an episode of Hoarders. For real.
Oh I am so ready for this- and in two weeks it’ll hopefully be a reality. We’ve already made the plans, been shopping, poured the foundation, and realized that we only have about 6 non-working non-child-tending days left together this month. We are all over this. Right honey? All. over. it.
Updates to follow. And lots of other good things.
eckses and ohs.
elle
Tags: diy · the house · the studio · xoelle5 Comments
for reals.
I know that most of the world sees laundry as a chore and that many a mom has complained about the piles and piles that never seem to end. I am not one of these moms. I LOVE doing the laundry. Our laundry basket hardly gets full before I’m putting it through the cycles. And then the fluffliness! The soft, warm, clean piles of clothes and towels to fold into neat stacks-they get my heart pumping! Tiny socks to match, the husbands tees to make into tight jelly rolls (military style), and my own fluffy pj pants to fold into thirds- it’s one of my favorite domestic activities! I love sitting down at the end of the night on my bed watching a movie and surrounding myself with tiny piles of the clothes that my family lives in. Sometimes I like to leave the basket of clean laundry on top of the dryer and fold the items one at a time while I walk to their respective homes to put them away- I can draw it out that way and enjoy it a little more. It’s sort of a sacred responsability to me- and the uber-sentimental part of me loves tending to something as intimate as the clothes that my children and husband wear. Just so that you don’t think I’m nuts- I’m with you on the dishes. I can’t hardly tolerate washing dishes. I make Garth do it most of the time.
But back to laundry. Our newly purchased Maytag started making a strange sound. We called the repair man and he found nothing wrong. We called another repair man and he “fixed” it in 5 minutes. After he left it would not spin or agitate. Repair man #1 came back and replaced a belt and told me that we were loading it too full. I put a tiny load in after he “fixed” it and it still didn’t spin. We’re having our fourth in-home washing machine fix-it party tomorrow and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to leave out the quotation marks with job #4. Perhaps I could plead with the repair man and let him know how sad my nights are without those full baskets of toasty undies? This has got to be some sort of welcome-to-home-ownership prank, right? For reals.
In the meantime we’ve been driving our dirties to the local laundrette and then bringing them home to dry. iPhone documentation follows.
Life is one big treat folks.
xox
elle
Tags: laundry4 Comments
I’ve been squirreling away these fuschia and awesome ties waiting for the big love holiday. And these are HOT! Each is made from a necktie, so there’s only one available in the shop. And, in case you didn’t know, bow ties make ladies’ knees weak. It’s totally true.
Tags: bow ties · business · shop · xoelleNo Comments.
I took some time out the other night to sit on my fanny and draw some cameras for the spoonflower contest outdated technology. I drew them on tracing paper, using photogrpahs as guides, and then scanned them in and tweaked them a little. The left is the original file- the right is the fabric design. I am totally an ameteur when it comes to fabric design and I have no doubt that I will look back on this design and think, “oh my goodness, I was proud of that? This is horrendous for so many reasons!”. In fact, I know that I will say that, but proud I am. I think that it’s adorable. A swatch is speedily on it’s way to me to proof and I’m pumped to see it. I know that this’ll be sort of a new obsession with me.
Also:
-wishing that I was at alt summit, which is silly since I’m not a serious blogger.
-just did a little happy dance to celebrate the first ever year of bow ties box having a new owner (like really, just 15 seconds ago).
-have been compiling videos of the kiddos for inclusion in the Hawker family yearbook and holy smokes my kids have grown!
-made chocolate covered rice crispy treats last night and they were all gone as of 11:30 this morning.
-wishing that this awesome camera was really for sale and not just a design students project.
and that is all for now.
loves.
Tags: fabric3 Comments
hello friends. I hope your 2012 has been lovely so far. As much as I love the holidays I also love this time of year. This buckle-down-and-get-it-done & clean-it-out-and-oganize-it time of year is invigorating. We’ve been doing a little of all of that. The kiddos are back at daycare and Garth is back at work after several weeks of recovering from surgery so long-pushed-aside projects are being completed and cleared away. Yessssssssssss.
We celebrated the new year the classic way- fondue (cheese for dinner and chocolate for dessert) and sparklers. That was pretty much it. The kids went to bed at the normal time and Garth and I probably would have retired early if it were any other night. Here’s a little of our front yard popper and sparkler fest.
A few days later we celebrated Garth’s 33rd by going on our first date of the year while the kids were at school. We just had lunch and went to a movie but it was so sweet and nice and it sorta felt like it did when we were dating/newly married. We were even able to drive around with the top down since Jack wasn’t in the back to complain. We were sure excited to see them later that afternoon though! Cutest. kids. Ever.
There are some crazy exciting things happening in the xoelle bow tie world right now- but nothing that can be spilled just yet- and of course, crazy awesome things happening in real life too (like a dishwasher!!!! after a year of handwashing in hotel rooms and bathroom sinks we have a dishwasher! I just got a few extra hours each week!).
I can share with you the awesomeness that is the xoelle swatchbook though- they’ve been in the works since last summers Indie Wed, when my parents skipped almost an entire night of sleep to help me assemble them. They have been fine-tuned and tweaked and are now in the shop to delight and seduce potential bow-tie-owners. I lub dem.
ecks oh.
elle
Happy new year! Holy smokes I am excited at the prospect of a shiny, bright & clean new year- there are so many good things to fill it up with. We’re lucky to be reminded at least once a year that we have power over our own lives and can make with them what we will.
2012 is shaping up to be groundbreaking year for us at xoelle headquarters and we’re starting the year off right by introducing the year of bow ties box set. It’s 12 bow ties packaged smartly in an awesome box, featuring a variety of materials, patterns, shapes, and awesomeness. Get ‘em all at once or ask for them bow-tie-of-the-month-club style and one will be mailed to you each month for a year. Totally awesome!
And, let me tell you about Mr. Jeffrey Vasquez, a rad math teacher from New York, who is wearing a bow tie for 1000 days straight starting today. He’s doing it because it’s cool and to earn a little cash for his school and raise awareness about the achievement gap. We’ve pledged our support of awesome Jeff in the form of 33 bow ties- one mailed to him every month until his project concludes in September of 2014. Just great on so many levels. Check him out and his daily bow tie here. You rule Jeff!
p.s I really don’t know why I always use “we” and “us” in reference to xoelle since xoelle=me.
p.p.s. 2012 is awesome already.
as always,
elle
It’s the last day of the year. This is always such a reflective & instropective time for me. I love looking back at the year and seeing how the tiny daily steps have brought me to where I am. Then I love making some large & ambitious goals for the coming year. I’ll probably get to the resolution portion of that tonight after the kiddos are safely tucked in bed and I can sit with my chocolate fondue and just ponder. For now though, the looking back. The top 11 1/2 events/moments/travels/awesome things of 2011 in slightly chronological order:
Happy New Year! 2012 is going to rule.
kisses at midnight: xxxooox
elle
Tags: 20112 Comments
