Spice it Up!

Change can sometimes be a scary and difficult thing to adjust to.  It can take us out of our comfort zone and pull us away from so many things that we are so used to in our everyday lives.  As I learned through these past several months of many changes (in home, family & work), change can sometimes be the best thing ever if we learn to embrace it instead of resisting or being afraid of it.  It can bring us many new adventures, experiences, opportunities & even new friends!

With the major renovations done for the café, Thanh and I are ready to embark on a new journey as we reopen Spices!  We’ve transitioned from restaurant to a more café-like setting offering a select menu of familiar dishes, drinks & homemade desserts.  We are very excited to take this new direction bringing the concept of ‘farm to table’ as we incorporate more local & fresh ingredients into our cooking and are also excited to support local farms, artists & the community as well!

  

A BIG MAHALO to Reusue Hawaii for providing Honolulu with a great source for reclaimed material!  We found nice reclaimed wood that Thanh was able to use to create new tabletops, counters, shelving and plant displays for the café!

We’ll be changing up the menu and rotating some of our favorite (and new) dishes as we go. (To check out what we currently have on our menu click Here!). 

We are very excited to see where this journey will take us and it feels great to share with others the things we are most passionate about including food, plants, art, sustainability & supporting local.

MUCH MAHALO to all of our wonderful family, friends & customers for your continued love & aloha throughout this whole journey!  We are truly grateful for all of your support and can’t wait to share this new adventure with you!

If you are ever in the area, don’t be a stranger! Stop by for a visit, we’d love to see (or meet!) you! :)

RAW Honolulu!

Life continues to amaze me with the new opportunities it brings! Whether it's meeting new people, a new learning experience or the opportunity to connect & share with others...it was amazing to experience it all at this past weekend's RAW Honolulu Showcase!

This was my very first time displaying artwork in front of a crowd (was definitely super exited and nervous!) and I couldn't have asked for a better experience!  It was so great to connect with people, make new friends and be able to support other local up & coming artists and musicians!

A HUGE MAHALO to everyone who came out and stopped by!!! I am truly grateful for the continuous love, support & aloha from family and friends (both near and afar!).  It has been an amazing journey creating Mistprint and it means the world to me to have such an awesome support system by my side along the way!  I'm definitely excited to continue this journey and can't wait see what new adventures & experiences are in store ahead!

Wishing you all a wonderful Aloha Friday and a happy upcoming weekend! :)

An Oldie but a Goodie

A few may think that living on a (relatively) small island has its limits of things to do and places to see after living here for so long, but Honolulu never ceases to amaze me on how rich this island is of places, businesses, and new friends that I have yet to discover & meet.

Thanh and I stumbled upon a little shop on South Beretania street called Secret Treasures.  It's a cute little antique shop with so many random and vintage finds.  It was fun to walk around the store being intrigued with anything that caught our eyes (which was almost everything in the shop!).  It was almost like being a kid in a candy store (but with old candies...in a good way! haha!).

Of course a box of vintage cameras caused a little "oooh" & "ahhh"-ing while we took a peek inside.  Each camera was definitely a character of its own with their own features, gears & gadgets, I loved them all!

Although we would have loved to leave with a shopping cart worth of goodies, we were able to each find a little secret treasure of our own to take home with us. Thanh found an old cologne bottle he wants to use as a mini terrarium and I found a vintage suitcase to help me display some artwork & stationery for an upcoming showcase in May (if you'd like to come check out my very first showcase, check out this link here for more information! I'm so nervous & excited about it!)

This shop has been opened for 18 years!  I can't believe I haven't heard of or checked out this cute, little shop sooner (I swear I'm not living under a rock)!  This definitely makes me excited thinking about the many more adventures ahead on discovering new places and all the many more people to meet! I have to admit, sometimes the most fun adventures are the unexpected ones! ;)

Life just got a little more "betta"...

Happy Aloha Friday, friends! With a busy week of finishing cafe renovations and preparing for a nearing opening date, it's been extra nice to balance out the week by intertwining a few art & garden-related projects in between :) I was recently given a great opportunity to add a new piece to my watercolor series by a request of a custom betta illustration.  

Meet Dream.  He's a beautiful betta full of color & life!  I absolutely loved working on this piece and am so happy I could create it for a fellow betta lover (Dream's owner) :)  I still have a lot to learn with watercolors, but there's just something about this medium that really excites me and is so fun to work and experiment with.

Other mini joys of the week include jazzing up some new terracotta pots with Thanh (the wonderful boyfriend) and creating new decorations and displays for home & the cafe.  When he's not occupied by the construction and renovations, it's really nice to see Thanh spend some time on his woodworking and gardening because it's so clear to see how much he enjoys it :)  We've been having fun working on projects that include up-cycling reusable materials (i.e. salvageable wood, pallets, wine bottles, etc) and transforming them into planters, terrariums and decor. We hope to have some on display (and possibly for sale) in the cafe :)

That might just do it for now...Here's to a great Aloha Friday for you all and an even "betta" weekend ahead!

Get out to stop & smell the...succulents?

Sometimes living right next to a freeway has its downfalls of being able to practically hear every motorcycle, loud muffler, siren or speeding car whiz by. Not to mention, with the lingering chill in the air lately, it has been so easy to choose to work indoors (on several occasions, wearing long sleeves & socks!).  Tuesday was definitely a breakthrough: the sun was shining, the air was crisp and I found myself excited and energized even before having my daily dose of coffee (say what?!)! Even after brewing my slow drip coffee, I knew the day was too nice and I was too energized (and now too caffeinated) to waste staying indoors!

Our new place has a nice lanai right outside the front door which we've been using as extra storage and for those "we're still moving in" boxes that needed to be sorted.  I replaced the freeway noise by jamming to some Songza (I highly recommend THIS playlist!) and finally attacked the crazy pile of miscellaneous and made space where I claimed as my work area for the day :)

Along with decorating some new terracotta pots for the house and cafe, I was able to doodle up some new succulent plants.  Collecting these little guys have become such an awesome hobby.  They are just too cute (and quite affordable) to pass up!  I have to admit I bought two more the other day! I'm seriously a sucker for succulents!  :)

I'm not too sure where this doodle may go or what it will turn into just yet.  Majority of the time, I tend to draw things from interest or enjoyment and then go from there.  It might sound like a backwards process, but sometimes it helps to clear my mind by simply doodling and not worrying too much about its purpose or what it could be used for.

Just as in life, sometimes it's needed to spend time doing things we enjoy for the simple reason that it makes us happy :)  With days of being a busy body and getting caught up with the daily grind, being able to "stop and smell the roses" can make all the difference! :)

It's a piece of (rainbow) cake...

Ever since I can remember, birthdays in my family always include a family dinner, lots of laughter, followed by secret birthday wishing from a candle lit cake at grandma's...and yesterday was no exception as we celebrated my younger, "not-so-little" (she actually towers over me at 5'6"!) sister's 18th birthday :)

I wouldn't consider myself a baker, but I do get very excited experimenting & baking cakes when birthdays come around!  After successfully learning to bake ice cream cakes (after a trial of many, many melted & deflated tries), I thought I'd try something different this time around...a rainbow cake!  I was extremely excited to try this and couldn't think of anyone more perfect to bake it for than my sister!

With a couple boxes of white cake mix, several happy food coloring moments and a few oven batches later (which made our place smell like it was made entirely of cake!)...it all came together to create a wonderful piece of rainbow goodness.  There is something about rainbows and rainbow colored anythings that are just simply magical and smile-inducing :)

Celebrating my sister's birthday was so much fun, but I have to admit the best part was watching her cut the cake and seeing her reaction when she realized what the cake looked like on the inside.  I started doing the most random-est "happy dance" (it probably looked something like a scared, screaming crab running across the beach crossed with the cha cha?!) which took place in the corner of the living room for a few moments haha!

With a day filled with baking, love, laughter & family to celebrate life...a girl couldn't ask for a better way to spend the day :)

Here I Go!

Lately, I've come across a handful of things that are starting to make me feel like an old fart (conversations of movies & music that I haven't seen or heard of that I apparently should, those who I have always seen (through my eyes) as toddlers in diapers are now graduating high school...say what?!, not to mention my attraction to cardigans and cozy, knitted sweaters)...and now added to this list is how to write a blog.  This is all so new to me, but I thought I'd try my luck and use this blog to post about current projects, new doodles and random adventures of wherever the day may take me :)

Like this blog, starting new things in my life is always a somewhat nerve-wrecking, scary & exciting experience all jam packed into one.  I recently moved to a new place and with impeccable timing, I also have the opportunity to start anew with work as my boyfriend and I are working together to transition his restaurant into a cafe in Honolulu.  Aside from working on the renovations, it's been really nice to find some downtime for gardening, family, friends, art & exploring the new neighborhood.

Had some time for watercolors today and with a few special birthdays coming up, I had fun doodling up a new card to share.  I think I've accepted the fact that I somehow reached a point in my life where I don't really keep track of my age anymore (some people will ask me how old I am and I sometimes have to double check my answer and calculate it!).  Maybe it's a natural thing to stop counting? Or maybe I need to start taking more vitamins?  Either way, maybe it's not all about counting the years and feeling "so old", but about celebrating life and all the experiences, adventures & people that brought you here to this day.  Birthdays are awesome! :)

That's all for now, but with some new adventures ahead, there's definitely more to come :)