Maui Day 1 ||*Travel day*||

 

Leaving Utah

spotted a rainbow from above the clouds on our flight

Landing in Maui

this palm tree is directly behind the church

View from our condominium

saw the cutest little church on the side of the road, had to pull over and check it out

this is the cemetery next to the church

facetiming our daughters

Jaws. the fence of this store was lined with all the broken boards from jaws waves.

Maui day One

We flew southwest from slc to vegas, and from vegas to maui. we arrived in maui at 2:00, picked up our Turo rental car, and then tried to hike twin falls but it was closed due to the rain/flash flooding so we drove around haiku-pauwela and paia instead. stopped in at the jaws country store, watched surfers, talked with our daughters, and took pictures behind the cutest old brown church.

Then we headed to the condo in kaanapali for dinner with my parents. and my aunt and uncle, whose condo we were staying in while in Maui. They got chinese take out for all of us and we went to bed early after a long day of travel. 

33 weird things about me

i just posted this video on my youtube channel. but... it seemed more fitting to put it up here on the ol bloggity.

you know, since it's all up close and personal, with all my secrets exposed....

enjoy. :)

Lipsense Dupes

here's a link to my youtube video if you'd rather watch that instead of read this.

don't know what lipsense is? here's the link to that video.

but basically all of you should know what lipsense is by now (incase you don't here's the quick rundown: it's a molecularly bonded liquid lipstick that doesn't smear, transfer, bleed, feather, smudge, no matter what you do for the entire day, you can eat, swim, kiss, even wash your face and it ain't goin' nowhere till you purposefully take it off.-if applied correctly-) but what you probably didn't know is that there are dupes for them at the drugstore!

yes, i said DRUGSTORE DUPES.

here they are:



i made an entire video where you see me apply one of these colors to my lips, and i give my review, plus swatch each of the colors i own on my arm. (and it's under 10 minutes long!) you can view that here.

but, i wanted to include some more information here on the blog that i didn't share on the video.

mostly, the pro's and con's:

also, here's a picture of the swatches up close.

from top to bottom:
-covergirl 512 "coral sunset"
-covergirl 555 "blossom berry"
-maybelline 070 "on and on orchid"
-maybelline 005 "everlasting wine"
-loreal 101 "rose tattoo"
-loreal 117 "permanent blush"
-loreal 119 "neverending nutmeg"
-loreal 213 "continual crimson"
-rimmel 200 "i'll call you"

and here are those same swatches 2 days later. 2 DAYS. you read that right. and i obviously showered, and washed my hands frequently in those two days. plus, i'm a hairdresser, so my hands are wet constantly from hair washing. and granted, that's an arm swatch, so they wear differently on the lips, but still. two days??

1/2 Bath Reveal

Let's not forget about the 1/2 bath that i mentioned in this post. This reveal is dramatic enough i felt like it deserved it's own post. holy moly. 

it's a very small room, obviously. and everything in this room was painted purple, which only made it feel smaller. before the remodel we literally only used this bathroom in emergencies. (you know, after going out to eat somewhere new and your significant other, or child, was already using the main bath.) we lovingly referred to it as the haunted grape vineyard. there were literally 5 different shades of purple used in the making of that room. a grape wallpaper border, a dark purple ceiling (not pictured to spare your eyes) so, my objective was to brighten and enlarge the space visually as much as possible. we went with a black vanity, and stainless steel hardware, to match the kitchen because the bath and kitchen are so close in proximity to each other in the house and we continued the same flooring as the kitchen into this room as well.

bright white went up on the walls and ceiling with one accent soft pink wall because the bathroom is for the girls after all. one of the biggest differences was the change in lighting, more specifically the light bulbs. we went with daylight bulbs instead of the normal yellowish shade. this makes it feel like there might actually be a window in this room, even though there's obviously not. 

we love the open space under the godmorgon cabinet from ikea, it's the perfect height to store a step stool so that they can wash their own hands, and brush their teeth, but still have it tucked away the rest of the time. 

Kitchen, Living & Dining Room Reveal

We all know why you are here: the before and after pictures! So, i'm not going to say much besides... ENJOY!

The unique thing in the above shot is the stairway in the "after" shot is hidden under the island, we have a basement apartment, so we don't ever use those stairs. we turned it into a sort of "crawl space". with a hidden door along the right side of the island. also, lets take a moment and remember the bookshelf with the built in planter box, and the 60's wall partition.

This is the view from the front door. it's a little unconventional to have the dining room and living room literally share a space like this, we are planning on turning our covered patio into a sunroom next year, so when that happens, the living room will be in there. but for now this set up works perfectly for our family. it's actually more spacious than it looks.

removing the wall that would have been in the middle of our kitchen island was by far the best choice of this remodel. it's one of things that makes us say "i can't believe we lived like that" all of the additional light from the living room window brightens everything so much, and being able to see my kids play while i cook is priceless! also, you can see we reconfigured the layout of our appliances, we really like the setup we have now. fridge along that back wall, and the range close to the sink. it's made everything easier and less messy.

This shot really shows off our open shelving, as well as the removal of our terrible red cabinets. i vowed to never have red in my kitchen again after taking those out, but... that rust colored rug was calling my name and i just couldn't resist. the neutral color scheme needed a pop of color, and i'm just happy it's not a permanent fixture, we can change up the "pop" of color whenever we want just by picking out a new picture for above the island, or rug.

NOW FOR MORE PICTURES!!!!!!!

 the art of Layering rugs is not for wussies.

 behind the island wall, is a cute little 1/2 bath for two cute little girls.

 chatbooks!!!

 backsplash of my dreams. and functional open shelves that surprisingly don't hold any decorations.

 custom wooden windowsills and a sink with a basin large enough to clean my cookie sheets!

miss betty is literally life sized and the topic of much discussion from guests with opinions that vary from awesome to inappropriate, and we love her for it.  a little controversy never hurt anyone :)

 people have asked if we are happy with our choice to do a built in lower microwave, and yes. we love it. the kids have been obedient so far and haven't melted any cars or barbie dolls, so, we're counting that as a win.

 the view from the hallway, it's a very welcome sight in the mornings for breakfast.

 if you look REALLY closely, you can see the chips in the white paint on the chairs from when the girls swivel and hit them on the counter top, but... they are seriously more comfortable than our couch so it's worth the chipping paint.

 we are planning on installing a new front door like this one soon! maybe as an anniversary present to ourselves in January because lets be honest, this remodel is our entire Christmas this year.

 Roller Blinds are literally the shiz. especially this one that blocks the view of the busy road, but lets in alllll the natural light. and even does us a favor by softening it.

 decisions decisions, (they picked ice cream if you were wondering...)

 you can see our last "to-do" item in this shot, when we removed the wall(s), it ruined some of the sheetrock in the hallway, we gave lowes a sample of our existing hallway paint to try and color match it, but it didn't work. you can see the patch job is obviously not the same color. so, we need to try it one more time, and if it still doesn't work, then we will need to paint the entire hallway.

 this is the best angle to show you what the island wall looks like, it acts as a privacy wall between the 1/2 bath directly behind it, and adds visual interest in the room.

 the texture of these cabinets is my absolute favorite. pictures don't do them justice. the horizontal wood grain is just beautiful.

 here you can see the hidden door in action as you are allowed access to the stairway. we will be using this area for storage, and to hide things like christmas presents, dead bodies, etc :)

 meet tyson, our bison. until garrison has the opportunity to shoot one for himself to replace it. i'll let you decide if you think i meant "shoot" as in a picture, or bullet.

 i love all the colors of our "living room" sitting area, the bright couch, and this comfy avocado green vintage chair literally make me happy sitting in them.

it's a cute angle, but more importantly is the hidden tv that's behind those stacks of wood in the "fireplace". seriously.

 a closer shot of the hallway that we still need to paint. haha.

 stainless steel for dayzzzz, and that cute little cabinet up there holds all our spices. because... we are trying our hardest to keep any and all things off our countertops. those pesky knives are the only ones that we couldn't find a hidden home for.

 all of my favorite things are in this image: stainless steel, natural wood, the color gray, marble, natural light, and sleek-ness that's sexy as hell.

 the "disco ball" light fixture above the sink that is just the perfect height so that my husband's head doesn't hit it when he helps with the dishes.

 those chair bases will stay this shiny for approximately 1 hour.

My favorite Light fixture in the entire world. and the largest centerpiece i could find that is constantly being dwarfed by our massive island that's larger than a king size bed.

THE END!

(but trust me, i'm much happier than you that all this is over finally!)