Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Vacation is over & it's time to get back to the real world. Last week was the culmination of my vacation with the Christmas holiday. I spent some real quality time with family. We did all of our favorite holiday traditions, but were able to make some new ones as well. 

It wouldn't be Xmas without my Mom's decorations. This year she decorated a tree with a spoon collection from my great-grandma 

Mexican train dominoes is a family favorite. This year we got to share the game with a new player. 

When the cards are out it's usually because we're playing hand in foot. This year when family friends came over we got to play a six person game. 

Sister had the genius idea to make Bloody Marys. I think this will be a new tradition for years to come. 

I wanted to share a bit of the islands with my family, so I made pumpkin crunch. I know pumpkins don't immediately bring up thoughts of HI, but the recipe was created by a local chef, Sam Choy. 

So now I'm back in HI and a thre song goes it's time to get back to reality. Luckily this is my reality:
 Just another pretty sunrise. No biggie. 

And now for the pic of the week:
Check out this cute family that accidentally color coordinated. Adorbs!

Mahalo!




Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Cocktails and Crafts

This week I've really settled into my vacation. Now some people I know might get bored with all this extra time on their hands. I, on the other hand, had no problem filling my time. This past week I rediscovered my love of crafts and whiskey (though not at the same time). 

Right now my drink is a Manhattan. This beverage is an excellent choice for multiple reasons: It's fancier to look at than a plain 'ol Jack and diet; All the liquor encourages me to sip slowly; And I like to switch things up, but don't stray too far from the brown liquors. 

In the Highlands I got a schmancy one with a big ice cube at Murphy's. 

Here's a lovely Manhattan from Midtown's South City Kitchen. 

Since a girl can't drink all the time, I turned to Pinterest to ensure I wasn't boreded. Now usually I pin food and recipes, but this week I started a craft board. To start things off I completed some holiday crafts. I made a festive wreath for my Mama, some gifts for friends and handcrafted boxes to wrap those gifts. 

Here's the 154 felt circles I cut by hand. Notice they're taller than my head!

Here's the final product. Ho Ho Ho!

My gift boxes are still flat in preparation for air travel; however, this is what they are supposed to look like according to the Pinterest directions I followed. I guess we will have to wait until next week to see if they are a success or a fail. 

Now this is the point where I'd post a picture of my other projects, but I don't want the recipients to see my gifts before I hand them out. Maybe in another post...

And now for the pic of the week:
I finally attempted making my own acai bowl. It was definately sweeter than the Blue Hawaii version, but it tasted delish. 

Mahalo!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

This week my holiday vacation began. I've saved up a bunch of PTO and wanted to use it to spend time with my family. That means a trip to the mainland. Woot woot!

In the last week I've traveled through or stayed in the following states: HI, WA, GA, TN, KY, OH and IN. The changes in weather has been quite a shock to my system. I keep joking that I haven't felt my toes since Seattle... But seriously my feet ARE cold!

The positive side of all this travel is getting to see a bunch of my family. I got to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And of course I got to do the long car ride with mom, dad and sister. One thing I noticed though, is seeing so much family makes me aware of the ones I didn't get to see. 

Because I was focusing so much on family I didn't spend a ton of time taking pictures.  Here's a couple that I took:
 
This trip is slowly, but surely getting me in the Christmas spirit.  

The landscape and weather on the mainland is quite a contrast to winter in HI. 

One of my favorite parts of family time is seeing all of my cousins kids. It's amazing how much they've grown up in the last year. 

This truly is "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year". 

So while I may be spending a lot of this trip complaining about the weather I truly believe that cold hands (or feet) are just a sign of a warm heart. And right now my heart is full of love and warmth!

And now for the pic of the week:
I snapped this selfie as soon as I stepped out of the airport. Watch out mainland, Penny's here!


Mahalo!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Good mornings

With the Winter Soltice approaching the days are getting shorter and shorter. The sun is barely up during my walk to work. By the time I'm done with the gym it's already dark out. Lately I've been feeling like I need a second cup of coffee. 

The drawback to the short days is it's still dark when I'm supposed to get out of bed making crawling out ever so hard. On the plus side I've been able to catch some beautiful sunrises. After 11 months of posting sunset pictures I thought I'd switch things up. Here's what Honolulu looks like in the morning:

 With the winter clouds it makes the sun even more dramatic. 

This morning picture has an ever so faint rainbow in the clouds. 

Here's the sun peeking behind the hospital construction. 

Crosswalks, palm trees and sunshine. That's what mornings in HI are made of. 

And now for the pic of the week:
My bags are all packed and I'm ready to go. In less than 24 hrs I'll be home and as my family says "I'm too excited to sleep"!!!

Mahalo!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Food, Friends, Fitness

Thanks to the holiday I was able to spend three whole days away from work this week. The holiday came at just the right time. The break gave me time to enjoy food, friends and fitness. 
Check out these beautiful pies my friend made. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving, but this year I used the day to celebrate Friendsgiving. I spent the morning working out, the afternoon cooking and the evening eating and drinking with friends. 
Big crowd at the gym on Thanksgiving

I wasn't in charge of the turkey this time (whew!). It was my first time eating a brined turkey that was cooked in a bag, definitely juicy.  

I made dressing as my contribution. After years of practicing with my Dad I finally got to make it solo. Not too bad!

I also made Strawberry Pretzel Salad. It was the first time most people had tried this "salad" and it was a hit!

Saturday I celebrated small business Saturday and got serious about my Christmas shopping. I'd show I picture of all my purchases, but I don't want to give a sneak peek of the Xmas gifts I bought. 

Sunday I spent the afternoon enjoying the beauty of HI. Instead of working out at the gym, I did a two-hour hike with some girls from the gym. 

Hanauma Bay looks ridiculously beautiful from high up above. 

We hiked all the way down to the ocean. Look at all the dried salt on the rocks. 

This is what the way down to the water looked like. 

The extra day off from work has got me excited about all the upcoming holidays. I'm now counting down the days until I have more time off & I get to spend it with my family. Woot woot!

And now for the pic of the week:
This was my attempt at the lotus pose. I guess I have some work to do on my flexibility. Haha. 

Mahalo!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Club

This weekend I started a club with a friend if mine. I would like to say it's an exclusive club, but really, others are welcome to join. After much thought and deliberation we gave our group a name:

The Breakfast Club
(insert a raised fist and the opening lines of "Don't You [Forget About Me])


Instead of being a group similar to the brat pack, we are just girls who like to brunch. 

For the inaugural club meeting we drove up to Kailua and ate at Cinnamons. This local spot is known for their Red Velvet Pancakes. 

Here's our meal:
It isn't breakfast/brunch without coffee. My cup was refilled multiple times. 

We split a full order of the Lox Benedict. Imagine all the deliciousness of a regular bene, but with smoked salmon substituted as the protein. 

Instead of Red Velvet Cakes we went with the daily special...pumpkin! They were the perfect dessert. 

Cinnamons was definately worth the drive over the mountains and the 30 min wait list. I would recommend it for anyone who likes coffee, eggs and/or pancakes (and who doesn't). 

And because sometimes brunch just isn't enough... We stopped by the farmers market and I picked up a lilikoi lemonade. 

The Breakfast Club may have to take a little break for the holiday season, but in 2015 I expect to do some serious group meetings. Any persons interested in joining may contact me directly. The application process is simple:

Are you willing to split an order of pancakes? Y/N

And now for the pic of the week:
With winter here I expect more rainbow pictures will be showing up on the blog. 

Mahalo!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

1 year

This past weekend was one of reflection and celebration. 
- Thursday was the anniversary of my move to HI. 
- Friday I went out to celebrate with the girls. 
- Saturday I went to a picnic celebrating the anniversary of my gym. 
- Sunday was ukulele lessons. 

It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by. Some days it feels like so much has changed. Other days it feels like I just moved here yesterday. 

525,600 minutes in Hawaii!

I celebrated with dinner and drinks with the girls. Luckily it was my cheat day so I enjoyed mojitos and pizza... Yum!

At the picnic the next day there wasmore delicious food to choose from. But since it was a gym event, there was plenty of healthy choices. 

The big surprise of the picnic was the awards. Four awards were handed out. I received the first one. It was in recognition of all my online posts about the gym. 

This was me getting my "Loud & Proud" award. 

Check out all the swag I got at the picnic as a result of my award... Sweet!

And after my ukelele teacher reminded me (multiple times) I finally got a binder to hold all my music. I thought it was an appropriate choice. Haha. 

And now for the pic of the week:
It was a 79 degrees this weekend. Last year I would have considered this a hot day. This year I cuddled up in a long sleeve jacket and sipped on some hot tea. I now have a whole new definition of "chilly".

Mahalo!

Sunday, November 9, 2014

#transformationtuesday

I know I normally post on Wednesdays, but this week is a little different. This week is all about my health and fitness accomplishments. And what better day to write about them then on  #transformationtuesday!

A little over a week ago I posted a picture on FB. I was acting silly at the gym, had my seven year old sidekick snap a picture and posted it without even thinking. A couple of days later I had 50+ likes and a bunch of comments about how great I looked. BTW- I'm considering hiring that little girl as my personal paparazzo. 

All that attention made me go back and think about my health and wellness journey. In the past year I've:

- Gotten this close to eliminating sugar and wheat from my diet
- Switched from a 1 hr commute 2x/workday to a 1 mile walk 2x/workday
- Become a regular at the best gym in Honolulu... Fitness Ranes
- Reached new strength goals (180# deadlift, 53# kettle bell swings, 70# front loaded squats, just to name a few)
- Lowered my cholesterol by 35 pts
- Lost 33 lbs

And for me seeing my transformation really happened when I looked at two photos taken 13 months apart. Check it out =>


These changes were a result of hard work and dedication, but I couldn't have done it without Chris, Pauline, Jesse, Blake & all my wonderful workout buddies at Fitness Ranes. Now I can't wait to see what changes the next 12-13 months will bring!

And now for the pic of the week:
Purple is my favorite color & it looks love-er-ly in a sunset. 

Mahalo!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Trick or Treat

If you know me, you know that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up, being silly and acting like a kid. 

This year did not disappoint. I was able to expirience all the things I love about Halloween, but with a Hawaiian twist. 

At work the department dressed up as sushi. Last week I gave you a preview of my costume. This week I got to wear the final product. 
When you are dressed like a Japanese food product of course you need to pose like a Japanese tourist!

Since I don't like to mix my day and evening wear (jk), I decided to switch things up after work. I put on all my favorite purple clothing added some sweat bands and called myself "Super Penny". 

And of course Super Penny needed her own hero-worthy photo shoot. 
I started the evening eating and drinking at a food truck event. The night ended walking the strip staring at everyone in costume. The whole street felt like an unorganized parade. Here are some of the pictures I snapped:

Tourists love taking pictures of dogs in camel costumes. 
The guy on the ground is a welcome mat. The girl on top is a loofah. I don't think they had met prior to this moment. 
These ninjas sat stoically on the wall...for hours. 
Who's this crazy girl jumping on the streets of Waikīkī? Why it's Super Penny of course! And it only took 20+ tries to get this shot. 

Overall Hawaiian Halloween exceeded my expectations. It was the perfect combination of food, fun and friends. 

And now for the pic of the week:
We've had at least one rainbow every day this week. This beauty showed up for the Halloween festivities. Squint and you can see that it's a double rainbow...all the way!

Mahalo!