The start of something new!

My very first garden! Its been hard work getting this started and I have so much more to do... but I am ready for the challenge! I've got my plot all ready for digging and its been some hard work digging out 15'x4'x12" through packed clay soil... but the payoff will be HUGE when its harvest time! Soooooo worth the sore muscles and blisters... here's to green living!

www.KealaLegacyGifts.com is Finally Open!

After 2 years of procrastination I have finally opened my own website to feature and sell my jewelry, hair accessories, home decor and photography!


Check out my Grand Opening May Day Sale! For today only, get all items On Sale, 10% off! Offer ends at midnight tonight Hawaii time.

Im pretty nervous about this new adventure but I am also extremely excited, especially since I made a sale within the first hour of being open!!! WOOOHOOOOO!

And the best thing about it? I dont pay any fees to anyone else for my listings. I decide what my site looks like, color schemes, links and featured products. Im not in competition with thousands of other jewelry designers... and I can focus my marketing to the people who enjoy my design style!

Just want to thank my Etsy friends for being supportive and offering advice, hugs and many blessings.

A huge thank you goes out to my family... for their amazing support and dealing with my craziness as I constantly called for html help.

And the biggest, hugest, most totally awesome thank you goes out to my amazing hubs who not only has to deal with me when I dont make sales... but possibly worse... when I do! LOL! (you etsians will know what Im talkin about).

So... yeah... ;)

HDR Photography

Just added a new program to my arsenal... HDR Editing! Ive even purchased an underwater casing, new lenses and a tripod so I can further improve my photography. I am planning to list them in my Etsy shop to be sold as Gift Cards, Birthday Cards, Special Occasion Cards... you get the idea.

Im wondering if you would please take a look at the following photos and vote on which ones you would be most interested in seeing available for purchase. You can pick more than one if you are so inclined... ;)

Mahalo Nui Loa! Keala


#1 - Storm Over Ka'ena Point



#2 - Hawaiian Hibiscus



#3 - Days End



#4 - Simple Promises (You Light My Life)

Working on my Photography Skills!

Waaaaaaaay back in High School I took Photography. I loved being in the dark room, playing with my new photos, making some sepia, some black & white, cropping them until they were just right. I remember making a pinhole camera, and taking some awesome "still shots" with it...

Technology has made photography just a tiny bit easier and more accessible to the general public... for people who don't have access to a professional dark room (although I think even the greatest digital enhancement cannot compare to working in a dark room) like me.

So... here are just some of my most recent photos from the past 2 months (or so). I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them!



Gold Dust Day Gecko - Sunning on my cement wall



Koa Wood Grain - Taken before my nieces Baptism at the Kamehameha Schools Chapel



Sunset Beyond the Ko'olau Mountains



Lovely Yellow Rose - This one I took on a recent trip to California



Through the Bloom - This is another photo I took during my nieces baptism. You can see her in the background... I was playing with angles and focus on this one.

Movies Based on Books...

Just never seem to get it right.. ya know? With the few miraculous exceptions (in my opinion) of Jurassic Park, LOTR & Harry Potter movies... most are poo.

What brings up this new rant you may ask? Well, I have been reading the Twilight series (after hearing very good reviews on the books from friends and family) and I must admit that I enjoyed the story!

Stephanie Meyer was able to capture me using characters that I could relate to (well, the living characters anyway) in one way or another. I found myself desperate to continue the series, and read through all 4 of them the first time in just under 2 days. I say first time, because I read through them AGAIN just to be sure I didn't miss anything.

I loved her point of view on the Hollywood stereotype that has molded Vampire stories throughout the years. And though the book was focused on a younger demographic than I am ::cough cough:: I found myself wanting to be Bella... to have an Edward... to live in a world of magic and wonder and near death experiences... without having to experience them myself!

But I am heading off course from my original rant.

I really REALLY wanted to LOVE the movie! Really I did. But... I was so disappointed. Not so much in the casting (the Cast is pretty close to how I pictured them), but in the story itself. I know that there just isn't enough time in a movie to fit a whole book, but I felt like so much was left out! I wasn't drawn to the characters in the movie like I was in the book. I didn't get the sense of NEED that Bella and Edward had for each other... like air, like water! Not to mention the key elements to the story became laughable... and I knew that those others who laughed with me in the theatre must have read the book. Specifics you ask? Okay... hows about when Edward steps into the sunlight? Now... in my minds eye I saw glimmering facets of light, like rainbow shards bouncing off of a diamond! Not... craft glitter. But hey... thats just my creative take on the scene.

In hindsight, I should have watched the movie first and THEN read the books... I bet if I had gone that route the movie would have been more magical for me... but as it is, I can only hope that time away from the books... and the DVD release... will soften my look on the way the movie portrayed the story.

Here ends my rant.



P.S. I am SOOOOOOO Team Edward!