BRIGHT IDEA

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

Next week is NATIONAL DARK SKY WEEK. Light pollution is a hazy blanket of light in the atmosphere caused by improper lighting fixtures which direct light up into the sky instead of down toward the ground.
This “blanket of light” causes the beauty of the night sky to fade, and if the problem of light pollution is not addressed now, we are destined to lose the beauty of the cosmos that have been a part of human civilization since its beginning. The main goal of NDSW is to raise awareness about the harmful effects of light pollution. It is not possible for all of the light pollution in this region of the world to disappear. However, it is possible to make a small difference in the quality of the night sky and inspire us all to preserve the beauty of the sky.

I can tell you when the moon is absent here in Maui we have the most spectacular showing of stars. Not to knock the full moon, because when that is full our entire yard looks silver and it is so amazing to see when we turn off the lights to go to bed. In fact you can almost read a book by the light of the full moon. In New York we could see the moon but could not reap the benefits of it's light from all the city lights below. We also have a very bright glow from all the lights in Kahului to the west of us that hinders more stars than we would like

Mark your calendars and get with the program - National Dark-Sky Week occurs on the week of the new moon in April since a full moon increases the light pollution. Therefore, NDSW for 2008 will be from March 29 to April 4.

Click here for the DARK SKY ASSOCIATION

Click here for EARTH HOUR

Click here for the rticle in TIME magazine.

CHICKEN LITTLES

Happy Easter everyone. This cute tray of fluffy chicks was just one of the many wonderful treats Lauren and Derek brought us last week. If you are in San Francisco drop by the curiosity shoppe and pick up a tray. They are a riot!

SHELF LIFE

Our friends Lauren and Derek of the curiosity shoppe and smarts & crafts are contributors to the ever so popular design*sponge with a weekly DIY feature every Wednesday. They loved our new kitchen shelves so much that they asked if they could use the project as this weeks post. We were thrilled and honored. Head on over to design*sponge and have a look. Below are a few more images than you will find there.

The shelves came to be like this...
In order to help cut costs on the kitchen remodel, we opted to do some open shelving along one wall. We can always go in and add cabinets later if we feel we need them or strike it rich.

I had 3 black shelves from Ikea that I covered in a grass cloth I found here at Maui Bamboo.
Total cost was $123:
Shelves $20 (originally $20 each and I already had them from 12 years ago)
Grass cloth $33
Polyurethane $14
Paint brushes $6
Gloves $4
Stain $0 (I had extra from the chair refinishing a few months ago)
Staples $6
Staple Gun
Pencil
Ruler

Scissors

This could be done with any fabric or paper as well.

The process was:

Since the cloth is an open weave and a bit see through, I sprayed the black shelves with white primer. Depending upon your material, you could omit this step or paint a color closer to your material.

Gather supplies needed.

Cut fabric long enough to wrap around shelf like a gift wrapped box.

Wrap around and staple along back edge making sure to keep the cloth straight and really taught.

Staples then ends last. Since the ends won't be showing on either side, I simply stapled the ends right on top of the fabric. Depending where you would hang them, another way of finishing the ends would be needed to make it cleaner than this.

After I applied the cloth to the shelves I thought it was too light in color. I wanted it to be a little warmer and to match the new straw seat stools and woven grass mat. Since I was going to be sealing the entire shelf with polyurethane, I just added 1 part of brown stain to 3 parts clear polyurethane. It tended to puddle a bit so I put on the rubber gloves and rubbed it into the grass cloth fibers which worked out quite well. After that coat dried I gave it one more coat of just clear polyurethane. Let dry and hang.

READY FOR OUR CLOSE-UPS

This past Saturday our great friends Lauren and Derek were on island for a visit and just left this morning. They were here doing double duty... a small vacation and work. Derek, who works at READYMADE MAGAZINE came here to do a feature on John and I for the June/ July issue. It was a crazy month getting the house ready for it's close-up and we are so glad the work is all done. The best part of the whole process was getting to see Lauren and Derek if only for a few days. Derek even managed to squeeze in a short surfing lesson... and hung ten pretty well.

We will keep you posted on when the issue hits the stands. 

HIPAHIPA!

Taking in the sights.

Derek hangin' ten.

Checking the film.

NICE DICE

Here are some monochromatic dice I made from cut paper. The background is a reflective foil and the dice themselves are a rich matte. The dots are glued down hole-punched foil to match the background. They are 2.5" x 3.5" pieces for our Art Trading Card group whose theme was "Fun and Games." 13 is sort of a lucky number for me I guess. But the "snake eyes" adds a twist of bad luck to it. Right? Isn't that like a bad thing to get when your playing Craps? I'm not a big gambler type. 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY...

We arrived to our new home here in Maui exactly 1 year ago today. It's been a busy year and we're speechless (really just too tired to write). 

Mahalo to all of you who keep checking in on our adventures. Stay tuned as we have a really big project coming our way. Details to come.

Conn and John

WHEN IN DROUGHT...

In case I failed to mention it... we are now on what I have tallied as our 27th day of NO RAIN! Well virtually no rain as we have had maybe 2 hours worth of drizzles on 3 days. After the 30+ days of rain and flooding in January and early February the ground was saturated and then dried up so fast it just began to crack everywhere. It is like someone flipped a switch. We do have a good deal of water, but if this keeps up it could get scary. We take extra steps in conserving water by flushing less. We save the water from rinsing the dishes and washing our hands then water the garden and plants with that at the end of the day. We have also put a bucket in the shower to catch water there and by doing that we collect about 2 gallons. Despite the lack of rain, there is still some beauty that is emerging while others dwindle.

The grass in the backyard.

The dry cracked once flowing with water gulch.

Iris and canna.

The orange tree.

The shower bucket and sneak peek of the shower.

WE ARE SO TILED!

Thank god this mess is GONE!

Here are some images of the final stages of setting the tiles. We had just enough... 1 left over actually... to do the bedroom as well. It was not our first choice, we wanted bamboo, but too soft.
It just could not have worked out any better. We will order 1 more carton of tiles just to have on hand should we need to replace one down the road. The closet ended up with a slightly different pattern. We needed to add in 1 1/2" strips otherwise we would not have had enough tile. We had so many scrap strips that we used those. Waste not want not! For the back splash in the bath, I did the same thing... I used all scraps and came up with an entirely different pattern that we both really love. It was a miracle how it all fell into place. The finished images to come soon. We are still casting and staging. In other words... decorating.

The niche waiting for it's final stage.

The last shower wall.

The bathroom back splash.

Layin' it down it the bedroom.
John finally shaved his 2 week growth when it was all over.

The surprise pattern in the closet.

NEW ACQUISITION

Color Pencil on paper - 23" x 18"

John and I are the proud new owners of this stunning Paphiopedilum by Parnell Corder.

If you think it is extraordinary in this picture, you should see it in person. I just put it in a frame I had and will post more images soon.

In other news, we finished the bathroom and have moved onto to hanging the kitchen lights and repairing the lanai (deck). Pictures will be posted in the next few days. 

We are still praying for rain... I think we are now on day 14 with no rain. Well we had rain for about an hour 2 nights during the last 2 weeks. The lawn is getting crispy and the garden needs a lot of TLC. 

Kraft-werk

This ain't an after picture of our bathroom. Thanks to one of the latest posts on Lost at E-Minor I've satisfied yet another sweet-tooth-interior craving, This Ain't No Disco. The interesting thing about this interiors site, besides that the name is from an old Depeche Mode song, is that it features pics from studios and agencies, mainly creative ones, from around the world...I like trying to guess where the agency is located just based on the pics before I scroll down to their address. So much creativity, I can't take it.