I’m back on the Mahalo Lounge wagon, trying to finish. It’s slow going, I’ll tell you, because it’s all about the itty bitty details — and there are A LOT of them. Mostly, at this point, I’m focused on: the ceiling. The biggest news: I made a decision on where to install the second of two vintage Orchids of Hawaii lights, which came out of my local Luau Hale, a longtime vintage extant tiki bar and restaurant. I put the light, swag style, dead center on the third of the five beamed sections that comprise my 30′ long living room-dining room.Heck yeah there is more →

All five portions of the ceilings in the Mahalo Lounge are now done! My wallpaperer Sally came over last week, and over the course of three days — she counted 14.5 hours of work for her — so that’s 29 hours working together — we finished the last two sections. The ceilings look fantastic — my husband — an awesome critic — adores them! Heck yeah there is more →

My wallpaperer came up for air. So we are working together to finish wallpapering (grassclothing) the ceiling of the Mahalo Lounge. Oh, and there are a bunch of men with heavy machinery here today taking down all the trees in the back forty. And, I made a four-hour round-trip Monday to buy a 1986 Kitchenaid dishwasher. Which is still in the back of my Escape.Heck yeah there is more →

I realize that this is an extremely lame blog post. But it is meant to demonstrate that I am extremely lame about finishing what I started. Perhaps you share the same m.o.: All excited, get a super fun project started, but then… your interest fades, you move on to the next before you finish the first. And then it’s December and you see you have… 20 unfinished projects. If you weren’t afraid to count. This little series is meant to keep me focused on finishing that darn Mahalo Lounge, one stinkin’ day at a time. Perhaps it is inspiring you to finish stuff, too?

Oh. I went 10 months without a door knob on the door from the hallway into the living room.Heck yeah there is more →

On the whateverth day of Kitschmas I finished covering the cushions of my vintage peacock chair and little tuck-under rattan table and chair set with leftover fabric from my draperies. This was pretty easy — I just needed to put my head down and get the job the heck done. My 12 Days of Kitchmas challenge continues to inspire me, and to make the degree of my procrastination when it comes to things like this done, I did this yesterday (Sunday) not a month or week or even three days ago. I’m keeping up by the skin of my teeth. Oh, I fixed some of the trim on the peacock chair too — *soproud*.Heck yeah there is more →