Aloha!

I have Hawaii on the brain since my husband & I will soon be spending 10 wonderful days in beautiful sunny Maui .We went last year for the first time & didn't stay as long & decided this time, we must stay longer :)

So with that, I thought I'd share a few items that's I've made using Hawaiian themed packaging.

I use a badge/ID holder like this to carry my bus pass that I use to get to & from work. My husband works for a company where they're required to wear badges at all times to allow them entrance through doors & gates of buildings. My nephew goes to a high school where they have to wear ID cards as well, so he's sporting one of my Mt Dew ID holders. The badge holders that I make have a clear front & back sleeve (in case you're one of those people that need to have different cards do different things.) .



These dog collars were created by using recycled beer labels from Kona Brewing Company & Primo Brewing & Malting Company. I offer many different size options & customizations in my shop. I carry 1/2" width collars for the cats & small dogs in your family (like you see on here on Matisse)

I offer the 3/4" width for the medium sized dogs like you see here on Taryn.

And the 1" width collars that you would see on Boxers, Huskies, German Shephards & my biggest customer yet, an English Mastiff. (I offer the option of the 1 1/2" width, as a custom order & to those custom orders with the "bigger" dogs, I offer the option of all metal components for an extra charge - pictured below).

These collars are all hand built by me, (I do not buy the collars premade & add the labels later). This allows me to customize the length of webbing that is needed for the dog's neck & gives the customer the option to add all metal components of the slide, clasp & always welded d-rings versus the plastic components that I carry normally in my shop. 

This wristlet key chain was created by using recycled labels from Kona Brewing Company Fire Rock Pale Ale beer labels.

For the person who likes to travel, I also create luggage tags-sorry no passport covers yet with Hawaiian packaging. (What a great way todistinguish your luggage at baggage claim.) These were made from recycled Kona Brewing Company Wailua beer labels & Kettle Brand Hawaiian flavor potato chips bags.

I try to offer every Hawaiian brewery that I have access to purchase their products from, unfortunattely Maui Brewery (love their beer, btw) offers their beers in cans only (BOO!) so until I can come up with an idea using cans (which I'm working on right now & will share once I get it all worked out) it will have to wait.

Until my next post, Mahalo & Mele Kalikimaka!!

Chips Anyone?

While we were on holiday in Croatia, we discovered these yummy potato chips that we think were seasoned with red bell peppers. Since everything was in Croatian there was no chance at figuring out the ingredients & since there were pictures of red bell peppers on the bags, we assumed that's what they were seasoned with. These were a wonderful snack while on our week long sail (we went through 4 big bags of these.)

The colors caught my eye right away (luckily) which made me think, "I wonder what I can do with these to make myself a cool souvenir from this trip?" (Of course my DH thought I was a nut for flying home with trash in my suitcase), but look how they turned out & he seemed to think that maybe it was a good idea that I brought them home after all :)

© 2009 Tracy Borders

© 2009 Tracy Borders

Finished, they are each 6" by 6". I used Peltex between the chip bag layer & the hand dyed cotton backing fabric to give the blocks more stability. I just love that I was able to take something that would have normally been tossed in the trash & make a wonderful souvenir from it!!

I still have two unused chip bags & am thinking of maybe designing a little clutch purse lined with hand dyed bamboo fabric? I'm a little concerned though about whether the chip bag "material" would be able to stand up to regular wear & tear. Can it be sealed with a polymer medium or will it just flake off? (Am going to have to consult with a friend of mine that uses the medium in a lot of her work & see what she says.) :)

No art today to share, however...............

Since I don't have any new art to share today (it's all in progress, either sitting in dye baths or drying after being dyed) I'd thought I'd share with you a couple of purchases I made while in Italy :)


Some of you are aware that I love my green Chucks (Converse sneakers) & that I took them to Italy with me. My motto, "I can never have enough funky (but comfortable) shoes." So, while in Rome, I came across these & HAD to have them. I refer to both pairs as my Italian Pumas :)

While I was admiring my new green shoes, my loving DH, who always says that I have way too many pairs of shoes as it is, locates the shoes below for me. (He always tells me that I have too many, but he's really good at supporting my habit & luckily has GREAT taste. :)

And, can I tell you, that my green is SO popular in Rome right now, it's unbelievable!! Swimsuits, underwear, shoes, socks, handbags, etc. It's all I could do to contain myself. I did, however, cave & purchase an Italian leather handbag dyed green, of course!! :)

Hopefully by next post (if all goes right) everything that's in progress now, I'll be able to soon share with you!!!

Rome/Croatia Teaser Photos

We took over 1050 photos while on our trip, so it is taking me awhile to go through each of them & weed out the bad pics & put names to the rest.

So far, I've made it through 72 photos, only 978 more to go, which is ok, because as I go through them it brings up very happy memories :)

When going through our Rome pics, I have noticed that Rome has been documented VERY well in books & on the net. So that pic that I took of the three columns, actually does have a name & it was easy to locate the information.

Thought I'd include a few photos of my most favorite places.................


While in Rome.....................................

The Pantheon was my MOST favorite place!! We had tried to get in to see it for two days & both times, they were having Liturgy services. The third day, we went really early in the morning & it paid off. There were only about 7 people inside including my DH & I. What a BEAUTIFUL & peaceful site!! AND with only the 7 of us inside, it was so quiet & I hate to use the word but "awesome", I found myself quite emotional. I could have spent hours there just looking around & enjoying the site. Unfortunately, that didn't last long, a huge drove of people entered & that calm peacefulness disappeared, which was really too bad.

My second most favorite place, the Coliseum

If you're wondering, the top two photos are not postcards, I actually took those pics, myself & am VERY happy how they turned out.

DH & Me

Those who follow my blog, know this little gal. Adriana went on our trip with us & had a blast. She wasn't camera shy either :) We have pics where she's overlooking Palatine Hill, hanging out in the Amsterdam airport waiting for our flight to Rome, overlooking Old Towne Dubrovnik from our apartment & hanging with mom at the Trevi Fountain & St Peter's Square.

(I had to share this.) While walking the Roman Forum, I came across this beautiful ruin. It was just sitting there looking SO brand new :)

Rome was wonderful to see, all of it's Art history, the culture, the food, but I think we enjoyed Croatia just a little bit more.

It's so hard to explain why.............like in Dubrovnik, the culture, the people, the food, everything seemed more relaxed, seemed like the "old ways" (if that makes any sense). Rome, as we know is "old" too with the art & history, but it seems modernized, tons of people walking everywhere, driving their tiny little cars & riding their scooters everywhere & the feeling I had while staying in Dubrovnik & visiting the villages while on our Flotilla, seemed a lot slower & kind of "old world". It was just wonderful!!

We flew into Croatia around 9:30 at night & this was the most spectacular view from our apartment of Old Town Dubrovnik. (Glad we brought the tri-pod for the camera along.)

Old Towne Dubrovnik is surrounded by a high fortressed wall & you can walk all along the top of it capturing beautiful views. DH took this photo of me resting at the highest point on the wall overlooking Old Towne. (Think he did a great job at taking this photo, even though, he's an engineer, the guy has an eye for art.) :)

There are 6 of us (co-workers & friends) that all enjoy sailing together & about a year ago one of them mentioned doing a sailing Flotilla in Croatia & here we are!! There were 4 of us on one boat & the other 2 invited another couple that were friends of theirs. We had a WONDERFUL time!!

This placed tied with Old Towne for my most favorite place in Croatia. We had one free day & evening to go wherever we wanted to moor. We actually were planning on just anchoring in a cove nearby, but after a day of very strong wind & waves, the women of both our boats (either from being seasick or just "shot" nerves) ruled the majority & "strongly suggested" that we moor here in Trestenik (Trstenik). Apparently, the Ferry used to stop here but has since moved on to a different place to tie up. You can see both of our Sunsail boats moored up right in the very same place the Ferry used to dock.





This little village was absolutely fabulous!! We had coffee & gelato at their cafe & had a wondeful dinner at their outdoor restaurant AND it was so quiet & NO winds tossing around the boat!!

That evening, while on a walk, we discovered the Grgic Winery. The next morning, we visited for a wine tasting. Now you may be thinking, tasting wine at 10 AM? Something I noticed while on this 2.5 week trip, time on a clock meant nothing. Wine tasting at 10 AM, drinking a beer at a cafe at 10:30 AM because it's SO hot & humid, eating hot dogs at breakfast. Now that is an entirely different & VERY hilarious story. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken, but there were 4 witnesses.

We had thee most FABULOUS time while in Rome & Croatia & have already started planning for our next trip? Greece? Thailand?

I'm Back!!

Bawd (that's Croatian for Hello) :)

I'm back from my Rome/Croatia trip & have to tell you, I had the MOST wonderful time!!! The only reasons I was looking forward to coming home were to see my 4-legged kids, sleep in my own bed & drink a Dr Pepper. (Some people smoke, some people have to have their coffee, I have to have my Dr Pepper.) The only soda that I found in Rome was Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta or Sprite and in Croatia the same with every once in awhile finding a Pepsi. So, I compensated by drinking more wine & beer while I was there (that's another story for later.)

I learned a few things as well :

• Americans are always in a hurry
• eat WAY too much junk food/greasy foods/foods just in general not good for our health
• should have adopted the metric system
• don't eat enough gelato (lol)

& oh yeah, somewhat shy about showing skin on Croatian beaches. We saw a lot of FKK (we never figured out the translation, so if someone knows please tell me, but from what we can tell, FKK has something to do with nudity). We saw quite a bit of nudity on Croatian beaches & everytime, it was shocking. And, if any of you are wondering if I participated in this................ARE YOU KIDDING?! Um, NO!!! :)

Anyway, I'm back & I miss those beautiful & wonderful places already. I took TONS of photos & once I can get them all organized with all of the proper names of the places on them, I'll share a few here AND plans are to set up a new site/blog with all of the photos that were taken by my DH, me & the friends who went on our sailing Flotilla with us in Croatia. I'll let you know once it's up, if anyone is interested.

(btw, Adriana went with us, so she has some photogs as well) :)

Practicing for Croatia

Yes, that dork in the photo is me. Daryl (that guy in the photo below, my DH) didn't think I looked like a dork. He said it looked like I was enjoying sailing the boat, which is the first time I've ever done this!! I'm still not comfortable with how the boat leans when the sails catch the wind. I've been told that you cannot flip the boat, but it still makes me nervous!

Remember the week long sailing trip next May that Daryl & I will be taking with some friends, to Croatia? Well, we're going to be sailing a few hours each day, site seeing then eating & sleeping on the boat. We've never done the eating & sleeping on board & since we're going to be doing it for a week, we thought we should practice before we get there. We rented a 30' boat from the sailing club that Daryl & our friends are members of. We soon decided, we must have a bigger boat if we're going to be doing this all week.

The head room in this boat was short enough that we kept bumping our heads into certain areas of the boat & trust me, you never seemed to remember that you hit your head there last time, so each time it was a painful wakening.

The sleeping berths...............I experienced my first episode of claustrophobia at about 3:30 in the morning. They were small, it was like sleeping in a tube. You had to crawl in & roll around to get into place & the ceiling was so low that every time Daryl rolled over he hit his shoulder. As I was laying there having this awful claustrophobic experience I thought, if I could just get out of the boat & get some fresh air, maybe I'd be ok, but I didn't want to wake the boat. As I laid there, Daryl decided he needed to get out of the boat. I soon followed & one of our friends was on my heels. Funny thing, was that we had all been laying there for an hour wanting to get up & out of the boat but didn't want to wake each other.

There wasn't much to see or do but I did find a couple of things to takes photos of.

(Oh by the way, we're taking another week, probably before the sailing week to site see another spot. I'd really like to go to Athens, but I think we'll end up in Rome instead. Am finding that it's a lot cheaper & easier to get to Rome than it is Athens. I don't think the art will disappoint me in Rome. I've just always wanted to go to Athens & see all the ruins that I studied while taking all of those art history courses in college.) If anyone has some "must see" spots while in Rome, please let me know!!

Ah Vacation!!!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, but I have a good reason. My husband & I went to Whistler, BC in Canada for a week. One of my husband's childhood friends flew out from Iowa to ski Whistler, so while he & my husband skiied, I shopped, people watched & just relaxed & did absolutely NOTHING & it was great!!

Daryl & I at the Blackcomb Gondola. Of course, the boys had to be on the slopes as soon as they opened, which is why this photo is a little dark.

Daryl took this, thought he did a really nice job, love the black treeline!

He also did the photos below, thought he did a great job at catching the different colors in the sky. I love the clouds in the third picture that I took & you can also see where the sun is hitting as it's rising.

Yes I took the one below. One of the foot bridges in Whistler village has on each side 5 posts with cast bronze sculptures on each pedestal. One is of a telescope, another is of a glass block, and another of an old time view finder, all things you can look through. This piece was on the other side along with other educational sculptures, like a bronze shell & small animal skeletal heads. I just really liked this & you know the first thing I did was run my fingers over the spikey looking pieces. (They reminded me of cocka burs-I'm sure that's not spelled right- when we were kids we'd get them stuck all over our clothes & we'd have to pluck them off.) I love how the frost created patterns all over the piece!

15th Wedding Anniversary Trip

Daryl & I went out to Orcas Island, off the coast of Washington for our 15th Anniversary. It was absolutely wonderful. Since it was September, the weather wasn't too hot & there were not very many people at the resort, so it was nice and relaxing.

We stayed at the Rosario Resort http://www.rosarioresort.com/. When we arrived, they had surprised us by upgrading our room to the Roundhouse. This was absolutely fabulous!! It was a ROUND house that was set off to the side from part of the resort. (This resort is spreadout over 33 acres, which includes four restaurants, a marina, 3 pools - 2 of which (one indoor) that are heated to 89 degrees & a Spa. This roundhouse used to be the playhouse of the Moran family children (in the early 1900's) The mansion that the family built(Mr Moran was a shipbuilder), now houses the Spa, two of the restaurants, the check-in desk and the offices for the Rosario Resort .

It was wonderful to wake up in the morning & sit on our patio (that was entirely around our building). It was so nice to sit back & relax & take in all of the views: the bay, the mountains, the sailboats & the float plane what that would drop off or pick up passengers to go back to the mainland. Will we come back and visit? You betcha!! Daryl said he could easily retire here!