Featured Etsy Treasury!

Woo hoo, our vintage military oil can is featured in this awesome Etsy treasury this week. Sweet!
"The Korean War"  http://etsy.me/P00YEY

When we found this we were excited to find such a great piece of American Military history, and this treasury really showcases some great items. Take a peek!

peace,

amber j.

Grease!

So today Josh is working on the Chally (1973 Challenger!) And contrary to the stereotype I love having a garage for him to work in all the time! He's happy, I can see him anytime I want and sometimes I get to come out and help! 

Here's a pic of the music department, nothing less  than a vintage receiver and speakers to jam out to some blues or rock hooked up to Pandora. :)

Engine block? Check. Crazy work bench? Check. Sweet tea? Double check!

Today I was luck and wandered out right as he was fighting with metal straps to reinstall the painted gas tank. Little bolts in tight places, person for girlie fingers!

So here I am,  greasy on the ground blogging like a boss! ;)

amber j.

It's official...

Well yesterday started off like any other Sunday, coffee and checking email. We decided to take a hike before it got hotter and opted for Aiea Loop, one of my favorite trails. It's got ever-changing terrain, cool winds because you're up so high on the mountain, views of the H3 and Harano Tunnel as well as Pearl Harbor.

We attempted a hike Saturday but you saw how that went, so after slathering in bug spray and sunblock we headed out. It was gorgeous!

It starts off feeling like a scene from Hansel & Gretel, then changes to this maze of fallen trees, gullies covered in ferns, groves of bamboo, strange looking every greens and everything in between. You can see the H3 *waaaaaayyy* in the background.

Then we got about halfway through the 5 mile loop and Josh mentioned how cool the trees were and pulled off his Camelbak, presumably to pull out a camera. Which I was almost perturbed because my battery was dead and I was stuck with my phone and this whole time he had a camera?  Let me quote his version of the next five minutes.....:

"Surprised her with it on a trail hike. I was like...oh hey this is a good spot for a picture, look at this view. Then bam!! I whipped it out...the ring that is"

" She said...maybe...and by maybe I mean Hell Yes!"

It's official!  Ok ok, so much to my dismay I was a *total* chick about it. Crying and laughing and my hands were trembling. Babbling like an idiot while I kissed him a thousand times. And he sends me into even more tears with his words  

"We are going to have an amazing life together."

One of the many reasons why I love him!  We are all alone with nothing but the breeze blowing, in one of my favorite places on earth doing something we both love. Intimate, beautiful, out in the Lord's grandeur just the two of us having the most perfect moment.  And then after that I'm expected to hike another two miles along sheer cliffs across a muddy trail riddled with roots and rocks and not slip and kill myself. YEAH. This is me we are talking about! Ha ha... thank goodness he was cool and collected :)

After the amazing hike we got to the parking lot he felt like telling everyone ''She said yes!" but the only people around was a giant bus of Japanese tourists. Hmm...

Starting to get warm so we decided to have a mini celebration and I was excited to stretch out this private moment together before we share it with the world. So we stopped at Dave's Ice Cream, an awesome local place full of flavors you can only get here in Hawaii. Ube (purple sweet potato, my fave), Lychee, Kulolo, all sorts of yumminess squashed into fresh waffle cones that were slightly crunchy like the crisp edges of a chocolate chip cookie. 

Talk about an awesome day!  Glad we can share!

always, 

amber j.

First blog post, woo hoo!

I was dying to get the blog up and running so that we can share some of our adventures, new projects and day-to-day goings on.

So we today Josh has to drop his engine block for his '73 Challenger he is restoring at the machine shop to have some new cam bearings pressed in. Which kinda left us without much on the schedule today so we decided to go on a small hike to Likelike Falls (pr. lee-kay-lee-kay). A friend of mine had hiked there and gave us directions. Sounded simple and shore with a great swimming hole. Win-win, right? Wrong!

We pulled over and started down the roadside trail which was slick with runoff from the highway. Literally like grease, we kept falling down. Aside from that we were completely swarmed with mosquitoes. We put on bug spray but apparently it wasn't intended for clouds of insects like this! It was impossible not to inhale them and we were bitten like crazy.  I especially had a bad reaction, with having Fibromyalgia my immune system goes haywire and they are ten times worse than normal. Fun!

Bites on my legs!

Ok, so Josh will probably kill me for posting this gross pic, but I wanted to show how bad it was! Ha ha, lesson learned. We made it less than 100 feet down the trail before we had to turn around. He was such a good sport!

Though the day wasn't a total loss at all, we stopped at a place called Re-Use Hawaii.  Most women's favorite store isn't usually a salvage-vintage-building supply. Well unless you are the amazing Amber J!  I absolutely was in heaven, so many cool things my head was spinning with ideas. Thank goodness Josh was there to keep me cool. But he has good taste and found this set of awesome vintage industrial lights.

Just a little TLC and they will be going up in the store probably tomorrow. The patina on these was perfect, will make a fabulous set of pendant lights. Score babe! Another perk of having a professional electrician with great taste ;-)

After we got home we commenced to take our minds off the itchies with a homemade Mexican dinner. I whipped up some traditional beef enchiladas. The secret to amazing flavor? Layers people, layers! Like lasagna! Not rolled and broiled ha ha. 

 

No judging the hair/lack-of-makeup, I was freshly showered. But we were having fun! Oh if there was a scratch-n-sniff widget you guys would love us. 

Dinner was amazing, watched some of our favorite Ghost Adventures, and just about bed time. Tomorrow we are attempting another hike but with more bug spray ha ha. Our Road today was all over the place, but together it was a wonderful ride. 

peace,

amber j.