Category: fashion

Posted on in Art, fashion, Personal, Photography

DIY Boho Style Dining Room

As a first-time homeowner, my fiance and I spent most of the first few months furnishing rooms and creating a functional space. Now that we are settled in and have our essentials stocked in our pantry, we can play around with color and bohemian style elements! We wanted to start with our dining room since that’s where most people would hang out and gather at our house.

I was initially thinking of painting our wall a dusty pink or blush. I love pink, it makes me happy. But as we flipped through colors on the Home Depot Project Color app, I found this delightful teal shade called “Mermaid Sea.” The richness and darkness of it spoke to me for some reason. AND! It matches the backsplash in our kitchen! Why not be a little matchy-matchy, right?

Here is a before and after photo:

Although we are completely in love with our custom monkeypod dining table (made by local contractor Reality Construction), bench and our vintage rattan chairs, we knew the boring eggshell color didn’t truly bring out the beautiful craftsmanship of our furniture.

Our wall decor consisted of woven and carved artifact collection from around Hawaii, Saipan, Palau and Ghana. I felt they were a perfect compliment to our dining set! We had planned to have an intentionally mismatched gallery wall, but after looking at all the woven art we had, we decided to feature them on our wall.

Right when we finished our accent wall, artwork came in from Argentinian artist Ana Clerici. I had been looking at this one piece for a very long time! It makes me think of home, where fresh fish is the best thing on earth and the colorful dress makes me smile. While it was intended for the dining room, I decided to save this beauty for our living room, since there’s not much color in it at the moment.

You’ll notice other boho elements in our home like rattan and woven baskets. The baskets are a lifesaver when it comes to organizing and storing items that may not fit the vibe of the room but are needed (like snacks, cleaning items, tripods and even XBox controllers). We use them for everything from grocery shopping to beach trips and storage.

And that’s our boho style dining room! It’s now complete! We are always delighted when our family members ask to take photos in front of our wall. I think we accomplished our goal of finding that perfect boho and fun color for the most used room in our home.

Posted on in fashion, Photography, Travel

Travel Blog: Vienna, Austria

It’s January. Kevin is in the middle of his deployment in Kosovo and I’m missing him lots, especially after the lonely holidays. He has a little over a week’s worth of PTO so to make the most of his time, I’m flying to Europe to see him.

We decided on Vienna, Austria for our vacation because it’s a couple of hours away from Kosovo and we heard winter is a beautiful time to visit the country. I wanted to see history and art. Kevin wanted adventure and schnitzel. Vienna seemed like the place to do it all in a limited amount of time and my airfare? $500 rt.

Seeing Kevin after a few months of deployment made my heart leap. He arrived first and greeted me in the baggage claim area of the airport. After hugging for minutes, we scurried off to grab my luggage and grabbed a fresh orange juice and snack before we made the trip to our Airbnb.

I underestimated the temps in Vienna during January. I’ve never been so cold! We caught the train to the Airbnb and I almost cried walking three blocks to our door. I stopped complaining when we walked into our warm and quaint loft. It was beautiful and cozy. Just enough for the both of us. I loved the design and the cleanliness of it all. Glad we chose this one. It was just a few minutes from the city center with clean streets, Weinerschnitzel stands and horse carriages!

Once we settled in, got our weinerschnitzel and chicken schnitzel with lemon, we set off to tour the sights. Here are the Vienna musts we could fit in a few days:

  • Schönbrunn Palace
  • Palmenhaus – the palace greenhouse
  • National Library – a bit small, but very beautiful
  • Albertina Museum Wein – super fancy and beautiful
  • Naschmarkt – literally the “the eating market,” an open air market with eateries and small food shops.
  • Cafe Sacher – best known for their sacher tort cake, wasn’t a fan in the end

Palmenhaus was gorgeous and made us feel a bit at home. The humid climate they maintain in there brought back memories of home for Kevin. He missed the islands so much. The Albertina Museum was outstanding, there’s a cafe inside with a wonderful menu and we loved the gift shop with Klimt notebooks and merchandise. The architecture of the museum alone was stunning. Inside was warm and toasty and we enjoyed exploring each exhibit.

For us Hawaii folk, we’re all about the food when we travel. We quickly grew tired of the schnitzels and started searching for Asian food, any place with rice or spice. Google led us to Ivy’s Pho, just a minute from our place.

The pho was piping hot, noodles were thin like I like them and the basil was fresh. This was a great break in between fresh breads and pastries. Vienna is all about the pastries and apfelstrudels, which can get a bit bland for those who fancy salty and savory flavors.

The second great place we ate at was Bao Bar. Pork belly baos and kimchee fries gave me that savory, spicy kick I was missing (yes, even just in a few days, I need something spicy).

The last place I must mention for drinks is Miranda Bar. This place was a few blocks from our Airbnb and the bartender spoke English and was very kind to us. She modified their drinks to my liking. Kevin, on the other hand, wanted to try the entire menu. This was the cutest bar I’ve ever been to! All the drinks on the menu were illustrated and the vibe was very girly and chill.

We loved these places in Vienna and I’d go back in a heartbeat. Kevin and I found the city very easy to get around. We took Uber to places we couldn’t walk or when the weather got too cold. Even the grocery stores had such wonderful snacks and food to take back to the Airbnb.

We took a two-day trip to another city…to be continued in an upcoming post…

Posted on in fashion

Tropical Tuesday

I’m a bit late in admitting I’m on the Fabletics train. I wanted to try out their clothes and see how they held up after months of wearing. The verdict? The workout pants/legging quality is meh, but the sports bras…they’re amazing! I first subscribed earlier this year and of course I gravitated towards everything BLACK. Black leggings. Black sports bras. Black is safe and matches with everything and it hides all of my vulnerabilities.

Well I’m over that. Not that I don’t have vulnerabilities anymore, but I’m tired of sifting through a mass of black on laundry days. So two months ago, I ordered my first real funky colored and printed workout clothes. They had tropical prints! Green on pink has been trending and I’m so glad they had something that matched the one trend I’ve been fangirling about. When my order arrived, the pigment on the fabric was decent, you can tell it was digitally printed or something. I washed it about five times because it’s so comfy and the print hasn’t faded…yet. It’s a perfect pop of color when you are wearing a low-cut button-down shirt or a flowy workout top.

I’m officially a fan and regret all those times I settled for black. The print makes me happy and I look forward to buying more fun prints and brighter colors. Take a chance this week! Wear something out of the ordinary.

 

Posted on in Art, fashion, Personal, Photography, Travel

Hawaiʻi Island

kona4-copy

I flew to Kona this past weekend to meet my boyfriend’s parents for the first time. I was about six-years-old the last time I went there. My grams brought me one summer to visit her brother in Hilo and he took us around the island. I remember the drive to Kona was so green and lush, we didn’t see any buildings or manicured residential areas anywhere. Hawai’i Island residents used to be spread out, mom and pop stores were the norm and fresh Hawaiian food was the best you’ve ever tasted. Those were the days!

Back to this weekend…we went hunting for the best açaí bowls on the island. The bf’s niece suggested that we head over to Big Island Juice Co. in Hilo. We took the new Saddle Road and passed chilly Mauna Kea to get there. Upon arriving at our destination, we found it was next to a hookah shop and other local businesses. We walked into Big Island Juice Co. and they suggested their signature Dragonfruit Bowl, which they served in a real pineapple bowl, topped with granola, honey, kiwi, and pineapple. It was glorious and oh so melty. The dragonfruit was a bit tart, but the honey and toppings made it the perfect light meal. It was a humid day in Hilo and we needed the refreshment.

kona2-copy

Look at how big it was! Served on top of their branded cutting board. It was actually so melty that my hands were stained pink the rest of the day.

While in Hilo, we also hit up one of my favorite places…Two Ladies Kitchen! I died. They had so many varieties of mochi. I’m usually very picky about mochi, my preference is either traditional plain mochi or with azuki beans. Two Ladies is so good…they stuff full strawberries, grapes, poha berries, and other seasonal fruits into their mochi and it’s even more delicious. I tried to be good and eat only one of each. My bestie in Honolulu requested some so I planned to eat the rest with her…only to realize I left it back in Kona on our way back. #epicfailure

kona6-copy

Here’s a better picture of the mochi that we bought but left back in Kona. I get sad every time I think of it. The box on the left is the strawberry mochi. The plastic container on the right had a variety of manju, blueberry mochi, ube manju, shiso mochi, chi chi dango, and peanut butter mochi.

kona5-copy

Who goes to Kona and doesn’t order Kona coffee? We drank AND ate it later that day. Kona coffee ice cream was so refreshing in the Kona heat. I can’t forget how yummy it was.

kona7-copy

One of the other things on my list was to visit the farmer’s market in Kona. We picked up a fresh Maui gold pineapple, which is super sweet and less acidic than most, a fan for the humidity and lack of decent air conditioning in our car, and I needed a hat (from Cookies Clothing) to hide the messy hair from the long drive.

kona3-copy

I’d like to go back soon and hike down Waipiʻo Valley. We drove through Waimea and Honokaʻa to get there, only to see that you have to hike to get down to the black sand beach below. Shucks. I should have done more research. Oh well, next time!

Posted on in fashion, Personal

Hawaii Summer Essentials

The weather has been extremely hot and humid lately. I can’t wait until I have some free time to head to the beach and FLOAT for a few hours. Haha! My summer essentials are simple: sunblock from The Face Shop, sunnies, iced tea, roasted hazelnuts and fresh fruit. We have some seriously lovely summer fruit here in the islands (lychee, mango, papaya, etc.) and I can’t get enough of it!

Posted on in Art, fashion, Travel

Souvenirs from Spain and Italy

SOUVENIR1

Aloha!

I’m finally back home in Hawaii. I’ve been so busy since I returned. Work and family are keeping me busy so I put off unpacking and downloading photos until now. I’m going to start this series of travel-related posts with some of my favorite (non-food) things I took home from Spain and Italy.

SOUVENIR3

The first photo is of a shell dish that I picked up at La Boquería in Barcelona. It was cheap and so touristy but I wanted something from the Mediterranean Sea since it was too cold to dip my toes in it when I was there. Inside of the beautiful shell are clay figurines of things you’d find at the market, or mercato, in Napoli. The busy and grimy city of Napoli was exciting, mostly because of the little things we found on the Via dei Tribunali, a popular street with bakeries, eateries, and tiny shops. Along a side street of Tribunali, we stopped at A. Ferrera, a shop owned by clay artist Ferrara Antonietta. The clay figures were adorable and so cheap. I couldn’t resist buying a few.

The second photo is of a book (and a Barcelona metro ticket tucked in the front) that I bought in Palermo. Pan de Limón con Semillas by Barcelona-born writer Cristina Campos. I wanted something local and from a common bookshop/newstand that locals go to regularly, so I chose this literary gem that is based in Mallorca. I’m going to start reading it after this coming week…after all my projects that I must catch up to.

The little tan journal is something very special that I bought in Florence. After we visited the Duomo, we ventured towards the local market, lined with vendors of all sorts. One of the first vendors, unique as hell, was selling customized real leather journals. He stamped my name inside. I was only able to bring a couple of these back since they were going to weigh my luggage down, but I thought it was the perfect thing to bring back to some special people. The journals were not cheap, but they were worth every penny.

SOUVENIR2

This third photo is just more of the beautiful figurines from Ferrara Antonietta. Artichokes are all over Italy and they’re served fried, baked into pizzas, and steamed. Their artichokes are also different colors, which I thought was beautiful.

SOUVENIR4

Ah. This last photo is of a few things I picked up in Mallorca. Shopping in Europe isn’t really my thing…just yet. It is quite possible that I haven’t hit the real local shops, but Zara and H&M are huge with the Spanish. Aside from the mauve fringe earrings on the right, everything is from Sfera at El Corte Inglés, which is a huge multi-level department store in various cities. It’s like a Macy’s, that’s the only type of department store I can compare it to.

Stay tuned for the real travel shots…I have so much to share!

Posted on in Art, fashion

Spalding House

DSC_0818

Floppy hat, House of Aria, top (sale rack), Eden in Love.

Formerly known as The Contemporary Museum, The Honolulu Museum of Art’s Spalding House, is hidden under shady trees in Makiki. Kevin and I drove up to see the new exhibits and unfortunately, the main exhibit section was under construction. We opted to grab a snack at the café downstairs. I had a cup of the tasty vegan tomato soup and he had the flourless chocolate cake.

Once we cleaned our cup and plate, we walked through the garden and took a peek at the soon-to-be completed outdoor surfer exhibit. The artist replaced the tennis court with his version of the ocean and all things surfers encounter in the water.

Admission is free on Saturdays. I highly suggest calling to see if the exhibits are completed before you go…unless you’re only up for a bite to eat.

Posted on in fashion, Personal

Thirty

THIRTYREASONS3Today is the day I make my 30th circle around the sun.

Welcome to IslandBohemian.com v.2! I’m going to be posting A LOT MORE on what I wear, create, and obsess over. I’m taking more time to write, design, photograph, and share whatever makes me smile.

THIRTYREASONS4
  I love anything lacy, boho, big jewels or stones, and colorful.

THIRTYREASONS7

Lace, lace, and more lace!

THIRTYREASONS5

Black midi skirt, Costco, lace tank + camisole, Ross, lace kimono and necklace, Forever21, purple ring, Nordstrom Rack, gold chain bracelet, my own.

Today’s going to be a great day!