I got the chance to try out some lovely natural products from Hugo Naturals. I had heard wonderful things about Hugo’s products. Reading the labels I can tell the ingredients seem really high quality. Hugo’s values are similar to my own- natural, free of harmful toxic ingredients, and even vegan! I gave a friend of mine a baby shower gift basket chock full of Hugo Baby collection last year and got glowing reviews on the products from her. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to try these products, especially the Brown Sugar Body Polish. Because, let’s face it, what girl doesn’t love to do a really thorough sugar scrub, slather herself in a silky moisturizer and get dressed up? I know this girl does.  I was a little confused initially by the name of “Kumquat” Brown Sugar Body Polish. I had to retrace my memories to determine what a Kumquat actually was. A gentle giant? A silly looking dog mix? A rare type of orangutan? Luckily it vaguely reminded me of something that grew on a tree so I wasn’t too turned off from testing it out. I still resorted to the internet to look up the actual plant. (Apparently it’s a fruiting plant that resembles an orange. Who knew?) I’m so glad I tried it. The appearance and scent of the sugar body polish was like brown sugar, sweet maple syrup, Grandma’s cooking, and warm pumpkin pie…  It was a delight to start scrubbing it gently onto my skin. The sugar granules felt almost smooth but invigorating. My skin felt rejuvenated and alive. I didn’t even need to use body wash or soap by the end of the scrub because the plant oils (mmmm, sweet almond oil!) from the scrub absorbed into my skin, leaving it feeling like it was glowing. Ahhhhhhh…. Side note: I also noticed that Arnica Montana Flower is listed in the ingredients of the sugar scrub. If you're not familiar with this term, you should be! From my experience I've learned Arnica Montana, aka marigold flower, is amazing for soothing sore muscles and aches and pains. I was surprised to see this in a sugar scrub but truly impressed nonetheless.  As I stepped out of the shower I decided this would be the perfect chance to try out the Grapefruit All Over Lotion. The cream itself was thick, almost like a body butter. It went on smoothly and felt luxurious. It smelled like babies rolling around on a picnic blanket on a summer morning. With ice tea. And lemonade. And happy thoughts. The scent was gentle but lightly lingering. The non-chemically produced fragrance (much to my skin’s delight), didn’t overwhelm, but drifted softly and pleasantly into my nostrils and my thoughts. It’s the kind of scent that my husband would lean in softly and say, “You smell nice.” And that, my friends, brings a smile to my face.  I found myself going back to the lotion frequently the days that followed for quick touch ups. My elbows and knees greatly appreciated the creamy TLC I found in the Grapefruit Lotion. The funny thing is I don’t even like grapefruit. Hmm. Maybe I should give the fruit another chance after trying this lotion. Lastly, I was able to test drive the Hand-Crafted Vanilla & Sweet Orange Soap. Let me preface this by saying I have not been a soap person for a very long time. When body washes took over the world, I rapidly jumped on the band wagon and have not looked back. I didn’t even remember how to use soap! (Do I just rub it on? Do I use a wash cloth? What’s a wash cloth?) I have to say I was a bit nervous.  Upon opening up the soap,I noticed, to my delight, it contained an actual orange peel hiding just below the surface of the soap. I’ve seen natural soaps before but not many so visibly contain the ingredients they claim they do. That was pretty impressive. Not remembering how to use soap I grabbed my trusty loofah and rubbed the soap on there for a lather. It actually lathered nicely. Not the big sodium lauryl sulfate-esque bubbles from the terrible body washes that are out there. It was more of a dense creamy lather, like a conditioner. The scent was mild but oh, so pleasant. Whoever in their right mind thought to combine the scents of juicy oranges and mild, sweet vanilla was slightly genius.  Overall, the soap felt pretty nice. I don’t know if I’m a convert yet to the soap side, but if I were, this soap would be my gateway soap. If there is a body wash in this scent (which I’m pretty sure there is) I would gratefully be, well, all over that. As I write, despite living in sunny, gorgeous, typically picturesque Hawaii, my crazy little island has somehow undergone some not-very-normal-for-Hawaii weather episodes. Tornadoes and hail and flooding, oh my!  Since we Hawaii residents are so accustomed to our warm summery weather we tend to shiver visibly and complain loudly when the thermometer drops below 70. The Hugo Naturals products I was so lucky to sample were a nice reminder of warmer times (last week) and trips to the beach (last month). It’s good to know that even in sub-zero environments (or below 70 in Hawaii weather) you can still take a time traveling adventure to the beach in summertime by using these products. Or at least have a really enjoyable shower. I’m a fan. Disclaimer: These products were provided to me by Hugo Naturals.  1 Comment Nothing Ventured 08/23/2010
"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else." -Ralph Waldo Emerson As I was at work today, I realized that I said "ya'll" to my new co-worker just 5 minutes shy of explaining how to pronounce "E Komo Mai" (Welcome in Hawaiian) and talking about my growing up in Baltimore. Then on the ride home today, my iPhone music shuffle picked up a previously abandoned Muse song added to my collection years ago by an ex-boyfriend I haven't talked to in forever. I was never into Muse. At all. And suddenly I liked this song. And the others from its album. It got me thinking about how I've changed in the almost 7 months since I've moved to Hawaii. I decided my list was long enough to warrant being written down (and laughed at). So here it is: Things I’ve Lost since Hawaii:
I couldn’t be a more happily married woman. Unless Nick was home from deployment but I’m taking one day at a time. And twice in the past two weeks I have had comments from two different people that couldn’t believe my age. Not that I’m old by any means but it was nice they thought I was a college kid. Enough reflections. I need to go race my dog around the block. Aloha! ;) Living in Paradise 03/15/2010
 Ko Olina- raining out over the water The whole time I lived in Charleston I really wanted to LOVE the place. And I liked it a lot. There were even parts of it I loved. But it just wasn't the one. I've always loved California and it's warm but not too hot weather and laid back style and thought that's maybe where I belonged. God only knows I've never been happy living in Maryland and can't stand cold weather.  Maggie's enjoying the sunny weather Now when I walk out of the house to take the dog for a walk in the morning every day, the words, "God, I love this place" echo through my mind like waves lapping over each other. It's just incredible. The weather is amazing to say the least. The beaches...well, I don't know that there's any going to back to Ocean City, Maryland and being close to satisfied at this point. Even the people are really great. Not all of them. But most. I've met pretty much all of our close neighbors at this point. My next door neighbor to the left even said he would see if his company was hiring for me. As I was walking the dog last night I had a nice conversation with an older couple who have lived here for 30 years and promised to email me information on their veterinarian.  Yard planting day! I just feel so...this sounds cheesy but blessed to be here. Nick isn't always around and that's the downside to his job but I've already met some amazing friends through him. And I'll continue to push myself to meet more people. The nice couple directly across from us are awesome. The guy is a West Point grad from the year before Nick graduated from the Naval Academy. They're engaged too and getting married next month. They already invited us to dinner at some point in the near future.  Laying the compost There are of course negative sides to living on the island but I feel like they're worth putting up with to be able to live in such paradise. Traffic is the biggest. It's hideous. I hear it's worse than LA and I believe it. I've been trying to find a local job, which is actually harder than it seems. The area I live in is developing quite a bit but it's not really there in a business aspect yet. The major places to work are in downtown Honolulu or Waikiki. Which are over an hour commute each way...with a decent day of traffic. It's horrible. And I won't get started on parking. I did interview at a restaurant at a golf course one street over from out house so I'm hoping to hear back soon.  Grass trays before being broken into plugs Also of course natural disasters are something to be aware of here. The tsunami scare was a big warning to us. Nick and I have since developed a list of disaster preparedness food and water and miscellaneous that we're working on assembling. It was good to have the scare and be warned because now I feel like we'll be a lot more prepared next time. Being a homeowner has been interesting. About three weeks ago we decided to work on our yard and plant grass patches/plugs. That was tsunami day. We couldn't get out to rent a tiller to till the compost in with the dirt/clay base of our backyard. The following day, a Sunday Nick went out to rent the tiller...but when he got back and dropped it off with me he told me he'd been called into work. We only had the tiller for a day and I didn't want to spend our evenings that week working on the yard. I had no idea how long he'd be gone so I got to work. It was quite a job ahead of me. We had gotten the compost laid down the day prior but using the actual tiller was really hard. Once I got the entire yard tilled I broke apart trays of grass into approximately 5" by 5" "plugs" of grass to plant. The plugs are expected to grow together in 3-6 months. I got almost half the yard planted by the time Nick came home. I got him to cut the rest of the grass into plugs for me and I got the rest planted. It's been about three weeks now and there are tiny sprouts of grass poking up next to the plugs so it must be working.  Grass plugs: the semi finished product I finally got the house pretty organized as of last week and even cleaned everything really well for the first time. Of course it's all just in time for our third and final shipment to come tomorrow. Then I'll have more cleaning to do and more things to put in their places. Then I have to get around to filing our insurance claims for all of our things that got broken in the move over- our dining room table, our dryer, a bedside table, shelves, and more than one lamp.  Ko Olina lagoons on a bright sunny day This weekend was really nice because, since I got pretty much everything done that I could get done on the house at the time, I was able to take it easy. I went to Ko Olina beach with my friend Megan. Ko Olina has man made lagoons which separate the waves from the beach. They provide a nice little outlet of calm where you don't have to be concerned about being dashed into rocks or taken out to sea. The sun was so hot we kept thinking we were burning but we were sunblock suited up. The sun is just really hot here. The water was perfect though- it seemed chilly at first but it was satiating in the heat. In Charleston what bugged me about the water is that at some point in late summer, the water became so warm that it wasn't satisfying to go in it to cool off. Here I think it's perfect. I've been working on a lot of stuff lately- little projects other than just job hunting. It's definitely been keeping me busy. But it was nice to finally let myself relax at the beach. This is a really exciting month now that we've both gotten to know the area a bit more. I'm sure this is just the beginning. Some more exciting things to come very soon...  Out to dinner last month at Roy's for Valentine's Day Not your typical wake up call... 02/27/2010
Today was supposed to be a pretty normal day. We were planning on having a a grass-planting day followed by a housewarming party later tonight. Last night we decided to cancel the housewarming to give ourselves more time to get the grass done.  Crazy. But still a little humorous. We had the alarms set to go off this morning around 7/7:30am so we could pick up the tiller from a local rental shop. I got a text at 5:30am from my stepdad. I sleepily scanned the message...something about "this is serious" and the word "tsunami" caught my eye. I had two other missed texts from friends who said the same thing and one mentioned evacuations at 6am. I layed in bed for a minute deciding on if I should go back to sleep....it just didn't seem real. I guess the adrenaline started and my heart was going too fast to just go back to sleep. I got up and went into the computer room to google the info and went into a panic attack when I read about the possible upcoming tsunami and the evacuations planned for Ewa Beach..where I live. I glanced at the clock- 5:45am. Fifteen minutes before alarms started sounding to evacuate. I couldn't get on the website to see if ours was definitely an area to evacuate. The site was down. I ran in and got Nick up in a panic. Brushed my teeth and started grabbing things I needed, all the time worrying about driving to a shelter with the dog. I had the crazy moment that I've thought about before where you decide what is the most important to you that you can grab. The dog was a given. I got her food, cleaned out our canned food and boxes of food, dog food, and started grabbing clean clothes, underwear, toiletries. A bit after we started loading the car up, Nick was able to get through the the evacuation site and looked up our area. Fortunately we're about 1-2 miles away from the evacuation zone. I've never been so thankful to not live close to the beach.  Hey if the eggs might go bad anyway... We watched the news for a bit as we absorbed all the info. I tweeted a bunch (and still am), and fixed breakfast-made blueberry pancakes (hey, we might not be able to use the eggs soon). We started working on what we could on the yard- laid out the compost and started spreading it. We couldn't go anywhere to rent the tiller and a lot of the gas stations are actually out of gas at this point. We both got showers while we still could- a few minutes ago they announced we're now conserving water because the sewage plants may not be able to be emptied for a while. Nick went to the liquor store yesterday so we have beer and champagne. We loaded up empty containers with water (and our bathtubs too), put aside food, and have batteries and my laptop charging. We'll have to unplug stuff soon due to possible electric surges. It's crazy that all this just happened with no warning. It's weird to think that we're not in a place where we can drive away from all disaster. Like Florida when there's a hurricane. We're sitting tight at the moment, drinking mimosas (why not?) and switching back and forth between the news and Independence Day..ironically.  Alcohol & Natural Disasters. Just like bread & butter. I'm really happy Nick is here with me now through this. He said if he was close to deployment they would call him in and they would just take off early. So I'm very happy that's not the case. And I'm so happy and consider us so lucky that we're a bit farther away from the beach than I'd originally hoped... About a half hour to go until something happens on the big Island of Hawaii. Anything else that will happen here will happen about a half hour after that. Thanks all for your texts and Twitter messages. We're staying safe and dry. Our thoughts are with all the people in Chile, the big island, and all the evac areas. Hopefully this won't be as bad as they think. | BEACH BLOG
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