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On Monday, I will finish our Maui trip with pictures of sand, surf, and the resort we stayed at. But today, let’s travel around town. We all ready traveled to a volcano, a lavender farm, a waterfall and ate at Mama’s Fish House.

But we did much more. And nothing at all. I feel like we spent so much of our trip relaxing, but the following pictures showed we actually got around the island, too. It was the perfect trip.

We ate breakfast one day at Kihei Caffe. This still remains my very favorite breakfast spot. It is insanely inexpensive (for Maui) with huge portions and the food is just darn good. Greasy. Buttery. Good. Comfort food.

Upon the recommendation of the owner (I believe the man is the owner. He is always there. Has a command of authority. And is always smiling), we tried this pastry thing. It was filled with cream cheese frosting. It was groan-out-loud-but-not-in-a-“When-Harry-Met-Sally”in-a-public-restaurant-good. I am still thinking about it. It was amazing, like a homemade Toaster Strudel.

We all enjoyed our meal and the kids were happy they split their ginormous plate of pancakes.

After going ziplining last year, I knew I was going to be sitting out of the family’s ziplining excursion this year. That is, unless L.B. was one of the instructors. I told my family I would join them if he was there to catch me. I am nothing if not a team player.

Alas, L.B. was not working. Some other lovely young men were.

I stayed on the ground and took pictures of my family in the air.

It was actually very peaceful. I did not regret not ziplining. Heights are just not my thing. It was my son’s favorite thing he did on Maui. They had a blast.

We also ate at The Monkeypod Kitchen on this trip. Twice. This restaurant is very good. The buns on my pulled pork sandwich are made on the premises. Everything there is fresh and proudly created in their kitchen. My kids could not get enough of their fish and chips.

We had a bottle of my favorite Firefly Red Flash wine left over on our last night in Maui (we bought six bottles of wine at the grocery store when we got there. Five Barefoot Pink Moscatos and one Firefly. This was such a cost saver. Our room had a small refrigerator and came with a wine opener). We did not want it to go to waste, because we could not bring it home. Even though it was $25 to uncork it at the restaurant, it was still cheaper than a single bottle of wine there. We are so unbelievably fancy.

We will pay $25 to uncork a $6 bottle of wine. But that is how much we love that wine.

It was worth it.

We have tried different shaved ice places on Maui. The best one? Ululani’s. Hands down.

I am boring. I know what I like. And I always get the same thing.

Strawberry and blue raspberry syrup (made on the premises from their sugar cane) over vanilla ice cream and shaved ice.

It is heaven. The tables even have holes so your ice cup can rest on the table and you can very ladylike shovel the delectable treat into your mouth.

We ate here so often that we filled a punch card and got an icee free. If you go to Maui, you have to have shaved ice. It is not the same as snow cones or shaved ice near you. I promise.

We went to a luau at The Marriott in Wailea.

I wore a Free People dress I purchased last summer and my Forever 21 Floral Kimono.

The food was delicious.

The drinks were all included and I liked them… Maybe a little too much.

The show was entertaining. We were seated at a table with four teenage girls and a separate party consisting of two honeymooners. It was an interesting dynamic. We had a good time.

I loved the couple’s dance they incorporated for the adults that were together.

We brought back so many memories from this trip. But like most experiences, my being cannot process them all at once. They simply combine together into one simple feeling: pure happiness.

What has been your favorite vacation destination? Is your favorite part the food? Or the experiences?

Oh! We’re painting the blanket pink!

Not black.

Not blue.

Yikes! What shall we do?

We’re painting the blanket pink!

My fun Mother-In-Law came in June to visit us. I had this project I wanted to do (dye a duvet cover pink), but I had been putting it off. She is a go-getter, my Mother-In-Law. She insisted we dye the comforter together the next day (what kind of mother-in-law is so gung-ho about making sure her son gets a pink coverlet on his bed?…The SUPER awesome kind!). Thank goodness we did. Because she was such a help. Amazing. And who knows when this lazy girl would have done it. It kind of terrified me.

I had originally seen a comforter like this on Apartment Therapy. It was in the home of S. Rohde Hill. He is a designer. So, of course, I tracked him down. I had to know where he had gotten his awesome blanket. I wanted the pop of pink in our bedroom. I had all ready made a pink pillow, and had a pink Otomi blanket, this would complete my need of three.

It turns out it was a Target white duvet that he ingeniously dyed hot pink. He very kindly gave me some useful tips and information about how he did his, on his blog, The Aedis. I love his blog. He recently moved and I cannot wait to see what he does in his new space. I have also added his blog to my blog roll on the right. ‘Cause he is cool and you might want to check it out on other days, too.

My Mother-In-Law so sweetly went out and purchased me a garbage can, some gloves, and an oar. An oar? I can hear your thoughts, “Jenni, you get weirder and weirder.” Well, while that is true, hear me out. In searching for the best way to dye this massive white duvet and the two pillow cases (which I purchased from Target.), I found a great tutorial on the blog The Hip Soiree. She used an oar. It was so smart! She dyed a couch slipcover orange. But it was the same process. I just followed her example.

Now, S. Rohde Hill informed me he put his duvet in his washing machine and simply “washed” it with one polyester dye tablet and one cotton dye tablet. Here is the problem: I have a front loader. He has a top loader. I do not have an agitator. Hence the garbage can and the oar.

The dye packets were purchased from The Dharma Trading Company. The brand is iDye. They are one each of the polyester pink dye. And the cotton pink dye. I also purchased the fixative.

Here are the steps we went through:

I put the garbage can in the shower. I filled the garbage can up with super hot water (just deep enough to submerge everything) from the shower head above. I added the dye packets. Stirred. I added the cover and pillow cases, stirred. And then I stirred and mixed the whole mess every five minutes for one hour, making sure everything stayed submerged in the process. I then drained the garbage can and rinsed the duvet and cases out in the shower before putting them in the washing machine for a good rinse. (And when I say, “I,” I mean my Mother-in Law and myself.)

What you will not see, is me in the shower, in my pink bathing suit, wringing the comforter over and over in the shower to get the dye out. My hands were pink.

I rinsed and drained this three times in the washing machine.

Then we went to a different bathtub and added the fixative. Even after three rinses in the washing machine, dye was still seeping out. I am glad I bought the fixative. After letting this rest for twenty minutes, I washed it in a real cycle. Then I dried it.

We put it on the bed. And my son went to the pool and rowed himself around in a raft with the oar (supervised, of course). It was a great day! Who knew an oar was such an important item to have in the house?

Our duvet is a different shade of pink than Rohde’s was (I recently read he no longer has it). I think I got too anal with my rinsing and repeating. But I was terrified of it leaving a mark on the white duvet we use everyday. This was just going to be an extra accent blanket. And it is. Rohde’s was still much cooler. I used an old blanket I had laying around as the insert.

But, I love the way it turned out (so does Murphy) and now I cannot wait to dye more things.

Have you dyed before? What was it? And was there a white light? (Groan.)

* Just a note: This post also could have been titled, “I have a rad husband.” Because even though he was not thrilled with the prospect of having pops of pink in his bedroom….he went along with it. He always encourages my creativity. And now he likes it. And I like him… Well, I’ve always liked him. : )

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Things We Did and ate On Maui

We’re Painting The Blanket Pink!