NEW52-Week29, Formaggio

So last week, the only NEW thing that we tried was another restaurant.  Yes, we love to indulge a bit.  Tate had a gift certificate to Formaggio so we invited my sister and her husband to come along with us.  Formaggio is known more as a wine bar with some yummy food on the side.  We ordered tons of little plates of food and shared them.  Sorry no photos except for the wine and desserts.  We started simply by asking the waiter of red wine recommendations and just bring out a bunch of little tasters for each couple.  We then went on to order a full glass of our favorites.  I can't remember what I had but I think the group overall liked the "ball buster" best for its bold flavor and high alcohol content, especially Lynn.

Lynn and I wanted to try the flour-less chocolate cake (sister is doing low carb diet) so we decided that we were going to share it.  It was way yummy!

Tate and Kurt wanted to try the creme' brulee so they decided to share it.  They also decided to show their brotherly love and feed one another.

So onto NEW layouts.  I find that I always have more layouts at the end of a month because I am busy trying to get all my oscraps and design house digital challenges done.  So here I go.  This very first layout is a page I did on my 38th birthday.  It was a nice birthday present to find out the next day that Crystal had given me a gallery standout for it.  (again insert family's fake applause here because they just don't get my digi addiction)

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My sister Lynn and her son, Luke, playing at the park.  This page truly represents me and my style best.  I love using one standout photo, tons of white space, great word art, and very minimal elements.

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I also love this one.  I modified oscraps july copycat template to fit my style.  I love the lace that was in this kit.

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This is Bostyn playing with her cousin Nick at a graduation party a month ago.  They had so much fun chasing each other around.  Another reason why I love templates so much is because it prevents me of creating pages that all look the same.  This was a great Design House Digital template by Gennifer Bursett.  And for those of you who are keeping track, this is the fourth time using this kit, Favorite Things, by Gennifer.

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NEW52-Week28, New entry and library

The entry way to our home has been a complete wreck.  It is just a mess of shoes, bags, jackets, and misc. junk.  The solution, a NEW shoe cabinet.  We picked up this shoe cabinet from a Japanese store, Marukai, here in Hawaii.  It was on sale for $100.  It was the perfect size for this space.  So take a look at the before and after pics.

Ahhh, much better!  As you can see, we took all the shoes laying around and put them in the NEW cabinet.  Notice, that they are mostly Bostyn's shoes.  We are just keeping our everyday shoes in here and right now, mine are those 3 slippers to the left + 1 pair of exercise shoes.  The rest of my dress shoes are in my shoe closet upstairs.  I'm sure this cabinet will fill up in no time.

Another NEW for the week was a visit to the Kapolei library.  This is the newest library on Oahu and it sat empty for quite awhile since the state had no money to fill it with books.  It is a beautiful library filled with many books.  I'm sure we will be visiting more often since it looks like Borders may be closing their doors.  Here is a little collage.

Just one NEW layout for the week.  I completed this layout as part of Oscraps creative techniques challenge.  I was to use the sketch filter in photoshop.  I used the charcoal and the stamp filters then lowered the opacity of those layers to see the color underneath.  It adds a great graphic feel to the layout. Perfect for this photo of Bostyn playing with the bubble blower with her cousin Josh.

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NEW52-Week27-Ted's Bakery and Morimoto Waikiki

So the real reason why I had to join the gym is because I love to eat.  This week's NEW 52 post is a very sharp contrast in the types of dining options on Oahu.  On Sunday, we ate at Ted's Bakery for breakfast/lunch.  Ted's is a bakery, you order at the counter, then sit outside to eat.  Very simple, no table services, very casual.  The kind of place one would go after surfing the north shore.  So we stopped off at Ted's on our way home from Turtle Bay.  I had the local moco (rice, hamburger, raw egg, and gravy).  The local moco is a classic dish probably only found in Hawaii.  Well I had to say that this was one of the best loco mocos I ever had.  The gravy was perfect!  To make myself feel better, I had it with brown rice.  Here is a quick photo (below).  Tate had the fried rice omlette but it wasn't really wasn't anything special worth photo or blogging about.  We passed on their yummy pies since we can get them at our local grocery store.  However, if you go, you need to eat their chocolate haupia pie.  My favorite!

Last night, we had our second NEW dining experience for the week.  We went to Morimoto Waikiki.  Yes, this is the new kitchen stadium of Iron Chef Morimoto.  It was one of our favorite dining of all time.  Tate liked it better than Chef Mavro's.  It was like having a familiar Japanese meal with a twist.  Let me just show you . . .

So for appetizers, we had the toro tartare.  It had the toro sashimi smeared on a wooden block and you had a choice of different things to top it (nori, cream cheese, wasabi, maui onion, avocado, and rice crackers).  This was a perfect way to start the meal.  Next, we had the kakuni.  This a a piece of pork belly that has been cooked for 10 hours.  It was so soft and full of flavor.  The third appetizer that we ordered was the wagyu carpaccio.  This was probably everyone's favorite meal of the night.  It was raw wagyu beef that was in a sauce of hot oil, ginger, and yuzu.  It was also my first time eating totally raw meat and I was so happily surprised.  For our entrees, my mom ordered the surf and turf.  She said her steak was even better than Ruth Chris Steakhouse.  The turf potion was ahi poke (raw fish).  It had a bonito foam on the top.  That was really cool.  My mom really loved her meal.  My dad, Tate, and I all ate the seafood toban yaki (lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels in a spicy miso broth).  A little too spicy for dad, but Tate and I really enjoyed this meal.  I thought it was a really good deal at $43 for the quality and quantity of seafood that we got.

Morimoto Waikiki is located in the Edition Hotel.  This was the first time I even heard of the Edition.  It renovated and replaced the old Ilikai Hotel.  The Edition is really modern and classy.  We will need to plan our next staycation there.  Our waiter said that many movie stars and celebs frequent this hotel and he gets to serve them.  The Prince of Morocco was just there last night having a private party out on the outdoor lounge area.  Here are a few other photos from the night.  The only shot I didn't get was their gorgeous bathroom.  It was the nicest bathroom ever.

Here are my NEW layouts from the last few weeks.

This one shares highlights from our 4th of July celebration at Turtle Bay.

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NEW52-Week26 - play kitchen accessories

Just a quick post to share our NEW52 for week 16.

As you know, last week Tate made Bostyn a NEW store.  So this week, he bought her accessories to complete her store/kitchen.  How cute is this Play Kitchen Accessory (4 pack) set from Play Kitchens.  It comes with a baking set, smoothy blender, toaster, and coffee maker.

Bostyn loves playing with this set as it includes some fruits and butter, makes me coffee each morning.  Speaking of making me coffee, she only puts the cup under the coffee make instead of the coffee pot.  Why, because I use a Keurig so she just copies what I do.

Have a great long 4th of July weekend, if living in the states.  We are off to a mini-staycation at the Turtle Bay Resort.  Today we are going to hang with some of Tate's co-workers at the pool then see the fireworks on Monday night.