The Secret Garden and Tea Room

Aloha Friends, in a few days, I will be turning another year older. Because my birthday falls on the same day as when baby is due, my son and his inlaws decided to take me out for an early birthday celebration. So sweet, right?? So they took me to this beautiful place... it's called The Secret Garden and Tea Room. It is a beautiful immaculate house, that actually looked pretty scary when we first approached. I thought it was pretty amazing that they've turned this home into a tea house. It's a historical home, as it was built in 1829!!

 Here is the view of the Secret Garden... it is actually right in front of the house, and during the Summer months, they have tables and chairs set in this area for more customers to come and enjoy, and sit in the warm summer sun while having tea.

The beautiful tea cup that I was blessed to used. They gave us a cut strainer that helped from allowing any tea leaves fall into the cup. 

 

This cheese platter was first to arrive... kinda like our appetizer. There were 3 different types of cheese on this platter. The one covered with pesto, the tuna scoop looking ones, and then cut up pieces of cheese. I forget what each was called, but they went well with crackers, apple and grapes.

We were then served this yummy raspberry sherbet, to cleanse our palette and get ready for the grinds!!

Lemon Curd, Raspberry Jam and Whipped Cream for the most delicious scone I have ever tasted...

I don't usually like scones, but THIS scone was SO ONO!!!!! The outter layer was so crunchy, I just couldn't have enough of it. But I couldn't eat it all, as I wanted to save room for all the goodies that were heading our way. Oh man, but this was so delicious!!!

Then our 3 tier platter came out... here's what was on the bottom tier... cucumber sandwich, a chicken cranberry roll, turkey sandwich and I think the other was a turkey walnut sandwich. Yum!!!

This was from the middle tier... orange, a quiche, and a pizza bite thing that was made of pepper, but tasted just like a piece of pizza, pineapple too!!!

The 3rd tier was dessert... I was full by the time I was supposed to eat this tier, and didn't get to try any of them, I instead packed them up and took them home. 

Here is a pic of the entire 3 tier platter....

My youngest doing a good job balancing a sandwich on the cute spatula that comes with the platter... both of my boys really enjoyed this tea house. I was so happy to enjoy the day with family.

This is the dessert that came out last, but not least. They stuck a candle in mines and sang happy birthday to me. #SoLoved

Lastly, a pic of all of us on this wonderful day enjoying Tea. Thank you Lord, for these beautiful people I get to call "OHANA". 

Thanks for stopping in... if you've never been to a tea house before, I highly recommend for you to go and check it out. The food might be served tiny, but they sure are filling. Go with your family or with a bunch of friends. It's so much fun and so enjoyable.

Aloha,
Jen



"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME!!!"  ~Psalm 51:10~

Aloha From Washington

Aloha Gang!!

Well, I've traveled across the Pacific Ocean, and am with Ohana on the PNW. My oldest son and his wife are expecting their 1st baby, and we are here to help in any way that we can. When we first arrived, snow was just in the forecast, and had made landfall a few days earlier. I was a bit worried, because I didn't know what the roads would be like, and was kinda scared to be driving in it. But, Praise God, we arrive here just in time when the snow was settling, and although there were still tons of it all over, it wasn't snowing anymore, and they actually started to melt.

Here are a few pics I took... love this beautiful Victorian House I saw on the corner of a street. I plan on taking more pics, hopefully when it't not too cold. Right now, the temps are between 30-45 degrees. Not bad, when I'm indoors, but when we go out, it's a little more colder than I'm used to. But anyways, not only was this house so beautiful in stature, I thought it was beautiful in color as well... this color combination just popped out and ignited a spark in me that wanted to create with these colors. I think I will have to wait til' I get home tho'... since I didn't bring a whole lot of goodies with me.

Here is a pic of my youngest playing with snow in the back yard. Too cute... he was attempting to build an igloo, but the ice fell out of the wheelbarrow that he was using, and thus he ended up rolling the ice and then just kinda rolled it around.. lol. It was a mess with dirt being mixed in there. But check him out in his shorts... just like an AC Hawaii kid would.

This pic is of a baking pan we put out in the snow because we had no room in the freezer and needed to cool the cake pop mix my DiL was making. It was just as cold as the freezer!! Thank You Lord, for your help!!!!

I hope to have more pics to share later... We miss our Oahu and family and friends there, but am so blessed to be here to help with my DiL. Please keep her and baby in prayer as they approach the delivery date... much hugs n' love to all...


Aloha,
Jen



"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME!!!"  ~Psalm 51:10~

We Are Going To Be Grand Parents

Happy Aloha Friday!!!! Yesterday my son and his beautiful bride announced to the public that they are going to be having a baby. We are so blessed and totally stoked. Baby is due in February of 2019. So looking forward in meeting our lil' mo'opuna (grand child). He or she will be our little pineapple.... Thank You, Lord, for this blessing... that you say comes from above. May we always rejoice in YOU, for this beautiful gift. Here is the announcement they posted to Facebook. Scroll below to view an adorable gate-fold card I created using RG Studio 360 digital images.

Here is a gate-fold card I created, I used RG Studio 360's digital image from their digital set called "Say Guac". Super fun and cute set. Funny, because I made this card last week before they announced. Of course, I already knew, but I didn't make this card for them. Just made it cause it was cute. I want to re-make this card, making the avocados a little bit lighter and brighter. But this is the color of avocados when I usually eat them. LOL!!!  Anyways, thank you in rejoicing with me and celebrating this new season with all of us.

 Thanks for stopping by!!!

Aloha,
Jen



"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME!!!"  ~Psalm 51:10~

A Visit From Maria Bell

Aloha All... so recently, I met up with one of my long time crafting/blogging friend, Maria Bell. If you have been blogging since 2007, like we have, then you probably know who Maria is too. I have met her for the first time, in person, since 11 years that we have known each other through blogging and social media. We met with a bunch of other ladies, and it was just real nice to finally meet her and talk stories with her. I found that she is the same person as she is on social media. True to her heart, and she loves friendships.

We went to eat lunch at Zippy's, and then on another day, we went to eat at The Olena in Kailua. Then on another day, she came to my crafty session. That was SO COOL that she took the time to spend all that time with me. I was truly blessed with her visit. I am pretty sure that we clicked because she grew up here, in Hawaii. She has that aloha already implanted in her. But I thank the Lord for allowing her to come from the mainland and getting to know me on a more personal level. She has planned to come out next year again, so we are already looking forward to that, and making plans for while she is here on her visit. :)

Here are some pics taken during her visit her on Oahu.

The above pics were taken at Zippy's. Rina, Janis and Teri met up with us. Maria helped me to use her selfie stick. I wasn't doing a good job, as she does, but she showed me how to later use it to avoid seeing it in my pics. I later went and purchased a selfie stick from Amazon!!! LOL!!! Thanks Maria!!!

These above pics were taken at The Olena in Kailua. I had the Macadamia Nut French Toast and the Loco Moco. Unfortunately, I had raved n' raved about this place to Maria and Rina, and when we got there, we received such poor customer service by our waiter. He was a real jerk. Attitude problem, and just not a pleasant waiter to have. He only had us and another party of 13 peeps. But was treating us like we were ruining his morning. What a jerk! I won't share his name for privacy reasons, but I'm just saying that the experience that he gave us was such a turn off, and I was so embarrassed that I shared that restaurant with my friends. If I had known that he was gonna be such a jerk, I wouldn't have asked for them to meet up there. But, God is good... his beauty of creation around us was glorious, and the company that I had was wonderful. That's all that really mattered. I was blessed to be with these ladies.

This last set of pics were taken at my Crafty Session Day #2. I always host 2 Crafty Sessions for me n' my crafty friends, and this time, I was so THRILLED and BLESSED that Maria was able to join us. Along with Barb n' Ali, we took pics, and again, Maria is such a pro with using her selfie stick. My doggie was so in love with her, and she was so sweet to be loving on him. I also gave Maria some Pickled Mango and Mountain Apples. She really enjoyed those.

After Maria had left earlier she returned back to my house to pick up her camera that she left behind. We were able to chit chat a little more and just talk stories like old friends. She's a keeper... And although it was sad to say goodbye, (we hugged like uku-billion times before we really said goodbye), I know that we will be seeing each other again, and I look forward, to meeting up with her in the future. Thanks for coming by Maria, and for taking the time to spend with ME. Love YOU!!!!!!


Aloha,
Jen



"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME!!!"  ~Psalm 51:10~

Pics From Grand Nieces 1st Birthday Party

Here are pics from my Grand-Niece's 1st birthday party that took place last weekend.

Such a great time with Ohana.



Aloha,
Jen



"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME!!!"  ~Psalm 51:10~