Swirl Cookies: A Cookie Boutique in Hawaii

LOCATION: 421 Lewers St. (Unit 1), Honolulu, HI 96815

NAME: Swirl Cookies

WEBSITE: www.swirlcookies.com

PRICE RANGE: $1.50 per cookie and up

RATING: 4 out of 5 

This place was SO cute. I would never have found it if I didn't live in the area. It's hidden on a back street lodged in between some apartments down in Waikiki. The store itself was rather tiny, but very bright and inviting. As soon as you walk in you can see them baking the cookies. 

You can buy them for $1.50 per cookie, $9 for a small can, or $13 for a larger can. I bought the small can which comes with 5 cookies. You can buy the pre-boxed ones or you can choose which flavors you want. I chose: mint chocolate chip, vanilla/strawberry, and coffee. The vanilla/strawberry was my favorite. SO delicious! Not too sweet. These cookies are excellent with coffee. They're not chewy, or doughy, or crunchy. 

                          

If you live in Hawaii or are in the area, definitely check it out! OR, they have the option to purchase online through their website. Let me know if you try them! :]

Back To Life

Wow, it's been almost a whole year since I have updated! What a shame. I've been feeling a bit stressed lately, and I recalled how blogging helped me relieve stress in the past, so I've returned!

So much has changed since last year. How about a quick overview for my first post back?

• Moved to Rochester, New York with my boyfriend. That's where his family lives
• Enjoyed our time there, but found that Hawai'i was calling us back.
• Moved back to Oahu after 7 months. 
• Started working for Starbucks again.
• Moved into Waikiki.
• Started going back to college. (hatin it)
• Re-gained my position as a Starbucks Supervisor.
• Obtained our first "official" studio together! We've always rented rooms out of houses. 

It's been an interesting and adventurous 12 months! I feel like I've been working non-stop since I moved to New York and back. But my work is finally starting to show. Soon I will be able to take a break! 

Here's a list of some posts' I will be making in the near future for you guys to look forward to:

• Swirl Cookies: A local cookie boutique in Waikiki
• My trip to Big Island. Philip has never been to any other Hawaiian island until then!
• My upcoming Vegas vacation
• fun places to eat in Honolulu
• And I'll be updating my 2013 goals, as well as my "about me" section!

Bye for now! Also, if you have ever been to Vegas, or live there, then let me know some fun things to do! 

The Art of Moving

My garage, currently.

I am no stranger to moving. In fact, as a military brat since the age of conception, I have moved more times than I can count on my two hands. Every two years, just about, we pack up and migrate to the next location.

This is not even my first time moving alone, though! However, the first try was a disaster, set me back TONS of money, and landed me right back where I started. Moving overseas is a lot more work than moving across solid land. Let me give you some bullet points on how it went.

• Brought WAY too much stuff to begin with, including my dog...not smart when you're staying with someone temporarily until you find a place to live. 
• Didn't bring enough savings. 
• Family ended up disliking my boyfriend and, in turn, kicked us out. 
• Had no place to stay.
• Had to spend money to fly back to Hawaii, along with dog, stuff, etc.
• Hawai'i requires all animals flying in to be put in a very expensive quarantine for 3 months.
• My puppy ended up breaking his leg in said quarantine and it "wasn't their fault".
• Had to go  through the re-hire process at my old job. 
• Luckily got our apartment back.

Grand Total (of money wasted/in debt): $10,000. (still paying that off >__>)

Lesson learned: PREPARE YOURSELF FOOL. 

Another terrifying view. 

This time around, we are diminishing most of our belongings. All that crap that you see above, will eventually either be eliminated or packed into my two suitcases. If it can't fit, it's  most likely not going, save for a few books and my tattoo machine. 

I've already sold over 150 of my books. Just re-reading that literally makes me want to throw a temper tantrum but, no going back so....got to move on!

This time, we are only traveling with our cat, and we are staying with his parents in Rochester, NY. AND Philip already has a job! We are much more on track this time. 

However, I'm taking a risk, as I'm only bringing enough money for a one way flight (you never know what might happen). 

Maybe not the smartest idea, but we are traveling much lighter and I have high hopes for this move!

We don't own a car, so this was how we migrated our boxes to the post office haha!! Good thing he skateboards. Six boxes of books may look like a lot, but if I hadn't sold those that I did, there would be at least 20. 

I move on May 1st. Who knows when posts' will regulate, but I'll try to blog in my free time! You never know how much you have to do until you're moving, though!

Blog Re-Vamp

You guys, check out my new layout! I finally gave up trying to revive my 8th grade HTML skills and gave in to purchasing a layout. I started out with a cheaper one until I start focusing on my blog more. I think this layout suits me well!! I love the tiny details and the colors! 

I purchased the layout on Etsy from theDandelionGirl. It was only $5!! 

When purchasing, you have the option to have her install it, as well as keeping the .psd files so that you can change them later. 

It was incredibly easy to install!! Even if you have no HTML experience, I'd say on a scale of 1 to 10 easiness, it was a 9! 

Butterbeer Recipe

Butterbeer Recipe

Calling all my fellow Harry Potter nerd-lets! I recently found this recipe on tumblr and saved the image to remember to try it later on. About a week or so ago, I gave it a shot. It turned out pretty darn good!! Not exactly what I imagined butterbeer to taste like, but still a nice sweet treat. 

Some extra tips:

-Add more cinnamon, because "a dash" is hardly even worth it....no taste. 

-Use 8 oz. of milk. It says one mug which is kind of wishy-washy, but I used 8 oz. and it was perfect.

-Add the milk last, otherwise the cinnamon doesn't mix in too well. 

Let me know if you guys try it! Any other butterbeer recipes you've tried? I remember trying one a while back and it was PERFECT, but I can't find it anymore. 

Tattoo Designs

Recently, a couple of my friends asked me to design tattoos for them. This is just a quick post to share my designs. :]

Peacock feather inspired by an earring!

An infinity band for 3 best friends featuring the aina. HI-life. :]

Peacock feather, with a heart in the middle.

Inspired by a boho earring. My least favorite of the designs.

The most simple, but my favorite. 

How to cure a kidney infection....my way.

Boyfriend and I being cute. :] 

Just when you thought you were rid of me, huh! As soon as I thought it was time to get back in the groove of things, my body was overtaken with a kidney infection, and soon after, my friend came to visit from the mainland so we were busy being tourists'....more on that later though. 

Speaking of kidney infections, I get these VERY often. Like, every 2 months often. It's a bit troublesome, but the doctor seems to think that it's "normal" and antibiotics will solve it everytime. However, this time they refused to issue me antibiotics so I had to set about curing myself the natural way. While this way is a bit slower, I found it equally as effective! 

When taking anti-biotics my infections generally go away in 3-5 days. However, it seems like they're more likely to return. 

This is how I went about treating mine: 

1) NO caffeine! (Okay, I'll admit, I couldn't fully go through with this as I'm a complete caffeine addict. I still had at least one cup of coffee or soda a day.)

2.) Drink LOTS of fluids. Decaffeinated tea (parsley is recommended, but I couldn't find any), cranberry juice w/no added sugar, blueberry juice w/no added sugar, water, etc. 

3.) Pee as OFTEN as possible!! (This one is key. I felt the more often I went, the better off I was)

4.) Don't wear tight clothes! At first I thought this was stupid, but when I tried it out, I realized that my tight jeans really did make me feel the urge to pee more often. 

5.) Don't stress out about it. I know it sucks, especially when you have to work/want to sleep, but the more you stress, the longer you'll have it. Stress is a main cause of kidney infections/UTI's. 

6.) And my main cure......CRANACTIN!! I will now swear by this stuff. You can take the pills up to 4 times a day. My favorite part about these, is that they don't taste bad!! They taste like cranberry! These pills eased the burning sensation and pain...within the day after taking 3 pills, I was feeling 70% better! It took about 4 days of taking these for it to fully go away. It's been 5 days now, and it hasn't come back, so I'm assuming it's gone! I'm still staying away from caffeine, just in case. 

Cran actin. Added bonus, it's vegetarian friendly! 

Any of you ladies (or fellas) have problems with UTI's or Kidney Infections? Diagnosing myself, I've come to the conclusion that I consume WAY too much caffeine to be healthy (sometimes more than 10 cups of coffee a day), and I do have the occasional bouts of stress. 

I hope this helps somebody! :]