I created a close-up painting with this concept a month or so ago, so today I decided to pan out and show the whole house!
Since they are selling primarily plumeria leis, I figured they had to have a local source. Low and behold, the Lei Shack has it's own plumeria tree growing along the side of the shack. Now that's what I call Locally Grown!

I love Stevie Wonder. When I was eight years old, this was my favorite song. I didn't like New Kids On The Block or Tiffany, no way. It was Stevie Wonder for me:)

My friend Sheila sent me a story about a man who saw birds on wires and saw music. He made a beautiful song out of their placement on the wires like notes on a treble staff. I borrowed his idea and used one of my favorite songs and placed my blackbirds accordingly. They look so happy to play a song for us. Every day should be set to music like this!

Shave Ice is big in Hawaii. It's cool, sweet and mighty tasty on a hot Hawaiian day. Every time I go to Hale'iwa, I gotta get me a shave ice. My little yellow birds are trying to figure out how to get past the slumbering cat and acquire a few for themselves...

Here's some tips when going for Shave Ice:

1. call it Shave Ice, no "d" at the end of "shave" and not known as snow cones over here

2. get it with vanilla ice cream AND azuki beans on the bottom, trust me it's delicious!

3. eat quickly unless you want shave ice soup!

4. enjoy!!!

I love me some coffee in the morning, and I can see these two agree with me. I thought of this name for the simple fact that I painted coffee cherries and I painted two birds kissing, hence "Coffee Kisses". But in my house, "coffee kisses" takes on a different meaning. Where as I love coffee, my husband does not like it as much, in fact, not at all. So the only time I hear the phrase "coffee kisses" is when he's whining while I try to sneak in a few kisses and he can smell the coffee in my kisses. It goes like this, "EW! Coffee Kisses! Yucky!" Oh well, at least my birds think its a romantic gesture!

Iris at Wyland Beachwalk gave me the idea to create a snorkel/surf shack and I had to add some extra flourishes like the umbrellas, yellow birds (of course) and sleepy kitty on the snorkle pick/up lanai.

These shacks are a lot of fun to paint. I enjoy designing a whole scene with little fun details that you have to look closer to find. My yellow birds are checking out the commotion below, deciding whether to dive, surf or snorkel today. I think their best bet would be to snorkel since the ocean looks very calm today... Fun at the beach!