Stand Up Paddle Boarding

Paddleboard Wahine by Zuicy_

Stand up paddle boarding is the hottest thing lately to hit the shores of Hawaii. I created this design after spending some time paddle boarding at Waimea Bay on O'ahu. The design is a woman paddle boarder surfing a wave with a spiral in the background. The words No Ka 'Oi meaning the best. If you haven't tried it, it's a great work out!

Reptiles R Us

Today we had fun at the Reptile Gardens. There's nothing like touching a snake.... except petting a giant 129 year old tortoise's neck & seeing it just stretch out for more (I think it would have purred if it could). I got the hebbie-jebbies from seeing the large hairy tarantulas & extra large centipedes (makes our island centipedes look like babies). Eeeeewwwwww!!!!

I'm sooooo thankful I live in Hawaii that we don't have all these critters!

Call Me Cave Woman...

Jewel Caves National Park ranger led lantern tour I highly recommend for the adventurer at heart. You travel 1/2 mile underground taking a chilly (about 49 degrees) 1.75 hour tour, lighted by a kerosene lantern you carry around. Steep stairs, affectionately called "sladders", stooping, with some twisting thru a twisty path. No bats sighted (bummer) and wished we could have gone on longer. Love hearing the history of the cave and marveled at the wonders of the cave. I appreciated our small Kaumana Caves in Hilo, they have their own charm but none of the spectacular crystals or formations. Buy your tickets early (1 week in advance) limited to 20 people per tour... http://www.nps.gov/jeca/planyourvisit/lanterntour.htm

The Wind Cave Fairgrounds Tour also ranger led is a little less exciting, paved paths, lighted along the way but fabulous formations to see. We did have some excitement when getting back to the entrance the lights all went out (pitch blackness!) for a long time (30 secs) - thankful for digital camera LED screens, they make a good flashlight! http://www.nps.gov/wica/planyourvisit/index.htm

Yellowstone Heck Yea!

Spent 3 days in Yellowstone. First time for this island gal to be in snow! Surprize! Were we prepared? No, but made due. There are some breathtaking views. Highly recommend Uncle Tom's Trail. Not for the faint of heart or acrophobic, 300+ metal grate stairs to a lookout for the lower falls. My legs are still sore. : ) Will post more pics later (gotta rotate them first).

Sitting on the shore of Yellowstone Lake, listening to the ice and wind. Sounds like thousands of bamboo wind chimes. The boys loved checking out the shoreline seeing the difference in landscape & stones. I miss the cool salty breeze of my island home.

It IS all about me!

I was just curious to see what turns up when you google "zuicy". Interesting that there's a guy named Zuicy Duran on facebook (not me) and an active blogger on Metroflog (definitely not me), some Korean sites with zuicy mentioned (?).

There's somebody in World of Warcraft named Zuicy - who's kicking *@#$ (wish it was me). But I was pleasantly surprized to find my zazzle shop all in spanish on zazzle.es. I didn't realize there's zazzle in Spain, New Zealand, Australia and UK. Cool.

So, I encourage you to go google yourself and see where you've been & what you've been up to!

Inspired by Aloha Print

I love feel of vintage Hawaiian aloha print graphics. Those images of grass shacks, tropical flora, hula girls and the sea. I'm pleasantly surprised to see fans from California, New Jersey, Australia and Spain have help me spread the aloha spirit around the world. A big mahalo piha (heartfelt thanks).

I think it's the romance of islands, stylized in the 1930s & 40s to bring more visitors to Hawaii. The pictures of pretty maidens in grass skirts, the flora and fauna in loud riotous color. Of course, here in Hawaii there are no grass shacks - unless you're visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie or Kona Village Resort. But you can still find palm trees swaying in the balmy breezes, wild monstera, and bright tropical flowers. The ocean is still hypnotic, with it's infinite ever changing colors. The mystique of the islands, with our melting pot of cultures, remains vibrantly alive and I am always humbled by it's beauty.

Aloha Island by Zuicy_
Design stickers at zazzle

Zuicy Website made with Wix

After long deliberation, revisions and start-overs, I finally finished the zuicy.com site. I decided to go with wix and make the site, host it there (for free) then have the zuicy.com forward to it. I liked the drag-n-drop ease of wix and being easily able to create widgets for blog & tweets. I created a gallery on another page with links and behaviors that were too difficult to do in dreamweaver from scratch. Even created a contact page with a form that works (tested it). Little details like the menus and appearance was intuitive and easy to do. The hardest thing was restraining myself from using too much behaviors that would be distracting.

Created my buttons in Photoshop, tweaked my header from the blog, etsy & zazzle shop (the island with heart sun). Pulled in my designs from zazzle. I'm pleased (finally!) with the result. Plus it's easy to keep fresh, just upload other pictures or add them from the zazzle shops, all possible from the web!

Plus, I couldn't see paying $$ for hosting when I'm not able to keep changing it easily, so I've had the "under construction" page up for over a year.

So let me know what you think. I'm still keeping in mind google apps, but until they get more functionality - I'll just wait and see.