The Kate Keeper has Moved to Wordpress

Hi there,

I've moved my blog to Wordpress. Please visit my new/same blog at http://thekatekeeper.wordpress.com, where you'll find my latest post on "DIY" outdoor cinema.

Thanks!
Kate

Whirlwind Week Wrap Up

Loyal readers (friends),

The last few days been a complete whirlwind. Between last week's midweek holiday, a weekend trip to The City of Angels, and a bunch of afterwork errands and commitments, my creative and storytelling juices were drunk by other activities this week. And still, I'm too exhausted to put the week's stories into words, so here are pictures and brief explanations instead.

Remember that garden I told you about? I was so hopeful that my regular ol' thumb was turning green, when I decided to uproot these deceiving carrots. Look at them! The leaves are flourishing and throwing equinox parties upstairs, while the roots are like, "What's that noise? Whatever...I'll keep sleeping." This garden thing is giving a whole new meaning to my favorite vegetarian motto: I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals; I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

We bought 25 sparklers for $10 on the side of the road from a ten-year-old on the 4th. Only about six of them were capable of catching fire, making this paragraph feel like a word problem from 7th grade math and that kid a slick entrepreneur.

I visited my dear friend Caitlin in Los Angeles last weekend, where a ruthless Banana Gram tournament quickly commenced. You can always rely on Caitlin for night of games and day of crafts. She also let me borrow this festive nail polish from Sally Hansen.

Sally Hansen Pacifc Blue

The man friend and I stopped for Greek food at Taverna Tony on our way down the coast into LA. A few takeaways from this:

• This was the best Greek food I've ever had. 
• French fries at Greek restaurants are basically the same as everywhere else. It was my pleasure to discover this for you.
• The "dip" and bread they served before you order tied in deliciousness with everything else we ordered. Our waiter actually commented on how quickly we ate it and brought us a new plate of it. In the picture you can see Jordan's hand hastily reaching for more. In short: go for the dip. (Note: it's not hummus; we asked. It's better.)

The no-upper-lip smiles are always a party, or in this case, dive bar, favorite. 

Top 3 U.S. Olympic Moments

This post brought to you courtesy of the 3 handfuls of peanut m&ms I ate at approximately 9 p.m. last evening. #Tweakinglikeakidonhalloween

In celebration of this glorious time of year -- the country's coming 236th birthday, the watching of the Olympic Trials and the countdown to the opening ceremony of the London Olympics -- I felt it was appropriate to revisit some of the most memorable and evocative Olympic moments for us as Americans.

First on my short list is not only practically guaranteed the first on yours too, but also my favorite sports moment of all time. Kerri Strug's gold-medal-earning ankle-spraining vault at the 1996 summer games in Atlanta is everything you want in a sports moment: an eleventh hour, world-is-watching personal performance that leads to team victory. 

Let's relive it, shall we? 

Follow the 2012 women's Olympic gymnastics team members on Twitter:

Gabby Douglas

Jordyn Wieber

Kyla Ross

McKayla Maroney

Aly Raisman

No matter how many times I watch that video (5 times so far this evening), it still gets me. Plus, you have to appreciate Mrs. Strug and the Magnificent Seven showing off the best of 90s fashion trends: owl glasses and visor-like bangs. Here's my mom sporting both like a true 90s babe.

Next, let's travel over to the 2008 men's swim team. I know, I know, no one likes a men's swim team, but do it for your country, okay?

The men's 4x100 freestyle relay in Beijing lasted a bit over 3 minutes, but the final 25 yards seemed to stretch out as American, Jason Lezak attempted and succeeded in passing the French by a fingertip's distance to win the gold. I still can't believe he touched the wall first. 

Please excuse the cheesy intro and the annoying music at the end of this video of the grippingly close race.

Finally, though I wasn't born when this one took place, as a BU alum, I feel indirectly connected to the 1980 "miracle on ice" that happened at Lake Placid, where four Terriers helped comprise the US Olympic hockey team that year. For those that don't know the story or haven't seen the movie, first of all, please do watch the movie, but second, the story is one of underdogs (the US) beating the top dogs (USSR, at the time), but the rivalry it features is all the more potent because of the decades-old Cold War between the two super powers. 

The game wasn't played for a medal; though the US did go on to earn gold that year. And everyone loves a good celebration video, so check out the final minute of the game, where the US leads 4-3. 

Now that you're feeling nice and patriotic, head on over to my dear friend's blog for a festive Fourth of July recipe that's colorful, decadent and pyrotechnic. 

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! 

Colorful Kitchen Utensils

When I saw these festive spoons on the crafty blog, Little Bit Funky, I knew I had to paint some of my own.

Spoons with a touch of sunshine from Little Bit Funky.

What a fun way to add some spunk to our kitchen counters, huh?

Knowing that I wanted to do this craft when I got home from vacation, I bought a package of 5 bamboo spoons at a quaint winery on the road to Haleakala in Maui, thinking the exotic location of my purchase would add to the originality of my craft. When I got home, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to see if could find some dark wood spoons to add into the mix, and guess what I found? The same exact package of bamboo spoons! Thanks a lot, globalization. 

Yea, but mine were only subject to a 4.16% sales tax, so take THAT, California.

Anywho, I digress. The hardest part of this craft was picking colors. I had only 5 wooden utensils to paint, but I spent a good 20 minutes on the acrylic paint aisle in Michael's picking and pairing colors from Martha Stewart's multi-surface paint collection.

Ultimately, I chose bright, candy colors for my spoons. Here's how I did them:

What You Need

• Collection of wooden spoons
• Non-toxic acrylic paint (Don't add chemicals to your kitchen!)
• Masking tape
• Fine sandpaper 
• Paint brushes
• Pencil
• Tape measure/ruler

Painting Your Spoons, Step-by-Step

Step 1. Use tape measure and pencil to mark off a uniform length on the spoon handles. I marked mine at 3.5 inches. Then wrap masking/painter's tape around the handle at the pencil mark to separate the painted area from the rest of the spoon. 

Step 2. Use the sandpaper to buff the area to be painted. This will help the paint stick.

Step 3.  Apply your first coat of paint to your spoons.

Step 4. Place the painted spoons in jars to dry. Wait an hour. 

Step 5. After the first coat of paint has dried. apply another. Let that coat dry.

Step 6. When the second coat of paint is dry, slowly peel off the masking tape.

Step 7.  Place your spoons in a glass jar for festive storing and then get cooking!

I now only refer to my kitchen utensils by their color. You cook pasta in the silver, stir with the pink, drain into the white and eat off of the green.

Stirring my favorite broccolini and tortellini salad.

If the rainbow colors are too much for you, check out Anthropologie's take on these festive wood utensils. For the ferociously festive out there, these spoons could be done up with multiple colors on each handle, a few polka dots or any other pattern of your liking. The world of wooden spoons is your oyster! Now go on and get painting!

Sock Buns

If your hair hangs past your shoulders, and you're like me - incapable of mustering the effort to blow dry your hair before 9 a.m. -- man do I have a trendy treat for you! It's called the sock bun, and not only does it take under 2 minutes to complete, but it's also a versatile hairstyle, capable of being dressed up or down. 

The Sock Bun on my sister, Brooke for Taylor's college graduation party. 

I can't take credit for this hair craft; my jewelry-making sister showed me this style a few weekends ago at my vintage-shopping sister's college graduation. On the day of Taylor's graduation, we overslept the alarm and woke up at the time we were supposed to leave the house; four of us needed to shower and primp before we left, so the sock bun was our saving grace. Brooke was nice enough to share the style with me in a pinch.

Me and Brooke sporting our sock buns.

Okay, so down to the meat of the post. How do you make your own sock bun? 

To start you need:

• A tube sock that you don't mind cutting. The tube should be about as long as your ponytail. You'll also, preferably, want to use a sock that is similar to your hair color (e.g. not a yellow argyle sock like mine).

• A pair of scissors

• Bobby pins

My sock already has the heel and toe cut off. 

Step 1. Cut the tube of the sock to separate it from the heel and toe. You'll use the tube; discard the heel (or use it as a soggy ankle sock or bathtub plug). 

Step 2. Pull your hair into a pony tail. I prefer a high pony tail for my sock bun, but the sock bun will work anywhere. The Stephanie Tanners out there might opt for a side pony sock bun. 

Step 2

Step 3. Pull the sock tube over your pony tail.

Step 3

Step 4. Begin to tuck the ends of your pony tail up into the sock as you begin to roll the sock down over your pony tail.

Step 5. Keep rolling. 

Step 6. When you roll the tube all the way down, you'll end up with a perfect bun. I usally pin down the bun with bobby pins and spray a bit of flexible hold hairspray to keep my hair from revealing the sock.

The sock bun from the front. 

Finished product from the back.

To finish off this easy-peasy hair style, I like to pair it will long earrings to dress it up, and jeans and tee for a more casual, yet sophisticated look. 

H&M sells this texturized bun maker for $3.99, but I've had better luck with a sock.

The sock bun is a long-haired, blow dryer-evading girl's dream. I haven't tried or seen this style on curly hair yet, but I imagine it would look just as cute. No matter your hair type, test it out for yourself and prepare for the compliments to show themselves in. Happy hair days to all of you!

Photo credit: Mister Jordan S. 

Ziplining Maui

The name of this adventure starts with the first syllable of a feature on your pants. 

That was clue #3 of 3 that I gave Jordan in order to figure out what we were doing for his Maui birthday surprise. Ziplining!

It was both of our first times zipping down a mountain, and the canyons above Kaanapali were the perfect setting for a birthday-themed adventure. So we piled into the off-road van and the 14 of us – 12 zippers and 2 guides – made our way up the winding, bumping, red dirt road.

Preston and Pat were our guides. I appreciated their alliterating names and their complementary personalities. Preston – a zipline guide by day and reggae singer by night – “graced” us with his melodies and obviously recycled jokes. Pat – soft-spoken until he wasn’t and last year’s supposed Employee of the Year – offered a more subdued humor that you had to pay attention to notice: little mumblings under his breath and off the wall comments like “Have you guys seen We Bought a Zoo?...great movie.”

At the top awaited 8 lines averaging about 500 feet in length and varying in height off the ground. As you would expect, the lines got longer as we went along, so as we got more comfortable we had the time to look around and enjoy the impressive view.

Looking down on Lahaina. 

On an adventure scale of 1 to scary, I’d give ziplining a cool 5. Before I explain why, I should mention that I think Splash Mountain at Disneyland is scary. It’s true that I’ve bungeed jumped before, but that was an isolated incident brought on by post-Australia identity confusion. So really, you should consider me a bit of baby when it comes to thrills. That said, ziplining was not scary; I’d put it somewhere in between surfing (not scary) and mountain biking (kind of scary). It’s like white water rafting – a perfectly approachable outdoorsy adventure. 

Here’s a video of me on one of the middle lines (with a bit of narration from Preston).

We were also invited to take running starts and curl up into a ball once on the line in order to maximize speed and fun. Here’s a video of Jordan doing a running start.

At the end of the final line, the group surprised Jordan with a round of "Happy Birthday" that sufficiently embarrassed him. Mission accomplished. 

Me and the birthday boy.

I'm curious: Where have you ziplined?

Best of Maui 2012

Aloha from Maui!

Jordan and I just got back from 7 jam-packed days on The Valley Isle. Other than forgetting to bring socks (me) and spilling a Mai Tai on our iPhones (also me), the trip was flawless and filled with adventure. Here are the highlights.

Marine life Turtles and dolphins and geckos - oh my! I was overjoyed at our wildlife sightings last week, particularly the afternoon that a pod of about 40 dolphins swam, jumped and twirled by about ¼ of a mile off shore in clear sight from our room. Jordan said I sounded like the Double Rainbow guy as I squealed and snapped pictures; I'd say I was more excited. Because of their apparent size, I believe they were the spinner dolphins that are unique to tropical waters and characterized by their smaller body and impressive acrobatics. I wanna be a dolphin!

Dolphins splashing on by. Although they're hard to see in this picture, trust me that there were so many of them!

Jordan taking in the view. 

Hey turtle.

Potassium-rich diet

If you’re not one for warm-watered beaches or dolphin sightings, good news: Maui has banana bread...everywhere. Baked goods in general are the way to this gal’s heart, and banana bread is abundant on the windy, country roads of Maui. So while we toured the northern and southern lobes of the island -- and only in the interest of writing a thorough blog post for you -- I did my fair share of taste testing, so I can attest that Julia’s was indeed the best banana bread in the world.

Snack time.

I did it for you...and the potassium. 

Black Sand beach

My favorite stop on the obligatory road to Hana was the black sand beach around mile 31 on Hana Highway. Nestled inside Waianapanapa (why-anna-pah-nah-pa) State Park, the beach’s black sand is striking, and its waves are perfect for swimming and floating.

Underwater cameras are so cool.

Lunch in a crater

Haleakala volcano was the most unique adventure of the trip. 10,023 daring feet above the sea, the crater hike offers a scene that is otherworldly -- very Stars Wars-esq. We made our way down Sliding Sands trail, which Jordan aptly pointed out was named after Hawaii’s first settlers, Arthur Sands and Tom Sliding.

Veggie sandwich with a view.

Ziplining  

I surprised Jordan on his birthday with a zipline adventure. The 4-hour excursion was filled to the brim with classic adventure guide tomfoolery, not to mention amazing views and thrilling zips. Shout out to Skyline Eco Adventures for having a delicious veggie sandwich waiting for me at altitude. More to come on this soon! 

Mama’s Fish House

I also had the best meal I’ve ever had last week. Mama’s Fish House serves fish that was caught on Maui that day, and because it was Jordan’s birthday we treated ourselves to Mai Tais, crab cakes and a banana crisp too. We basically rolled out of the restaurant. Hands down, this was the most delicious dinner I’ve ever had, and the company wasn’t so bad either.

The view from Mama's Fish House - home of the best Mai Tai.

Aloha!