totally tiki-tastic holiday!

our Happy HULAdays theme begins at the front door, 

with a totally terrific tiki welcome...

i made these guys by simply painting faces on planks of pine wood from our garage.

if you look closely, you can see that i used the grain of the wood as part of each face design.

the 'Happy HULA days' sign is a piece of plywood washed with brown paint, then hand-lettered.

the HULA letters were painted onto a few of my giant letter tiles, and glued onto the plywood.

you might recognize a few of those tiki faces... 

on the left: Olaf from Frozen (complete with twig arms and hair), a stylized Small World clock face, and a completely doe-like face that just came outta' my paintbrush that way!

on the right: a sun-like face inspired by Small World, a tiki face discovered online, 

Santiki - also discovered online - and finally, Baymax from Big Hero 6. that's for my Dad <3

the 'enter with the spirit of Aloha' sign is one my Mom bought in Hawaii and has had for years

(it was in the tropical backyard weekend makeover i did for my Mom)

... and the fun is just beginning!

continue reading to see MORE of the tikis that i gathered and created for our decor this year!

 

you've seen the nativitikis in my last post 

 these are two tikis in the kitchen...

a small bamboo breadboard was painted with a Small World clock face, and hangs on the wall.

a large 4X2 block and one giant letter tile combine and were painted as Santiki for the kitchen island.

then i painted the kakamora ornaments for the tree... shown in this post

and as i was doing that, i had an idea. a SWEATER idea!

i went out to the garage, rooted around in some boxes, and found a few tan-colored sweet sweater pumpkins.

i cut the twine that forms the 'ribs' of the pumpkins, ending up with simple round shapes - 

and since the brownish shades were a bit like coconuts, 

i painted three pieces of canvas fabric and glued those onto the rounds.

i added a few foofy sweater & ribbon and shell embellishments to the tops (former 'bottoms' of the pumpkins)

and voila'! Sweet Sweater Kakamora!!!

i put them in the guest room and daughter Jeni laughed when she saw them.

as for the tikis that i gathered from our own summer decor stash and from a few thrift stores...

another representation of the nativity, here with two large and one tiny tiki mugs in orange,

on the scale that sits on our kitchen island. 

battery op tea lights tucked into the large mugs give a 'volcano' feel!

on the wine bar in our kitchen hallway,

i gathered up a bunch of the goodies we've picked up in the islands...

a few drink cozies, some flip flop wine glass coasters, postcards, and two tiki mugs from the thrift store.

the tiki bar sign is something Mom has had for eons, just freshened up with paint.

that's the beauty of choosing a theme that fits your own style... 
you can use MORE of what you already have!

no, i'm not done yet! there's MORE tiki goodness to come!