Bylines
Selected Bylines:
Hana Hou!, the in-flight magazine of Hawaiian Airlines
Step over the haphazard pile of rubber slippers accumulated at the plantation house door and you’ll hear music. Lots of music. The air hums as musicians gather in the stairwell and on the lanai, jamming together and practicing their new chops. In We Be Jammin’ you’ll meet Grammy-award winning slack-key guitarist Keoki Kahumoku and discover the heart of Hawaiian music.
HGTV’s FrontDoor.com
Known as River City for its location in the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, Sacramento is the capital of California. The city’s waterfront location made it a major transportation center during the California Gold Rush from 1848 to 1855. In my Sacramento City Guide you’ll discover some of the must-see sights in the Capital City, learn the local lingo, and explore five great neighborhoods.
MSN.com
For the past two years during the month of December, I was the Holiday Home expert on MSN.com’s Home Sweet Home. During that gig, I offered holiday decorating ideas, discussed fun traditions, and suggested some of the season’s best holiday books and movies.
Disney’s Family.com
Tropical Island Paradise: A family vacation on the island of Oahu
Islands
Pony Up: Even experienced ocean divers seldom spot sea horses, but on the Big Island of Hawai’i you can meet these fish without ever getting your feet wet.
Ipu Art: A long-lost art is being revived at the Big Island gallery of Ipu Hale in Holualoa. The blank canvas, so to speak, is a gourd, or ipu. Captain Cook discovered glossy, dried gourds decorated with geometric patterns on the island of Ni’ihau in the late 1770s. Today, using a modern method based on Hi’ihau traditions, artists Michael Harburg and Bill Wright cut geometric patterns into the gourd – island scenes and sea creatures – then fill the ipu with coffee or dye.
Hawai’i Westways
Myth Makers: Kamaha’o: The Wondrous Myths of Hawai’i, the new dinner show at Hawai’i Island’s Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort and Spa, recounts local legends through songs, chants, and hula.
FamilyFun
Preserving Family Memories – A Game of Stories: Celebrate your family’s unique history with a homemade board game
After-Dinner Games: Summer evenings may just be one of Mother Nature’s best gifts to fun-loving families, as the lingering daylight and cooler temperatures transform after-dinner time into prime time for outdoor play.
Summer in Sonoma County : Wineries and pricey spas make northern California‘s Sonoma County famous for grown-up indulges. But on a recent trip, my family discovered that there’s much more to the area than wining and dining. Outdoor adventures and activities for kids are as abundant as the vineyards that stripe the county’s rolling hillsides.
Squish! Squash! Squirt!: Babies and toddlers are famous for making messes: squishing food between their fingers, stomping in puddles, and smearing art supplies in places they were never meant to go. Rather than cramp that tactile, anything-goes style, take advantage of your little one’s natural impulses, and feed her innate curiosity by introducing her to some deliberately messy fun.
A Fabulous Flower Party: Whether they are pressing flowers atop custom made mud pies, leaving trinkets for flower fairies or making daisy chains for their friends, There’s no doubt about it: girls simply love flowers. Couple that love with, say, a little girl’s birthday party, and you’ve got yourself a match made in heaven…
The Great Soda Bottle Safari: Boldly striped zebras, long-necked giraffes and thundering elephants, crafted from recycled plastic bottles.
Parenting
Waiting Games: In-a-pinch ideas for keeping your kids occupied during those boring errands and doctor visits that are just part of life.
Blowing Bubbles – Make the most of your Suds: Take summertime soap bubble to new heights with instructions for a drive-through bubble, a giant bubble and a bubble rope.
Saying Thanks: Great ideas to make the thank you note process easier.
Christian Science Monitor
True signs of fall: chowchow and applesauce : Seeing end-of-season green tomatoes instantly takes me back in time to a steamy autumn kitchen, the air filled with the pungent aroma of onions and peppers. Just entering the room caused stinging eyes, but that didn’t stop me. The lure of the metal grinder, firmly mounted to the kitchen table, was too much for my 10-year-old self to resist.
Eight Suitcases: My family packed our must-haves into eight suitcases (yes, eight!) and headed to Hawaii for three years. That was just the beginning of our simplification.
In Living Color: My interview with award-winning illustrator, Sylvia Long.
Brain, Child
Are Today’s Children Over-praised?: My eleven-year-old son rolled his eyes at me, indicating the woman sitting next to us. Watching my younger son’s basketball game, we made the mistake of seating ourselves next to Avery’s mom. We listened as she loudly sang her son’s praises for an hour, “Yay, Avery, awesome! Good job!” I looked repeatedly, yet never saw anything “awesome!” about Avery’s eight-year-old basketball moves…
Nick Jr Family Magazine
I wrote the 15 Minutes of Fun column for Nick Jr for two years before their redesign of the magazine.
Baking Buddies: Sugar cookies and gingerbread houses draw my kids to the kitchen during my holiday baking marathon. Raking It In: Crisp autumn weather brings falling leaves and a chance to spend time outdoors. Invite the junior members of your family to join you for some play as you tackle fall chores. Sunday Paper Capers: Extra! Extra! That big, thick pile of newspapers is packed with possibilities for your up-and-at-’em kids.
The Queen of Screams: As a parent, I’ve done many things I never thought I’d do. Childbirth (twice), 3 a.m. feedings, ingesting half-chewed food and reading Good Night Moon every night for a year top the list. But never could I have imagined climbing aboard a roller coaster in the name of parenthood. Yet there I was…
