What Jean Likes

Aloha Friday Blog Hop #9

Welcome to the "Aloha Friday Hop", hosted by What Jean Likes and Local Sugar Hawaii! Aloha Friday Blog Hop is a brand new weekly feature that will run for 6 days and occur every Friday at 12 midnight Hawaii Standard Time. Aloha Friday Blog Hop is a great way to meet new people and learn new things as well as increase your blog followers! So let's have some fun!!

We are so excited to have our NEWEST Featured Blog of the Week!!! Find out who won below and please show them some love and follow them!! If you would like to enter the drawing for featured blog of the week, enter your info in the Rafflecopter widget below and a winner will be chosen at random!!

Join the Aloha Friday Blog Hop, Grab our button, Enter to win next week's Featured Blog of the Week and learn more about our current Featured Blog of the Week below!

Grab the button here!!

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.whatjeanlikes.com/2012/05/aloha-friday-blog-hop_10.html" title="Aloha Friday Blog Hop"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpRS3tDw7RYFHxq2c4qlz-11Zt8caIPkWufZIIDUWP7iuy06MK6odHxNdmXXd4A-Tik4PrGhbEQpT-ZbMcK36xcHmxKG6YL45D2w5R_1O4_i0JI7fRBca6DhLnpW5L9i0rB8UwWYDzzKk/s400/draft.jpg" alt="Aloha Friday Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

This is all about sharing the Aloha spirit with other bloggers out there and helping each other to gain some exposure and find some awesome blogs to read!!! You don't have to be from Hawai'i to participate! In fact, we encourage and welcome people from all over the world to join us on this Aloha Friday Blog hop!

Follow Jean via Google Friend Connect, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Networked Blogs, Pinterest, Tumblr, Linky Followers, and Bloglovin!
Link up your blog name and URL with our Linky below. You can do a separate entry for your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Linky. We want everyone to get lots of follows and some sugar!!
Grab our Aloha Friday button and include it in a post about the event on your blog and in your sidebar (if you want) to show some love and let everyone know that you participate in the weekly blog hop!
Go to as many blogs on the Linky as you want and FOLLOW them!! Be sure to tell them that you are from Aloha Friday Blog Hop!!!
If someone is nice enough to follow you, why not show them some Aloha and some sugar and Follow back any followers you have gained from the Aloha Friday Blog Hop!

--Featured Blog of the Week: --According to L--

Here's a little info about Liz from According to L: I started this blog as a way to keep track of my recipes, and then developed into a forum for tutorials and memory book on my life and my kids and my family. I am so excited to share my tales with you and hope that you find inspiration, hope and humor in my posts. The blog and shop is a source of fun for me, not livelihood (yet), though that it my dream someday *sigh* My life is probably no different from many of my readers, but I like that. I like that we all share something in common, especially when things get tough or troublesome. It's always nice to know you're not alone, and thanks to this place, I never am.

What's neat about our Blog Hop:

Put the same linky list code on your blog and you'll have the exact same list!
Your blog visitors can add their blog to your list and it will show up on Everyones lists!
By adding your blog YOU MAY BE RANDOMLY CHOSEN FOR OUR BLOG SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK!!!

**Leave a comment with your blog address if you are new to our hop so we can follow you back**

Happy Aloha Friday!

Remember, if someone follows you, follow them back! Show some Aloha!
If you want to embed this blog hop on your blog, click the link below where all the thumbnails for people's blogs are. It's called "Get the code here.."

Enter YOUR Blog to be the next Aloha Friday's Spotlight Blog of the Week!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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, by WhatJeanLikes

inspiration

Press On...

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, by WhatJeanLikes

health

Oceans of Garbage?

You are what you eat. Most of us think, well I don't eat that bad, so I'll be okay. That may not be the case. I live in Hawai'i where we eat all types of fish and seafood. Sometimes we eat it raw and sometimes it's cooked but seafood is a main staple in our diets here in Hawai'i. Since the tragedy in Japan last year, the price for fish has steadily gone up and is so expensive now that a lot of people can't afford it. I have always considered myself to be an advocate of the ocean because I grew up with a love and respect for sharks, whales and dolphins and belong to several organizations that fight to save those animals.

I do what I can to recycle but to be honest, haven't really given much thought to how pollution in the ocean, specifically plastic pollution can cause problems for the ocean, the sea creatures and us. In Hawai'i we have been very aware of the big pile of debris from Japan after the earthquake and tsunami last year and the danger that huge pile of debris poses to humans and sea creatures alike. So many people I know are "really concerned" about this huge pile of debris and how to take care of it/get rid of it. What about the every day pollution going into our oceans beyond the debris from the Japan tsunami and earthquake? A lot of people don't think about it.

I think that a lot of people don't realize how vital the ocean's health is to our ecosystem and way of living. The balance of the oceans is vital to our livelihood. When the balance in the ocean is thrown off, we will see the fallout from it. With the overfishing and shark finning and dolphin and whale slaughtering going on, it's no wonder so many fish and other sea creatures are dying and beaching themselves. I'll get into that topic in another post on another day because I could go on and on without end regarding those topics. Here's a helpful and informative resource about how the ocean ecosystem affects our climate [click the link].

Someone wrote me and sent me this graphic (click the sliver of a picture to the left to see it expanded) about plastics pollution in our ocean and how the garbage we allow to go into the ocean ends up being consumed by us in the end. It's very scary. Consider the BPA that is found in a lot of plastic products that scientists are now discovering may cause cancer or increase in the chances of cancer. So what happens if we pollute the oceans with plastic? The fish eat it and bigger fish eat it and we eat the bigger fish... Very scary thought. The graphic below is interesting, full of information and true. I really liked how they incorporated the facts with something colorful and interesting.

We all have to do our part to keep our world clean, especially our oceans!!

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, by WhatJeanLikes

photography

Beauty in the most unusual places

You know the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? I have found it to be true in many ways. One man's trash is another man's treasure. What is beautiful to one person may be considered strange or ugly to another. Many times, the most beautiful things come from something that is not quite so beautiful. It's like meeting a person the first time and perhaps they're not attractive or they're not the most outgoing person. If you relied only on your first impression, you might not get to know the true beauty of that person. It's when you take the time to look beyond any outward exterior or awkwardness and truly get to know someone that their true inner beauty is revealed. Bottom line: don't judge a book by it's cover!! I know I have gotten quite cheesy here and used a quote or two that would be considered by many to be trite. There's a reason sayings and quotes like the ones I referred to above are so overly used...it's because they are true.

Take this flower for instance. I was watching my son ride his bike the other day and snapping random photos of him. I went to get a chair which I keep in an area where there are these prickly plants that have thorns all along the edges so I never touch them. I noticed a bloom peeking out through the middle of the plant. It took some maneuvering to get my camera and lens in an area where I could get a picture without the "leaves" obstructing my view of the flower. Did I mention these leaves are lined with prickly thorns that not only hurt if you get poked, but scratch you up and cause the scratches to swell? Not fun. I managed to get a shot of the flower and it was the prettiest pink/peach/coral shade. Proof that beauty can come out of something that isn't very special on it's own, something that is prickly and hard to maneuver around. The point is that if you take the time to get to know someone or to maneuver around the unattractive bits or the awkward moments or prickly situations, you can end up quite blessed. Whether it's with people or plants, there's beauty everywhere. You just have to be willing to take the time to get the shot.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

xoxo,

Jean

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, by WhatJeanLikes

photography

Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail..

A couple of weekends ago my son and I went hiking with my sister in law, her daughter, sister, mother and nephews. It was such a nice day and a wonderful experience. I've been trying to be more active and it was a nice excuse to take some photos. The water was blue and clear and so was the sky with the exception of a few clouds. Even though the sun was shining bright and hot on my skin, the wind provided a nice cool breeze to keep me from really feeling the heat. It didn't hurt that I was wearing my awesome Dermalogica sunscreen (which I will review later this week). Regardless of the direction you look, you're a snap away from a postcard worthy photo. There's a beautiful lighthouse that you can see as you hike and then of course, the beautiful beach below.

There were so many shades of blue that a person could spend all day up there trying to count and name them all. As I gazed down at the clear, blue water at Makapu'u beach, I reminisced on fond memories of spending every day there body boarding and swimming through and under the waves. Before I had my son, I literally spent at least a year at the beach every single day and Makapu'u beach was my favorite one to go to. The current is strong, but the water is clean and clear and so refreshing. I miss body boarding. I don't think I would be much good at it now haha. I went there every single day I was pregnant (except for a few days before I gave birth) and some of my fondest memories were laying in the sand and feeling my son kick in my tummy. I can't believe that was 11 years ago. Time flies.

I hope you all enjoy these pictures and are having a wonderful week.

YOLO!

My neice Alohilani enjoying a piece of fried chicken while she takes in the beautiful view. :)

I am so blessed to live in Hawai'i. I have traveled all over the west and east coast of the US and throughout Europe and though I have seen some amazing architecture and beautiful sights, nothing is quite like Hawai'i.

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, by WhatJeanLikes

family