A walk through the jungle

Still posting Hawai'i photos, but I am almost all caught up!  Then its back to the snowy backdrop of the Rockies.   These are a few of my favorite pictures from the Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Garden near Hilo on the big island.  It is an amazing place consisting of a boardwalk through a lush jungle of tropical flora and fauna. Many of the plants looked to me like small alien species instead of flowers!  Full of intricate spirals, complex geometry and an plethora of exotic colors, it was truly a beautiful place in paradise!

Medinilla alata "Lalique" My favorite! These delicate buds reminded me of twinkling Christmas lights!

Intricate vines wrap around a tree branch.

Part of the extensive array of the orchid section.

Huge beautiful red blooms "Torch Ginger"

Even the natural debris on the ground is beautiful!

These are so delicate and romantic! They make me long for spring!

These remind me of little wedding bells!

Detail of a Peace Lilly

Mossy hole in a piece of wood

Waterfalls

The Yellow Plume Flower

Hope you enjoyed a little tour through the gardens! Have a happy Monday!

xo Hannah

All photography © The Braided Bandit 2012

Do not reuse or modify without permission

For prints, permissions, etc, please email me at hannahmeyer17@gmail.com    :)

The Big Island

I have now been home from Hawaii for a week!  I wanted to save this post in particular for after I was already home so I could revisit these beautiful places through photographs.  These are from our trip around the big island, starting in Kona and then staying for a few days in the Hilo area, which are the two main "cities" on this island.  One of our first stops, shown in all but they last two photographs are from a place called South Point.  The scenery was amazing, starting with pastures of grasslands and old wind turbine fields and ending sheer oceanside cliffs and historic boat launches.

I of course demanded to get out of the car whenever I saw any animals I could share an apple with!  The contrasting scenery against the royal blue sky provided the ideal environment for some terrific photo opportunities!  It was super windy, and we only got to spend about an hour exploring here because we still had so much more to see!

Outfit Details:

Head scarf: vintage/ thrifted

Owl Earrings: Christmas gift from a friend

Sandals: Reef

Dress: borrowed from mom!

Bracelet: handmade by someone in Hawaii, given to my aunt, then given to me

These last two photos are from a famous black sand beach that always has sea turtles lazing around in the sand and tide pools close to shore!  We met these little duck friends when we were about to leave when they came up to me hoping free handouts.  I have been feeling so uninspired since being home.  R calls it "sensory overload"- basically we were exposed to so many beautiful things for two weeks straight that it makes everything else see bland.  But, I live in a beautiful place also, so hopefully this feeling goes away soon, I just need to get back in winter mode!

Hope you had a great weekend!

xo Hannah

Tropics

     Though this post looks so bright and cheery, I am feeling slightly sadistic about it.  Maybe sadistic is uhm, a little too strong in degree, but it is really quite hard being back in Colorado when it is about to snow for the next three days, and posting pictures of me in sundresses! {Sigh}

       These pictures are from my second to last night in Hawai'i before and during dinner and happy hour.  We went to an adorable little restaurant called Huggos on the Rocks, where there is no floor in the restaurant just sand.  We three dollar cocktails including the Hawaiian Rainbows and Mai Tais you see below!  It turned out to be a beautiful sunset too.

 

 

Outfit Details:

Cutout Dress: Roxy

Sandals: Borrowed from Aunt

Necklace: Forever21

Purse: Vintage

     I am not looking forward to trudging through the snow to work tomorrow.  It is amazing how you can be perfectly content with where you are, until you go somewhere else and then come back!  Hopefully once I get back into the swing of things I will overcome these post-island blues!  And I do have to admit, I am excited to do nothing but eat good food, watch movies, and snuggle under a bunch of blankets this weekend!
xo Hannah

Vintage Shop Re-Opening!

 Well, my Hawaiian vacation is sadly over and its back to the grind for me!  The ONLY good thing that I really can see right now from this is that I get to re-open my Etsy Vintage Shop!  I am so excited for warm weather and bright colors, and I think my shop pretty much reflects that.  That said, I still have a ton of awesome cool weather vintage goodies to list though, so I don't want to get too ahead of myself! I will try and do a little preview this week of all the great upcoming listings! 

{click photo to be taken directly to listing}

I also have a few more outfit, adventure, and photography posts from Hawaii I would like to share with you over the next few weeks.  Then I can maybe relive some of the memories as well!  Hope everyone is having a terrific Monday.  If you have any pretty posts or things you would like to share, leave a comment below! I need to shake these post-vacation blues!

xo Hannah

Bougainvillea & Bow Ties

Hello!

     What a week it has been!  I have been traveling with my boyfriend and family all over the big island of Hawaii and have not had phone or internet for most of it.  It was nice to take a little break from all of the usual technology that fills my every day life.  I will be sharing some pictures of my adventures here in the following week.  We leave tomorrow, and I am completely dreading it.  Not even a small part of me is excited to return to Colorado in the middle of winter!

      These pictures were taken right outside of our apartment in Kailua-Kona.  I am in love with all of the Bougainvillea (umm, hardest word to spell EVER) bushes with brightly colored flowers in bloom all over which inspired this outfit.  To get the hairstyle, I put my hair in a high pony tail, then braided it and wrapped it around, pinning it in place with bobby pins.  Super easy but keeps the hair off my neck in this hot weather.  As for the bow tie, it is a vintage scarf I folded over and tied in a bow under the collar of my blouse.  Yes, I understand that I resemble a clown with my bright colors, polka dots, and bow tie, but who cares! I am on vacation.  

  

 Outfit Details:

Shoes: thrifted

Blouse: vintage/ thrifted

Shorts: Sears

Pin: vintage/ gift

Scarf (tied in bow tie): vintage/ thrifted

     I am off to make the most of my last full day here! Anyone know of any environmental jobs in Hawai'i where I could start tomorrow? I may even be willing to sling burgers for the rest of my life if it meant staying in paradise, and thats coming from a vegetarian!

Happy Friday!

xo Hannah

Kona Botanical Gardens

Aloha!

     Sorry I have been MIA for a few days, we left friday morning and didn't get back until last night.  We spent the day exploring the northern part of the island and then heading to Hapuna Beach to stay overnight at a hotel there.  Hapuna beach is absolutely gorgeous, I highly recommend it if you are ever on the big island of Hawai'i!  

     These pictures were taken on the day my mom and I went on a mini thrift store adventure.  One of the thrift stores was part of a cool little botanical garden that we had all to ourselves.  I am really loving a really light turquoise or mint with red right now, and some of the palms and greens ands reds too!  It was super hot this day and I think the heat was making me slightly delirious, hence the third picture down.  Classy, as usual!

  

  

Outfit Details:

Skirt: thrifted

Hat: target

Top: target (I think!)

Shoes: borrowed from mom

Necklace: vintage

Purse: vintage

          Tomorrow morning we leave early and start off on our adventure around the island.  We will be staying on the Hilo side two nights in a house we rented, and we have about a billion things on our list to see, including healing hot springs, black sand beaches, the volcano, and lava tree state park!  Even though I have experienced these things on past adventures here, R has not, and I am so excited for him to see all of the unbelievably beautiful and unique sights!  

     Not sure if I will have my computer with me, but should be back on Wednesday either way! Off to make some Pupus, have a glass of wine, and play some games!  Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

xo Hannah