Sometimes you Win

After sewing for two months straight, the day finely arrived for the craft fair. My wonderful daughter got up early with me and headed out to Haleiwa where she helped to set up my table and display. Nico was with us anticipating all kinds of adventures and meeting of new friends. Poor little guy, little did he realize that, he would be sitting in a chair playing his DS pretty much the whole time.

As I parked my car after Chris and I had unloaded everything to our assigned spot I could not but help to be impressed with the beautiful colors that lit over the tent where everyone's displays were. Even the dirt had a nice color to it.
Chris started in organizing the table, pinning the hanging Santa's up front, putting the pumpkin dolls off to one side and then hanging the angels to the tree. If you click on the photo it will give you a better look.

I had to but look as she went to work. She was on a mission and had a plan in her head and I only needed to step back and keep out of her way. I don't often do craft fairs but I must admit I really am happy that she comes along and helps me out as I am always at a total loss when it comes to setting up.

So while she worked and Nico played his DS I decided to see what was going on around the grounds.
I came upon these church members getting ready to uncover an imu. You can see the steam coming out of the underground oven that they had made to make kalua or roast pig. These were mats on top of the imu that were spread over banana leaves.
Here you can see the banana leaf up close as the steam rises out of the ground.
Once the banana leaves were removed there was a wired mesh that you can see here that was covering the pig that was wrapped in tin foil. This is more of the modern way of roasting a pig. In actuality these are pork butts that have been wrapped in tin foil unlike the traditional pig that you would see whole in the ground at this point.
And of course you know what these are but I just loved the looks of this bunch of bananas. Who does not associate the fruit with Hawaii? So I thought I would just throw that in.

After walking around I went back to my booth and got down to the business of the fair. It was held at Queen Liliuokalani church. Named for the last ruling monarch in Hawaii who used to visit the church whenever she came out to stay at the hotel in the area. The tent was set way back from the main busy road in this tourist town and though they had signs out in front very few people came into the fair.

The Church had put a lot into the fair, having The Royal Hawaiian Band play, singing and hula. But it was not enough. Maybe if the fair had been in the large area in front of the church where they had an antique car display it would have been visible from the road and perhaps there would have been more walk in traffic.

The two venders that I spoke to did not do well. Nor did I. But I will say, the venders who did do well were the ones with the food. And I think that I spent most of my money in their booths. I did sell a few dolls in the end but not enough to make a dent in the mass that I had sewn.

All was not lost. Again I was able to take photos, such as this one, of this adorable little girl waiting for her turn to go on stage and do her dance. They start training very young and are impressive to watch.

And the older ones are just as impressive and graceful. So I went home with just about as much as I had come with. But I have other orders that I can fill from this stock and the rest will go on to the children at Kapiolani Hospital. As always when I do a craft fair I do it with these children in mind. If I don't sew for the fair I sew for them. It's a win, win situation.

Mary Really Did Have A Little Lamb

I've never been bored. I love being at home. And if I did not leave the house for a year I would never need to buy anything to add to my collections. All my time would be taken up as they are so neglected. I'm in the process of making dolls for a craft fair and trying to finish a calendar of Cross stitch for the year. I started a year ago and I've only made it up to April.

Now I'm trying to learn a new script for the docent program at the museum which is so daunting to me I've decided to work on my stamp collection.

That is what I was doing this morning. I've not touched my collection for 5 years. It was hard to find albums, stock books and other material when the only stamp store that I knew of closed.

So the other day I decided I will start small. I've been soaking stamps for a few days now but had no idea what I was going to do with all of them as I don't have a place to put them. Two nice things appeared while going through the boxes of my stock.

I found a letter dated October 22, 1991 from the Sterling Historical Society, Inc. They were apologizing for the fact that they had run out of the postal cover Of "Mary and her Lamb."

but they had attached a pamphlet by way of a consolation.

The pamphlet contained the story of Mary and her Lamb! What fun I thought.

The poem as you all know, goes;

Mary had a little lamb;

Its fleece was white as snow;

And everywhere that Mary went,

The lamb was sure to go

The pamphlet explains that in 1918 Mary and her dad had found two newborn twin sheep in their sheep pen. One had been rejected by it's mother and was nearly dead. Mary asked if she could take care of it and was granted permission.

The lamb grew strong and attached. He followed Mary every where as the poem goes.

It followed her to school one day,

Which was against the rule;

It made the children laugh and play,

To see the lamb at school.

As Mary and her brother headed for school one day it followed her. Her brother thought it would be funny to sneak him into the class. The lamb sat under Mary's seat covered with with her shawl. It worked great until Mary was called up to the front of the class to recite something. Of course the lam followed her up their.

The kids got a kick out of it and were all laughing as was the teacher. She must have been a wonderful teacher to not get upset or was just thankful it wasn't a frog I guess.

And so the teacher turned it out,

But still it lingered near,

And waited patiently about

Till Mary did appear

I guess the laughter was too much or the bleating of the lamb to loud as the teacher suggested to Mary to put the lamb in the nearby shed until noon. So yes the lamb was put out but was nearby and then Mary did take it home.

I love it when I find these little trivial pieces of nursery rhymes and their connection to history.

Oh, and the second good thing I found today is a web site that offers free pages for US stamps. Now I will be able to start organizing for sure. At least until I come across another neglected hobby or get down to the serious business of the dolls and museum script.

It's Ice not snow in Hawaii

Nico and I are headed to Haleiwa. I want to photograph Liliuokalani's clock at the church named for her, the last reigning monarch in Hawaii.(more in another blog) and take Nico to the little library hidden away in Wailua. (Hmm. Another blog?) Nico has been very, very patient with me while I've taken every photo I could with my two cameras, and talked and questioned the very patient secretary, Kuulei. He's even taken photos too. Mostly of the church door.

As a reward I tell him I am going to take him for a Shave Ice. Not Shaved Ice, as some say who don't live here. I look across the street at Matsumoto's. It is in direct line with the Church where I am currently photographing the clock. As you can see there are people siting and standing and they are eating Shave Ice. If you look closely, (click on the photo to enlarge it) you can see, there is a line in front of the store. I wonder if Nico will be patient again, this time to wait for his treat? We enter the line.

This is a photo of the inside of the store at the head of the line looking out. As we entered the store Nico was amused. It was as though we had gone back in time. There were glass cases cramed with odds and ends, enough to fill any tourist suit case. Old photos of celebrities, arm around owners, workers etc. There were towels, books, post cards and of course tee shirts.
As I stood in line I looked up at the menu. Mainly this store sold shaved ice. I've read that they sell on a good day maybe 1000. Now you do the math. Average sale $2.50? and that's on the inexpensive side. Not to mention all of the tourist gobbledy goop. That's not bad for a treat that used to be something that the Japanese immigrants made with a machete to quench their thirst while working on the plantations. This ice cone was a part of their culture as far back as the 1500's. Now it is a staple in the Hawaiian community thanks to these first immigrants.

I made my choice. The Matsumoto Special and Nico, whom I had to interrupt as he looked longingly at all the merchandise (no problem entertaining him in this line) said he wanted a cherry snow cone because "that's my favorite color".)
With flavor decided I turned back to look at all the tchotchkes. There was something about these pleasant beige keychains that I found attractive. I almost stepped out of line to get one for myself. But I was not going to loose my place now as the line was even longer then when I first got into it. Meaning it had gone out the door and turned down the street.
The old advertisements on the wall were amazing. Can you imagine how many years they had been up there. I think as long as the store has been there. I believe it originally opened in the early 1950's.

Now were up to the front. Notice the big block of ice on the machine. She churns out the ice and then someone else puts the flavor. Unless you want the black bean and ice cream.

This is the way you order your Shave Ice. Number of Shave Ice you want, size and if you want the beans and or ice cream that would be next, then flavor last. Oh and if you want the fancy plastic cup you bring that up to them and they add the finished product to that. There's an extra charge for the cup but I eat mine to fast I don't need it. (it keeps juices from flowing onto your hands which can be a problem.)
Here is a finished product. This would have been a rainbow as it has more then one flavor.
And last but not least, here is Nico, enjoying his red cherry cone with his red shirt in front of a red sign. It was a red letter day for him. Oh and mine was just delicious.