Gotcha!

If your a member of Borders rewards, you should be receiving coupons in your email on a regular basis. I love them. I Especially love the 40% coupon as that is when I buy my research books for my tours at the museum.

The trick to these coupons is to go with just that one book in mind so that you actually do save 40%. Since I usually have just enough for a book that is never a problem for me. I know what these large conglomerates are up to and I make it my mission to not get caught.

So with coupon in hand I drove over to the book store. I found this wonderful and very informative book seen above and could not wait to get home to start reading it.

My mistake was stopping in front of this Halloween display for cards. These are my favorite greeting card. They are like a gift in themselves though they are a bit pricey. I neededed to check them out to see how they worked.(Yes, I know what happened to the cat with curiosity.)

But I just love Halloween colors and the witch laughing when I pulled the tag immediately made me think of my grand kids. Hmm,$7.00 dollars x's 5. I walked away. I was getting in line to pay for my book when I realized that I was walking the wrong way. I back tracked and bam! There were those darned cards again. And once again I pulled the tag and the witch laughed.

Ok, so I left the store saving $14.00 on the book but spending $35.00 on the cards. Maybe the coupon was not such a good idea. It would have been cheaper for me to pay full price for the book at another store. Coupon be damned.

So I leave the store mad at myself for getting hooked by the money grubbing, covert, mendacious and tricky (no treat) bookstore. Ah but the looks on my grandkids when they get their cards (wont see a couple of them when they get theirs) is worth it.

The free trolly passes by as I'm headed to my car. You can ride to all the different areas of the outlet. Nico and I often ride it for the fun of it.

Hmm, It's a nice day I conclude I should ride it just for the entertainment. Then I imagine myself hoping on and a strap suddenly holds me down. A malicious voice comes over the mike and says, Sax Fifth Avenue up next, ha,ha, ha. There's no such thing as a free ride!"

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.