On a slow day at Kuakini Thrift Shop, I was scanning the shelves, and I came upon this Christmas ornament of two musubis sitting on the couch. It made me smile. So kawaii.
Wouldn’t this look cute on your tree?
Here are a few other items that I wanted to share.
Vintage wooden cutout Christmas tree–I love the graphic label on the packaging.
Two small ginger jars–I loved the color of the jars
Vintage sunglasses–I thought these were very on point with today’s fashion, very 70s
Japanese charms–A tiny wooden cow and a carved bead with a bear(?) on it.
These two flowers aren’t for sale. They were part of vintage Japanese hair ornaments that were falling apart—now used as decoration for the shop—each petal of the flower created with ribbon. I remember wanting long hair so I could wear these types of ornament in my hair.
I initially thought this would be a weekly feature, but I realized there wasn’t always something to show you in my thrifty finds. I’ll post when I find something interesting to share. These pieces may not be something I’ve purchased, but they are thrifty finds I thought others would like. Look out for more of my Thrifty Finds.
What do you make with jean seams and aloha shirt scrap? I made a trivet using hand-stitching. I also taught myself how to use a thimble. It helped a lot with all the stitching on denim.
startadding aloha shirt scraps for more colorseam scraps
I love the look of all the ends but decided against leaving it as is. It would probably get too dirty.
back side with thread ends front done
I lined the back with a large scrap from my whale project to hide the rough edges and give it a little more support. I tried out the blanket stitch technique from the Zen Stitching workshop from Mirjam Gielen .
backingblanket stitchadded center closeup of centerback done
In the end, there really isn’t a front or back. I guess whichever you prefer. This project took longer than I expected. Stitching through denim is tough. But I liked the finished product. More to come.
This took me a while to write up. I haven’t been in the mood to post. I hope to feel inspired to post more regularly–phf
During my girl’s zoom meeting, I mentioned that I wanted to see the eruption at Kilauea Volcano. Thinking no one would be interested, “J” said she would go with me to my surprise. Three weeks later, four more people, including one husband, were off to Hawaii Island for a two-day visit.
With no solid plan, only to see Kilauea at night, we started the day off meeting at Ken’s House of Pancake for breakfast and a planning session. Ken’s is a Hilo landmark, close to the airport, great to start the trip with a good breakfast.
After our breakfast and planning session, we were off to the Bayfront area to check out the farmers market and the shops. My list from mom was avocados, fishcake, and anything else that’s good.
Under the pavilion, full of beautiful produce from Hawaii Island
The produce farmers market is under a pavilion, and across the street is the craft section. Here are a few things I picked up there.
After an afternoon of roaming, we made our way to KTA supermarket to pick up some dinner and snacks for the evening adventure to Kilauea volcano. Then off to evening accommodation at a friend’s Airbnb. It’s a two-bedroom guesthouse in Kurtistown halfway between Volcano and Hilo. There were animals on the property to distract us from unpacking: a steer called Red, a horse (I forgot his name), Pluto the goat, two shy cats, and many feral chickens.
After a quick snack, we were off to Volcano National Park to start our adventure to see the current eruptions. With a quick pit stop at the visitor center, we follow the line of cars to the end of the road to Uekahuna. It was a little past sunset, and the sky had cleared to present us with beautiful blues and oranges.
Beautiful remnants of the sunset
From this vantage point, we could see the orange glow of the eruption. It was just beyond the cliff. It had turned cold, I forgot my rain jacket to block the wind. Luckily I was smart enough to bring my shawl and I used it as a head/neck scarf to keep me warm.
The Glow
The skies cleared to present us with a beautiful show of stars and planets. Several of my friends were using an app to identify the stars. In our stargazing, we caught the attention of a friendly man that helped us identify more stars then pointed to the people on the other side of the Halema’uma’u Crater. He told us that you needed to hike into the viewing point. He said 3/4 of a mile from the parking area 3/4 mile to the viewing point (I think most of my friends only heard 3/4 of a mile). We all agreed it was doable and off we went to our next adventure. (Thank you to “C” for bringing all of her torches as I forgot mine back at the Airbnb)
This view started our stargazing
The almost full lighted our way to the viewing area. The park rangers did a great job at directing us and the hundreds of others making our way to see the lava flow. Once we got there, it was pretty amazing. I didn’t expect the flow to be so steady.
The Flow. My lowly S10 does not do it justice.
It was a pretty magical night. The skies cleared for a beautiful starry sky, there was an almost full moon rise, and Madame Pele’s show was spectacular. What more could I ask for. Sometimes it’s good to say out loud what you want to do. It may just happen.
Here I am, on the walk back to the car, happy I came to see Madame Pele’s beautiful show. You can see the almost full moon behind me.
Row 80: Two sides done, 2 more to go. It’s as wide as my double bed with 25 rows to gow.
Part 5 has been harder than the dreaded part 4 (lacy corners). Could it be the repetitiveness of these rows or is it that I’m not paying attention. Whatever it is, there has been lots of adding rows, counting, cursing, and ripping out, repeat.
I guess I need some encouragement to get me to the end. This is what the blanket look like so far. It’s much bigger than I thought it would be.
Princess Hot Flash 