new pillow stuff

Needing to get back to my crafty-craft roots, and loving Lotta Jansdotter designs, I bought her "Simple Sewing" book and thought that my first project would be her pillow cases, partially because we needed new ones.

Now I'm hooked on them. I'm even making a pair as a wedding gift (along with a few other sewing jems for the bride and groom to use in their brand new condo).

stuff on a moonlight hike

A little over a month ago I went on my first moonlight hike near Haunama Bay with George and my friend from Japan, Tomoko. The hike was difficult in the sense that it was a steep vertical, rather than a meandering trail, and the wind was blowing uncontrollably to where I thought the really skinny girls or kids would blow down the hill.

If you are wondering why it's called a moonlight hike, well, it's cause you hike as dusk to see the beautiful full moon. The great thing about this time is that it's cooler and offers perfect lighting and wonderful colors in the sky.

Enjoy!

stuff I didn't post due to new job

It's been just about 2 weeks since I started my new job, which I totally love, but the new routine and recouping the learning curve caused me to be a little behind in my post.

This past Sat. was the first time in a long time that Aimee and I went shopping in Chinatown. I wanted to buy stuff that I can make stir-fried dishes with and she was bbq-ing that night at her place...yummers shrimp tacos.

Another fun thing that happened was my friend from Tokyo moved to Hawaii the previous Wed. After dropping Aimee off at home, I headed to Kailua where she is now staying. It was really nice seeing her and was really excited to spend the day together.

We grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Los Chaparros, which we got there right before the lunch rush. I got a chicken burrito with salad. I was super happy to see that they put their flag on a toothpick in my burrito, is that a Mexican restaurant thing? I never see Japanese restaurants put their flag on a toothpick in my sushi...but then again, I don't know if it would have the same charm.

Then after a full day of shopping at Ala Moana, Tomoko and I went to Aimee and Oscar's for shrimp tacos. We ate outside and enjoyed the beginning of summer weather.

Enjoy the photos!

stuff at the honolulu zoo

Went to the Honolulu Zoo today. I haven't been there in almost 10 years! It was great going back again, even if I did get a little sunburned (I used sunscreen and an umbrella and still got burned).

Saw a whole bunch of cool animals, though I thought maybe there were too many bird exhibits. But that could be because I'm not much of a bird person.

One sad part was that the lions weren't doing so good so the zoo decided to euthanize them. There wasn't much information on what was wrong with them, just that their quality of life was very poor and declining.

The happy part to the empty lion exhibit, was that the 3 baby tigers were out and about. I even got a nice shot of one of them. Baby yes, little no.

Here are a few good photos.

poop from elephants make great paper

While I was in Hilo my Mom and Aunty were in San Francisco (lucky). They had to attend some family business and during some downtime, went to the California Academy of Sciences where they bought some "omiyage" (gift in Japanese).

Lucky me, my folks know I like strange and unusual things...especially paper items. So they gave me 2 notebooks/pads. One was the standard 100% recycled CAS branded notebook, the other caused me to get grossed out a bit.

The cover says "MADE WITH REAL POO!" Elephant poo that is...

It appears, the great folks at The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company Limited created recycled paper from elephant dung.

How do you make paper from poo you ask?!? Well their website states that the process consists of washing the poo so that any fibers in the poo are left, boil the fibers for super cleaning action, add some extra fibers from banana and pineapple to create a stronger paper and lay the mixture on screens (much like regular paper making method).

It's unscented and kinda like super smooth mulberry paper.

Oh these pachyderms, they paint and make poo for paper! Maybe one day they will paint on the paper made from their poo.

glad to see the sun

Today was the first day in about 9 days where I actually saw the sun and blue skies! It was so lovely!!!

Being back in Honolulu is great. The conveniences of stores that stay open later than 9pm (and it's not just the mega-24-hour one we all "love"), coffee shops that are open till 11pm, you know, when you actually want to go out for some desert and coffee.

Oh and the kicker, people who know how to drive!!! Hilo is not known for their excellent drivers let me tell you, and oh, Kona is worse! Not only are the drivers scary, the roads don't make sense.

Anyway, I was so in "awe" of the sun today that I took some pictures on my way to and from visiting my friend in Kaneohe.

tourist stuff

It was Aimee and my last day today in Hilo and we ended up finally going to see Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots (too bad I left my camera in my car during the B.P. part).

It was pretty uneventful as I've been there a few times, though there were a lot more visitors than I've seen at one time at the falls. And it always amazes me that each time I go, a tourist decides to jump the railing and get "closer" to the edge for that perfect shot...I guess they never notice the "danger keep back" sign.