flavors of honolulu

After spending all evening yesterday and all day today listening to the live music going on down the street we decided we'd better head over to experience it in person. Flavors of Honolulu, held each summer, is a fundraiser for Abilities Unlimited which works with people with disabilities. There was a lot going on including the aforementioned live music, kiddie rides, and a lot of food from local restaurants.

fireworks and poor pitch

Every Friday night one of the hotels down on the beach puts on a fireworks show. It's quite short, and not terribly spectacular, but I happen to love fireworks of any sort. Tonight we decided to head down to check it out. Ava really liked them, and it was quite pretty with the reflection on the water.

Also going on this weekend, there is a summer festival taking place a couple blocks from our home. When we returned home this evening we could hear that they had a live band performing down there (the sound carries incredibly well making it seem as if we are right there), and the singer kept pulling people out of the audience to sing along. I'm not sure how he did it, but he picked tone deaf person after tone deaf person. It was sort of fun to listen to in a very sad way. Anyway, Ava seemed to be pleased. She started shaking her little hips like it was nobody's business.

may I offer you a seat?

The rest of the place is still in shambles, but we finally got a couch.
Hooray for craigslist!

Also, I've started a to do list:

1. learn to use that fancy digital camera of yours

what is the nature of your business?

Perhaps you'll remember the post back in March where I mentioned that our condo would be close to this flashy looking joint. We've been joking about stopping in for quite some time now, but since moving closer to it we'd been noticing signs of it being an actual restaurant rather than a cocktail bar (as the sign would have you believe). Last night we decided to take the leap, and it turns out it is a regular diner style restaurant.


There were sticky vinyl booths, a lovely pinky/purpley/brownish color scheme, and huge servings that look like this - for a kid's sized portion:


And if you are wondering about Ava's face, sadly it is not the reflection from the aforementioned pinky/purple colors surrounding us that are making it look that way (though I'm sure they don't help). She was burnt to a crisp at the beach yesterday.


After filling our bellies we decided to walk around a bit. We headed down to the Ward Warehouse which is a shopping center a few blocks away. At one end they have an open area with steps all around (ala Trolley Square for Utahns looking for a visual) and a stage set up in front. We were fortunate enough to stumble upon a group of mostly seniors learning (and then performing) different line dances!

Ava loves music and dancing so we stayed and watched for a bit. One very nice fellow kept waving at us to join in, and after they were done he came over to tell us that they get together every Tuesday night. Apparently it's free and open to anyone who wants to get their line dance on! That just made my night.

Also, apologies for the poor picture quality, but it was getting dark and I didn't want to blind any dancing seniors with the use of my flash. I'm sure you can imagine the catastrophic consequences.

our town

Ava and I had to run up to the post office today to send out a package. I decided we should make our way back home via a few streets we hadn't been on before. Here's some of what we saw.




Ava found this star sticker on the sidewalk, and had to stop to peel it up. Amazingly, it stayed stuck to her shirt for awhile.

look mom!

Some time ago my mother gave me an overwhelming amount of mostly vintage fabric that I think she feared would sit unused in piles around my home. Largely that is what's happened with the bulk of it, though I have used some bits and pieces for various small projects.

This dress however, was made from a piece she gave me that I believe to have been an extremely large and/or long wrap skirt from Mexico (please correct me if I'm wrong, mother dear). I actually made the dress sometime last year, but didn't get to wear it through the Utah winter. It's perfect, however, for Hawaii's climate so out it came! More good news: we have absolutely no room for storing unused fabric any longer, so I'm busy planning and preparing to use it all (you know, to make things we don't have room to store).

sad...

I'm glad I'm not the owner of this bicycle...um...wheel.

belated thank you

Thank you to Ambika from over at (Into) the Fray for featuring goodwiu in an etsy treasury of wardrobe_remixers. That's us...bottom center! See the full post here.

happy father's day

In honor of Father's Day, I thought I'd share this amazing photo of my own dad from back in the day. Isn't his look off the chain?

And of course, I can't forget my own baby's daddy who always carries Ava when she just can't make it on her own.

I never thought I'd see the day

I didn't think I'd be the type, but lately I've been suffering from a small bout of homesickness brought on, I think, by having too many things to do and no one to complain about it to. Aside from the obvious answer of family and friends, I've been forced to think about what exactly it is that I'm missing about Utah. So off I go, in no particular order:

1. DI
2. the Humane Society billboard on I-15
3. streets with numbers for names
4. Target - can you believe there is not one on this entire island?
5. grocery prices
6. the University of Utah campus - most notably the smell of the Social & Behavioral Sciences Tower
7. Whole Foods
9. the library in the most unlikely spot in Sugarhouse
10. the option of taking a road trip

Oh, and I am crazy curious to know what is being built on Highland Dr/1100 E. in Sugarhouse where all the old buildings were (unfortunately) being torn down. Anyone with information on this project please send it my way.

(Update: And, I know this has nothing to do with modern day Utah, but I also miss the "Don't Waste Utah" ad campaign from the early nineties with the rough looking guy and his dog.)

why did we pack winter hats?

The great thing about going so long without all of Ava's toys is that now that they're here she's been really content to play with them on her own while Ryan and I are sorting out the rest of the house. Yesterday while we were busy unpacking boxes (that's right, there are still many more boxes that have yet to be unpacked), I noticed it was a little too quiet for my liking. I went to explore, and this is what I found:

cue scary music...

Photo courtesy of Laurel's Blog

Happy Friday the 13th!

hurrah!

The movers came this morning and brought all our stuff. We are very excited to have it, but now we have to unpack and find places to put it all. Judging by the amount of boxes, it looks like we have about three times more junk than we have room for. Ava was pleased to see her toys, though. She went through the box containing her stuffed animals greeting them each with a cheery "oh, hello," except for the dogs - which she greeted with a "ruff."

moncur to admit fault in comment debaucle

It has come to my attention, by way of a few family members, that leaving post comments has not been a terribly easy thing to figure out. Wondering about the possible computer incompetence going around, I decided to have a look into the problem. Upon doing so, I realized that the fault was completely mine. I had the blog settings such that only those with a gmail account were able to leave comments.

Please be advised that we in no way meant to create an elitist and/or exclusive commenting club. Indeed, our intention is quite the opposite - all are welcome here! I've now changed the settings, and anyone can feel free to comment without abandon. For those without gmail accounts, once you've written your comments simply click the name/URL option and type in your name (the URL is optional). Done and done.

kamehameha day

Festivities concerning the upcoming Kamehameha Day, a state holiday here in Hawaii, have been in full force this weekend. Celebrated on June 11th, Kamehameha Day honors King Kamehameha I, the man responsible for uniting the Hawaiian Islands and the first monarch of the Hawaiian kingdom - a fairly impressive feat considering the fact that Hawaiians did not have a written language at that time (1795).

Yesterday there was a large parade that we missed out on, but it happened to go down the street just a couple blocks away from our building. We could hear the band playing, and could see parts of the parade as it passed by from our window. One of the oldest traditions surrounding the holiday is draping the Kamehameha statues (one here, one on the island of Hawaii, and one in Washington D.C.) with long strands of flower leis. We live just a few blocks from the one here so Ava and I walked up for a look today.

There were quite a few people milling about and taking photos when we got there. I happened to overhear a group of ladies talking about making one of the long leis. One of them said it took them four days to complete.

By pure happenstance the Hawaiian Royal Order Guards were there doing a demonstration at the same time.


It was a lovely day - perfect for a walk. Here are a couple shots of Ava on the way home.

attitude much?

urban fashion

Thank you to the extremely talented lady behind GilBea's Fashion & Handmade, who has started a regular feature on her blog entitled Urban Fashion. She takes photos of regular people's daily wears, and shows her readers how they can get a similar look by buying vintage or handmade goods.

I was lucky enough to be her first example with the outfit you see pictured here. Check out the full post here, or check out her own etsy shop where she sells lovely hand painted silk scarves of her own creation right here. Intersted in seeing all my daily outfits? You can follow this link to see my flickr photostream where I post them all.

p.s. We got our new bed today....heaven!

the view (and not that crappy tv show)

We finally made it into our new place. We still have zero furniture (not even a chair to sit on), very few worldly goods, nothing to cook our meals in, and now our air mattress has developed a leak so we've been sleeping on the floor...but the view is fantastic!



We don't have reliable access to an internet connection for the time being (read: I can sometimes connect to an unreliable and unbelievably slow unsecured network if I balance the laptop on my knees just so and squish up as close as possible to the window), so posts will be rather sparse for now.

For the time being, our place is incredibly empty and not at all photo worthy, but we will have a bed in two days, our belongings out of storage in eight days, and an internet connection in eighteen days. I'm still on the quest for an affordable and attractive sofa (a seemingly rare combination). I'll try to keep the updates coming. My goal is to have a happy and comfortable (and guest worthy) set up by this month's end.