taken on the way to Detroit airport.. the fog thick and soft. I miss home already.

My mom and I spent much of Saturday and Sunday sewing a skirt. I love it, it turned out great and it was so nice to see just how much I remembered from my mom's sewing lessons when I was young. I'm completely inspired and when I get back to Honolulu I'm finally going to get the new sewing machine I've been hemming and hawing over. I even bought fabric on my trip to work with - it was $8.00 a yard, would have been $18.00 a yard in Honolulu at Kaimuki Dry Goods, a GREAT shop but with OUTRAGEOUS prices. Kainoa loved the sewing too, he played with my grandma's sewing kit next to us while we worked. We leave in the morning and neither of us is ready to go. Yesterday Kainoa asked my mom and dad if he could stay for two more weeks and I wish we could.

One of the simple joys we don't find in Honolulu, the pickle barrel

When in the Motor City...or one of it's surrounding hamlets

My dream car...

















My son's dream car...

Shopping with boy in middle America

Picking blackcaps

I made it for my annual pilgrimage to Woody's Oasis, still the best mediterranean food I've had anywhere. I wish I could find pickled turnips like Woody's in Honolulu...

Hawk Island

We found some peace out on the lake yesterday - my nephew Gaelen impresses me so much.

Happy fourth of July from middle America. I had no idea that American Flag bandanas were still in style but they are!

Grating cheese with Emily the cheese cheerleader

UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS

Upcoming...

5th INTERNATIONAL BOOK & PAPER ARTS
TRIENNIAL EXHIBITION

July 25 - September 12, 2008

CLOSING RECEPTION: Friday, September 12, 5:30–7:30PM
A catalog of the exhibition will be available for purchase during the Closing Reception.

Fifty-nine art works from the book arts field--some of the most interesting produced in the last three years--will be shown in this 5th international, juried exhibition. Fine, letterpress printed and bound books, broadsides, artists’ books, book objects, sculptural paper, pulp painting and altered books make for a very exciting exhibition. Paper vessels that dangle from ceiling to floor; sculpture that is 2” tall; a book “written” in broken glass; another containing the mnemonic bird calls of Midwest songbirds; etchings of Paris gardens; a taxonomy of urban fowl (of the human kind); illustrated poems; corn stalks made of paper; a photo journey through a car wash–all can be observed and enjoyed.

Forty-four finalists:
Lyn Ashby M.K. Augustine Alice Austin Fairley Barnes
Jana Brubaker Rob Buchert Elaine Chong Margaret Couch Cogswell Archie Granot Karen Hanmer Mary Hark Mary Heebner
Judy Bergman Hochberg Craig Jobson David B. Johnson
Peggy Johnston Wendy Kawabata Ellen Knudson Carole Kunstadt Angela Liguori and Silvana Amato Elaine Langerman Claudia Lee Marie Marcano Kim Matthews Daniel Mellis Tim Mosely Elizabeth Munger Sabina U. Nies Jan Owen Anne Pelikan Sumi Perera Sandi Rigby Regula Russelle Scripps College Press: Kitty Maryatt Shawn Sheehy Richard Shipps Areujana Sim Tricia Smout Diane M. Stemper
S.C. Thayer Jennifer Vignone Laura Wait Beata Wehr Linney Wix

Jurors: Robert McCamant, Pam Paulsrud and Max Yela

...and lizards and turtles....

Life on Woolsey

Today's the big day. The sink installation will be completed... touch wood... knock on the biggest tree you can find! Our days here are filled with breezes and cats and dogs and kids and dishes drying on the lanai - and while at times the last few weeks have been a bit like a slice of Raymond Carver's "Why Don't You Dance," (the furniture bit, not the whiskey) I feel at home here.

finally

we finally (nearly three years!) found a way to move out of the faculty apartments. With Kainoa's preschool payments, Glenn being in school, a less than adequate salary, and Honolulu rents, it's been impossible and we've been without Ella and I've felt like I've been perpetually on campus. Institutional housing is less expensive and void of character. Our new place is small but can easily be described as a PAD. We've been spending every evening out on the lanai watching the stars. We can watch the clouds roll in over the Koolaus, and dinner every night is on the lanai as well. I've hated the lack of natural light in the old place, here we can literally spend the bulk of our days outside. :) Best of all we can finally bring Ella. double :)

Since I was never the parent of a preschooler on the mainland I don't know if this is just another jacked up Hawaii phenomenon or not but Kainoa graduated from preschool yesterday.

Lanikai Ridge hike, what we saw..

Apart from the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Surfrider hotels it can be easy to forget that Waikiki didn't spring up all at once in 1973. These short films from the turn of the century on view at the Bishop Museum were amazing. In the streetcar video you can hear Kainoa say "and if the cars were on the freeway the horses would have to run..."

3B - the best campsite ever.

Led by Thread

I was curious if my drawings would be considered fiber work so I entered them in this exhibition as a curiosity tester. The exhibition can be viewed online, there is so much great work in it, check it out here