Ti-Leaf Leis for Graduation and Memorial Day

 Last month, I attended a class at our church to learn how to make a ti-leaf lei. This was something I have always wanted to learn. At the end of the class the teachers encouraged us to wear the lei we made to church the next day, so I did that. 

That day, after class, I wanted to practice what I had learned so that I would retain the knowledge and skill. My husband helped me pick the leaves from our yard and together, we rinsed them off. Then I deboned (removed the center ribs) them and blanched them. Luckily, I was able to find pots big enough to do that. 

Unfortunately, we had only picked enough to make one and a half leis. I don't remember how long it took me to make them, but the practice leis went into the refrigerator to be saved for another day.

On Sunday, one of our friends in our Sunday school class asked the class to come to his son's college graduation, because he wanted him to experience what a traditional Hawaii graduation was like. His son graduated from high school in 2020 and did not get to experience a "real" graduation with family, friends, and all the leis. 

Since I now knew how to make a ti-leaf lei and we had lots of ti-leaves, we went out in the yard to pick more ti-leaves. I deboned them and was just about to blanch them, when the power went out. I stuck the leaves in the water that was just beginning to boil and hoped for the best. 

This time I wanted to try a maile-style ti-leaf lei. During the class, I had watched another participant create one, I decided to give it a try myself. I cut strips from some of the deboned ti-leaves that had not been blanched and got to work. Some of the blanched leaves were partially blanched, they were still usable, but a little harder to work with because they weren't very soft. 

Although, the power was out for about seven hours, I was able to make two maile-style leis in the dark. 

One of was given to the graduate, to contribute to a "real" graduation experience, and the other was placed on my father-in-law's grave for Memorial Day, in honor of his military service. 

The one and a half practice leis were placed on the graves of two other relatives for Memorial Day in honor of their service.

What began as a simple desire to learn a new skill turned into an opportunity to celebrate a milestone, honor loved ones, and continue a beautiful Hawaiian tradition. I'm grateful I took that class and look forward to making many more leis in the future.

Life, Changes, and Rediscovering My Passion for Sewing

I can't believe that it's been ten years since I last posted on this blog. For a while, life got so busy that I didn't really have time to sew. My priorities also changed. I hope to change that. For the past three years, I wasn't able to sew, but now thanks to a supplement I started taking, I am now able to sew again. Here are a few pictures of things I've sewn while I was away.

Table Runners

These were given as Christmas gifts years ago. I didn't post them at the time because they were gifts

Towel Robe

This was also a gift for my nephew.

Baby Quilts

This quilt was a baby shower gift.

More to come later.

Handmade gifts and Tsukiji Fish Market

 I made this owl for my nephew at the request of my sister-in-law. It was because there was a little owl in a book that he kept grabbing and it was getting rather beat up. This was a replacement for it.

On the right is a picture of a baby shower gift. I used socks and headbands to make the cupcakes.



There was so much to see at Tsukiji Fish Market!

I believe this was salmon and salmon eggs or ikura.

Lots of shellfish.

 Not sure what kind of fish is on the right, they were dead and live fish.

 Extra large pieces of fish. We got to watch a piece of fish getting cut. It was very interesting!

More to come...

A Gift, Aprons and Unagi Ichinoya Restaurant

 I got this coin purse as a gift made out of some sort of wrappers, which I still haven't used, partly because it is too nice to use.

One of the women at Bernina club made and hand quilted this quilt! It was later on display at one of the quilt shows I went to.

I made the following aprons for my EA and I to use at school for our Fashion Design class. We used it for the scissors, seam ripper, and anything else we needed for the class. I use mine everyday for passes, pens, pencils, collateral that I collect from the students, etc.

One of the families we know in Japan took us to a restaurant that was serving unagi for over 100 years, but because I couldn't eat anything with gluten, this was my dinner. I had a platter of sashimi with crab and a large salad.

The unagi came in a dish donburi style. I heard it was delicious!

The name if the restaurant is Unagi Ichinoya. I don't know what the kanji is.


More to come later...

Old photos and Tobu Supermarket

Found this old picture in my files of the time we went to see Wicked at the Neal Blaisdell Center. After I took this picture, I found out that we weren't suppose to take pictures. I loved the show! It was the best Broadway show I've seen so far. One of the main characters in it was from Hawaii, which made it better.

The next two pictures are of Christmas gifts I made and have since given, since the last time I posted. A Christmas stocking for my nephew, hot pads and coasters form my mom. My nephew used to like to play with the hot pads and coasters. 

The following pictures are more from our trip to Japan. The first is of the train system. Boy, talk about extensive and confusing! Even those who live there use an app to travel on the trains. We rode the subway and the other trains. The only train we did not ride was the Shinkansen or bullet train. The hardest part was not being able to understand some of the operators when they announced which stations we were approaching, because they mumbled! Luckily, most of the trains had the names of the approaching stations above the doors and most of the people were very nice. I was even able to communicate with them using my broken Japanese.

We went exploring the next day and found a supermarket in the Tobu Store near our hotel. Yay! All the vegetables were neatly packaged. We also found sashimi, hot food, etc. It kind of reminded us of Shirokiya here. There was even a guy cooking sweet potatoes on the hot rocks!

We ended up eating meals and buying water from this supermarket...more to come in a later post.

Door Prizes, Rainbows, and Japan

 It's been a while since I've posted. The left is a picture of a half yard of fabric I won at one of the Bernina Club meetings that I attended.

The one on the right is a picture of a fat quarter that I got during an exchange at a club meeting. Each person who wanted to participate, needed to bring a fat quarter. Then we passed them down to the person on our left. We were supposed to make something with it, but I still have not used either of the fabrics pictured. Since I have gone back to working full time, I have not had the time or energy to sew much. Sigh.

 This is a picture of a double rainbow that we saw on the way to church one Sunday.

 We just got back from Japan. This photo was taken the night we arrived. We needed to catch the bus from Narita to our hotel in Kawagoe.

 The next day we went to Harajuku in the rain. It was the day before Typhoon Phanfone hit and we got very soaked. My jeans were dripping wet. I also ended up buying a new umbrella because I was having trouble fitting my old fat umbrella into the plastics provided by the stores. Each store provides these skinny plastic bags to put your wet umbrella in so that your umbrella doesn't drip water all over the floor inside the store. Each time you go in, you close your umbrella and put it in the plastic bag. When you leave you put the plastic bag into the container provided by the store. We used lots of plastic bags that day. The rain was coming down non-stop.

After Harajuku, we went to Shibuya to see the statue of Hachiko, where it was still raining. We ate lunch in Shibuya at Tenka Sushi. It was nice to warm up with a hot drink and get out of the rain. As we were leaving, we discovered that they were having a lunch time special, 100 yen for each plate of sushi! That made lunch even better!

Back at Kawagoe station, we did some exploring. This display came on a 3 pm. My daughter thinks it comes on a 3 pm daily. Anyway, there is music with drums, a float and dolls about the Kawagoe festival.

I'll post more in another post.

Star Wars Cupcakes and the Scenic Route

 Star Wars cupcakes! They were so cute. They were for someone's birthday party.

 This was the scenery on the way back to school from our field trip. There was an accident on the H-1 freeway, so our bus driver took us back to school using the scenic route. It was a beautiful day. Enjoy!

One of the students helped me get this nice shot of Rabbit Island or Manana Island and Kaohi Kaipu in Hawaiian. Kaohi Kaipu is the flat island next to Manana Island.