The past three weeks has blown by. Ka Ulu Lauhala O Kona's annual weaving conference was back to its regular time of the year. Last year I used lauhala from our yard but learned, with my haumana the hard way, that lau from wet places like Hilo (and Hōnaunau apparently) becomes extremely brittle in dry places like airconditioned rooms. My plans to use my own thornless lauhala, which I think is very hardy, was thwarted by the wet weather. The leaves had mildew stains. No good for pāpale. Luckily, I acquired kukaʻa of Fiji voivoi (lauhala). While it was already light in color, I smoked it with sulfur in small batches to help deter bugs, and the smoking lightened it further.
I tried to sort by "shade" and made kits for my haumana. I kept the green-tinged ones for myself.
I was so busy I forgot to take pictures. I finally got to meet LilyMarleen (above) IRL. She took this selfie. We have been FB friends for a few years. She's a teacher on Oʻahu. We have a mutual teacher/FB friend, and I had seen LilyMarleen's post on FB about her finishing a research paper. I messaged her saying, "you don't know me but..." asking if I could read her paper. She sent me the pdf and we became FB friends. She's so lovely!!
There were many cool and collectible items at the silent auction. The funds raised help defer the costs of putting on the weaving conference.
In our hotel room the moulding on the bathroom mirror caught my eye. Maka ʻoʻeno!
My haumana, Haruka and Kathy, at the hōʻike dinner. They were focused hardworking haumana and I enjoyed our insightful conversations. I'm wearing a vintage Kelii's of Hawaii found via Etsy from RoadRunnerVintage of Calgary, Canada. Surprisingly, small package international USPS shipping to/from Hawaiʻi is not much more expensive than shipping to the continental US.
Creative and festive centerpieces at the hōʻike dinner table(s) made by Ka Ulu Lauhala O Kona Director-at-Large Peggy Yuan. The flowers in the basket are actually adorable pencil party favors.
It usually takes me a couple of weeks to recover from the weaving conferences. This year though, the following week was the Kailua-Kona Kamehemeha Day Celebration Parade. I had been helping with coordinating pāʻū units since the last parade and voluntold to ride in the Daughters of Hawaii unit again. I got to ride the same beautiful level headed horse with power steering again this year. The pāpale I had started at the conference (my wonderful haumana allowed me to weave along with them) was finished the day before the parade. Had to pull one all-nighter to get it done, and boy, I cannot function with sleep deprivation like I could in college! LOL.
This is the pāpale on a wood puzzle Top Hat block. I like the concave shape and thought it would be a cool experiment:
And then this is what it ended up looking like (below)... Although it's covered by the lei. LOL.
Cara and I.
Anna took this group selfie of EH, me, and Shawna at the hoʻolauleʻa at Huliheʻe Palace. Shawna, of Dancing Goat Sanctuary, helped behind the scenes that morning.
The pāʻū princess' horses' lei were given to the palace and put on display at the hoʻolauleʻa. It looked like a really good crowd turnout. We had lunch and then EH shuttled us all to our respective homes. What a day... What a couple of weeks!