Saturday, In the Park...

Here are some scenes from this weekend's Rediscover Makiki summer festival... can you tell how much I <3 this neighborhood? From the blessing/ "soft opening" of the newly renovated Makiki Library: Mufi Hannemann may be facing a tough road to re-election this year... but as far as that shirt is concerned, he'll always be the undisputed Mayor of Fashyown. (Yes, it still counts as "aloha wear." Also, the kukui nut lei is totally optional.) Craft fairs in neighborhood festivals are always cool; I love it when the local craftsfolk come out with their wares for sale. Currently the Honolulu craft-fair market is saturated with jewelers that specialize in handmade (yet reasonably priced) costume bling, as the case is with the table shown above. Gives new meaning to "a little flash for not a lot of cash," doesn't it? (I forgot to credit the person who made these jewels - and if you are one of the ones I mentioned below, please do correct me! You can also find a lot of other HNL crafters on Etsy.) I stopped by the booth from The Bathcream Shop (thebathcreamshop.etsy.com) because I was intrigued by the packaging and fragrance names. Here's a picture of their Shaving Soaps ($3 each), which are not (yet) featured on their Etsy site; as much as I wanted to purchase the Oh! Fudge soap, I went with the Sandalwood Vanilla because it reminded me a bit of the Milk Milk bath cream from Fresh. The Bathcream Shop also had their signature product, the Foaming Sugar Scrub, at their booth; most of the scrubs they featured in Makiki are "extra scrubby," but you can also order the gentler, creamier ones from them as well on Etsy. From what I hear, the sugar they use for these products is for the most part made in Hawaii - real cane sugar mixed in with coarse sanding sugar (available at bakers' supply stores) as a "topping" for texture. I got to test-drive the extra scrubby Pears one on my hands; it's definitely foamy and moisturizing, but doesn't leave that greasy, slippery film that you get from other scrubs, which makes it a nice choice for those of us who can't afford to slip in the shower every time we get scrubby. (Not pictured: their triple-layered blueberry scrub, which is actually very pretty in real life.) Here's a picture of Lani Yoshimura, another HNL-based Etsy crafter who makes the most darlingly retro wristlet bags for $12. The bags shown here have that Waikiki-meets-Harajuku feel to them, what with the cotton canvas and the anime-inspired prints. The coin purses shown in this picture ($5 each, far right in photo) are also made with the same shiny-happy fabrics as the wristlets. She also makes jewelry, too. Here's the makeup bag ($7) that I got from Lani. Sweet! Remember that URL: hawaiianbeachbags.com. It's going to be important... ...because the rest of us who chickened out of buying their brightly colored, cheerful-yet-cliche-proof totes are going to want one after seeing these pictures. (Dunno how much business they got from us folks in Makiki, but please do drop them a line if you want one!) Yep, that's the Finders Key Purse ($5) that I bought from Accessories to Hip. They were also selling purse hangers, which I mistook for the Luxe Links that I spotted in the local newspaper not too long ago. The guy in the bright blue satin shirt on the foreground is none other than Greg "The Salsaman" Henry, who was staging a free lesson and demo on salsa and merengue. I just had to put this picture in here because his partner Norma looks like she's wearing these dancing shoes. Oddly enough, the other couple on stage with them (who were also jamming like crazy) were dancing in sneakers, proving that sometimes the shoes are beside the point.

Which reminds me: There would have been a time when it coulda, shoulda been me up there in my FitFlops, pulling the first drunk guy off the lawn for some serious bailando under the noonday sun. You know it could've happened. So what was I doing instead of getting free lessons in hot Latin dancing from The Salsaman? Answer: Having reveries about Paris over a Nutella-filled crepe from Crepes No Ka Oi. (Oh, give me a break - you know you would've been all over that yourself!)
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