The make-over

Remember my clay gold finch---aka the earthquake bird? 

He was a little too fat in all the wrong places.  So I put him on a diet, and now he's looking a little more svelte.

I was very happy to see him still standing when we returned from Maui.  There was a 3.7 earthquake while we were gone.  Those are the best kinds of earthquakes--the ones that happen while we're gone.

Yesterday I went to Joann's for some instant mache--the cheater's paper mache.  You just add water and it turns into a pulpy glob.  It will work well for filling out the cat--cheeks, paws, ears, etc.  While I was there, I took a look at the fabric and ended up buying some of this:

We have relatives who are real winos, I mean fans of fine wine, and they like to picnic.  In fact, they have all the picnic fixins'--stylish basket, plastic wine glasses, knives, forks and spoons.  What they don't have is a set of hand-crafted napkins.  I think these will be a nice addition.  Maybe I'll throw in a few ants too.

Bye-bye Maui, hello Cali

Mr. Gadget and I are back from Maui and we are tired.  All that lounging around on lounge chairs--overlooking Molokai--can be exhausting.  But I'm battling through the jet lag long enough to post a few pictures.

There's Molokai under the clouds.

Pool owl on boogie board--for scaring away the nasty pooping egrets.

Some of the whimsical clay pieces by Maui artist,
Steve Smeltzer.

A view from inside the house looking out--through large sliding doors that open out to the gardens and the pool.  Occasionally, or so I heard, a bird flies in and sometimes he'll leave a little souvenir on the floor or the furniture.  See the sofa over on the left?  That's where I was sitting a few nights ago when I had a close encounter with a centipede.  He suddenly appeared on the pillow right next to my left shoulder.  You should have seen me spring to life.  The exterminator--who had made his rounds just before we arrived--was called the next day to return for a re-do.  And now the ants don't seem so bothersome.

So, the recent issue of Art Doll Quarterly came in the mail the other day, and they've issued a challenge to dollmakers to create a bride doll.  I'm going to give it some thought. Maybe I'll confer with Steve. In the meantime, I gotta finish my cat...a cat of the non-pooping variety.  They make the best kind of pets, don't they?

The climbers

Yesterday Mr. Gadget and I climbed a volcano--Haleakala, the highest peak on Maui at 10,000 ft.  We didn't do it on foot.  We used the car, which seemed the smarter option.  But that didn't prevent me from being breathless when we reached the summit.  As I sat on the lava stone wall to try to figure out where my breath went, a bicycle rider rolled by, hardly panting, and immediately made a call on his cell phone--no doubt to brag to his friends about his momentous feat.  You'll never see me attempting such a ride.  I'm sure they don't make those tight little bicycle shorts in my size.

After we had mostly coasted down the hill, we visited a couple of small funky artsy-craftsy towns that we had been to before.  One was Paia where we had fish sandwiches at non-McDonald's prices.  Then we stopped in a shop called Maui Hands so I could see the work of one of my favorite clay artists. I didn't buy anything.  I just oogled.  

The second stop was in the town of Makawao.  We had some ice cream--at Baskin-Robbin's prices but in mini portions.  I bought a t-shirt at the same shop where I had bought one 6 years ago.  When I find a style of clothing in just the right color and size, I'm likely to travel as far as I need to for a replacement.

I mentioned before about those pesky egrets.  There's another kind of pest here on Maui that is downright dangerous.  Centipedes.  They are interesting to look at, but you don't want to step on one.  Or meet one during the night on trips to the bathroom.  If one of these nasty critters finds a toe, a person could have an entire Hawaiian vacation ruined.  Our hosts had the house sprayed before we arrived, but still...

And now I'm going to get myself a cold drink and find a lounge chair....and check to see if Molokai is still there.

The changing times

On my first trip to Hawaii in 1961, with my parents and my sister, I wore a home-sewn dress with jacket to match and white patent leather shoes with a matching purse. My family dressed up too, and the newspaper from our hometown sent a photographer and took our picture, posed at the bottom of the airplane stairway, for publication.

Times have changed. Now many of the passengers wear shorts and flip flops and well-worn t-shirts.  Flight attendants looked different back then too.  I'm pretty sure none of them had one-and-a-half inch nails painted bright bubble-gum pink.

So today, as I sat in my lounge chair watching the clouds come and go over Molokai, I worked on a crocheted flower for future felting.  When I was at the yarn store earlier in the week--the one that sponsored the yarn cruise (did I mention that?) I bought some varigated yarn (Lamb's Pride from Brown Sheep Co.) to see how it would work up for the flowers.  I'll let you know after I return to the Concondo and felt them in the good washer that I try to use just for that purpose, but sometimes Mr. Gadget expects me to wash his underwear.

I'm going to finish up this post now...since I'm having to hunt and peck on this small keyboard and it's making me feel like I need a glass of wine.  Besides, I don't want to be late to the luau.

Just checkin' in

It's one of those weeks with lots to blog about, but no time to blog.  I hate when that happens.

Mr. Gadget and I are in Maui for a week, staying with his brother and wife in their beautiful home with an incredible view of Molokai.  I do expect to post while we're here, but will have to save the pictures till we're back at the Calcondo at the end of next week.

Here's what I'm looking at now.  A fake owl floating around on a boogie board in the pool.  So far it's the only solution for keeping the egrets from loitering and pooping poolside.  Hanging old CD's from string stretched across the pool didn't work.  Apparently this is the Maui version of the California ant problem.

It's good to know that pests of all kinds are hard at work.

Recycling

This is a lot more fun, and so much easier, than bagging up the newspapers and schlepping them out to the driveway.  As you can see, I'm moving right along on the paper-mache cat.  No, I haven't forgotten the ears.  Those will be attached soon.

I decided to try an alternative to the wallpaper paste for applying the paper strips.  I mixed up a batch of flour and water and added some white school glue. It's holding well, and was less expensive than the paste because I already had the ingredients.  Each layer dries overnight, so I'm able to make fairly quick progress.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the finished kitty, but he won't be traveling back to Connecticut. I'd have to buy him a seat....and someone else has very likely reserved 17C.  Maybe he will sit inside the sliding glass door here in the Calcondo and greet the passing parade--the gardeners, the meter reader, the cable guy, and the occasional curmudgeon.  

In local condo news, last week we were notified that a tree in our backyard was dying from an infestation of bark beetles and would have to come down. 

This past Tuesday was the date decided upon for the felling.  Mr. Gadget was not at all happy.  How could they possibly do a day of sawing and wood chipping while we were in town, he wondered.  Certainly, he said, they could have checked with us first.  But apparently bark beetles are nasty little critters that wait for no one.

We planned our day with several errands that would take us away from the noise.  First, we took a walk to the farmers' market and bought fruit and some tasty little cakes.  It's kind of like the Walmart of farmers' markets--a place where you can buy things like cakes and tamales and balloon animals.  When we returned to the condo two hours later, this is what we saw:

The tree was gone, the mess swept up, and the dust had settled.  Mr. Gadget was thrilled to have most of the day to sit in his sunny, quiet lounge chair.  And I was very happy to have Mr. G sit in his lounge chair with his nose out of my crafty business.  I'm pretty sure the only ones who weren't happy about how the day was going were the bark beetles.

Good eats!

Hard to believe but it turns out the solution to our ant problem was as simple as opening a gourmet restaurant.

This grub is so darned delicious the little buggers have no interest in what we're eating.  Thanks to a $6.50 purchase at Target--for 6 tiny ant restaurants--the quality of life in the Calcondo has increased dramatically.

So over the weekend, while the ants were feasting, Mr. Gadget and I took a little jaunt down to the Port of Los Angeles.  Sadly, this was not to embark on a cruise.  It was to visit a new craft venue.  Seems a couple of smarty-pants guys decided to open a permanent craft fair in an old abandoned World War II warehouse. 

And when it's filled, which they expect to happen quickly, they'll open another warehouse next door.  These guys have a track record, so it sounds promising.

The offerings inside were interesting--especially this bejeweled sewing machine that caught my eye.  But the best part was out front.

I just love the work of whimsical, unconventional gardeners. Which makes me wonder if I've finally hit on an idea for my grandma's old roasting pan--you know, the one I can't seem to part with. 

Maybe I'll plant it full of nasturtiums and put it in the front yard.  I'll just bet the code-enforcement curmudgeons will be on it in ant-speed.

Breaking news

The earthquake bird was still standing when we arrived at the Calcondo on Monday.  Good news indeed.  But it dawned on me, after being away for a while and coming more to my senses, that the poor thing could use chin-reduction surgery.  I'll put that on my to-do list.

Our trip west was one of the best we've ever had.  No traffic, no lines at the airport, an on-time departure, and no turbulence.  It doesn't get much better than that.  And soon after we took our assigned seats (17A & B), the captain announced that we would be in good hands because there were actually 3 captains on board.  This was mentioned, I'm sure, to put passenger minds at ease after that previous most unfortunate incident. And, luckily, we didn't need the spares.

So, Happy Fourth to everyone!  We had considered going up to the clubhouse for the annual picnic, but then smartly decided to stay home and stay safe.  There's lots of contentiousness amongst the curmudgeons at the moment, so who knows what might have happened whilst quite innocently eating a hot dog.  I've been reading the pile of weekly newsletters and trying to get a sense of what the issues are among the board of directors and the various committee persons, and I ended up throwing up my hands and pushing the whole stack over to Mr. Gadget.  Mr. G. has a better mind for condo bs, I mean business, so I appealed to him to translate the whole mess. So far he hasn't touched them.

When we were here last, I started a paper mache cat project.  Then all the sadness happened and I had to leave him in the back corner, all alone, looking like he'd been in a bad fight. 

My plan is to finish him while we're here this time.  First, I'll need to gather a few supplies, so Mr. Gadget and I will have to read a few newspapers. Then I'll purchase some wallpaper paste--my glue of choice.  When he's done, I suppose he'll need a cat toy. Maybe he'd be happy with a cute little bird who's recooping from chin surgery.

The library is open!

Thelma the librarian is finally finished except for a few little touch-ups.  She ended up being a more involved project than I normally like. But I'm fairly pleased with how she came out.

My plan was to give her a stern demeanor without making her look scary.  I think I have the eyebrows to thank for that.  As I've said before, I never know quite what I'm going to end up with when it comes to the face.  Clay often has a mind of its own.

I made Thelma's clothes, including the handknitted sweater.  I may add some buttons later.  The sweater was tricky because I had to sew one side seam and set in one sleeve while Thel was wearing it.

I originally planned to have her right hand on her hip.....to punctuate the stern look....but then I found the little book in my stash of stuff.  It's Nonsense ABC's by Edward Lear.  It's just the right size.

I have no plans for Thelma at the moment, other than to let her sit in our bookcase and enforce some quiet reading time.

Mr. Gadget and I will soon be underway to the Calcondo. It will be nice to trade the 90-degree heat and humidity for more pleasant 70-degree temps with afternoon ocean breezes.  Unfortunately I've been told the ants are still in residence. I think it's time to start charging them rent.