We are getting ready for this weekend’s craft fair. The last big craft fair of the season is The Pacific Handcrafters Guild showing at Thomas Square. There is still a bit of sewing to be completed before tomorrow albeit not too much as sales at the past couple of fairs have been steady but not overwhelming. We have also sold a number of Hawaiian hardwood rice paddles and kitchen pot stirring sticks so we have been working on getting the inventory up to speed.

There was a time when this Christmas craft fair put on by the Guild was the premier event of the season with over 100 artisans and thousands of customers happily browsing and buying. Alas, times have changed but the entrepreneurial spirit inherent in us crafters and artisans have made us rose colored glassed amnesiacs. Therefore I continue to stitch without too much bitch. I have a couple of tablerunners to complete along with a few sets of placemats. I have also been working on napkins this week. Time was in the not too distant past that would find us all madly creating and filling inventory after the wild Sauturday rush. Late into the wee morning hours we would work to replenish our handmade gems that had flown out of our booth during that first Saturday madness. Sniff, those were the days. Now, it’s sometimes a nail biter hoping to ‘make booth’, meaning recoup your intial outlay for booth expenses. So good luck to all us handcrafters out there in Hawaii. Shoppers and the shopping atmosphere has changed. More Big-Boxers fewer artisans with the stamina or talent or optimism to keep on truckin’. And a whole generation of folks who don’t give a rip…never did never will– about the skill and love that goes into a hand finished creation. I need to end this session of grumbling so that I can redirect my thoughts to the positive and recognize my personal joy in creating.

Hope to see you this Saturday or Sunday December 5 & 6 at Thomas Square for the annual Pacific Handcrafters Guild Christmas Craft Faire.

15,000 is the magic number that I want you all to think. Collectively. Positively. Staunchly.

You can think more, bigger, grander, higher.

This 15,000 is a numerical thought experiment that I am putting out to the universe and I would like your assistance.

If we all want to put a dollar sign $ in front of that 15,000-all the better. It would look like this…$15,000.00

If this is successful, I’ll let you folks know.

Think…15,000

Mahalo~

Homows are what we call home owners, of which we are…as of last week. Official Home Owners. We paid off our mortgage!!!  The details of the experience will come at a later date because the agony is over and now it is a time for celebration not complaints.  My husband had started a fire in the hibachi and we needed something official to burn. Hmmm how about the NOTE? I searched through my files and found our copies of a refinance completed over 10 years ago. We danced the ‘Dance of Joy’, clinked our chilled martini glasses and proceeded to burn every page in our hefty house folder. Happy Homows are we. Yaaayy hooray!!