Pu'uhonua'o o Honaunau

This one was sketched from a photo I took. I stamped the page while I was at the park, and bought the little stamp there too.This is such a beautiful place. Black rocks, white sands, blue, blue sea.....

Do you know your next door neighbor?

I've been been reading Karla's new blog. Karla is focused on giving back. She's always been like that (I know her parents are so pround of her!). Lately I've been thinking about what kinds of ways I can make a difference right where I am...small things on a daily basis. Mother Teresa said, "Lonliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible kind of poverty."

 I remember when I first moved to this town I worked in the pharmacy. Sometimes people (many elderly, living alone) would call in their prescriptions and then want to just talk. I was a 21 year old who was with people all the time...it stunned me to realize that people would call the pharmacy in part to connect with other people.

I have had some wonderful neighbors over the years. They baked pies for us, we loaned each other tools, and did an unofficial "neighborhood watch". One neighbor even left the doors open at night when Joe was working out of town, so that if I was afraid, I could come in with baby Michael and crash on their couch or spare bed. Many of our neighbors had kids our children's ages and they all played together, going from house to house, and we parents looked out for each other's kids. We sometimes babysat for each other too.

Soon I'll be moving to a new neighborhood, and I need to make sure I get to know my new neighbors. I know it will be good for me because I tend to hole up in my nest sometimes, but it might even be good for someone else.  How about you? Do you know your neighbors?

Honu

I drew this from a photo I took at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau. I picked a page stamped with the park's stamps while I was there. If you are traveling and you don't seem to be getting time to draw, carry your sketchbook anyway. As you go you can collect postmarks, national park stamps, stickers, maps, and postage stamps from places you visit. Don't forget to collect bits of ephemera like napkins, menus, ticket stubs and the like. It's good to glue an envelope in the back of your journal (if it doesn't have one already) in which to save all these goodies.

Drawing Breakfast...

As you know, I love a good drawing video, and this one is very nice. It's of Danny Gregory and was made by his son, Jack. It's always interesting to see how someone's drawing comes about. Danny's book Everyday Matters got me drawing again back in 2005...I'm thankful for that inspiration!

The Art of Breakfast from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Jennifer's 20 Wishes...

So I told you about the 20 Wishes in the last post. My sister Jennifer also thought of 20 wishes and put them on tags. She has them hanging in her office/studio from an antique Hoosier cabinet. I took several photos, rearranging the tags each time so you can see more of them.

 I love the "Be a Philantropist" tag. She has made that one come true. One of her favoite organizations to support is Heifer International. They do great work.

"Dance A Lot" 

That's a great wish and I know she's done a lot of that too! I've seen her at weddings and parties dancing like crazy...and she is even learning dances from the past by dancing with others interested in history. Here she is dressed in Regency period clothes, ready to go to a holiday ball:

 Jennifer is a talented writer. Check out her blog, One More Voice.

20 Wishes

Here is an old project I've been meaning to post about. Back in 2008 Jennifer and I were at the lake and we read a novel called 20 Wishes. It was about a group of women who decided to make a list of things they wished for themselves, and what happens in their lives afterwards.

 Jennifer working on her list of 20 Wishes and a bit of mine started on the bottom.

Well, pretty soon everyone at the cottage was working on their list. It turned out to be harder for most of us than you would think...because there were a couple of rules:

1. The wishes have to be for yourself. Most of us had trouble with this. We'd say things like "I wish for my children to be happy" or "I wish my husband could open the bike shop he dreams about."
2. The wishes could be as wild and outlandish as you like, but they had to be something you could have some power to accomplish...in other words no "I wish I would win the lottery." but you could wish "I'd like to make a fortune in real estate." You could not wish for good health (lots of that is out of your control), but you could wish "to be an appropriate weight" or "to be strong and fit."

Anyway, it was fun, and revealing in lots of ways. We wrote down things we'd never written down before, and dreamed for ourselves, which was much harder than we thought...even for those of us who think of ourselves as dreamers!

I made tags with my wishes on them. If you counted, you'd see that there are only 18...they were hanging in my studio at the shop and a couple went missing. The two missing were "Travel the USA" which had a Route 66 drawing on it, and "Build muscles!" which featured a beautiful female body. Apparently someone wanted those two wishes for their own...I have a gate across the entrance to my studio now.

 Some of these wishes have come true...Joe and I rode our bikes to Holly's house, and I have traveled more in the last few years. Some of the wishes I found were still outside my control to come true in the way I thought....but maybe they can happen in a way I didn't dream of at the time.

How about you? Could you come up with 20 wishes for yourself? It's harder than you might think!

Tomorrow, I'll share a picture of Jennifer's wishes.

The car is outside!

Come on down and see it. It's right by the Route 66 Museum and Old City Hall Shoppes, in front of Waldmire's bus. Warning: lots of pics ahead!

You can click on the pictures to see them larger.

 I painted the little Moleskine Journal on the seat because it's the kind of journal I use for my sketches. The idea is that the whole car is treated like a travel journal...and it's pretty much the same kind of thing you see if you flip through my sketchbooks.

 It's exciting to see it outside...I saw some folks posing for pictures on it this evening. Fun!

Using Photos....

I've been printing out some photos and using them in my travel journal. I've just been printing them on plain paper, and have to be careful not to get them wet, because that printer ink runs something terrible. But I like using some photos...how else can I capture that look when my mom and dad were reminiscing about old times at their first home:

As always, you can click on the picture to see it larger...much easier to read that way. Here's one from when Joe and I went out to see the lava flowing into the sea. It's an amazing sight.

And here is one from when Ted and Jenny and I went driving up the Hamakua Coast:

At first the the type Aish part of me freaked out about having the trips all mixed up in the journal instead of in chronological order. But I'm journaling bit by bit, about whatever strikes my fancy. And I'm also journaling around pages that I created while I was there, and on pages I had stamped with park stamps or postmarks while there. So my journal will be a collection of memories in no particular order. And lots of the pages are being done after I'm home and have more time to work on them...some purists only do theirs on site. But that's not me. And who is going to care anyway? The journal police?? I'll tell you what...creating a journal this way certainly extends all the fun of the trip way past the time I came home on the plane :D

The gods guarding ...

These are carvings of Hawaiian gods. They are guarding the temple at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau. It's a facinating place that gives you a feel of what old Hawai'i must have been like. These carvings tower over you and feel very menacing.

And here's a few photos!

 

 

Captain Cook on Dwellable

Pu'uhonua'o o Honaunau

Just celebrating being done with the paperwork at work by doing a little sketching. Scary looking, aren't they?!

Lava at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Today I dug out the maps and bits and pieces I brought home from Hawaii. I want to make pages for some of the park stamps I collected in my sketchbook while we were there. I thought I might be hauling too many brochures and maps home, but now I wish I had packed even more! This page is about the types of lava on the island..the smooth and curvy pahoehoe, and the ouchie a'a. Facinating stuff, how the earth is formed!

Here is a pic of the a'a lava...it's truly next to impossible to walk over! Looks like another world, doesn't it?

 While I was at it I added a Hibiscus to the corner of the page I did awhile back. It looked a little blank there..so it got the state flower.

Pepeekeo on Dwellable

At the Lake

I didn't draw too much up at the lake. I spent most of my time floating on an inner tube. Which is, of course, ideal.

I find that I have trouble drawing this little place. Of course, when I look at the cottage, I see it with all the memories I have of growing up here, and that's hard to capture. I'll just have to keep trying!