Mr. Crumb's Saturday in the City

Yesterday my sister and I took a bus into the city for a day of looking at some of the festively decorated sites and to meet a friend for lunch. Here are some of the photographs I snapped while meandering through the streets of Manhattan. 

We also brought a friend - Mr. Crumb - the little gingerbread man made from my Gingerbread fabric, a coordinate in the Gingerbreadtown collection. 

Outside the MOMA entrance

The marquis for the home of the Rockettes

Alongside one of the entry barriers

Twinkly lights on the trees lining the walkway along the skating rink at Rockefeller Center

A star ornament encrusted with Swarovski crystals

Lights on the tree at Rockefeller Center

Silver and gold lame flags fluttering in the breeze (it was getting windy and colder but it hadn't started to snow yet)

Mr. Crumb in front of the tree

The tree at Rockefeller Center

Candles in the entry of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Christmas wreaths were on every pillar

Incredibly ornate stonework in one of the many niches

A stained glass window depicting the Nativity

A magnificently adorned tree in the cathedral

Windows at Sachs 5th Avenue

Snow globes on shelves that rotated to shake up the frosty scenes inside

Books that opened and closed to reveal the pop-up snowflakes inside

Video screens that appeared to be animated chalkboard drawings

Laptop computers ever shifting kaleidoscopic snowflake patterns

An MTA public service reminder that made Mr. Crumb very sad

Mr. Crumb on the uptown F train platform at West 4th street. That's the stop I would use when I lived in NYC

Crisp, brightly-colored apples at the Union Square Market

An assortment of specialty potatoes. The ones on the far right are called

 Rose Finn potatoes. We bought some to try for NYE.

Snow coming down as seen through the window at the B&N on 17th Street

Cadiz shell lights at Elmo - for me are very nostalgic

Mr. Crumb with his take-home from Elmo

Christmas lights showing through the newly fallen snow upon our return to New Jersey

Let It Snow

And it did -

Big, fat, fluffy flakes that seesawed lazily back and forth as they descended without care from a stormy sky.

It snowed late afternoon so by the evening, the frozen precipitation took on the gay colors of the holidays as festive string lights shown kaleidoscopically through the soft, newly-fallen blanket of snow.

I included a photo of the table setting I made for my mother's gift out of fabric from my Gingerbreadtown collection (shown in the sidebar at right). It includes the table cloth, six place mats, a runner and eight reversible napkins. I'll be sure to include closeups of the pieces so you can see the detail in the work and hopefully inspire you to create a modern heirloom of your own!

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves during this season of goodwill and cheer despite whatever happens around us.

Mark

Orchids

Orchids grow like weeds here in Hawaii... well, not literally but their abundance is amazing.

They grow wild along the side of the road. They cling to trees attached to the soft, spongy bark or nestled in the V-shaped crevices created by jutting limbs and branches.

They dangle decoratively in baskets suspended from the eaves of houses, swaying lazily in the tepid tropical breezes or in pots and planters in the garden.

Growing up in the East coast orchids are houseplants. My sister has had luck getting orchids to bloom. My mother has orchids blooming almost year round.

I've tried. No success. Even here on Maui. They are splendidly adorned with flowers when I bring them home from the nursery (I like to buy interesting varieties and colors of flowers) and afterwards, indoors I was gifted with lots and lots of green keikis -- new green shoots and leaves for years -- but alas! not a single spike or bloom.

So, recently I decided to clean house and put the few plants I own on the potting table or nestled into other planters outside the front of the house.

Weeks go by. Leaves fall off, now burned from the more direct exposure to the sun... and then silently without fanfare or warning... one day...

And then about two months later...

Video

 The beach and Maui Ocean Center

                               

Megablog

I know I've gone AWOL. Life has been keeping me busy, and it won't really settle until I return from visiting family for the holidays. So here's a month's or better worth of things I need to catch up to date...

Santa's Land at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center - the turtle with the fuzzy red hat reminds me of my logo for the holidays

One of the few pics of me - here with my sister Dana at Makena Beach

Here's Ana'ole - turtle 4 - the hatchling that I named in the contest at the Maui Ocean Center

A sea urchin spiny thingy

One of my hats on display in the gift shop at the Maui Ocean Center

A puffer fish. He's endearingly cute but was about 18"-24" long and has sharp spines on his body that spike out pin cushion-like when he inflates himself

Just a peaceful beach shot

This place has been around since the creation of the islands. It's an institution in Wailuku

They serve onion rings - tempura style - at a chinese restaurant

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Chow Fun noodles. These noodles are actually sliced like carrot sticks and made from potato dough - YUM!

An offering at the Home Maid Bakery shop

Lunch at Leoda's in Olowalu - Spicy (fresh) tuna salad on thier bread with tomato and butter lettuce. Served in a metal pie tin lined with brown paper

Some of the best fries I have ever had! With an aioli - and ketchup of course

Dana's lunch was Fried Mac and Cheese with a marinara - we both had leftovers...

On the road leading to mine, I see a long neck serpent in the grass

Wild lilikoi (passion fruit) flower

The serpent again

This is how my hats were displayed in the booth for the Haleakala Waldorf Holiday Faire. We had a great location - on an end, at the bottom of a hill and by the second entrance to the event - that really helped with traffic 

The hats are all my fabrics - Surf's Up, Seal Pups, Mermaids of Hana Bay, Hibiscus - and the pillow cases - Cotton Couture, Shell Dot and Gingerbreadtown

Mac and Cheese with Peas, please! Red pepper flakes and Kiawe smoked Hawaiian sea salt. The background is Siren Song - color Rainbow

Grilled Shell-on Shrimp  skewered on fresh Rosemary twigs

The morning of October 15 - my mother's birthday 

Comfort food for lunch - when it rains there is quite a damp chill in Haiku and a lunch like this hits the spot!

Rooster Rumble

This wasn't too violent just two roosters plucking the feathers out of one another - but what a display!

These are boneless version of the  bone in ribs I made when Dana was here. Both were preseasoned with the smoked sea salt and crushed black pepper. Next I smoked them over macadamia nut wood then glazed them with Maui Brewing Company Root Beer Bar-B-Que sauce. Last they cooked slowly to dry them out a bit like chinese roast pork.

 Another ornate rooster and hen

One of several gingerbread boy doll fronts drying before construction