I went to get my car serviced yesterday and while it was in the shop, I went to the local mall (where I hadn't been in a long long time) and was walking around and happened to see this THING moving down the mall.
It was MOVING! I was astounded. It had lights flashing and went back and forth. I asked someone working at one of those little kiosks and he told me that this is for SECURITY. It is filming everyone and everything and moving around to make sure it covers everyone. WEIRD!! What have I been missing??!!
And then, not to be outdone, I went for a snack and saw THIS, which was stationary, but WEIRD nonetheless.
It was animated and talking! What has happened to malls?? VBG
I promised I would show you some pictures from Diamond Head, which was an old volcano in Honolulu. It was also used as an outpost during the war, although the top was very small so it only had a small area for watching for enemies! ;-)
It was a pretty strenuous hike up, involving some VERY steep steps. I was too winded to take a picture, and I'm sorry I didn't. But here are some shots. If provided a beautiful view over the water and the old crater.
This is Diamond Head from the beach. We hiked up to the tippy top!
Here you can see the outer edge of the crater:
Look at the colors of the water!! Isn't that gorgeous??!! You can see we were pretty high up!
This is looking in the other direction, towards Waikiki Beach. Water still beautiful!
I continue to be amazed at how some people seem to think that rules don't apply to them. There was a big sign telling people to STOP and not go any further. And the DANGER warning sign was obviously unheeded!
We had a fun girls' weekend in the warmth and sunshine, sans husbands!
it's still good to be back home; I'm babysitting today for my grandkids and we are having them with us this weekend! No sewing for me but there is a quilt show put on by my local guild and I'm going on Sunday. Quilt pictures to follow, I promise.
My friend Claire shared this quilt with me that she was putting in the show. She is so creative.
She designed a block of the month every month this past year for the guild, using scraps. I think this was one of the first. I love how she cut off the boats at the bottom and the top. She also has a longarm and did a great job quilting, I think.
Have a great weekend!
A girlfriend and I just spent a most fabulous weekend luxuriating in the Hawaiian weather in Honolulu! OMG. It was wonderful to get away and see some sun and warmth. Of course, when I returned, the freeways to my house remained closed due to mudslides so I had to drive an extra 90 miles to get home. But well worth it. We had a blast.
When we were there, one of the highlights was our visit to the former home of Doris Duke, called Shangri-La. www.shangrilahawaii.org/
Of course, I saw quilt patterns everywhere!
Have you ever seen or heard of a banyan tree? This is what greeted us before entering the house. Amazing!~!
I learned that Doris Duke was the richest woman in the world, having inherited her father's wealth when she was 12 yrs old! She married in her early 20s, used a personal cruise ship to honeymoon around the world and wound up staying in Hawaii for 4 months and loved it so much, that she bought 5 completely undeveloped acres on the water and built an estate. She traveled extensively during her life but especially loved Islamic art. She accumulated quite an eclectic collection of art.
Because she was so very rich, nothing was out of her reach. And I think she had very good taste, although I wouldn't say that I loved all her art. She had all her floors made of hand-cut marble and tile. These were some of the floors!
Some of the pictures are a little blurry--and you can just make out my flip flops and orange toes here! ;-)
This was on a wall!
The amount of tile work throughout the house was just overwhelming and gorgoeus.
Of course, all the doors were hand carved and contained messages. This was just one.
Then there was the furniture, with its ivory inlaid construction! We do these patterns with fabric. Can you imagine having to cut ivory and put it all together like this?? I couldn't imagine the labor involved!
And the gardens? You can just imagine how wonderful they were!
I just loved this display in one smaller area. Weren't her interests so eclectic?
If you look closely at the bottom of the marble steps, you can make out quilt patterns in the marble as well. This was the side entrance!!
The next day, we hiked up to Diamond Head, a former volcano, and I'll show you pictures of that tomorrow. I hope to get some sewing done tonight, having been away from my fabric and machines for the entire time (and more!). I might even have some blocks to show you.
Don't forget that our sew along starts on March 1st... one week! I hope you'll join in!
