PUPPY LOVE

ALOHA! Long time no post. Well it's been quite the year here at CFC Headquarters and I hope to have a larger Cuckoo Revue up in the coming weeks.

For now and for those of you that do not yet know, we adopted a puppy in October.

World meet Blake.

I have been itching for a puppy for awhile now but as they say, timing is everything. The Maui Humane Society had gotten in a few batches of puppies just in time for my birthday and I could not resist.

I forced John to come meet me there one Thursday and we spent several hours "interviewing" all the pups. We narrowed it down to Blake and his Sister Kiana, but we could only get one. So we came home and slept on it, went back on friday and spent another 3 hours visiting with both. I said the first one that kissed us would win the chance to come home with us. So blake won. We also left them alone for about 20 minutes each to see who was a whiner. Blake again won, hands down without making a peep, while Kiana was a bit too loud on her own.  We needed one we knew we could leave alone and not be one of those dogs the neighbors had to put up with howling, whining and barking while home alone.

He's been super easy to train. The minute we took him out of the car at home we put him down on his leash and harness and he took the leash in his mouth and trotted off like he had been doing it forever. He was potty trained within 2 weeks and has an arsenal of tricks like sit, down, kiss, high-five and shake (which we call paw because shake sounds too much like Blake).

He is super playful and well behaved. And he sleeps a lot... as evidenced by these photo's.







When we got him they guessed he was between 2-3 months old and 11 pounds. Now about 5-6 months old and 28 pounds as of last week. He's expected to be 30-35 pounds... we hope.




Click HERE to read a post on another blog - The Maui StyleList -  I am writing for Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine. It talks about the "Wings of Aloha" program at the Maui Humane Society.

LOVELY ART SALE

If you are in the LA/Sherman Oaks area on Sunday May 6th, you should contact my friend Parnell Corder. He is having a BLOWOUT SALE. Here are some images of his work which may or may not be part of the sale.

Cleaning out the Flat Files and Studio to make room for new works! 

I'm hosting a : 

STUDIO SALE 

Sunday May 6th

1-4 PM

Framed and Unframed works 

Botanicals, Illustrations and lots of other Beautiful Watercolors

Paintings and Drawings & Cool Stuff I Made

Works of all Sizes and Various Media

Email Parnell at parnellcorder@hotmail.com for address and further details.

HEATHER AND JAMIE

 

Back in January, we had the pleasure of welcoming my old friends Heather Ellis and Jamie Lane to our humble home. Heather and I were pretty much inseparable from the day we met freshman year in college. And I met Jamie when visiting Heather in Austin. They traveled from the windswept plains of Omaha, NE where temps typically fall well below zero this time of year. Needless to say, they were thrilled to be on Maui. They had planned this trip about a year ago, which was before I had a full-time job so I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I originally planned. (pouting sad face here). The first day was clear so we headed upcountry to see some sights, on the way down we stopped into the Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center to see the installation by environmental sculptor Patrick Dougherty. For more info on that visit this page on the Hui's website.

It suddenly dawned on me as we approached this environmental sculpture that Heather must be having kittens over it because it's kind of what she did for her senior installation project in college. Well, the idea of it anyway. She had created a beautiful bed headboard and foot board, of maple wood I think. And she managed to get a small room all to herself in our senior show. I helped her gather up what seemed like tons of sticks and vines from the wilds of Westchester in early spring. For the installation she had taken all the sticks and vines and recreated a woodland scene laced with winter decay and drama with the bed pieces being enveloped by nature. Ok, so, maybe my comparison is a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea.

I took Jamie and Heather by Baby Beach just to check out the unusual landscape there and we spotted a Sea Cucumber undulating and seemingly desperate to get back to the old blue. We debated as to whether to try to help it along. But after some Google via smart phone research we decided not to. Too many potentially disgusting defense mechanisms such as "inverting it's innards out of it anus to appear dead" dissuaded us from interfering with what fate had in store.

Here's H & J at La Perouse Bay where the landscape inspired many photo snaps. Dessert at Cafe O'Lei afterwards. During the week they stayed over on the west side of the island and took part in many activities. Snorkelling trips and whale watches, stargazing cruise and lots of beach time.

Heather and I at the moonscape of Haleakala Summit. It was dang cold!! Then we checked out the upper summit with all the telescopes. Heather and Jamie were both stunned by Maui's night sky as seen from our house. It was early in the moon's cycle, so they were treated to some prime star-gazing. Anyway, the summit scopes reminded me of a trip we took up to a solar telescope in Taos, New Mexico once a long time ago. And where we also visited the home of D.H. Lawrence and sat under a giant pine tree Georgia O'Keefe had painted when she visited him.

I forgot how Heather likes to pretend she's falling off the edge for pictures. So I let out a laugh and snapped this shot.  It had been 5 years since we saw each other. She looks just like she did when we were teenagers.

Yes, the sun shines out of our behinds! ; )

Before boarding the plane home, we took Jamie and Heather to Kanaha Beach Park by the airport to take some deep breaths of island air and say goodbye to Maui. It was extremely windy that day. Lots of windsufers and kite-boarders were out slicing the surf.

Hopefully they'll be back sometime soon!

BOOK IT. BOOK IT NOW!

I recently had the chance to work on a new logo for MAHALO VILLAS here on Maui. Our goal was to make something that said vacation - surf, sun, sand - and had a bit of a vintage/old Hawaiiana feel, yet still look clean and modern.

I also made several round seals that resemble post marks that could be used in other applications as well as the website banner image and the BOOK NOW button for their website and business cards.

If you are planning a trip to Maui and are looking for a quiet place to stay on the west side in Kapalua with spectacular views of Lana'i and Molokai, check it out.

WE HEART AGNIESZKA

Early December of 2011 had us playing host to an ex-Funny Garbage coworker and good friend Agnieszka Gasparska of Kiss Me I'm Polish. She showed up with many gifts in tow proving her to be a house guest to be reckoned with. All visitor's post Agnieszka will have a lot to live up to! Seriously y'all. She was the sweetest, most easy-going guest who after some rental car snafu's made her way over to the west side by herself, three days in a row to go surf the waves at Launiupoko.

Graced with two comp days after a long and hectic closing of the magazine, I was free to join her and Conn to see the sights passed Kapalua into the northwestern areas of the island where the terrain is Planet of the Apes meets Land of the Lost. After a hearty lunch at Teddy's Burger's in Lahaina we hit the road to the blowhole and tidepools... and what appeared to be a very clear heart-shaped hole in the rock. The heart is a favorite symbol of Agnieszka's and her business.

 

We ended our first day at DT Fleming Beach Park to watch the sunset and touch the Pacific. Then headed over to Star Noodle for a deliciously memorable meal.

Day two had us climbing the mountain for big upcountry views and Haleakala crater. Not to be outdone, down country produced a rainbow to say "hey, look at me!"

Teeny tiny flowers growing in an inhospitable environment.

Conn put his fancy telephoto lens to good use when we stumbled upon an ‘ohi‘a lehua tree thick with blossoms and buzzing with native bird activity. The i‘iwi (above, bright red and curved beak) and ‘apapane (below, darker red) But you have to be lightening fast to catch them, thus the slightly blurry shots. We've been to Hosmer's Grove before but were never able to spot these elusive birds, we quickly realized this was a poignant moment for all of us to savour.

Once down the mountain, we made a hard left and headed to La Perouse to show Agnieszka the last big lava flow that happened some 250 years ago. After sunset we made our way to Sansei in Kihei.

While I had to go back to work, Conn made it out to Launiupoko a few days to snap our guest surfing the waves. Here she is hangin' out, waiting... and her patience paid off. She caught a few good rides!