dazzling duo

jewelry designer justine jones is one of the islands' many under-the-radar style makers, and this weekend is your chance to preview me & riyo, a collection created with bff and fellow jewelry designer riyo arai. the pre-holiday sale will feature an array of handmade goods and original designs by the pair who also teach at bead it!

• when: sun, nov 18th - 10a to 2p
• where: coffee talk, kaimuki

p.s. aspiring jewelry designers take note, justine will be one of the featured instructors at the bead away retreat taking place in waikiki in january.

kitchen kokua

as the year begins to wind down, the annual ritual of gathering up charitable donations from around the house goes into overdrive. slow food oahu currently has a call out for gently used kitchen gear for a december culinary sale. proceeds from the sale will go to help send island farmers to slow food nation next year.

the wish list includes pots and pans, dishes, glassware, linens, cookbooks, kitchen tools, etc.

click here for more details.

• when: sat, nov 17th & 24th
• where: kcc farmers market

honey girl organics

when it comes to beauty, there are the cosmetics junkies who love nothing more than stalking the aisles of sephora and mac playing with samples, and the skincare junkies who are on a never ending search for that elusive skin perfecting potion.

if you fall into the latter camp, it's time to take a peek at honey girl organics who mixes their nourishing skin care elixirs with the nectar harvested from their bee hives on the north shore. honey was one of cleopatra's beauty secrets and is ideal for thirsty skin since it is known to be a natural humectant and has the added bonus of being packed with skin protecting antioxidants.

the entire honey girl organics product line is handcrafted and human tested, and all the ingredients are edible since the company believes it's best to keep anything absorbed by your skin all natural. you can find everything from eye cremes to the intriguingly named superskin food in the online shop where orders over $50 receive complimentary shipping.

the honey girl organics booth will be back at the north shore country market starting in december, and the line is also stocked at down to earth.

take a peek behind the scenes here.

kokua auction kick off

i am very excited to announce the kick off of the first annual kokua auction which is now posted on ebay! 100% of the proceeds will be donated to aloha harvest which matches up food donations with island charities working to feed kama'aina who might otherwise go hungry.

this all came to be after receiving the occasional note from one of the subjects of my scribbles who wished to send a little something my way as a thank you for being featured on h|h. my policy is to decline swag for personal use (in the spirit of staying objective, natch), but one day a little idea popped up and so the kokua auction was born.

it seems like a nice way to accept the generosity of island designers/artists/makers while giving the h|h 'ohana a way to sample some of the goodies they have been reading about on the blog - all in the name of charity. it's a win-win-win situation!

so here's the scoop: there will be a total of four auctions, one per week, featuring a mix of goodness from companies like miemiko atelier, ola, riches hawaii, fighting eel, and many more! i've tried to create lots with various price points so everyone can participate in the fun, and, to sweeten the deal, shipping is on me if you live in the states and will be a flat rate of $5 usd for international bidders.

let's get on with the good stuff . . .

kokua lot no. 1 (est. retail value: $40):

• 2 sets of letterpress note cards (6 cards/3 cards) and gift tag set (8) from miemiko atelier
• 1 note card set (6 cards) from big island artist caren loebel-fried
• 1 mama coco's real vanilla lip balm
• 1 plumeria soap from north shore soap factory
• 2 ola hawaii solid fragrance pots in passion fruit citrus & vanilla ginger [11/15 update: please note these are samples]
• 4 handmade gift tags from downtown general store

since i set up an ebay account specifically for the kokua auction, the feedback is currently a woeful zero, however if you message me via your ebay account, i will be happy to send the link to my personal ebay feedback (which is very very good).

love the idea? then please help spread the word about the kokua auction via the *email this* link at this bottom of the post.

mahalo for your kokua!

etiquette lesson

with more island designers hopping online, a simple click of the mouse makes it easy to stock up on tees for my fella in between trips home. earlier this year, i became besotted with etiquette's state of mine tee which depicts the waikiki skyline with a clean, modern aesthetic that puts all those cheesy souvenir t-shirts hanging in the international market place to shame.

etiquette got its start last year and is all about expressing good design via the simple cotton canvas of a t-shirt. a mix of styles are stocked in both m's and w's sizes with plans for a keiki line on the way.

butterfly kisses

you can find etiquette tees exclusively in its online shop (free shipping on oahu and $5 s/h to the neighbor islands and mainland) as well as the occasional craft show and holiday fair:

• nov 23rd to 25th - islandwide christmas crafts & food expo 
• dec 15th - mililani's save the best for last