Haku lei are now 25% off!

Aloha everyone!

This week we're having a sale on Nani's beautiful haku leis!  You can get 25% off if you use the coupon code IQ8P5O152C at the checkout!  Also, if you happen to be going to the Merrie Monarch Festival this year, let us know and we'll arrange delivery of your lei free of charge!  I personally went last year to the exhibition, and it was really awesome!  (...just wish I was there this year....).  :(

Wedding Haku Lei

Here are a couple of pictures that I took at the exhibition last year.  The halau form Japan was huge!  It was just amazing how group and group (of the same halau) came on stage in different outfits....and then they had them all on stage at the same time!  ....all 80-or-so of them!  (Might be more...I'm recalling this from memory....).

Once again...I really wish I was there right now!  How about any of you?  Have you been to the festival?  have you competed?  We'd love to know!

Enjoy the pics!

- Steve

Products from last year at the Merrie Monarch Festival

It's almost time for the Merrie Monarch Festival again!  ...and that got me thinking about last year.  Last year, we had a display at the Prince Kuhio Mall, and we had some interesting products that I thought that I'd share with you.

As you may know, we have a haku head lei in our store that you can customize.  The header photo as well as the photo below are examples of the custom work that we can do.

We can also create smaller head bands that can clip in the hair.  We'll probably add these to to store too...but for now, you can contact us to find out more....

I hope that you've enjoyed these photos.  Let me know what you liked (or even didn't like).  ....or if you're heading to the Merrie Monarch Festival this year, we'd love to hear about that too! - Maybe (just maybe) we'll send one of you a complimentary lei to your hotel in Hilo! :)

A hui hou.

Steve

New Products at 2Honu

We hope that everyone has had a wonderful winter!  Yeah….I've been gone from the blog scene for a while…but I come back bearing some good news!  Over the last few weeks, we've been busy making new lei designs, taking photos and adding them to our site.  We also have many more coming in the upcoming weeks.

I thought that I'd just take a moment to tell you about some of the cool designs that we are featuring on our site.  We now have a twisted ti leaf lei with five strands of single ti leaf lei grouped together.  It is a symbol of good luck and looks great too!  (Hmmm….Does five strands mean five times good luck! :) )

Five Strand Ti Leaf Lei

If you're into pink, you'll be happy to know that we now have a hot pink flower lei which uses Vanda orchids!  This is really an awesome looking premium lei.

Pink Vanda Lei

Last, but not least, we have started incorporating haku leis into our site.  Nani is really known for her haku leis, and we are just now getting around to taking professional photos of them to add to our site!  I'm so happy! :)

So far, we have two to display.  The first haku head lei (sometimes called a haku head wreath) is a colorful version with purple and white dendrobium orchids and pink carnations.  It can also be used as a hat lei, which is how we've pictured it below.

Haku Lei

The second haku lei is a wedding haku lei, which uses only white dendrobium orchids.  Again, this is pictured adorned on a hat for display purposes.  The bride may also wear this on her head.

Wedding Haku Lei

I hope that you've enjoyed our pictures and will order Hawaiian leis from us in the near future.  Don't forget that, at your request, we will customize your lei order with the items that we have available… many times at no cost. Also, if you have any questions, please drop us a line at customerservice@2honu.com, or you can contact me directly at slee@2honu.com.  You can also leave comments for us below.  We'd love to hear from you!

A hui hou,
Steve

Hula Halau Update: Tropical Polynesian Productions

Credit: Depositphotos.com/Deborah Kolb

On occasion I will post information that I receive regarding various hula halau and events across the country. Here is one update that I received that I thought would be interesting to those of you in the Glendale, Arizona area...

Tropical Polynesian Productions, a dance company is based in Glendale, AZ, is looking for reliable students/dancers and musicians in the Glendale/Peoria areas to join their dance company.

They also teach beginner classes in Hawaiian and Tahitian dance.  The classes are on Thursdays from 6 pm to 7 pm at the Arrowhead Montessori, 14801 N. 83rd Avenue, Peoria, AZ.  In addition, preschoolers that attend the Montessori have classes on Tuesdays at 1:30 pm.

This post reminded me of when I had the chance to see one of my keiki cousins (not exactly, but close enough) perform during Merrie Monarch week in Hilo.  At the time, I thought that my cousin (who was in grade school) was pretty young for learning hula. Now I know how wrong I was!  I guess that it's never to early (or late, for that matter) to start hula!  :)

Speaking of Merrie Monarch Festival...I had a great time during that week, and definitely encourage anyone who has not been to make plans to go...especially if you're into hula or would like to experience Hawaiian culture!  You really get to appreciate what an art form hula is and how important it is to Hawaiians.  (It's not like what many of the tourist places depict of hula....I'll save my rant for another time....).

Anyway...to Tropical Polynesian Productions.....hope to see you out there sometime!

A hui hou

Steve

The Missing Lei

Feather Hat Lei

Aloha and good morning to everyone!

I've been missing the blog for a while, but I think that I'm getting back into the groove!  Today, I thought that I'd just talk a little bit about a particular lei that's been missing from our site.  The lei pictured above is a feather hat lei that I have sitting around (for now).  If you've never seen these in person before, then let me tell you that these are some of the most amazing types of lei that are made.  From afar, and even from up close, it can be difficult to tell that these are lei are made from feathers.  They look more like a smooth silk or velvet (depending on the lei).  They even feel like velvet when rubbed in the direction of the feathers!

The hat lei came into being when the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboys) decided to incorporate a piece of their heritage into their role of cowboys by creating lei to put on their hats.  Today, you'll see people in Hawaii (both men and women) wearing either flower lei or feather lei to decorate their hats.  Also, if you go to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, you'll see some of the amazing feather lei that were made for the ali'i, or Hawaiian royalty.

The reason you don't see these lei very often today quite simply is because they are just so expensive and difficult to make!  The one pictured above would retail for about $400.  Why are they so expensive?  Well, this one took about 2 months to make before I received it.  Now...I'm guessing that it wasn't continuously worked on for that time, but it does give you an idea of the time that is required.

This particular lei was included in our store at one point, but after a while, I decided that it was getting very lonely.  (Poor little guy!).  With only one of these lei to display, I thought it looked a little odd...So, for now it's removed, but still for sale (final price is negotiable...).  If you're interested in this lei (or in just learning more about it), let me know.  I'm probably going to hold off on adding it to the store until we get some more to display...

A hui hou

Steve

Google maps is now underwater!!

Credit: Depositphotos.com/Lee Serenthos

I just found out today that Google Maps Streetview is now providing photos underwater!  I just tried it, and let me tell you....it's pretty awesome!  I actually didn't realize this at first, but in order to get the underwater view, you need to move your little man to the orange dot.  See the pic below:

Credit: Google Maps

In case you didn't know, the little blue dots are regular pictures that you can view from those locations.

I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed at first because I was hoping that you would be able to swim around the bay!  Unfortunately, you're stuck in one spot!  Oh well....the 360° pic is still really cool....and a step in the right direction!  Perhaps they'll eventually add enough photos to enable us to actually swim in the future!

Google has a little more information about this new feature on their blog.  Or you might just want to go straight to your favorite places, like Hanauma Bay or Molokini Island.

Please feel free to leave comments of your own regarding this...

A hui hou

Steve

A Day at Aloha Tex Fest

Aloha everyone!

A couple of weekends ago, the Aloha Tex Fest came to town in Houston, Texas.  I attended, but didn't get a chance to post anything until now.  I took a lot of pictures, and hope you enjoy!

The first thing that I noticed as we were walking into the pavilion was the number of Hawaiian stickers on many many of the cars there.  Everyone was showing their Hawaiian pride, from their car decorations to the aloha shirts, muumuu, and lei.  Very cool!

Of course, the first thing that we had to do was get some of that Hawaiian food that we get to have on our rare occasion.  Onolicious!  (Yeah...I think I just made that up!)  They had the typical Hawaiian fare.  We got the kalua pork, laulau (my all-time favorite), and the huli huli chicken.  (The pork and laulau are pictured below).