Ohana

Most people are familiar with the Hawaiian phrase "mele kalikimaka", which means Merry Christmas.  Unless you are as big a Disney cartoon fan as Tom, you may not be as familiar with "ohana", which means family in Hawaiian.  In the (not so) famous words of animated Lilo:  "Ohana means family.  Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."  In the spirit of ohana, Tom and I made the trip to Hawkesbury on Saturday evening to take Aunt Suzy out for her birthday.  Although I'm not sure I've ever given Aunt Suzy a birthday gift before, I thought a homemade necklace would be a nice birthday present.

Are homemade gifts still acceptable to give when your age reaches double digits?  Even if you're still keeping the goal of not buying anything new to make that homemade gift?? I'm hoping so!

Is it okay to break your new year's resolution of finishing repair work before new projects for someone's birthday??  It must be!

While I didn't buy anything new for this birthday necklace, I did use some beads that are close to my heart.  I purchased the square jade beads that star in this necklace from a market in Cambodia in the summer of 2011.  I'm literally smiling as I think back to buying them.

Our first jade purchase came about in Vietnam.  Tom and I decided to visit the Marble Mountains, a really fascinating group of marble hills carved with tunnels and Buddhist shrines. It was too far to walk or cycle to, so we rented a motorcycle... actually I think it is more accurately called a scooter.  As we were driving there, some locals on another scooter yelled over to us to ask where we were going.  I guess that confirms that we really weren't on proper motorcycles.  Anyway, it turned out that the locals were headed to the Marble Mountains as well, so we agreed to follow them.  We should have known better than to do that.

When we arrived at the Marble Mountains, our "friends" even let us park in front of their family's store.  We really should have known better than to do that.  It was so convenient though!  We were only a minute's walk from the Marble Mountains, and we much enjoyed an afternoon of exploring the mountains, their hidden nooks, and their stunning views of the surrounding area.  The day was going great until we tried to leave.  No, the bike didn't get stolen.

Nothing really bad happened now that I think of it.  Our "friend" simply asked us to take a look around her family's store... no pressure to buy anything... just have a look.  Then came an excruciating hour of shopping.  The shop was a bit of a tourist trap, and we weren't looking for overpriced knick-knack that day.  We saw some heart-shaped jade beads that we thought would make nice earrings, so we decided to buy two.  For the life of me I can't remember how much she tried to charge us, I just remember being shocked.  It was probably about $5, but that was our maximum hostel price, so we told her to nevermind.  Then came the split personality.  The bubbly girl that had befriended us on our scooter suddenly looked and sounded sad and poverty-stricken.  After far too much bargaining we wound up buying a single bead, which I used as a pendant on the necklace I'm wearing in the picture to the left.

The small round beads were not purchased at our friend's store in Vietnam.  Knowing I would need more than one jade bead to make any sort of jewelry, I picked up a string of round and square jade beads at a market in Cambodia for under $1.  I also grabbed a new pair of sunglasses for $5.  I later learned that I'd been ripped off, and could have bought the sunglasses for half that price.  I'm over it. 

So I made Aunt Suzy's necklace with many of my Cambodian jade beads.  I was in a rush, and I finished making it in the car on the way to Hawkesbury, hence the blurry picture with my legs showing on either side.  I really liked the necklace, and contemplated keeping it for myself.  I decided that that would be worse than a homemade gift and breaking my new year's resolution put together!  I just hope Aunt Suzy likes the necklace nearly as much as I do.