wooden ironing board

My ironing board is an old wooden board that I have had about 30 years.  Every time the cover got old or worn out, I would just tie the new one over the top of the old cover.  Well,  I didn't realize how many layers I had until I had got a new cover that uses contact paper to tape onto the board.  I counted 8 layers.  Of course, I didn't supply all those layers.  Just the last 4 or 5.  It's the first 2 layers that caught me by surprise.

This is layer number 2.  Notice the year is 1978. 

This is the 1st layer.  I always wondered why it was so bumpy in places.  It was these old nails that were loose.  What's great about a wooden ironing board is you can take a hammer to all the loose nails.

I was tempted to cut pieces of the ironing board covers and make a quilt about ironing.  Nah.  I did keep the Botan rice bag. It has some brown spots.  I've seen a booth at the craft fairs in Hawaii that makes bags and shirts out of these.  It'll be fun trying to figure out what to use it for.

cotton tree

I was visiting my parents in Hawaii last week.  We were outside in the yard when my Mom told me to "Go across the street and pick some cotton."  Well sure enough, there was a cotton tree that was full of cotton balls.  I picked a handful and here is a picture of it....

 This is the first time I have ever handled raw cotton.  It was full of leaves and twigs and mostly tiny black seeds.  To separate the seeds from the cotton, you have to literally pick pick pick at the cotton.  What a time consuming, labor intensive work.  I thought about bringing it back home to the mainland, but decided to leave it with my Mom.  I didn't want to get stopped by the Agriculture scanner at the airport.  Here is my ten cents worth of cotton after an hours work of separating.

poi dogs

                                                                POI DOGS

In Hawaii  a poi dog is an extinct breed of dog from Hawaii.  I took random patches of bones and images of their three dogs Baby, Piper and Buddy framing the central family portrait.  This was given to my second cousin as a wedding gift.  Christine and Mike love their dogs like their own children.

Here is a close up photo.