I’ve already blabbed about this on Facebook, so I lot of you already know, but I thought I should say something here.

7th Annual Hawaii Woman Expo

My daughter, Adrienne, and I attended the 7th Annual Hawaii Woman Expo this past weekend at the Blaisdell Arena in downtown Honolulu.  We had so much fun that we attended both Saturday and Sunday.  I’ve attended similar shows back east in D.C. and they usually feature the big corporations like Johnson and Johnson, Proctor and Gamble and Clairol as well as a few local merchants.  The expos are designed to expose women to products and services that they and their families might want to buy.

The Hawaii Woman Expo was the exact opposite – most of the vendors were local and a good 75% of them distribute their products and services through direct sales or network marketing.  And I’m thinking someone must have “feng shui-ed” the place because it felt so good inside.  Usually, I don’t do well in enclosed spaces, but this exhibit hall had huge windows at the top of all four walls, and that let a lot of sunlight in.  Here I am after a not-so-extreme makeover.   I don’t care for the eyeliner.

The Bernina Mini-Expo

U.S. Sewing and Bernina of Hawaii sponsored a mini-expo within the larger one featuring sewing, embroidery, quilting and crafts.  It was my main reason for attending the expo in the first place.  So, on a whim, I decided to enter the freeform purse that’s featured in the Four Seasons freeform fiber arts online exhibit and book.  It was inspired by the Ko’olau Mountains here in winward O’ahu.  I wanted to see how well it would do.  And as I filled out the form, I said to myself, “I want to go to Vegas!”  Then I promptly forgot about it and enjoyed the expo.

That was Saturday.  On Sunday, I primarily went back to pick up my purse only to discover that it had actually won one of 2 second place prizes, i.e., a 5-day, 4-night Las Vegas vacation sponsored by Vacations Hawaii and KHON2 TV station.  Oh, talk about being on top of the world!  I couldn’t believe it!

Las Vegas – Hawai’i’s “9th Island”

I’ve never been to “the 9th island” as it’s known here in Hawaii, so I’m ready to go!  Adrienne, who’ll be going with me, has already put me on notice that we are going to be on a gambling budget (hey, whose the mother here?) and I agree wholeheartedly.  I’m looking to at least to win some yarn money.  But … ya never know what might happen.