Hawaiian Baby Shower

Recently I was invited to a Hawaiian themed baby shower. One of my best friends was about to become a grandmother for the first time. The baby is going to be a girl so one of my gifts was our pink Hawaiian baby dress then I went to a local store and bought the baby some essentials like onesies, booties, blankets etc…. I just love baby showers! Charles and I are the proud grandparents of 2 grandchildren the eldest is Ava Rose she just turned 4 years old then we have our grandson Kaleb who is almost 2 and our third grandson (not yet named) is due June 13^th 2014 and yes it is a Friday the 13^th & my mischevious daughter jokingly says she will name him Jason J

Anyway I digress….so I walked into the shower and saw the usual things; palm trees, baby is coming banners, blue balloons, grass skirts surrounding several tables loaded with food and gifts but what caught my eye was the beautiful purple cake sitting in the middle of the table, it was decorated with white hibiscus and it said “Welcome Baby” but surrounding the cake was a beautiful icing lei.

Sample cake

It was just an eye-catcher and looked absolutely stunning in fact she used the lei that I gave her when she visited me last week. My friend is a baker and she made that cake stand out! I am trying to get a picture of the actual cake and will post it when I get one. The sample cake should get the message across.

So that is something others can do if they decide on a Hawaiian themed baby shower. We sell all sorts of men, women's and children’s Hawaiian clothing and colorful simulated silk leis at our store located in Downtown Escondido on Grand & Kalmia Street.

I love getting invited to tropical themed parties because I just have to lock the showroom door and can pick an appropriate outfit from the store.

I chose to wear our purple Hawaiian women’s shirt and paired it with a pair of white capris and white sandals. I had a great time and the Mommy to Be got a lot of much needed items including the first Hawaiian dress for her baby or should I say her “keiki”.

 

 

 

Mysteries of Spring Fashion, Solved in Seconds

With spring upon us men are yet again faced with that age old question on what shirts to wear in the spring.

Myself, I enjoy wearing mens Hawaiian shirts from a company called Wave Shoppe, largely due to them being loose fitting and that the colorful shirts they offer have short sleeves that look good on my longer than normal arms. Fit is important to me, I like my Hawaiian shirt short-sleeves to fall about one inch up from the crook of my elbow. Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts are cut with good proportions, and if your sleeves are much shorter (or longer) than what they offer online or in-store, you're getting into fashion territory that you may not want to tread in.

When wearing a collared dress shirt under a sweater; you always want to make sure that the collar is in and not out. But never, ever, wear a sweater over a Hawaiian shirt; if you’re cold don a light jacket or something.

And now we come to a point whereas we have to discuss long sleeve shirts with Hawaiian prints. In my opinion this is a fashion mistake, Hawaiian Aloha shirts have never been long sleeve, only the piecemealed long sleeve shirts worn by early plantation workers in Hawaii had actual long sleeves.

The workers long sleeved shirts were most often referred to as Palaka shirts (the prints often resembled a checkerboard) and had long sleeves to protect the workers during long periods spent working in the full sun.

So stay away from the often trumpeted "latest fashion" trends like long sleeves or pullover shirts look polo shirts etc. Do so and you wont look like a complete dufus.

Of course after years of almost collecting the brightly colored tropical themed shirts, I often find myself thinking about recycling. Ha not my shirts but recycling all of the empty cans lying around the house!

Whenever I buy a new garment from Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirt, I never get rid of one to make room for another one. The one-in, one-out policy that applies to apply to a lot menswear does not (and never should) apply to tropical Hawaiian shirts and similar types of spring and summer clothing.