lau lau woodworks

one of my favorite stories is about emma thompson and the magic pen her father gave her when she was a child. the pen has been by her side during exam time at school and eventually graduated to writing her oscar winning script for sense & sensibility. makes you wonder about the undiscovered potential from the pen lying on your desk, doesn't it?

now that you know all pens are not created equal, perhaps your favorite grad would appreciate the gift of possibility with a koa pen from lau lau woodworks. designer aaron lau crafts each pen by hand using everything from curly koa wood to crushed sunflower seeds as inlays. and while your grad may never get around to writing the great american novel, at least jotting down her "to do" list will be elevated to a whole new level.

baby booty

modernist mamas & papas will be happy to learn that honolulu finally has its very own modern baby boutique. cupcake is the place to go to deck out the nursery with dwell baby linens, offi furniture & the supercool oeuf baby lounger.

you'll find lots of cute things for your little one at the ward centre warehouse shop as well as an edited selection of goodies on cupcake's website like the infantino surfboard tummy time mat (shown above).

chance encounters with a red pineapple

the past week has been filled with happy accidents (which, by the way, is also a very fun vincent d'onofrio flick) with nalani mclaughlin.

first, i discovered auntie nalani's cookies while researching island weddings last week. then i noticed that her wedding received a nice spread in the latest issue of pacific rim weddings. and then after i decided to write about red pineapple's opening at ward centre i realized that the proprietor was none other than auntie nalani herself.

weird.

anyhoo, red pineapple is the place to go when you need a gourmet gift basket or want to pick up goodies not easily found in the islands. you can fill your basket with auntie nalani's cookies, delicacies from dean & deluca and gourmet treats from the islands. red pineapple can deliver the goodies around oahu and, even better, they ship to the neighbor islands and the mainland.

sneaker pimps

i have a feeling that the fella's favorite shop when we hit the islands this summer will be kicks/hi. this is the place to go if you love sneakers. and i'm not talking about your kids' keds but super cool kicks for sneaker aficionados looking to score limited edition, old school style sneakers.

they have even collaborated on limited edition sneaker designs like the aloha dunk with nike. the masterminds behind kicks hawaii are pchs grad ian ginoza & his friend eddy haus who opened up their first shop a few years ago and recently opened another location at the new ward gateway in town. online shopping isn't available yet so if you're not lucky enough to live in (or visit) hawaii hopefully you're near saint alfred, their sister shop in chicago. 

c is for cookie

honolulu cookie company + good kine cookie co.

if you have been craving chocolate dipped shortbread cookies from the honolulu cookie company you will be happy to know that online ordering is now available! these were included in the goodie bags that we gave to friends who flew in from the mainland for our wedding and everybody loved them.

with ono flavors like chocolate macadamia, white chocolate kona coffee & lilikoi mango . . . who can resist? even better, if you stop by their shop at ward warehouse you can sample all the different flavors (this is either a blessing or a curse since the more cookies you try, the more you end up buying).

and, in other cookie news, the good kine cookie co. recently opened to rave reviews of their handmade iced cookies in shapes reminiscent of the islands like aloha shirts, pineapples, leis, etc. they can even personalize the cookie to celebrate a special occasion.

one of their founders is pastry chef abigail langlas who made the very yummy & very beautiful cakes for our wedding so i'm pretty sure the cookies will be just as onolicious. good kine cookie co. has a shop at restaurant row, a kiosk at ala moana, and online ordering (yay!).

now if somebody would just open up a cupcake bakery so i could savor cupcake sized portions of dobash & guava chiffon cake the next time i'm home!

{update | dec 2009: please note good kine cookie co. officially became hokulani bake shop after this was posted}