Valentine Tikis

My anniversary is on Valentine’s Day, because I’m gross, and, even though Andrew and I have only been married nine years and the tenth anniversary is traditionally the Polynesian Kitsch Anniversary, my family was kind enough to send tiki gifts.

The bar sign is from my mother.  The awesome guys are from my Aunt Kerry, who got them from her friend Polly.  The smaller guys are salt and pepper shakers!

 

 

And if that’s not enough for you, here’s a man and a cat who are friends.

 

Happy Presidents’ Day!

 

Barbara Bradley

A few weeks ago, my friend Pancha introduced me to the Female Illustrators blog, dedicated to amazing midcentury female illustrators of all descriptions.  Thanks to this awesome blog, I discovered Barbara Bradley, who, among many other things, drew the Dole Hawaiian Kids in the 1960s and 1970s.

In a fever pitch of tiki-themed excitement, I ran to eBay to get a set of Hawaiian Kids postcards with art by Bradley.

 

I mean, how cute are these?

 

 

Cutesified cultural appropriation and all, Mini King Kamehameha is my favorite.

 

Oh, man, I love these so much.

In other news, faithful readers may or may not recall that the ultimate goal of all this tiki collecting is to turn the shed in my back yard into a detached office which doubles as a tiki bar.  For the record, here’s the shed now:

 

Obviously there’s a lot to do here.  More to come in the future, hopefully.