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Friday 28 March 2014

Easter Corset Giveaway - SpicyLegs.com

SpicyLegs.com is back with another exciting Giveaway. Get a chance to win a beautiful and gorgeous Corset worth $50 this Easter. Just like Our fan Page on FaceBook and enter your details. Don’t forget to spread a word about the giveaway among your family and friends. The more people enter from your shared link, more bonus (3 Bonus entries per entrant) entries you’ll earn and get closer to winning. Giveaway ends on 10th April 2014. You have no time to waste.




Wednesday 26 March 2014

Easter Costume Giveaway - PartyBell.com

Are you ready for another exciting giveaway? PartyBell brings to you an exciting Costume Giveaway. Get a chance to win a cute Minnie Mouse Costume worth $60. Follow few simple steps and this costume can be yours. Just LIKE PartyBell FaceBook FanPage, Fill in your Details and Share the Giveaway with your Friends and get 3 BONUS entries. The more you Share the Closer you get to winning.

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Monday 10 March 2014

Bits 'n' Pieces: Guitar fest says 'aloha' to spring

Picture the warm, friendly, comfortable weather in Hawaii. Ahhh. Now tilt your inner ear and listen to the natural musical accompaniment.

What you're hearing in your head is the mellow, slidey, tropical tone of the slack key guitar. That's a Hawaiian guitar technique that's all about sweet-sounding open tunings and a delicate finger-style touch. Ahhh.

So let's evict this cold, slimy Pacific Northwest winter with some of that warm Ahhh. On the first day of spring, Vancouver's own Hawaiian arts and culture organization, the Ke Kekui Foundation, will host the first Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival in the region, as part of its 2014 schedule of offerings.

"We at the Ke Kukui Foundation are bringing Hawaiian culture, music, dance and spreading it wherever we can," said Executive Director Deva Leinani Yamashiro.

Ke Kukui hosts an annual Cultural Lu'au every winter as well as a huge summer festival featuring hula classes and competitions, craft workshops, music and more. This "Three Days of Aloha" festival draws thousands from across the nation. Plus, Ke Kukui offers ongoing courses in Hawaiian language, history, cooking, culture, horticulture and music. There are even monthly music jams.

And now there's what's being called the First Annual "Portland Style" Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival. It will be emceed by Harry B. Soria, the same Hawaiian gentleman who comes to Vancouver every year to emcee those "Three Days of Aloha." Yamashiro said Soria has long wanted to get Ke Kukui involved in bringing the annual festival, a tradition in Hawaii since 1982 that has recently spread to other U.S. cities, to Portland.

"He's been wanting us to be a part of this for a long time, but we've never been able to make it work until now," she said.

The slack key guitar style started in 1830 on the Big Island of Hawaii, not long after guitars first arrived there. "Slack key" means just what it sounds like: you slacken, or loosen, strings from standard tuning until they are in automatic harmony — so for example you can strum a sweet, open G chord without fretting anything. When you do start fretting, you've got this lovely droning background already embracing your notes.

If that sounds easy, the experts say it can be — at first. But there are dozens of ways to retune your instrument, and every time you do it's like learning a whole new language. So it may be easy to start but difficult to master.

Take note, acoustic guitar lovers: The original Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival is considered one of 50 "must-see" events by Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and the "Portland Style" event will feature a stellar lineup: triple Grammy Award winner the Rev. Dennis Kamakahi, LT Smooth, Steven Inglis, Danny Carvalho, Chris Lau and special guest Taimane.

The First Annual Portland Style Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival is set for 6:30 p.m. March 20 at the Alpenrose Dairy Opera House in Portland. That's over near Beaverton, Ore., at 6149 S.W. Shattuck Road. Tickets are $20 and available at slackkey.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 360-921-8816 or emailing hapamac@msn.com. Learn more about the Ke Kekui Foundation at kekukuifoundation.org.

Bits 'n' Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you'd like to share, email bits@columbian.com.

Arizona Aloha Fest to serve up Hawaiian & Polynesian favorites

Take an island vacation without leaving the East Valley this weekend when the 20th annual Arizona Aloha Festival is held at Tempe Beach Park.

The two-day celebration of Hawaiian and Polynesian culture will run 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.

Three dozen food vendors will be dishing out Hawaiian and Polynesian favorites like kalua pork, vilo vilo chicken, manapua (steamed pork-filled buns), Spam musubi (Spam and rice wrapped in seaweed), and haupia (coconut pudding).

Also on the menu: Portuguese sausage, beef stew over rice, Guamanian chicken, pineapple curry, coconut shrimp, kalbi ribs, chicken katsu, and, of course, shave ice.

Visitors also will be able to learn to hula or play the ukulele, enjoy more than 40 music and dance groups on three stages, and purchase crafts and products.

Tempe Beach Park: Arizona Aloha Festival

March 8 and 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: Two-day celebration of Hawaiian and Polynesian culture with entertainment, vendors of “island lifestyle” products, food vendors offering a variety of island culinary delights, cultural displays and demonstrations and plenty of that infamous Hawaiian aloha spirit. Join more than 90,000 transplanted South Pacific islanders and those who simply love the aloha spirit and exploring cultures. 

There will be fun for the family with dancers and musicians performing on three stages, island cuisine, such as “plate lunches,” laulau, poi, kalua pork, manapua (steamed pork buns), Hawaiian-style teriyaki, island wings, fresh tropical fruits and the Shave ice melt-in-your mouth sweet and ice confection. 

There will be a kids activity area with hands-on crafts to make and take. The island marketplace vendors offer fresh flower leis, authentic carved bone necklaces, Polynesian print fabrics, T-shirts, island wood products and much more. Opening ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m. and will end with a call to the islands to assemble and open the event. 

Dancers from each South Pacific island culture will come together at the sound of the conch shell. For more information visit

Fresh Hawaiian Leis for Sale in Tempe Arizona This Weekend

The sweet tropical fragrance of fresh Hawaiian flowers will be wafting through the air at the 20th Annual Arizona Aloha Festival, held this weekend March 8 and 9 at Tempe Beach Park. Lei makers from Honolulu-based florist, Hawaii Flower Lei, will be there all weekend stringing and selling fresh Hawaiian leis.

As one of the festival’s biggest sponsors, Hawaii Flower Lei will be hard to miss. The lei seller will be located right next to the Mountain Stage where there will be live performances all day. The music, dance, and fresh fragrant leis are sure to draw crowds.

In fact, event organizers are expecting to draw crowds of nearly 200,000 people to the Arizona Aloha Festival this year. Not surprising, considering there are over 500,000 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders living in the western states. Folks travel from all over to attend this “fest in the west” as it has been called.

“We are so excited to share the Hawaiian lei tradition with the people of Arizona,” says Hawaii Flower Lei President Emily Steele.

This is the first year Hawaii Flower Lei has sponsored the Arizona Aloha Festival, and they’re going “whole hog” according to Steele, sponsoring the Mountain Stage, donating leis to all the VIPs, and facilitating two free lei making workshops at the festival.

Arizona Aloha Festival Chairperson, Lacretia Bacon says, “We are thrilled to have Hawaii Flower Lei as part of the Arizona Aloha Festival to bring the beautiful custom of wearing a necklace of flowers to the desert.”

Hawaii Flower Lei specializes in shipping fresh Hawaiian leis nationwide.