nerelle Archives - Page 2 of 17

DDW Breakfast with Gabs

Sep 1, 2021 | Lifestyle

[August 27, 2021]

After the beach gathering in honor of Gabs’ film mentor, Gabby and I went over to DDW to grab an early breakfast. It was still very early, 20 minutes before they opened, so we hung out on the relatively new seawall and let our minds wander over the turbulent water for a while. At 7am, we helped ourselves in through the unlocked doors, grabbed a menu, put a dollar by the cash register to purchase a newspaper, and seated ourselves. We contemplated our orders and sipped on hot tea and chatted away f

A Sunny Home Tour

Aug 24, 2021 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries

The morning sun is up in the sky, streaming through the windows at home.

I am always inspired by the way the light hits—sunbeams dancing with the shadows of tall coconut trees.

I felt compelled to pick up my camera on this particular morning and take photos in and around my home, to capture my feelings and freeze these seemingly mundane but sentimental vignettes of light and space.

Welcome to my home!

Please take off your shoes, and enjoy this little home tour.

The view outside my door looking up at the mountains. Can’t find a more appropriate way to describe this other than that it’s majestic.

Morning light streaming in through the kitchen windows. When it’s super clean (not in this pic), I always feel extra happy to make my homemade iced matcha turmeric lattes.

From the hallway to the studio/home office. I am so grateful for this space. I’ve always dreamt of having a studio dedicated to my crafts and creative pursuits. I especially love working on this workbench table that my husband and I made several years ago.

The large paogo (pandanus) tree outside my kitchen. It’s in the neighbors yard actually, but it’s so tall that I feel I really get the most benefit of its lush crowning glory.

The coconut tree outside the back door balcony that I always spot bats and birds in. It’s like having the music of nature living right here.

Ian’s surf rack in the studio/office that is also home to our snorkeling gear. It makes a great backdrop for my work video conferences. And this map I always reference for little known spots around the island.

A recent addition is this wooden stool I picked up at a neighbor’s going away sale. It houses my wifi routers on the bottom, Echo dot (on top behind the terra cotta planter), and it’s a great little propagation spot.

A realistic, not-so-tidy spot on my workbench in the studio/office. I love this limited art print by Ohkii Studio because she painted it out of inspiration of American Samoa in the 1940s, and the fact that the two brown women in the va’a (outrigger canoe) are wearing red tropical print dresses very similar to one that I made for myself (DIY Upcycled Tahiti-Inspired 2 Piece Outfit) some time ago. It felt very “me”!

Samoan fish motif art by Warren King. Photo of me and my hubba hubba on the day that he proposed to me at the top of Mt. Alava. Betwixt the new curtain panels to shade us from the heat of the afternoon sun.

One of my favorite views is the view outside my living room overlooking the Pala Lagoon and the Nu’uuli mountains. This view is my daily source of gratitude and honestly I feel like a house plant thriving whenever I look out these windows.

Same view, I just opened the window to take this photo of the lagoon and mountains. It truly brings me so much joy.

A diy beaded tassel that I made earlier in the summer hanging here on the screen door that leads to our porch balcony.

We left the screen of the sliding door open so that Yodi and Officer Scruffles can go in and out of the balcony and take long afternoon naps.

This bookshelf where we keep some of our favorite books, books to read, random shells, and our small collection of classic games like chess, cards, dice, dominoes, and bananagrams.

Officer Scruffles lounging outside by the front door balcony. He likes to roll around on the cement and lay in the sun.

Outside the back door balcony, looking towards the beach in the front of our apartment. I go out the back door pretty much every day to check the tide, or see if our friends are in the treehouse to hang out.

Downstairs below the back balcony where we share a compost with our neighbors. It’s great for us too because we can just open our back door and chuck our food scraps into the pile, and on weekends the guys will turn the soil. Also, the main source for my rich garden soil.

Shadows cast onto the tin roof of the house downstairs of our front door balcony, with a net I don’t think anyone realizes is lost except us.

Me, blurry, because I need to clean the dust off this mirror we placed in our entry so we can check ourselves before we head out, and pick up reusable tote bags, our keys, or a mask if we need one from the hanging rack.

The pantry shelf above the mirror. We have a small space, but we try to make each space as functional and beautiful as we can. This houses most of our snacks, canned foods, extra milk, and jars.

And a portrait of sweet Yodi girl, who was born and raised here at Coconut Point for as long as I’ve lived here.

Yodi spends many afternoons on either this side of our gated balcony, or on the porch balcony because she and our neighbor’s dog do not get along, so we have them outside on a rotational schedule.

She actually recently got into a pretty nasty fight with the other dog, and she’s almost fully recovered from her big scars. She went swimming with us the other night too.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little home tour—my personal slice of paradise!

Hope you’re staying well, healthy, and getting sunshine wherever you can.

xo, Nerelle

Making Siapo with Fa’aSamoa Arts

Aug 20, 2021 | Create, Culture

What is Siapo?

Siapo is an ancient Samoan art form, similar to painting, but instead the canvas is called tapa (made by pounding barkcloth stripped from the mulberry tree), the paintbrush is a paogo (pandanus seed), and the inks are made from nature. The lama (black ink) is made from soot, and the o’a (brown ink) is made from the bark of the o’a tree.

Siapo art is a very tedious and painstaking process from start to finish. It isn’t a widely practiced art form in American Samoa these days. That’s why local Samoan artist Reggie Meredith Fitiao (and her husband Su’a Uilisone Fitiao) share their knowledge to keep the tradition alive.

Enter — Fa’aSamoa Arts

This local non-profit, run by Reggie and Su’a, was established to rekindle a passion for Samoan traditional arts by sharing the power of knowledge, hosting siapo making workshops for youth, and hopefully soon, they will open their studio shop too. Their studio is based in Leone, where Reggie was raised and where siapo made a comeback in the the 1960s and 1970s, thanks to her mentor, the infamous Mary J. Pritchard, who was also from Leone. You can read more Mary Pritchard, and about Fa’aSamoa Arts on their beautiful new website created by Mary Anne Bordanaro.

I’m a member of the Rotaract Club of Pago Pago, and in our recent meetings, Reggie was invited as a guest speaker because she was a previous Rotaractor also. She shared her experience with Rotaract, and her journey as an artist. And invited our club to a workshop at the Fa’aSamoa Arts studio. I wish I’d brought my camera with me, but ah whale, here’s a smattering of iPhone photos 🙂

Making Siapo

At the studio, we sat on long benches lined up in two rows of trestle tables. We were handed glass jars with the labels removed, and instructed to roll the jar over sheets of prepared tapa to smooth out our canvas.

Reggie welcomed us warmly and shared an overview of tapa and the varieties of tapa made throughout the Pacific (ie. kapa in Hawaii, ngatu in Tonga, etc). She and Mary held up examples of barkcloth with beautiful designs and passed it around the room so we could feel and observe the differences and unique qualities of each art form from other Pacific islands. I learned that Samoan tapa is two ply, overlapped together with a natural starch to strengthen the canvas and reduce stretch. We asked questions

Reggie proceeded to the floor where a large carved wooden log made of ifilele sat on top of a woven mat. She held out two wooden mallets (I forget their names). One with smooth ridges around the square head, and another that had a smooth rounded head. She explained that the one with the soft ridges was used to pound the bark into cloth. For Reggie, she said it takes her about 15 minutes of pounding just to make one sheet. She showed us first, pounding in a rhythm of three beats – thump… thump thump… thump… thump thump…

We got a chance to pound the tapa too, and I was the first to to give it a go. I could definitely see how this could be a meditative practice, and also how it could be an arm workout! I went on for just a couple minutes, but I think after 5 minutes I would’ve gotten tired. We took turns pounding and the bark flattened to about 16 x 24 inches. We didn’t have enough time that evening to all pound tapa, so Reggie was kind enough to share tapa she had already prepared for us to take our art home.

Once our tapa was smooth from rolling the glass jars over the surface, we picked out paogo to use as brushes. The tips of the seeds were trimmed to reveal the hair like brush. Reggie explained several traditional motifs used in siapo art and what each meant and how they were used. She encouraged us to be creative within these motifs and ideas to incorporate them onto our siapo.

We each sketched our designs lightly with a pencil first. Reggie showed us how to hold the paogo properly: angled with three fingers only (thumb, index, and middle finger). And learned that the trick is to always paint away from ourselves, never toward us. We shared little cups filled with lama, which is much more viscous and a very rich black. Most of us painted over our sketch lines, others opted to use the black to fill in their drawings. And then we painted with the o’a, which is more watery and very subtle at first but would darken over time.

We spent the next couple hours painting. I was happily entranced in the process. The vibes were really good all around, and our Rotaract team asked questions and complimented each others’ work. At the end of the workshop, we took a group photo (with Reggie’s cat and dog too!) and our siapo art.

For most, if not all of us, this was our first time making Siapo. So I am extremely grateful to have had the privilege to learn from such a renowned artist as Reggie. And many thanks to my Rotaract Club board for organizing this workshop!

Life Lately: A Roundup Reel + Get In My Headspace

Aug 14, 2021 | Lifestyle, Moments

Hi hello how are ya —

I shared this round up reel on instagram which pretty much highlights my entire month of July in half second snippets… and shared in the caption how I’d been feeling.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nerelle Que Moffitt (@nerelleque)

And with that… here are a few updates of my life lately that I thought would be worth posting on here to look back on… please don’t mind my rambling… I feel like I haven’t written for myself in a long time so I just want to write without thinking too much.

My hard drive went kaput

My primary external hard drive stopped working suddenly last month, and I’m devastated because it contains the last three years of my life in photos, videos, and other random computerized parts of my life. It’s been a few weeks since, and I’m hoping that my new hard drive comes in so the Pago Tech guy can clone all the contents of my drive into this new one, but he’s indicated he’s not sure if it’ll work because the partition that my files are on are encrypted and who knows if it’ll clone over properly or come out as jumbled nonsense. Pray for me ya’ll!

Work was nonstop last month

I am finally getting used to not working anytime I’m in front of my computer, because I was constantly uploading, editing, emailing, and researching for work, for all odd hours of the day so much so that my eyes were starting to go cross eyed. So I’ve been avoiding my screens and resetting my computer habits. On the plus side, it wasn’t actually too bad because I enjoyed the type of work — filming a video for our annual Get Into Your Sanctuary summer program. You can find the completed video here if you want to watch it!

A few home projects

The hubba and I upcycled our sun-beaten leaf dining table and DIY’d a tile mosaic with epoxy resin to seal it up. It looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself! We’ve also just added curtains to our south/west facing living room windows because the sun comes in directly for a few hours in the late afternoon and it makes our house so hot and has affected our furniture (clearly, I mean if you’d seen our sun-beaten dining table, you’d know). I have always been a bit anti-curtains for some reason, but after way too many an uncomfortable sun-drenched late arvo in the house, I caved and we bought white curtain panels and wood rod dowels, and I sewed up some canvas to make loops to hold the rod dowels. I can’t tell if I like it or hate it, but I certainly don’t love the curtains, it’s really just there for function. The nice thing is we can always stow it away too.

My island fever is acting up

I feel like I always complain about this on here, but the last few weeks have been like salt on the wound, because we missed my husband’s family reunion that was postponed to this year from last year, and I’m also missing one of my besties’ weddings in a couple of weeks, and I’m one of her bridesmaids so I just feel crap for not being there to help and to celebrate with her. Of course, I also miss my brother and sister, and her little family. I don’t get to video chat with them enough as it is but every time I do, they seem to grow an inch or suddenly know division and have the most hilarious chats.

Online shop update

I have temporarily shut down my sticker shop on my website so that I can work on a photo prints shop. It’s been one of the biggest goals on my list for this year, so I am going to do my best to make it a reality! I’ve been wanting to sell prints of my photos for absolute years now, and I’ve gotten a few requests from people too, which has been super encouraging. I don’t know exactly how just yet, but I’ll figure it out, and I would love any advice or tips if you have any ideas to share with me!

Back to blogging

I really want to get back to my blog, because especially after losing the contents of my hard drive, which is essentially my life’s work, from the last few years, I want to still hold on to the highlights and little bits of memories that mean the most to me. I still am a pretty private person (for a person who overshares on the Internet), so those parts I tend to keep vague but they’re still there. I am learning to just have fun with it, and even if I misspell something, or make grammatical mistakes — I’ve made plentyyyy — that’s okay. This is truly my safe space on the Internet, a place to call my own.

If you’ve read all the way through to here… wow thank you for joining me in my headspace. I hope you have a beautiful day or evening, wherever you are!

xo, Nerelle

Moonrise Over the Ocean

Jul 26, 2021 | Lifestyle, Moments, Photo Diaries

The neighborhood dogs are howling into the night, echoing each other without a pause, as I walk over the freshly cut grass of the lawn, past the paved road, and climb up the wooden steps to the treehouse. My husband and several of our friends are sitting on the pier, listening to island jams, sipping on beers, and nibbling on chips being passed around to share. I set my camera up on my mini tripod, attaching it to my massive Sigma 105mm f/1.4 fixed lens. I look down at my watch and it’s a little past 9pm. The moon would be rising soon. I rest the tripod on the thick teak wood rail of the treehouse and fiddle with the camera’s manual mode when I see a razor thin orange outline in the horizon. The moon slowly peeked out from the imaginary line in the sky and I snap away silently while the muffled conversation dims. Everyone gazed at this wondrous muted yellow orange orb grow bright and high in the sky, interrupted by the occasional cloud rolling through. The cool ocean breeze gives me goosebumps and I wrap my linen button-up a little tighter for warmth.

Snorkeling in Gataivai

Jul 21, 2021 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries

Living next to a beach is pretty freaking awesome. I can get in the water as often as I want, whenever I want… well, except on Sundays unfortunately, as is the current rule in my village peninsula. So on this particular Sunday, I needed some saltwater therapy after a long week and a longer week to come, and I ventured to Gataivai beach some 20 minutes away for an arvo snorkel with my Fish Man.

I love snorkeling at Gataivai. The beach is easy to access, right off the main road, it goes from shallow sand and reefs to deep vast nothingness in a matter of a few hundred yards, meaning it scares and excites me, and I just love that there’s a variety of fish and coral, and lots of it too! Only cons are really that it’s right by the Pago Harbor, where I’ve heard of and seen (photos of, only) bull sharks coming for a visit, which terrifies me out of my wits; also that there’s a sewage treatment plant literally across the road, and sometimes it’s stinky above water, and makes me feel icky sometimes when I’m in the water too, especially after a big rain.

This photo journal is neither here nor there though… this one is about the what we saw underwater. When we got in the water, we immediately came across a casual sea turtle. There were several others in the distance, but this one we came across was munching away at algae on the reef, ignoring us mostly, and showing off a little too. We hung out with this sea turtle for probably a good 20 minutes.

Just a mini highlight of some of what we saw… We saw several juvenile humphead wrasses, tons of butterflyfish, parrotfish (small), blue damselfish, pennant bannerfish, triggerfish, and even a scorpionfish! We initially thought it was a stonefish, but after a little checking, we now think it’s a scorpionfish. It was all around a lovely snorkel.

Reliving these seemingly insignificant vignettes from moments of my life at home through photos… I am reminded that there is beauty everywhere in everything… and that time spent on doing things that bring you joy is time well spent.

Sending warmth and love to wherever you are seeing this from!

xoxo,

Nerelle

Photos by Ian Moffitt and Nerelle Moffitt

LeMax Co. Grand Opening

Apr 11, 2021 | Lifestyle

LeMax Co. is a newly established shop locally owned by the Malauulu / Misipeka family.

After some time of planning and sourcing quality affordable goods, they finally opened their doors on February 15, 2021.

You can find their beautifully laid out shop located in Nu’uuli, across from the Laufou Shopping Center and next to Cheat Day.

Hours of operation are: Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm, and on Saturday from 9am to 2pm.

Gabby and I got a bunch of cute outfits from there, and I would def encourage everyone in American Samoa to check it out!

Sessions: Toafā Te‘o Grad Portraits

Sep 1, 2020 | Photography

Quick snaps of this beauty, Toafā Te’o, back in May to commemorate her high school graduation.

She actually attended high school in Kansas (thus the Skyhawks on her grad stole sash), and came back to visit American Samoa for a family gathering, but she got stuck here once the borders closed due to the COVID pandemic. She missed her graduation in the states, but her family here celebrated her all the same.

Congrats Toafā! Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors girl!

Apr 30, 2020 | Moments

Yodi napping in the shadow

A little sick but not worried

Apr 13, 2020 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries

Hello friends and strangers!

Took a break from daily posting because I’ve unfortunately fallen ill over the weekend. It’s nothing to worry about. Just headaches, body aches, and a bit of congestion. I hate to admit that I’ve been coughing because I don’t want to cause a scare. It seems like everybody and their mommas are getting up in arms any time a person so much as clears their throat, much less actually coughs. So for your information, I’m barely coughing–I promise. And if I do cough, it’s like the babiest of baby coughs. I’ve been sneezing more than coughing. Ha-choo!

Anyhow, it’s been a whole month since I started quarantining at home… maybe a little over a month. I’m very relieved that we still do not have any confirmed cases of COVID in American Samoa – another assurance that my feverish feeling is probably just a common cold. I’ve taken sick leave today from teleworking so I can just lay in bed all day and rest up.

Here’s a photo diary from before I started feeling sick. Socially distant hangout with Gabby at the treehouse, then brunch on the balcony that Ian prepared for us, and Yodi jumped up on Ian’s lap, and it was too cute to not snap some pics. Thanks to Gabby for snapping pics of me, Ian, and Yodi.

xo, Nerelle

A WFH OOTD

Apr 8, 2020 | Lifestyle

In case these are new abbreviations to you, welcome to the year 2020! It stands for “A Work From Home Outfit Of The Day”, which is what this is. A single outfit of the day that’s worthy of a mirror selfie.

The nice thing about WFH is that I can wear anything I want. The bad thing about WFH is also that I can wear anything I want…

I’ve mostly been wearing pajamas, leggings, tshirts, shorts, or if I’m feeling extra spicy, I’ll wear my swimsuits which are dually functional on extra hot days to keep me cool, and so I can go straight to the beach after the 9-5.

Some days I put in more effort than others.

“Some days” don’t happen very often, but when they do, I might take a mirror selfie to share.

Take this day for example…

I started off with a basic grey t-shirt that I’ve had for forever, and I almost put on my usual black leggings, but then I found these cream culottes that I got as a gift 4 years ago from Niu 2 You thrift shop owner, Rine. I’ve actually never worn it because firstly, I never know what to wear it with, and secondly, because I forgot I had it. After a little closet organizing, I pulled them out from the far reaches of my closet and finally decided to wear them. It was très cute, compared to my other WFH outfits.

And since I was at it, I picked out some bold jewelry I never wear.

I almost never wear rings, except for my engagement ring, but I wore this sizeable raw emerald ring I bought in Jaipur, India, when I was doing my summer study abroad in 2012.

Then I donned these cute cheapy earrings I got from Forever 21 a while ago, and that was the fitttt.

Hope you enjoyed my attempt at a fashion blog post. Gotta try something new everyday right?

Happy quarantining!

Nerelle

Throwback moments on the camera roll

Apr 6, 2020 | Moments, Photo Diaries

Exactly what the title says. Raking through a few highlight moments on my iPhone from the last couple of months… mostly outdoors before ish hit the fan and we all had no idea life would look this different.

Also – I have an iPhone X and the photos are normally a “nicer” quality, but I intentionally added a lot of grain to these phone photos. It just gives me a better feeling about them, and I’ve really been into grainy photo diaries lately.

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