around the city

 Adorable grade school marching band!

Yep. Strap a tree to your bike and the day begins.

4 more days until australia!

We found the key to our file cabinet this week. This is a huge highlight considering we couldn't open the file cabinet for the past 2.5 years, and weren't sure what was inside. It must ahve been important if it was locked, we reasoned.

Ok- this was actually T's file cabinet and so he knew, but I was really curious. He went through the contents with serendipity and boredom, tossing old files from former work, while finding his paperwork to get a driver's license in China! He had taken a test and had the proper stamps and certificates to obtain a license- all he has to do is turn it in! Finally.

With the new space, we organized every paper floating in our house. My random sketches, tax forms, medical receipts and letters from Gramma. Now everything has a home- it felt good to get things in order. Paper is our main form of clutter. Mail. Bills. Neglected RSVPs. (We received a wedding invite on Oct 6th, with a US post mark of Sept 10th?! Way past their rsvp date.... sorry!)

4 more days until australia!

We'll be heading to Melbourne, Yarra valley for a wedding, then cairns (great Barrier reef), and Sydney. Packing, packing...

Packing is a paint for both of us. We both forget stuff. We are list makers who lose lists.

We forget electric plug adapters A LOT (we found 6 HK ones, since we buy one everytime we go there) and then packing for opposing climates- if its summer in SH I'll forget socks, if winter I'll forget sunglasses.

Visit to Dongguan

Last week I went by Dongguan, which is in the south of China to check out two factories and the market. What I enjoyed about going down south is the tropical weather and lush green scenery. Palm trees, and bright flowers are everywhere, thick and healthy. (I feel like they over prune the trees in SH, and they look a bit like a freshly sheered sheep)

Crocodile for lunch!

We lunched at a local seafood restaurant- the type where the entire front area is devoted to tanks of fish and seafood in multiple layers. Its basically an edible aquarium if you will. So while one of the ladies went to choose seafood, she came with this croc hand snapshot, giggling. Eeek! Then we proceeded to eat lunch- snails, prawns, scallops, salt and pepper spare ribs. And a meat dish- my sourcing partner insisted I try it, even though I was full. It was tender juicy and fatty. "Is it pork belly?" I asked. "No, just meat- it's good! Try it!" she encouraged.

It was crocodile.

After the meal was complete, I went to see the table of ice, where the crocodile had been chopped up, with skin still on the flesh.  The tail was about arms width long! kinda creepy and fascinating at the same time. There were also some duck billed fish that were pretty cool.

The main factory we visited- working on new samples and product development, quality checks, and learning more about the production process. They had 4 of these huge fume hood like machines that suck all the bad fumes out in into a pool of water, which was super nasty. But it was actually breathable on the production floor, so I'm not complaining.  This was a pretty well established factory that does business with Kohl's, Target, etc, and has indoor plumbing (SCORE) its own canteen (cafeteria) dorms, and basketball court (pictured above). It was in a pretty developed neighborhood off the main road too, which meant a decent hotel, and choice of restaurants!

What was interesting but I wasn't able to snap a pic in time- was corner stores would put a TV on a stand on the sidewalk facing the street, and 20-30 plastic stools for people to sit and hang out on. Several cyclists and people with dogs would also stop by to watch tv for a bit, a neighborhood gathering watching the news or some movie.

The production line, making a set of ceramic wastebins I designed (in stores now!)

 Some fabric swatch cards that I picked up from the market: a cotton/linen set and a PP and paper woven set- cool combination of materials, in a nordic meets resort look. It can see this material in lots of uses.... bags, bins....

Late afternoon sunlight in a creepy vacated factory - this one focuses on wood.

taipei weekend

Last weekend, we headed to Taipei, Taiwan, for a little R&R. It was my first time and I loved it! It was a great mix of modern design, tropical flavor, and city community all blended together.

We met up with Sue, my good pal from CCA and headed to the SongShan cultural park to visit the Taiwan Design Museum.

They had a Barbie exhibit- a private collection of every Barbie ever made (?) It was fascinating, impressive, and creepy all at the same time. Fascinating that they had so many extremely detailed outfits and accessories, and basically every imaginable personality and more. The 1970's delta airplane interior playset, a princess for every culture that ever existed AND more, and also celebs like Michael Jackson and Michelle Obama.  Even the above creepy mustache doll.

A late lunch outside- a typhoon was coming so it was quite windy. We went to Chun Shui Tang, notorious for their naicha (milktea) with beef noodles and 萝卜糕 lobakgo. YUMMY!! Milk Houses, by Taipei 101 is known for their cream bun- which is basically filled with butter!!!!

Then headed to Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world (2004) 449.2 m. (For comparison, SH's WFC is 494.3 m) As it was a Sunday afternoon, there was a 1 hr wait. Nearby we also checked out the very cool Eslite bookstore - which was several floors combining fashion and designy pop-up shops, and books. Timon: This is a bookstore? Where are the books?

 Raohe + Shilin night market. Raohe had more food, and shilin  was twice the size but had mostly clothes. Cheap clothes- like $5 usd racks of  Polyester neon tops and a 100 TWD shop.

 Above images show a dessert crepe filled with peanut toffee shavings and fruit ice cream. 

Handmade food, on right, we are playing this traditional pinball-like game. You use a plastic ruler to flick metal balls up and try to get them to line up horizontally or vertically to get a prize. We just won root beer candy.

Custard in egg shells, Taiwanese pineapple and mango beer, and corndogs covered in french fries.

5 dime boat house resturant: paper mache cavern and iron anemones in a Gaudi-meets-Simon Rodia style. The artist/architect of the restaurant is Xie Li-xiang who was inspired by drift wood, and desiring to upcycle it into art. The ENTIRE resturant is doused in details of enormous proportions. Huge anemones and stautes mounted all over- you really have to watch where you are walking! The cuisine was traditional Taiwanese fare.  here

We also visited the Palace museum- which was huge, and very well done. Great english descriptors, arrows to help traffic flow, and docent roping off areas so they wouldn't get too crowded. It farther up north and we had to take a cab there (no metro), but only 5 min from where we were staying in Jian nan.

We headed to Beitou in the evening to visit the hotsprings. It was about 35 minutes from the Palace museum (both north of where we were staying) We didn't have a place in mind, so we asked the cabbie for a recommendation. For ordering about $12 USD of food per person, (Tempura platter, BBQ beef, and veggies) we got unlimited time in a private hotspring! It was a little room with a stone tub, with faucet for the hot spring to fill it up directly!

We LOVE the tripadvisor app- so well thought out and tremendously helpful!
We stayed in Jian Nan metro area, via Airbnb- a newer neighborhood, very residential/commercial which meant it was very quite but also no street snacks, and even fewer cabs. Fortunately, the mall nearby had a free shuttle to Shilin night market!

In hindsight, we should've flown in Songshan airport, which was much closer to town- and metro accessible.

neighborhood

Some buildings with window washers. This one has wall gardeners!

on Panyu Rd, the whole wall is covered in mirrored window boxes overflowing with green. 

to do!

After reading Apartment therapy's article 10 things to  help your home be happier!
I realized we don't have enough photos on our walls! We have art, fish and bills that need to be paid. I've been working on our wedding album for some time now- I've got the photos chosen and roughly divided in sections, but still have to color correct, crop, and layout. (2+ years later!)

I make a point to snap at least 1 photo at every "event" we go to. I just have to do something with all of them!

Below are the two I hope to start:

3. Display sentimental items around your home. One reason that experiences (and memories of those experiences) make us happier than material things is due to the entire cycle of enjoyment that experiences provide: planning the experience, looking forward to the experience, enjoying the experience, and then remembering the experience. Make your home a gallery of positive memories.

4. Start a one-line-a-day gratitude journal. Before bed, simply jot down one happy memory from that day. (If you have kids, you can ask them, "What was the best part of today?") Reflection is an important part of happiness, and pausing to reflect on a positive event from each day cultivates gratitude. (An added bonus: Later, when your memory is defunct, you will already have all of your meaningful adventures recorded!) If you have trouble getting started with journaling, consider buying a book to guide you. Simple Abundance, by Sarah Ban Breathnach, is a great one.

bracelets

While watching sherlock this weekend, I made/finished these bracelets. The blue one was inspired by braided raw silk bracelets I've seen on pinterest, and the the green one inspired by faux suede version (I do not like wearing faux suede) I was going for upscale friendship bracelet- mostly since its hard to tie them on yourself and they fall over so easily! In hindsight I should've put more loops by the clasp- its a bit hard to squeeze with the big metal thingy in the way.

And Sherlock (british series) was good! (Thanks Georgia for the suggestion!)