michelle my belle

San Diego Reunion

Steve, Gary and Greg

Remy McManus, Chris Horner, Kiyomi Waller, (steve's sis's hubby in the back), Gary, Greg, Steve and Dan Rock

The very generous and kind host and hostess of our get together, Steve and Caprice. Thank you!

Right after I got back from the shows, my family ventured off to San Diego for some fun and time together with old friends from our cycling days. (Steve & Greg even managed to get Gary on a bike again!)

It was a short, adventure packed weekend. Full of GoKarting, horseback riding, time in the pool (or for me, by the pool) and reuniting with cherished friends.

NYC

I've been home for a few days but having a hard time plunging back into blogging. I think I'm overwhelmed, not knowing where to start, which pictures to use and as always... not knowing what to write. So I figure I'll throw a few out there and try again tomorrow!

This is on the shoreline of Manhattan. Katy and I flew straight from SF to NY and set up quickly (5 hours ending at 9pm) so that we'd have the entire next day to meander through NY. And what an amazingly beautiful day it was! Thanks God!

We finished the day off with a Broadway show. Legally Blonde! It was light, funny and we both walked out smiling. I just sit in awe at the sheer talent, I've always wished I could sing, act or play an instrument. I guess having a hard time carrying a beat, tone deaf and bashful in front of a group of 3 or more has always stopped me from pursuing that dream! lol!

Traveling with Katy was full of laughs and messing around. These will be some good memories.

ps... if you have an email in with me, I'm planning on getting to the last 63 of them tomorrow! : )

San Francisco to New York

I have many pictures and lots of catch up for the past few weeks. We'll see if I get to it or not. But for starters...

We made some new wonderful friends. This is Brian and Christa from the Green Glass Co. We're looking at their work displayed and for sale here in the SF Barney's.

It made the show so much more fun having them as neighbors! Their glasses are amazing and all made from recycled wine bottles that they have shipped in from all over the country.

Miss Katy hammin' it up with one of the Barney's displays!

Another cool creator that we met was Kate from Kate Grenier Designs. She has a collection of magnets, clocks and other wonderful creations and she's from Portland!

I'm sorry for the lack of excitement. Long days in convention centers doing shows... I'm so thankful to be nearing the end!

Los Angeles to San Francisco

The whirlwind of show travel, meeting lots of new people, exhaustion, boredom, friendships, stress, excitement, missing family and home.

Thank you for missing me. I've received many emails and comments wondering where I am, how very kind of you! We all want someone to notice when we're not around, don't we. Well, I have missed you too! I've missed keeping up on my friends blogs/lives, wondering what you're all doing! I'll be scheduling some blog catching up time when I return home, with my hot, yummy, homemade by my honey coffee (he makes my coffee every morning, makes my heart warm thinking about it : )).

This guy above Katy and I met on the Marta in Atlanta. He is an amazing artist! We had so much fun looking through his pile of art and chatting with him. I can't find the paper I wrote his website on... erg! What a great guy! Katy and I walked away with huge smiles on our faces, amazed at how God brings people together at just the right times.

Off to Los Angeles for the CA Gift Show. This was a sculpture outside the YMCA near our hotel. Symbolic of my new work out regimen! Thank you to young, disciplined Katy I have been getting up in the mornings and working out. It was very hard at the beginning and was really wondering why people do this for the health of it. I grew up very athletic, remember my husband and I met racing bicycles, but I always worked out for the competition not because it was good for me! Not having the time to be competitive in a sport I have gotten lazy, fat and out of shape over the years. So, once again I'm trying to get in the groove of it. I can say I am actually starting to enjoy the feeling of working out and even kind of yearning for it when I miss a day.

I remembered that our friend Aaron was living in Los Angeles and called him up to see if he had time to get together. It happened to be the night that would work for him and us was on his birthday! It was a treat to see him and celebrate his birthday with him and some of his other friends that were from the Vancouver/Portland area. Mind you, they are all about 24-26 years old, I was by far the elder of the group. Kinda weird being the "old one"!

I had to post this of Katy since it seems to be a reoccuring theme!

Lastly, here I am trying to get through the 180 neglected emails and an extra long blog!!! The show here in SF is going well. Sat. and Sun. are generally a busier than Mon. and Tues. so I am taking the day to catch up while Katy went down to the show. What a blessing it has been to have her traveling with me. It takes the stress and some of the loneliness away.

Much love,

Michelle

Atlanta Gift Show Day 3

After the show yesterday we went to Anthropology up in Buckhead, GA. They had a whole number and letter section! This all goes along with one of my New Year's Resolutions.

One step closer to my goal. I plan on trying to make most of my letters out of different materials being frugally creative.

I love, love, love their displays. Going to the counter to pay for this "A" I noticed a wonderful display of drinking straws, I asked the gal if I could take a picture and she said "no" they don't allow photos. Oops, sometimes it doesn't pay to ask!

Another great display, these are books cut and folded and mounted somehow to boards. Notice the old skis. (I did take this pic BEFORE I was told "no photos"!)

After the show today we went to my favorite place to eat in Atlanta, Spondivits! I would highly recommend it if you ever make it down here. yum yum

Another good day today. A lot of reorders and a lot of new orders. People, buyers and exhibitors, seem to be optimistic about the economy and sales. It will be interesting to see how the year plays out.

Thank you for all your prayers and kind emails and comments. It's so nice to hear from friends when I'm away from home and family.

Atlanta Gift Show Day 2

While my family was up on the mountain (Mt.Hood) with 150" of base Katy and I were busy writing up orders here at the gift show. Today was a great day. I really think changing up the look of the booth and making it a little more "home decorish" caught the eye of a different type of customer for us. Which has amounted to a lot of NEW customers! Which has been a blessing! It's nice when hard work and a lot of expense (booth materials and new crates) ends up paying off.

I have been meaning to share with you the new logo. I know it's not the one you voted on but because of your votes we decided to stick with the basic format of the original logo but "young" it up a bit. Didn't Katy do a great job?! Thank you for taking the time to vote.

Off to bed. It's 1:05 a.m. oops! ergg! Pleasant dreams to you.

Atlanta-booth set up day

Yes, it's that time of year again. Off on the whirlwind tour of shows. My kids sad with me leaving, my feeling guilty, tired and not wanting to leave. All just the part of the process I guess.

On the brighter side... Our new crates with our new booth showed up nicely : ) Thank you Lord!

Katy got right to work hanging the beautiful fabric panels my mom made and my dad got a blister riveting for me. I'm lovin Katy, she's probably not lovin me since the night before we left she was up till 3 a.m. with me finishing stuff for the show. And I tell you, misery LOVES company!

Three crates that were designed to stay in the booth and act as our tables.

Me looking fresh as a buttercup.

Super excited to share with Katy the Corner Bakery. We went there for lunch right down the street from Americas Mart. yum, yum btw-it's 68 degrees here today!

The idea of nails didn't quite work with the new panels so we were off to Home Depot to buy some screws. I love the public transportation (Marta) here in Atlanta. On the way back, chatting away, we missed our stop by seven stops!

And Wa La. 11 hours later our booth is set up! I'm pretty excited to have a new look and a more functional booth set up. Here's what our booth used to look like. The show starts tomorrow @ 9 a.m. and we need to get there about 7:45 to finish sweeping, price tags and get our electrical hooked up. We have some new neighbors I'll introduce you to later : )

Day 1 (China)

Yesterday should count too. Since it was a long day of travel with over a 3 hour delay, which isn't much I guess when you consider it's about 16 hours of flying from Portland to SF to HK. This was my first time taking a 777 to HK, before it's always been a 747. Usually we follow the land up around AK and down to China but this flight we just went directly over the ocean the WHOLE time. It's a stupid thing but for some reason I found a bit of serenity in the fact that we were never too far from land (not that we'd survive anyway if something went wrong!). On this flight I found myself pondering, how long would take for rescue to get out into the middle of no where? Given that we survived and were floating around! Trust me, when you're on a plane for that long your mind goes a lot of places!!

On a lighter note... I'm here! And, have already had my first cup of horrid instant coffee! Any sympathy out there?

Still Catching Up!

Before I get to our family vacation I need to backtrack just a bit to NY... You probably don't know this about me but my husband and I used to own a small bicycle shop in Leucadia, CA. About 11 years ago we sold it and moved to Vancouver, WA. These are some of the wonderful friends we made during those years. This is the Cordasco family, Greg, Ingrid, Samantha, Johanna and Gregory. They own a bicycle shop in Baskingridge, NJ Liberty Cycle. It was like seeing family again, I even got a little teary saying goodbye after our dinner together. If you ever make it to Baskingridge (which is a charming little community) stop in and say hi to them!

Our annual shoe shopping trip to Infinity Shoes in NYC. In case you don't remember this is my friend April from Catching Fireflies and Jenni. Check out April's blog for the chosen shoes.

Oh, and a side note... I'm reading a great inspirational book for entrepreneurs.

All in a Days Travel!

On our way to the NY Gift Show.

First thing this morning (6:30am) my friend Jenni and I were standing in line at the airport and she asks me what's in the box I had with me. I looked at the box and suddenly realized that I had forgotten to send the other 3 boxes of samples to NY earlier in the week. Oooooops! I frantically figure out how to still get them there in time and SEVERAL $$'s later.

Finally, back to peace of mind, I go off to purchase my travel periodicals. The lady asks me for my ID, I begin digging... and digging and digging. I had just used it to make my way through our high security checkpoints! My friend Jenni and I back track to where we had been sitting and find it slyly tucked in the side of the chair just where I had cleverly dropped it! Now I realize why those people check your ID for $9 on a credit card with your signature on it, they are just helping you keep track of yourself! All this time I thought it was just to annoy you!

We make it to Chicago, the flight to NY is cancelled. We get on one an hour later, not bad. An hour later turns into 2 and now 3 and counting. I'm beginning to think that the overnight samples may be making it to our hotel before we do.

What I'm thankful to God for today is:
-my friend Jenni traveling with me
-samples on the way and that I remembered in time
-the lady that asked for my id! and finding it
-internet in the Chicago Airport is only $6.95 for the day
-blueberry frap from Starbucks (and the strechy pants I'm wearing!)
-my family and of course YOU!