michelle my belle

China Day 8, 9 and 10!

I'm actually in the comfortable United States of America posting right now! Glad to be home. Praising God for the amazing country and freedoms we have here in the USA.

Making up for some lost time. Here are a few pictures of one of our clocks already in production. I've always loved multiples of things.

Loving the bamboo scaffolding. They even use this method for their large skyscrapers in HK!

Not as apparent in photos as it is in person but there is TRASH all over the place! Ick! They just throw their trash everywhere. Different Culture!

Not sure what kind of fruit this is but it looks dangerous! Anyone know?

This is a container of our product being loaded to go to one of our distributors in France.

All in all this was a good productive trip. I finished with about 12 new designs. Some I'm confident in and a few that I wonder if we'll be able to sell. Now that I'm saying this I realize that the birds that the factory is painting on the top pic of this post is a clock that I almost cancelled out of the 2008 Winter Line. It went on to the gift shows and was one of our best sellers! Go figure. I can never trust my instincts!

Thank you again for coming on my China journey with me and keeping me company along the way. It means the world!

China Day 7 & Journal Pages

We're winding down only two more days to wrap things up! I'm excited to be finishing and getting closer to coming home. Being in China, working with the factory and the language barrier requires a lot of patience. I realize every time I come here what an impatient person I am. Everything here takes a lot of time. Take for instance the ride back from the factory. It's probably about 7 miles. Because no one follows traffic laws (or maybe they're just suggestions here?) we came to a complete gridlock. I'm not kidding you. Cars were up on the walkways, honking on and on, people getting out of their cars. It took us 2 hours to get back! Thankfully I had learned early on in my travels here to bring books, an ipod and my journal to help me feel productive and not lose my mind!

Anyways, here are a couple of journal pages from before I left. Just odds and ends of thoughts, sketches and the exploration of new techniques and color combinations.

Looking forward to coming home to my family, friends and MY CUP (that my friend April gave me that I cherish!) of coffee that my husband lovingly makes for me each morning.

China Day 5/6

Yesterday and today at the factory we worked on finishing up the sculpting process and continued working on the painting. Here are the talented painters that I adore. They have put up with me for several years now pointing and using all kinds of charades trying to communicate what I need done. Sometimes totally "getting" what I'm saying and other times not!

Noodles for lunch! Quite yummy and spicy! Just how I like it! SPICY!

Went to a city called Chang An and visited a print factory. They do all kinds of journals, packaging, calendars and greeting cards. I love visiting factories! As a kid I was a huge fan of the segment on Mr. Rogers when he went into factories and businesses to show how things were made. It was always my favorite part.

For dinner last night we went to a "nice fish place" on a lake. Here, at night, on a lake... means one thing! HORDS of mosquitos! The blood suckers were sticking to the table cloth when we sat down. Today I look like I have a disease of sorts I have so many red bumps all over my body!

During dinner I was served fish head, eyeball and all I tell you! As I was removing the eyeball the gooey stuff inside drained into the rest of my food. I'm not a picky eater but I am pretty sensitive to slimy textures. I had to talk myself through the rest of the meal!

I finally finished Kite Runner. It's one of those books that at times you have a hard time reading. A book that you continue reflecting on even after you've put it down. Very insightful!

I'm missing home and many of the comforts of home but getting on my computer and seeing all of your kindness warms my heart and makes me feel a little less sad. Thank you!

China Day 4

I woke up and ran 5.5 miles. It was raining, I almost turned around and walked back inside but decided with the humidity it might be kind of nice to have a little cool rain splashing on me. And, I knew if I didn't that I would have regrets for the rest of the day.

I spend the day at the factory going over sculpts and listening to lots of Chinese chatter. This process seems to be getting quite a bit easier. Having the same sculptors working on my line for the past 3 years helps. They have a good understanding of my style. It relieves a lot of stress in trying to communicate that's for sure!

We had the pleasure of one of the factory boss's daughter joining us for lunch today. She is so darling cute. She can sing her ABC's (in English) already and I think she's only 3. She spent most of lunch singing, dancing and entertaining us. It was a welcome distraction.

I'm not quite sure what kind of shrimp these were but I did try to have an open mind and try one. It was interesting I'll just say. And one was all I had. lol!

A good day all in all. I'm exhausted, sticky from the humidity and getting eaten by mosquitos. Oh and my email isn't working now. Hopefully this is just temporary and the Chinese government hasn't decided to ban my access to my email provider along with blogs! ha!

Thank you for your emails and comments! I cherish each and every one of them.

China Day 2/3-Hong Kong

My friend Judy and I took the train into Hong Kong last night. I think we got the very last hotel room in the city, the Olympic torch is coming to HK on Friday and the city was hopping!

I woke up at 3AM and couldn't for the life of me go back to sleep! Maybe I was anticipating my early morning run. Wondering what the city would look like before it was awake and crawling with people and automobiles. I finally got out of the bed at 5:30AM and ventured out on a run.

These are all pictures along my route. You can see above where they're preparing for the Olympic Torch to run.

The weather here is hot and very humid. I was dripping sweat within 10 minutes. It took everything in me to finish the 8 miles I set out to do!

I got back, showered, took a nap : ) Then headed off for a little shopping and to meet up with my friend Kelly, her husband David and darling daughter Chantel for lunch. Kelly and I became quick friends at the very first factory I was at 5 years ago and have stayed in touch since. She's from Malaysia and went to college in New Zealand so she has just a darling Chinese/New Zealand accent!

Check out these whimsical, fairy tale trees!

I don't usually make it into HK so it was it was kind of nice having a forced day off. I'm back in Mainland China now and since I didn't get much sleep, we had a full day of walking and it's 11:15PM, I'm EXHAUSTED!
I hope you have a great day today!

Off to Hong Kong!

Today went well. Sculptors are well on their way. So talented!

We ate a good lunch of spicy Chinese food! White Fish, some herbal gelatin soup stuff, spicy tofu and snap peas.

And, look at these yummies! They're some kind of gooey corn dumpling. Probably not very healthy but tasty!

Our new boxes with our new logo. Yippee!

I found out that China has a national holiday tomorrow and all the factories are closed. So, that means we have the day off and are heading to Hong Kong to meet up with some friends. I'll tell you more when I return.

Blessings to you all!

Knee How! (china day 1)

Well, I'm back in China. Made it safe and sound and without any travel hiccups! Thank you Lord! I'm just getting ready to head out to the factory for the day. I already got a 4.25 mile run in, and boy I can feel the pollution.

I'll keep you updated through my trip with pictures of product development and my surroundings. Thanks for taking this trip with me and keeping me company through my blog and your comments! : )

BTW - Did you know that the China government has blocked blogs? Seriously, I can't get onto any blogs. I can get into my Typepad to post but not even to view my own blog! The freedoms we take for granted in the US!

ps. knee how (not correct spelling) means "hello" in Mandarin

Day 11 (China)

I know you're probably sick of seeing him. But he's finally finished. I still think he's my fave and I don't even particularly like baseball.

It never fails, when you think you only have a little left to get done it ends up taking the entire day. I went to the factory early and didn't get back to the hotel till about 10pm. I did get a moment to buy some nice Chinese Tea for the giveaway. Long day, but the excitement of coming home is easily waking me up this morning!

I'm catching the GoGo bus here in about 15 min. to head to the Hong Kong airport where I can get..........STARBUCKS! I'm not a huge Starbucks fan but in times like these, I LOVE THEM! : )

Oops, time's gotten away. Gotta go! I'll post on Tues. with the winners!

Day 10 (China)

So, so close! Today, (which is actually day 11 for me but I post usually on the morning after) is my last day in the factory. Yippee! I love this picture with one completed and the remaining quietly waiting to be impacted by the artists brush.

More painting. Didn't get everything done yesterday like we planned so we have a bit more to get done today. We were in the factory till about 9PM last night, everyone getting a little tired and grumpy as you can imagine.

Things are looking good. I'm hesitant to put many of the new designs up just yet not having introduced them to the market, in the gift industry knock offs are rampant.

The whiteware on some of our existing product finished waiting to be painted.

Glad not to have to eat here!

Dinner was actually quite good last night. (I can't believe I'm hearing myself say that! lol) These are some kind of light, fluffy bread cups, maybe steamed. The filling is chilis and pork. Not sure what else. But pretty good. More shrimp of course, fish, green beans and eggplant. Not bad! There were four of us, and the whole meal cost about 120RMB, so thats about $17!

Have a happy Saturday! I'll try to return some of your emails and comments before I head out to the factory. Two more days to enter in the drawing for some Chinese Tea and other goodies. Thanks for playing!

love,
michelle

Day 9 (China)

I have two more days here and then a day of travel home! A longer trip than I would prefer but I do have to say I think the painters have done a much better job not being under the gun so much. Here's another sneak peak at something new. We should be finishing up most of the painting and assembly today. Tomorrow we will tie up loose ends and go over pricing.

Just in the four short years that I've been coming to China I have seen their dollar getting so much stronger to our dollar. Factories are having to pay workers a lot more money to keep them and their cost of living is going up. It's so fascinating to see culture's emerging and changing. It's going to be very interesting over the next several years to see how our world changes. With the US $ getting weaker globally and China getting stronger. I also wonder how China will stay strong if the US can't afford to buy anything? Am I contributing to the cause? At least I can keep my employees employed, without China I couldn't compete. Are we all contributing by buying at places like Target, Costco and Walmart? Would it make any difference. I don't think we can stop change. It's God's plan. This world as we know it will eventually come to an end. I do hope the rapture happens like Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins write in their Left Behind series! ha! All this thinking makes my brain hurt.

Okay, here's some of the loot for the give away. I have to tell you, it's a whole lot harder to find good stuff here than you would think. Unless of course you want a Gucci, Prada, Adidas, Nike.... knock off! I have some other things I'll be adding to this pile like some authentic Chinese tea. I hope YOU win! Yes, YOU!

michelle