michelle my belle

Cheerful Colors in China

i'm home!
loving my family and my freedom to blog and read other blogs.

kfc delivered by bicycle.
does anyone eat there anymore?
...besides in China.

Homeward Bound

headin' home.
sitting in the Hong Kong airport
anxiously awaiting the sweet comforts of home.

a peep of what i've been working on.
i'm dying to show you more.
thanks to mean people who copy, i'll have to wait :(

better grab another quick cup of coffee so i can thoroughly annoy the people next to me. (i'm in a window seat-better for sleeping)

Last Day in Norway

see the darling girl, janne machine embroidered it in about 30 seconds! so talented!

I'm home now.
Already missing my creative time with Janne.
What a treat this trip was.
So much learned. So much shared.

Glad to be home. Was missing my family.

 
My last day we spent in Bergen.
My youngest daughter's teacher has a cousin there.
She told me I "must" meet her.
I'm glad she insisted!
Kristin is a delight with a capital "D"!
 
She took us up Floyen to see the spread of the city.


To her AMAZING house! (i should have taken more pictures!)


And to her favorite coffee bar.

I love meeting new people!
Thank you Kristen for giving us the grand tour!!


This is Janne's uncle who we stayed the last night with.
He was so hospitable.
Insisting on making us a full breakfast at 6AM before we headed for the airport.
Check out this beautiful play house he built for his grandchildren.
Quite a guy.


Thank you Janne and Axel for opening your home and your life to me!
I will treasure this time forever!

Brown Cheese, Blue Seas and Arting

more "Arting".
watered down acrylic on plaster.
unfinished.


ever heard of Brown Cheese?
slightly sweet and soft.
ummmm. yum!
traditional breakfast spread every morning:
bread. salted thin cut meat. spreads. jams. white and brown cheese.
i like this.
a lot.



Janne's pappa, Odd
(seriously. that's his name. and his wife's name is Gunn!)
took us out to sea on his boat today.


as far as i can remember
i've never been out on the sea before.
wasn't quite sure if i was going to get sick or not?
here i am
hoping NOT!


lot's of darling boat houses.


once out past all the cute islands.
and into the 6.5 feet waves.
i surprised myself.
and became a nervous nelly.



the view out Janne's front window


i survived.
no sea sickness.
thankful for yet another adventure.

Plaster Painting and Viking Soup

My pictures don't do justice to just how beautiful it is here.

I'm relishing this time with my friend snapping pictures and dreaming.


The colors of her house are inspiring enough to feed an army of artists.
She's traveled a lot so it's filled with fun treasures from all over the world.


Hard at ARTING! Our new official word.


We visited a gallery on the other side of the island and were inspired by some work done by another artist. So we came back, pulled out the plaster and started playing.


I'm working on getting rid of the Norwegian flag. Just didn't look quite right.
I really like how the plaster soaks in heavier in some areas than others. And very easy to work with.


Janne's girl. Quite daring isn't she. A girl with major attitude.



We also visited the oldest church in Norway, Moster Church.
Lots of pretty important Norwegian history has taken place here.


Viking Stew, based on what they believe the Vikings ate way back when.
Salted Lamb, veggies and beans of some sort. Pretty tasty actually.

And don't worry about me eating enough...
one word.


BROWNiES!

Norway!

Midthuset at Bryggen
What in the world am I doing in Norway?
Well, my husband gave me this trip as a birthday gift.
(he's probably trying to rid himself of the guilt that he gets to go to Italy twice a year!) jk!

 
But for real.
I'm here visiting my artist friend, Janne.
I met her at this past Artfest and we became fast friends.
She invited. And I came.

Our simple plan is to:

Have a BLAST
Make tons of ART
and Sight see


Starting off, I flew into Bergen.
Norway's 2nd largest city and the "Gateway to the Fjords".
We will be seeing more of this city right before I leave but we decided that it was such a beautiful day we ought to take a little advantage of it.

This waterfront area above is Bryggen.
The colorful row of wooden houses are almost 900 years old.
Completely cattywompous and crazy.
(and yes, that is a word!)


When you sneak through the middle of that row of houses you'll find this charming little place.

Wandering up the stairs you'll find textile artist, Marianne Lien.
Being a foreigner I would have never known in a million years she was there.


Unfortunately her studio was quite empty as she just finished an exhibition.
I think she said that she had been there for over 20 years! Very cool!


  After Marianne's we headed off to Bomlo, the island Janne lives on.
Which is about 3 hours south of Bergen.
The roads are quite a bit slower here that at home.
Skinny windy European roads! At least on this road both directions had their own lanes.


I couldn't finish my first Norway post without at least one picture of sheep.
It just wouldn't be right!

Have you been to Norway? Is it on your list of places to go?
just curious.

Fun in the Sun

A few more pictures from our vacay in North County, San Diego a couple of weeks ago.

We swam.
And were silly.

We visited old stomping grounds.

This was the closest we got to the beach if you can believe that!

We walked around with no agenda.

We took in the amazing flowers and plants that they have and we don't.

l to r: Pete, Steve (our gracious-bet he's never been called that before-host for the week), Jess, Gary and Richard

We visited old friends from the Bike Shop days!
Checked out Richard's company 2XU USA. Our oldest has bad circulation in her hands in the cold so we got her one of their compression shirts to see if it helps. Here's an article I found that gives more info. on 2XU and compression wear. Pretty cool stuff.

left to right: me, gary, steve, jess and buster(dog), courtney (alexis' friend that we took with us to SD) and alexis

We drove up to Auto Club Speedway to watch our friend Steve ride his motorcycle at crazy speeds while brushing his knee on the ground.
I secretly wished I had the ability and the guts to do something like this.

We got invited to fun and delicious bbq's.

And, we made new friends.

It was truly. a fun-filled. somewhat relaxing vacation.

Thank you Steve for having us!!!

Queen Califia's Magical Circle! #16

 

While on vacation in San Diego I was able to cross #16 off my infamous LIST!

We went and visited artist Niki De Saint Phalle's Queen Califia's Magical Circle in Escondido. It's funny, but if this wasn't on my "list", as much as I wanted to see it-I don't think we would have. And. That's why I have lists!

It was 99º out so we had the place to ourselves. can u imagine!

This place was so unassuming, in the back of a park, in Escondido!!, down a trail that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere.

 

Maybe that's what seemed to make it even more special.

I'd love to make some sort of mosaic sculpture for my yard someday. Anyone know of a good book or resource on how to go about a project like this?

 

This was a treat to see. And it's so much better in person.

Niki De Saint Phalle was a prolific artist working in all types of mediums all over the world. Make sure to check out her website for other installations. There may be one near you!

Industrial Pics of HK

I'm so far behind on everything right now from being in China and then on vacation in San Diego. These are a few remaining pics from Hong Kong. The pictures just don't do the enormity of these shipping ports justice.

I LOVE all the signs! These streets always make me smile.

I promise to be back to blogging tomorrow.
And... returning my gamut of emails calling to me! oy, vey!

Finishing Touches

Finished up everything at the factory. 17 new items developed on this trip. I wish I could show you now but you'll have to wait till Jan., or close to it, when we introduce the line at the Atlanta Gift Show. Sorry :(

Fruits offered by a street vendor, where they generally seem to fudge on the weight and charge you more. Negotiating seems necessary.

One last stop - Lo Wu Station.

 

To buy some silk and notions for fun to be had later!

And now, packed and soon to be heading to Hong Kong for a little adventuring and a meeting before heading HOME SWEET HOME!

zài jiàn for now