Hong Kong and Taiwan

I'll be gone for two weeks from this pacific northwest winter. I'm flying to Taiwan on Friday and won't be back until the day after Christmas. I'm going to spent a lot of days at the beach, eating, jogging on the sand, relaxing pretty much. I can't wait! it will be fun. It will be my first over sea trip in 15 years. Yeah... 15 hours of flight, not looking forward to it at all. I've packed my knitting kit and books and dvds. I'll keep myself entertained the entire flight. Or else I might pop a pill or two to put me to sleep. At least I'll be flying with my siblings. Before I go and connect with my pirate ancestry, here are some more wooden pieces I did in the past week. I finally got the cheery wood cut at a local hardware store. They are small, ranging from 3x6 to 4x4 inches. I've got large wooden logs sitting in my apartment, waiting to be cut... and they are really heavy. I just hope the wood doesn't crack. I tried keep them as dry as possible in the winter rain. And a side note, all of the stuff you see in this post are going to New York City. They will be displayed at a boutique store in the Lower East Side, called Szeki Jewerly. They will be up for display after Christmas. They will be for sale there. So if you want to purchase one, you'll have to contact them.













And here're some panels I've come up with while looking at some of my friend's national geographics.





I'm cooking up new ideas for my next paintings. No, not wood paintings. Digital or plain guache on matte paper.

Here's a photo of the Sezki Jewerly Boutique.

Winter plans

Last night I dream that snow fell on Portland. When I woke up, the city is sunny and no rain in sight. It might have been that I was knitting before bed. Though I was getting frustrated trying to figured out a pattern. I spent my thanksgiving weekend with two European friends from San Francisco. They were really impressed with my tour guide of Portland. We biked, ate breakfast, walked, ate some more, and went to a concert, then ate some more. I don't remember there was a moment I wasn't hungry. They were really impressed with the food quality and variety in Portland, that's if you like European cuisine. I think we ordered bread with rillete (pate) at least at every meal. We also got dessert, and man... who knew chestnut de creme/flan can be orgasmic. We mostly talked about food and cooking half of the time. They recommended me some dishes I have to try, like Oeufs Poches au Vin (wine marinated egg) and Gratin Dauphinois (Potato Gratin, Burgundian peasant dish). They also told me the authentic way of making Ratatouille (southern France style). And I think we drank like at least one or two bottles of wine each day. I also got to practice my Français avec mon visiteurs. Mon Français est très infantile. Before Thanksgiving I had time to whip up some more wood paintings. Now I'm done with these scrap woods, finally I have the chance to play with my freshly cross cut wood logs.
And, I'm leaving for Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2 weeks. It will be my first flight to Asia in 15 years. The trip will be interesting. I'm frightened.