Gettin' dirty

We've had some beautiful weather here over the last few days so we got out in the garden. Well, we didn't have much of a garden before, so we made a garden or 2! Finally, it's sure been a long time coming!
We still have a bit to do - veggie garden next! But as you'll see, we've made some fine progress! Can you tell from all the exclamation marks that I'm excited?!

Before we attacked it, lovely paving job there

What a lovely view from the verandah!

During the attack

  

Aah, I hadn't looked at those photos in ages! So good to see the difference. 

Red Brick Gallery

As from the start of this month, Picklebug Designs pendants and brooches are available at the ace little art gallery Red Brick. Steph was nice enough to let me stock a few items so time will tell how they will go! How exciting!

You have to check this place out if you havn't already, it really is the cutest and has the acest stuff around!

Now that my travels are done I can get my bum into gear and make more stock. I have 3 small shops waiting as well as needing to stock my own shop. Fun fun!

We are nearing the end of March and only have about 6 entries into the brooch giveaway. Come on guys! It ain't hard to win and the odds are looking pretty good!

Yiwu

So after Shanghai we went to a city called Yiwu, which is home to the world's largest trade market. We spent a good 7 or so days buying up enough stock to fill our new shop. Then we decided it was time to see some sights. We asked our guide Allan to take us somewhere nearby with a bit of history, a temple or something like that. So he organised our day. We had no idea where we were going or what we were in for! We arrived at this cute little village, jumped out of the car and grabbed a drink out of the esky (beer for the guys of course). As we were walking along this path, a group of Chinese guys were laughing at us. We were by that stage quite used to being stared at but laughed at? How rude I thought. Now I know why. 1 hour and 1543 steps up a mountain later I knew why. Had I known I would have brought some water!

The first few steps

Nearly there, we said

 Oh, maybe not. Ok, a few more steps then?

 Here we are! Thank god cos I feel like I'm gonna pass out or something

Yes! A temple!

and a buddah, this is it!

Umm, what! Only half way? But I'm gonna die! This is worse than boot camp! Only 700 more steps, I'm told

 Thank Buddah, we made it!

This temple was pretty cool, it was cut into the rock and was like a cave inside

                                    

The chinese loving Ryleah

Oh look, here's another thing to look at

Cao! This must be some kind of sick joke! (Yes I learnt to swear in Chinese)

These 200 or so steps killed me

Of course there's more

Yes! This is really it! Can't get much higher than here!

All that for this?! I guess Miley Cyrus is right when she says 'It's the climb'  Good god, did I just quote Miley Cyrus? Must be the jet lag.

Believe it or not, this is a dude. Wasn't the only hair do I saw like this either

We came all this way, we have to let of some fire crackers to celebrate right?

and a few more

Well why wouldn't you hang meat at a temple up the top of a mountain?

Confucius

Crackers again despite an old lady abusing us in Chinese

There was another 43 steps, trust me they need to be acknowledged 

This old lady brought a tear to my eye when she started singing a prayer to bless the pendant I bought off her

That's right

Now why wasn't that donkey there on our way up?

That's the temple way up the top there. You'll have to excuse the poor quality, we were flying along at about 130km in an old van at the time. Sometimes on the wrong side of the road too.