Final Day in Shanghai - The French Concession!

So on our final day in Shanghai we decided to head over to the French Concession - it was another super hot day so Fiona decided to take her super cute sun umbrella that she bought from "Story of Shanghai" -

The French Concession was another area of Shanghai that was different to any other, as you can guess by the name it was an area that original had a lot of French Settlers. We checked out an old period house that had been decked out like a muesuem, ate strange cake (the Chinese do a lot of things well - one this they don't do so well is cake) and had a general looksee around

For me, I think the highlight of the French Concession was visiting the "Birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party". Visiting here was a bit surreal - especially when you know a bit of the history behind all of the things that happened during the cultural revolution. It was kind of strange to be in the same place that Chairman Mao walked - one of those moments when history hits you.


We then headed over to a district of Shanghai (still in the French Concession) the housed a lot of emerging artists. Not necessarily "fine arts" but things like clothes, accessories, toys & nick naks. The whole area had an intellectual property policy - basically - don't steal other people's designs and ideas!! Which was pretty refreshing - China doesn't seem to be too big on copyright protection....






After our look around the french concession it was time to return to old Shanghai - firstly to pick up our newly made threads from the fabric market, and secondly for Fiona to pick up her amazing shoes from the Shanghai Cobbler.




So after picking up all our purchases the question was - "what to do with our final evening in Shanghai?" The answer was to go for a cruise along the Bund river!

Nankz Birthday Present - A Treeling!

It seems to me that June & July are always periods of birthday MADNESS!!! I seem to have some many friends who have birthdays around this time.

Recently it was my friend Nankz birthday and to celebrate he had a dessert party - I have never ever seen so much dessert in one place.....mmmm....tasty!!

Sorry I got a bit distracted thinking about the dessert...I decided to make Nankz a "Treeling" for his birthday. I have a book called "softies" and it had a pattern for a Treeling and I just thought it would be something Nankz would like.

Anyways - here's a picture of the Treeling. I think he is rather cute:)

China - Day 6 - Market Madness!! Plus Chinese Acrobats!!

Day six was truly a day of market madness!! There was a chap at our hostel who was an ex pat who was currently an airline pilot in China who offered to take us to a fabric market in old Shanghai which we seemed to have missed up until that point.

So it was over the Bund to old Shanghai again - we headed towards the fabric market via a back street which was a lively market in itself.

However, after these photo's things got a bit nasty as we encountered some animal markets as I feared. All sort of poor creatures in cages - including turtles and frogs - which was very upsetting all round:(

Once we had been shown where the fabric market was, we picked up some more cash (as we were running a bit short and ATM's were few and far between) and had some lunch with the intention of returning to the fabric markets in a while.

It was now time to go and visit the "antique" markets in Shanghai - this area was full of fakes but it was all interesting old Chinese communist party items. Basically - you can get whatever you want with a image of Chairman Mao or some other communist party leader or ideal on it. I found this stuff really interesting but also fairly disturbing....a small insight of China at the height of Mao's power I guess. But to be honest - I just couldn't believe that tourists could buy some of this stuff without thinking that it was just...wrong....

After looking about the antique markets (in the super hot weather!) it was time for the fabric markets. The fabric markets were in a two story building and was mainly the kind of market where you get clothing made at super cheap prices. We thought we were going to miss out on the chance to have this done as we only had a small amount of time left in Shanghai when we found the markets - but the shopkeepers we able to produce garments over night and I made arrangements to have a stunning blue silk dress made for about $50 NZ. AWESOME!

Whilst we did other things during the rest of the day - nothing else was too exciting - apart from the Chinese Acrobats that is!! I only have a photo of the theatre the performance was held in - not photo's of the show itself. But even if I did the photo's just wouldn't be able to display how amazing these people were - if anyone reading goes to China - they MUST see the acrobats.

I'm an expert at "fake cake"

So those of you who know me well know I'm not the best cook/baker in the world - I can make enough to get by in life but I cannot ice a fantastic cake like my friend Ange or create delightful cupcakes like my friend Fiona.

But I can make a kick arse cake out of felt - he's some photo's of an "everlasting birthday cake" I made my friend Steven for his birthday.

Skull Craft Swap

So to read my blog in the last little while you'd think I was STILL in China - slowly working my way through the China photo's and the China stories. But I thought it was time for a break from all that and time for some crafting photo's.

A while ago I took part in a New Zealand Only swap on Craftster and made some cool crafty things and recieved some cool crafty things. When I saw that someone on Craftster was having a skull and skeleton swap I had to join in!!

I am still waiting for my package from my swap partner as it is coming from Britain and it was sent a little late as my partner had some stuff she was going through. But he's my Skully craft creations!

So this is my biggest piece of embriodery work ever - Day of the Dead Skulls rocking out!
The Classic - Fimo Skull Brooches!
My swap partner said she was a sewer - so this is a little felt needle book
Rosette - the bead in the middle is a skull from a fimo cane made by Rich

A "twist" on the original - fimo skulls on hairclips!