So far more than 14 months in Paris

I am not going to say that last 14 months of living in Paris was an easy romantic single woman's dream come true.  I have never been so lonely in my life, especially, sending my amazing and sweetest 17 yrs old daughter to 6th form boarding school in the outskirts of London, was downright traumatic.  I located myself close, I thought(since due to UK visa problem, Paris has to do),  but not close enough. I want to see her everyday after school,  which I used to do until last year.  I had purpose,  to make healthy after school snack for her,  drive her to her chorus practice and other school events and to her friends, going out to eat with her, shopping with her.

For the first 10 months, I lived in quite a luxurious one large bedroom flat with all new modern amenities and beautiful view in the Paris 11th arrondisement, a trendy, up and coming area.  I loved my morning walk to get the best croissants and brioche sucre in Paris and work for a few hours each morning.  Then, I made it my work to go out everyday and see one place,  or do one chore so I won't stay inside all day unless I am sick.  Paris is magical and incredible, especially in the more known center parts of the city.  However, even in the working class edges of Paris like 20th arrondisement, you can still find such delightful little passage ways and places.

11th arrondisement flat and my older one visiting

In June, I moved temporarily to a friend's flat in front of extremely polluted and busy street in 20th arrondisement until my new studio is being refurbished. I was unhappy with the arrangement since this is older, less perfect(however, charming and eclectic)place than I am used to, but I had to get used to it to save money. I miss my old neighborhood terribly, my patisserie, my few neighbors, the shops and especially my almost daily walk past Bastille to Le Marais.  My new neighborhood is smoggy and quite rough.  My bank card was hacked twice in one month(by local pizza store) which was a real pain to sort it out which took forever.  This happened, when I had to go to my daughter's wedding in Northern England with my mom and sister visiting(both sick) Paris so we could go to the wedding together.

eclectic chandelier of 20th arrondisement flat

art nouveu collections of the owner of the flat

The wedding was amazing and the Northumberland is one of the most beautiful place that I have ever been to.  It was a perfection. A massive gratitude to my in-laws.  They made this magical wedding possible.

Bride and grandma

The most of the spring, I worked on making my daughter's wedding dress and make invitations and things which kept me busy.  Making this wedding dress was the most challenging and difficult. But the model being so nearly perfect(please excuse me for boasting), it was easy to somehow put together and make it all work out ok.

In a few days, I am moving to my tiny but brand new(just the way I like it)studio.  I give a pat on my shoulder for hanging in there living in limbo in this old and large(it is a real pain to clean this place) flat. I can't wait to settle in my new place and prepare for my little one to come and visit her mummy from England to spend her half term vacation together like the good old days.



Namaste,

Solyi

La Terre, le feu, l'esprit

One of my favorite place when I visited Korea in 2009 was Korean National Museum.  I could say it is one of my favorite place in the world, period.  A tiny piece of Korean National Museum was brought to Paris and I was thrilled.  The exhibition on the masterpieces of Korean ceramics opened at the Grand Palais in Paris a few days ago and I had to go see them.  Just stepping in to the exhibition area at the Grand Palais gave me goosebumps just like it did 6 years ago when I went through the art of my country at the Korean National Museum in Seoul.  The works of my ancestors starting from the Neolithic period are amazing. What brilliant talents. I always marvel at French artists dating back to Neolithic cave paintings, but my Korean ancestors were as marvelous, both are intensely spiritual, but I have to say the Korean ceramics belongs in its own spiritual realm.

Grand Palais, Paris

Grand Palais, Paris

Bunchung style from Unified Shilla period

Bunchung ceramics

moon jar from joseon period

It is a rare chance for people in Europe to come and see the exhibition.  It has wonderful selection from 5th century to 18th century masterpieces.  I found this quote from the exhibition catalog especially incredible and am glad Korean culture is getting more recognition today.

'In the Korean peninsula, celadon was first produced in the tenth century, during the Goryeo period, after the introduction of ceramic production techniques from China, But Goryeo celadon soon began to diverge from its Chinese counterpart, as potters sought to develop new styles that matched the aesthetics of the Goryeo people.  The jade color of Goryeo celadon represents the harmonious blend of blue and green, softened and accented by delicate gloss.  Indeed, the sublime jade-colored glaze was considered to be the "best under heaven," according to a record from China's Southern Song Dynasty.'

Namaste

re-opening my etsy shop, solyih designs

It's been a very long time since I last posted.  Still a bit traumatised by the fact that I had to leave London so unexpectedly, I was still trying to get myself used to being here and settle for the time being. I know there are millions of people who would do anything to be able to come and live in America, but I really don't feel I belong here.  But please don't get me wrong.  I am grateful for all this country provided for me and gave me a home for thirty years of my 51 years of my life,  that is more than half of my life.

I have been working on creating my designs for my etsy shop that I closed and just re-opened. I am having a lot of fun creating these little things.  It is still preparing stage and do not have a lot of items up yet, but I am getting shipment of material from my dear friend in Korea, so in about a week, I will have more things up.

I created these linen dolls.  I think they are really quirky and adorable, but most important, made from the materials I have brought back from Europe.

so much fun!!!

Making these little creatures are not an easy task as it used to be.  My shoulder and back hurts and my right hand is still recovering from the surgery few years back not to mention my ever worsening eye site.  But I need to work with what I have, and be thankful that I can do this at all.

Was going to use this image for my etsy shop but having trouble downloading. Silly caption for my shop.

Lots of work to be done in coming month.

Thank you and Namaste!

Solyi

Happy Holidays!

Happy and healthy holidays to you all!

and peace to the world!

Solyi

getting used to being back in America

Our endless amount of stuff has finally arrived from Israel via London.  I have been busy trying to shed some of the things that we don't use anymore.  I have been selling our nice, sellable things on eBay and the business has been booming.  Especially popular are our collections of American Girl dolls.  They travelled more than most of people.  They lived in London, Israel and France with us and some went to their new loving homes with the help of eBay.

The house is still filled with boxes and unloaded things, or stuff, mostly useless.  I just can not believe why does anyone need so much stuff.... dishes, games, computers, electronics... and so many clothes... of which 90% I rarely wear.  I have to stop buying and start selling more.

our little living room is furnished, although messy with boxes and stuff

We are settling back alright here in Irvine.  I try my best not to miss London so much...all the museums, hackney picture house, London fields, Broadway Market and their amazing food, whoever says English food is bad doesn't really experienced the country in the proper way, their food is amazing.  I am sorry my fellow Americans, but we really are lagging behind in the food department.... and few more areas,  than Europe.

I have been walking daily since I moved back here.  My neighbourhood is so wide, spacious and pleasant.  I do enjoy my quiet meditative walks alone.  You see only few people passing by on the walk in such a large and impeccably manicured, surreal village. I guess most of people are at work during early evenings, to pay for their expensive homes and their Mercedes and BMW's. 

As for my crafty part of life, I have been enjoyed crocheting lately.  I started a project from a Japanese instruction book(amazing publishers), which is translated into Korean.  These marvellous Japanese craft books are the best of the best, and are translated in so many different languages. Even French has been translating whole array of them for a long time(although it has only recently started to translate in English). I have piled up quite a collection but there is not enough time to make so many.

But here is my new project

If anyone is interested, I can put up the pattern in my next posting.  Just leave me a comment.

Namaste, Happy Thursday!

Wool House revisit and end of my etsy shop

Wool House, winter 2012/13, Somerset House

I opened my etsy shop to try to sell my creations, but it turns out getting viewed on etsy and selling is not as easy as you would hope.  This is my second time trying to do it and ended up closing the shop, again. Unless I have a lot of merchandise to sell or really crank up my production, which I wasn't able to do since I have been in some kind of pain in my side and back, it will not work at all.  It is a fun place to look at work of a lot of creative people, but unless I have more stuff to show and be extremely productive, I decided that it is not a right platform for me. I still have my ebay shop though.

However, I finished this wonderful wooly socks with the sale yarns I got at JoAnn's for like $2 for 50g balls.Although I knitted socks before, I quickly forgot how to make it afterwards and I had to resort to the pattern again.  I found a great pattern from Red Heart website which is the brand of yarn I got.

I am hoping to start making few more pairs for Xmas presents, once my back feels better.

 self striping, pretty cool.

It took me like 4 days to finish it, which is pretty good. Arielle loves them, they are so toasty and comfy.

Here is the link to download the pattern: http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/self-striping-knit-socks

Happy knitting!!

... and here are some photos of one of my favourite exhibition from winter of 12/13 in London, Wool House at the Somerset House.

what a beautiful day we had

Arielle and I drove to Somerset house next to King's College before I sold my beloved Hyundai i30.  It was a cold and beautiful day.  After the Wool House, we went to Courtauld Gallery and saw their amazing collection of paintings.

Donna Wilson's creatures at the Wool House

wow, some amazing knitting, Argyle?

Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans (Live @ France)

I was in my farmhouse in France watching TV when Lana came on. I was so impressed with her performance and I was proud to be an American.  I think it was sometime in 2011.