This is my inspiration fabric, the fabric that I'm using to pull all of my other colors for the quilt.
These are my fabric choices so far. The light fabric on the right will be used for all the light scrappy strips that Bonnie uses in the quilt. I haven't decided on which fabric to use for the dark scrappy strips yet.
Carolina Crossroads
The finished quilt top.
Our day was another low key day with not a lot planned on the original tour but our guide offered to take us to the Pearl Market in the morning. I wanted to visit the Pearl Market again because I had some people from home who wanted some pearls. Unfortunately the Main Pearl Market was closed due to the Chinese New Year. I was bummed. When our guide had the taxi pull up to the front entrance to the Temple of Heaven, I was a little confused because I knew we had just passed the Pearl Market building that I've visited before. That's when I found out that it was closed and we were just going to another Pearl Store located within the grounds of the Temple of Heaven. The store was all right and I was able to find some good buys for our friends and some stuff for the girls. The guy who helped us in the store was very kind and when he heard it was M.'s Birthday, he gave her an extra pair of earrings to go with the pearl necklace I bought for her. (M doesn't have her ears pierced yet but I'm sure when she does, the earrings would
look beautiful on her). When we first entered the store, we were shown a real oyster and they opened it for us to see how many pearls were inside (we both took a guess before she opened it and boy were we wrong). M mentioned a little later that she wanted an oyster and the salesclerk gave her one that was opened and they were just going to throw it away. Have you ever cleaned out an oyster in a hotel room? Well, we did and we removed about 30 tiny pearls for M to keep. We also cleaned up the oyster shell well enough so that we could bring it home in our suitcase.
at this fair as the other one and I had to keep a tight grip on M's hand again. This time we were able to see a few different things but not much. Most of M's view again was about the level of all the people's behinds. I at least had the advantage of height 
so I could see over top of most of the people. M again was able to get some more Cotton Candy. As we were leaving the fair, we were so fortunate to be standing at the right place to see the little dance/drum routine. M was able to be right up front and see everything. I didn't bring my video camera to the fair (mainly because I totally looked ridiculous with a both a digital camera and a video camera hanging around my neck) but I did remember to take some movies with my digital camera so that we could remember the sounds of the fair.
Our first stop was the Cloisonne factory. I was a little disappointed because we didn't go to the same factory that I've been to on my previous 2 trips to Beijing. This one just wasn't the same. They just had some tables set up inside the building that just demonstrated the process so you can see how the Cloisonne was made. Since we were also the only group in the building, M was able to try her hand at putting the enamel onto a vase. We ended up buying some tiny panda ornaments for all M's classmates at School and some bracelets for her teammates at Gymnastics. For some reason, I thought the prices were a little higher than on my previous trips but that could be because the dollar isn't as valuable anymore (7.1 yuan to 1.00). Our next stop was the Jade Factory where we had a little lunch. This wasn't my favorite lunch on the trip but at least it filled my stomach. We had a little tour on how they carved all the jade pieces. We were also given some ideas on how to determine if a piece is genuine jade or a fake. I only picked up a couple of little items for the girls. I had purchases both girls a nice jade piece on my previous trips so I didn't buy a lot this time. 
We were finally headed towards the Great Wall after lunch. We went to the same location that I've visited on both my trips, Badaling. M was very impressed with the Great Wall and was very excited to be able to walk it. It was very windy and cold on this day but we braved the weather and started to walk. M was having some problems with her coughing (she had been coughing all week due to her illness that she had right before she left home) due to the co
ld winds and her over exerting her body. We only walked as far as I've walked in the past, the tower at the top of the hill pictured in the top right photo. I'm proud that M made it that far because she was coughing so hard that she told me she almost threw up one time. 
a resort area called Lonqingxia. The festival was at the base of a dammed up gorge. It was totally amazing what they had carved out of ice and snow. They made lots of different buildings inside the enclosed area out of ice. The ice was also lit up which made it all the more beautiful. There were ice sculptures everywhere. If it only wasn't so cold inside, I would have liked to stay a lot longer. M. was getting v
ery cold and after her little mishap at the squatty potty, she didn't want to walk around anymore. It was getting close to about 6:00pm and we still haven't eaten our dinner yet so we left th
e area to go to the restaurant. Dinner, that was another experience. The only parking close to the festival was in front of different restaurants and if you wanted to park there, you had to eat at that particular restaurant. Let's just say, I'm glad I didn't get ill. The restaurant wasn't up to our clean standards and I was worried about eating anything. I was the polite tourist and tried some things but the whole time I was hoping it wasn't going to make me sick. At least we had our guide and driver t
o order foods that were probably more eatable than others. We both got so chilled from this trip that it was tough for me to get warmed up after we got back to the hotel. I was up at around midnight taking the hottest shower I could stand just so that I could feel warm again and get some sleep.
we headed to McDonalds for some breakfast. M thoroughly enjoyed her pancakes and hash browns. There was also a Starbucks near the hotel so I was able to have some comforts of hom
e for myself. Just as we were walking back to the hotel, the hotel had a little lion dance performance. They set off fireworks outside the hotel and then the lion dancers danced outside and then went inside and danced all around the hotel. M really enjoyed watching the dancers and was following them all around the hotel.
We met our guide and driver at 1:00pm for a trip to a local fair. I've never seen so many people in a small area at one time. I was so worried the whole time about loosing M in the crowd so I had to keep a tight grip on her hand. It was very interesting bu
t it was just too much for me with all the people. They had some areas where some Chinese Opera performers were performing but there were too large of crowds that M and I could barely see anything over all the heads. Poor M really couldn't see anything of the fair either. I think all she saw walking around were all the people's behinds because of how small she is and because of the huge crowds. M did get to enjoy one vendor item, cotton 
candy. She said it tasted just like cotton candy from home. We only stayed at the fair for about an hour or so which meant that we had an early dinner. Our dinner tonight was at a Peking Duck Restaurant. You would have been proud of M because she 
actually tried the duck. During this trip, I've been trying to get her to try different foods and she always refused. When I wasn't looking, M picked up a piece of the duck and tasted it. She actually said "Yummy". She ended up eating a couple of pieces that evening (if you haven't figured it out, M is a very picky eater). There was a also a kind of soup that we were served that she loved and she not only ate her bowl but mine also. 
Our morning started off with a visit to the Summer Palace. I've been to the Summer Palace twice before and it looked totally the same. M has really started to enjoy the trip and she finally was very interested in seeing everything around her. We did go to a different 
area within the summer palace that I haven't been to before called Suzhou (probably spelled wrong) Street. Basically it is an area with lots of little buildings surrouding a man made little lake. The buildings housed a bunch of little shops that sold a lot of the same kind of souvenir stuff that you can find in Guangzhou (stuff that I already had plenty of so I didn't buy anything). After the Summer Palace we headed to an area where you can see the new Arena (The Bird's Nest) and Water complex (Water Cube) that they 
built for the Summer Olympics. We then headed to lunch at a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant. I do have to say that of all the meals that I've had in China
, this was my favorite. I've never had Hot Pot before and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. M even had fun cooking (she didn't eat much though) the meats in her Hot Pot. After lunch we went to a tea shop where we were able to try 4 different types of tea. On all of my previous trips I have never purchased any tea(I bought tea pots but no tea) so this time I splurged. I bought a large container of Oolong tea because it was the one tea that I thought I would probably like to drink a lot more of and it tasted more similar to teas here in the US. 
The Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium)
he Eve of Chinese New Year, we were scheduled to have dinner at a local families home. We went to the home of Michael Han's (the owner of Always and Forever Homeland Adoption tours) sister and mother. I really think the home was not the typical Chinese family because it was actually very nice and large, not what I thought most homes were like. I believe the family is one of the "rich" Chinese. They actually lived in a 2 story Single Family home that had lots of rooms and a well equiped Kitchen. They even had 2 large flat screen TVs. I was also kind of surprised at how all the activities took place. The dinner was more informal that I thought because not everyone sat down at the table at the same time to eat (I envisioned the dinner to be similar to our Thanksgiving dinners but it wasn't). They had a young son and he just sat at the table long enough to eat a little and then left. The mom didn't sit down right away either. There was lots of variety of food and everything was very good (M of course didn't eat much again). The Dad did set off fireworks periodically throughout
the evening. There are no laws governing the type
of fireworks individuals could set off so some pretty powerful fireworks were set off all over the city. M. was having a hard time throughout the evening mainly because the family didn't speak English and she just felt out of place. She had a mini breakdown in a spare bedroom because the family thought she might want to take a rest and she really didn't want to be in the room (it was tough to say no when you really couldn't communicate that well). M. did recover well enough to be a good girl the rest of the evening. We didn't stay until midnight because M was getting very tired. On the way back to the hotel, the local people were just setting off fireworks all over the place. M and I didn't stay awake until Midnight but I was awakened many times with all the noise of the fireworks until late in the morning.
Our day started off early for our trip to the Langfang Children's Village operated by the Philip Hayden Foundation. I guess if any child needs to live in an orphanage setting this is the place to be. The facilities are set up to resemble as close as possible to a home environment. There are different rooms with 4 cribs per room. Each room has their own caretaker. Most of the children here are special needs and have been sent here from different orphanages across China. Here are a few photos of some of the beautiful children that they hope to have adopted by the end of the year:
This is the place that the Hands of Hope tiles are displayed. I was able to see the tile donated by the families from M's orphanage (Qingxin) in Guangdong Province. We ended up having lunch at a local restuarant. M's first experience at trying the local cuisine, which of course she didn't eat anything other than some rice. Our afternoon tour was at the Temple of Heaven. M was in a much better state today so that I think she actually enjoyed walking around. This was my first time visiting the Temple of Heaven too. M was able to fly a kite towards the end of our visit. She really enjoyed flying the kite. We didn't have any activities scheduled for the evening so M and I both enjoyed just a quick dinner at McDonalds (had to find a place that M would at least eat some food) and went to bed early again. Enjoy the photos below of the Temple of Heaven:
