What's a girl to do?

After starting Mother's Day a little sad and missing friends and family a lot, I went off on a shopping adventure in Beijing with some girlfriends! We had been planning this trip for months and did not realize until last week that it fell on Mother's Day. Danny was a little disappointed that we would not be spending the day together, but he was a trooper and enjoyed his day on daddy duty!!

Our first stop was back to George's Lamps, which is a bit difficult to find!! I think my driver thought we were crazy going into the alleyway to buy lamps!! These pictures give you a glimpse into the area surrounding the shop!! I was successful though and bought a tall lamp with a wood carved base - although Danny thinks it looks like a light post!!

I truly thought it might be down this road (it wasn't!)! There was a lot of dui bu qui (so sorry) going on to my driver!!
It has to be down this alley somewhere!!
Oh, of course, I'm so shocked we didn't find it quicker!!
Once inside, lovely!!

Next we went to Mrs. Shannon's Bagels for a quick, early lunch and then next door to Renaissance, which is a great little gift shop (yes, gifts were bought to bring back in a month!!)! Next stop was purse shopping! One of my favorite things to do! Here is Ginnette outside the unmarked door...hmmm!!

After a stop at the Silk Market, we headed to the "dirt" market (my first time!). It was amazing, with many treasures at every turn! Here are just some of the things that were being sold. It is very interesting to see how well they make pieces look old and claim they are antiques!! The colors are beautiful though!

After we shopped for a bit, we dared to take a rickshaw to a local furniture mall! It was a ton of fun...I couldn't stop giggling listening to Ginnette scream as their bike took off full speed ahead into oncoming traffic with shotty breaks!! I definitely need to get my parents on one of those!!

Yes, this is us going straight into traffic!!

Finally we were almost ready to call it day, but we had to make a quick stop at a sporting goods store to stock up on all of our tennis needs!! We are all taking tennis lessons now, so we need to look good so we can play great...hehe!!!

When I arrived home, I got a beautiful homemade card from my four favorite people!! And they even saved me some sheppards pie...yum!! I am so blessed to have such a loving family and wonderful friends, both near and far!!