This is a guest post from Marcel who loves taking night photos. All pictures are unedited.

Hawthorne Bridge

Portland Night Skyline

A plane was flying by

Night Portrait

The shutter was open long enough to catch the traffic

Join me at the Crafty Wonderland holiday event on Sunday the 13th in Portland. Buy handmade to promote creativity, sustainability, and support the local economy.

Updated 12/13/2009 17:00

If you can’t make it to the event or do not live in Portland, etsy is a great place to find handmade goods.

The Super Colossal Holiday Sale was amazing! Lots of cool handmade goodies. My friend Sokbun and I got there just before 11 am and the line was all the way to the other side of the convention center. The place was big enough to accommodate a huge crowd so it was not a big deal. Once we got in, we could not get past the first store Maluhia. We wanted to buy everything they had Here are some of the things I got today:

Magnets and zipper tag by Maluhia

Hand-printed dish towel by appetite

Letterpress cards by ilee

Gnome card by esoule

Knitted beanie by Big Woo Wear

I am finally experimenting with my 50mm lens. It takes good portraits with great lighting. Above is a portrait of Mulder I took this morning. The only drawback is it cannot autofocus on the Nikon D40. We originally bought it for the D70 but that’s gone now so I’ll have to wait until we get another camera. Meanwhile, it works fine with manual focusing.

We “discovered” a couple of local places in our ‘burb. India Direct serves up some nice home-style Indian food.  We picked up a combination plate last Friday. It was good and more than enough for both of us at a reasonable price of $8.99. This place is more of a grocery store but there are tables if you want to dine in. On Saturday, we finally got to try the Tokyo Japanese Restaurant. It was a pleasant surprise to see an authentic place in a suburban shopping mall. Marcel had the mixed tempura while I had the spicy chicken donburi. The lunch menu was extensive and well-priced. Both restaurants are recommended.

We also had a chance to see the Unique Animal Expo. It was just ok and in my opinion, not worth the $8 entrance fee. There were a lot of birds, reptiles, and other rescued wild animals such as the leopard, a porcupine, and a monkey. I was more interested in dogs and while there were a few, I got bored quickly. We ended up going to Petsmart and the Bonnie Hayes Shelter to see more dogs. No, we are not looking for another dog. We just enjoy watching them

In our travels, we have managed to collect 3 beautiful works of art on tiles. This weekend, we finally put them on display in the kitchen. From L to R: Solvang CA, Lisbon and Amsterdam. Lovely…

(Unfortunately, I could not get the macro pictures of the tiles to come out right)

UPDATE 11/23/08: My shop is currently inactive until I can spend more time on making it a real “business”. I will keep you posted.

I finally opened my very own ETSY shop. I created a special dog shampoo bar after extensive research. I use it on Mulder and it works great. He smells fresh but not overly fragrant and squeaky-clean.
I’m still trying to work up a business plan but to start with, I will experiment with different products. Francis, my youngest brother designed the banner. Check it out!

Yesterday, I updated the header with one that is custom-designed by my brother Francis. I instantly loved it! It is simple yet creative as well as a good representation of what this website is all about. As always, comments are welcome.