The Peak, Hong Kong

If you don't already know, I am originally from Hong Kong. I was born and raised there. I lived there for 22 years. I came here when I was 22 and married to my husband who is an American. We met on the internet and had talked to each other for about 9 months before I came all the way here to meet him. The next day we met in person we got engaged. It was crazy I know but we also felt right about it. So here we are, we have been married for about 4 years. July will be our anniversary. Time flies.

We went to Hong Kong about 2 years ago that was the first time my husband met my family. We had a really good time. We visited a lot of places and ate a lot of good food. We went to The Peak, Lantau Island, different museums, Ocean Park, Wetland Park, Stanley, etc. We go all over the place. We only stayed for 10 days and it wasn't enough time. We wish to go back soon.

Today, I would like to talk about The Peak. The Peak is a really famous place in Hong Kong, if you go to Hong Kong, you have to go there. We took the tram to go up to the top. It was a fun ride because the tram goes up a 45 degree slope the whole way.  When you get to the peak, you can look down to the Victoria Harbor and it is really beautiful. You can see all the tall buildings just right under your foot. It is amazing. You can also check out the Wax Museum at the Peak.

There are a lot of expensive restaurants up on the peak where people like to propose to their girlfriends. I have never went to any of those restaurants because I couldn't afford it and no one ever invite me there. haha!

Anyway, it is cool to just walk around on the peak. There are also a lot of unique things that you can buy. If you got a chance to go to Hong Kong. The peak will be the number one place to go. If you go to Hong Kong and didn't go there, you can't say that you have been to Hong Kong.

Want to see how Hong Kong look like from the peak, check these out:

Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong Mug by explorermugs
View more Hong kong Mugs

Hong Kong Skyline by explorerdesigns
Design a customized mousepad online with zazzle.com

Tallest building in Hong Kong by explorerdesigns
View other Hong kong Mousepads

The Peak by PrincessWynn
Make mouse pads on zazzle

Utah, Utah!

You are probably sick of hearing our San Francisco trip but it was just so fun and so much to do, not like Utah. Yes, I am currently living in Utah. No offense but what a boring place. I am a city girl, I am originally from Hong Kong(so please excuse my poor English). The first time I took my husband to Hong Kong, he almost got blown away by the craziness in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is just so busy and has so many people. However, Utah does has its own beauty. It's mostly quiet and calm. A little too calm in my opinion. It's a great place to travel and relax but to live, I just don't think so unless I am retired.

Anyway, If you like nature stuff, you would probably like Utah. We went to Ophir last year to see the old mines. Ophir's other name is Utah ghost town. The hike was crazy, well for me it was, remember, I am a city girl. Here is the highlight of the day:

A big hole on my butt!

Why? Because we had to slide all the way down from a big hill which was full all rocks. My butt was hurting for a while. But overall, it was fun to see the old mine sites, even tho all the mines were locked.

We also went to The Timpanogos Cave last year. It was only about 45 mins hike for us. It wasn't a difficult hike. The cave was really pretty. Definitely worth it to go visit. There were a lot of visitors from different countries when we went. I guess it is really famous. If you decide to go, be sure to check their opening hours on their website. The tickets also sold out pretty quickly. It was October when we went and it was already kind of cold but still a lot of people went that day. You can't buy the tickets ahead of time either, I thought it was kind of dumb. When I called and wanted to reserve a place, they told me that I couldn't and that I should go there early to buy the tickets. And if they sold out for the day, you would have no luck getting in the cave. 

Anyway, you may be bored out of your mind already so I am going to stop here. If you haven't been to Utah yet, here are some products that featured the beautiful Utah for you: 

Timpanogos Cave Mousepad by explorerdesigns

Utah by explorerdesigns

The famous mesas of Monument Valley, Utah. by RevelationsCM

Fish Lake, Utah Scenery Card! by vegasdusoleil

Sundance, Utah Poster by JudsonJoyce

Delicate Arch by dirkw13

The Alcatraz Island

What do you know about the Alcatraz? We wanted to go on the night tour when we were there because my husband thought that it would be more fun. We didn't bought the tickets ahead of time and found that the night tours had already sold out. So if you want to go to the night tour, remember to buy it ahead of time. Go to there official site to buy the tickets because there are a lot of places out there just charge you outrages cost for the tickets.

Anyway, so we went to the day tour. It was supposed to be a 2 hours tour. We spent almost 4 hours there! We got to listen to the escape story. The guide said that they didn't really know if there was really an escape attempt because the Alcatraz is about 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco and the water is quite cold to swim that far. I sure don't want to swim in it. We went to the beach there and the wind almost blow me away!

After we heard the story, we went to the cell house and took the Audio tour. I highly recommend you to take the Audio tour if you go there. It just gave you a really good idea of how the prisoner lived. I think if I were them, I would be really depressed all the time because not only you were in prison but you could see the beautiful San Francisco through the widows. You could see it and imagine how fun it would be but you couldnt do anything about it. After we finished the Audio Tour we were so tired and didn't want to walk around anymore so there are still places there we didn't visit. We'll wait for the next time and we will go to the night tour!

Here are some products that featured the Alcatraz:

Stairs at Alcatraz Island Mouspad by explorerdesigns

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco mousepad by explorerdesigns

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco mousepad by explorerdesigns

Alcatraz Island by malibuitalian

ALCATRAZ MUG by edem13

Alcatraz by TravellingSue

Cable Car in San Francisco

We had a chance to go on a cable car when we were in San Francisco last month. Wow, only last month, it seems like forever ago. We would love another vication! Anyway, back to the topic.

That day, we got up at like 11am and we planned to go to the cable car museum. We didn't have much time becasue we were going to China Town to have "Breakfast". And it was already 12 when we got to the museum. My husband wanted to stay longer at the museum but our friends said that if we don't hurry we wouldn't have breakfast. Anyway, the mesuem isn't very big but it sure has a lot of information.  If you have a chance you should definily go and have a look. When we go back to San Francisco next time we will visit there again.

After we visited the mesuem, we got on a cable car. It was so fun! The streets in San Francisco are really crazy, I don't think I dare drive there! To learn more about the cable car history, you can go to their website.

Here are some products that featured the cable cars:

Cable Car, San Francisco Mousepad by explorerdesigns

CABLE CAR MUG by edem13

Cable Car by jarisley329

Cable Car Keychain by restenergy

San Francisco Cable Car Tee by sanfrancisco_tshirts

Pure Bred Akita Razor

Razor is about 3.5 years old. We have him for about 2.5 years. We adopted him at the Animal Shelter. He was about 1 year old. He is a pure bred Akita. When we first got him he was kind of shy and liked to escape. Our neighbor  always has their cats run lose and we were afraid that Razor would catch and eat the cats because his last owner said that he killed 2 cats and liked to chase small animals. I think it was just because he was still a puppy and liked to play. Anyway, we didn't want any trouble so we took him back to the Shelter.

We weren't very happy and missed him already so my husband just went and got him back the next day and he has been with us ever since. We are glad that we got him back. He is such a good boy and really protective. He likes his toy very much and whenever we throw his toy, he would run as fast as he can to catch it. He also liked to drink water. He drinks a lot of water and he would drink any water that he can get hold of.

He is such a clown and we love him very much.

Pure bred Akita try to catch his duck toy mouspad by explorerdesigns

Spring Tulips

It's spring time. All the flowers are blossoming! Time to take some pictures of some beautiful flowers! We took this picture right at our front yard. We did a little effect on it and I think it looks great. Doesn't it look like a painting?

Spring Tulips Mousepad by explorerdesigns

Pictures taken in San Francisco

It was so fun in San Francisco, all of these pics were taken in San Francisco. We wish to go back soon.

Cable Car, San Francisco Mousepad

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco mousepad

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco mousepad

Lion Mousepad

Mousepads only

We had decided to only sell mousepads on our online store. The reason is that we wanted to concentrate on doing one thing. Mousepads are the most popular items in our store so we decided to concentrate on them. It's easier to advertise and market this way. If you really like a design and want it to be on other merchandise, we can make that just for you. Just send us an email or leave us a comment for the request.

Here are some new photographs that we have turned into mousepads:

To purchase, go to Explorerdesigns.net

Our Newest Illustration: Ram Head

I think it looks really good on the T-shirt. We own a 85 Dodge Ram. My parents in law bought it new when it came out. They gave it to my husband when he was 16. He has been having it ever since. He love the Dodge Ram. It needs a lot of repair tho since it is 25 years old. He just converted it to 4-wheels drive and is going to change the engine soon. It is going to be a lot of fun........

Online Marketing

We have been learning different ways to do our online marketing. There are a lot ways and things you can do. Most of them are really tedious, however, if we want to success, we just need to do them. We have been trying them and see which ways are most efficient. Hopefully, we don't need to waste any more time on methods that don't work soon!

Life have been crazy. No enough hours at work, hard to find other jobs. Our ultimate goal is to be able to work on our own. We just don't want to work for other people anymore. Why do we keep putting in our handwork and have someone else enjoy the outcome? Hopefully it will become history soon!

What the!

Something out of the topic.

We were talking a little bit after I got a drink from the gas station for my husband and walked back to the car. The kids that parked next to us opened their car door and "BAND", their door hit our door. My first reaction was "What the!". The kid that opened the door hurry and got in the car and they wanted to take off.

My husband got out of the car and knock on their door. I could see that they didn't know what to do. The kid finally opened his door and my husband yelled what the hxxx! You door hit my door. The kid responded, I didn't notice.

I meant it's really no big deal if he had said sorry in the first place. What made us mad was that he tried to take off and when we asked him he said he didn't notice.

Anyway, we talked about how nowadays most kids just so irresponsible and that they don't respect anything at all. Would you agree? When I was a kid, we would never backtalk to our parents or adults but kids today, they just say whatever they want. I wish to teach my kids be respectful to their parents, friends and even their own toys.

Painting

We tired to have more diversity on our designs. We tried different technique and software and made this. I thought it looks really good. It would make a really nice postcard!

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge by explorerdesigns

Another great place to visit in San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. I asked our guide why the bridge is called Golden Gate and why is it red. He couldn't really answer me. Well, you can read about it on Wikipedia. 

It's was built on 1937 and it is just so amazing because it is over 70 years ago.

Palace of Fine Arts

We went to San Francisco about a month ago and took some really good pictures. It was a really fun trip. If you didn't know I am a Chinese. I am originally from Hong Kong so that when I went to San Francisco, I felt I like I was back home in Hong Kong. There are just so many Chinese in San Francisco. I basically didn't speak English at all unless it was to communicate with my husband.

Anyway, here is one of our favorite pics.

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

It is one of the most popular places in San Francisco to take engagement or wedding pictures. Isn't it just look so beautiful?

another thought

I haven't been getting enough hours at work lately. If it keeps up we may not be able to afford paying our bills. I just really want to get our business going so that we don't need to work for other people anymore because you never know what is going to happen. It's not like the older generation, people can hold one job all their life. Nowadays, nothing is stable anymore. You got out of collage and thought that you would get a good stable job is just a dream anymore. I know there is risk  running your own business but you kind of have more control over it. I just think that if you don't try, you will never know how far you will get. I think that's just life.

Our new logo

We just changed our logo

What do you think? Do you like our new logo? We are trying to make our business cards. Hopefully we will have them soon.

We are working on our muscle cars series and we are going to make more in the urban myths series. Do you have any suggestion? Since I am Chinese, I told my husband to draw some Chinese myths. Let's see how it goes.

Free T-shirt, anyone?

When we hit 100 fans, we will draw one lucky person from the first 100 fans to win one of the following T-shirt of his/her choice. Become a fan and invite your friends to become a fan now to get a chance of winning.

1970 Dodge Charger

2007 Dodge Charger

American Fork Canyon Hearse

Blackbird SR-71

The red Skull

Death Becomes Him

Stepping Punch

MMA

Sasquatch

U2 Spy Plane