Decor Adventure...

My friend and I had heard about a lamp store that we needed to go to in Pudong.  We had a business card that had the address and gave it to Mr. Fan (our driver).  Oh my what an adventure.  The first thing you need to know is that we have a terrific driver.  He is so kind to the boys and smiles when they are talking, laughing, even crying.  You can tell he has a soft spot for children.  He has a son who just started college a week ago.  The other thing you need to know is that Mr. Fan seems to find any place we ever show him and when he doesn't quite know for sure he calls OnStar (yes the same OnStar we use in the States, just in Mandarin).  My friend and I started wondering where we were heading when we crossed a rickety bridge (think metal pieces bridging the gap that you drive over) and we end up in a very narrow, old world China area.  People walking, parking scooters and bikes everywhere, store fronts wide open with food and other things to purchase.  I wish I had gotten better pictures of this area.    This one doesn't do it justice at all.

We were definitely the only Westerners in sight.  Oh and the road is pretty much a car and half wide after a little ways.  Mr. Fan stops and tells us we are at our address.  We clearly are not.  We ended up using my phone and calling the store owner who talks to him at great length.  He then had to back out of this road, which required other vehicles to back up and him to get out of the van on two occasions to move a bike and a scooter out of his path.

Once we drove a short distance we saw a lady waving her arms at our van to try and get us to follow her.  Here is the area we saw her waving from.

 She had us turn a corner and pointed to this stairwell.  Yes my friends that stairwell and small sign to the left of it is the lighting store we were looking for.  Remember when I said earlier we clearly weren't at the spot.  I would have said the same thing here.  Don't judge a book by its cover in China!!!  Once we found this, Mr. Fan, my friend and I had a good laugh.  I am thankful for a calm, easy going driver both in smoothness of ride and demeanor.

Up those stairs and inside it looked like a lighting store.  Plus the great part about this place is that they have shelves of vases and they will convert any of their pottery to a lamp if you want.  You can see some of the shelves in the very back of the picture below  My friend had two really nice silver lamps made from vases.

We don't want a ton of Asian art and furniture while we are here, but we do want some pieces that really call to us or are from some of the trips we plan on taking.  I had two lamps made out of pottery depicting antique Chinese outfits (at least that is what my ayi told me today so I'm sure that's true HA).  One is a male costume and the other female.  We were also able to pick the fabric for the lampshades, the shape and if we wanted them two tone with edging on them.  Here is the finished product (the male version).  The base has a light inside of it and then the normal light at the top.  Each have their own switch.  I love them!!!  We ordered them last Thursday and they were ready in a week.  We were both very pleased with our purchases!!!  Can't wait for the hubby to come home and see them tonight!!!

And that is how you buy lamps in China!  It becomes a great adventure.  They had some great pottery pieces I loved.  I plan on going back for a lamp for the family room.  After this we went to a furniture store my friend likes a lot and has purchased pieces from in the past.  That place was dangerous!!  Great pieces and some unique finishes.  Not now, but maybe before we head home!