Tansu Step Chest

Johnnie and I didn't have very much furniture before we came here.  All that we have in storage back in the States is a couch, love seat, coffee table, and a full size bed.  To Korea, all we brought with us is a queen bed, two old dressers, and a console table.  We compare it to living like college students :)

While we've been in Korea, we finally purchased some amazing furniture pieces that make us feel like grown-ups.  For example, we bought a dining room table and chairs.  Not a cheap one just to use, but a really nice one that we plan on having for the rest of our lives.  Thanks to our informative friends here, we found some great off-the-beaten-path furniture and antique stores and bought some beautiful wooden furniture that makes our house look more like a home.

One of my favorite pieces that we bought is the "stair step cabinet".  It's officially called a Japanese Tansu Step Chest.  These are a very common sight in the furniture and antique stores around here.

The cabinet has many doors, drawers, and sliding panels.  Some of them have discrete and clever locking mechanisms.

The cabinet is actually made up of three pieces.  The front and the back of the cabinet are identical.  The drawers can be pushed or pulled through either side.  This allows for the cabinet to "step down" in either direction, work as a room divider, or be displayed in different arrangements.

Alternative arrangement #1

Alternative arrangement #2

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“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”
~William A Ward

Shopping in Seoul

While my mom and aunt were visiting, we did a lot of shopping.  In fact, they got almost all of their Christmas shopping done while here!  We spent a couple days in Seoul and hit a few of the major shopping areas: Insadong, Dongdaemun, and Namdaemun.

Insadong is a shopping district near central Seoul and consists of a 1/2 mile long main street with countless alleys branching off of it.  This is a great place to find things such as traditional touristy souvenirs, unique artwork, and beautiful pottery.  It is closed to traffic on weekends, providing space for street vendors, parades, and entertainers.  Touring Gyeongbokgung Palace and then shopping in Insadong makes for a great Seoul day trip since they are near to each other.

One street over from Insadong is a street nicknamed "monk alley" due to the large number of stores selling buddhist monk clothing, shoes, accessories, and religious items.  There is also a large temple called the Jogyesa Temple.  It is a beautiful temple with 3 large seated gold buddhas inside.  It's worth a look if you're in the area.

Dongdaemun is... excess.  For example, if you are looking for a pair of shoes, there are 10,000 pairs to choose from.  If you want a scarf, you could spend all day looking through all that are available.  This market is mostly indoors in large, multistory buildings like the one picture below.  This huge marketplace is pretty well organized according to item.  You just need to find the building and floor that has what you're looking for.

Namdaemun is one of my favorite shopping districts because it is a large, primarily outdoor, traditional marketplace.  It's a great place to bargain for deals, try some street vendor snacks, take in the atmosphere, and for general people-watching.

Related Posts:

Visitors

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guard

Folk Village Revisited

Beijing, China

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"Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football.

Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger

of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase."

~Erma Bombeck

Christmas Market

Some friends I recently went on a shopping trip to seoul in search of Christmas ornaments and decorations.  One of our shopping destinations was the Express Bus Terminal.  This is not only a bus terminal and subway station, it's also a great place for shopping all year round!  You can buy everything from plants, to clothing, to furniture from over 1,000 vendors at great bargains.  To learn more, click here for an article and video featured on discoveringkorea.com.

This time of year, a Christmas market appears in the Express Bus Terminal.  If you arrive by subway, go out of exit 8.  There are plenty of Christmas things there (still underground in the station) and there is also an entire floor, floor 3, devoted to Christmas and flowers in the bus terminal building (near exit 8 if you go above ground).  I'm not sure I've ever seen so many Christmas decorations in one place before.  It was so festive and beautiful to see.  We all left with a little something to decorate our apartments :)

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"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,

and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

~Norman Vincent Peale

The New Happy Quilt

During my first month living in Korea, some friends took me to the amazing fabric store called "Happy Quilt" for the first time.  The blog post that I wrote about it (click here to read it) has had a steady stream of viewers searching for information about the store.  Last month, Happy Quilt relocated to a bigger and better location.  I stopped by a few days ago to take pictures for this new post and (not surprisingly) left with some fabrics that I fell in love with :)

I took photos on my way to the store to help anyone searching.  Directions are at the end of this post.

The new Happy Quilt is amazing!  It's much larger, brighter, and more organized than the old store.  The fabrics are much easier to browse through now and there is some organization as far as fabric prints.

There is still shelf upon shelf of precut packaged fabric.  This fabric is usually 2 yards in length.

There are hundreds of rolls of fabric that you can have cut to the length you need.

They had a selection of super soft (almost flannel-like) fabric that I never saw at the old store.

There is still a great selection of Vera prints - some quilted, some not.

There are rolls of fabric featuring American sports teams.

Dr. Seuss fabric!  How cute is this?!

There is such a huge selection, I'm sure you could find any print you want in this store.

There are bags made that you can buy, or you can order a custom bag with fabrics of your choice.

There is a small selection of sewing notions.

Batting and pillows

After spending time photographing the store and drooling over browsing the fabric selections, the old man working came walking toward me with a roll of designer purse fabric!  After I picked up my jaw, I asked him if he had other colors.  He led me into the locked storage building beside the store where there were mountains of fabric!  Let me repeat... I'm sure you could find any print you want in this store.  The old man showed me a stash of designer fabrics such as Coach, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci.  The fabrics were very thick and rich in color and texture.  I'm not about to make my own purses, but I did decide that we need some new pillows in our house ;)

How to get to the new Happy Quilt store:

You can either drive to Happy Quilt or you can take the subway line #1 to the Jije Station and then walk or take a taxi to Happy Quilt.  View the map at the bottom of this post to see the walking routes between the station and Happy Quilt.

You can click on the pictures below to see them larger.

I drove South on Route 1 (aka "little 1", not Expressway 1).  Just after you drive under these two highway overpasses, you will see Emart on your left and a long narrow bridge going over the train tracks to your right which you will turn onto and drive over.  There is a stoplight at the turn for the bridge.  If you are driving North on Route 1, Emart would be on your right and the bridge will be on your left before the highway overpasses.

This long bridge is next to the Jije Station.

As you come over the long bridge, you can see Happy Quilt ahead and to the left.  There are 3 large signs on the blue and gray buildings that say "HAPPY QUILT" so you can't miss it.

Just after the long bridge, there is a small bridge that goes over a stream.  Right after this small bridge, the road branches like this:

You'll make a 180 degree turn to the left.

Just around the corner you'll see the small Happy Quilt sign.  Turn right at that sign (directly behind the sign) and you'll drive down a little alley before seeing the glorious Happy Quilt buildings on your left.

This view is from the Happy Quilt side of the bridge looking back toward Route 1, giving you a perspective of where the bridge is in comparison to Emart and the Jije Station.

To see this location on a map, go to http://maps.google.com and copy/paste these coordinates: 37.020115,127.06462

It is possible to walk to Happy Quilt from Jije Station.  Happy Quilt is .5 mile (800 meters) from Jije Station if you exit from the back and walk on the roads through the field.  You can also exit from the front and take the sidewalk over the long bridge but that walk is slightly longer at .6 mile.  Click the image below to view it larger.

You may also like:

Yangjae Flower Market (an amazing source of flowers, ribbons, and gift wrapping supplies!)

Dongdaemun Fabric Market (a huge market in Seoul full of fabric and sewing notions of all kinds)

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"Any day spent sewing, is a good day."
~Author Unknown

Yangjae Flower Market

Last week I went with a group of friends to the Yangjae Flower Market or "Flower City" near Seoul.  This flower market is the largest in the Seoul area.  The market opens at early at 4:00am.  The flower selling ends at 1:00pm but venders selling other things stay open later.  The earlier you go, the better the selection of fresh-cut flowers.  There are numerous buildings that include greenhouses and nurseries, retail stores, and an auction room.  You can buy live potted plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, bonsai trees, cacti, and herbs.  You can also buy large pots, soil, seeds, and gardening tools.

We spent most of our time in the two-story building on the property.  The bottom floor was full of thousands of fresh cut flowers but the top floor was packed with dried flowers, silk flowers, vases, baskets, ribbons, wrapping paper, fabric tissue paper, and decorative accessories.  This is a gift-wrapper's and wreath-maker's paradise!  I stocked up on spools of ribbon and gift wrapping supplies before moving out of Korea.

It's worth the trip even if you simply walk around, look at all the colors, and inhale the divinely sweet fragrance filling the air.  However, you most likely won't leave empty handed when you realize the flowers (even the roses) are only a few dollars per bunch!

Directions to the Flower Market at the end of this post.  To see a map of the location, copy/paste these coordinates ( 37.466185,127.040201 ) into Google Maps.

How to get there driving:  The flower market is just off of Expressway 1.  The exit is the one south of the Yangjae exit.  The best way to recognize it is that there are only three tall buildings off of that exit and they are next to the flower market: the Kia headquarters, the Hyundae headquarters, and the AT Center.

How to get there by subway:  There is a new subway line (DX Line) that will take you very close to the Flower Market.  Take the new red DX Line and get off at the Yangjae Citizen's Forest station.  Leave the station at Exit 4 and walk straight (about 0.2 miles / 0.3 kilometers) until you see the AT Flower City arch sign pictured below on your right.

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"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap
but by the seeds that you plant."
~Robert Louis Stevenson