"papa...", she whispers.

Yesterday we caught our little roo whispering "papa..." as FB walked by her.  I think she whispers it because she is saying it intentionally but just not sure if she is saying it right. I am not certain if she considers me tearing up as a positive feedback of her first deliberate speech.

Seriously... how much this girl lover her papa melts me in pieces. Most of the time she is as comfortable being with him as being with me... and I am so thankful for that.

Him taking care of her half of the week is definitely a choice we are making with some trade-offs in our lives.  Since he has less hours to work, it certainly affect the way our budget is laid out... but then we have just enough to get by and perhaps that's plenty for now. And we're making the most out of doing things on our own instead of hiring professional somebody (like hauling the asphalt). 

Over the weekend I was really inspired by this quote that was a part of the lovely post by tiny Buddha. (thanks Colleen for sharing!)

“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” -Unknown

I think it says it all:)

In heaven at {Caramela Ice Cream}

We wrapped our long (and hard working) weekend with an afternoon nap, early dinner (/late lunch) and a mini date at Caramela Ice Cream, a local artisan creamery.  Oh my goodness... it was sooooo good. We had a scoop of rose petal, blueberry thyme and lavender honey and I was in heaven. They were so generous to let me try almost every single flavor until I was able to make the final decision. I know we will be going back soon:)

Girls' day out!

Yesterday little roo and I had a date.

Little coffee and a play time at a coffee shop then off to get some clothes for her birthday party.

We've been so fortunate that our friends and family have given us all the great clothes all through the year that FB and I had never needed to buy any clothes for her.

So it was really my first time looking at baby clothes (although... she is not so baby anymore:)
 
We first checked The Green Bean in Eagle Rock then walked two doors down to see if there are anything cute at Kumquat Baby outlet. 

It was tons of fun (though she was ready to get going when I was down to the last two clothes to choose from)! She tried a few dresses on and wanted to play with all the clothes labels... We got a really sweet two piece from Kumquat for her birthday party and a few everyday outfits at The Green Bean! I think we did pretty good:)

I hope you are enjoying your long weekend!

Birthday party prep - heavy duty side!

Probably like a lot of parents, we are leveraging little roo's birthday party as a great excuse to upgrade our home. Only thing is... with our budget...we have to do everything with our own hands.

It must had been very popular to have a badminton court back in 50's?

When we bought this house, we inherited a full-size badminton court with an asphalt surface. Yep. A big patch of asphalt in the middle of our yard. FB hated it so he started hammering it away. Now we are two weeks away from little roo's birthday and all the asphalt has been loosened up, we needed to get rid of it! So here came the big dumpster on Thursday... and we have one week to move all the asphalt from the backyard into this big metal monster.

I helped out for a few hours this morning despite of FB's warning that it would be too much for me. Picking up pieces of asphalt, loading them up on a wheelbarrow, carrying it from the backyard to a sidewalk then dumping all the asphalt into the dumpster...times 20 or so.

Oh... it's a lot of work. I got blister on my little finger and my right shoulder is totally off...  but I am glad that I am taking a part of it. I know it will make me feel closer to our home and all the hard work FB has been putting on it... inside and out.

We will be an asphalt movers again omorrow morning. Maybe we will be celebrating our non-asphalt backyard by the end of tomorrow. I can't wait to see our {old} new yard with all the pink stripes in two weeks!

What a dream is made of...

It's 7pm on Friday and I haven't stopped for last 12 hours and I can seriously go to bed... like right now. It's so incredibly interesting to be a mom/a shop owner/ a consultant... wearing all these hats... all in one day.

I make breakfast for everyone, change diapers after diapers, wrap all the shipments for the day, take little roo to a playground, talk in my professional voice on a conference call, deep clean our kitchen, contact vendors for our next order (yes!) make more food for little roo, run grocery errand...

I don't multitask (thank goodness...) but a day is filled with little bits and pieces of everything. FB functions in the same way so we are one seriously productive family!

But you know... that's what it takes...

A little while ago I was talking to my friend about my shop and where things are at... she reminded me that this shop of mine was only a dream not too long ago...  It is such a big part of my life now that it's hard to believe that it didn't exist before... and I am so grateful that I have an opportunity to nurture it to its potential.

Today I am ecstatic that we had scored another great mention at NOTCOT.  (Thank you!!)

Yes. It does mean that I don't stop working at 5pm... but this little baum-kuchen is layers of all my dreams (and occasional sweats) and it's worth every moment of it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and don't forget to dream big!

cheers:)

We share {Pappa Rich}

Call it a mom craving but I have been obsessed with sweet goodies. Cupcakes, shortbread cookies, Haagen-Dazs ice cream... You name it! So when I decided to change some habits to become a healthier person, cutting off the overdose intake of sugar was one of the very obvious first step.

We have no more extra ice cream in our fridge nor emergency cookies in our pantry.

So when our friends brought over some of these Pappa Rich cookie sandwich, I was ecstatic! I can't say no to our friends' kindness, right?

FB and I shared these cookie sandwich for breakfast with some tea. I have to say I did indulge on every bite of these half sandwich.

I love that the sweets in my life are special again:)

Introducing {Brass Number Clip}

This will be the last round of product updates from our shop!

Last but not least... Brass Number Clip from Midori.

On my sketchbook, I usually have a lot of "eventually I need to go back to" pages. In the past I have used mt masking tapes to flag those pages but these Number Clips are fantastic as an alternative option. I also use them as bookmarks for Bon Appetit Magazine since there are so many recipes on each issue that I would like to try out! (by the way current issue has Gwyneth Paltow. Super cute:)

These clips are made of solid brass and it looks more and more beautiful as it ages over time. So simple yet so clever...

I think there are million ways of using these clips! It will be great for an agenda book, a journal... or as simple bookmarks for books you're reading.


How will you use them?

mystery of time...

Time to time... I ponder about the idea of getting older. I was really in the zone of "feeling" it about a month or so ago.

Time does a tricky thing to our mind, doesn't it? When my mom was in her early 30's, it felt like she was so much older... in a very abstract way... now I am at the age, I feel like I am still 10 years old but in the shell of 32. Yeah... sure... I am little more mature and (hopefully) have found some insights about life and everything around me... but still... I often get a sense that nothing has changed in me that makes me 32 compared to 10.

Then I realize that I have a pretty big responsibility of being a mother, a wife... and all the other roles I take in this world just like many 32 years old do... and I feel little saddened by this gap in my mental map.

How time passes is always going to be a big mystery to me... perhaps it's not so important to solve the mystery as an observer... but more so I should always spearhead my own life and embrace adventures with my heart first and the head second.

After all maybe it is a good thing to feel like a 10 years old... giggly and smiley. That's what I am good at anyways:)

I think I made enough garlands... (for now)

Seriously... I never thought I would EVER have enough garlands... but I think we have enough for now.  (although once I hang them all outside, I am going to wish that I had more...)

Aside from all these garlands I am cutting/sewing away, I have made an artifact frame using simple IKEA frame. I love doing this. Taking the glass out of the frame and creating open shadow box. I kept a tiny little clothe which little roo wore when she came home from the hospital so I hang it with clips. I also found a card we received from the hospital when we checked out... so I sew the card onto the same fabric I used for garlands and hang it as a part of the frame. The frame will be a part of little roo's birthday shrine and afterward I we will use it as a pin board in her room!

Now the photo book from her first year is ordered via Blurb...and yeah. I think we're ready! 

Oh I have so much fun doing this. All my friends I see these days are asking me how I am doing with the party-prep and how much fun I am having!

I guess it shows when I am doing something I love:)

What I love about creating an event is that journey to make it happen is also very special.  I felt that when we were getting ready for our wedding party (which was totally DIY!) and also when I was helping my friend's wedding reception. A magic happens when a vision is translated into an execution  and I love being immersed in the moment.

I think I need to find ways to do this more... find ways to make a part of my living through creating these special moments for other people...  I will be a very happy camper:)

 
 
 

in love with our props

When I take the shop photos, I usually use our collection of small items from home as props.  I fell in love with these items through my lens... they are simple objects but had a special quality when they are placed against a white background.  They have stories to tell through their presence. After taking all the photos for our recent shop updates, I took a few snapshots of these props so I thought I would share:)

I hope you enjoy:)

Mini inspirational investment

We are starting to have a really nice schedule that seems to work for everyone in the family. Solid two hour morning nap and 5pm bedtime for roo have been really helpful to set the tone of the day along with a really fun play time and a series of small baby/toddler meals.

Once a week or so, we venture out to local restaurants for breakfast or lunch. We call it mini inspirational investment. Big trips are awesome but having lots of mini outings is also great to spice up the everyday, right?

Today we decided to check out Schodorf's Luncheonette, a new restaurant in highland park.  We love these small restaurants doing awesome stuff. The space must have been 10 feet wide! It's a tiny place between a bank and (what looked like) a party shop.

Their sandwiches were fresh (as it promised) and oh so pretty black cherry pop! Yum:)

I also saw them using the Square with iPad. A [physical] plug-in which transforms an iPad into a credit card processor. Such a cool concept! I got one for my shop but haven't had a chance to use it yet... so I was glad to see how it works from a customer's perspective.  

I am slowly falling in love with this little corner in Highland Park. It's still little rough around the edges but I can feel that there is a good vibe... though I might be very biased since I also love Cafe de Leche, around the corner coffee shop! After our lunch, we took a mini walk to the coffee shop and had our very warm and relaxing cups of coffee while little roo played in the kid's corner.

Our roo is getting really good in walking. She now can lead her way and I just have to support her little bit from the back so that she doesn't trip over. It's so cute to see her get super excited when she sees her papa coming towards her. I can totally tell that she wants to run to him! Who knows... maybe she will be walking all by herself on her birthday:)

On the road {creativity}

When we decided to take a family vacation in Hawaii, FB and I told ourselves that we needed "a project" to work on while we were there. Yeah. I know... it's crazy... to want to work on things when we were vacationing. But from our previous travels, we knew that we would be inspired when we are very far away from home... being immersed in an extraordinary environment.

So I decided that I would take my Traveler's Notebook and create a mini travel journal about our vacation. I threw a few tools (my favorite mt masking tapes, water color paint, pencils and Polaroid PoGo with extra films.)

Whenever we had some downtime (usually during kiddos' nap time), I would pull out my project bag (aka SIWA round bag in red) and start filling the pages with all the great memories from the day. I loved working in the garden, on the patio... while breathing tropical air. I tried not to be too critical with how it looked (as I usually would at home being such a perfectionist)... instead just let the page to be what it wanted it to be. It was really meditative and refreshing process especially because I left all the connectivity behind and working on this book was all I needed to do whenever the little moment presented itself.

I took a "craft refill notebook" for Traveler's Notebook which has thicker papers that can take quite bit of moisture from water color paint. I loved its tear away details! I was able to easily remove the page from the notebook and use it as a postcard. I liked using the refill notebook so much that ordering more of those refills for the baum-kuchen shop was the first thing I did when I came home!

Now my travel journal is nicely put away in my archival binder and I can always go back to the fun time we had whenever I want to in my living room:)

Pink stripe has stolen my heart...

So I am working away on little roo's birthday party! Today I headed out to downtown LA to get some fabrics for DIY garlands.

As I walked into Michael Levine, a mega fabric store, I was so awed by all these possibilities... just simply inspired. I looked around a little and came across this super cute pink stripe fabric... and that was it. I was totally in love. Head over toes. Before I went into the store I wasn't really thinking of pink/s to be the color for the party so I made a frantic phone call to FB for quick permission (not like he would say no... but just in case) then called my partner in crime in Detroit just to make sure I wasn't going crazy by picking them.

I also found this awesome section - 1 pound of any fabric for $2.50! Total steal!

So I went nose dive into all these box full of fabrics looking for right shades of pink and salmon colors to go with the stripe fabric.

When I got home, I jumped on my sewing machine to make garlands with all these happy fabrics I just purchased and started hanging freshly made decoration all over the house. Our living room has temporarily become a party lala land!

LOVE it:)


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