last seven days...

I am ecstatic that I am writing this post on Monday morning! Yey for catching up:)

Weather here has been nothing but boring... Super cold (almost could have snowed) days with rain followed by a tank top weekend...  My body has hard time keeping up with these extreme changes.

But overall... it was a lovely week with some changes to our routines - like a lunch date with Roo on Tuesday while admiring trains go by (super entertaining for her and relaxing for me...).

I hope your week was a good one!

 more photos after jump...

Let's make it nice:)

Now that we have our new patio right outside of our kitchen, it's so easy to have a spontaneous little picnic! We grilled some German sausages, cooked corn and potatoes, tossed easy garden salad... and voila;)

I hope you are enjoying your weekend:)

Reflecting and archiving the year: 2012

I think I should dedicate a day (or two) a week as my creative outlet day. Take a day to slow down on the operational/logistic side of the shop and use my hands & right brain to create something... possibly using materials and supplies we have available at our shop.

Making a book for the year of 2012 has been on my "things I like to do" list for a while (it was really supposed to happen in December... oh well.) so it was a perfect project to tackle today. For last six years, I put all the trinkets from the year's adventure in glass jars. I always enjoyed this annual ritual as a way to capsule some of the great memories with the hope that we will open them someday and look back with smile.

This year, I wanted to try something different - to create a system that is little more accessible to look back whenever we want to. And that's when I realized that MIDORI Spiral Bee Notebook with windows will be just perfect!

Since we were on the road quite a bit last year, 2012 box was filled with travel memorandum. Mix of Japanese, German and American trinkets. A perfect caption to our family:) This is how my desk looked when I emptied the box...



I decided to dedicate the back of front cover to our 2012 letter to ourselves since this is how we welcomed the year...

Then filled each page with bits and pieces of our life from the year. In order to keep some visibility to the items, I avoided putting everything in the envelope with window. Instead, I glued and clipped some of the larger items like photographs on the page. For example..., while we were traveling, we mailed a few postcards to ourselves with special quotes, so I inserted the postcard on the back of the page using Film Pocket Stickers in Postcard Size.  (left side of the page on the below picture).

More photos after jump!

Embracing the reality... as it is today.

It has been an interesting process to go through this second pregnancy. When I found out we were expecting in early October, I had a pretty big ambition to stay in shape and be the super preggy mom who can do everything and more. Unfortunately, the reality hasn't been that easy. The first trimester hit me really hard with (all day) morning sickness then just when I started to feel better after a long holiday season, we battled through cold/flu roller coaster up and down. Finally everything seems it's in a good place today..., but my body feels like it's playing a major catch up from months of down time and my physical ability simply can't keep up with all the things I wished I could.

I've been wanting to bounce out of the feeling of defeat... the feeling of "unable" to do certain things physically... but today I am in the process of accepting how it feels as it is the true reality.

It's true... that my mind is occupied with Roo and her growth that sometimes I don't think of the little one in my belly till I go to bed...

It's true that my body is so much achier than my first pregnancy...

It's true that I simply don't have enough time to go to prenatal yoga classes I wished I could. 

It's true that it makes me anxious when I try to imagine what our new schedule would be like when we have two kids in our hands.

But it's also true... that Frido has been very grounded and supportive of this process even when I am little shaky...

and it's also true that my heart melts when Roo talks to her sister in my belly.

Next three-four months as I have true privilege to nurture this amazing soul in my body, I want to be able to embrace and ride the dynamic of my mind/body, my family and the business whether it's rocky or smooth. It's a promise I am making today... and I know it will be difficult to stay true to this all the time (we are all human..., right?) but I will try my best.

Last seven days (more like last week...)

Okay... where are days going???

I feel like yesterday when I updated the "last seven days" post last week. I suppose brand identity redesign, our new deck, long weekend and inventory restocking have taken a good chunk of my time last week. But thankfully..., all the PRE-ORDER items have been shipped as of this morning and we have restocked most of the Traveler's Notebook collection... which brings a huge relief to my day.

If you follow my Instagram feed, you have noticed a huge dose of deck photos from our house! Frido has been working so hard for past few weeks and finished 95% of the main deck. Staining, stair building and decorating with plants are still on our to-do list but it's finished enough for three of us to enjoy our garden view in a daily basis. We LOVE it! I can't believe how we lived without it now... I can be cooking in the kitchen and Roo can be playing on a deck by herself with Shep. It's brilliant!

Earlier in the week, Roo and I had a proper zoo date. Since we got an annual pass last time, we talked about which animals we really wanted to see, looked up on the map and headed straight to her favorites - elephant and tiger (okay... we stopped at few places along the way). It's nearly impossible to see the whole zoo with my pregnant walkability (or lack of) and Roo being 2 year old... so this strategy worked really well for both us. We were so lucky to see a demonstration of zoo keepers and elephants interaction 10 feet away from us!!! (they were cleaning elephant's toes, brushing their bodies, giving carrots as treats, etc.) I think Roo was quite surprised by how big actual elephants were... scale can be such a tricky (and magical) thing for little ones to imagine! We had such a lovely time. She now cleans her wooden elephants' toes and eats carrots "like elephants":)

Oh and Frido and I gracefully skipped Valentine's Day celebration. It was a thing we kind of decided when we started dating and something we never looked back.

Happy end of February to everyone:)

more photos after jump!

Shop... but also studio!

Since we made a decision to create and design more at Baum-kuchen, there has been a good culture shift here in our office.

Aside from many hours of solo computer work I do to upkeep the online shop, blog and order fulfillment procedures that usually happen every other day (with loud music played in the background), we have added design review meetings, vendor visits and material sampling, etc. etc... on our plate.

It has been a great change to collaborate and work with talented designers and skilled craftsmen who bring fresh air to what we do and how we think. (and let's face it. I love cookies and muffins that go around the table when we have meetings...)

It can be bit exhausting to juggle everything for me especially with 6 months pregnant belly..., but I haven't felt more creative in a while!

So stay tuned for more details about what is cooking in our studio as well as new collection that we will be curating in our shop soon!!!

Have a lovely weekend:)
 

 

Last seven days... (well sort of)

Last week was a busy one between taking care of a sick little girl and keeping up with everything in and around the home and shop. I am thankful that we are through with this round of sick days and are back running as usual.

From the shop end... there was a lovely feature of LIFE's Journey by Elizabeth of the Littlest blog.  I am a huge fun of her blog and a long time follower... so you could imagine how thrilled I was to be included in her blog post:) I am so grateful to meet lovely readers of her blog!

Also one of my customer sent me YouTube video that was recently published about Traveler's Notebook and the cult of adventure journaling by pelahale.  It's a 20 minutes video that provides in-depth walk through of Traveler's Notebook (both regular and passport size) and shares other interesting information about the phenomenon of journaling while on the road. There was a big surge of Traveler's Notebook sales in past few weeks... and I am wondering perhaps his video and Fritz video about Traveler's Notebook (also a great one:) are helping us to be slightly more visible!

At our house... there is a deck construction going on...by Frido. We originally thought of hiring a professional contractor to build it but between cost and hassle, we came to the conclusion that it makes sense if Frido tackled it. So he is at it every free time he has...  After having no access to the back door for nearly three weeks it is almost there! We are all quite impressed by how perfectly this deck is coming out. I suppose it's the power of German precision.

I hope everyone is staying warm and AWAY from any of these cold!!! Have an (early) weekend:)

Hope to share more posts here later today!

 More photos...

Sick days...

I am sure you have heard of nasty flu/cold that is going around this winter... everywhere. We've avoided any serious sick days in last few years but since Roo started her pre-school last fall, we are very exposed to all germs possible.

On Tuesday morning... it started out of nowhere. We were planning to have a date at a zoo to see elephants... but she didn't want to get off my lap at all.  She usually does like sitting on my laps when possible but this attachment was so unusual... it quickly made me realize that there was something little off in her body.

Her temperature went up really quickly in the morning and by 10:30am she was out... just draping herself over my body with really high fever. I took her temperature around noon and it was 102.4F. It scared me quite a bit especially because she was refusing to drink/eat anything. But by 12:30, I managed to get half of a mango Popsicle in her system and she quickly regained some spirit... so I told myself to calm down and get through this with clear head. I researched around online for symptoms of fever and what to do tips. A lot of health websites suggested not to reduce temperature by medicine since the heat is essential in fighting bacteria/virus in her body. She dozed off to sleep throughout the day (which NEVER happens in her regular state) and I got some urgent work done while she slept but stayed really close to her all day.

We watched a few movies on my laptop when she was awake and I tried to spoon feed her some chicken soup I made the morning, milk, water and strawberries (which she requested) as much as possible.

In the late afternoon, her condition showed some improvement after a nap so we called a few friends and families to video chat and get a good dose of "get better" cheers. (thank you, Jane, Susan and mom!) Both Roo and I went to sleep really early the night... I barely got any sleep because I kept waking up to check on her... but by morning her temperature went down and she was close to be herself!!!

We took things easy for the following days and stayed mostly at home this weekend to help her recover fully (and avoid more germs!!). Her appetite was really low until yesterday and I was constantly worried that she would swing back to the fever state... but today seemed to be the first very normal day. 

Sigh...

It was my first time going through the intense cold/flu symptoms with Roo and it was a humbling experience. It was like my whole heart and mind was poured out of myself for her well-being.  Now I have a whole new respect for moms (and dads) caring for sick babies and kids...

Thankfully, neither Frido nor I got sick from what Roo had (yet... knock on the table).

I am crossing my fingers crossed for all of us to get through this cold/flu season...

 

What if Baum-Kuchen were a colors...?

I believe we have to continue evolving ourselves as world around us spins and projects forward. So when Frido and I discussed about what's next for Baum-Kuchen and came to the conclusion that we will be designing/creating more original products as a big part of our next phase growth, it came apparent that we will need to rethink of our brand identity as a whole.

I think what we have now works great for today... but we want to continue challenging ourselves to be better, greater and more...

So here we are... in the midst of brand identity redesign! We are collaborating with Tomo, a very talented graphic/brand designer to create a whole new look for us. 

Last week we met with her who hosted a small workshop for us. Through creative interviewing process, she got us talking about our idea, vision and inspiration for Baum-Kuchen... and one of the exercise we did was to think "what if Baum-Kuchen were colors...?"

We had so much fun answering this questions. She had a stack of color chips we could use to express... but we ended up scavenge hunting around our office to find exactly what we were looking for. It was such a fun process! I took a few snapshots of the process so I thought I would share!

I really can't wait to see what comes out of the process at the end!!! Please stay tuned:)

Last seven days...

Hello Monday!

It has been a very busy Monday for me. Wrapping my first work day of the week by reflecting last seven days makes me happy:)

First thing first... thank you so much for warm comments and emails regarding our family expansion! I realized afterward... that our announcement blog post coincided with 600th post here! What a happy accident:)

Our other highlight from the week was our first weekend trip to the snow. Even though it was a very warm weekend and there wasn't really the "real snow"sitting around our rental house... introducing Roo to sledding and snow tubing... was so awesome! Roo had NO IDEA what it meant to go down the snowy hill before... but quickly got used to it and the uncontrollable giggles that followed each slide was priceless!

Aside from that... there are lots of shipment going out our door right now so the shop is happily busy:) I am super thankful that the end of holiday seasons have not stopped us from interacting with our customers.

I look forward to a warm Los Angeles week for next seven days... I hope yours will be equally warm (inside and out) and exciting!

xoxo
-wakako