last seven days...

Frido is off from Art Center for three weeks... so we are enjoying some grown-up daytime outings while Roo goes to her school. It's amazing to feel the amount of inspiration, visions, ideas... we can share when we have some time to downshift. We are loving our lunch dates (way to save some evening babysitter expenses) and visited The Happy Show by Stefan Sagmeister (which totally deserves a separate blog post in the near future).

I am also working quite a bit... We officially have a Baum-kuchen pre-baby to-do list and I am simply crossing my fingers that our little one gives us enough weeks (or days) for us to get it done. If she comes early... well...it's not the end of the world, I suppose.

After having a rather busy week, we shut down completely on Sunday and spent the entire day in the garden. Just three of us. I am glad I can still work in the garden pulling weeds out... with this belly. It was probably the best day of the week:)

p.s. I am getting ready to launch the second email newsletter (I would like to call it "Baum-kuchen love letter"...) soon. If you are interested in receiving the letter in your email inbox, please subscribe through our website! (link here) I am aiming to send one letter/month with original contents!

more photos after jump!

Remembering and sharing the wisdom...

My friend Jane (of Snugattack) celebrated her birthday few weeks ago. She is one of a few friends who have known me more than a decade now... She and I have known each other through multiple phases of life stages (the joy - and some frustration - of going through the design school, working in the real world of design, running our own business... and of course growing our family...). Especially now our kids are BFF..., we see each other quite frequently despite the distance (she lives on the opposite side of LA) and have been exchanging a lot of life insights as parents, designers... and simply as individuals.

As her birthday got closer, Frido and I brainstormed on the gift...
Our thoughts evolved around something priceless..., something functional, something she won't be able to get by herself..., and something truly meaningful.

As we talked about the gift over dinner, we stumbled upon the idea of a custom made charm for Traveler's Notebook... with a quote "today is the only day" that reminded me of many conversations we have had with Jane in past few years. When we looked up the quote to see who have mentioned it historically..., it turned out to be Ernest Hemingway...

Over the following weeks, we went through a few versions of prototype to make a leather charm with a quote that will become a part of her Traveler's Notebook's elastic band... with a hope that every time she opens her notebook, it will be there to make her smile.

We typed the quote from Hemingway (though I excluded the last sentence from the original paragraph) with our favorite Baum-kuchen office equipment (hello, vintage typewriter:) and packaged it with the leather charm! We mailed the gift so I wasn't there to see her face when she opened it... but I think she likes it as the charm is proudly attached to her Traveler's Notebook now.

The joy of gift giving:) 

p.s. Frido and I had so much fun making this charm... we are thinking of sharing some of them at Baum-kuchen.

Original LA Flower Market - a flower heaven!

Before we headed to Daily Dose for brunch on Saturday, we stopped by Original LA Flower Market in LA Downtown.  It's a huge wholesale flower market that opens to public during certain hours of the week. It's amazing how much flowers we can get from them!!

The entire building is so overfilled with flowers... it smells so fresh and fragrance. We had fun picking armful (and a stroller full) of flowers for our project!

If you like playing with flowers, I highly recommend the visit:)

The Daily Dose - the little oasis in downtown LA!

Downtown LA must be our recent obsession... especially Arts District. We seem to keep going back for more adventures.

Daily Dose caught my eyes when it was introduced in this article about Hammer and Spear shop (on our list of "must visit"). It even gave me more surprise when I looked up where this little cafe was located... right next to a loft where I used to live 10 years ago!!!

This street seemed to have changed so much over years that I had to see it in person. 

Daily Dose was cozily nested adjacent to a narrow curved alleyway which used to be a train track between two industrial buildings. They transformed the alleyway into a little oasis where we could enter and sit down around cafe tables... under trellis of ivy and sound of birds. It was a really special atmosphere... peaceful and inspiring in the middle of industrial part of downtown.

Oh I can't wait to go back there!

Delayed gratification... and going through the wonder of being pregnant...

I am starting to feel... that 9-10 months of pregnancy is one big delayed gratification...

I've gone through so many different emotions and mixed feelings in last 8+months... They were mostly brought by normal pregnancy physical discomforts and back and fourth between accepting the reality and slightly showing the sign of denial about how our life might become when shift happens.

Last Thursday I was talking to a mom friend who had her second girl about nine months ago... and she told me that one thing that she regrets is that she was so anxious to meet her baby that she didn't take a moment to embrace the beauty and wonder of the very last part of her pregnancy. She wished that she would have taken some time to not only enjoy the experience of pregnancy but also prepare to say good-bye to the amazing journey when it completed its path.

Listening to her... made me realiz that I am feeling anxious for different reasons. I have been anxious about getting stuff done for Baum-kuchen... producing and creating as much as I can and preparing the shop for a possible brief pause when our little one arrives. I love what I do... so I wouldn't change the way I spend my days today but I know that if I am too buried into work, days will go without noticing small wonders.

So now I am taking few moments here and there to just meditate on what's happening within me. Lots of thinking about our little baby and simply being wowed by the idea of a human creating another human in the body... and appreciating metamorphosis and burst of life happening inside me. The process has been helping me to accept everything that happened in last 8 months, some of the physical discomforts and what might come as we get closer to the delivery... including the thought of possible cesarean if the baby decides not to turn head down...

I am glad... that we have good nine months to prepare our body and soul for a whole new journey just about to begin...

Last seven days...

It was the last week of semester at Art Center... so last seven days have brought a lot of "out of routine" moments to us throughout the week.

Some highlights!
- We are really close to launching our new product! Very close... (although, I still need to put a lot of hours to get ready for the launch... including a photo shoot, editing, updating website, etc. etc.) I can't wait to share them with you when they are ready:)
- Friday was a crazy busy day for me... a doctor's appointment at 9am, a lecture at Art Center by a legendary industrial designer Dieter Rams... then seeing a chiropractor for a prenatal adjustment..., heading to a potluck dinner at Roo's preschool (we had to bring something from our culture... so I made cute rice balls shaped in stars, hearts and bears. It was a big hit)... then finishing the night at Venice beach with my girlfriend and her friends to celebrate a special birthday. Yeah... that was one busy day!
- Spending the weekend with flowers!

Now we are through with the big week, Frido will be off from his Art Center duty for three weeks... we really thoguht about traveling during this break but since we will have to be little quieter when our little one arrives in a month or two, we decided that we will stay focused on being productive for Baum-kuchen and take staycation days during the week while Roo goes to school. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with Frido while exploring Los Angeles together!

 Read more after jump!

Garden oasis... inspired by CAMP

One of the places we visited with Susan and Kent in Orange County was a uniquely curated outdoor mall, CAMP in Costa Mesa. Some of the shops in the complex was fun and interesting but I was more inspired by their outdoor landscapes and communal areas. They did such an amazing job in crafting unique corners everywhere throughout the property... it felt like every detail was a photo shoot worthy. I took some iPhone photos to share!

Since we finished our patio a month ago, we have been spending so much more time in the backyard... and ever since I left CAMP, I've been daydreaming about making a secret oasis hidden somewhere in our garden. Somewhere I can walk to and sit down to meditate and find peace... away from home and daily routines. Any big idea for the garden takes long time to manifest itself... so I started a Pinterest board to start collecting some thoughts and inspiration.

I can't wait to create a very special corner in our backyard... one plat at a time:)

Last seven days...

Blog has been bit jumpy recently... since very full days are continuing around here...

It feels a lot like spring. One day it was beautifully sunny and we were wearing a tank top on the beach... then next day it's raining which really reminded me of my Seattle days. It's hard to believe I had an apartment in Seattle four years ago. Time and life does continuously move, doesn't it? We enjoyed our long weekend spent in Orange County with our friends Susan & Kent. It's so much fun to watch Roo establish a unique relationship with our friends. She is so lucky to have so many special people in her life... and so are we.

While Roo and I were away for the weekend, Frido poured his heart and time into refining one of the next Baum-kuchen products we are hoping to launch soon. If our little baby is generous with us, we will be able to launch multiple products before we become the family of four... We will see. Only time will tell.

Frido also had a solo Rose Bowl flea market adventure. Check out what he found for Roo! Japanese school backpack! This is such a staple of Japanese school experience... I can't tell you how thrilled I am that he found this for her! Seriously. Every Japanese kid has one of these when she or he goes to an elementary school. I think this one is especially made for a pre-schooler since it fits just right for Roo now. It's made of leather, perfectly worn in by a little kid who had this before her... but still in such a great condition.

I am excited to see what this week brings to us!

more photos after jump!

Last seven days...

Lots of making things
Roo loves her new lunch addition (heart and bear shape rice:)
Weekend enjoyed with friends! (Thank you Susan & Kent for visiting us.) Exploring downtown was so much fun but we also really loved just sitting at our patio!
Loving rose tea...
Uneventful doctor's office visit
Waiting for a baby to turn
Swimming here and there
Most importantly... loving and appreciating what we have in our life. 

 more photos after jump!

Obsessed... in making

We are getting into the overdrive of "making" phase. The word I should probably use to describe my current status is "obsession".

There is one project that is so close to getting it perfect... like we are at 95% completion... and I am absolutely obsessed to make it happen. When I get into this "make it happen" mode, my brain tend to want to choose to work... instead of eat, sleep or relax. I used to go with the flow and never took a break... before I became a parent (and yes... I was also younger...). In one hand, I am happy that I still have the drive within me... on the other hand, I am also very thankful that I have a family now to help me stop at the healthy point. Even though I wish I could work more hours, I stop to prepare dinner for the family and go to bed at descent time... because I know Roo will be up with her full energy when 7am comes around. I know my body actually thanks for those decisions:)

So here are some of our work-in-progress photos from recent development! Yes. It will be made of felt (the highest quality we could find:)! It will have some colors... and also ears:)

As we go through the last bit of refinement, I enjoy finding bits and pieces of solutions to make this project come to life. I really can not wait to launch it soon!

Please stay tuned:)

 

Spring garden...

We love our local garden... especially the one that is so understated... but quite extraordinary!

Arlington Garden in Pasadena is definitely one of our favorite:)  They did such a great job in curating the garden with a lot of climate appropriate vegetation... with so many pockets of little places to admire and hang out. They even have a little picnic table with chairs for little picnic. We like strolling through the garden to gather inspiration for our work-in-progress backyard.

Of course... Roo's favorite thing to do in the garden is to run around the bushes in circle! (it's very kid's friendly both in size and terrain!)

Happy Friday!!!

We are so excited to enjoy our spring weekend with Susan and Kent from Michigan!