January... you have been good to us.

Looking through my Instagram feed from January..., I am so thankful that some of the small (and big) changes we decided to make within our day-to-day family routine has made a huge impact to our quality of life.

We are definitely more focused now... so much more than previous months... as we made the promise as a family to "focus" on what's important at the beginning of this year. At home our laptop has been closed until the girls go to sleep. We are doing our best not to check the social media via our phones when we are together. (okay... I post photos on Instagram time to time but I don't browse other people's feed:) Simple changes like these are making huge differences in how engaged we have been as a family.

We are learning and figuring things out as parents as we grow together... and our girls' smiles on their faces are living proof to me that we are making the right changes to our life...

cheers;)

The Superior Labor... more photos (because we love them:)

I had a chance to take few more photos of The Superior Labor shoulder bag (aka. Engineer Bag) so I figured I would share!

Yes:) We are still taking PRE-ORDER here!

taking what I believe... everywhere.

We love the series of "because I believe...", a collection of Baum-kuchen original charms. It's our small way of sharing something we believe in life. They have been great for customizing Traveler's Notebook... but they are also very very versatile.

On last Friday, I switched the charm on my Traveler's Notebook (because something special is coming soon:). I didn't want to let my old charm go so I decided to sew it on my work apron. I love that leather and brass combination fits so well with so many other materials. It looks perfectly together with the denim apron. I think it would also look great on Superior Labor canvas products as well as linens artifacts, etc. etc.

How would you use yours?

the doll

If you have seen my Instagram feed, you probably spotted Roo's doll quite a few times in past month or so. It was my love at first sight when we were participating Remodelista Holiday Market in SF. I was away from our girls to do the show and the moment I saw them at Jess Brown's table, I had to take the last two dolls home.

When Roo first met her doll, she didn't respond to her much. Little bit like... "oh, okay." Then I told her the story that the doll has a piece of my heart because I thought of her and Coco when I saw these dolls in San Francisco... When I finished telling her the story, she took the doll in her life and has never been apart.

Life with a doll feels such a special phase. So much care, so much love and so much companionship.

(A doll I got for Coco hasn't been smothered with love as much as Roo's doll. Hopefully in the near future...)

more making...

We are making some changes here in our Baum-kuchen studio/shop as we slowly move forward through January. One thing we wanted to experiment was to create more making space within our studio space... contrary to having a lot of "display" space like a regular shop. It took some big furniture moving (takes a while with one person doing it...) but I am happy how our small nook became a little cozy corner where our vintage maple work bench comfortably fits. The nook gets so much natural light with a big window and is a lovely place to sit and work with hands.

If you walk in our shop, you might catch me sitting there... working:)

as of today...

For more than a year... our sleeping arrangement among the family has been... "interesting" (for lack of a better word...).

For the longest time, Roo would crush in our bed and we would gently move her to her own room and bed in the middle of the night. As we were getting close to Coco's arrival, we started to practice her sleeping in her own room throughout the night. I would sit and hold her hand until she fell in sleep... every night. Then Coco came... and there were more hand holding and waking up in the middle of the night with everyone because Roo would wake up when Coco woke up.

Basically... there were a whole a lot of juggling in the middle of the nights and very little sleep for a pretty long time.

Little while ago, we all agreed (Roo included) that it was a good idea to get a kid's size bed for Roo so that she can get ready to share the room with Coco and her crib. Eventually that happened... both girls happily sleeping in their shared room!!! But Roo would get so emotionally worked up when Coco woke up and cried in the middle of the night... there were more early morning juggling... it was definitely not working. At some point, I suggested that we try putting Roo's bed out of their room and in the shared in-between space. The space used to be a formal dining room between our living room and kitchen. We had our old piano in the space but it was a walk-through kind of space. We just needed to get Roo's bed somewhere until Coco settled with her nighttime sleep schedule.

Fast-forward few weeks in... Roo calls this space "my bedroom" and she has been sleeping better than ever. I feel little funny about it... like her bed was kicked out of the girls' bedroom and Coco (the littlest person in the whole family) totally is taking over a whole room unlike anyone else in the family. (we have a tiny two bedroom house, you know?)

It's such a "phase" so I thought I would document just for the sake of documenting. I am just glad that her IKEA bed is light weight so we could shuffle things around as needed and we are open enough to jus try anything to make sure that everyone gets some sleep!

watching sunrise together...

we watch sunrise together every morning. no... it's not something we do as a part of our routine but more like it just happens because we are all awake thanks to a special someone who likes to wakes us up right when she sees sky turning its color.

it seems to bring her a comfort of love and the feeling of right start when we watch the sky changing the color from dark dark blue to purple, pink... then red... in our bed together. We talk about our dream from the night then she suggests to read a few books... so we usually go along.

few days ago she suggested that we paint as we were watching sunrise so we did. she painted birds and i painted sunrise.

the purest toy...

Coco has been playing a lot lately by herself and I have been trying different toys with her... to see which toy sticks with her more than others.  The winner has been this wooden blocks Frido designed for Satchi while we were staying on Yakushima island in 2012. She chews on each one of the block... then plays with the container... then see how the block sounds like when she hits the wooden floor with the blocks... then do it all over again.

I love that each block fits perfectly in her hand... and the warm tactility with the amazing aroma of cedar.

I was so happy to find a little clip we made while we were in Yakushima... our Roo playing with the very same blocks. She was 1.5 year old...

I am so proud of Frido for designing this beautiful toy. it's such a living proof that good design outlasts time.

Birthday (not mine...but his) continues.

If December were my birth month, January is Frido's birth month. His birthday past few weeks ago but we are still very much indulging with the celebration. Last week, a real baumkuchen cake from Germany arrived in a package... and it was totally an indulge. We got to sing him a happy birthday AGAIN (and how sparkly Roo's eyes shine when she sings a birthday song...) and enjoyed the cake after our breakfast. Light was magical... and it felt like we had a spirit there. Maybe a spirit or two from Germany:)

Thank you Michael and Heidi! xoxo

Taking PRE-ORDER for Superior Labor shoulder bag

Update (1/21/14): we are currently taking PRE-ORDER at our online shop.
 

I have a very exciting news to share tonight! Baum-kuchen will be officially sharing some of the items from Superior Labor, a Japanese lifestyle brand in Japan. I totally absolutely fell in love with their Engineer Bag, a canvas/leather shoulder bag ever since I visited Japan in the summer of 2012 and have been using my shoulder bag. I've used it for travel, for an everyday outing with the girls... and lately as my must have bag that travels between our home and our shop.

The bag is so versatile and doable... The more I use it, the more I have become to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making each bag...

Ever since I starting using the bag to commute to our studio/shop, some of our in-store customers spotted my bag hanging on the side of my desk and really wanted to get their own... in a very passionate head over heels way. So I pulled my heart together and asked Superior Labor if we could be one of the lucky stores in the U.S. to share their bags.

And they said yes:)

I will be placing our first order soon. Before I do that, I wanted to offer if anyone would like to pre-order the bag. Since they are big items, I will be carrying a small quantity and a limited variety in colors... so if you would like to make sure that you get yours in the colors you would like, please let me know in next few days!

(send me an email to: wakako@baum-kuchen.net)

Above is a video which Superior Labor recently put together to share the process of their bag making... and below is a handful collection of photos I have taken in last 1.5 years with my bag. I thought it might give you a picture of how the bag feels like!