powering through!

This feels crazy... but I am starting to really learn that October is our entry way to holiday seasons. No more fussing around and feeling overwhelmed for me. It's time to focus and power through the days until we get through December. On my shop days, I have been working pretty long hours fulfilling orders, updating our website, keeping up with bookkeeping... but it helps me feel more balanced that I have a lot of non-work days when I get to spend time with Satchi and Coco at home.

If you haven't visited our shop recently... we are adding a lot of beautiful artifacts to our collection. We are loving Classiky items so much (and there are still more to be updated!!) and ATELEIA pens and new recycled leather design from Roterfaden in light grey and dark grey!

Most importantly... I am digging the new found energy and inspiration after coming home from RISE festival last weekend.

I hope your day is going well. Sending you warm thoughts from our Los Angeles home and studio:)
xo
-w

I will be sharing thoughts on "how to craft an authentic brand" at Beyond Inspiration Gathering

This year... one of the goals I really wanted to accomplish was to "connect" to the world in a meaningful way. For last ten months, I tried different ways to curve out some time to connect with myself as well as friends and family.

Reaching out to the community to connect is still one of my "wish list" for the year... so I was thrilled when our friend Stephanie of The Girl Who Knows asked me to be one of the mentors for Beyond Inspiration gathering she is cooking up - an intimate and soulful gathering for female business owners to connect, share and learn from each other.

I will be sharing about how we approach "brand with soul". If you know Baum-kuchen, you know that the entire idea of Baum-kuchen is so so so close to my heart and my family. Frido and I talk nightly about how we aspire to live and breathe the lifestyle of Baum-kuchen. (No we are not perfect... but we aspire:)

I am hoping to share tangible ideas, examples, mistakes we made in last 6 years... to craft the brand Baum-kuchen. I am also really looking forward to listening to other mentors who will be sharing their expertise as well as to meet female entrepreneurs who are changing the world one day at a time.

If you are an introvert, woman and a business owner... with an entrepreneurial mindset, I think you will get a lot out of the day at Beyond Inspiration!

Here are some details:
More event detail and to purchase ticket via this link. 
Date: Saturday November 7, 2015 (9am-6pm)
Location: Communal LA in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles
Mentors: Anne Sage, Ashley Neese, Ellen Ercolini, Jennifer Puno, Sarah Ehlinger, Stephanie Watanabe, Wakako Takagi

Get out to see something truly inspiring / RISE festival

Sometimes the words or images can't explain how impactful a moment can be. That is how our experience felt at RISE Festival this past weekend.

We had been looking forward to this event ever since our friend Stephanie mentioned about it in August. We booked our hotel in Las Vegas for 2 nights and was ready to go until we got really really really sick for 7 days leading up to the weekend. The entire Baum-kuchen household was sick like we had never been sick. Multiple doctor's visits, Satchi taking the entire week off from school (except Friday when she was happy to go back to her school) and having so many chicken soup for days.

On Friday morning, Frido and I went back and fourth... trying to decide if we should leave LA to head to Las Vegas with still under the weather Coco and myself. (Thankfully Satchi was close to clear off from her flu and Frido dodged the bullet all together). Can we pull off the 6 hours drive with kids? Are we going to be able to sleep in a hotel room that we are not familiar with? Doubts were everywhere but we decided that life was just too short to sit by. We packed our car in the morning and started driving. I remember writing on my journal... "hoping for wind to rise".

Somehow the wind did rise and we managed to get to Las Vegas without completely falling apart and collapsed on our hotel room bed at 8pm. It felt like a magic when we woke up next morning, we felt little better than the night before. Our body ached less... and we were so excited for the night to arrive.

Our friend Angie joined us from Los Angeles with a great smile and her amazing sense of humor. Before we knew it, we were in the car heading to the mojave desert along with the desert sunset.

Truly... the experience of being there was nothing like I have ever felt. Many people wrote wishes, dreams and something to let go on their lanterns. One of our lantern was dedicated to Shep. Angie dedicated her lantern for her father. I wished for "future... and moving forward". When 9pm finally arrived (and girls were totally ready to fall in sleep on a dusty desert ground), the announcement of the unison release came. The adrenalin rush to launch the very first lantern... being surrounded by 20,000 more lanterns to rise together. And the moment of the launch. It gave me a chill on my spine. It was a great reminder that we need to get out there and experience the world everyday because magic does happen.

I think I will let the visual do the justice for the rest of my RISE story.


RISE Festival / 10.10.2015 from Baum-Kuchen on Vimeo.

brightening the day

Last week while Frido was away, our friend Susan sent us a bouquet of flowers from The Bouqs as a surprise gift. We were so not expecting this special gesture... and it totally made our day and many more days afterward!

It was such a great reminder that flowers in the house bring so much life to our indoor room... I am hoping to forage some nature from our garden this weekend...

Thank you Susan! xo