Thankful...

Who and what do I appreciate the most in life?

As I wrap up our Thanksgiving weekend..., I am grateful to be able to pose this question to myself.

I know December will be a very full month for us. Both emotionally and physically. And I love to keep this thought and a question close to my heart. Instead of rushing to answer the question... just letting the question sink in through many layers of thoughts and as a trigger to continue being thankful for many things in life.

To live and breathe through the month of December with intent and grace.

our visit to mmd antiques in Orange

We had fun visiting mmd antiques in Orange! We have been wanting to visit this little gem for a long time:) I think I screamed, "this is exactly where I want to be!" when we got through the door. I love treasure hunting and have been missing the local flea market visit so much. (it's hard to spend all day walking at flea market with 2 little ones who want to touch everything and anything...)

It's our dream for Frido and I to make our backroom where we spend a lot of time packing and shipping to be equally inspiring as our front shop area. So we are slowly starting to replace some temporary furniture to more permanent long lasting ones. To grow together with them.

I can't wait to share what we decided to take home from mmd antiques.

LOVE for Analogue / Take a moment to send a love letter

As we slowly approach the end of year..., it's so easy to get lost in holiday shopping, dinner parties, deep cleaning of the house (we do this... in a Japanese way), and more things that need to be crossed off from our list. (oh and kids are off from school too!)

So we would LOVE to take a moment to share an idea of maybe doing totally the opposite. What if we take one quiet afternoon and instead of trying to juggle what are on our plates, slow down to write and send something special to a friend? Adding and sharing words and artifacts that inspire you at this moment.



At Baum-kuchen studio Eunice crafted a set of love letter, a mini goodie bag and a gift tag to get your creative juice going!

We love Classiky Letterpress Picture Diary because the creative format of the notepad makes it easy to put together a fun and unexpected composition. (also available with line) The newsprint quality of this paper sets a collaging atmosphere and we can pretty much put anything in these little boxes to personalize the letter. How about a little picture printed from Mini Pocket Printer, pressed flowers, few pieces from your postage collection, your favorite stickers, pieces of masking tapes, your personal mantra or quote, illustration... The possibility is endless.

If you like sharing little analogue goodies with your friend along with your letter (imagine... your favorite clips, assortment of masking tape samples, a memo card...), you can create a very personalized envelope with Classiky Glassine Envelope & Label. Labels in this set are vintage inspired so it automatically sets the beautiful vignette and we love how the envelope is slightly translucent to reveal little bit of what's inside. Glassine envelope is slick in texture so regular stamp ink will not stay on. So make sure to use a stamp pad with a permanent ink if you love adoring your envelope with your favorite stamps! We created a layering effect by overlapping masking tape and translucent washi papers with a memo written via typewriter. If you don't have an actual typewriter available to use, no worries. You can easily find a typewriter inspired font on your computer and type and print your message!

We folded the top of envelope to close and added Classiky hole seal on the punched hole to add an extra personality. Tie it with Paper Twine and it's ready to go!

We have the letter sample created by Eunice in our studio so if you are local and are looking for extra inspiration to get your creative juice going, stop by! (our opening hours are listed on this page:) You are definitely very welcome to put together your personal letter while you are in the studio using what is available on our analogue work table:)

List of artifacts used in this project:
From Classiky collection

• Letterpress Picture Diary / Newspaper
• Glassine Envelope & Label in Beige
• Kokeshi tape
• Number tape
• Collage tape / brown & blue
• Hole seal
• Alphabet stamp (E & R)
• Porcelain stamp "From"

Paperphine twine in Jeans Blue
PILOT HI-TEC-C 0.3

Tsukineko StazOn stamp pad

Visiting The BROAD Museum / downtown Los Angles

Today we had fun visiting The BROAD in downtown LA.
With kids, we tend to stay away from crowded places where they are asked to be quiet... but this was such an awesome experience. I totally recommend family with kids to visit! The admission was free but you would want to reserve a ticket ahead of time to avoid a long line to enter.

Everyone has been really excited about Infinity Mirrored Room by Yayoi Kusuma. We were not able to get in this time... but glad to have something to look forward to when we visit again!

The museum's architecture was an art itself. The building is not only unique in style but gave great sense of space inside - open and calm at the same time... Every pathway including a staircase that weave through the impressive art collection archival vault was so well thought out. It was a "designed space" in the most inspiring way.

Hoping to do more of these culturally inspiring adventures with kids in the future:)

Baum-kuchen is growing in the most awesome way - welcome on board, Eunice!

Since the end of this summer we have been itching to grow our team so we can continue to support all ends of Baum-kuchen. Between Nerine and I... we have been shipping our packages to so many wonderful and loving customers and hosting many in-store guests.

I kept asking... "Can we get through the holiday seasons between two of us?" I knew I could pull many hours in the studio (you get trained to do some impossible things when you go through a competitive design school...) but it started to make sense to seek for a support from an additional team member.

I am cautious to grow and I think I wIll always be. Because I want to make sure that Baum-kuchen is a sustainable business that does not have to push hard to sell. I don't want to sell things for the sake of selling just so that I can make the ends meed. I want to share inspiration because I truly feel inspired. Carrying artifacts we love and believe and being able to share with our amazing community...

Last month we slowly started to share the thoughts of looking for a new team member with our close friends. Just asking... if any of our friends might know someone who might be a fit... who might understand our Baum-kuchen karma. And I kept saying to myself and everyone..., the right person will come across our path without us forcing it to happen. I understand that it's incredibly naive to run a business this way... but the entire Baum-kuchen has been built on the beauty of believing. Being naive to the most positive and constructive way.

Fast forward few weeks... I was having lunch with our friend Eunice. By the end of our lunch, what we ended up having was not only yummy food from Habitat Cafe but also the possibility of working together at Baum-kuchen.

I am sure everyone knows of her from her beautifully curated Instagram account @thedailyroe. We were so lucky to have hosted the Baum-kuchen Inspiration Lab with her in the past.

I must admit... incredibly coordinated stars aligned beautifully for us.

Eunice will partnering with us to lead the Baum-kuchen Love for Analogue which is a HUGE core of what we believe as a brand. I seriously can't wait to explore the concept of "Love for Analogue" with her to the max! She will also be supporting Nerine who is putting a lot of TLC to Baum-kuchen karma everyday.

I will be sharing the very first project we worked on yesterday in our studio. Please stay tuned for more Love for Analogue to fill your blog and IG feed:) We will definitely be sharing!

Now let's thrive and enjoy the entire life through holidays:)

xoxo
-wakako

Thoughts on analogue system for 2016

Every year between October-December... I spend a lot of time thinking and imagining what my next year's analogue system look and feel like. I LOVE this process every year as it gives me a chance to look back, reflect and dream how it could be... and it always ends up becoming a diagram so I can make sense out of the system. So this is what I am thinking about... for 2016!!

Traveler's Notebook: It will continue to be my wallet and planner and will go everywhere with me. My core inserts will be monthly planner (dated) as a master planner, weekly vertical planner (undated / TN18) for detailed scheduling when I get to the week and Essential leather insert as my wallet. I enjoyed being able to add and subtract extra refill notebook as needed. This fall I really needed to be journaling for a personal growth so I had extra Pan am grid notebook. Now I went back to my core inserts... and I love how it feels compact today:)

Roterfaden: I am going to make some changes with Roterfaden. I am hoping that it will become my personal hub for reflection. I am planning to carry 2 notebooks in my Roterfaden Dark Brown Leather Cover. MD 2016 Monthly/Weekly notebook for documenting life with family and Hobonichi Avec for personal journaling. MD Monthly/Weekly notebook will probably be thicker as I am planning to put tons of pictures and additional collaging to make this notebook become our family archive of memory... and I am hoping to keep my Hobonichi Avec slim mainly just with words.

I LOVE that Roterfaden will help me streamline the number of notebooks I will be carrying.

Stalogy 365: For Baum-kuchen notes and ideas. I am going to keep the format of this notebook flexible. Who knows... maybe after finishing the last page of this notebook, I will move into A4 format for more space! I am totally open for what feels right when I finish this notebook! 

As of today... This is what I am thinking and I am pretty excited:) What's your plan for 2016?? Any new ideas to organize, archive and inspire your everyday?? I would LOVE to hear:)

xoxo
-wakako

First 20 minutes... to cleanse

For last few weeks I have been spending the very first 20 minutes in the studio to clean and tidy. Set the timer and go!

Before I open my email or any other "must check"list. The result is a tidier space to work for the day. Somehow my energy flows so much better too. More productive and up-and-running mind. While I cleaned, I found a few unused props that made a great come back in the shop, old notebooks (with my to-do list from years ago...) and few other gems around the studio. Cleaner and more resourceful:) It's win-win for everyone!

p.s. our backroom is still work-in-progress... but here is the progress. The restored mail sorter is really feeling at home in our shop space:)

Keep traveling

We often talk about our past and future travel destinations with our girls so getting a really big wall map for kid's room has been on my task list for a little while. I was thrilled that they have found this vintage world map at a local estate sale last weekend. Something about an old map... with faded colors. 

We don't have next travel destination and I am starting to get an adventure itch... Because of Satchi's school schedule, we will most likely be doing frequent weekend trips in future months instead of a big 3 weeks adventures. 

Keep traveling!