The Big Reveal

Life has been pretty hectic these past several weeks, as my due date nears...
• Baby and home furniture shopping
• a trip to the ER for my dear hubby
• maintaining my shop
• and working at my part-time job
So blogging was not exactly a priority. And I'm sure it will be put on the back burner once our little one arrives too.

But I'm happy to finally share the results of last month's hard labour and home reno project.




There are still some finishing touches that the shoji doors require to make them easier to open and close, but for the most part they are done and function fine.

Of course, some repairs are needed as well...

c/o our bad kitty, Suki.

And we need to start training the cats to stay out of the bedroom, as well as preparing them for the arrival of their little sister. That will be a task and a half. We are hoping for the best!

More pics to come in the next few weeks of our revamped home. Ciao for now.

A Sweet Holiday Giveaway

new pocket calendar (coming to the shop soon)

Okay, it's giveaway time again! Normally I announce them on the 15th of the month, but this past weekend just got away from me and I was not feeling energetic enough to do much else than veg after two full days of being out baby shopping and more.

Without further ado though, here are the details:

Since I will be closing shop for maternity leave, starting Dec. 16 (perhaps sooner), this month's giveaway will actually be for November AND December. And there will be 3 separate prize packs to be won.

With the Holidays around the corner, each prize pack features an assortment of goodies that are purrfect for giving away or if you're feeling more Scrooge-like, simply keeping for yourself.


Prize Pack #1
• Sukibaby Holiday Pack of 3 Cards
• Christmas Kitty Magnet Set
• 1 Set of Holiday Gift Tags
• A 2010 Pocket-size Calendar (choose 1 from 12 designs; only 1 not pictured is pirate kitty)
• Gift Certificate worth $25

Prize Pack #2
• Creme Owl & Pussycat Limited Edition Scarf
• A 2010 Pocket-size Calendar (choose 1 from 12 designs)


Prize Pack #3
• Aqua Clever Kitty Boy Brief Undies
• A 2010 Pocket-size Calendar (choose 1 from 12 designs)

Ways to enter (this time):
Leave a comment sharing your favourite Christmas/Holiday memory or gift received/given.

• Any purchases made in my shop from November 1st - Dec 6th will also get your name entered in the draw.

• All my Happy Customers and current blog followers are automatically entered every month.

Winner will be chosen at random, using the random number generator and I will announce it on my blog on December 7th!

To keep things fair, winners will be given 1 week to reply to my notification email. So please be sure to include an active email account in your comment/link or give me some way of reaching you. Otherwise, new winners will be chosen.

Thanks in advance for playing along. Happy Monday!

Be Back Tomorrow...

The weekend was super busy and I'm feeling a little like how Dex looks above - dazed and in need of some rest - so details of this month's blog giveaway will be announced tomorrow. Sorry to keep you in suspense, but it'll be another good one.

Thanks for the sweet comments on my previous post. Hope everyone else had a great weekend and is enjoying the last few hours of it! Now time to put my feet up and relax in front of the tube.

Yes, Please & Thank You!

Yesterday I had a STELLAR day on etsy, thanks to getting this on the front page and some really great customers. It was my best in a long while and yes, please, I'll have some more. Thank you :)

I love this site that I somehow happened upon last week, via twitter I think. A great way to keep up with your etsy stats and it's an attractive and well-designed site too.

Anyways, just wanted to briefly toot my own horn...


After all, it's the small things and moments in life that keep me happy.

Be back in a few days with this month's giveaway.

Long Overdue

I've been terrible at blogging lately.

So much to do and so little time.

That's kind of how I felt yesterday after Matt and I got home from doing some baby shopping, finally. We bought a crib, but the saleslady told us that a car seat and stroller are more important. We only started looking at some yesterday. Yikes!

I'm still not due for another 8 weeks - so that's not the "overdue" the post title refers to - but I feel like the clock is steadily ticking and it's hard to accomplish much these days.

These books literally sat on this cart for weeks, after we finished setting up our shoji sliding doors. I finally reshelved most of them yesterday morning. Still need to snap some "after" shots, but I'm waiting until the shelves are fully reorganized, which will hopefully happen next weekend, once we go to Ikea again.

Here are some more "in progress" shots of our shoji doors... these, like my home reorganization, are the long overdue things I'm referring to.


Oh, also of note: this morning I redrew for the winner of the October blog giveaway since I didn't hear back from the original winner. Congrats to Leslie, one of my etsy customers last month. Stay tuned for this month's giveaway announcement... happening in under a week.

Hello November

Wendy and her kitty, Aoi

The last week of October was one of my most trying ones since I've been pregnant. I think the third trimester has brought back hormonal changes and fatigue, putting me on a bit of an emotional roller coaster for the last little while. Without turning this into a completely woe-is-me sour post, let's just say that Thursday was by far not my best morning, Friday was a bit exhausting - waiting 6.5 hours to get the H1N1 vaccination; and Saturday I spent most of the day on the couch or on the toilet, recovering from the shot that's supposed to keep me and the baby safe. Yeah, fun!

So, I'm looking forward to a better November. Pretty please!

I know I promised to share photos of our finished shoji doors, but I have not had a chance to take decent ones yet. Instead, I thought I'd share a photo that one of my super lovely recent customers sent to me, showing off her new tee along with her own wonder kitty.

And it's also time to reveal the winner of last month's giveaway. I made the draw this morning, once again using the random number generator. Out of 93 entries, Priscila was the lucky winner.

Thanks to everyone who commented, sharing your Halloween costumes, past and present. Hope you all had a fun, safe Halloween! And thanks also to all my etsy customers for your purchases and support in October. I was hoping to offer a free download in time for Halloween to thank all my blog followers and etsy customers, but I think it will have to wait until next year.

I may come up with something for the holidays. Christmas, after all, is my favourite holiday of the year. But I'll have to get cracking on stocking up the shop with things before baby comes. Be sure to check back at my blog and my shop announcement for important suggested mailing dates as well as my maternity leave dates. I'll be finalizing those dates in the coming weeks.