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.

Think Pink

I've had pink on the brain lately, so I'm loving this pretty treasury that I'm currently featured in, thanks to this sweet seller.

And I finally bought the first few baby clothing items over the weekend, including these oh so adorable sneakers from Old Navy, where I've done quite a bit of my maternity shopping. I've been resisting the urge to buy everything cute in sight, but I couldn't resist these.
I promise to share some photos of the finished shoji doors soon. They are mostly done, but we are wanting to add some castors to the bottoms to make them easier to slide back and forth. Another trip to Ikea is planned for later in the week for more baby-related items and more office and studio gear. As usual, I'm looking forward to it.

Bye for now.

October Giveaway

Just a quick post today to announce this month's giveaway.

(Click on image to enlarge it)

Prizes: an owl and pussycat screen printed scarf (only one end is printed) and a set of six owl and pussycat buttons. Total value is $31 in honour of Halloween!

Ways to enter: Leave a comment saying what you're going to be/do this Halloween. If you're not dressing up, then perhaps share one of your favourite past costumes.

Any purchases made in my shop from now until the end of the month will also get your name entered in the draw.

And all my Happy Customers and current blog followers are automatically entered every month.

For bonus entries: Become a follower of my blog (follow button to the left) and/or on twitter, then come back here and leave a comment letting me know that you did so. All my current blog followers are automatically entered. I have too many unknown twitter followers, so unfortunately you need to comment on this post to b entered.

If anyone has trouble leaving a comment, you can also email me: blog@cathypeng.com.

Winners will be announced on November 1st!

It's almost dinner time, so toodles for now.

Studio Peeks & Work in Progress

Despite the long weekend, it's a working weekend for us. Here's a peek at my button and magnet making station around 8:30 this morning.

And here are some more peeks around my home studio from this morning.

my button & magnet making/shipping station

some completed button and magnet sets

my clothing stock (on the left) & the not yet completed "walk-in closet" ( it's going to be enclosed with curtains)

And here's how things were looking mid-afternoon...



Matt decided that this was the weekend he was going to build the sliding shoji doors, mentioned in a previous post. So after a trip to Home Depot this morning, and several hundred buckaroos later, work began and is still going as I type.

Needless to say, our place is looking and feeling a bit chaotic at the moment. Most of our downstairs is a work in progress, really. But once these doors are up, and after another trip to Ikea in the near future, I think our place will start looking and feeling a whole lot better. Fingers crossed!