Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween (before the night is over)!  Be back soon with more words, hopefully :)

The Girls

Baby Blythe

Whitney & friend playing "at the beach"

"B" & Whit

These two girls have been keeping me busy for the past few months.  Our second daughter, Blythe Clementine Bennett, arrived about 10 days early on April 24 and she very nearly popped out at home.  My plan to skip the epidural with Whitney (I couldn't hack it after 3 hours) went into full effect with Blythe as I was fully dilated by the time we got to the hospital and delivered within 45 minutes of arriving!

Big sister has had a big transition to deal with and the first month was pretty tough on her, as it was for all of us.  But I can see that she has a lot of love for her little sister and I so look forward to the time when they can interact with each other more.

 Happy Sunday to you!

Two Weeks

So much for posting sooner than later.
Here are some photos highlighting some things from the past 2 weeks.

Our little 3 year old is on the verge of outgrowing her naps most days, though I wish it weren't so.

She is too busy playing most of the time.  And while she has gotten better at playing independently,  there is still the insistence that either me/daddy play with her a lot of the time, which can make for a long day.

Luckily, a very sweet neighbour on our street has offered Whitney a playmate just her age (and me some down time) when needed, which is about once or twice a week.  And she herself has a 4 month old to take care of too.  I am so grateful to her!

Reading buddies

Whitney has also recently gotten really good at figure drawing.  Of course, I may be biased but I think she's pretty good for her age.

A budding artist

Watercolour painting

I squeezed in work when I could. 
 

Fab Europe Tees all packed up.

Totes and card sets.

I'm really happy with the way my Fab Europe sale went but it's always a little more work and stress than you expect.  At this moment, I am waiting on UPS to pick up my packages.  They were supposed to be here by 1 pm and it is now 4:45 pm.  Supposedly, they will be here for sure by 6 pm.  We'll see.

I'm ready for a nap :)

Another Fab Sale

Just a quick hello to let you know about another Fab.com sale I'm doing, this time with Fab Europe.  It runs for 7 days again.  

The past month has been full of ups and downs, with my first major cold since being pregnant and with the third trimester in full swing, I've not had a lot of energy to do much, let alone blog.  But I will post again soon. Really :)

2013

shelves, finally!

We're nearly 3 weeks into the new year and I'm just now getting into the swing of things.  The last month of 2012 kind of kicked my butt and I'm sort of feeling the same way at the moment about the first month of 2013.  But I've been slowly organizing spaces around our house.  Yesterday, I put up shelves in my studio/printing space after contemplating it for only about a year!

And after the holidays, some much needed new storage was needed to house all of Whitney's toys in our living room/play area.  I decided on these babies from Ikea (of course) and my sister was generous enough to gift them to Whitney for her Christmas/birthday present.  Some Lack shelves above work great for additional storage and to display prettier toys.

Speaking of birthdays, we celebrated Whitney's 3rd one last Sunday after a brief week of planning.  I almost decided not to do the party thing this year, but our little girl had been talking about her themes for the past 6 months or more, that I wouldn't have felt right to not have one.  She finally settled on Dora and so Matt and I got to work on decorations, activities, treats and food.  I found this adorable printable party kit which wasn't too gaudy and planned the party colours around that.

Here are some snaps from before and during the party.

The main room - night before

Main Food Table - night before

Treasure Hunt

Cool kids

We had a brunch menu with waffles and quiche as the mains.  The waffles were a hit and we've been using our new waffle maker almost daily. 

The Birthday Girl, pre-party

That's all for now.  Be back soon with more sneak peeks of our home.

Fab Preview

***Update: The sale is now live.  Check it out here.***

Hello! My sale starts in about 9 hours, at 5 pm EST.  When it goes live, I will update with a proper link.  Here's a little sneak peek!

Snippets of Christmas

 

We finally got around to putting up our little Christmas tree the other day and it's starting to feel more festive around these parts.

Since we'll be spending Christmas with my in-laws this year, we didn't really go all out with decorating and gifting.  Plus I've been preoccupied with preparing for my upcoming Fab.com sale, which is now slated for Dec. 20-27.  Who knows if it'll be a hit or a miss, with the timing right around Christmas?  All I know is that I've invested quite a bit of time and money into it already, so here's hoping it's a hit!

I'd like to be able to spoil this little monkey with some big ticket items I've had in mind for a while, as she will be turning 3 in about 3 weeks.  My heart goes out to all the families affected in Connecticut recently... it's a constant reminder to love and cherish those dearest to us.

I''ll be back later this week with the details of my Fab.com sale but the blog will probably be pretty quiet until the New Year, so here's wishing everyone a very Happy Holidays!

Pre-Fab Prep

 

  
I am gearing up to do my first Fab.com sale and have been a busy bee the past week and a half or so!  Needless to say, I am a little stressed and hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, especially at this time of year.  It's happening this coming Thursday, Dec. 6.  Still need to find out the exact time and other details and will post about it here again as soon as I know. 

Meanwhile here's a peek at some new things that will be available and what's been going on around here.

Black Friday

Just a quick post tonight to let you know about the Black Friday sale in my shop, starting tomorrow.  All regular priced items will be discounted by 25%, with the exception of address labels and shipping.  I promise to blog again soon.  Happy Thanksgiving to my Southern counterparts!

Happy Halloween!

Whitney and I played hooky from swimming lessons this morning to get some last minute Halloween decorations up.  That, and we both have colds.  The bats were inspired by Martha Stewart's hanging bats and the spiders we found at Winners the other day, heavily discounted.  Fingers crossed Hurricane Sandy doesn't totally put a damper on trick-or-treating tonight.

This year our sweet girl is dressing as one her favourite things to eat - a cupcake.  Here she is pretending to eat herself.

And here's Dex, looking a bit spooky.

Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween!

O is for Owl and Oh My, October's nearly Over!

O is for Owl Print available in my shop.

Time flies when you're having fun and napping entirely too much.  That's what I spent most of September and October doing.  With a little work fit in here and there.  

I'll blame it on the little one in my ever growing belly :)

We are expecting a new addition to our family next spring and this time around has had me wiped out for the past few months.  As I head into the second trimester,  I'm already feeling like my energy is returning (knock on wood), as I would normally be napping instead of blogging during Whitney's nap.  Of course, it seems like Miss Whitney is not into taking her nap today.  Murphy's Law, right?

A long post wasn't meant to be today.  Until next time!

Owls and Pussycats

new totes for fall 2012

some sketches for new items

owl & sukicat :)

some sweet press from the new modern cat magazine

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

my darling nephew, Jackson Jivan

at Grandma's & Grandpa's, in Saskatoon

Whitney with Grandma

at my sister's awesome baby shower

I'm an auntie now!  My sister had about 2 and a half years in that role and is now in the throes of being a super mom!  Whitney and I traveled to Saskatoon for about 10 days last month to meet her cousin, Jackson Jivan Peng Harrison.  He turned one month on August 22 and is eating like a champ to make up for arriving 2 weeks early.

I took full advantage of a little mini summer vacation (and my mom's extra hands) and did absolutely no work, in spite of bringing some things with me... which at one point, I thought had been stolen out of my suitcase by airport staff.  Seriously, it took me about a week before I even thought about taking out my work and then I had forgotten exactly where I put it.  And of course, it was still in my suitcase, just not in the place I thought I had put it.

Anyways, now that Fall is almost here, I'm in the midst of prepping new items for retailers and my shop.  The miniature tuxedo calendar is now in the shop.  Hoping to add a few new seasonal prints and introduce a new screen design in the coming weeks.  Be back again later this week with sneak peeks and some recent press.

Sunday Funnies

I had a little helper in my office today... 

Quality Control Checker

She was making sure that the new kitties were okay. 

They are fine and there's a new print featuring twelve new tuxedo kitties in the shop.

Twelve is the purrfect number of cats for a calendar, so be sure to check out my shop in the next few days if you're on the hunt for a new one.

Free Time

Last year on my birthday, we went to the zoo.  So this year, I asked for a little "free" time to do some work today.
Yes, I'm funny like that. 

Anyways, here are some peeks at things that have been on my desk in the past few weeks.

new mailing labels (since revised slightly)

new calendar in the works

new format for last year's calendar

Yo-Yo & Yeou-Cheng Ma book I illustrated for Dragoneagle Press

Two new calendars will be in the shop> later today.  And since it's my birthday, I'm going to have a little sale going on for the next week.  Just enter BDAY20 at checkout and receive 20% off your purchase (not including shipping) of anything already in my shop.  Does not apply to custom orders or made to order items.