Behind the Scenes

You know how you can't really know how a space is going to work for you until you live in it for a while? Well, that's how it's been for me (or us) and as life changes, sometimes you have to adapt to it. Or in our case, adapt the surroundings.

In the course of a week, we've moved things around on every floor of the house.
And now - after almost a year in our home - I think I am finally happy with the way we've arranged our living spaces. But check back in another month or so...

Here are some behind the scenes snapshots:

My computer desk had a brief interlude in the basement...

...or dungeon as I call it.

The dining table moved to where my computer desk was.

The living room before.

The living room in process...

... and being enjoyed.

Still organizing and arranging some things, and have purchases planned (ie. another Ikea trip), but I am digging our new set-up. It feels cozier upstairs and downstairs. I'll share more photos of the other spaces (our bedroom and my new office space) soon.

Nursery in the Works

Well, last week got away from me, so our bedroom update was put on hold.

bedroom before

And then this past weekend, Whitney was going through "a little existential crisis", as Matt put it, as we think she is now discovering that she is her own person... which can lead to separation anxiety.

That, or she has an ear infection...
or is teething again...
or she's just really hungry and needs to start solids...
or she wants to stay up to practice crawling.

Oh, the joy of solving the mystery of your baby's cries. And the joy of watching your baby growing up!

Speaking of which, rather than rearranging our bedroom, we've decided to move Whitney into her own room, despite her possible separation anxiety. She will be right in the next "room", as there will only be our sliding shoji doors between us, but hopefully this will help us all sleep a little better. I swear, Whitney has the most sensitive ears... Matt shifting in bed will cause her to wake/stir. But then, she is a baby, so her ear drums have not been damaged yet.

Anyways, all this means I will finally get to decorate a nursery for our little girl! I have been seriously obsessing over nurseries the past several weeks, months even, looking up hundreds of inspiration images online.

This has to be one of my favourite nurseries, for its simplicity and colour palette.

You can see more photos here.

And this is another favourite. More photos here.


The big bedroom change is planned for this weekend. Hopefully it goes well and I will have some after photos to share with you next week.

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.

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.

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!

Recent Work

After a fairly lengthy hiatus from doing portrait commissions, I picked up my paintbrushes again this past month and here's the result:

I was also contacted recently by the president of the Cat Welfare Society in Singapore and asked to produce a design for one of their t-shirts, pro bono, to help raise funds for the cat caregivers. As she liked my Love Cats image, we decided to go with that, with a little addition to the heart. I believe the final design will be available on a black tee, so the kitty and letters will be in white, but here's a peek at how the design looks right now.

Other than that, been up to my old tricks of rearranging stuff around our place, packing etsy orders, picking up a few shifts at the design firm I work at from time to time and working on a few new illustrations, both personal and commissioned.

I will hopefully have some photos to share of my "walk-in closet" and revamped studio soon. Both still need some finishing touches and furniture/accessory additions to complete them. They're getting there though.

And tomorrow is the last day to enter my September giveaway. Winners will be announced on Thursday!

My Messy Desk & Other Photos

Here's a peek at my messy (for me) desk. Now that the surface area is smaller than before, it tends to get overcrowded pretty quickly, which takes down my productivity level a notch or two. But I have been working on things. That's the new stationery set that is a little more than half done.

Here's a closer look:

Things have been slow going this week as my mood has been up and down and same with my energy level. I found out that I wasn't accepted into the One of a Kind Show earlier this week, and neither were my friends. Of course we think it's their loss. I am on the waiting list though and will hear back in about two months whether or not a space has opened up. But even if I were offered a spot, it's never as nice as knowing that you made the initial cut.

Anyways, here are some more photos around our home to take you into the weekend.

Have a great one!

Spring Cleaning

It all started with the discovery of these two finds down in our recycling room on Saturday night.

This is some of what ensued on Sunday and Monday:











We all had battle wounds except for Suki. A plexi-glass door shattered in my arms, I cut my finger on a piece of broken glass, Matt cut his finger on a broken light bulb and Dex bloodied his nose up trying to get out of his crate (Matt was using a saw to cut through some wood at one point).

Hopefully by this upcoming weekend, I'll have better "after" photos to show.