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 :)

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.

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!

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!

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.

Home Office Peek

My home office has gone through many rearrangements in the past year and a half. I'd been meaning to share the latest one since the addition of a much prettier window treatment earlier this month, but June has been packed with a flurry of activity, that I'm only getting around to it now.

The curtain panels are from etsy seller Exclusive Elements.  I'd been coveting yellow chevron ones for a while and hers were on sale, so I finally ordered them.  I think I sort of messed up with the measuring as they barely cover the width of the window, but they are 100 times better than the curtains we had before (pictured below), which were left by the previous homeowners. 

the terribly blurry photo does not help its case

my little helper

It's a little difficult to get good photos of my workspace during the day as the window does not allow a ton of natural light in, but I like how it looks as the sun is going down. 

And as the sun sets this Friday evening, I'll wish all my Canadian readers a Happy Canada Day Long Weekend! Be back soon with more sneak peeks of our ever changing home... next up, Whitney's big girl room!

Stripes & Glasses

Stripes and glasses have been a prominent theme of late... as you can see by some of the newest things in the shop.

 Owl Father's Day card

Pirate Kitty Goes on a Sea Adventure Art Print

Bookish Clever Kitty Art Print

Striped C is for Cat Tee

More things coming to the shop soon. The last several weeks we've all been recovering from a rather nasty cold so it's been kind of slow going. And now Whitney just picked up another bug, so it may get quiet again around here.  Wishing everyone a healthy and happy Weekend!

Catsparella Giveaway

I was contacted by the sweet Stephanie of Catsparella a few weeks ago to do a giveaway.  She wrote some lovely things and now there's just one more day to enter this kitty-licious giveaway.

Hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day yesterday!  I had a restful weekend, but now feel like I'm coming down with a little cold.  So I'm off to lie down for a wee bit before Whitney wakes up.

Duplo & Doubles

Ever since my sister gifted Whitney with 2 sets of Duplo, it has not only become part of her daily vocabulary, but also part of the daily routine for Whit.  Her day is not complete if she has not built a house or tower.  A lot of the time on her own, but usually there is a request that mommy or daddy play with her.  

On another note, the other day, while Whitney and her daddy were doing a google search for pictures of her Auntie Audrey, they found this beautiful painting (below, left).  It's entitled Audrey with Teddy Bear by an artist named Xi Pan.  I couldn't help but gasp when they showed me the image, as it bears a striking resemblance to Whitney.  That bear she's holding could be her beloved pink kitty cat.  Matt calls it the painting of Whit, but of course it's not her since it was done even before she was born.  There are a handful of other paintings with children by the artist, but mostly she paints women, either nude or clothed.  I recommend checking out her work.

Afterwards...

Whitney's party came and went pretty quickly. All the planning leading up to it seemed a bit in vain (ie. I stressed out way too much, especially in Matt's opinion). Most importantly, there was cake (well, cupcakes) and balloons. Plus, I'm pretty sure Whitney had fun and hopefully all our guests did too.


Of course, now she has a cold.

I'm very nearly finished the book. Just awaiting feedback and possibly some final touches and tweaks. I will share more about the (journey of working on this) book once I've completed the illustrations.