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.

Allô...

Bonjour!

Some of my kitties are on their way to Paris, France as I have a new online retailer there. I'm excited to see the shop once it is up and running. Hopefully one day, I will get to go to Paris too, with Matt and Whitney.

On the home front, we finally took some family photos a few weekends ago at the request of one of Matt's sisters. This was one of the best of the bunch, though Whitney looks like she could be smoking a cigar.

Yes, I am sporting a "mom" cut, though it was meant to be a pixie cut - totally not conducive to my hair texture. It is now in that weird growing out stage and it'll probably be another 10 years or so before I have my hair this short again (it'll take me that long to forget how much I didn't like this haircut). Although Whitney is still very much into grabbing my hair - one of the reasons why I got it chopped off - I will endure the pain for my vanity.

This past weekend Matt and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary, though celebrations began the middle of last week since Matt brought cake home then. Two, actually! No photos though, as we promptly dug into them. You could say we were eating Whitney's share, as she turned 6 months old on Sunday.

Whit in "airplane" mode

Time has definitely flown by and Whitney is growing like a "wee weed", in Matt's words. She is 28 inches and almost 20 pounds!!!

We went to Ikea for the first time since she was born and picked up a soccer ball for our future soccer star - she was a kicking maniac in my belly.

enjoying the World Cup final with daddy

A trip to Ikea, means I've got the home decorating bug again. My latest obsession is with rearranging/perfecting our bedroom. Since we share it with Whitney and she is getting older, I'm trying to divide the room so she has her own space. A little tricky when you're working with a limited amount of it. I will share pictures and more in another post, hopefully later this week, as the room is not yet complete.

So until then. Have a great week!

A New Giveaway & Kitten Love

Just a quick post today to let you know that I've got a new giveaway courtesy of one sweet blogger. All the details are here. The clever kitty tee (pictured above) is up for grabs.

And another sweet blogger mentioned my clever pussycat onesie, amongst some other mighty cute kitties, right here.

A Friend Down Under

I'm a day late with my announcing the winner of my latest giveaway...

so without further ado, the recipient of both kitty tees is the very sweet Helena, a really lovely artist from down under, who also happened to be the sole giveaway commenter. Her gift ideas for a new daddy were fantastic though, and I will hopefully get around to at least one of them before this coming Sunday.

This week on the work front, I'm hoping to get some more screen printing done, keep up with shop orders and get stock sent out to a new shop. On the home front, if I can keep Whitney on her daily routine of rising no earlier than 7 am and to bed by 8, with 3 good naps a day, it will have been a great week!

Wishing everyone else a great one too! Bye for now.

Papa Needs a Brand New Tee

If there's one thing that gets my goat, it's people who contact me asking for things and then never follow through with either making a purchase or in a particular recent case, giving me further info as to where to send my product(s). Especially since my time is pretty precious these days.

But I'll just chalk it up to their loss.

And possibly your (my readers) gain.

Since I am sort of stuck with some limited edition merchandise (well, not really, as I could just list them in my etsy shop), I thought why not do another giveaway? It's been ages and as I had planned on doing one each month, this is the perfect time, albeit a bit close, to do one for Father's Day.

For the men in your life who are cat lovers, I am giving away to 2 lucky readers, a pirate kitty short sleeve tee and mustache kitty short sleeve tee. I only have large sizes available, so they may or may not fit your dad/husband/boyfriend/friend/grandpa/etc. Don't let that stop you from entering the giveaway though. Who doesn't want another t-shirt? They are unisex, after all, so you could keep them for yourself too, as a p.j. tee or just to wear around the house if (it's too big).

They are American Apparel tees in these two styles:

Tri-Blend Short Sleeve Track Shirt in Tri-Coffee

Melange Jersey Short Sleeve Gym Tee in Melange Blue/Navy

(unisex version which seems to be discontinued now)

To enter the giveaway: all you have to do is leave a comment with a great Father's Day gift suggestion. This time around, I will pick the best answers (in my humble opinion) rather than doing a random draw. You have until the end of Sunday, June 13, 12 a.m. EST to enter. I will announce the winners on Monday. Be sure to leave me a way to contact you. This is open to readers everywhere!

Unfortunately I can't guarantee that you will receive the tees in time for Father's Day, but then I expect most of you already have gifts to give your dads.

In other news, our little Whit-Whit is five months old today! She is our sweetheart.

Pussycat, Pussycat

Something for the little pussycat lover in your life.
Available in my shop.

Balancing Act

Balancing being a mom and running your own business certainly requires some superior multi-tasking skills. I'll be the first to admit that I've never been a great multi-tasker, so my absence from blogging is due in part to that fact.

Each week, heck, each day with Whitney seems to present new challenges and/or experiences. I spend a lot of time googling things about babies on a daily basis.

The latest challenge has been managing Whitney's naps. Several weeks ago - I think it's related to when her eyesight got a bit better - she suddenly decided that napping in her crib was out of the question. So a typical day involves me having to "wear" her for at least one nap a day. The other naps she either takes in her stroller or else, if I'm lucky, in bed with me, so I can catch up on some sleep too.

When Matt gets home from work that usually gets Whitney a bit worked up, since she's excited to see her daddy.

She is full of smiles these days and laughed her first real laughs the other week.



The rest of the evening is spent nursing her and winding her down, with a bath every other night. As we live in an open concept loft, putting her to bed at an early hour - 7 or 7:30 - is not really manageable. At least, we have not tried doing that yet and if or when we do, will involve at least a few nights of crying and tiptoeing around with the lights off. I just try to make sure she gets a nap after 2 hours of being awake and she goes to bed when we do, which is usually between 9:30 and 10 these days.

Gone are the days of burning the midnight oil for me!
Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Speaking of which, my mom will be back for a visit next week and we'll be celebrating Mother's Day together again. But this year it will be all the more special. And her being here will not only give me a little break from our darling daughter - I love her so, but there are times that I wish I had some relief - it will also allow me a little more time to get some work done. And possibly blog some more. For now though, being a mom - and hopefully a good one - is certainly my main priority.