summer

Some snapshots of life around the house this summer. Oscar is 8 months and has been enjoying his solids (those are pureed peaches in the second photo). So far I haven't found anything he won't eat, though it took a few tries for him to like applesauce of all things. Charlie was very reluctant to sit next to Oscar in that last shot -- see how cool and aloof she is looking!

poor charlie

We had Charlie spayed last week, so she's been wearing a cone collar.. poor girl. She's been such a good sport about it too and only tried to get it off the first day. A few more days to go!

magic

Our neighbor's Boston terrier, Magic, came over to play with Charlie the other day. Charlie was absolutely thrilled, but Magic was more interested in sniffing and exploring everything. It's so cute seeing them together. We made them sit next to each other for a picture. You can see it here.

Busy busy

In the last couple of weeks the leaves have started falling like crazy around here. We have a big mulberry tree in our front yard and it's been dropping big, beautiful yellow and pale green leaves on our lawn.



This month has been busier than usual. It's been quite hectic for the shop, with a dooce mention leading to a surge in sales, and more things to make for Little Otsu. Some good college friends came to visit last weekend, so I took this past Monday off and we spent the afternoon in San Francisco. The highlight was having afternoon tea at Crown & Crumpet, which had a great selection of teas, delicious scones, and super cute decor. I'm not much of a pink person, but found the jolts of hot pink here and there fun and refreshing.



I haven't been taking pictures of Charlie with it getting dark so early. But I had a few spare minutes this morning and forced her to sit through a little photo shoot. She's 6 months now and getting bigger and more mischievous, shredding paper or napkins and basically treating whatever is within her reach as a toy.

Mischief

See how she looks all wide-eyed and innocent here? Well, look at what this little puppy did today. Twice.



I was tagged awhile ago by my friend Anita, and more recently by Laura. Here are 7 random facts about me:

1. I like to organize the dishes in the sink before I wash them.
2. In 5th grade, I starred in a musical called "The Most Amazing Snowman." I was the snowman.
3. I used to only wear colors like light gray, taupe, and light blue. And then after college I started liking red, then orange, then green, then yellow. Now I appreciate them all.
4. I prefer comfort food over fancy food. A good burrito will always win over sashimi.
5. I love the beach and the ocean, but can only swim the backstroke. I have issues with the whole breathing thing.
6. I can't stand the feeling of nail polish on my finger nails, but don't mind it on my toe nails.
7. I'm a night owl, but am constantly trying (unsuccessfully) to go to bed earlier.

Cubbyholes

It's hard for me to get work done when the space I'm in is messy and disorganized. My studio is in need of a lot of work, so I was happy to finally have the first major piece: the Ikea Expedit bookcase. I love shelves, cubbyholes, boxes, and basically anything that helps me organize and contain loose objects. I can't wait to finally be able to have a proper place for things in the studio. Here is Charlie, trying to take a nap and wishing I would quit pointing that camera at her already!

Mendocino anniversary

Irving and I celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary with a weekend getaway to Mendocino, a beautiful seaside town about 3 hours north of San Francisco. On the way up we stopped at the Marin Cheese Factory for a little lakeside picnic lunch.



We stayed at MacCallum House Inn, a quaint bed & breakfast just a short walk from the coast. We ate all our meals there since breakfast was complimentary and the restaurant was fabulous. The ingredients they used were locally produced, organic, and house-made.



We explored the coast, picked the blackberries which were everywhere, biked, and walked around town. A perfect weekend. And we were able to bring Charlie along, since the inn is pet-friendly. She seemed to enjoy herself, but was deathly afraid of the waves, as you can tell by her sad little face in the last photo.









Happy anniversary to us!

A new place to call home

I wanted to wait until I had some decent pictures before I shared the news, but I still don't have decent pictures, and I just can't hold it in anymore. We bought a house and we just moved in this past weekend! So yes, that's why the posts have been few and far between. Packing, unpacking, and cleaning has been taking up much of my free time in the last week or so. The place is still a mess with boxes everywhere, so all I've got is a boring shot of the front door.



This new place is actually smaller, but we'll have a yard, and I'm actually looking forward to small space living challenges. It'll be good to be forced to de-clutter and not have stuff hanging around just because there's the space for it. And of course, I'm looking forward to decorating and making it feel like home.

And Charlie has been growing like crazy! She's more than 5.5 lbs now - more than double her size when we first got her. Here is the little sleepy-head this morning.

A beautiful collaboration

I saw this the other day and bought it immediately. It's a limited-edition letterpress collaboration by Shanna Murray and Pistachio Press. I love the varied textures and the delightful pops of red against the soft blue and gray. I think it's safe to say I will never write in these, but will most likely frame and hang them up.



And here is my favorite recent shot of Charlie. I've been trying to take lots of pictures because I know this puppy phase will be over before I know it. (Though I must admit I cannot wait until she's properly potty-trained.) When I take her out to the backyard to see if she'll relieve herself, she'll zoom around and it's actually getting hard to catch her! That girl. Sigh.

Letterpress

This is the last weekend of the letterpress class, so it's a big printing weekend. We submitted designs to be made into plates earlier this week, and we'll be printing all day Saturday and Sunday. There are about 10 people in the class, and only 2 presses, so press time is limited. The number of colors is also limited, and we vote on the colors we want so that we're not wasting too much time cleaning the press. Below are some shots from last weekend's class. The last one is a little poster print I did using only wood type. I printed about 20 and plan on putting them into the shop sometime next week.









Life has been crazy but fun with little Charlie in the household. It feels like we have a baby. We talk about her poo and have to get up in the middle of the night to check on her. And there's been much less blogging and blog-reading since Charlie's arrival, as most of our evenings are now spent playing with her. I uploaded a couple more pictures of her to my Charlie flickr set, so click on over if you need a dose of cuteness. Have a great weekend all!

Meet Charlie

We got a puppy yesterday! Her name is Charlie, and she's a 10-week-old Boston Terrier. We've been obsessively trying to find one to adopt for the last couple of weeks. I'm so glad we have this little girl now. She's so sweet and playful and it's hard to not just play with her and hold her all the time.