On our first night in Portland, we had dinner at Little Bird Bistro. It’s located just a few blocks away from our hotel which made for a convenient place to eat after a 5.5 hour drive from Vancouver, Canada. Little Bird Bistro is a charming little french bistro with the coziest space. We were seated upstairs and right away, they had a highchair set up for Luna and a glass filled with crayons for her. I was immediately impressed by their effort to make Luna comfortable right away.

To start, Peter ordered a cocktail and I had a glass of wine. As we sipped our drinks, Luna was happily busy colouring on their craft paper table covering. It was also nice sitting upstairs as it felt even cozier and made for a nice view of the whole restaurant. We ordered Luna a Macaroni Gratin (french for Mac & Cheese), Peter went for the fish of the day which was Seared Ahi Tuna and I had the Cauliflower Crépe with Carmelized onions, Poached Egg and Mornay sauce. Our server, Kristen, said the Macaroni Gratin usually comes out sizzling hot but for Luna they would bake it to a kid-friendly temperature. When Luna’s Macaroni Gratin arrived, it was oozey, melty good and at just the right temperature for her to eat right away. Obviously, they’ve served kids before. Totally impressed again!

For dessert, Luna sweetly asked for chocolates. So we got her the Chocolate pot-de Creme with buttermilk donuts. It’s basically a bowl of dark chocolate creme and two miniature donuts on the side. She completely ignored the donuts and went straight for the bowl of chocolate with her big spoon. Peter and I happily ate the donuts. When the bill came, it was accompanied by three complimentary miniature macarons which I have to say are best macarons we’ve had outside of France!

I would highly recommend this restaurant. Everything we had was so delicious and the service amazing.

The great thing about having an iPhone is being able to constantly capture bits & pieces of everyday life. Sadly, we haven’t been using our SLR camera all that much as it’s just too big & heavy to carry around. It’s nice to be able to document random things we do & see so easily & so effortlessly. These are all photos from this week taken with Instagram.

Thank you 2011 for all the memories, good laughs and the adventure of life! I feel like I’ve met so many amazing people through this blog, our shop & twitter. Thank you so much to all of you for reading and leaving us the sweetest notes. You don’t know how much all of you have inspired us in so many different levels. It’s been an amazing year and we look forward to a whole new adventure in 2012. Big love from the three of us! Happy New Year everyone! xoxo

Christmas breakfast is served. Merry Christmas from our family to yours. xoxo

These photos have been kept in a shoebox hidden in my closet for years. These are just a few from a big pile. The shoebox is filled with all sorts of old photos taken by my grandpa who I call Papa Ners. Papa Ners always loved taking photos & videos of daily life including all the travels he did. I’m guessing that these photos were taken with a poloroid. I love them! It’s beautiful to see the world as he saw it back then.

Capturing bits & pieces of daily life taken with Instagram on iphone 4S. Happy Friday everyone! Christmas is already next weekend. Yay!

Our home is featured on Design Sponge today and some of you couldn’t believe that our home in a little seaside village outside of Vancouver can look like the North Pole in the wintery months. Our winters are usually pretty mild but we’ve had a good share of bad winters. Don’t these photos look like they were taken in the North Pole? I took these photos in December 2008. What you see is the beach (Boundary Bay beach) at the end of our street. It was covered in snow and ice. We walked on it but got too afraid to walk too far as we weren’t sure how thick the ice was. Those footprints you see are not polar bear footprints, they are ours! It’s beautiful isn’t it?

Every holiday season, I always like to think of different ways of how we can give back. This year, I have started a tradition with Luna to give back to children her age. It’s a simple shoebox project organized by the Samaritan Purse.

All you have to do is find an old shoebox. Determine the child’s age category and if it’s a boy or girl. I decided to give it to a little girl with the same age as Luna. That way, Luna will have a sense of connection with it and understand that she is helping another girl her age somewhere far far away and she’s making her own small difference in this world to help a child in need. Once you’ve determined the age category and sex of the child, all you have to do is fill in the box with all sorts of things. So off we went to our local shopping mall. While choosing what items to buy, I kept on thinking of the basic necessities a girl Luna’s age needs most. If Luna was this girl, what would she need? So I filled the box with pink & white socks, little girls undies, shirts, colourful pencils, drawing notebooks, colourful hair ties, soap & a toothbrush. But how can I not give a child fun things too? So I included some stickers, candycane and a small teddy.

Luna helped me pack the box with all the things we bought. Then once everything was tucked inside the box, Luna took the teddy, gave it a quick little kiss and a hug before we squeezed it back into the box.

When we dropped it off, the lady said that the children in Ethiopia should receive them by January. Oh, how I wish I could see the little girls face when she opens her box. A special gift from Luna to another little girl living on the other side of the world.

As soon as I finished Luna’s First Year of Life book, I promised myself that I would continue doing these books for her and document her life year by year. And now, we have Luna’s Year 2 Book! Just like her first book, I spent a year working on this. It’s a 222 page book with different chapters for every month of her life. I would spend a few hours per month working on a chapter which helped a lot. Otherwise, It’s a huge project to take on if it’s all done at once. It can get quite overwhelming. I find having different chapters also helps when looking through the book. It’s a lot of pages with a lot of photographs to look at so the chapters almost becomes a little breather and a pause before starting a new chapter with more photos.

Just like last years book, I always start with a little write up summarizing that year. Here’s what I wrote for this years book:

To my daughter Luna,

I had promised myself that I would continue to create these books for you as a memory of all the wonderful days we’ve spent watching you grow and become a beautiful little girl. When you’re older, you may not remember all of these special times that we’ve spent with you and all the milestones you had accomplished. Thus, this book documents all of our happiest memories together as you explored the world from month 13-24. The biggest accomplishment this year was learning to walk and talk. As soon as you started walking, I was there beside you holding your hand as we walked down the street together side by side. I never left your side. I knew from that day on that I would see the world in a brand new way – I was rediscovering the world as you explored it for the first time. It’s been such a joy watching you explore the world with so much enthusiasm to learn and feel things. You’ve opened our eyes and made this world a lot more colourful by pointing out and expressing all the little things you’ve discovered – birds flying, leaves on the ground, gravel on pavement, flowers blooming, airplanes flying overhead. You have helped us see and appreciate all the little beauties of this world. My hope is that when the day comes and I am no longer here with you, this book will tell a story of the beautiful life we spent together and the love we have for you. There are no words to describe this love but this book tells it all.

Love, Mommy

I’ve been getting a lot of emails this past year from such lovely moms who I have inspired from Luna’s First Year of Life book with questions on how they can do the same for their little one. I use Blurb to print the books and since I have a design background, her books are totally custom. All I have to do is download their indesign plugin and use that to custom design her book. Below are the specs I used for Luna’s books:

- Standard Landscape (10×8″)
- Hardcover, image wrap
- Premium paper, matte finish

I hope I have inspired more moms to do these yearly books. It’s not that much work if you just spend a few hours a month working on it. It’s so rewarding to see it printed as you flip through the pages and see a life full of happiness.

xo, Nerissa

Introducing a new section on the blog called – The New Domestic Originals. Here, we will have a collection of all things made & tested by us. Whether they are recipes, crafts, design… it’ll be a collection of all things we create to share with all of you.

For today’s first TND Original, I’m sharing our favourite weekend breakfast. We don’t have a name for it quite yet, we’ve just always called it the Best weekend breakfast. And, it really is, trust me! I’ve been making this for quite sometime now and it is always special every single time. I love our weekend breakfasts so I always make it a point to spend sometime making something special. With a little one in the house, everything still has to be done very fast so this makes for an excellent breakfast that doesn’t sacrifice taste at all.

Ingredients:
Good quality bread (sourdough, french bread, or simply your homemade bread)
Cherry tomatoes
Avocado
Eggs
Italian Salami (my favourite is soppressata)
Basil or tarragon (I prefer basil)
Eggs
Good quality hot paprika
Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt (not table salt)
Pepper

Making:
1. Toast your bread. I like mine super crispy. Then spread a good layer of avocado on the bread. Sprinkle the avocado with sea salt and layer with either basil or tarragon. Thinly slice your cherry tomatoes and lay them neatly on top of everything.

2. Heat up a small pan in the highest heat. Place your Italian salami on the pan and cook on each side until crispy like bacon. Grab another pan and fill half way with water. Pour a few drops of vinegar onto the water (this helps hold the eggs together while being pouched). Then crank up the heat until almost boiling. Once it’s almost boiling, put the heat down to medium then crack open your eggs and drop them in the hot water for pouching. I like my egg yolks runny so I only pouch for a few minutes and remove the eggs right away.

3. Once the eggs are done, scoop them up and place them on top of your layer of cherry tomatoes. Be careful as the eggs tend to be slippery. I like to put 2 eggs on one toast but this is up to you. Then sprinkle the top with paprika, fresh ground pepper, a tiny bit more sea salt & finish it up with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. If you’re feeling creative, decorate the top with either tarragon or basil.

Voila, you’ve got a fantastic weekend breakfast!

Coming Soon! Canvas and Leather Mason Bags made by Heritage Leather Company in California with a stamped The New Domestic leather patch. Available in two colours, process yellow & basic red – hand painted by us using waterbased screen print ink. Hope to have it in the shop within a week or so…

Last monthly photo for year 2! Luna turned 2 a couple weeks ago while we were in Mexico and it’s hard to believe that our little girl has been part of our family and this world for 2 years. It’s such a wonderful age as she is even more aware of her surroundings and is always so excited to discover the world with a favourite saying that repeats a million times a day: “what’s that?”. She wants to know about everything she sees, feels & touches.

Some of her other favourite sayings are: “I’m mommy & daddy’s baby”, “I’m stuck”, “are you ok?”, “daddy at work”, “mommy, daddy, papa, coco… happy”, “daddy hold me”…. it’s always so sweet hearing her cute little voice as she expresses her thoughts & feelings.

I had also promised myself that I would continue doing her yearly book to document her life year by year. As soon as I finished her 1st year of life book, I immediately started working on book 2 which is almost done.

We are so proud of our little girl and so happy to see her growing up with so much joy & love for life. We are all very excited to see her continue to grow as we enter a new chapter of her life.

We discovered this cute little sashimi/bar cafe called Gyo-O. It’s the seafood version of Gyoza King. The place is small but luckily, we were there before 6 pm so there were still a lot of empty seats but it did quickly fill up by the time we starting eating. The food was amazing & the flavours so delicate. We also couldn’t help but try out a couple of their desserts so we went for their black bean pudding and assorted macarons. A highly recommended place.

At 23 months, Luna has learned on her own to use the ipad to watch her shows and play her educational games – quite amazing actually. Luna loves apples, cheese, chocolate milk, yoghurt, wearing dresses, doing all sorts of art & reading time.

Luna is still enjoying daycare quite a lot and we once asked her what her friends names are and she said, “Teddy, lamb, baby…”. We couldn’t help but giggle as those are all her stuffed animal friends.

We are also slowly introducing her to potty training and we’ve been reading her lots of books on going to the potty. She has a pink little potty that she’s proud to have and enjoys sitting in it as she pretends to actually use it. Once in awhile, she will ask us to pull her pants down to go to the potty and just happily sits there proud of herself. Wish us luck once we go full swing with potty training! I’m a little nervous.

The sweetest part of ending the evening is quietly hearing her through the monitor while she’s laying in bed by herself reciting all of the names in the family (including grandparents & cousins) by saying: “mommy happy”, “daddy happy”, “Coco happy”, “Papa happy”, “Izzy happy”…. as she slowly dozes off to sleep. My heart just melts as I listen to her. My sweet little girl.

As Luna grows, our space grows with her too. We’ve changed our studio space numerous times to continually adapt to our ever changing lifestyle. Before Luna came to our life, our studio space was mainly used to work. When Luna came, we had to share the space with her and had to move furniture around to make room for her to crawl around. Now that she’s a little toddler and is more mobile, we’ve changed the space again to adapt to her needs and created a little fun art/play factory for her.

Luna loves doodling and being read to. So she now has a little art table, a reading rug, storage for her toys and a place to feature all her art work. We also created a family picture board where we’ll continually add photos of our family. She loves looking at it and screams out “mommy’ & “daddy” as she points to our photos. Luna loves spending time in here and every time she walks in, she goes straight to her artwork hanging from the ceiling and screams out “nice!”.

I always find it important to create different spaces in the house based on the activities that we would do in them. Luna knows that this is her space and it’s a place where she can freely explore, discover & play.

A few months back, I had a pleasure working with story producer/stylist/farmer Heather Cameron of Missing Goat Farms. I met Heather during the Anthology Magazine photoshoot last year as she was the stylist for the day. Heather makes these delicious organic jams and I was thrilled when she asked me to design her jam labels. It was so fun working with Heather as she is so passionate in what she does and she is just such a lovely & sweet lady. You can find her jams at Walrus, Edible Canada, Butter Baked Goods, Urban Fare to just name a few. You can also get it from her cute little shop which she calls ‘The Shabby Shack‘ when it’s open in the summer (she makes homemade blueberry pies too!). Give these jams a try, I promise, you will love them!

After years of dreaming about it, we finally got our brand new kitchen & we are extremely happy! The renovation wasn’t as bad as I had imagined – but perhaps it’s because we hired people to do it. All we had to do was to get out of the way – pretty simple on our part. But we did have to live without a kitchen for a full 3 weeks. Thankfully, it was sunny and warm out so we spent most of our days at the park & beach where we ate breakfast, lunch & dinner. Nothing to complain about! However, after the 3rd week, I was ready to spend more time at home & stay home.

Now that the kitchen is completely done, we couldn’t be happier. Nice to finally have our vision come to life. We are still on the look out for what to put on the large white wall by the dining table. We have quite a few ideas but are taking our time to make sure we find the right piece(s) to put on that wall. Once we have it, I’ll update this post with a photo.

When I was gathering inspirational images for our dream kitchen, I always appreciated the ones who listed the materials they used. So here’s a list for you:

Countertop : Quartz Cimstone Lapland 3cm
Backsplash : Statuary white marble 2″x4″ tile
Cabinets : Ikea
Cabinet hardware : Restoration Hardware
Dining Room Light Fixtures : Restoration Hardware
Bar Stools : Industrial Mansard Stool from Home Decorators Collection

Peter also surprised me with a laser etched engraving on the marble. “Collect the moments, one by one. I guess that’s how the future’s done.” – Feist.

We love Joscha of MUSwerk! Her blog is so fun and beautiful – it’s a place where she documents her day to day life, photography, stamp making, illustration & fabric/paper printing. You can find all her handmade products in her shop. The great thing about blogging is you get to meet some lovely and very talented people. Joscha and I have been a fan of each others work so we thought it would be fun to do a little product exchange. I choose whatever I wanted from her shop and she chooses whatever she wanted in my shop. I chose her red Sparrow silk screen print and she chose my Trees, Bees & Teepees tote. Perfect! Now, I have a piece of MUSwerk at home. If you want to read more about her beautiful life in a small village in the Netherlands (she has the most stunning home!), you can read her mom story over at BKids here.

We went to the 10th annual Southlands Country Fair at the Southlands Riding Club and had a fantastic afternoon. There were a lot of activities for kids throughout the day like pony rides, hay rides, musical entertainment, country market, bake sale…. But I’m ashamed to say that we didn’t participate in any of them except for the bake sale & the latte limo. Instead, we sat on bleachers hiding out from the sun and chatted away with our friends Francis & Tracy while our little ones played around us. Was it fun? Definitely! It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

After the country fair, we headed over to Francis & Tracy’s place and the kids continued to play and the bigger people continued to chat. We ordered japanese food for dinner and enjoyed some homemade sauteed peaches topped with ricotta cheese as we sat in their beautiful deck enjoying these warmer days.

Starting Monday, August 29, we are having a back-to-school sale for Eye of the Storm. Originally $36, you can get them for $26! Our tote bags are large enough to carry all your fall season essentials whether you’re going back-to-school or entering another semester in the school of life.

Awhile back, I did a photo album on facebook of my collection of food photos from travels. Since food is such a huge part of our travel experience, wherever we go, we always make sure we only eat the local food of the region. I have tasted so many good food from our travels and some of my favourites are: trofie al Pesto from the Ligurian region of Italy, grilled seafood from the Philippines, pizza from Rapallo & Rome, fresh seafood in Nice, France and Basque style tapas in Barcelona. I have too many food photos collected throughout the years but this album is an edited version. Click here to browse through the photos. Enjoy and happy eating!

Irene of Bloesem kids & Bloesem Living had asked me if I wanted to be part of their Mom Stories. I feel honoured to be part of such a beautiful collection of creative moms from all around the world sharing their stories of life as a mom & as a creative person. The stories are all so inspiring and there are so many beautiful moms out there who not only do a great job taking care of their family, but also continue to pursue their creative endeavours. I can only hope my story will inspire you as much as the other stories have inspired me. You can read my story here.

Hope everyone (in BC anyway) are having a fantastic long weekend! xo

Mmmmm…. Richmond Summer Market! Yum in every corner. Modeled after traditional evening markets in Asia, the Richmond Summer Market will make you feel like you’re actually in Asia without the airplane ride. It opens at 6:30pm but by 7pm, it’s packed with people eyeing what they want to eat next.

One part of the market is all food and the other side are filled with stalls selling sunglasses, electronics and other trinkets all made in Asia. But for us, we bypass that part of the market and go straight for the food. The food is truly amazing, cheap & authentic. You start off buying a few pieces of little steamed dumplings for $2. As you’re eating it, you walk to the next stall and order some more dim sum like siu mai & har gow and next, some bubble waffle. It’s never ending. It’s like a street food crawl!

By the end of the night, you can’t even count how many of those little dumplings, bbq’s & okonomiyaki you have eaten. All you know is that your stomach is stuffed with so much goodness.

So if you plan to go, make sure you bring a lot of small change & and an empty stomach.

1. I was trying to take some portrait photos of myself with the totes which proved to be quite challenging. I had the tripod set up with a timer but just before the timer goes off and the camera takes a shot, Luna jumps in front of the camera and does her own little pose. But I managed to take 1 decent shot with only me in it out of many with Luna in them.

2. Seawind & Willows has been my everyday tote on these warm sunny days.

3. Just playing around with some rhubarb & wooden blocks brought back by Peter from Birmingham.

Living only 10 min away from the ferry terminal, we decided to do an impromptu day trip to Vancouver Island. We actually had Salt Spring in mind but we missed the ferry and decided to go to Vancouver Island instead. It was the perfect day to be on a boat for a full day of Island adventure. It was Luna’s first time to ride a ferry and spent the hour & forty five minutes running around on the top deck checking things out. It was a fun day for all and I realized that impromptu trips like this should be done more often!

Last night, we had our friends Francis, Tracy, Tami, Jim and their little girls over for a homemade pasta dinner party. Making homemade pasta with my Kitchen Aid attachment couldn’t be easier so I thought it would be fun to make different types of pasta and have friends over for dinner. It was such a fun night and we literally stayed at the dinner table all night eating & chatting the night away. So here’s last nights menu:

Bucatini with pesto sauce & potatoes
Spaghetti meatballs with tomatoes & basil (Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s recipe)
Large macaroni with butter & sage (Mario Batali’s recipe)
Rigatoni with fresh dill & goat cheese (Martha Stewart’s recipe)
Caprese salad
Homemade rosemary bread
Chicken Italian meatballs
Buttery garlic mushrooms

And, you can’t end a large feast without dessert! While the little girls – Luna, Lucy, Orla & Lily enjoyed a scoop of ice cream in their pink cones, the bigger people had a nice slice of warm pie (brought back by Tami & Jim from their camping trip) with ice cream and a dollop of whipping cream. Then to warm up the stomachs, we ended with a nice glass of D’Oro 2007 Fortified Walnut wine. Yummy goodness!

I’ve been puttering around the house lately and this is what I’ve been up to:

1. I like changing our table centrepiece once in awhile to freshen up the space. I get bored seeing the same thing everyday and little changes makes me happy!

2. Been making homemade pasta in batches the past few days and freezing them. So far, I’ve made spaghetti and large macaroni. Thinking of making 2 more – maybe bucatini & fusilli.

3. We are renovating our kitchen in 4 weeks and part of my kitchen dream is to have an open shelf pantry. So we’ve been collecting these wooden farm crates which we bought for $10-20 each. So far, we have 7 (there’s only 5 shown in the photo as I still have to pick up a couple more at the store where I found them – they all couldn’t fit in my trunk). Our idea is to create a shelving system with these crates and either hang them up on the wall or put caster wheels on the bottom. I’m so excited! I’m on the look out for more. I might just secretly go into abandoned barns and hope to find more of these!

A couple months ago, Luna and I were casually walking around town then she suddenly stopped, walked against a wall and started pointing to my bag. Usually, when she points to my bag, it means that she wants cookies. So I pulled out her cookies but she started shaking her head and continued to point with frustration. I started going through my tote wondering what she wanted. Then I just happened to pull out my iPhone and she screamed with excitement and clapped her hands and was pointing to my phone. I then realized what she wanted, she wanted a photo taken of herself against the wall! Then once I took the photo, she nodded with approval and continued walking. That photo is the first of this series.

I find it interesting how aware she is of her surroundings. There are days when we go for long walks and she doesn’t ask for a photo taken of her. Then suddenly one day, she sees an interesting wall and she’ll suddenly stand with her back against it and point to my bag to take a photo of her.

You will notice in the photos how the backdrop have similarities in them. They all consists of strong graphic lines & shapes or pattern. I’m amazed with her choices – I sometimes wonder what this all means.

One of our favourite things to do in the summer is going to farmers markets especially the one in Ladner that only happens in June, July & August. We are always excited to go and eat at our favourite stands such as the salmon burgers with mandarin orange and our favourite bread stand with one of the best baquettes & potato bread. It seems like every year, the market gets bigger and bigger with a new addition of a wood burning pizza truck. So awesome.

Here are the dates for the Ladner Village Market: July 10 & 24, August 14 & 28, September 1

Our little girl is growing up. Luna is now 19+ months and suddenly learning so many words. She can say mama, daddy, soap, papa, home, cookie, banana, bubbles, go, no, shoes & balls. But for everything else, pointing has been her main communication. It’s been much warmer out lately so our days have been spent outdoors going for walks, going down the slide all by herself at the playground by our house, playing in the sand & spending hours in our backyard. Luna loves being surrounded by other kids and waves to everything and everyone she sees. Luna has also discovered the goodness of ice cream in pink cones.

PS: Thanks to Lucy & Orla for passing on their pretty red dress to Luna.

The best thing about warmer days and longer evenings is…eating lots of ice cream especially in pink cones! And what’s cuter than melted ice cream beards on little happy girls?

Our very good friends are here visiting from California and we had the loveliest family style picnic in the backyard last night. They’ve been gone for a year and we’ve missed them so much. We spent the evening exchanging a whole lot of stories while nibbling on caprese salad, homemade bread, paté from Provence & homemade mushroom pizza. And, you can’t end a backyard picnic without ice cream in pink cones!

When the sun is out, we spend most of our time out in the garden – and Luna loves being outdoors. This morning, Luna kept herself busy running around and exploring while I puttered around in the kitchen. I also got our outdoor clothes line out as I find it so much nicer to be able to air dry some clothes. Then Heather came for a visit with her sweet little girl Lily. We got a bag of rhubarb from Heather’s farm & a bunch of flowers as little presents. So sweet. Not to mention, more Missing Goat jams. Yeah!

We’ve all been wondering when Spring was going to arrive in earnest and then suddenly out of nowhere Summer came. We’ve had the loveliest string of three or four days with clear skies and sun. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for these warmer days. Now that it’s here, I plan for lots of beach days and eating out in the garden. I also found a great red bucket (the kind of bucket you would use to fill up with ice & beer) to use as luna’s little swimming pool. Lucky her, she get’s to have her own little pool. The sun and warmer days seem to make me even happier.

Thought I would share some behind the scenes photos from the Anthology Magazine photoshoot day. The shoot took all day with a late but extended lunch break with Brian Stevens being the chef of the house & took over the kitchen creating a pretty special salad. That made our stomachs very happy. The day ended with some photos at the beach by our house but those photos didn’t make the cut. All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.

We are so happy to be part of Anthology Magazine’s issue No. 3. It’s a fabulous spring issue and the theme is “Life is a Party!”

Early last year, co-founder & creative director of Anthology magazine, Meg Ilasco, asked us if we wanted to be in the issue. Well, that was a no brainer – the answer was Y-E-S! So in October last year, super talented SF/NYC based photographer Thayer Gowdy along with assistant photographer Brian Stevens flew in to shoot our home. Part of the team was also local stylist Heather Cameron and it was a full day of fun, fun, fun! Before the shoot, I didn’t really know what to expect. We were told to wear something colourful & spring like. And, maybe a little vacuuming here and there but to leave the space as is because they wanted to capture how we live and not have the space overly styled. Well, that was easy. All we needed to do was to be there & look decent.

The whole day was so casual and we were just there – living. We told stories, laughed, ate a huge lunch & just hung out. I barely noticed them working. There were also no gigantic photography lights or anything. Just Gowdy’s camera, a huge tripod and a laptop – that was it.

It was nice to have met them all as they are all so talented. I liked hearing Thayer’s stories as a professional traveling photographer. Wow, this woman has been to places! Made me envy her life a bit as she told us stories of where she’s been and people she’s met. Such an amazing woman. Heather Cameron and I have stayed in touch and I recently just finished designing her delicious Missing Goat jams & syrups. I’m so excited to see my labels on her jars soon. Yay!

You can check out their stockist list to pick yourself up a copy. Anthropologie is also now selling the magazine in its online shop and issue No. 3 will be arriving in all Anthropologie store locations in the US, Canada and UK.

Deep Cove, in North Vancouver is one of our favorite places to go to. Every time we’re there, Mommy & Daddy have to stop into Honey’s Donuts for what many regard as Vancouver’s best donut. We didn’t want Luna to start the day with all that sugar so she got a savoury scone instead. Kind of a raw deal, it’s true, but, on the up side, her Captain’s chair is the best seat in the house.

I was experimenting with some ideas on photographing the tote bags with essentials you would put in your diaper bag. With a little one in the house, I have to work really fast as she’s always so curious on what I’m doing. Usually, I set something up, I walk away for a minute then when I come back, half of the stuff are gone. I usually have to look into our rain boots or underneath the couch looking for them… I do like the set up against the wall and Luna got pretty excited about it too but after a few tries of laying out all the stuff, my idea wasn’t quite working out. So off to the next idea. But I do like the bunting flags and the alphabet poster set up against the wall. Will have to use this for something else in the future.

When I was shopping for a diaper bag, I didn’t like what I was seeing. They were either gigantic and quite tacky or modern but really expensive. I couldn’t get myself to purchase a bag for $150 or more that could only be used for a single limited-time purpose. So I always use my existing tote bags to carry Luna’s essentials when we would go out. I mean, you really just need to bring a few diapers, extra clothing, wipes and a changing pad. As the months went by, my diaper tote became a carry-all for her basic needs & some toys. Then, it became a lunch bag. Now, my tote bag fits all my things, Luna’s things and also our snacks! And, they hang perfectly on most strollers. I rotate between Eye of the Storm, Dreaming of Marrakesh, Seawind & Willows or Trees, Bees & Teepees. They’re perfect for your daily outings with the little ones in tow. And best of all, neither of you will out grow them.

This mother’s day, I got flowers and a couple of yummy sweets from Peter & Luna. Believe it or not, I’ve never, EVER had S’Mores before. It’s probably because I’ve only gone camping once in my life so I’ve been waiting for the moment to taste my first S’More. Then came Mother’s day – I finally got try my first handmade S’More from Butter Baked Goods. All I can say is YUM!! I’ve been missing out on these heavenly goodness all these years. I also got chocolate toasted coconut marshmallow which were really good too but I enjoyed the S’More a lot more.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! Hope you’re all being spoiled and having a lovely weekend.

Spring, will you stay? The weather has been so nice out since Friday that I barely stayed home. Today was particularly warmer then the last two days so while Peter stayed home to do some work, Luna and I spent the afternoon at the beach by our house. We sat on a log watching a man ride his horse on the beach, people flying their kites, kids playing in the sand as the aroma of barbeque filled the air. Ahhh… the smell of Spring!

As I felt my stomach growling and pondering if I should get an ice cream at the concession stand, I could see Luna from the side of my eye busily doing something. Then I glanced at her and noticed her going through my bag with intense focus. I thought it was so cute to see how busy and more interested she was to see what was in my bag then to play in the sand. So I stepped back and took photos. Life’s simple pleasures.

We are happy to announce the Grand Opening of our shop, also called The New Domestic! The New Domestic is a homeware line designed for Domestic Living 2.0. Our products beautify your space, add joy to your life and accompany you through your domestic living adventures. With a nod to decorative arts tradition and a wink to worker bee attitude, The New Domestic combines functional utility with effortless style.

Our first line of products are heavy weight recycled cotton canvas tote bags with screen printed patterns. All bags have a diagonal pattern on the back for a two-in-one look. These bags are now available in The New Domestic Shop!

This season, we celebrate the Triangle – strong with its geometric precision and bold in its shape & structure. Look around the world and you’ll see the humble Triangle all around you, in nature, in myth and in design. Mix in colour and pattern and the Triangle tells different visual stories. We took one basic shape and created a myriad of playful permutations to match every personality. There’s a bit of drama, a bit of whimsy, a bit of flash, a bit of understated. Why not collect them all? Hope you enjoy!

Much love,
Nerissa

Homemade raisin cinnamon bread. Yum! It’s been awhile since I’ve made these. I always like trying out different bread recipes and although this is pretty good and much easier to make, I still prefer my older raisin bread recipe. But if you want something easy and quick, I think this is pretty good as you don’t have to roll out the dough. You simply just add all the ingredients, put it in your bread machine to do it’s work.

You can find the recipe here. I made some minor changes to the recipe. I first added the water, yeast and sugar and let it sit for 10 min. Once the yeast has expanded, I added all the ingredients including the raisins. I also doubled the cinnamon and added a little bit more raisins. Put it in your bread machine to knead & rise. Once it’s done rising, take it out of the bread machine, shape it, then put in the oven at 350 degrees.

Once it’s done baking, let it sit for about 20 min then cut yourself a little slice and spread some yummy butter! Mmm… there’s nothing like freshly baked bread straight from your own oven!

On Another Note:
Thanks to The Late Afternoon for the nice post on our upcoming shop!

We are working hard to get the online shop up and ready to go by end of April. Then it’s design mode again for the summer line. Hope everyone is enjoying Spring so far. It’s been cold & wet here the past week but really hoping for some Spring weather soon. I’m still finding myself drinking warm beverage to keep warm. Spring, where are you?

I got a happy surprise in the mail today. I completely forgot I ordered these Japanese tape a few weeks ago and they arrived today. Isn’t it so nice to get special little things in the mail? I can see myself happily taping lots of things the next few days with these awesome tape. You can get them here.

We’ve been busy! The New Domestic Store will open in April. Our first line of products are large screen printed graphic totes made from 12oz. heavy-weight recycled cotton canvas. Each bag is printed with a bonus diagonal pattern on the back (so you get two looks with one bag). We are launching with four designs to start with. The one shown is called “Dreaming of Marrakesh”. More products are coming in the Summer.

The past two days felt like Spring has arrived. I spent the day wandering around Granville Island market indulging in a few (yes, a few!) Lee’s donuts (so good btw, a must try!), a carrot cake, a cup of one of my favourite coffee in the city – JJ Bean & Indian food. And no, I didn’t eat them all myself – the calories were shared with my parents. Gotta blame my mom for my sweet tooth and my dad for my love for food. We ate outside the market listening to musicians playing while watching all the birds fly around us. Pretty amazing. After all the sweet indulgence, we walked back to Kitsilano beach so Luna can have a bit of playtime in the playground. To all of our surprise, she decided to walk on her own (without me holding her hand). Amazing!! She just went off on her own happily waving to people walking by and checking out what all the other kids were doing. Definitely a proud moment for all of us to see little Luna walking all by herself!

Sneak Peek of our soon-to-open Homeware General Store. Our products beautify your space, add joy to your life and accompany you through your adventures in domestic living. Our first line of products will launch in mid-Spring. Check back soon!

Another weekend walk along the shore line. This time the air was still brisk but without the wintery cold. As we headed deeper towards the trees, large eagles flew overhead, surely, signaling that spring will soon arrive.