Hope you guys had a fantastic Mother’s Day weekend. We had the first warm weekend of the year and guess where everyone went? The beach! Happy Belated Mother’s day to all the beautiful mom’s out there. xo, Nerissa

Food has always been such a huge part of my life. In my family, life centres around food. Stories are told around a dinner table after a long day of work, weekend breakfasts are shared while we plan the adventure of the day, birthdays are celebrated with food dripping down our plates and cakes waiting to be eaten. Achievements of life are always celebrated with the gathering of family and friends as we all share a meal.

I’ve always enjoyed documenting the food that I eat and share with family and friends. It’s really interesting how seeing what people eat almost tell a story of their life. Here’s what you’re seeing:

- Breakfast board at home
- Cappuccino & americano at The Wilder Snail
- Jamie Oliver pork tenderloin with apple chutney & asparagus for dinner
- Croque Monsieur & pulled pork eggs bennys at The Flying Pig
- Home grown wasabi given to us by friends
- Luna’s charcuterie board breakfast on a Saturday morning
- Polenta, beans & eggs at Little Nest
- Preparing chick pea salad lunch at home
- Happy hour at Olympic Provisions in Portland. Chefs charcuterie & apertif
- Afternoon coffee and snacks at Matchstick Coffee Roasters

Happy eating!

We crossed the border to La Conner, Washington last weekend for the last leg of the tulip festival. When we got there, we spent most of the time snapping a billion photos and running around fields and fields of tulips. Quite an amazing site. The tulips were all in full bloom and came in purple, pink, yellow, orange and red. I didn’t have a favourite, I loved them all. Wouldn’t it be so nice to have this as your backyard?!

So here’s to the first ever banana bread I’ve made that actually turned out. I don’t know what it is about me and banana bread but i’ve tried making it a couple times before using two different recipes and they both turned out so dry that Luna wouldn’t even eat them. But the other day, I just had a craving for homemade banana bread and I thought of giving it another try using a different recipe.

Well, thanks to Martha Stewart for saving the day! Let me tell ya, this banana bread is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It is so moist and so good! I couldn’t stop eating it that I had it for dinner too. Yikes, bad on the calorie count but good for my happy stomach. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart but made some little changes:

- used greek yoghurt instead of the sour cream
- used 2 bananas instead of 1
- added shredded zucchini on top

I plan to make another loaf this week. Even though it’s amazing as is, I might cut down the sugar to just 1/2 a cup instead of 1 cup. And maybe I’ll try adding shredded carrots on top to change it up.

Give this recipe a try, trust me, you’ll love it!

Not very far from where I live, there’s a little Island called Westham Island. To get to this Island, you have to cross a 100 year old wood deck swing bridge. It’s my most favourite bridge. I’ve been there a few times where I’ve had to turn off the engine of my car while I wait for the old man who manually turns part of the bridge for the boats to get through. It’s such a nice thing to watch and makes me feel like I’ve been transported to another time.

Once you cross the bridge, the scenery is beautiful. Lots of country houses, barns and farmlands surrounding you. As you keep on driving, you will notice all the beautiful mailboxes on the side of the road and they come in all shapes, colours and sizes. Some look like they are handmade and some look like they are custom painted by the owners. Aren’t they so cute?

For all you local Vancouver people, you can now find our Bon Journey bags & Utility Aprons stocked at Walrus. We are super excited to be working with those guys and be part of their lovely boutique. If you’re ever in the Cambie Village area, drop in and say hi to Caroline & Daniel. They are the loveliest and friendliest shop owners! xo

Making use of my photography and styling skills today as I kept myself busy shooting our new kitchen linens. I sometimes wonder what our neighbours would think if they ever peeked inside our house and see me standing on a table or balancing on a stool while photographing stuff. Thank goodness I’ve never fallen yet.

I tried different ways of photographic these lines. I thought it would be easier to use the floor as my table so I covered a small portion of the floor with kraft paper and took a few that way. But it wasn’t as easy as I thought as the kraft paper kept on moving every time I stood on it eventhough I taped each end. Then I tried taking some on the base of our white brick fireplace to give a more rustic look but was struggling to make it look real, you know, not too styled. But I found most to be successful right on our dining table. I was getting the perfect afternoon light and it looked the most real. We’ll see, I still have a lot of photos to scan through.

Now, my house is a mess.

I’ve been waiting for these to arrive the past months and they are finally here! These are handmade kitchen linens from Romania for The New Domestic. Aren’t they lovely? The sizes and patterns vary and every single one is unique. I’ll be busy the next few days taking photos of these so we can have them in the shop right away. Stay tuned! xo

Introducing our 14 pocket Utility Apron that is new to the shop! Yup, you read it right, 14 pockets! These heavy duty canvas aprons not only look great, they’ll make work and play easier for you. You will never run out of pockets to store all your essentials while cooking, gardening, crafting or your never ending home renos. And…there’s always a place to hang your giant chopsticks!

Introducing a new colour in the Bon Journey line – Rivera Blue! These are now available in the shop so grab them now and take them with you on your weekend getaway or pack it up with all your picnic essentials. It’s a fabulous colour and a great addition to the Bon Journey line. Happy Spring everyone! xo, Nerissa

We got our big shipment of the Bon Journey bags the other week so I’ve been busy painting. It takes about 4 days to paint these bags as drying time takes a full day. It’s always so exciting to see them dry & finished as I can’t stand seeing the painters tape on them but that’s just part of the process. I am hoping (fingers crossed) to have the Riviera Blue available in the shop by next week. We’ve taken all the photos for it and I have now passed them on to Peter to add them to the site. I’m so excited to have the Riviera Blue available soon. It’s such a beautiful colour and I hope you guys will like it too!

We hit the Beaty Biodiversity Museum on Saturday with a couple of friends. It turned out to be a great museum kind of day as it was cold and rainy. We’ve never been to this museum but have heard so much about it so we thought of giving it a try. As soon as we walked in, I was completely surprised to see a hanging display of a giant blue whale skeleton. It was massive in scale and hugely impressive. Then as we continued our way down to a much darker space in the museum and hit our first row of bones & taxidermy displays, my jaw dropped. I wasn’t expecting to see giant displays of taxidermy so beautifully arranged and dimly lit behind a glass display almost looking like it was a set for a movie. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The narrow dark rows continued with displays of animal specimens in jars, plants, shells, insects, fish, reptiles…it just went on and on. Luna was interested in seeing them all with absolutely no fear. She was taking it all in and also enjoyed running down the dark rows and rows of displays. At the very back wall of the room is a family zone where Luna and I made an eagle crown. She’s so proud of this eagle crown she made that it hasn’t left her head since then.

Highly recommended. Don’t be surprised if you end up staying there for 3 hours admiring taxidermy. We sure did!

Thank you Western Living Magazine for featuring our lovely yellow Bon Journey bag in this April’s issue. This means a lot to us! And don’t those infused olive oils from Pizzeria Farina look amazing! I think I need to get a bottle or two of those. xo, Nerissa

Spring is here everyone! We’ve had the craziest weather the past few days. From sun to hail to snow to rain and back to sun again. Very strange. But today is glorious and it really looks like Spring has arrived. Hoping to pack away the wool coats soon and getting out the trench coats. I opened a few windows this morning to get the fresh spring air in, though, still a little cold for that, but i’m willing to shiver a bit to get some of that spring air into my home.

It’s so fun to make food at home & gather with friends & family. It’s seriously one of my favourite things to do. And with all the food that we eat and make at home, why not document them? Here’s a list of what you’re seeing:

Coq au vin / Vegetable soup with dijon / cherry tomato pizza with oregano & farmers sausage / Whole wheat bread / Coconut waffles

All photos taken with Instagram. If you’re not on Instagram, you can still see & enjoy the photos here.

Coming soon to the shop guys! I spent part of my afternoon today shooting photos for this fabulous bag that will be available in the shop soon. It’s a gorgeous all leather bag handmade in Morocco. I’m feeling Wes Anderson’s film, Darjeeling Limited with this bag. Don’t you? It’s huge and will fit all your weekend essentials. Hope to have it in the shop in a few weeks. This bag is only available to US customers due to it’s huge size. So so sorry to all my Canadian & International customers. I’ll make it up to you with amazing stuff coming soon to the shop in the next few months! Let’s hop on a train guys!

Who doesn’t love Heath Ceramics? With it’s mid-century modern & classic bauhaus-inspired design and simplistic beauty, I can’t help but fall in love with everything Heath makes. I recently bought a few studio mugs online in mist linen & opaque white as Heath is currently offering a free shipping promotion for all online orders. With me living only 5 min away from the US border, I do most of my shopping online taking advantage of cheaper shipping rates or in this case, free shipping! I love these mugs and they come in a perfectly small size – just the perfect amount of coffee I can drink.

I also have the aqua/turquoise vegetable bowl which I bought on a recent trip to Portland. It’s not cheap, it cost me $75 but I love this bowl and everything I put in it looks even more beautiful.

The fact that these are all still handmade in their factory in Sausalito, CA makes me really appreciate the craft and love put into every single piece Heath makes.

I am excited to do a soft launch of our new Bon Journey, Riviera Blue. I am loving this new colour. Perfect for Spring picnics & beach holidays. This is currently not available in the shop as we have limited quantities of these for now. We are waiting for our big shipment to come which will hopefully arrive by early April before we can make these available in the shop.

In the meantime, we have a few of these available for purchase. Send me an email at shop [at] thenewdomestic.com with your name & shipping address and I will issue you an invoice via paypal. Upon purchase, your bag will be ready to be painted and shipped to you!

Happy Travels! xo, Nerissa

Around the house lately…

1. Luna’s little shoes. I wish they came in my size too.

2. New wooden serving spoons. Can never have enough of those!

3. Ginger tea. We’ve been sick the past week and ginger tea with honey is helping soothe the throat.

4. Another homemade whole wheat bread with flax seeds.

5. Experimenting with a new colour for Bon Journey.

Our kitchen/dining area faces west and on bright sunny days, the sun shines in quite strong which makes everything glow so beautifully. It’s been gloomy and raining here the past days so sunny days like this makes me happy.

The past month, we’ve been trying out some wonderful vegetarian/vegan recipes from a book I picked up called Fresh by Jennifer Houston. We’re not vegetarians but we do appreciate vegetarian cooking and all the health benefits that comes along with it. This book totally brings vegetarian eating to a whole new level. Every recipe we’ve tried is so refreshingly delicious, colorful and creative. Who knew jicama, carrots, zuchini & beets can look like spaghetti. I had to purchase a vegetable spiral slicer to make most of the recipes. It’s easy to use and super fast to slice all the veggies and not to mention how fun it is too. I’ve never made food this way nor have I ever heard of jicama before. So it’s really nice to bring new ingredients to our everyday home cooking. What I love about this book is it really gives a new spin to eating vegetables as the recipes are so creative.

All photos were taken with Instagram.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I woke up this morning and found this on my studio table with a note from Peter. A Chemex Coffeemaker. Nice! What a wonderful Valentines present. Can’t wait to try it. Sending out lots of love to all of you. xo Nerissa

Thanks to the ladies over at Toffee Magazine for featuring us in their third issue. I didn’t realize we would take up 4 spreads in their magazine. I’m flattered. You can read the interview on work, life & home by purchasing an online issue here.

Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. is a must visit Portland destination for homeowners and decorating afficiandos. The massive showroom is located in a 100 yr old industrial building that also houses their manufacturing and shipping center. It’s not just a candy shop for decorators – it’s more like Willy Wonka’s freaking Chocolate Factory. The brand’s signature products, reproductions of turn of the century American lighting, fill the space along with displays of the original-era molds that inspired them. On the day we were there, a group of college students were huddled around a long study table gathering reference from Schoolhouse Electric’s publicly accessible design library.

In addition to the lighting products that Schoolhouse Electric is best known for, the showroom also stocks a complete line of home accessories. The space is beautifully renovated, expansive and wide open while retaining the original factory feel. All the product displays and vignettes are finely curated and expertly styled – classic Americana filtered through an uncompromising modern lens.

For the products, for the space, for the styling, Schoolhouse Electric is full of inspiration and delight. And for extra enjoyment, there’s a boutique florist and coffee bar at the entrance. Highly recommended.

Bonus: watch this video to see more of the showroom and hear the owner of Schoolhouse Electric describe the backstory of the brand.

Tasty n Sons was recommended to us by many people and is on most Best of Portland lists. Located in the North Williams Ave neighborhood on a block of boutique shops in the middle of a residential area, Tasty n Sons is a true neighborhood restaurant. We went for brunch and were seated at a long communal table directly behind the front window bar seats. We shared a Breakfast Board ($8) and a Fried Egg & Cheddar Biscuit with Fried Chicken ($9). Luna had a couple of Chocolate Potato Doughnuts with Creme Anglais ($1.50 each); not a typical meal but probably no worse than a sweet, syrupy breakfast.

The Breakfast board contained a hard boiled egg, housemade jerky, apple slices, pickled beets, bread, crostini, yogourt with olive oil, pate and a strip of bacon. It’s a fun share plate with many simple parts that combine into different flavors. The combination of plain yogourt with olive oil was shockingly good. The whole is more than the sum of the parts, as they say, even when it’s just a simple 1+1. It’s an adventure to try out all the different elements on the board – all of which were delicious bites in and of themselves. It’s an interactive share plate and relatively light. Lots of fun.

The biscuit, on the other hand, is heavy and indulgent. We thought it would be served open-faced with a peice of fried chicken on the side but it’s actually served as a tall and oozey breakfast sandwich. Two buttery, flaky biscuit halves encompass a peice of crispy fried chicken, cheddar and soft fried egg. Yummy but schedule some time to take a walk after.

After our meal we spent some time walking around the neighborhood. Tasty & Sons is part of converted warehouse complex. The exit at the back of the restaurant connects to the other tenants. For design spotters, there’s lots of merchants to check out. There’s Chop (butchery & charcuterie), Hipcooks (cooking school and supplies), and Ristretto Roasters (coffee shop). We made an extended stop at SpielWerk Toys, a fun toy store with an awesome collection of classic and modern toys. The play area at the front of the store was a nice reward for Luna to let off some steam after sitting through brunch. Also in the building is Ink & Peat, a lovely floral and homeware store. We chatted with the friendly staff to get their recommendations for where to go next and Luna had fun smelling every single scented candle in the store. Also near by is Lark Press, for letterpress stationery and Lodekka, the double decker vintage dress shop.

So, everyone was right, Tasty n Sons is great and, as a big bonus, the surrounding neighborhood is fun to explore. Schedule at least a couple hours for your visit to this part of Williams Ave. Enjoy.

Clyde Common was one of our Portland favourites. We enjoyed it so much that we went there for dinner twice during our 4 night stay. We stayed at Hotel Modera which is only 15 minutes way by foot or by riding the Portland Streetcar. Conveniently, the streetcar is only two blocks away from Hotel Modera and stops right on the corner of SW Stark & 10th where Clyde Common is. Tip: public transit in downtown Portland is free. We didn’t save any time by taking transit but it kept us out of the rain and conserved some energy – both must dos when travelling with a little one who likes to be carried half the way.

Clyde Common neatly describes itself as “a European style tavern serving delicious food and drinks in a casual and energizing space.” The space is wide open with long communal tables, an open kitchen and a long bar area. There’s also a second floor overlooking the whole restaurant. We sat upstairs both times.

The first time we went, it was towards the end of Happy Hour (which is served 3-6 PM). We tend to dine early nowadays and getting to order from a Happy Hour menu was a nice bonus. Most restaurants in Portland have Happy Hour which is not something that is common, at all, in Vancouver. We got to save $3 per drink on our first round and got Luna started with some fries for only $3. The burger, at only $6, looked deliciously tempting but we decided to wait for the more creative dinner menu. I ordered Cream of Mushroom Soup and Fried Rabbit with Sausage Gravy, Potatoes, Beans, Dijon cream. Nerissa ordered the Buckwheat Cavatelli with Pickled Fennel, Oxtail, Chèvre. The Mushroom Soup was one of the best mushroom soups I’ve had because of its fresh and hearty mushroom flavor. Shreds of kale added for a surprising contrast in texture and bitterness. The Fried Rabbit is Clyde Common’s interpretation of classic Southern Fried Chicken. The rabbit tastes…just like fried chicken but not as oily, no real surprises there. The sausage gravy was amazing and tasted great with the potatoes & beans with dijon cream. The combination of the gravy and potatoes and dijon cream was one of the best bites on the trip. It was a take on mashed potatoes and country gravy; comfy food but with a creative twist. The Buckwheat Cavatelli with pickled fennel reminded me of a German spaetzle with sauerkraut. I’m not sure if that’s the inspiration but it would fit in with Clyde Common’s “Domestic & Foreign Cooking” concept. The plump, doughy pasta had the same texture as spaetzle dumplings and the sourness/texture of the pickled fennel was reminiscent of sauerkraut. The Chèvre goat cheese gave the dish some earthiness and the saucy oxtail added extra savoriness. There’s a lot going on. It’s a good dish, but if you don’t like sour notes or if you don’t like too many disparate flavors going into your dish, you should try something else. Or, if your name starts with “Ner” and ends with “issa”. We ended up trading mains. I still want my potatoes back. There’s no kids menu but the Cheese Board with local honey, summer jam and walnut bread was perfect for Luna.

What brought us back the second time on our short visit was the ambience of the room and the atmosphere of the space. It’s dark, intimate and lively. With Luna in tow, we always end up back at the hotel before the night really heats up. So, we wanted a sure thing one our last night – good food, fun vibes. Being in a room as fun and lively as Clyde Common allows us to live vicariously through others with more laissez faire schedules. By the time we were done our meals and on our way, we had soaked up enough merriment for the day while breathing in the energy of those who would stay behind and celebrate well into the night.

On our second day in Portland, we took the taxi to Broder for breakfast. Broder is a cute little neighbourhood restaurant located on SE Clinton Street that serves Swedish food. We’ve read about this place getting really packed in the morning, but luckily, with it being a Tuesday and rainy, we got a table right away. We were immediately served coffee and a glass of milk for Luna. It took me a little while to decide what to order as I wanted to try everything on the menu. But I went for the Baked Egg Scramble of the Day with a salad on the side and walnut toast. Peter ordered the Lefse of the Day (Norwegian Potato Crepe). There was a small selection of pastries at the bar and once Luna saw round chocolate loafs, that was that.

The presentation was folky with delicate precision. Baked Egg Scramble was nestled in a mini square pan delivered atop a wooden board. It tasted great but, if you’re only going once, I’d recommend something more adventurous – scrambled eggs tend to taste like scrambled eggs. I ended up liking Peter’s dish more as the potato pancakes were so tasty and something we’ve never tried before. That simple potato pancake was one of the best bites on this trip. I’m inspired to find a Lefse recipe to try at home. One of the things I enjoy about dining out is discovering new foods that can become part of our regular home menu and widen the at-home family table experience.

The space is really cute and quite small so I can see it getting really packed on the weekends. By the time we left, there were already a few people waiting. If we lived in the neighbourhood, I could definitely see us coming in for brunch every once in a while; it’s that kind of place.

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.

Portland, what a place! We spent five fantastic days wandering the streets of Portland, eating at some of the best restaurants in the city, admired food trucks everywhere, consumed their local coffee and shopped at cute little boutiques. In the next few days, I’ll be writing about all the amazing places we ate at like Clyde Common at Ace Hotel, Tasty n Sons, Little Bird, Olympic Provisions, Grüner to just name a few and some shops we visited. Enjoy & happy reading!

An interview with the lovely local blogger & designer Caitlin, of The Nesting Journal. The interview is on work, inspiration(s), design & life as a mom and owner of The New Domestic. You can take a peek here.

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.

What to do on a rainy Saturday? Go out for coffee & hit our favourite Lebanese restaurant! There’s a delightful french café in the middle of a residential neighbourhood called Le Marché St. George. Not very many people know about it, it’s like a hidden gem in the city that only opened a little over a year ago. When you walk in, you feel like you’ve just flown to the South of France. It’s beautiful, cozy, rustic and serves excellent coffee, teas & pastries. They also carry a selection of gourmet food products as well as a basket full of handmade wool blankets made in a mountain village in Mexico. I wanted them all. Such a perfect place to be on a cold & rainy day.

Then our stomach started growling and off we went to our favourite Lebanese restaurant – Nuba! I was craving for the Najib Special which is exactly what I had. Peter had a bowl of their red lentil soup and garden falafel (so good btw, it taste similar to that amazing falafel place in Paris called L’As du Fallafel). Luna had a glass of orange & carrot juice and happily continued eating her little doughnuts from Le Marché St. George. We usually never leave Nuba without having their turkish coffee but we were over caffeinated by that time. We left full & happy. Until next time.

Happy Monday everyone!

Luna has discovered the fun of riding horses in a carousel. She tells us that she dreams about riding horses when she sleeps at night and during nap time. She’s also quite particular with the colour of horse she rides – It has to be black. Luna loves singing to songs and mimicking everything we do. She also loves pretending it’s our birthday and will constantly find random things to give to us as presents. Her favourite saying lately is “mommy, hold me”. Luna loves being with her grandparents who she calls “momsie” & “papa” as well as all her cousins. It’s really nice seeing her grow up surrounded by so much family and being so close to all her cousins who take such good care of her.

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

We’ve got our Bon Journey bags back in stock! We are painting a new batch  next week and shipping out all orders on Monday, January 9. For those who have already placed their orders, thank you so much for waiting! Your bags will be the first ones to be painted.

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!

Here’s to a new chapter of Luna’s monthly photos. Thanks for the recommendations of changing up the set every year. Great idea! I was getting tired of the red chair and alphabet poster so I needed a change myself. The poster on the background was designed by Peter and I for our talented friends, Jonathan & Anita of Rollout.

Luna loves pesto pasta (just like her mama!), cakes, doughnuts, chocolates & her yellow shoes. She loves her yellow shoes so much that we sometimes hear her talking in her sleep whispering “yellow shoes, yellow shoes”. She’s also had a few nightmares lately where she screams out “choco milk, choco milk!”. Apparently, chocolate milk can be very scary.

Luna’s favourite song to dance to with Peter is UMI Says by Mos Def. Every night when Peter comes home, they dance to it together and it has to be played over and over again until dinner is served. She’s got some awesome moves too which totally works with the song. I video taped her dancing to it one night so I might just post it up one day.

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?

Happy Monday everyone! It’s sunny and gorgeous here in Vancouver which makes for a good start of the week. And, another reason for why this Monday is special is because our home is featured on Design Sponge today! Thanks to Anne for taking the time to put our story together. You can see the sneak peek of our home here.

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.

Congrats to Kate & Jojo for winning our first ever giveaway partnered with Bloesem Living! And thanks to all of you who had participated and gave us a lot of ideas on what products you would like to see in the The New Domestic Shop – we’ve taken notes of all your awesome ideas! Thank you.

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

My little girl is growing up. I finally finished Luna’s year book two and is on it’s way! I can’t wait to see it printed. It’s so nice to see her monthly photos side by side and to see the comparison from year one & year two. You can see how she’s so much more playful in year two and her personality shows more. I almost gave up on these monthly photos and only missed 1 month (month 21) but I’m so glad I continued doing it and plan to continue until she decides she’s had enough. I’m debating if I should keep the red chair & alphabet poster for her year 3 monthly photos or completely change it up. What do you think?

It gets a little harder to get her to sit down for long periods so towards the end of year two, I had less than a minute to capture her sitting on her chair. Mmmm…. I’m already late for her month 25 photo. Gotta get on it!

I just started using Instagram and loving it! I like following peoples photographers as it shows snapshots from around the world. But sometimes, I think people are from places they are not because of the subject on their photos. When I was looking at my photostream on Saturday, it could have been from several places from around the world but it was all shots I took in Vancouver.

My Saturday felt like a culinary trip around the world. We started off at Joe Fortes for old school New York style brunch with Oysters Rockefeller and classic Bennys. Then it was off to Thierry for french style patisserie for sweets. Dinner was Japanese Izakaya at Guu Garden. We were stuffed by end of day but definitely a Saturday filled with yummy goodness mixed in with good company.

Bon Journey bags are temporarily sold out! We couldn’t be happier with the response we got on these bags and just didn’t have enough stock to keep up with the demand. We will be getting some more in January!

To make sure you get a hold of one of these bags before it sells out again, you can place your order now for the January shipment (I already have a few on hold). These bags are all made (painted) to order so the sooner you place your order, the sooner I will be able to paint your bag when they arrive and send them off to you ASAP.

We are happy to announce our very first giveaway with one of our very favourite blogs! We have partnered up with talented Tiffany King from Bloesem Living and we are giving away Seawind & Willows and Eye of the Storm. So this means there will be 2 winners! That just gives you a better chance of winning one of our totes.

To enter, head over to Bloesem Living blog and simply leave a comment on what products you would like to see in The New Domestic Shop.

Good luck!

A few random photos taken the past 2 weekends. Did you have a good weekend? It’s been really cold here lately and been raining way too much which always leaves us having to find fun stuff to do indoors. Went to the East Side Culture Crawl the other weekend and spent the day at the Art Gallery for Family Fuse.

Black Friday sale starts tomorrow, November 25 on Seawind & Willows. Sale on for 3 days only. Take advantage of the 50% off discount. These would be fantastic as stocking stuffers!