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!

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!

Thanks to everyone who have purchased our new Bon Journey bags on launch week. We couldn’t be happier with the response we got on these new bags which has left me spending my days painting to catch up with the orders. Definitely nothing to complain about, I’m extremely thrilled and excited to be making these products for you. Also, a big thank you to all of you for featuring our new Bon Journey bags on your lovely blogs and all the shout out on twitter. Hugs to you all!

All orders from last week was sent out today. For orders placed over the weekend and any new orders this week, my next postal run is on Monday, November 28. I’m painting a new batch of bags this week!

As you will see in the photos, my kitchen/dining has turned into a painting studio including my actual studio room in the house. Don’t you love my drying rack? I’m using our studio lights to dry bags and any other hooks, door knobs and anywhere I can find to hang these up for drying. It’s been working out well so far…

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. xo

All Bon Journey bags will come with a personal thank you card from us. With the gift giving Christmas season just around the corner, you might be giving these bags as a present and would like the card personalized to your special someone. Upon purchase, just send me an email with the personal message you want on the card including the gift giver and receivers name and I would be more than happy to personalize the card upon your request. These cards are fairly small so keep your message sweet & simple.

Bon Journey bags now available in the shop! I’ve been busy painting these past few days and I’m happy to finally have them available in the shop in time for the holiday season. The great thing about these bags is that they are unisex, so finally something for all the guys! I can’t believe Christmas is coming so soon. Hope everyone is staying warm – it’s cold out there! Much love, Nerissa

Almost there… We are working hard to get these bags in the shop soon. Been busy painting, painting & painting! Aiming for next week (fingers crossed).

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.

Here’s to my last batch of my Mexico photos. Hope you guys enjoyed them! Hope to do more traveling in the up coming months. In the meantime, I’m all bundled up trying to stay warm in this cold Canadian weather!

We spent a few hours walking the grounds of Coba – a Mayan archeological site in the Yucatan Peninsula. It’s hard to believe that only 5% of the site has been excavated. Totally worth the visit. But make sure to wear sneakers as I made a mistake wearing flip flops and I spent most of my time running away from the giant ants!

Spoiled in Mexico. We spent our days doing absolutely nothing at the beach while listening to the waves roll in and coconut palms swaying in the wind. Total relaxation.

We spent a week in the Riviera Maya for a little holiday and wandered around a small Mayan village, walked the grounds of Coba, swam in a cenote, ate a whole lot of tacos, experienced a hurricane and enjoyed all the sun & sand Mexico has to offer. In the next few days, I’ll be posting more photos of our trip. Here are some photos of a modern Mayan Village.

Currently working on our next product line for the upcoming Christmas season. I’m a little late on my schedule but hope I can pull this through in time for Christmas.

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.

I am honoured to be interviewed by London based design and lifestyle writer, Charlotte, of Lottie Loves. You can read my interview on work & life here. Also, check out the past interviews – an amazing list of such talented people!

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.

For the past 5 years, Peter and I have been going to the Cranberry Festival held in Fort Langley. We missed it last year as we were in Mexico so this was the first year we brought Luna. The festival is filled with all things cranberries (cranberries by the pound, cranberry tea, cranberry soaps etc.). Our favourites are the amazing sausage rolls from a local bakery, going to the village antiques mall, eating freshly made bannock on a side street & just casually enjoying the small town festival.

The other weekend, we went to the Design Sponge book launch party held at Anthropologie and met the lovely and talented Grace Bonney. I’m so honoured to have my book signed by her and to have finally met her in person after years of continued inspiration. I also have to say that I am completely flattered of her nice write up on our totes over at Design Sponge – so amazingly sweet. You can read it here. Thanks Grace for including Vancouver to your book tour. Come back soon! xo, Nerissa

If you ordered a tote the last couple of days, I am sending out all orders tomorrow. Thank you so much to everyone who have supported us from day 1. This all means so much to us. For those who have already received their totes, hope you’re enjoying them! xo

Back To School Sale is only on until October 16! Come and get your Eye of The Storm for only $26 (regularly $36). Hope everyone is enjoying Fall so far. Big love, Nerissa.

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.

Last night, we were out and about in Granville Island and decided to have dinner at Edible At The Market. They used to have a cute little shop in the market but now have expanded to a full service bistro with all things from BC. It was a fantastic night to be out in a patio. Great food & family friendly.

To start we had the Slik Spiced Albacore Tuna with Yuzu marinated cucumber & watermelon. We also tried the Artisan Bread Basket with Lobster oil, Pinot Noir balsamic. For our main dish, Peter went for the Sloping Hills Pork Belly & Loin with Celeriac & apple salad, chilled cucumber almond gazpacho and I had the Pemberton Meadows Steak Frites with Poplar Grove Tiger Blue butter, duck fat BC potatoes. I was pretty stuffed after enjoying my steak but when the waiter came by to give us a run down of the dessert menu, we knew we couldn’t leave without having their creme brulée with lavender. I think that was Luna’s favourite!

All in all, a restaurant definitely recommended. We will for sure be back and try the rest of the menu.