In between dining area and living room area, Maia has a little room for herself :) I’ve been wanted to do this, it makes me smile every time I see her there! ((Right now, her dining area and her sleeping area are a bit too close to each other, but as we finalize our living room area, she will have more room in between… so she can’t drink water from her bed any more — lazy girl!))

Her initial M and the framed art is by Jamie Shelman (yes, she does dog illustrations sometimes! We did a work trade while back, I love this so much!)

Sometimes, Maia sleeps just like the dog in illustration, it is so cute. I haven’t been able to take that picture, but someday, I will…

Hope you like her room as much as she does (and we do)! :)

Posted under Maia, home

Here are some more pictures of our new dining room and kitchen as I promised… It’s not 100% done, but we are loving how it’s coming along so far! We never had a dining area before so just having a dining table alone is pretty darn exciting!! Oh… there is only one thing about this loft… since it is an open space, we only have windows in one side and so the other side of the loft doesn’t get much sun lights :( So it’s a bit hard to take good photos here… Why is there always “something”?! Oh well…

My little vintage (growing) plates collection:

and our new dining table and bench! We got them from White Flower Farmhouse and we love them!

We’re still looking for the perfect rug underneath the table and the perfect hanging lamps to go with the room…

**The letter M area you see is a new Maia’s room — will post about it soon!

and our kitchen:

Lots of bright and cheery colors, I love it :) Makes me happy to be in here!

Spice rack — I want to replace the containers so it looks a bit more clean…

We want to replace the little table, too… but for now, it’s doing its job.

Hope you enjoy our little tour! :)

Posted under home

It’s been 7 weeks since we moved to our new loft and things are coming together slowly, but surely. I think our kitchen and dining area are now really close to complete, I’d like to add some more things still, but I thought I would start sharing things finally — starting with some paint job I did…

Over the Memorial day weekend, I painted these little things for our kitchen and dining area…

A wine rack from Ikea:

A little corner shelf I bought in Japan:

In yellow! Ever since I had the yellow wall in my old kitchen, I am obsessed with yellow, bright and cheery kitchen. Our new kitchen is white so I decided to do spots of bright colors.

One side painted…

Other side painted, too…

and here is the new wine rack in our dining area:

**The letter A is a local flea market find, I’m hoping to find letter E and letter T so someday, it’ll say “EAT” and probably “DRINK” too :) **

The drawings above the wine rack are by Julia Rothman. I love her work.

and the corner shelf in the kitchen counter area:

They are actually really cute in where they are, I am so happy that I painted them!

More pictures of the dining room and the kitchen will follow!

Posted under DIY, home

As I mentioned before, lovely Victoria from sfgirlbybay and pinterest team are launching an another great event called “pin it forward” today and I couldn’t be more proud to be the one of the first 10 bloggers to start!

and the theme is “What home means to me” — and here is my pinboard…

I realized since I moved to NYC and started my own freelance work, home became not only sleep, relax, cook and eat, but also work and create. Be inspired and imaginative. Be creative and innovative.

(Beci Orpin’s home via The Design Files)

(Craft nook via you are my fave)

Also, as I have lots of collection of things, which make me happy, think and remember, home means where I keep all my favorite things, display them in my own way and enjoy.

(Lisa Gongdon’s kitchen via design*sponge)

(Teapots and jugs via skinnylaminx)

(the gallery wall via sfgirlbybay)

and never ending quest to me… Always looking for the perfect something for the home… and I enjoy that process, and when you do find something that you love, how great the feeling is and you get to live with it!

(Go Quest via me)

and the list goes on and on… please see more at my pinboard! I think I will keep adding more since home means A LOT to me, I would never be done with my board… :)

**********

Please also check out all the awesome starter bloggers inspiration for what their home means to them including Erin of design for mankind, Sara of lost bird found, Joy of oh joy!, Christine of LAMA, Nicole of making it lovely, Jodi of a fresh start, Lori of automatism, Melissa of melissa loves, and of course, Victoria of sfgirlbybay.

and please let me introduce, Tina of scatterbox. She will be posting “what home means to her” tomorrow! Can’t wait to see her board.

Thank you so much, Victoria and Pinterest team for your hard work creating, organizing and launching this event! and thank you guys so much for letting me share my pinboards :) I hope you enjoyed!

Posted under Inspiration, home

I have been eyeing for Thomas Paul’s beautiful trays and plates… they are all so lovely. I think I want to hang them on my new dining room wall. (I must keep packing before I buy anything for the new home, though. Can’t wait to be done!)

Artifacts Dessert Plate Set:

These Luddite series are my favorite!

Luddite Dinner Plate:

Luddite Side Plate:

Luddite Tray:

Scrimshaw Moby Tray (so cool, isn’t it?):

Scrimshaw Dessert Plate Set:

Posted under art, home

I wanted to take some pictures of our current living room area. (For those of you who may not know… we are moving to a loft in DUMBO this May!) We switched our room so this used to be our office room, but it’s been working out good. I think I will miss this exposed brick wall… it’s such a cool thing to have!

The artwork is done by our good friend, Niq. It was a wedding gift to us and we quite like the piece and to have it in our living area.

This black and white area was never finished, I feel like… oh well… next apartment!

We will have bigger space so we’re going to get a bigger couch — can’t wait! (it’s been pretty tight in this tiny couch for both of us + Maia the dachshund)

Yes, we have a lot of vinyls… most of them are Randy’s, some of them are mine. I so wanted to get this, but it was too late… it would have been perfect for us.

I really wanted to turn this area a dining area, but it didn’t happen… (too tiny anyway) — We’re going to have a dining area in the loft, I can NOT wait! I have been so wanted a dining area forever!

*the OBEY poster is the one that Shepard Fairey was putting up on the street wall in San Francisco back in 1998.

OK, now we really have to start packing… wish us luck! :)

Posted under home

I have been going over to DUMBO a lot lately… (you’ll see why later) Always so cool to be in the neighborhood, I find so many inspirations… I wanted to share some found type on the historical brick buildings this morning because they are just so special and great looking!

and…. I will be seeing these coolness and inspirations everyday starting on May 1… Yes, we just signed a lease at the loft space in DUMBO! We are so excited, can’t wait to start living this area and explore more!

Here is a little sneak peek of the new loft. I’m sure I will be talking about it a lot more… I need lots of room inspirations, new furniture… so stay tuned! :)

Happy Friday, everyone! xo

Posted under NYC, home, typography

Christmas tree makes me so happy and this year, I have 2 trees! Double happiness :) Wanted to share some pictures and the happiness here!

Our family white tree — we bought it last year and we placed in different area this year.

((We still need a tree top…))

Each ornament has its story and memory…

I’d been looking for dachshund ornaments forever and I finally found these handmade dachshund toys from Sweet Little Birdie and turned it into an ornament! The size is great and Maia wears red collar so it is perfect!!

Some new ornaments…

We got the cable car ornament in our last Christmas in San Francisco in 2007…

and this year, all our little pet family gets their own stockings! (I was looking for the perfect stockings for them forever, too)

and, my mother in low got me a pink Christmas tree (!) last Christmas so I finally got to decorate it in my office area and I LOVE it! I wanted to make it really girly since it is mine :)

I used some of my flower hair pieces and brooches as a tree top and ornaments and I quite like the outcome.

And those numbered votive candle holders are from my lovely client Christine from LAMA :) I love them so much! Thank you, Christine!

“LOVE” “JOY” and

“WISH” ornaments :)

This tree has a lot more spaces so I can buy more ornaments… (hehe)

Late night work is not so hard when you have your Christmas tree besides you…

How are your Christmas trees?! If you have pictures to share, please comment with the links, I would love to see!

Happy Holidays!

Posted under home

While I’ve been getting inspirations for vintage patterns, I also have found some cool vintage goods that I can use for my new office… (we are switching rooms this summer, setting up new office space very soon — hope to show some here!) I need a major re-organization and my shop stuff keeps piling up… so as we are getting new shelves, desks, etc. and I need new old stuff to not only decorate the office room, but also to make it function… and here are my finds I want to share :)

Vintage Sun Lamp:

Vintage Golden Yellow Organizer:

Staplers:

Industrial Galvanized Metal Boxes:

Vintage Office File Box:

Happy Friday!

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Today is my Dad’s birthday!! Happy birthday, Dad, we love you!!!! :)

Posted under Inspiration, home

For our 2nd (cotton) year anniversary, my mother-in-law sent us the credo pillow! Thank you so much!! and look how it looks in our living room (small) couch with other beautiful pillows that I love.

I love it! Thank you so much, Janis! (she also gave me this necklace on my birthday � I am so happy, it is soooo super cute)

The other pillows are from my lovely ladies’ shop that I have worked with. The turquoise-ish blue color pillows are from booloo boutique (aren’t they beautiful? I love these pillows so much that I designed our living room inspired by the color + splash of red + black and white) and the doily pillows are from LAMA � I was eyeing them for so long and I finally got them, they are much cuter in person than the pictures even though they look already so cute in the pictures.

I am so happy with all my pillows that I had to post about them � do you love your pillows? Don’t they make home more fun and add colors or impact on your home?!

Posted under home, typography