Koby Pop Art.

Yesterday we received this adorable pop art painting by Won kyung Cho, a pop art artist based in Korea. She drew a few paintings of Piri for an exhibition she was holding to help raise funds for homeless dogs and sent one of them to us as a gift. I was so very touched. And I think Piri likes it, too. She captured his expression, nose and eyes just right, don't you think? 

Phew, what an awkward week it has been for us. Yangkyu pulled all nighters and came home at 10 every night and I've been having nonstop headaches and also threw out my back and was in pain for a couple of days. I'm ok now but I still feel like I have no energy and just want to curl up under my blankets and just sleep. Instead I'm busy spending the day getting the house cleaned and ready for a Dogvacay guest coming tomorrow. His name is Shone, a 4 year old multipoo who is highly curious of all things and is staying for 9 whopping nights. Fun!

What do you have planned for the weekend? Hope it's a good one. 

For those who entered the giveaway, thank you! If you haven't, drop by for a chance to win one 8 x 10 art print and mug by one of my favorite graphic designers, Jessica of the Creative Index. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Meet Jessica of Creative Index + a giveaway! (CLOSED)

 // Some of my favorite things from Jessica's shop! If you're holiday shopping, some of these might catch your eye. // 

Hello! 

Today, I'm so excited to have Jessica from the Creative Index here to share a little about herself, her design superpower {ha! read on to see what I mean!} and her fabulous work. Plus, she is giving away a couple of items {an 8 x 10 art print and mug of your choice} from her Society6 shop to one lucky reader! Yay! 

I'm a huge fan of Jessica's work and she also belongs to one of the cutest cocker spaniels I ever did see {hi Bosco!}. But most importantly, I am truly thankful for her kindness, friendship and support throughout the time we've gotten to know each other. She is genuine, so very sweet and amazingly talented. She sat down and answered a few question, and I hope you'll find her, her work and shop just as lovely as I do! 

Q // Tell us a little about yourself!

A // Hi everyone! I’m Jessica, a graphic designer originally from Buffalo, NY, now residing in North Carolina with my adorable pup and amazing husband. I am obsessed with all things art & design related, have a weakness for cupcakes, love being a beach bum and drink way too much coffee! When I’m not in front of my computer, I love taking Bosco for walks, exploring for antiques and thrifted treasures and baking…. even though I’m not that great at it!

Q // How did you get involved with design work and where do you draw your inspiration from? 

A // I got interested in design back in high school. I was never a great “artist” (I’m horrible at painting/drawing) but my school just got a new digital computer lab and I thought it was pretty cool…. filled with fancy new iMac’s. (this was over 10 years ago!! eeek!) I took several classes and my teachers always told me I had a great eye for design & typography, so I just sorta stuck with it!

I get my inspiration from all over the place! Besides Pinterest, I love going to Barnes & Noble and flipping though art & design books! I can spend hours there getting lost in those pages! And just being out and about, inspires me! Sometimes I’ll see a great package design or color palate and I make a mental note, so I can put my own twist on it! 

Q // What is your design superpower?

This is a hard one…. never really thought about a design superpower! I guess it would be simplicity if that that counts! haha My approach to design is simple & minimal, but still strong and effective. Design doesn’t need to be complicated or over-done. It’s all about balance and white space… and the right fonts! ;)

Q // What are some of your favorite holiday picks for the design and pet lover from your shop? 

A // For the designers and type nerds, my favorite picks are my Beautiful Reasons & Ampersand prints. For the pet lovers, I think this print would be great! Or either of these mugs. (dog / cat)

Q // Just for fun, ninja or pirate? 

A // Ninjas rule! ;)

Thanks Jessica! I also wanted to mention these wonderful free printable holiday tags Jessica has available for download on her blog. I just printed them yesterday as I was wrapping Yangkyu's gift. I love them!

Now on to the giveaway! It's open internationally and will run until 12:00 AM EST, Thursday, December 11. Use the Rafflecopter below enter! Good luck and Happy Holidays! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Year-end countdown: guest blogs of the year.

I know it's only the beginning of December and doing year-end countdowns seem a bit too premature. But I have a few things I wanted to look back on and instead of having a sleuth of posts that come out one after another at the end of the month, I thought to sprinkle them throughout.  

Today, it's all about the guest blog posts of the year. 

February -- "Love In Many Ways"

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Nelah over at Maysa & Sunshine asked me to write a post for her series "Love in Many Ways." Of course I wrote about Piri and our journey so far together.

March -- Favorite moments in Jamaica

In March, I got to hang out over at Diva In Me and share some of our fondest memories of our January trip to Jamaica. I also put together a mini "him & her" things to take to Jamaica list. Those are always so fun to make, no? 

April -- "On Running" 

In April, I did a Q & A over at Othermix about running, as part of her "Running High" series. I had just started to become serious with it and so this was a fun post to share some of my reasons for running but also my crazy eighties playlist! I started to run early March of this year and did so consistently until June. By then I was running for an hour {walking a little inbetween}, burning up to 600 calories per run and feeling really great. I didn't change too much of my diet and I was able to lose 5 pounds, too. I haven't ran since the summer after my miscarriage, but definitely itching to get back to it soon. It's really a great form of exercise. 

May -- Home is With You

In the middle of spring, we were invited by one of our favorite online families, Damaris, Dani & Juno over at The Cat You & Us" to share what "Home is With You" means to us, as part of their 1 year blog anniversary. We have since moved out of that space and created a new home for us, but the same concepts holds true in what makes and means a home for us. 

September -- Doggy bow tie DIY

We got to roll our sleeves up for this fun DIY guest post we did for Little White Whale -- doggy bow ties and matching hair clips! I'm not sure how Piri felt about me sharing his spotlight, but I think he was ok with it. 

November -- DC Guide

Just last month, we did a DC Guide for A Weekend Crossing while Marla was away in Mexico. It lists out some of our favorite places we love to go to shop, sightsee and relax. 

Thanks for walking down memory lane with us! 

Can't believe 2014 is really coming to an end.

Wow.

Life lately, according to my iphone.

   

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale. -- Hans Christian Andersen

Packing in a whole lot of Christmas here.

What do you like most about Christmas? 

I love how it reminds me of my childhood. Of my mother. 

She always made sure we had a tree, lots of Christmas music, presents but also the belief that something magical like Santa Claus existed.

We had little traditions like putting the tree up together as a family and having our holiday dinner on Christmas Eve with her favorite Christmas chinaware. 

My childhood cocker spaniel even had a seat on the dining room table on this special day. 

There were many things that happened which made our family stop having those Christmas moments together, one of them being the onset of my mom's mental illness. 

And so, I like to continue her love for Christmas - the decorating, music, watching classic movies, trimming the tree, traditions and the holding on to magical beliefs. 

Our Dogvacay guest, Murray, left us on Sunday night and we were originally going to pick out our tree this coming weekend, but after seeing everyone on Instagram and Facebook share their trees, I just couldn't wait. Yangkyu went out and picked one up on Saturday and we decorated together. We normally trim the tree with the Lord of the Rings on, but this time it was some cheesy Hallmark Channel movie. But those can be pretty addicting, no? 

I also made tiny rosemary wreaths leftover from Thanksgiving and tied some red ribbon around some thyme. They smell just as great as our tree. 

Now it's on to figuring out what to do with our mantle and the outside space. 

This really is the most wonderful time of the year. 

PS - This Santa Claus post is probably one of my favorite blog posts, not only because it's one of my favorite childhood memories, but because of some of the wonderful Santa Clause stories people shared in the comments. I really had such a great time reading and re-reading them. Oh the things our parents did for us to believe. :)