Happy (Early) New Year!

Best. Christmas. Ever.

It's not even Christmas, yet!

Sit, sit, my friends. I have a story to tell you.

'Twas the night before Christmas eve (last night), that The Boy and I prepared for our first date night in Pittsburgh. We dressed up and headed out to Plum for sushi.  I love sushi. So much so that I starved myself all day thinking about the sushi to come. We had lots of sushi, a chocolate candy cane martini, and mango sorbet for dessert.

Fast forward to the end where we head home and open our door. I immediately notice that our foyer light is off. "What? Why is our light off? We left it on when we left." "I came back and turned it off." "Oh." Not thinking that he never headed back. Hmm. Interesting.

"I have a little surprise for you!", he says as we turn the corner towards the living room.

"The Christmas tree is lit! I didn't turn that on...." Now I'm getting concerned that someone came into our apartment and robbed us, except that they lit the Christmas tree and didn't steal anything that I notice.

We turn the corner and I see that the table in our kitchen has been transformed into beautiful winter wonderland. A green garland wraps the table. Flikering tea lights, rose petals, and snow flake ornaments sprinkle the table. A bottle of champagne chilling in the 1950s ice bucket that I gave The Boy last Christmas and a vase of a dozen red roses sitting beside it nestle in the center of the table.

"Oh my god, who did this?!" is my first remark.

Crying hysterically is my second.

The Boy says that he wanted to celebrate our first Christmas in Pittsburgh in our first place.

"But there's something missing..." he says.

What could possibly be missing?! This is amazing!

"Santa left a little gift for you under the Christmas tree."

I look under the tree and notice nothing is there.  Great, Santa hates me. Didn't even leave me a measly lump of coal. Jerk.

"Except," he continues, "it's in here."

He opens the lid to our bright red ottoman and pulls out a bright red gift bag and hands it to me.

"Open it."

I look inside and see the little eggshell blue -- sorry -- Tiffany Box Blue package with a white satin bow. 

The waterworks continue.

My eyes swollen shut. Make-up running down my face. My heart racing and my carotid artery pumping so much blood to my brain that I can't hear a thing.  My vision blurs from all the tears. I think at that time The Boy is saying something but I can't recall a word. It was probably a beautiful speech. Then I see him go to one knee and ask me to marry him.



Yes, my friends, I'm engaged to the man of my dreams! :)

Happy Holidays!

Love,
Jenny

Holiday Hobbies

I re-discovered knitting this weekend. I knitted lots of scarves in Austin, but never found an occasion to wear them (maybe two days out of the year). Now that Pittsburgh weather has been consistently under freezing temperatures, I find myself wearing a scarf every day.

And thus, you shall find me knitting through the Christmas holiday...

What hobbies do you pick up during the holiday break?

Happy Weekend!

It's finally Friday and I got all my work done. Sort of. I still have some orders to ship out on Monday, but after that, I will take a break for the holiday. Maybe.

Happy weekend! :)

Enjoying Life While Mom Works

Why do dogs sleep like this? His hind legs comfortably enjoy his new bed while his upper body rests on the cold wood floor.


In other news, I've received endless requests to make a bag smaller than The Baby Ruche bag and larger than The Clutch. Your wish will be granted, my friends. It will be available after the new year!

Maybe before... you never know...

It's Official

Look Who Got a New Bed

The Boy's brother and sister-in-law dropped by yesterday and gave Hubert his get-well present(s): a bed, an Eskimo jacket, and a hoodie. So sweet! Little Hubu is ultra-spoiled now that we moved to Pittsburgh and we have lots of family who absolutely love him. :)

As far as updates on his healing, Hubert is at 90%. His energy level is high and he just wants to go outside and run around, but he can't until his stitches are completely healed in about two weeks. Until then, cuddling up in his new squishy bed is what the doctor prescribed.

Hubert doesn't seem to mind.

This May Be What Sad Looks Like

Hubert was taken to the pet hospital for emergency nephrolithiasis (kidney stones) removal. 

The doctor told me they would flush the stone back into his bladder and an abdominal incision would be made to remove the stone from the bladder.  It seemed like a really inefficient and highly invasive method to do something relatively simple, but after making a call to the leading animal treatment center in Pittsburgh in the few minutes I had the time to make a decision, it seemed surgery was the way to do this.  Of course the biomedical engineer in me makes me want to research a more efficient and minimally invasive way for this to be done, but that's another story.

After 2 nights at the vet, Hubert is finally back today. This was only possible because I live across the street from our vet clinic and I will be bringing him back every morning this week for check-up. I hope that he'll heal a lot faster in a quiet apartment where I can monitor him every second of every day rather than being in a cage amongst other crying and howling dogs.

Hubert looked so excited to finally see me again when I came to pick him up. He looked just the same way when I left him prior to surgery - all he wanted to do was play.

To say the least, this weekend was probably more emotionally taxing for me than Hubert. I felt so guilty that I made my poor dog suffer through so much pain and surgery. I wondered what I did wrong in caring for him as I give him the most expensive premium food that I can afford and keep him on a good exercise schedule and fill his days with lots of play and love.

The Boy said that I shouldn't keep so much of the burden and just to stay strong and continue to improve what I do to care for Hubert. Sometimes I guess it's hard to not feel at fault for what happens to the thing you are responsible for keeping safe.

I'm just glad he's home so that I can now concentrate on my work and stop worrying.

Shop Update: New Travelers!

Besides a large shipment of Travelers going out today, I've made a few new ones! :)





Find these and more in the shop!

In other news, last night a guy who looked exactly like Hines Ward said "Hi" to me and Hubert as he passed by in my building. So I'm pretty sure Hines Ward lives in my building. Or his doppelganger. Either way, I bragged to The Boy and he was jealous.

Frost and Coffee

Traveler in Frost White Leather now available (ready to ship) in the shop!


If you ordered a Clutch in Coffee Bean Leather - it will be delivered to you very very soon!

My Kitchen

I have finally unpacked the kitchen and I know my mom has been dying to see pictures. I'm still without internet, so no pretty pictures today --just phone pics. Enjoy!


My Kitchen. So nice and neat. That table with the fruit has five roles in our house:
1. My cutting/hardware installation station during work hours
2. Packaging station for shipping
3. Prep table for cooking
4. Dining table for eating
5. IF EVER none of the above, it will hold the fruit plate or decor. :)

Our kitchen, living room, and my studio share the same open space, so I had to make due with multi-functional furniture.


My spice jars. My brother hates that I don't label anything, but I love the look without labels. My new (vintage) spice rack is empty now but will be filled within the week with all the spices that still sit in their stock jars, waiting to go on display.


The Boy gave me a set of stainless steel cookware for Christmas, and I got to open my gift early. To be fair, he got to open his beer brewing kit early, too. :)


Since we don't have a proper pantry to store cereal, sugar, flour, rice and things, I had to find a way to display them! :)


Finally, where all the magic happens. By magic, I mean where I work endless hours getting orders made and prepared for shipping. :)

Back to work. More updates later!

p.s. I love this desk. It's the VIKA series - exactly this one here.

Hello, Pittsburgh!

We're all moved into our new loft and I'm almost unpacked. It has been snowing non-stop since we moved in, so that's keeping me inside and working. Unfortunately, I won't have internet for the next few days, so I'll be checking e-mails on my phone and at my apartment business center if I need to process orders. Please be patient with me! We were planning to have internet yesterday, but then they told us they couldn't find our apartment number on their database (but both of our neighbors are there, what the heck!).

Moreover, I'll give you a short tour of our new place with the few pictures I took with my phone as I was unpacking and setting up:

1: Bucky made it, and so did our little Christmas tree!
2: Exposed brick and Squash colored accent wall make my leather shelf look pretty.
3: Our kitchen and into the bedroom. Those beams in the back are the ceiling to the bedroom - they look awesomely Batman-y. :)

Pros/Cons of living in a loft:
Pro: You can hear everything that's going on in the apartment.
Con: You can hear everything that's going on in the apartment. While The Boy reads in the bedroom, I can't listen to music out loud in the living room (i.e. my studio).

Always learning new things.

More pictures to come when I get internet! :)

Our First Snow in Pittsburgh!