Started the year 2019 with cutting my bangs. I had needed a change and its funny how I am having the same feeling now! Lol
We start to rent out our home to photoshoots and documentaries. Here we are trying to help others while it helps out with the mortgage.
The company I was working for did not set up their NYNow booth and I somehow was able to get things together and set it up. Which brings us to February.
Very first ever NYNow and Stationery Trade Show. I got to attend and showcase my cards from New Moon Paper Goods.
And from all the stores I had written where I wanted to receive an order from, I got half of those dream orders! I couldn’t believe it myself.
Fell in Love with the stationery store McKnally Jackson Goods For The Study and CW Pencils and got to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge!
Had a wonderful quiet birthday with the family.
Had a great visit to the doctors with E lol
Really got to start to see his sense of humor come out. Started being silly and making us laugh. A little jokester.
Shipping out the NYNow Orders and getting to see them in stores and online was definitely a highlight of the month!
Loved this day packaging it all and getting it ready.
Craft Shows start up again. Applied to as many as I could and kept me busy doing them all in LA and SF area. Hopefully in 2020 I can expand and go to other states too.
Around this time I also started to share my art and sketch book to my Patreons.
Had a lot of pop-ups this month. Mothers Day cards are always a hit! wink wink
Got to pop-up in a few historical buildings in Los Angeles,loved seeing another side on LA.
My husband and E surprised me at work with some flowers on mothers day. I love surprises.
Roof started to leak in March-April and the company we hired didn’t tarp the roof after they peeled off the shingles and the rain got in our house!! How does that happen??
It was and has been a nightmare with all of this. It’s a long and on going story…
E’s little friend, since they were 1.5-2 years old had a going away party.
She is leaving for Portugal for six months!
Had a little scare where I had to call the Police to see if my father was home since he didn’t respond to any of my texts, emails, phone calls and letters.
Luckily he was okay and we got to go see him right around his birthday but I still have a hard time pinning this man down! Adulting is hard.
My husband and I rarely go on dates, and on our 9 year anniversary we got to walk around frogtown and chinatown. Fun exploring LA like the good ol days.
Little E starts to express his interest in drawing. And he is REALLY good at it!
Photo above is his first attempt to draw a t-rex! How did he do that?!
Wasn’t my first time and hopefully won’t be my last but I got to illustrate on the store window and just wanted to keep going. Might have to add this into my 2020 goals!
It also marked my official one year working at a job that I needed to be in full time. Until this job I was mostly freelance working from home. Time to ask for a raise!
Also around this time, a freelance contract I had with a company I had worked for around 6 years let me go. They let a lot of their team go and some went back to Japan. End to an era.
BUT when we got to the school everyone had the same outfit on: Black colored clothing with a bandana over their heads LOL
Mom didn’t get the memo.
I might have gone a little overboard.
Loved connecting with her during the drive up and back. Also loved that we found some Brazilian super markets and she was able to cook up a delicious meal for everyone!
The winery hop was fun too! I think I need to go back to SF with mom.
E’s first trolly ride. He loved every minute of it!
Lion King movie had just come out and we decided all the kids and parents should go watch it together. In the kids minds, this was the best day of their life! To this day they talk about how much fun they had watching Lion King. The BFF’s. The gang.
Traveled back to NY for the trade show. Once again I set up a whole booth (bigger than before) within a month and a half. “Make it Work”
I got to show my cards again but wasn’t as great as the first show.
The people/owner at my job had made it super weird and secretive during this trip.Hard to work with people knowing they are not on the same team. This was not a fun trip.
Had a feeling that this was going to be the last one with that company.
loosing this was like an ending to a chapter.
(someone in NYC is looking real cute in this tho!)
Getting to see my cards in Goods For The Study around NYC and Brooklyn really got me excited and wondered why I didn’t put more effort into it! Another goal for 2020!!
Answer to that was: I put too much effort into this full time job I had. Was so determined to make it the best I could. It’s time to work on ME!
Originally I had been thinking about this dream stationery shop from long long ago. Back in May I had actually started to call and looked at some brick and mortar locations. When I was told that the store manager position I had ,wanted me out by the end of September, Christine and I decided to become business partners around this time.
When we were brainstorming names, we were joking around and Christine had blurted out “yeah, paper please” and we both stopped, looked at each other and immediately fell in love with the name. From that day I started working on the logo!
My son’s imagination and creativity start to do it’s own thing. Am so in love with everything he draws with ease. Without a care in the world.
I will leave it as “it was a bad breakup”
Door is closed. Let’s move on.
We literally set up a shop, online shop, bought as much as we could, raised money with Indie Gogo to try to get Paper Please off the ground!
We got some funding , some attention and a small investment/loan!
With all the support from friends, family and new friends it has made me more confident and passionate about why this stationery shop needs to happen!
Was also able to go to E’s Field Trip to the pumpkin patch. I missed it last year because I had to work and this year I hope to be with my son more than last.
Nov 1st we start our two month residency at Two Kids Coffee in Pasadena for Paper Please.
We didn’t know how we would fill the space but we did and it looked beautiful!
Opening night was so much fun that I never picked up my phone to document any of it. Lesson learned: hire a photographer for opening night!
First workshop of Letter Writing Night went super great. Many people arrived and we got to sit and chat about stationery.
And before the month ended I was able to interview my ever so talented friend Esther Kim.(who is killing it in Asia right now as we speak!) x It was an intimate gathering which made it even more special.
It was my father in law’s 70th Birthday and we all got to celebrate by going Bowling and enjoying time together in Disneyland!
This was our busiest time at the shop. There were days when it was just one of us and didn’t know if we would manage without going crazy lol
We hired our first employee!
New Moon Paper came out with new pins, stickers, tissue paper and notepads.
My sons 4th Birthday Party. Toy Story 4 themed. He said it was the best party he has ever had.
My dad came to see me at my shop and we chatted about random things for a couple of hours which was really nice.
Our pop-up ended and we felt content and happy with what we achieved.
On our way to Colorado everyone in the plane sang Happy Birthday to little E. We traveled on his actual birthday. After we arrived the whole family sang him Happy Birthday!
What a fun trip it was. Getting to connect with family members and meeting new ones.
Happy New Years Everyone. Thank you for all the support in the past ten or so years I have been on social media. Love the new friends I made from it.
This year is all about more connecting with others.
Cheers!
Didn’t your dad used to live in Japan? Has he moved to the US?
He did live in Japan. He actually moved back to the states before I did! He was born in Japan but I thin khis heart was always wanting to be an american citizen.