The Senakams | Corgi + 3

Celebrating 1-Year Anniversary at Bryson B&B

If you've been following our blog from the very beginning, you would know that today, December 28, is a very, very special day...

It's Bryson's one-year anniversary with us! It's almost unimaginable that only a year ago, we were merely strangers to each others who've met for the very first time.

Above: This is one year ago today, Bryson's first day with us (he was "CH Faerie Glen Ben Rabba" up to that point), thinking he's having a great little vacation with this nice couple. Little did he know...

Thinking back to that day a year ago at the breeder (when Bryson promptly greeted Jacques by peeing on his leg), and all the trials and tribulations we went through (think teaching a dog who's never been inside a home how to be a house pet), we could never have expected how devoted we would become to this little dog, and how he could enrich our lives in ways beyond our imagination.

And fast forward to today, not only do we have Bryson with us, we've also got Picasso and Gizmo as Bryson B&B just opened this holiday for business.

Yes, everyone's out of town, so Bryson thought he'd make a buck (or a bully stick) welcoming his buddies home to stay with us this week, plus they can throw him an Anniversary/New Year's bash while they're here. What a plan.

Above: Innkeeper Bryson invites houseguests Piccaso and Gizmo for a stroll in picturesque Point Isabel

Right: A stay at Bryson B&B includes such personal service as being held and loved whenever possible. Notice Innkeeper Bryson isn't too happy when there is apparently a bit too much attention given to his guests.

Below: Also included with stay is 24-hour service on hands and knees as requested.

Check out our Flickr album for more pix.

A White Christmas

Just as we were complaining about the weather in Seattle, we were showered by an unexpected flurry of snow on Christmas day, bringing us a very appropriate white X'mas. It was quite lovely.

It's our niece Chloe's first X'mas, and there must be a Rule Book for Infants they all secretly read that tell them to "ALWAYS look the other way when they gather you around and make you stare at a black box standing on 3 metallic legs that emits this horrible white flashing light- you could lose bowel control"

Check out our Flickr album for more X'mas pix!

Christmas in Seattle

So, we've been here in cold and wet Seattle for a few days now. Despite of the weather, it's nice to spend some time with family and see my sister's baby, although that means leaving Bryson back home (he's with Picasso at "Winter Camp", or that's what we told him, they're really at Cotati Dog Boarding, a very nice doggie hotel in the wine country with a huge lawn for them to run around in. No wine for the hotel guests though).

Before we left, we gave him his (read: my) X'mas present from daddy (see right). Yes, it's an oil portrait of Bryson! It took him a while to decide whether he likes it or not... it does look kinda like him (although he said he does not have a double chin), but it smells awful and does not appear edible.

Upon arrival in Seattle, we're astonished to see Chloe having grown soooo much! She was barely 6 lbs when she was born, and now she's more than doubled her weight at a whopping 13 lbs in just 3 months!

"Hi! I'm Chloe, I'm 3 months old and I love my Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Ivy, Uncle Jacques and Cousin Bryson (whom I'm very much so looking forward to ride on)."

Grandma taking a picture of Chloe on her cell phone to take back to Hong Kong to show off.

Jacques had a small accident today while shopping at Target- no, he didn't get ripped off on poorly made Chinese goods, but he sprained his ankle bouncing down a completely flat and obstacle-free aisle (I know, beats the hell outta me too). I've carefully wrapped, iced and ibuprofened the injury (something I have lots of experience with, unfortunately). So I guess we'll be limping all the day back to San Francisco tomorrow.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

More on Letterpress

So, as promised, here is all the fun that goes behind printing on the Vandercook press for the business cards you saw on the previous post. (This is after 4 weeks of designing, sketching, Photoshopping, tinkering with the design, more tinkering with the design...)

(1) We started with the not-so-glamorous process of cleaning the remaining ink off the rollers of the press from the previous job. The cleaners are totally environmentally friendly- just good ol' Crisco and alcohol. Eek. Oh, and you can also kinda see the photo plate (the golden plate at the top left corner) bearing the image of the business card which will be put to work in a minute.

(2) Inking the rollers. Note the purple gobs of paint, well, they're supposed to be carefully and evenly applied, eh, not quite here at my skillful hands. The ink is rubber-based, and is carefully mixed by my teacher, Kim, according to a color I picked out from the Pantone chart (5005, in case you wanna know). And it was perfect at first try at her expert hands, it would have taken me hours.

(3) You couldn't see it here, but the plate has been placed on the press, and it is in the process of being rolled over and inked as Kim cranks the press. And in the same motion, the paper is rolled over the plate right after the plate's been inked.

(4) Roll, roll, roll the press. And... taking out the first test print (here you can see the photo plate on the press)

(5) Kim and classmate Armando scrutinizing the test print...

(6) Tah dah! First test print! Obviously the alignment is off and the rollers and packing need to be adjusted, but I was sooo proud when I saw it, it's like seeing my newborn for the first time! The business card I designed... woo hoo!

(7) Lots and LOTS of adjustment, test prints later, I spent quite a few quality hours cranking the press and cutting them with the guillotine (which took forever)... and here's it is:

... but not complete till a super glam rhinestone is attached. Voila!

Paper Elixir Letterpressed Business Cards are Born!

They're here! They're here!!!

I can't quite believe that after 5 weeks of letterpress classes, I am finally holding the box of Paper Elixir business card that I (with much help from my talented and patient teacher, Kim) lovingly designed and hand printed!

And if I may say so, they look pretty darn awesome. (Pardon the poor quality of the pix, lighting on a gloomy day sucks)

And with this experience, I can tell you that every piece of letterpressed work is really a labor of love...

For example, the flowers are real, pressed hydrangea each delicately handled, scanned in and photoshopped. The mortar and pestle (you need that to mix an elixir, right?) is a sketch my teacher persuaded me to do (I was going to use a photo). It took me hours- I'm not much of a sketcher- but I'm glad I did, coz you can see how wonderful the details show up below. Then the layout is done on InDesign, with took forever, since I had to learn how to use all these darn design softwares and how a Mac operates from scratch (yes, I'm a lame PC user); plus I'm on the anal-retentive side when it comes to visual stuff. These processes took days, and you'll notice we haven't even started printing yet.

But I hope you agree that all the labor was well worth it. Oh, and one thing you probably couldn't tell very well from these pictures is how thick and luxurious the card stock feels. It's a 200-lb 100% cotton paper, it just gives it that extra oomph. The golden metallic plate you see next to the box is the photo-plate the cards are printed off of, which in turn is produced with the film below it (which you can hardly see).

I'll post more later about the actual printing process. There's so much knowledge and technical skills that go into it it's fascinating, but even more so is that intangible artist's touch that make each piece of work unique. I think I'm hooked.

A Whole Lotta Holiday Corgis

An attempt of a group photo at the last San Francisco Corgi Meet Up of the year last weekend (photo courtesy of Odecurtis, DJ's daddy):

It's funny how all the corgis on the right are so orderly and the other side's just plain chaotic. Also notice Bryson would not face the camera coz I had some treats in my hands, so all you see is his gorgeous behind + me frantically trying to bribe him to turn around = one failed operation.

We also had a lovely gift exchange (photo again courtesy of Odecurtis. Check out their Flickr album for more pix of the day):

Bryson was happy DJ got his present. He in turn got a rawhide bone.

Bryson is Mr. February (and August)!

For those of you who've been on MyCorgi.com, you'd know it's an online community where the coolest corgis and their people hang out, show off their latest pix and tricks, and engage in all manners of corgi-ism. You may also remember that Bryson and Picasso won their Halloween costume contest a couple months ago (uh hmm...). 

Since we corgi people never tire of showing off our pooches, we were all delighted when MyCorgi.com decided to create a 2008 corgi calendar using just their members' photos. (If you've seen those mass-produced corgi calenders in malls, you'd agree that there's room for improvement.)

So we submitted our pictures, hoped for the best (and notice we didn't shamelessly pull for votes this time around). And thanks to many Bryson fans out there, he was voted in as Mr. February (and Mr. August)! Yippee! (Cover corgis are Koby and Gardener, such an adorable pair!!)

Just check him out (don't know why but people seem to favor shots where he has this funny "serious" expression), I've also included pix of a few other super adorable centerfold babes (don't worry, the content is censored and determined to be suitable for a general audience):

The calendar is for sale here on cafepress.com (Note: this is the site where we got our other corgilicious paraphernalia, e.g. our corgimobile license plate holder).

Twelve Days of X'mas

OK, this is probably one of the funniest X'mas videos I've ever seen!!!

We feel compelled to share this most original rendition of the Twelve Day of X'mas by the Indian Boy Band sensation, Boymongoose, with you. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: if you're easily offended, watch this video instead)

You can download the whole album on Napster as well. We did and we've been listening to it every day, never been in a more cheerful holiday mood! Worth every penny!

Other than listening to Boymongoose, we're also engaging in more traditional holiday activities, such as decorating our X'mas tree.

This year we got a "smaller" tree- a noble fir standing at merely 6 feet, which would've been dwarfed by the ginormous 9-footer we got last year. Yeah, we went a little crazy last year coz it was the first year we lived in a loft with a 14-foot ceiling. It was like living in a forest.

And as we were decorating the tree, I thought it was so cute when Bryson busied around us sniffing out the ornaments. But of course by the time I take out the camera, he lost his interest. So, in order to re-create the moment, I cheated... I stuck a treat in the tree at his nose level and led him to the tree, and this is the result (he looked so strained and glassy-eyed it was actually a bit scary):

Happy Holidays!

Tackling Letterpress

I used to deny it when my friends call me the "Overachieving OCD'er". 

You know, some people collect coins, other collect purses- I'd love to if I have the dough, but I don't- so I collect skills. I know that sounds super geeky, I suppose I'm just hooked on that rush when you master a new skill and you feel all smart and pleased with yourself. And who knows, maybe some day I'll fight off an intruder with my superb Japanese stab-binding skill (ha!). Fine, I am an overachieving OCD'er.

With that, I'll admit to one of my latest obsession- which considering the development in my Paper Elixir business, makes perfect sense.

I've started taking letterpress classes. Yep, I admit, I'm jumping on the letterpress bandwagon as it's gaining popularity in the greeting card business. I mean, the quality is amazing (with the right skills), the potential is tremendous, and I'll be behind the times if I don't at least check it out.

So what's letterpress and why is letterpressed work creeping up everywhere recently? I don't have an accurate answer, but this brief intro of letterpress on wikipedia kinda attempts to answer the question.

I'm currently taking a class offered by Kim Vanderheiden of Painted Tongue Studios, whose class I sort of stumble upon, and what a nice surprise! Not only is she so much closer geographically than where I intended to go (SF Center for the Books, where the classes are always full), her classes are much smaller (I have a personalized week-by-week syllabus, how cool is that), and she takes the time to teach you other elements of good graphic work- Photoshop skill, sketching skill, etc. Oooh... the prospect of learning even more skills make me tremble with excitement. *shudder*

I'm currently working on a project where I'm designing and printing business card for Paper Elixir. Trust me, they're not your run-of-the-mill business card, they will be the coolest business card in the world coz I designed them and I personally printed them. Just wait and see. (Mwah ha ha...)

The picture above shows Kim's letterpress studio. I learned that that's an Intaglio press in the foreground with the wheel handle. And in the picture below, that's the Vandercook in the foreground (which I'll be printing on), and the Heidelberg in the background (same as the one pictured in detail above, which I was told amateurs like us wouldn't be touching for a while).

I'm 4 classes in and even though I've barely touched the press (lots of prep work), I'm fascinated with the whole process. From the humming (or more like cranking on the ancient Vandercook) of the antique presses to the whole art of putting the right amount of ink with the right pressure on the right piece of paper. It should keep my obsessive energy occupied for a while.

In the meantime, while I'm still accquiring this new skill, I'm falling back on some existing skill to create the 20 Christmas cards my husband ordered. These are 2 of the "oriental-themed" cards he requested (he works for Mandarin Oriental and he needs cards for their clients/vendors).

I should have my letterpressed business cards by this weekend (if all goes well), stay tuned!

Not a Lap Dog

Now, you all know that we're 100% dedicated corgi lovers, but last week when my friend Aimee's pomeranian, Gizmo, came to visit, I have to admit- covering Bryson's ears- that it was quite nice to have Gizmo as my lap-warmer while I was working at my computer.

And even though Bryson never tried jumping onto our laps (which would have broken both of our femurs for sure), I can tell from the way he was eyeing Gizmo that he really wished it was him who was on my lap...

So we did our experiment- Bryson as our new lap dog. I mean, size is all relative, right? Here's our best shot:

We tried, but nope, not a lap dog, by any stretch of imagination.

By the way, in case you're curious, Bryson doesn't seem overweight to us, but he does weigh 34 lbs, 4 more than his breed standard calls for. He also seems much longer and more muscular than other corgis we've met. Must be all the jumping tricks we make him do, or it could be the power protein shakes he quietly chugs down while everybody's asleep.

Holiday Tinnitus- ring! ring! Rrrrring!

The other day we saw this festive red-and-white stretchy holiday collar with a bunch of jingle bells dangling off it in the store. We thought, ooh, it'll be so great to dress Bryson up in this so he can fill the house with cheerful jingles and kill my winter blues.

So earlier today we lovingly put the new collar on, we clasped our hands in adoration, we ooh-and-ahhed for a little while, we took some pictures, shot a cute video, and we let him run around the rest of the day with it.

It was quite cute at the beginning, but now 8 hours later, he's asleep, and I'm still having ringing in my ears (medical term= tinnitus). It sounds as if a herd of reindeer is charging towards us (and they're still in North Pole).

And now we know why our friends look at us with such horror in their eyes when we bought their kids a mini xylophone for X'mas last year.

World of Good

It's that crazy time of the year again to brave the crowd and venture into the inevitable holiday shopping season.

Even I as an avid shopper am fazed by the holiday mob scene in San Francisco- the mix of gung-ho local bargain-hunters and tourists who think there's still gold here turn downtown into a positively chaotic mosh pit.

So I'm delighted when I found out there'll be a warehouse sale close to my house, hosted by a company called World of Good that promotes fair trade with artisans in developing countries.

Now, I don't know if every cent we spent there is really used effectively to help these artisans, nor do I believe I can't get the same thing cheaper at Walmart or some backstreet shop in Chinatown (which I probably could, but that's why we need fair trade), we were still happy to have got quite a bit of our holiday shopping done there.

Coz for one, there's no mob, and secondly, the stuff is actually pretty nice, and lastly, even the idea that we're doing something positive for humanity during this holiday that has evolved into this huge consumerism party is consoling.

So boys and girls, I'm sorry that if you're on our gift list this year, the surprise is somewhat spoiled. But do visit their website which has an online store, and feel free to pass on a good word.

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