cover girl and a very merry christmas

Do you remember the photoshoot that we did waaaaaaay back in January for a Japanese magazine on decorating for the holidays, American-style? I kind of forgot about it too until Asako, our contact and writer, emailed me not too long ago saying that it was finally out in Japan and in Japanese bookstores here in the states. She came by Gifted on Tuesday to deliver a few copies. We nearly fell off our chairs in amusement when we saw Mia on the cover! Mind you, this photoshoot was taken almost exactly a year ago so this was pre-2009 house improvements (like the wall in the kitchen looks so bare without the wallpaper…and is that a dirty blue sponge that I see on the edge of the kitchen sink? ha!).

We have a 2 page spread that you can see below (and for some reason because of the way I am sitting, I look puffy and pregnant in the photo. No, it’s not just my imagination, my friend Re Jin agreed too when she saw it, gah!). There are a few other American families and their homes featured in the magazine, although I am totally speculating because I can’t read Japanese. I don’t know what they are saying about us here, so if anyone can roughly translate, please do!

Ahhhhh, today is the last day of Gifted. It’s a short 4 hour day too so it sort of feels like a half day at school. I’m leaving shortly to go set up and Mark will join me after he mails 14 more packages out today. After he does a bit of work for the restaurant where he bakes, he’s done for a few days. It’s over (I, on the other hand, will be working Christmas weekend on a last minute design assignment that just came in from a client, hmm). We’ll be spending Christmas morning here with a nice breakfast and present opening and then we’ll drive out to my parents for a retreat to the burbs till Monday. Although we still have a queue of orders that still need to go out next week, we hope to do all the fun Christmas stuff that we haven’t been able to do in the city like see the Rockefeller Center tree and the fancy shop windows.

Oh, one more thing: Some nice blog readers nominated us for the Apartment Therapy 2009 Homies. Sometimes these things feel like popularity contests and I don’t like that aspect of it, but if you so feel inspired, please vote for us.

Hope you guys have a great holiday. Thank you to all for checking in every day, for buying our cookies, for your nice words. See you in a bit.