April at Sarah Reimer Designs: Introducing hand bound books!

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What keeps me going as a creative and a solo maker is bringing new ideas to the table.  Since listing my first batch of greeting cards back in May of 2015, I have tried new ways of bringing my travel inspired items a new twist.  Beginning with my travel calendar last fall, I branched out and successfully listed some hand drawn prints (mostly maps, bicycles, or nature inspired), and even sold my hand painted plates that I listed earlier this year (though they turned out nicely, I look at those as completely random. Can't say that idea really took off. But it was fun!).  This twist, however, seems like a PERFECT fit for my shop.  Hand bound travel photography notebooks.  These books perfectly showcase my travel photography while at the same time bringing in the art and detail of handmade.  Not only do I print the photos on handmade paper (and use that paper throughout the book), I actually hand sew these books.  Sounds tedious perhaps, but I love it.  There is something so fulfilling about actually creating these books from beginning to finish.

March at Sarah Reimer Designs: How I almost got famous this month. ;)

March was a slow month here for sales, but I did manage to get some pretty mighty exposure on this big world wide web!  I've also been reading the book, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, which has really allowed me to look at my work in a new way.  To me, it's not about the number of sales I get, but more that I am doing what I love and inviting creativity into my life.  I realize that I cannot control the amount of sales I get, but I can control what I put into my shop.  I had three major accomplishments this month that in return, did not make me any richer financially, but rather enriched my life creatively.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I am so glad we decided to keep heading south and into Malaysia. Don't get me wrong, the beaches and islands of southern Thailand were amazing, but it didn't feel that much different from Chiang Mai. Once crossing the border into Malaysia, it really felt like we were far away from home. New language, new food, new culture... it felt like we were worlds away. I really didn't know that much about Malaysia before coming here. In contrast to Thailand's Buddhist religion, Malaysia is mainly Muslim. Most women are covered head to toe, and I now felt like I really stood out as a foreigner. You'll often hear the “call to prayer” played over loud speaker where ever you are because most likely, there is a mosque in ear shot distance. The food seemed like a combination of cultures... but mainly has a Chinese and Indian influence. We LOVED the roti and naan while we were here (and probably ate it every single day). Prices were a bit more expensive than in Thailand, but it's hard to beat the low cost of Thailand. Overall, we had 7 days to spend in Malaysia, so we spent the first 3 days in Kuala Lumpur and 4 days in the Cameron Highlands.

Koh Lanta: Camping on the beach and motorbike adventures

Out of all our travels in the south of Thailand, Koh Lanta quickly became our island of choice. After doing some research on the different islands, what led us to this island initially was the long beaches, the sunsets, and the combination of tourism vs. local authenticity (some places in southern Thailand have exploded with tourism… not really our cup of tea). All of these proved to be true! You may have read about our experience at Lanta Animal Welfare. This was just one experience there that made our visit a great stay.  From exploring the island by motorbike to camping on the beach, we have a lot of good things to say about our stay here!

A visit to Lanta Animal Welfare: Koh Lanta, Thailand

Back in January, I blogged a little bit about our Christmas break down in southern Thailand.  You may have read about our Island Tour down in Krabi or our kayaking adventure from Ton Sai bay.  Well, the adventures continued for another couple weeks after that! Next, we headed to Koh Lanta, a beautiful Island south of Krabi, and then into Malaysia.  There really was so much to share, that I wanted to break our trip down into different posts, but only covered about half our trip (woops).  I am finally sitting down to share about the next half of our trip.  In all honesty, our trip just continued to get better as time went on, so I am excited to write a few new posts!

Our Neighbourhood... the Good, Bad, and the Ugly: Photography Week Four

I am excited to share this post to set some things straight.  Sometimes people assume we live in a "tropical paradise" where we spend our days drinking fresh coconuts while lounging on the beach.  Okay, we do have fresh coconuts quite often, and we do have a pool to lounge at if we want...  however, our reality is much different than a "tropical paradise".  We don't live on a compound or within a special community full of Westerners.  Our housing was not arranged for us.  We live in an apartment building in the heart of Chiang Mai (I will admit, it is a really nice apartment that is not so typical for Thai people.  See more photos here of our apartment).  There is a mix of locals and expats who live in our building, however, our neighbourhood is mostly Thai.  Also, in case you weren't aware, we are nowhere close to any beaches.  Chiang Mai is nestled among the mountains of northern Thailand and it would probably take at least a full day of driving to see the ocean.

February at Sarah Reimer Designs

Is February seriously over already?  Anyone else feeling like that month just evaporated out of thin air?  We even got one extra day with it being a leap year, and I still am stumped at where this month went.  It was a busy month for me.  I have been getting a lot more hours teaching here at the school (which is great, but I do end up getting less done for the shop), which I think makes time go even faster.