I’m lucky enough to call todays featured lady a designer I truly admire and a friend. I “met”
Caitlin from Caitlin Wilson: Style Files and we instantly bonded over some personal issues along with our design styles. We constantly have the same favorite fabrics, fretwork, inspiration, etc. She is the one designer out there that I truly feels gets how I feel about design. We love a good dose of Hollywood regency, but also enjoy how eclectic items add another great layer to a room. It’s all about the mix with us. I’m certain we are going to enjoy her day! I’m super excited as well, because Caitlin is coming to NY in a week or so and we can finally hang out in person!
{Love a girl that enjoys a good dose of sequins mixed with David Hicks!}
8:30 am~ I wake up to my little darling who has a serious case of bed-head and a husband who is already ready for the day and walking out the door. We eat some breakfast, I check my email, and get the two of us dressed. It’s kind of a crazy time of day for me so it kind of explains why I don’t have a picture to go along with it. Just imagine…chaos, clothes all over the floor, and breakfast still sitting on the table:)
9:30 am~ Olivia & I are out the door at and into a taxi. My consultation is with a friend who has kids so she said to bring Livi along, which I always love. It’s still hard for me to leave her and she’s almost 2!
*I usually take the MTR (metro) everywhere but this client lives outside of the city where there aren’t metro lines so I had to take a taxi. This is what a normal day would be like…
*The Hong Kong MTR is actually really nice and clean. At first Olivia was terrified of all the people, but now she’s used to all the staring.
10:00 am~ Here’s my darling client Rosie- she lives in an amazing area of Hong Kong that has full ocean views. A fun, little project that I’ll be working on when I’m back in a month.
12:00 pm~ As soon as we get home, we run to the grocery store across the street from our house to grab some items for our lunch and dinner. Chicken, strawberries, and pineapple. Yes, those are American imported… you have to be really careful of the food in HK. They also don’t give bags out at the grocery store so I usually just throw everything in my purse, like so…
12:15 pm~ We get home and Livi’s best friend Lucy is there. We live in a serviced apartment so Lucy cleans our house everyday. She is a lifesaver and Olivia adores her! She teaches me Mandarin & plays with Livi. I love Lucy.
1:00 pm~ After I feed Olivia lunch, I put her down for a nap. Then my textile designer friend, Shanna, arrives to work with me on my fabric patterns! I made us a healthy lunch so we don’t binge on cookies while we work. We’re making copies of my hand drawings and then cutting, measuring, moving things around to work out the repeat of my hand-drawn floral pattern. Sorry but I’m keeping my collection a secret until it’s done- so you’ll have to wait to see it!
5:00 pm~ Shanna and I work for about 4 hours and we’re exhausted…however Olivia is well-rested after her nap and ready to play! So off we go to our favorite park in Hong Kong. It’s about an 8 minute walk and on the way Olivia is hailing taxi’s left and right. It’s one of her favorite things to do and I get a kick out of it everytime.
*Olivia & I have such a fun time playing at the park together- we usually spend a couple of hours there everyday. Our apartment is tiny so it’s great to have a place for her to run wild and get her energy out!
6:30 pm~ Back home and we’re ready for dinner. I eat left-overs from lunch- spinach salad with almonds, strawberries, grilled chicken, and purple onion. I make pasta for Olivia & Daddy, who arrives home around 8 everynight. Daddy & Livi play while I relax on the couch and catch up on emails and maybe even watch a show if there’s a good American re-run on.
9:00 pm~ My closet sized kitchen is a disaster. I pull out 5 dishes and my counters are full. Did I mention that I don’t have an oven?
*Olivia gets a bath and jammies are on, teeth are not brushed because she hates it! I have to chase her around the house, and some nights I do not succeed. Life as a mom. I put Olivia down for bed and I want to go to bed too…
BUT- the US is just waking up so I have to get some work done. The 15 hour time difference between Hong Kong and the US makes it hard to communicate so I find that night time is the best time to make calls and email. Most nights I work from about 9-1 am on project orders, E-design clients, the blog, billing, or crunching numbers for my fabric line venture! To give you an idea of my worklife- here’s my desktop. It’s a mess- I have a million little folders for ideas, clients, website, invoices, blog, etc. My husband tries to clean it up for me occasionally but I’m always dragging to the desktop.
1 am~ My body starts shutting down and I force myself to go to sleep even though I don’t have everything done. I add to my TO-DO list for the next day and shut my computer. And that’s my day!
A big thanks to Caitlin for sharing her day with us. Sounds like a good time. I love that her husband’s work leads to them living in many different countries. It’s fun to live vicariously through them while I stay grounded in NY.
P.S.: My sister is off to Hong Kong today. I’m dying for her to bring me back something/everything, but I’m not exactly sure what to ask for since I’ve never been. Do you lovely readers have any suggestions?
Wow. She has such a busy day. Loved hearing about everything, tiny kitchen countertops, Lucy, and Livy hailing taxis. So sweet.
I’m glad I’m not the only one whose desktop looks like that! LOL!
What a whirlwind – I work abroad from home as well so the schedule looks familiar, chaos, baby and all. Love Olivia’s galoshes in the vacuum shot!
This was such a fun read! I absolutely adore Caitlin’s blog and design style! So glad I was directed to your blog through hers, it’s fabulous!
So fun to see Caitlin’s day. She is so talented and dresses like a million bucks!
This was fun! And I’d also love to know what my friends should bring me back from Hong Kong! LOL. They go to China about once a year. 🙂
What a cool blog! Olivia is sooo cute! you are very blessed!
I love me some Caitlin Wilson! One of my fave design blogger friends. Her style is fab. Great post Camila. you know i adore this series.
xoxoxo
I’m a lurker who had to weigh in on what to get from HK – we spent a long weekend there a few years ago and my favorite finds were carved trivets in multiple colors, chunky bead necklaces, and some glass bottles from the trappist monk dairy. And I wish I would’ve bought a birdcage at the bird market – they were beautiful and fairly inexpensive. Great city, cool to see a designer who’s living there!
I love this kind of a day in the life kind of thing! It really is so much fun, I can’t wait until the next time!
Great In Her Shoes! I love this series and Caitlin’s style.
thank you everyone! YES- you need to have your sister go to Ladder Street in SOHO. It’s a street off of the end of Hollywood Road (enter from the temple on Hollywood Road!) That is where you’ll find lots of chotchkies like foo dogs, brass elephants, chinese pots, it’s heaven! make sure you barter hard cause you can really get ripped off being a tourist!
So fun to see into a designer’s life! Great series!!
I came over from Caitlin’s blog….been reading hers since she lived in Dubai, where I live.
What a great series…loved seeing Caitlin’s busy day and night, and especially learning about living in HK.
ahhh two of my fave ladies together at last 🙂
A task-master, design talent and beauty all in one. Serioulsly, Caitlin is gorgeous, should be a model!
I adore Caitlin and her little girl. It’s quite a feat to get so much done with a little one running around. I should know! Kudos Caitlin in all you do!
I love your “In Her Shoes” series! It is so fun to see the actual hour by hour schedule of all of these amazing ladies! Caitlyn is so amazing and I love that she also has to chase her daughter around to get her to brush her teeth. 🙂 Toddlers are amazing and a bundle of energy, but I am excited that these gorls will grow up with such a love of design and color! 🙂 So glad I found your blog! Take care, Courtney