We are participating in the week-long Etsy Spring Sales event by discounting all our prints at 15% OFF! There are no limitations. And the sale runs from March 22nd to March 29th. So come on over to our Etsy Shop page to not miss out on our PICA prints sale!
Today marks three years since we launched our first set of bright pop art prints into the world! And this year, our third, was definitely a very busy year for us. Settling down in a new place, let alone in a new country, has kept our days full with lots to do. Busy putting down the much needed foundation for a forthcoming creative new year. As I am typing this we already have a pair of new prints underway in their final stages of brand new colour scheme development for us to kick off the new PICA year on a creative note. *Spoiler alert* This time we are taking a new direction and going a bit more historical, channelling the upright warrior nerd in all of us. *End spoiler*
Ambitions aside, we are very excited to have made it into our 3rd year of our artistic endeavour, and endlessly thankful for all the support and feedback we have received from you! We are hopeful and eager to grow our toddler enterprise into something big one day, to continue to spread and share our love for colour and Japanese culture with the rest of the world. Because at PICA we believe that everyone should have a dash of happiness on their walls!
*making a wish and releasing the balloons* ゝ(▽｀*ゝ)
Last month we said goodbye to our hometown Toronto, Canada and got on a 14-hour flight to continue our PICA adventure in the land that inspired it all. That’s right, the three of us are now officially back in Japan!!! More specifically in Yokohama—the large city on the bay with a great Chinatown, and a stone’s throw away from Tokyo on the north and the beautiful serene mountains on the south-west.
This is our second move to Japan, and PICA’s first. It’s been awhile, almost four years ago, since we left Japan after settling here for two years in 2011. And it’s breathtaking to see how many things have changed and evolved since then. Tokyo, as one would expect, is truly an ever-changing city. That makes it equally nostalgic and exciting. Living so close to it gives us that unique opportunity to live through its transformations and happenings, and perhaps even take part in them. We can’t stop to hope that perhaps one day PICA too will find itself in a small shop somewhere on one of Tokyo’s quintessential streets, not just paying a tribute to the culture, but physically becoming a part of it.
So what now?
Right now we are taking some time to settle in. We have our new place, but it is bare and waiting for our furniture and some decorating love. Once we fully do settle in, we hope you’ll be seeing more blog posts about our new fabulous adventures under the rising sun as well as fun insights on the what’s new and happening here and now.
We truly believe that being back is essential to our happiness (cause we love it here so!) and gives us that unique chance to draw our inspiration from this rich colourful culture first-hand for new and exciting ideas for our future prints and Japanese insights for our blog.
So stay tuned for more updates on our grand move! There are sure to be a great deal of new thrilling milestones in store for us in the year to come—an incredibly exciting time for PICA and us!
P.S. Hime Himstar the Great is a trooper and a true travel cat! We are so ecstatic to have her with us. And she herself quite loves the new place as well! (=^ェ^=)
Time flies! We can’t believe that it has been 2 years since we first published our initial set of prints on Etsy. 2 years... wow! The second year saw some new prints added to the collection, expansion into new social media channels, as well as some major changes that were in the process and you will hear about very very soon! ;)
We are extremely grateful for all the support and advice we received from our friends and family, and the positive reviews we received from our customers and fans! The third year will be a very busy year for us. We are looking to expand the PICA library, the blog posts, social, with lots more to come! The greatness is coming!!!
*blowing out candles* ゝ(▽｀*ゝ)
With new and exciting prints coming soon, we decided to launch our very own newsletter campaign. Sign up today to get our colourful store updates, promotions, fun blog updates on Japanese culture insights, and exciting news from the world of PICA. We will only send out the letter when we have something to share, so rest assured we won’t spam! :)
You can find our quick signup form on the right ->
You can also click here to join our mailing list.
We are happy to announce that we have made changes to our shipping rates that affect the whole world! We know shipping costs play a big factor when ordering your favourite print. So we hope our new lower fee flat rates will put a smile on your face at check out time.
We are based in Canada, so shipping to United States and Canada provinces is the cheapest. Here are our new lower shipping fees:
United States and Canada — $5 flat rate
International — $10 flat rate
Don’t forget, the shipping rate is flat, so you can order as many prints as you like and the shipping rate will stay the same.
The delivery times vary by destination. US and Canada orders can take up to 3 to 10 business days, while international orders take 6 to 20 business days.
For more details please visit our Shipping page located in our site’s footer.
Robby and I are ecstatic to announce that our print has been chosen as top 12 finalists in the Art & Illustration and Paper Goods category and the top 60 finalists of the Canada 2016 Etsy Awards!!!
Please show support by voting for us here: https://etsyawards.com/ca/Finalist-...
Vote for this print!
It’s only 1 vote per person. Voting closes on June 6th, 2016. Your support is truly appreciated!
Our Etsy shop can be found here: http://picathingswelove.etsy.com/
This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, PICA is coming to the Leslieville Christmas Pop-up Market. If you are in Toronto and in the dire need of some fun, colourful prints, come and visit our table! We are preparing a colourful selection of prints featuring Daruma, Maneki Neko, Katori Buta, Tokyo Odaiba Ferris Wheel, and many more—a perfect gift to warm up your home and bring cheer to the winter holidays!
Hosted by the VanderBerg House, the Leslieville Christmas Pop-up Market is located in Toronto at the 25 Booth Avenue (south of Queen St. East). It is an 11am to 6pm Saturday, December 12th and Sunday, December 13th event, so there is plenty of time for you to come by and say hello!
Learn more about the event here.
Look forward to seeing you there!
It has been one year today that PICA Things We Love first opened its doors to the world on the Etsy Marketplace. Since then it has been a start-up roller coaster of figuring out the nooks and crannies of what it meant to be PICA. We definitely came a long way from November 16th, 2014. We grew our Etsy store. Opened doors to our first official online store. We acquired lots of new friends via our social channels. We definitely believe we took the right steps in the right direction. And with that we are very thankful for all the support and advice we received from our friends and family who helped us get to where we are now!
Keeping with the spirit of PICA Things We Love, we are always looking positive to the future. We believe that there are great things waiting for us in the new year. And by year two, we are hoping to celebrate even bigger milestones. After all, no matter what, we will always be designing and illustrating—making the world a colourful place one print at a time!