At home with Christine Mai Nguyen

When we set out to design the Smallserve bowl, we didn’t just want it to function beautifully—it had to live beautifully too. That meant considering your cat’s comfort, your home’s aesthetic, and the everyday realities of feeding time. That’s why we were so excited to showcase Smallserve in the home of Christine Mai Nguyen, a visual documentarian and ceramicist whose thoughtful, cozy space is shared with her two beloved cats, Sanu and Woody. We stopped by Christine’s Los Angeles home to capture Smallserve in action and chat about everything from feeding routines to the daily antics her cats get up to.

Read on for our conversation between Christine and Janis Ahn, our Creative Director.

Janis Ahn: How are the cats after the shoot? Were they a little tuckered out?

Christine Mai Nguyen: They were totally fine, I was really surprised Woody did such a good job. I thought it would be Sanu who's really into the camera and stuff.

Janis Ahn: So funny, they did really great. It made me realize how kind of naughty my cats are, I feel like if I had someone come in and shoot they wouldn’t be as welcoming. Here’s a photo of them pulls up photo

Christine Mai Nguyen: You have him printed out, my god…

Janis Ahn: Yeah, he looks like a gopher.

Christine Mai Nguyen: He is so funny looking, he’s so cute.

Janis Ahn: He's so weird looking. I love him. And then the other one.

Christine Mai Nguyen: His face is just like, my gosh. Beautiful.

Janis Ahn: Compared to your cats, they are ginormous, so it was pretty funny to see your kitties.

Janis Ahn: Jumping into some questions, would love to hear about who you are, your work, content, what you enjoy, basically, who is Christine?

Christine Mai Nguyen: My name is Christine, I post on Youtube, I've been doing it for 17 years. I also make ceramics and I've been doing that for seven years now. I DJ from time to time, but that's just for fun. And yeah, that's basically me.

Janis Ahn: 17 years, that’s wild to hear out loud.

Christine Mai Nguyen: Yeah, I just got a message from YouTube saying, "Thank you for 17 years of videos”, wild!

Janis Ahn: Tell me about your cats! How did they enter into your life and what was your relationship with cats before them?

Christine Mai Nguyen: They came into my life from my neighbor, who I was just cat-sitting for, then we fell in love with them. So when the owners asked us to look for someone to adopt them, we stepped in. I think they knew all along that we would want to adopt them. Before them was my next door neighbor, Ollie, the orange marmalade cat, and he'd been coming around since I moved in. So, I'd known him for about a year or two so we've been really close. He's always around and I fell in love with him. Before that, I had a cat in my early 20’s for about a year and a half, but then that cat ran away.

Janis Ahn: Oh yes, that story is crazy! Can you retell?

Christine Mai Nguyen: Basically, he ran away and when my dad recognized him in the neighborhood and I came around to pick him up, he had already been part of another family!

Janis Ahn: I definitely feel like there's always that one cat in people’s lives that kind of converts them.

Christine Mai Nguyen: Totally, yeah.

Janis Ahn: What’s your feeding routine like at home?

Christine: We feed them wet food in the morning, dry food in the afternoon. It's a little tricky because Woody’s trying to lose weight, so we’ve been experimenting with where we place the bowls. Smallserve has been a smooth transition for him—he likes it! And my favorite thing? It’s so easy to clean. We don’t have a dishwasher, so the glossy glaze is a lifesaver.

Janis Ahn: Between your cats too, what makes them unique? My cats are total opposites of each other, how would you describe each of them?

Christine Mai Nguyen: So Woody is the older one, he just turned 13! He's polite, gentle, and loving. He loves to cuddle. He acts like an older brother to Sanu, who's turning 9 this year. She's kind of like a main character and really only thinks about herself. She's really goofy and doesn't consider Woody. For example, if there’s a heated pad, she’ll claim the center, whereas if Woody sees it’s available, he’ll scoot to the very side so that she eventually comes to him. She's really funny and also loves affection. She's very vocal and we think that she's kind of sassy.

Janis Ahn: There's an obvious love for things and for your space, it’s clear you’re really mindful of what you have in your home. I love seeing all the beautiful things that you collect including your personal ceramic work. Since you have the cats now, how do you balance that? Since cat furniture can famously be a bit of an eye sore. For example, some people don’t want to get a cat tree for that reason.

Christine Mai Nguyen: That's the first thing I was just thinking. A frustration would be there’s certain things we can’t really have around, like if you want to commit to a nice couch or a nice rug, you really can't! But we really didn't change much. They seem happy with the way the home is, the only thing that we did that changed our house really was setting up their sleeping stations or their pillows everywhere with the heating pad.

Janis Ahn: That’s such a great idea, I totally have to steal that concept. I love seeing how you customized a way to make their comfort still beautiful for your home. Working in this space, the cat industry is pretty underserved on the design end!

Christine Mai Nguyen: Jason and I are very crafty people, so whenever we're looking for something we kind of just solve it for ourselves. A scratching pad integrated into the couch would be cool somehow, but we have jute rugs and they use those as the scratch pad.

Janis Ahn: For you as a cat parent, what are the best daily moments that you have with Sanu and Woody?

Christine Mai Nguyen: My friend was talking about this yesterday and she told me that my face lights up every time I talk about my cats. I'm like, I know. They’re my comfort! For Sanu, I love that in the morning she’ll be at the foot of our bed, and when she wakes up, she stretches out and cuddles with us. She's purring and she's just so happy and sweet. For Woody, when we go to bed at night, he crawls right into my armpit nook and falls asleep.

Janis Ahn: Cat purrs are so healing. Especially if they're directly on your chest, I feel like if I had a long day or if I wake up and I'm kind of stressed out and one of them is literally sitting right on me, it's truly very healing.

Christine Mai Nguyen: Yeah, I believe that for sure.

Janis Ahn: Seeing how you interact with your cats, it's so clear that they're like your children and you love them so much. Did Jason grow up with cats?

Christine Mai Nguyen: He had two orange cats, they were two orange marmalade sisters.

Janis Ahn: So good.

Christine Mai Nguyen: Sometimes when I walk by his office, Sanu will be on his shoulder and they'll be in a hugging position, and he’ll just be holding her while working on his computer. She’s in love with him.

Janis Ahn: In your fantasy world as a cat parent and someone who cares for your home, what would a dream product be for your cats that still looks great?

Christine Mai Nguyen: A designated cat bed that's the size of a human pillow so that you can just take whatever type of pillow that your cat prefers, if they like a firm pillow, soft pillow or whatever, or heating pad underneath

Janis Ahn: The designated cat drawer you have is amazing. I have little boxes lying around, but I think I need to transition into that so it's easy access to everything. I was inspired.

Christine Mai Nguyen: Yeah. It makes it so much easier to treat them and grab their supplies.. And every time they hear that drawer, they get to go outside, since that’s where we keep their collars or get a special treat.

Janis Ahn: I really appreciate you taking the time chatting with me, it was lovely learning more about your home and your cat parenthood journey.

Christine Mai Nguyen: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me!

You can follow Christine on YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok as @chrissstttiiine.