Belated Christmas at my house post

Showing off my new, warm winter coat and red cashmere scarf in front of our Christmas tree.
I used the Christmas paper ornaments I designed for Kozo Arts in this set up in our dinning room. They are hanging from a mossy tree branch I found on a walk up in Tilden Park.
The glass bell jars hold a miniature winter wonderland scene and other sparkling silver objects that are dear to me. Pine cones are sprayed with antique silver.




Always part of Christmas in our house: Sweets and Flowers!

Christmas Cookie Delight! Our friends Lazarus and Gesina came by with cookie dough and icing and we had a lovely afternoon making Christmas cookies.

Some things in my house

On my sideboard are some of the gifts I received for my birthday displayed. The doll dates from approx. 1909 and is called "The dollar princess" because she cost one dollar in those days.


I decorated my bed room wall with a trio of vintage embroidered piano shawls.

I dressed the mannequin in my bed room in a silk nightgown.

Some of my lovely christmas presents

Angel of celebration

My favorite project this Christmas was making clothes for my wooden Santos doll, turning her into an angel and setting her up on our sideboard. I used beautiful German crepe paper and gorgeous gold and silver Dresden papers, that I bought at Castle in the Air, to create her outfit. I sewed real lace on the bottom of her crepe paper skirt with the help of my sewing machine and used pins and glues to keep all the other trimmings in place. Vintage keep sakes, like the brocade table cloth and cherubs used to belong to my grandparents. The gorgeous dark red Amaryllis came from my favorite flower shop Freshly Cut, opposite Monterey Market.

Christmas at our house

Our living room with tree and fireplace decoration


The dinning room with flower arrangements by my daughter and me. The ever changing decoration on the sideboard features flowers and wooden Santos doll

Window Displays on Haight Street

Last minute christmas shopping brought me to the Haight/Ashbury area in San Francisco and as always I enjoyed their interesting window displays.

Woodland Fairies on Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we did something new: We brought out the woodland fairies to grace our sideboard. In the past years the fairies had a steady gig in springtime. They would frolic on a rather big tray that was covered in grass, miniature daffodils, crocus, rocks and even had a little pond for them. Sometimes a small birds nest and miniature easter eggs could be found in their habitat too. This spring though we didn't bring them out and left them to rest up in their box. Wondering what to do for Thanksgiving decoration Valentina and I had the idea to bring them out into a woodland scene. Thank god, because a bored hedgehog was waiting in the basement to be put to use and gladly accepted to be ridden by fairies. Two flower arrangements sporting 3 different kinds of berries were quickly made and the table set to go. Friends and family came over to share dishes and indulge in turkey and pumpkin pie. For entertainment we made shadow puppets , but more about this tomorrow....

Halloween at our house

Every Halloween I look forward to my daughter's ideas for her costume. Naturally I loved her idea this year to go as Holly Golighty from Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's one of her favorite movies and she adores Audrey Hepburn. I was very sleepy, when I had to get up really early to tease her hair into a beehive.






These are some Halloween set ups around our home.

Celebrating my birthday in the moon

My dream come true: I am sitting in the moon

Having a blast with Mr. Lucky and the Cocktail Party

Last Saturday I celebrated my 44th birthday and it was amazing! All my wonderful friends came and joined in the fun. Everybody got their picture taken in the Paper Moon, that was set up in my office. It was a dream come true for me, since I always wanted to have my picture taken sitting in the moon. Thanks to my lovely husband and my wonderful father, who made this dream reality, so I could share it with my friends. (see all the fantastic moon photos from the party here)
To top it off, my dear friend and charismatic personality Mr. Lucky performed with a group of amazing musicians. The best jazz band ever right in my living room - that explains why I was the luckiest and happiest girl that night. I danced a lot and laughed a lot and in between got my picture taken. It was a night I'll always remember and the love and caring I felt from all my dear friends filled my heart. Thank you all for coming and celebrating with me. I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face.....

Paper Moon in progress

For my birthday party this year I had an exciting idea. I always loved the old photographs of people sitting in a moon. (Check out this blog it has a link to a flickr stream of such photographs.)
I asked my husband and my dad, if they could built a moon for my party, so I and my guests can sit in the moon and get their photo taken. well, the guys are busy building and here are the first photos of the moon in progress.

Incantations for the new year

Here is my Christmas Tree decorated in my favorite festive colors: gold and orange. Also on the tree are hanging these oval ornaments, that I made myself. They all have an old fashioned black and white image, surrounded by white glitter and underneath a scroll with a hand calligraphed word. The words all refer to qualities that we want to have in our life or hope to invoke in the new year, such as:courage, prosperity, benevolence, curios, knowing, valiant, etc. I call these ornaments "Incantations". This is the second year we are having them on our tree and it feels very personal. I hope that all your wishes for the next year come true. Happy Holidays!

Halloween Display

The display on my sideboard features , of course, a Halloween theme. the pumpkin sculptures are by Nicol Sayre. She is the creator of wonderful whimsical decorations. The wire basket with moss makes a perfect nest for my hand dyed Halloween eggs. This idea came from Martha Stewart.

Halloween party

Last year's Halloween party was a tour de force. I went all out and created this ghoulish buffet. My inspiration came from the old Baroque still life paintings, called Vanitas. I worked on this set up for a week and borrowed many items from my friends. Catharine was so kind to give me some items from her taxidermy collection, Ellie offered her vintage silver, Pam had a crocodile's head. The beautiful, but scary flower arrangement (who knew that a flower arrangement could be scary) was designed by Svenja. Scott and Valentina baked terrible finger cookies and Ellie brought her amazingly decorated cupcakes. When Halloween was over, it was hard to take it all down and restore my studio to it's usual set up. somehow I wish I could live like this all the time. After this Halloween extravaganza though, I felt burned out and Halloween was celebrated this year rather quietly.