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

Santa's Workshop - Part 2: Gocco Printing

With the help of my Print Gocco (a Japanese miniature silk screen machine , that was gifted to me by my friend Catharine: Thanks again - I love this machine!) I printed on plain napkins from IKEA. By the end of the evening there wasn't a free space in my studio, because napkins where laid out everywhere to dry. I made bundles of 4, tied them with black gross grain ribbon and gave them to friends and family for Christmas.

Santa's Workshop - Part 1: Glass Soldering

My collage glass pendants

My friend Lisa's soldered collage pendants

Lisa in my studio
Lisa in action: Soldering like a pro


The week before Christmas was a flurry of activities at my house. My studio was turned into Santa's workshop , where I worked on a bunch of projects. My good friend Lisa, who is a very talented designer, came over and we made little collages, put them behind glass, soldered and created fun little ornaments or pendants. I used two of my daughter's drawings, added a background and turned them into pendants. Lisa used beautiful vintage gift wrap and added letters and numbers. Her pendants reflect her great design and composition sense.

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.

Amazing Food and Lunch Art

I found these amazing Nursery Rhymes Cupcakes through Boing Boing on this Flickr account




On the same day Reddit published the link to these mind blowing Bento Boxes (japanese lunch boxes). These links were a perfect fit for another Reddit link about lunchbag art: a dad draws his kids everyday a new lunchbag. Don't you think these 3 people should get together and start a lunch service? Meanwhile I look at the lunches I pack my daughter and wonder, if I should try a little harder...

Shadow Puppets

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....

Lovely Shiba Inus

From the first time I saw a Shiba Inu dog on the street I fell in love with this breed. They are like little foxes and act rather like cats, all aloof and distant. So when we moved into our house 8 years ago, we also bought a little Shiba pup. Gizmo turned 8 this October and we enjoy his company so much. He has such a sweet face and mellow disposition. My friend Esther calls him the Steiff dog (as in Steiff, the German company that produces for over 100years beutiful soft toys). When Gizmo was a little pup he looked like a teddy bear. Yesterday I came across the most adorable site: a live shiba puppy cam! We've been watching the little Shibas all day long -
it's better than tv! Click on the image underneath and click the reload button after a while or go directly to their web cam site

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.

A Most Memorable Halloween Party

Our good friend, the talented Mr. Lucky was so kind to take us along to an extraordinary Halloween party. The party was held in a mansion and the decor was absolutely over the top. I was told that all the Halloween decoration will be gone the next day, but as you can see from the photos there was enough none Halloween related items that would stay. I have never seen more stuffed animals, dolls and taxidermy in one location, except at a store. It was an awe inspiring scenario, but also made me reflect critically on my own collectors bug. Obviously the designer's tenet of "less is more" wasn't followed in this mansion.

Mr. Lucky and the skull covered piano bar, where he later sang and entertained the guests.

Cool taxidermy!
More is more!
The surreal set ups often rivaled modern art installations.


Mr. Lucky, Abe and Ivory. In front Scott

I came as a dead girl, freshly bitten by a vampire, but not yet one myself.


This scene reminds me of the movie Blade Runner, when Daryl Hannah pretends to be a doll in the inventors apartment. David also looks like he is part of the decor and blends in perfectly!



Yes, it is a real moose!

Love Pee Wee Dolls!

Dead girls have fun with tigers.

Many babies are climbing up a giraffe: unsettling!

Scott is enjoying the company of the fabulous Allison Lovejoy and her friends. Allison performed some songs from her musical "The seven deadly pleasures"

My darling husband