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.

Valentina's T-shirt Collection

Valentina loves drawing. Over Christmas she turned some of her drawings into t-shirt designs and sold them quite successfully.

Our Valentine Cards

"Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart."
from William Shakespear - Midsummer Night's Dream
"Rain or Shine, You're my Valentine"


What to do when your Love's at sea? - a collection of poems, illustrations, rhymes and ditties.

"Loving a sailor is not always gay.
Loving him truly is a high price to pay.
He'll come for a kiss.
Say that you, he will miss.
You'll beg him to stay with persistence.
But the next morning you'll watch his ship sink into the distance."

"The sea, the sea. The sea has claimed he.
The boy who belonged all to me.
The sea is now his sweetheart, while I am but a spare part.
What do I lack, that posseses she?
I'll never know, but oh, so mysterious is she the sea."

"Once ago, I loved the sea. And as I did, it loved me.
But I found another love for me, and she became my bride to be.
We were as happy as can.
Unlike my old love, the sea, she was meant for me."


Last night our whole family was busy creating Valentine's cards for each other. No one could leave their part of the house and enter into the area where another family member had set up card -making shop without being shouted at: "Don't look!"

I made a shadow box and illustrated a Shakespeare quote from Midsummer night's dream for my husband. And was very happy when, after a long search through my image library, I found the perfect "berries".

My husband made the funny card with the house (actually a drawing of our house) and the little boy in the raincoat. He had come across a bunch of pictures with 1960's Valentine's imagery, that inspired him.

And last not least our daughter Valentina's elaborate Valentine's card with illustrations and poems. She invented a complete story . Her wonderful imagination and ability to draw everything from scratch always fascinates me. I love that the girl in her card is holding a real hanky.

Valentine's Jewelry

Big Ruby and small Garnets Tassel Necklace
Showing off the Ruby Tassel Necklace and Rose Quartz Chandelier Earrings

Fine Silver and Gold Leaf Coin Pedant Necklace
Tiny Garnets and Tourmaline teardrops
Cherry Quartz and little Garnets

Valentine's Day inspired me to make some red and pink adornments. You can see me modeling my 2 favorite pieces: a pair of faceted onion cut rose quartz chandelier earrings and a gorgeous ruby tassel necklace. They are for sale at Freshly Cut, the wonderful flower shop across from Monterey Market.

Love and Weddings

Today is the perfect day to make a confession: I love looking at Bridal Fashion and Wedding Design and always have to browse through the wedding magazines at the supermarket. I found a perfect blog to indulge my guilty pleasure: Brooklyn Bride is planning her own wedding and while researching all her options, she decided to share what she found on her blog.
She covers every aspect of Wedding Planning from the dress, the flowers to the invitations and cake. I found on her site three dresses that I would consider, when marrying my husband again.
See the dresses underneath. Which one is totally me?

Paper Laces.com introduced me to the fabulous Graphic designer Christopher Young. Being a nut for all things lacy, in particular paper lace and paper cut outs I just adore his Wedding Invitation pictured above. I love that it is black, which gives it a goth element.


Dress by Elizabeth Fillmore
Dress by Christos

Dress by Zac Posen


I don't care if it's for a wedding and maybe Valentine's Day would suffice as a reason, because I want to eat this cup cake creation by Justin Bernhaut (also thanks to Brooklyn Bride) right now!

Valentine's Vision in White

This morning when I looked out of my window there was a surprise: I was greeted by this vision of white. Puzzled I asked my husband, if he had noticed yesterday that the tree in my neighbors yard was in bloom. He was as stunned as I was by the occurence of snow white blossoms. The image was perfect with the morning sun high lighting the top of the tree, making it appear like a radiating halo.