In the making

 Above, you can see a tiny sneak peek of a malachite necklace I'm working on (love my gold dipped nails) sorry... I  have talking ADD.

I mentioned here a while ago that I'm working on two small projects, which I hope get to grow successfully.  I have also said before how much I love jewelry and how much I love to create.  That said, I've been working on a line of bijoux and a line of prints.  More than anything else I've been always an entrepreneur at heart and I realized that I have lost too much time waiting for that perfect moment to do something that involves what I love.  I don't know more than what a regular person knows about jewelry but I know what it's in my mind and I know that if it's there, there is a way to make it.  It's not easy in my case because not knowing much about jewelry I can't exactly translate into physical what's in my mind but, I know I'll get there.
About the line of prints is done in a computer program, which I studied at NYU for a few months so that I know how to do it.  After designed I color them by hand.
All these happen to still be in the making but, I wanted to share with you my dreams and hopes.  Once everything is ready I'll show them here.
The bijoux and print line are both inspired pretty much on Architecture and Interior Design.  I hope you like them. 

What I took with me to Sao Paulo

I feel I've been absent from my lovely blog for ages.  Our little one has been under the weather for what's gone from the week and I've been paying attention to nothing else.  Thankfully today he's feeling much better and I have time to share with you what I have taken with me, not literally, these things were shipped, to Sao Paulo.  I'm very pleased with the things I got in such a short notice. 
Besides that I'll start with what I'm the least happy, the rug bought intentionally for the living room.  How on earth did I end up with a pale beige sisal/jute rug?  Well easy, these stores never have big rugs available, they are always in back order and I didn't have the time to wait for them.  Nothing, that sometimes you have to do with what you have.  Let's see how that works! 
When I opened the box of the Lawrence Flush Mount from Circa Lighting, I ended up gasping for air.  When I got it I had no idea it was going to be this beautiful.  It is really amazing!

  I was lucky finding great pieces at auction for great price.  I found a pair of this oversized French lounge chair which I got for a very good price.  They were lucky to come across my fantastic upholsterer in the US who was able to upholster them in just two days and got them delivered just one hour before the guys finished packing the truck.  Talking about luck, ha!  I used the beautiful ikat Schumacher fabric below. 

  And here, below is the carpet I have no idea what I will end up doing with… 

This handsome mid-century Brazilian sofa was sitting in the back of an Auction.  Begging to be returned back home and I did it a favor.  He'll soon be back home in its birth country.  This one may go in my office.

And finally the awesome headboard for our little one's bedroom.  The fabric is Cap Ferrat by Alan Campbell, Quadrille.  I can't wait to see his bedroom!

Our powder room transformed with wallpaper remnants

Our powder room was the only bathroom that didn't get gutted and redone.  It would've been a lot of fun.  This is usually the place where designers choose to go wildest.  Maybe in the future we'll do.  Let's be real here, that's far from happening.  The only thing that came down was a ridiculous vanity cabinet,  who has a cabinet in a powder room and why?  To our timing all this bathroom needed was wallpaper, in this case the remnants from Lucas's bedroom.  Didn't I get lazy here?  That's the beauty about seagrass wallpaper; it is highly forgiving due to lack of a pattern, and the natural texture of the grains fit flawlessly together.  I hired a professional to do this, even when he was dealing with remnants- which is exactly the reason why I did it.  The wallpaper was installed in thee of the walls and the one across from the mirror and toilet has a gallery wall from floor to ceiling.   The result is totally flawless, even I can't tell where the seams are.  Go ahead don't throw away those remnants! 

This is the after shot.  The mirror is from Anthropologie and the towel is Pratesi, bought at a sale.

House hunting in Sao Paulo: Our new home and I get a garden for free

I think I'm going to forget about hygiene and I'm going to walk barefoot on that floor.  Are you kidding me? mosaic floor for outdoor and not around swimming pools? 

If you've been house hunting you know how stressful could be to be looking for a home that offers everything you're looking for and a little more.  If you add all that to be looking in a foreign country that you don't know anything about, and which speaks another language, then you have all the scenarios to start biting your nails like a maniac.  We had two real estate agents who took us around, one spoke some English the other didn't.  Spanish is my first language so I'm able to understand a lot of written Portuguese, but understand it when spoken, that's another story.  Fortunately the real estate agents were very patient and we were able to find something that pleased us.
From our experience I could tell that Sao Paulo offers three types of homes.  The first option is a ‘casa condominium’, a group of 7 to 10 homes in a gated community.  After seeing three or four of these houses I started picturing myself ending up like the last Buendia character in One Hundred Years of Solitude, dried from depression and carried away by ants.  Ouch!  So sooner than later we decided that we're not built for gated communities.
Second option is Free Standing Homes.  For all the good reasons you can imagine while living in a foreign country this one was out of the question.
At that point we were left with the third option; high-rise buildings.  I'm not very keen of high-rises, but when we came across this complex with many of the features I love from mosaic walls, cobble stone narrow hilly streets surrounding the buildings and beautiful pine tree courtyards, we were sold.  Brazil is known for its beautiful vegetation and nature so I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out that in the middle of the entire complex there is a mini forest packed with monkeys that you can feed.  Lucas, our son, will be amazed by it.
The apartment is higher than I would've liked it, but the view compensates for it.  It seems to be a very common thing in Brazil for the building have one apartment per floor so we also loved the privacy of the elevator coming directly to our apartment.  

I'm not sure if this was a sign from God or if it's freaky.  The building's name has me and my husband’s initials and the funny thing is that neither one of us noticed it until just recently when we were showing the pictures to our family. 

 This made me so happy the first time I saw it.

 I'll be having espresso here soon.  Yes you read that right, espresso under the sun if I need to.

This is part the mini Forrest.  I couldn't take more pictures because they don't allow outsiders to take pictures.

The view that I"m sure will inspire us in many many moments when we feel like strangers far from home.

This is one of the many cobblestone walkways around the complex.  I'm planning to take Lucas for night walks around here.

 I finally have a foyer.  I suspect that ceiling is calling for some patterns!  Uhm...

Since we're not going to do any type of remodeling, I'm happy that the kitchen is in great condition because the bathrooms...ah... that's another post.

I love the open and not exactly open layout of the apartment.  You are able to peek into the dining room and TV room from both sides of the living room. 

The living room.  It's a new beginning and I couldn't be more happy and excited!

My Weekend and a project brief Sneak Peek

It's Tuesday already but I'd like to share with you a brief sneak peak of a project and snippets of our weekend, which was all about relaxing and walking.  We visited a family member who just had a baby boy.  What a cutie! And then it was all about hanging around and spending some time for myself while enjoying a bubble bath.

I'm often low in iron so there is always the perfect excuse to have an open burger.  Bobby Flay makes the best ones. 

Images of a project I've been working int he City where we decided to use Ringwold for the bedroom (above) and Renaissance for the entrance.