The Great Pumpkin Hunters

Cecilia and Marcelo had no fear this past weekend climbing all over the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. They both dove right in much to the dismay of the vendors. I managed to match their clothes again for the season. It isn't always easy to do this as Cecilia is venturing into the "big" girl category of clothes and most brands make little boys' (and girls') clothing look like miniature star clothes. I'm a traditionalist and I won't dress my kids like a small version of Hanna Montana and Justin Timberlake. The outfits in these photos are from Papo d'Anjo, which my friend Coco represents at her trunk shows. It's all made in Portugal and superb quality.

I also let them eat on the fine china they were given as birth gifts, so we've lost a couple of Tiffany bowls by now, but I don't mind. Last week Cecilia dropped a porcelain Royal Doulton "bunnykins" bowl she was taking to the sink and she was devastated. "Mommy, my bunny plate...I LOVE my glass plates, Mommy." Then she proceeded to make attempts at explaining to me how we could just put it back together, or take it to Omar, our store's in-house restorer, as "he can fix anything." I was so proud of her expressing a love for the differentiation between plastic and porcelain. Marcelo on the other hand is in an only plastic phase as he wants to only feed himself and likes to throw things on the floor once he's had enough. Though when I feed him his cereal in the morning I use a porcelain plate, as I keep it in my hand. He's become quite independant lately and is talking a lot which is so fun. His favorite toy is a set of Le Creuset silicone pinch bowls my mom has at her house. They are in four colors and he can now identify them all, in Spanish, of course. Tux, my sister's Boston Terrier chewed one up a little bit and he was really upset about it. I think I'm going to buy him his own set soon. Thanks for indulging me in my more personal blog today...counting down the days to Paola's due date, 3 weeks to go (if I make it)!

Some more jewelry...on its way from Paris

Jewelry, Jewelry and More Jewelry!

This beautiful lady is a dear friend and client. When she heard that I was introducing a line of vintage jewelry, I found her at my front door that afternoon to try a few pieces on. And I have to say that I think she looks beautiful in this one.

This fabulous line of necklaces and earrings was created by the Parisian firm of R. Woloch. He created jewelry for fashion houses such as Dior and Chanel in the 1950s. These designs were used primarily for runway models and fashion shoots. The necklaces are hand-fashioned from glass and Swarovski crystal. It's impressive how detailed and well-made these are. And they have attitude - which I love! It's amazing what I nice piece of jewelry can do for your frame of mind when going out. In the bottom picture, I'm wearing my favorite necklace of the group because of its asymmetrical design (and it conveniently matched the dress I was wearing that night - how lucky!). Alas, back to reality.

In addition to the items pictured below, more from this line can be seen here.

As some of you might have seen, I took these beautiful pieces to a segment on CBS4 as well as NBC6. I still haven't been able to upload the videos, but I'm working on it. The CBS4 segment can be seen here.

Back to the French Markets

I've had so many things to write about that it's given me writer's block. Isn't that ironic? So I'm postponing the jewelry post for one of my "truly dancing through Paris" posts. These photos were taken on my trip last month (I can't believe it was just last month, it seems like it was ages ago) at the Sunday markets of Provence.

French cheese, anyone? I love cheese. I can eat a LOT of cheese. I almost look pregnant in that last picture. I'm almost 35 weeks now and counting down! My belly is a lot bigger than that in the photo. Next Tuesday I have an ultrasound and will get an idea of how big (or small) this baby is going to be. Cecilia was 8 lbs and Marcelo was 5 1/2 lbs so I'm hoping for something in between.
When in France I must have my daily "pain au chocolat". My favorite is in Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue, at this little "boulangerie". I was the total tourist and took pictures there too, luckily the "boulanger" obliged.

This boulangerie is very close to the central cathedral in Isle, so we usually go to the Sunday morning mass and then pick up our fresh breakfast to eat at a sidewalk cafe with a cafe au lait. Our purchases from this last trip are already crossing the Atlantic, so if everything goes well, it will arrive before the baby. I purchased the most exceptional collection of antique crowns I have honestly ever seen. Stunning jewels, original gilding, etc. I also purchased a collection of antique embroidered napkins that I look forward to offering in the shop. Enjoy my pictures...I took lots more to follow in future posts, including of some of the great dishes I ate!

Behind the Scenes at NBC 6

Recently I did a segment on NBC 6 for the show South Florida Today and Telemundo's Buenos Dias. These stations share the same studio so it was great that they could be shot one right after the other. This was in advance of our Anniversary Party and our exhibition on Marguerite Ghy-Lemm and our vintage jewelry. I had been in the same studio previously for NBC 6, but this time Doug and I made more of a point to take behind the scenes pictures showing some of the set up and pre-preparation that goes into the segments as well as the final result which is in video format. Believe it or not, I'm eight months pregnant here. It looks like I picked the right dress to downplay that usually very obvious fact.


My first segment for South Florida Today was with Roxanne Vargas. She was wonderful. She has such great television presence - she's beautiful, charismatic and elegant. We asked her to wear a piece of our jewelry for the segment and she not only obliged, but even wore the piece to do another promo and to do general news. I have to say she looked wonderful.


The segment was pretty fast, not enough time to go into much detail, but it was fun to do. I'm fairly certain I was tongue-tied through the entire process. Being 8 months pregnant, I've eliminated all of my morning caffeine intake, and I think it showed. And I had to get up early that morning to get my makeup done before driving to the studio in Broward.


The second segment was for Telemundo's Buenos Dias. Telemundo is a Spanish-language station here in South Florida. Being Cuban-American with a professor for a mother, I consider my Spanish very good, but I was amazed at how much more eloquent I felt in the second segment. Maybe I was starting to wake up here. In reality, my mother will let me know whether or not I was actually eloquent, but I felt more comfortable articulating my thoughts. My husband reminded me in between takes that I hadn't eaten breakfast, so the granola bar I ate might have helped also. As soon as we figure out how to load the videos, they'll be up for viewing. And next I'll write about this fabulous jewelry I brought back from Paris.