TOTALLY FLATTERED

Not once but twice in one week I have been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award. First by the very blonde and beautiful expat Susu of Susu Paris Chic and yesterday by my friend Cyn of Confessions of an Obsessive Planner

Thank you both for this and I'm totally honored. Also, turning out this piece led to a bit of much needed reflection after a heavy season of deadlines, so double thanks to my friends above. Here's how the Kreativ Blogger works:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.

5.Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they’ve been nominated and in turn I have to let out 7 interesting and or embarrassing things about myself you might not know, like:

1.) I've never had kids. While I find kids charming and enlivening, I made the decision years back to pour all my love and energy into a fulfilling career as a designer and being a great wife to a wonderful husband. I am however the proud mother of a six-pound Chihuahua I have wanted all my life. Piccalina and I are inseparable and go everywhere together. Usually you can find her riding around in one of my many purses charming folks and canines alike and making tons of friends out there.

Our little girl, Piccalina

2.) Writing fiction is actually my first love. My greatest and most intimate moments have been spent alone, introspectively creating another world on paper. While much of writing for publication has creative limitations, writing for oneself does not. To be given the reward of time and space to write is a real gift I have at some times had, but not always. If someone asked what I wanted most in the world for myself it would be just this: time and space to write my own kind of fiction.

3.) I'm an avid fashion buff but give me fine china any day over jewelry. Don't get me wrong, I love beautiful gems and stones but don't particularly relish owning any. When my husband and I met, one of his first gifts to me was the most beautiful Flow Blue he picked up in a local antique shop. Since then we've been collecting so many pieces our home looks like a museum. There is something uplifting about drinking tea or coffee out of something so precious. Also, my clients get tea in these cups and love it . . .
4.) This is totally embarrassing. I'm a fashion designer but hate tags and labels. I mean that literally. I don't like shirts, skirts or any piece of clothing with a label in it--not even those that say, Dior. When I was a kid, I had a morbid fear of them, so much so, my mother had to cut all the tags out of my clothing. Are we being a tad Howard Hughes-like in this respect or what ?

5.) I love good coffee. It is the highlight of my morning. Right now as we speak and write, I have a pot of Colombian perking away and boy does it smell great.

6.) I yearn to time travel. When I die--or by some miraculous intervention God lets me go back in time-- I want to drop right smack dab into 1920 and dwell till around 1950 or so (maybe 1960). What I want most is to smell, breathe, and see the architecture and interiors when they were new; watch how folks behaved toward one another. Maybe I would be visible and interact, maybe not. I haven't figured that one out yet . . .

7.) I'm a baseball addict. Every Spring I look forward to watching Derek Jeter do his extraordinary sport/dance thing out on the field when he plays shortstop. GO YANKEES!