Happy St. Patrick's

Here's an Irish Blessing for You, on the occasion of St. Patrick's Day:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

Beach Combers

More iPhone photo practice. This time learning to making a collage. Perfect when sitting in my office on a conference call, bored to death, but trying to look like I am concentrating and multi-tasking. Aren't my little beach combers cute? 

What is Success?

Coco Chanel has said: Success is achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.

But she did not seem to have the most happiest of lives.. Maybe this quote (by an unknown) is better, after all:

Happiness is the highest form of success.

I have been thinking a lot about success lately. Mostly because I am going through a small age crisis (I am turning big four o this year). I was very depressed, thinking that I have not achieved enough success, that somehow I should have worked harder or smarter, to advance my career into something better and bigger. I should have lost the baby weight and be the perfect clothes horse that I used to be. And then my husband said something that really resonated with me.. That it all depends how you measure success. How true that is. I had been measuring success only in monetary and career development terms and forgot about the amazing success that I've had elsewhere in my life. For me, success is that I have been able to maintain a career, and still have a stable and happy marriage, three healthy, happy, smart and beautiful daughters, a comfortable home and a few dear close friends. When I realized that, I immediately stopped whining and started counting my blessings. I guess it is human nature to always want more. But it can make a person really unhappy. We should find a space where we can be grateful and happy about what we have, and still work for want we want from the future...

Prada

I can't wait for the Prada show at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum. And this time I won't miss it like I did the Alexander McQueen show. Prada's fall 2012 collection was great. One of their best in a long time, in my humble opinion. I did not so much care for the spring line with the hot rod theme. But the all black outfits, jacquard materials and modern navajo inspired prints of the fall collection are great.

Spring Fever

New York was blessed with a gorgeous spring day today. It was still dark and chilly when I left for work around 6 a.m. (!). By lunch time I was ready to take a good break to recover from work overload, so I took a nice long stroll around the Battery Park City board walk, and snapped a couple of pictures with my iPhone. It's so much fun playing around with all the photo editing apps. This photo of the Freedom Tower construction is edited with Pictu Magic. 

Inspiration - Nassau County Art Museum

The Nassau County Art Museum is a just a few minutes from our house, but for some reason we didn't visit until about a week ago, and then only because we wanted to take our lovely visitor there. We were so happily surprised, and this too, is now a new favorite place. How lucky we are to have this place so close! The museum is great - the house used to belong to the Frick family (from the US Steel fortune) and was one of the "Gold Coast" estates. The house used to have 140 manicured acres, with gardens, polo ground, swimming pool, golf course..the history of the house alone is fascinating.

The current exhibition was of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who is of course best known for the Tiffany Glass. There was some Tiffany Glass in the show, but it was mostly his paintings, which have never been shown before, as they belong to a collector and have never been in a museum before. He was a wonderful artist and we really enjoyed the turn of the century paintings, many of which were of Tiffany's travels to the middle east.

By a happy accident we arrived at the Museum just when a family tour was beginning. We learned much more about Tiffany listening to the docent. My girls enjoyed the tour too, and got to do some arts and crafts, creating "Tiffany glass" style art afterwards.  

Outfit: Prada jacket, Burberry Scarf, Ann Taylor Sweater Vest, Forever 21 Leggings, Costco Shearling Boots, Hermes Bag 

There were also some interesting lego sculptures by Sawaya. 

Sands Point Beach

The best thing about living in Long Island is that you're never too far from a beach. I am not a huge sunbather, but I do love beaches. The sound of the waves, the smell of the sea, the screams of sea gulls. My girls love our beach walks too!

From Winter to Spring

We have been so lucky in Long Island to have a very mild winter and some beautiful mild and sunny late-winter days. We have explored our area and found some new favorite places like this beautiful park at the Hempstead House in Sands Point.  

Lucky Charm

I have long admired the Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra jewelry. I would love to have either the Alhambra Vintage necklace, or the pendant. The four leaf clover motif appeals to me personally - it is a lucky charm.  During my childhood's summers in Finland my mother used to find me real four leaf clovers to bring luck and to make me happy, and I used to put them to dry in between the pages of books and keep them until they eventually crumbled. The jewelry version would not crumble :-)  I have been dropping hints as I have a big birthday coming up this year... we shall see...

Antiquing

Walterboro, South Carolina

One of the best things about traveling is unexpectedly finding new great places that you fall in love with. On our recent road trip we stopped for lunch at a South Carolina town full of antique and vintage shops, Walterboro. The cutest, quiet and tranquil little town with one main street, and all the antique shops in a row... We treasure hunted for an hour or so, and I found an amazing Indian hand woven and printed fabric that I will use as a table cover. And the best part, it only cost $12 - that would have never happened in New York - in fact, I saw some similar fabrics at the ABC Home store for about $400!

The Little Things That Make You Happy

Traveling with kids can be challenging...believe me, I know, having traveled with small babies several times a year on long flights. And when you travel, little things can make you really happy, like some swans fashioned out of towels, waiting for you in your hotel room when you come in all tired and ready to crash. Then all you need is a hot shower, clean crisp sheets, and a good night's sleep.

Prints Prints Prints

Something interesting is happening in the fashion industry.. And it is prints. Prints are not just a fad anymore or a short lived trend, but an important way in which fashion houses can differentiate themselves without slapping logos everywhere. Of course some companies have used prints for forever (Hello Marimekko!, Missoni, Pucci, etc.) but now they seem to really have become key for many fashion houses, which use prints to add interest and to add the ability to ID a style. Past season Prada (bananas), Stella McCartney (lemons), and now for this spring, Jil Sander's paisley. Instantly recognizable, and elevating a line's profile to new heights.

Jil Sander

Jil Sander

Jil Sander

And the Winner is...

Meryl Streep is not know for her fashion sense, but at this year's Oscar's she was stunning in this Lanvin gown. It was so totally right for her, and for the moment. It oozed old Hollywood glamour and was oddly on trend with the color gold (apparently Milan's shows were full of this color, i.e. we'll be seeing it a lot in months to come). When you are older, it is so hard to choose dresses that don't make you look like you're trying hard to look young, or just make you look too matronly, or too complicated, or too something. This dress is perfect in every regard, and I am so happy that Ms. Streep won the Oscar. She definitely deserved it - and even though it seems that she has won something every year, she has not won the best actress since 1982. And I don't think that anyone can question her amazing talent...