{New life, new home celebration + Giveaway }

Hi Ladies,

I'm back from my 2 days in France and it's time to celebrate my first night at my new home with Mr B and the beginning of a new life toghether! Since the end of March we daily go at home to prepare everything, to organize, decorate, paint ... We still have too many things to do and finish but we are in!

What a better way to celebrate ? A giveaway!!! And what a better giveaway!? Something about Alice's in Wonderland!!

I've met Roberta, from Pinkcherrymania few weeks ago in the blogosphere. She has a blog and a great Etsy Store. Thanks to her fantastic tags, bags, boxes, "Drink me items" she had me immediately! It's the perfect giveaway for my blog and for all my followers!

She decided to offer 2 gifts from her etsy store :

* the set of 10 tags for the giveaway

* the set of 12 Dream, Love, Wish, Laugh, Live, Hope Cupcake/Food Picks

I've asked her to kindly answer to some question and here what she said:

Italian name, are you italian? Where do you come from?
My relatives come from spain, france and mexico and i married a scottish man :)

Where did everything start?
It all started when i was a little girl. i have always loved to create and make things. being a stay-at-home-mom, i wanted to find a way to use my creative energy and share it with others. last summer, my daughter had her 16th birthday party in the vintage alice in wonderland theme. it was very difficult to find vintage looking items for her party....so i made them myself! i decided to try selling them in my etsy shop and in a matter of weeks, i was busier than i ever had imagined! i had tried for 2 years to sell my creations on etsy with no success, so this has been such a blessing!

Your Etsy Store is your job or is your hobby?
My etsy shop started out as a hobby and has become my job. it is wonderful to have a job that i LOVE and that can also help support my family.

Why did you choose Alice's characters?
Since i was a little girl, i have been captivated by the story of alice. i remember dreaming that i had such adventures many times! as an adult, i never lost my love for the story of wonderland. i have always experimented with ways to incorporate alice in wonderland into art, decorating and everyday life, without having it look "childish" or "juvenile". i feel like the vintage illustrations of alice allow me to do all of the above. i have created items for children and adults ranging in age from 1 year, to older women having their second wedding and everywhere in between. the story speaks to so many, young and old, boys and girls, men and women....it is ageless, timeless and classic. i also create marie antoinette inspired items. although a very frivolous girl, her style is so inspiring!

Can you tell me something more about you? I know that you have 3 children and what else? Hmmm, well, there is so much to tell! i do have 3 wonderful children who live with me and a wonderful step-daughter who lives with us in the summertime. we have 3 girls and a boy, ages 14, 15, almost 17 and 4.

I have had many jobs over the years including hairdresser, medical assistant, art gallery manager, cake decorator.... i have never quite decided on what i want to be when i grow up, so i figure, i'll try everything!
I love to travel, but have not had much opportunity to do so as an adult. i did get to travel to russia as a teenager in 1990. it was one of the best times of my life!
I have a wonderful husband who is very supportive of my constant ideas and projects. we met in the 8th grade and went to high school together. we both married other people and had children before finding each other again and living happily-ever-after. after years of trying to have a child together, we gave up, but were eventually blessed with our miracle boy in 2006.

Hmmm, what else....i LOVE to go to antique stores and flea markets. i would love to travel to france someday. i live on a bluff overlooking a beautiful valley...every morning i get to look out over the alfalfa fields and watch the cows and deer and wildlife below. i also have unobstructed views of the beautiful sierra-nevada mountains, where i grew up. my home is such an inspiration.

our entire family is involved in the youth ministry in our church, working with high school kids. it is such a blessing to be able to give back and serve others since we have been so blessed.

Alice is a naive and poetic girl but also very curious. My father used to told to be curious in life. To read book to learn something more. To learn a foreign language , to travel the world, to have a lots of interest and so I did.

What about you? Are you a curious girl?
Curious? yes!!!!! i am very curious. my curiosity has been known to get me into trouble many times. whether it is reading old books, and studying history or exploring caves, abandoned houses and floating my way through water filled mine shafts (not recommended!) i find that my curiosity has not changed over the years and is such a vital part of my creative process.

Apart from your Alice's etsy store, do you have others interests?
The list could go on and on, but a few of my other interests include reading, writing, gardening, cake decorating, party planning, hiking, doing anything at the ocean, scrapbooking, crocheting, visiting museums and historical sites, travel, cooking , digging through junk piles and visiting antique stores.

I have a blog that i have not updated in quite a while, but i will be re-decorating it in the next week or so if you would like, come and visit me! www.pinkcherrymama.com

Thanks Roberta, for your kindness and for your answers! We love almost the same things...

She does beautiful things, look at her amazing Marie Antoinette tags

The rules for the giveaway:

1) To enter the draw please became my follower, visit "Pinkcherrymama" etsy store and leave a comment here within April the 27th.
2) To double the chance to win, please visit "Pinkcherrymama" blog and leave a comment (let me know it in a second comment);
3) the third way to enter the draw is to post about my giveaway and Roberta's Etsy Store on your blog (write me the link on a third comment).

3 chances to win!!! The winner will be chosen randomly! Good luck ladies!!!

Giveaway end Tuesday April the 27th, 8.oo pm local time. I will announce the winner next tuesday!

If you desire to be featured in my Etsy project or do you have an online store and do you want me to write about you and host a giveaway feel free to send me an email at gaia.borzicchi@gmail.com

Grab the button!!!

{Creature Comforts}

It's more then a year that I follow "Creature Comforts" an amazing blog about craft, photos, idesa, DIY projects and many many more.


It's the ... little inspirational heaven ... of Ez ((pronounced Ee-zee) !

Have you even been there? It's my daily appointment. Everyday, as a great magician, she take out from her top hat fantastic colors, ideas, pics. I also use to try to make some of her project that are easy and simple!

Yesterday she wrote a beautiful post about the "art of copying"!. I'm not an artist, I'm not a designer, I'm not doing something to be worried about that someone could copy me or steal my ideas, but she really touched me...

She say "...but I do know that it is wrong to steal another person's ideas/designs and play them off as your own. Copying takes on so many forms (from blog layouts, product packaging, full design copies, etc) and when you see it happen or it's done to you it really hurts. And not just the original artist, but the design community at large. I really love this independent design community...but time and time again I see this sort of underhandedness go on from within the very community that should be fostering originality and inspiration amongst one another, and it really upsets me.

So, what I wanted to have in answer to my lovely sponsors plea for help was a novel of fighting words and copyright law jargon for her to use to right this wrong, but ultimately I told her what I have learned myself (yes...there are copycats of my work out there too)...and that is this:

Anyone who knows and loves your work will recognize the care and true talent that you put into creating it. Of course this doesn't really help to make it hurt any less. But it helps me to remember that imitators are simply small people without the talent to come up with their own ideas. I have been copied (in all of my businesses) countless times. Each time it does sting, but then I try to allow their wrong-doing to become the fuel for my continued growth as an "artist / designer."

You really have to read her entire post. I agree with what she said because it has to hurts badly to see people copying you and get all the honours and merits.

"There may be a thousand other imitators out there throughout the years...but you have to remember that YOU are the original!"



Hello ladies... I hope you'll have a great weekend! I'm going back to France for a very short holidays with my family... Still planning the trip I hope to go!

If not, see you there soon!



Love you

{Friendship + Little Princesse}

I'll be Aunt Gaia soon.. my friend Mary will have her first baby in less than a month.

Beatrice, Bibi (how we will call her), is supposed to arrive around May 11th. I'm so excited and happy for Mary. It's more then 10 years we know each other.

We had a friend in common. She introduced me to her when I come back from USA, where I lived for 6 months many many years ago! Now the common friend has disappear and our friendship is stronger then ever.




We had our periods of up and down but we never stopped to talk. She's the kind of friend that always tell the thruth. She doesn't play games, if she has something to tell you she goes straight to the point and I can always count on her. She's no enviuos and she's proud of me.

She's having her best period ever. Pregnancy transformed her in a better way. She's totally another person, a better one (even before she was a great girl but now she's better, sweeter, quite, beautiful, ... ).

I'd love to take some pics of her. She asked me to do it before the big day! I'll show you!


I'm so happy I have few friends that I really love and that are truly important to me and she's one of them.
You know, you have the fashionista friend, the intellectual friend, the twin soul friend, the funny friend, the caring friend. I'm so lucky I have all of them! (you know who you are!!!)



Anyway.... I'd love to have a baby (more then one) soon but till then I'm happy to be "Aunty Gaia".

I have so many friends that have children and for them I'm the Aunty! I'd love to be that kind of aunty that teach you to paint nails for the first time, or to call for boy's problem! I'd love to be the "crazy" Aunty, that bakes always big quantities of amazing cupcakes"...





I've found (don't remember where!) Makie an american brand from New York (the city I love): I'm thrilled by the collection. I love everything. Those are the kind of clothes I'd love to wear too and that I'm always looking for!





Bibi would be so beautiful...


Thanks my friends!!!

Friendship makes the world go round... don't you think!