the map

I happen to love maps...and this particular one is a map of all the countries where we have sold our jewelry.

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Norbert found this and plotted all of our locations, which comes up to 32 countries around the world.

When we first started our business we had no idea how global this would become.

You guys already know how much we love to travel so it is always exciting to see orders coming in from different countries, especially ones where we have visited or want to visit!

Now, all I need is a huge map of the world that would take up an entire wall in my house (just like our good friend Indrek's) where I can add pins to mark the spots where I have been....the goal on my bucket list is to visit every continent. And I have a LOT of countries on that list as well :)

p.s. Each week we have a sale item on both our website and Etsy and this week it is our Honeycomb earrings.

You can find them for sale in both locations.

Have a great week....it's the last week of school!

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Travels, a giveaway and a thank-you

As I mentioned in my last blogpost, my Estonian mother-in-law is visiting for the month so we are taking several mini trips to show her this gorgeous state. This last weekend we headed down to Salida to meet up with a friend at a beer festival.

Norbert's in red and our friend Rudy is in green

Since we were heading that way we decided to stay for a few days and drive around Leadville, Aspen, Vail and Silverthorne.

Between Leadville and Aspen is a gorgeous highway that takes you over Independence Pass which is above the treeline.....which basically means we are pretty freaking high ;) 12,095 ft. to be exact.

Some of my absolute favorite hikes have been in this area.

The road is on the side of a cliff for a good portion of it and it has incredible views.

I love mountains.

 I mean, REALLY love mountains.

That is one of the main reasons we moved out here. We live really close to the base of the Rockies and to get to all of these aforementioned areas takes only a couple of hours. That doesn't even include all of the gorgeous areas around the flatirons, which is half an hour away from where we live.

My oldest monkey playing in the water in Aspen.

We did conduct a bit of business while out here though, so it wasn't all pleasure :)

We just believe in mixing it up. Always!

Aspens on the way to Aspen ;)

I did want to mention two things before I head out to the farmer's market:

1. A big THANK-YOU to Irene from Bloesem for such a sweet mention to our shop.

 She definitely put smiles on our faces!

2. Also, Cassandra from Coco + Kelley is sponsoring a giveaway with $40 towards

any item in our shop. Head over here to enter!!

Oh! And also the newsletter was sent out this afternoon.

There's some good stuff in there ;)

Have a great evening!

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Denmark

the.plane.has.landed

....we made it back home a few days ago, but it's taken a few days to re-acclimate ;)

My boys have had at least a gazillion hugs and kisses since we've returned.

So are you ready for a WHOLE LOT MORE pics??

.......here is Denmark:

Indrek's birthday party consisted of: 

1. amazing food....4 courses to be exact!

2. mojitos & wine

3. Fantastic conversation

4. An impromptu juggling fest

5. Sore cheeks - so, so much laughing!!! love this SO much

6. 5 a.m. bedtime - can't tell you the last time that happened!

Now a tour of Copenhagen...

The Queen's palace

A boat ride

The most amazing views!

A very chic and metropolitan city....

This is Tivoli.....an amusement park that led me prancing around snapping roughly 200 hundred pictures of lights, sculptural shapes and architecture. It is seriously a wonderland...

And now.....Hamlet's castle.

I LOVE castles...anything ancient and old, really. This means that you can catch me staring in fascination at cobblestone streets, gargoyle water drips, sculptures......all the details. I notice and absolutely love them. I guess this started when I was very young and read loads of stories that were based in these settings. I don't think I'll ever tire of looking up, down, and all around me, searching out the remnants of history.

I've already said AT LEAST a million times that I love to travel....this equates to a very, very happy me right now. I've had a wonderful fill.......and next? Well according to my husband and Indrek it's Argentina....same time next year ;)

....and as always, an inspired me, means that I've come home with designs dancing in my head :)

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Italy!!!!!!

So here's the story:

We flew to Copenhagen and as soon as we arrived I was told that we were going to take a trip into mainland Denmark and look around for a few days. I had an hour to quickly shower and throw some clothes into my backpack....we drove a few hours across Denmark to another airport where I found out that Norbert and Indrek (our friend) had planned a short trip to Milan!!!!! What an absolutely amazing, wonderful, and SURPRISING trip (seriously I had no clue...but apparently Norbert had told everybody else, and their dog, his plans! :)

We had such a fabulous time in the few days that we were there. The flight was a mere hour and forty-five minutes, so the extra traveling was absolutely no problem. We stayed at this gorgeous hotel overlooking a lake just outside of Milan. Above, is the view from our hotel.

This is where I sat to take the pictures of the lake and town. (Indrek snapped some pictures with my camera as well and gave me some photography pointers....he is very knowledgeable. I had so, so much fun running around snapping anything and everything)

After a wonderful dinner we sat outside with cappuccinos and relaxed, talked and breathed in the fragrant, lilac-filled air.

The following morning we drove to the gorgeous, gorgeous town of Varenna.

We stopped to eat lunch in one of the most picturesque places I have ever seen.

The food was incredible, the gelato, the wine.......it was pure decadence.

Next we took the ferry across Lake Como and spent some time in the town of Bellagio. Bellagio was a bit more touristy, but still gorgeous (George Clooney has a villa here and so it has brought a lot of attention and tourism to the area).

Next we went into Milan and spent the evening walking around the town square, and of course spent lots of time consuming food and drink, while having some amazing conversation absolute best tiramisu I have ever had!! By the way, it's insane how greatly dressed the people are here. I love it. I loved seeing all the older men wearing suits and quite a few sported fedoras as well. I miss this old way of dress....it is so elegant! It reminds me of old pictures of my grandfather...

I am now back in Copenhagen and I will share more photos of this area later....equally stunning as well, but before that I will be back in the next day or so to post some pics of Milan. I didn't want to overload this post with too many pictures. I have at least a gazillion ;)

So now I'm going to kick back and read until I am too tired to keep my eyes open. I can't even remember that last time I could do that!

ciao! ;)

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Going a bit gray...but otherwise well :)

The flight was not too bad. We were all able to sleep a little bit on the plane, which really is key to decreasing the effects of jet lag. Definitely not cake though...entertaining little ones for hours in a confined space requires having a lot of tricks up one's sleeves ;)

We were picked up in Copenhagen by our good friend and stayed at his house for the night. We had some wonderful, wonderful food and slept as much as possible My husband did the EXACT opposite, though, and payed for it dearly the next day...heeheehee. The next day we headed out right away towards Germany with my husband's mother, who flew in that morning to take the road trip with us. We then spent the night in Berlin and did some sightseeing the next day.

This is a picture of one of the remaining city gates into Berlin...in fact I think it is the last one. There used to be, I believe, 18 of them at one time. I'll have to double check that fact.


This next picture is of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The blocks signify headstones in a graveyard, which are unmarked. It was eerily beautiful....


Next we drove into Poland and stayed one night on the border then drove to the port city of Gdansk. This place is wonderful. All of the gothic and renaissance architecture is beautifully preserved. I am in love with history....so it is always such an exciting experience for me to be in these places that are the backdrops to these stories. When I first came to Europe I took soo many pictures of the cobblestone streets....I know, I know, I'm sure I looked like such a nerd :)


I look irritated....I may have been. My boys were such monkeys today!!!

So here is one of the main reasons we came to this city. Gdansk is known for its amber. After searching high and low, it looks like we have found a connection. There are hundreds of shops that sell beautiful amber jewelry and luckily one of the shop owners shared their contact. Below is a sample of some of the amber I bought.

We will look for some more in some of the smaller seaside towns here in Poland as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Below are a few more pics of the city....

You can see some of those amber shops along the streets below.

Baltic amber here seems to be what turquoise is to where I am from in the southwest.

Well we head out to Lithuania tomorrow....I'll post again soon!

See you in a few days....