about me...mélimélo!

When I was about 5 years old I came home and asked my mom: "Mommy, where do I come from?" Now my mom new this question would pop up some day, but so soon?? So before jumping to conclusions she asked me back: "What do you mean?" and I said, "Well, so-and-so comes from Ohio, so-and-so comes from Florida....where do I come from?" My mom was quite relieved of course and happy to tell me that I was from 'here', 'here' at the time being Panama.

That same question has followed me through life - ever notice how often we ask that question when we meet someone?? It seems to kind of define who we are.... I have often answered "How much time do you have?"....

So here we go:

I was born and raised in the Canal Zone in Panama of a German mother and an American father, which already gave me an eclectic start in life. At the age of 7, I moved to Germany and a year later when my mother remarried we moved to Hong Kong where my French father was expatriated. I believe Hong Kong to truly be my home at heart - a place where East meets West, where nature mingles with technology and where the old flirts with the new - a mix of many worlds. From there I moved on to Paris for studying, and after spending a year in the States decided to definitely make Paris my new home.

Now you'd think that was already a pretty good mix, right?

Well, here I met my husband of Russian origin, who was born in New York, but raised in France....I guess we are both perfect examples of what they call a melting pot and destined to meet!!

So that totals up to 4 cultures under one roof (American, French, German & Russian) and 6 different languages spoken (I can still manage some Spanish and did I mention my hubby speaks Italian??...) , plus a lot of Asian and South American influence which we try to maintain as much as possible and share with our 3 kids: Misha (11), Lara (4) and Ilya (2)!

What else is there to know about me?

I hate waste - wasting time, wasting energy, wasting money, wasting food.... So I like to make things that can help me save any of the above. And I like these things to be pretty too! I love being creative, but it has to have a purpose too! I have a business degree in Marketing, studied art at Parson's School of Design and 16 years of experience in retail both in-store and behind the scenes in Store Operations for Disney which is a world me & my family love (as you may have gathered from the picture of the kids and the mouse...)!!

Inspired by some of the great blogs I've come to love, I thought there could be room for one more and that it could be fun to share some of my creations and maybe inspire others...

Creations in cooking, sewing, painting, crafting, organizing, theming, entertaining, decorating, etc.

Hope you enjoy what I do and I'd love to hear from you!