My mother has become the beholder of all family treasures and the keeper of all secrets. Today, on our last day until we come back in October she pulled out the old family bibles and told Jarek and I where our creative spirit was born. Her grandfather, Karl Grawe, a humble hardworking farmer from Pomerania by day, was a delicate painter and calligrapher by candlelight. She told us that nobody understood how he did this-because his hands were as big and as rough as bricks. Here some of his sketches done in 1883, his writings and the beautiful record keeping of those times...Yes, this too is were we are coming from. We just never knew.

Finally we meet her: the newest member of the BINTH family: Pia Victoria 

Born on April 20th to my brother Hendrik and his wife Andrea. Here she is in all her baby cheek beauty, trying to nap in my mother's house, cozied up in the family crib being ungraciously interrupted by her aunt and cousin from Amerika...

How is this for a first day in Germany? We started our afternoon in a church and ended it in a castle. We are in Heusenstamm, a small town in the outskirts of Frankfurt.  Home to my sister Julia and her soon be be husband Wolfgang. Today it was all about their upcoming wedding day. A long weekend in October that will bring us together again...

The Gustav-Adold Kirche in the center of Heusenstamm. Build in 1922 this lutheran church is one of the newer buildings in town. Here my little sister will make the promise of "forever" on October 2nd.

Wanted to share the inspiration behind my favorite of our many Valentine designs. My grandmothers hope chest! She stitched those beautiful borders by hand and pinned them to the shelves of her armoire of innocent, intimate whites... So pure it's sexy.

(The below stitching says "Was Mütterlein mir einst beschert" which translates loosely to "what mother gave me for the way...")

Count the candles - as of today I am the proud mother of a 12 year old boy. Wow.