{Our White Ceramic Chandeliers from Italy}

We lived and worked in the Veneto area in Italy and in Bassano del Grappa they make the world renowned: Ceramiche d'Arte Orgia Bassano. Ceramics of Bassano del Grappa. For some English info just click the above hyperlink. This is actually a Google photo from the shop where we bought our two white ceramic chandeliers! They did have several in the shop in yellow, pink and green, like the icing on a cake. But we wanted a plain white version of a three-arm and a five-arm. So they custom made it for us. Let's have a look at what we got there.

Our five-arm chandelier in the hallway.

All in white and with roses of course!

Nice with the rose filet crochet curtains...

Can you imagine that we moved it all the way from our home in Italy, across the Atlantic Ocean in one piece?

That means, nothing broken as it does consist of different pieces for building together...

Italians are quite some artists!

Our three-arm chandelier in the kitchen.

Roses against the rose filet crocheted curtains that I made for our bay window.

Horchow had one in their catalog in the 90s...

That made us even appreciate ours more so...

And, frankly speaking we like ours with the roses better too!

{Eco Friendly White Linens}

Alchemy of sun, grass and wind. Drying and bleaching laundry ̶ called "grassing" ̶ was long a speciality of the Dutch countryside. The grass had to be clean, and the laundry had to be regularly moistened so that the drying would last several days in order to produce a brilliant white.

This bleaching of white linens I do recall too well, from when I was a little girl. Mom would use her galvanized watering can and I would tag along. All of a sudden this very hot summer I got the idea to repeat what Mom did back then. We had enough clean grass and plenty of sun...

My first Eco Friendly project. The cotton mattress cover got out to get bleached by the sun...

Napkins joined also in the eco friendly bleaching.

In THE BOOK OF FINE LINEN by FRANÇOISE DE BONNEVILLE you find on page 47 this painting from Pieter Bruegel (ca 1520-1569) in a detail from Flemish Market and Washhouse (Prado, Madrid).

This is the book and I can highly recommend this. A beautiful hardcover with glossy paper and a wealth of information. The Book of Fine Linen ←click it.

Another of my favorites is this book:

A WELL-KEPT HOME

Household Traditions and

Simple Secrets from a French Grandmother

{10 Things to Learn from Japan... after the Earthquake and Tsunami!}

It is now half a year ago since the Earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan. Since than, that brave people has taught us quite some lessons. We can only admire them and show our LOVE...

This is the gift from Neiman Marcus that I've bought and presented to the Mayor from our Sister-City of Osaki, Japan on my visit as a chaperon in July of 2007 (see {News from Our Sister-City Osaki in JAPAN + Join NISSAN with donation!} and {Japanese Yubikan from 1692 that I visited at Iwadeyama Osaki JAPAN, collapsed by earthquake}). A very appropriate glazed tile with metal tray and coasters with the word Love worked into the art.

1. THE CALM

Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY

Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY

The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but did not fall.

4. THE GRACE

People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER

No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE

Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?


7. THE TENDERNESS

Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.


8. THE TRAINING

The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.


9. THE MEDIA

They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.


10. THE CONSCIENCE

When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

What a people! What a country! What a nation!

World should be watching and learn how to behave.

Even during the heat and humidity of summer, no one complained for conserving as much energy as possible... So much about really going GREEN!

♥♥♥