I’m so honored to be kicking off sfgirlbybay’s “Pin It Forward” today with nine of my favorite bloggers. In case you have no idea what “Pin It Forward” is, check out my blog post here. Caught up? Cool! So the theme for Pin It Forward is “what home means to you.” After thinking about this long and hard for several days, it occurred to me that, for myself, home has meant so many different things, (and been in so many different places) over the past ten years. I decided to share that with all of you through a story board I created telling the story of what home has meant to me from my first home all the way to my present. Come check out my Pinterest story board! I’ve numbered each shot so you can follow along in order. I hope you enjoy learning a little bit more about me. Here are a few highlights below…

Home used to be a very simple place that existed in a small suburb of Los Angeles

Until the day home became a very different place

Until, once again, home became a very different place

Until, as it happens, home has once again become a very different place

It’s in Berlin with my oldest brother

It’s in the Bay Area with new friends

home is everywhere that you are loved

Thanks again to Victoria Smith from sfgirlbybay for organizing such a massive event! I had a wonderful time reminiscing about this very personal topic in my life that I don’t often share with the people around me (let alone on my blog). Also, a HUGE thank you to the Pinterest team. I can’t sing your praises enough. I am inspired every time I log on and I have had so much fun expressing myself in a new way through your site.

I’m excited to pass the Pin It Forward torch over to the talented Christiana at Ferm Living. I can’t wait to find out what home means to this co-owner of one of my favorite shops, Hygge and West (I hope it includes some of her amazing wallpaper!)

It’s a little late in the day but I didn’t want to head out for the weekend without posting this week’s Friday I’m In Llama. This week’s image was pointed out to me by my good friend Divya via Kate Daigneault’s beautiful photographic inspiration board on Pinterest. This photo entitled “fashion and llamas” (how great is that!) was taken by Gemma Booth who has quickly become one of my favorite photographers. I can’t stop looking at her website!

Happy Friday everyone! I can’t wait to post my “Pin It Forward” inspirations on Monday!

As much as I love celebrating the work of talented Latino artists, I absolutely adore searching the web for fantastic artists in other parts of the world as well. Lately I’ve been obsessed with embroidered art. It just seems like such a fun medium, don’t you think? During one of my recent searches, I stumbled upon the work of the incredibly talented artist Takashi Iwasaki. Born in Japan and now stationed in Canada, Takashi’s work, from his illustrations to his collage work, are visually stunning, highly impressive, and somehow just so sweet and accessible.

I highly recommend spending some time going through Takashi’s portfolio. For me, it was certainly time well spent! Oh sweet eye candy, how I love you.

At long last, the lovely Victoria Smith, over at sfgirlbybay, has released all of the exciting info regarding her next Blog It Forward, or in this case, Pin It Forward! The “pin” refers to my favorite new website called Pinterest. Pinterest is “a place to share visual collections of things you love.” For me, the things I love are clever products, gorgeous dresses, things for my best buddy (Miles the LAMA shop dog), all things tea related, as well as a visual reference point for the incredible Latino designers I currently work with and hope to work with in the future!

Pin It Forward is an excellent opportunity for some of you awesome bloggers out there to get an exclusive invite to Pinterest and start pinning what you love. The theme for Pin It Forward is “what home means to you.” This can be anything your creative mind wants to put out there for the rest of us to ohh and ahh over. For a more in depth explanation, check out all of the details over at sfgirlbybay. I’m super excited to be kicking things off on May 24th along with nine other incredibly admirable bloggers. I’m so honored to be in this group!

A mis lectores en español.  Si les gustara juntarse a Pinterest y ser parte de “Pin it Forward”,  déjenme saber estaría muy contenta de traducir cualquier instrucción. ¡Pero, apúrense!  ¡Hay solamente 300 tres cientos espacios y se están llenando rapidísimo!  Pinterest es amigable mundialmente ya que es un lugar de vista para compartir sus imágenes favoritas.  ¡No hay palabras necesarias!

I hope everyone falls in love with Pinterest the way I have. It’s been my obsession for the past couple of months and is a site that speaks to everything I love. I’ve probably expressed this to the Pinterest team a million times but I want to again congratulate them on creating such an inspiring place on the internet. Thank you for letting me be a little part of that. Way to go guys!

Project Site is a community where America’s finest artists, and those that follow and support them, can share in their latest work, discover new artists, enter into a dialogue with each other, and make direct donations (of any size, all of which are tax deductible) to new projects created by each artist. It is the first website that allows direct, tax deductible public donations to accomplished artists on the internet.

One of my favorite artists, Tanya Aguiñiga, has been chosen to kick things off with a project she calls “Artists Helping Artisans” (AHA). AHA will focus on helping artisans in marginalized communities whose craft traditions and livelihoods are at risk.  Tanya will be working side by side with Mayan women to collaboratively create new functional art pieces for a large scale exhibition scheduled for Sept. 2010 at MACLA, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latinoamericana. It is her goal that “the finished pieces will aid in sustaining craft traditions in the region through 1) promoting their work and history 2) helping financially support the artisans/community involved in the project through fair compensation and increased market access.”

Tanya has only 38 days left to raise the $7,000 she needs to fund her incredible project! Please help Tanya realize her dream of “merging her love for design and her desire to help others.” To find out more about this wonderful project, please visit Tanya’s page here (I highly recommend watching Tanya’s video). This is a truly amazing project and I hope everyone will consider donating anything they can to get this project off the ground. Remember, all donations are tax deductible!

This week’s Friday I’m in LAMA is one of my favorites llama photos of all time. I’m such a huge fan of Catherine Ledner’s fun and creative photography. Her book, Animal House, is a must have if you love great photos of cute animals posing in front of fantastic wallpaper prints. Don’t we all?

Happy Friday and Happy Mother’s Day weekend!

A couple of months ago I was asked to do a mini interview with Living Magazine in Argentina. I’ve been a magazine junkie my entire life (starting with my subscription to Cat Fancy when I was seven), and I never imagined I would ever see my own face on a glossy page. Dream come true! The interview is in Spanish but I’ve gone ahead and translated it into English below. Please forgive the rough translation. Trust me, it’s much prettier in Spanish.

Love For Latin America

The origins of her mother- born and raised in Ecuador- made the American girl Christine Martinez take a pause in her career as an interior designer to travel throughout Latin America. In her travels, she discovered “the most interesting and beautiful design work that she’s ever seen” and she decided that her mission, upon returning to Los Angeles, would be to make accessible the work of independent designers to the US market.

This was the way LAMA designs was born, a site from which she makes known the best of Emi Elias – “owner of one of my favorite stores in Buenos Aires, CouCou” – Cecilia Sonzini, Jimena Rios, and Lola Goldstein, among other Argentinean designers.

What is it that you like the most about Argentinean design?

The quality of work, their construcion, as well as the design. The Argentinean designers are not only looking to keep up with the rest of the world, they also want to transform themselves into leaders in the design community.

What particular traits does Latin American design have?

It is sophisticated and it speaks for itself. It is a well informed society and it is so exciting to see how a very strong movement, like the recycling of materials, is opening new paths and is being used in some of the most beautiful and creative forms that I have seen.

Thank you Living Magazine for this interview. I’m am truly honored. Also, to the incredible Argentinean designers who have read the article and submitted your work to me, thank you! I am so happy we have found each other! LAMA is getting ready to make some big changes and I’m thrilled to have so many of you on this new journey to bring forth Latin American design. I’m always taking submissions so please email LAMA at info@lamadesigns.com. Muchas Gracias!!

Make some margaritas, hang up a string (or thirty) of papel picado, blast your favorite Ozomatli jam, and have a great one. I know I will. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

Gorgeous photo found here.