To my brother, with love

Today is my big brother's birthday and this post is for him! First because he would probably get jealous since I wrote about our sister Virgínia not so long ago (lol just kidding he wouldn't!). Secondly because he has THE BEST sense of humor and I am already smiling with my choice of the picture below! We just love to make fun of each other, so here is my turn...

Happy Birthday Fred!

Now seriously... to have my big brother in my life has been one of the best gifts God has given me. He has influenced my way of being from my behavior as a kid (well a bad behavior by the way) to even my career choice.

As kids we were two lit monsters, always running around and playing pranks. For a while I actually wanted to be a boy - because boys were so much more fun than my girlfriends!

Sometimes we wanted to kill each other but I always thought he was the coolest kid around!

My dad used to called us "Hart to Hart" (in honor to the 80's TV series) because we were such a great team! We would manage to have fun anywhere, anytime - can you imagine we played hide and seek in the car while my parents were driving? (How does that even make sense?)

One of the silliest memories I have with my brother it was that we used to walk on the mall speaking some language we invented - assuming the people staring at us believed we were speaking english - and we thought that was the coolest thing ever: 'to look like we were americans'... Another silly one is that we would play hide and seek inside department stores, we would hide inside clothes racks and at the end of the night my parents would have to be on their knees looking for our lit feet under the clothes!

But my favorite memory... we used to pose on the windows of stores, standing still, trying not to laugh or move and pretending we were mannequins... I now feel bad for our parents running after us all the time!

I could go on and on about all the fun we had... But Fred made the biggest impact in my life when he enrolled in Graphic Design School. I was 2 years younger and still not sure between going to Journalism school (don't laugh!) or Marketing. I had never even heard of Design College until my brother started to explain it to me. It was back in 1998 and that wasn't yet a popular field in Brazil. I remember seeing what he was learning and watching how passionate he was about it... and I just knew I was meant to do something along those lines.

As I enrolled in Industrial Design School I come home everyday to watch him starting his business and I got curious about the briefings, the brainstorming, the layouts. He shared his books and art supplies and - the best of all - he taught me all the softwares! He would sit down and tell me 'this is how you create a new file, these are the tools, now you figure it out and call me when you have questions'. Hands down the best teacher ever!

We each developed our career paths - I moved to United States and he built his design office in Rio de Janeiro. We are so similar and at the same time so different: he got the business genes and mad organizational skills (you should see his face everytime he sees my messy desktop)! Now he does everything from branding through marketing campaigns to complete website solutions! I am also so proud that he continued his education on Business and Marketing and now he knows everything about everything!

He is currently helping me to build my online store (remember, the one to sell my textiles)! He does it all from his office - humbly located 2 blocks from Pepe Beach! Let me just tell you how jealous I am that he takes breaks from work to go surfing - quite a lifestyle don't you think? You can visit his company's website here.

He also just got married, bought a brand new beautiful condo with an ocean view and I wish him all the happiness in the world and much more success! Today I wanted to say loud and clear that I love my brother Fred and I am so thankful for our precious relationship! (And once my store is up if somethings goes wrong or if there are any bugs, you can blame it all on him - lol)!