About

Have you ever needed support and a comforting community during a profound time of illness and loss? For me, that's when I was introduced to handmade plushies. I bonded with others I met going through similar personal trials. Since then, I've collected plushies of all kinds, admiring the creativity and craftsmanship of their creators.

Plushies rekindled a lifetime pursuit of mine. Starting from a young age, I would stare at a print of the "Madonna della Sedia" by Raphael that hung above my grandmother’s bed, carefully following the folds of the clothes, studying the peaceful expressions in the faces of the subjects, and dreaming of the day I could draw and paint like an old master. When my family would describe me as a child, they would say that I was always drawing something. After an all-too-long detour, I returned to art and completed training in classical realism before becoming a mother myself.

That artistic itch inspired me to create Bella Notte Design Company, named in part after my beloved daughter. Meaning "beautiful night" in Italian, Bella Notte pays homage to the cool Texas twilight I played under as a youngster. I strive for that vision of my handcrafted creations with childlike whimsy in mind, inspired by kawaii, mythology and art.