this post is long overdue

Last summer, Toronto came to Portugal and gave true meaning to the word saudade. 

In between all the work I had, I got 2 wonderful visits from Marisa and Tatiana - friends from back in the days when we looked like this:

cute?!

It was nice to see that both are very European girls who brought along their equally charming husbands! (Vá, Simão e Steve nada de se babarem...!)

They are both extraordinarily joyful and outgoing girls and seeing them brought back many memories. Tatiana and I kept in touch every once in a while through letters and emails, always asking one another who would cross the Atlantic first. She managed to win the race and shared a great big hug right in the center of Rossio. 

I've been feeling very lazy lately...

História primária - the book

For all those who wanted to see more... here are some of my favorite pages.

This is a handmade book: everything was cut out and pasted and the pages bounded in coptic stitch. This was the very first time I did any sort of illustrating and, although the very short period of time that I had for this project, I really enjoyed the creative process and also the drawing, the cutting, the pasting....

Senhor Alfaiate, the author of this beautiful story about primary school, put together a stop-motion movie to celebrate his blog's first year. Here, you can checkout the whole book as it's being flipped through the pages. 

I think we make a good team!! So now I ask: Senhor Alfaiate, when will the next chapter be published?

full house

Maria came to visit and brought Jaime with her!

north

with my pretty vintage suitcase all packed up, I'm heading north.

Postcard Swap

I decided to participate in a swap of handmade postcards promoted by iHanna. I was emailed 10 addresses and soon I'll be receiving another 10 postcards in the mail. I didn't quite know what to make but after my short experience illustrating História Primária, I decided to go with cut outs and old photos: I printed out the photos from this album and the lyrics to the Portuguese song Aldeia da Roupa Branca to go along. They are numbered from 1 to 10, according to the lyrics. Now off the post office to get stamps!

dinner and a song

Dinner

Monday evening was the kickoff of Alfama-te a 10 and I was invited to have dinner in a household patio in Alfama with  10 interesting strangers! It was a delightful way to start the week! Highly recommended to anyone who wants to discover hidden streets of Alfama and meet new and interesting people. And what better way to do this than around an amazing dinner table... so, sign up!

Song
The singer/songwriter is Luisa Sobral and surprisingly she was one of the 10 "strangers" at dinner. She has just launched her first album The Cherry on my Cake and has an amazing and sweet voice. Here's a sneak peak:

The coincidence

Introduction:
Beta and I met on our first year of university. Back then we were flat-mates. Fast forward 10 years and history repeats itself: we are flat-mates again.

The context:
I recently shared with Beta my interest in reading Eça de Queirós and since she's a huge fan of this Portuguese author, she promptly said she would let me borrow on of her favorite titles: A Relíquia. So, this weekend she went up north and brought back with her the novel for me to read.

The coincidence:
It was I who had given her the book A Relíquia for her birthday in 2001!!

Lisbon to Sesimbra

Out of the blue, we decided to bike ride from Trafaria to Sesimbra on Saturday, around 40km, through the coastline. We left the house in the morning with the ambitious idea of Setúbal as our destination, but my poor legs almost didn't make it to Sesimbra and that's where we caught a bus back to Lisbon. 

The views and beaches were amazing and the weather was just right. 

This was a piece of cake for Pedro, considering he biked from Lisbon to Algarve in 2 days! As for me, I developed a funny walk all through Sunday and it still hurts. 

before and after

here