working on...

...more wall hangings.
For custom work click here.

stay on your side

Shop update here and here. Enjoy!

# 34 get a decent haircut

For the past 29 years it has been either my mom, my sisters or myself who's cut my hair (yes, I have cut my own hair on many occasions!). I have gone to hairdressers a few times and even done very weird things with my hair specially when I was a teenager. But, in the recent years, it's just been me and a pair of scissors. Until last January when I got my first decent haircut (sorry, no pics). Last Tuesday I got my absolutely favorite haircut in 29 years thanks to the wonderful hands of Jaya. I highly recommend her, she's a talented freelance hairstylist with tons of creativity to go around. 

breakfast

Yesterday's bread is today's breakfast: coffee, ham, ricotta, homemade plum jam and of course, cucumbers.

tartine bread - basic country bread

 

The Tartine's basic country bread recipe requires a day's worth of attention, cause this was my first attempt. It starts off with a homemade starter (flour and water) that is cared for for about a week so wild yeast is harvested instead of using industrial yeast. The night before making the bread I prepared the leaven which would ferment the bread. In the morning I mixed the fresh leaven with flour, water and salt. You can easily read about the whole process in many blogs and websites like this one here. But I highly recommend buying the book because even though it seems like a complex recipe, it's not! It's just that the author, Chad Robertson, explains it so thoroughly, you really get a good understanding of bread making. 

With one of the loaves I made the dough for last night's pizza (sorry, no photos) and baked the other loaf. My first attempt didn't go as smoothly as described in Tartine Bread, but I really enjoyed the process. I need to do this again to learn how to make it properly. After all it's slow-food.

If anyone is interested, I have plenty of starter to share and I can always arrange a baking event here at home! E-mail if interested. 

all packed up

After the first one sailed away to Canada, this second one will fly to Australia. :)

flea

Yet another pilgrimage to Lisbon's flea market on Saturday morning. Though I did bring some stuff home for new experiences with embroidery, the market was packed with people and most sellers were extremely rude! I know that if you are from northern Portugal and you are reading this you must be thinking: "well, of course, did you expect to find nice people in Lisbon?!" I know people from the north tend to be more polite and sympathetic, but living in Lisbon, I honestly have no complains... aside from yesterday.

Anyways... after the market I returned to one of my favorite spots for photography and shot many more pictures in digital and analogical format which inspired me to change this blog's header. 

Trees from Praça das Flores taken on my way to work since spring through full bloom in the summer. Tomorrow will be my last day of work. 

*Photos from my Twin Lense Reflex camera using slide film and cross processed.

Urban inconveniences

What I most dislike about living in the city is not having a garden: not even little tiny one where I could plant herbs. Though our house does have a small balcony, it's too hot in the summer and everything dries up fast. For now, all I have is mint and basil near the kitchen window. But in August I'll be going north and have I'll my fair share of proper gardening. 

* I've just discovered this very simple way to have a vertical garden in an apartment. 

Merrell Urban Side

After winning last year's Merrel Urban Side competition, our team was back and guess who won yet again...

This year MUS was quite different, with smaller competitions in several other cites and the finale in Lisbon. Pedro had participated in 3 different cities and taken along each team member with him. But this year, the teams were only of 3 members which meant I became formally known as the back-office gal, since my running and ball aiming skills weren't as good as the male members of the team. In the end I was glad to be back office cause they ran a lot!! Poor guys!! And I spent the afternoon anxiously waiting for their phone calls to google this and google that, try to make this and find that, while they ran up and down Lisbon.

 

First prize: to participate in the Merrell Oyster Racing Series in the States!! (Yes, the United States!)

coptic stitch

Preparing everything for today's bookbinding activity with kids. 

I've chosen the coptic stitch because it's a very simple procedure and the kids are around 8-13 years old...

work in progress

With less than a year to go until the deadline of my list, I look back on it and realise if I had written it today, it would most likely be very much the same, with just a few differences. I've checked off about 34 items (accomplished and still in progress) which is about 1/3 of the list.

The next couple of months I'm going to:
3. go fishing
6. get a tatoo (which will look something like this)
11. voyeur
32. creative photoshoot (with Carla)
38. make cornbread in my grandpa's stone oven (with the help of my grandma and aunt)

one hundred years of solitude

The question, who's your favorite author? is too easy for me to answer: my love for Gabriel Garcia Marquez is that of public knowledge. 

I was in high school when I first read 100 Years of Solitude and it was love at first sight! What I most enjoy about Marquez's novels is how he mixes reality with fiction and facts with fantasy. Latter I bought every book written by Marquez and translated to Portuguese and spent around 4 years just reading Marquez! The past few months I decided to reread 100 Years, but very slowly... to appreciate every single phrase, to understand every character. Unfortunately, I finished it today. 

(The photo belongs to Chole Giordano, she embroided this beautiful cover for the Penguin edition of the book this year. The ant is just perfect! It's related to the Buendia family's faith: the first in line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants.)

olive picking

The olives we picked last November still look wonderful. It might be easier just to buy a can of olives, but it doesn't even come close to the amazing taste of naturally grow products and homemade food! I sometimes forget they are there waiting to be seasoned and eaten! They'd make great company to my homemade bread and jam. I was reminded of them after developing a roll of film from my Canon A1 and discovered new photos of that day.