i love yardsales

More than half of the stuff we bought so far is second hand, thanks to Craig's list, second hand shops and yard sales. 

Anyone who loves to explore other people's stuff knows that it's not about the money, it's all about storytelling. Whether it's imagining who the antique belonged to and how it came to be, whether it's about an amazing deal, like the awesome lamp we got for 2$!

I do miss Lisbon's flea market, but the second hand shops and yard sales are just as great. We only buy it if it is exactly what we need and if it has a certain personality to it! People do tend to accumulate so much stuff and we were no different. They say the first step into a minimalist living is to get rid of all the unuseful stuff. Pedro and I did this right before we moved to Atlanta, when we had to pack up all our junk and separate it from the things we really need and cherish. We realised we had too much stuff! So on this fresh start we are keeping it to a minimum! Everything we have right now, we need. If we don't need it, we won't buy it. 

Out of all the stuff we bought this is my absolute favourite: a blue enamel kettle and cups, so pretty!

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. 

help me find Zézito!

Some weeks back, on a trip to the flea market I bought a bunch of old frames to start hanging things on the walls. The first photo I framed is my blog's header!

This week's old photo is from a family album I bought last year. The photo I use as a header is also from this album. The little boy's name is José (or Zezito, the way his father signs on the back of each photo) and dew to some strange fortune for me (unfortunate for Zézito) I have his childhood album: from birth to around 5/6 years old. I wonder how can anyone lose such a precious family treasure... So... item 43 on my list is to try to find Zézito (an Amélie style thing to do!!) and give him back his album. I don't have much information about him, no last name, no father or mother's name. He was born in the 50's and I think he lived in Lisbon and they sure did travel alot, because most of the photos are of summer holidays. 

I'll be posting more of his photos in the hope someone might just recognize him. For the mean while I'm having fun drawing Zézito!

clocks, buttons, glasses

Today I bought vintage rubber stamps, a faucet and cheetah print high heels.... it's for a good cause.

Sou do minho, sou do minho, de Viana natural....

My first trip to the flea market after hibernation and I came home with 2 more traditional scarves from Viana. I am now a proud owner of three beautiful colored scarves which I plan to wear frequently, either as a head piece or around my neck. In my grandmother's attic I found a very old red scarf, made from fine wool, very torn, but still with the vibrant red colors, woolen fringes and and patterned cornucopia that characterizes them. Originally these scarves were imported through Porto from the former Czechoslovakia and in many eastern european countries they are a part of traditional costumes as well. The ones I bought were made in the Viana region, according to their tags and are made from cotton.



Carlos Relvas. c. 1880



# 67 buy a Dr. Seuss book

A quick stop at my favourite shop site in Lisbon and found a Dr. Seuss book "Fox in Socks"  (1965) amongst hundreds of uninteresting books. It cost me 0.75€! Amazing! I tried finding Dr. Seuss books in Lisbon's book stores and book fairs, but no one has ever heard of it over here, which I find a bit odd because they are a classical children's book. They're great to teach english in a fun and simple way.  

This one is about Mr. Fox playing tongue twister games with Mr. Knox who is unable to do so: 

«I can't blab

such blibber blubber!

My tongue isn't 

made of rubber.

Mr. Knox. Now

come now. Come now.

You don't have to

be so dumb now...

Try to say this, 

Mr. Knox, please...

Through three cheese trees

three free fleas flew.

While these fleas flew, 

freezy breeze blew.

Freezy breeze made

these three trees freeze.

Freezy trees made

these trees' cheese freeze.

That's what made these

three free fleas sneeze.»

PS: do you remember a Christmas movie awhile back called How the Grinch stole Christmas? Well, the Grinch is a character created by Dr. Seuss in 1957.

The pilgrimage

There are those who take their pets for daily walks and those who walk themselves religiously to Sunday mass and there are those who go every Saturday to the feira da ladra…

Feira da ladra

Even though I have my very own rise and shine rooster, it took me awhile to get up Saturday morning, crawling from the bed to the couch. We had thought it through the night before: wake up early and do as much things as possible on the weekend.

But, Saturday mornings in Lisbon always mean one thing: a walk to the Feira da Ladra. You can find the most amazing things amongst other people's junk!

And negotiating the prices is always fun:

- how much?

- it’s 15€
- I’ll pay you 8€

- 8€? (#%&*... ???) ok, take it!

I have a list of stuff I always look for: scarves, a sugar bowl, old photo albums, picture frames, linens, tin cans, vintage cameras, film, and anything nice that might catch my eye.

This Saturday I bought a beautiful hand embroidered handkerchief from Madeira and a tin can just like the one my mom puts all her buttons in. It now holds walnuts and almonds.

Since I’m always on the lookout for old photo albums, this time I got lucky and bought someone else’s family album, filled with black and white photos from the 40’s and 50’s. It’s a family vacation album. I still don’t quite know what I’m going to do with it but, for now it’s just the curiosity of looking at another family's special moments and trying to recognize the places they were taken.

Peter Piper bought stuff he had been looking for, a Swiss knife, a small moleskine notebook and a black ink pen that came with a bonus: a bottle of shampoo!!

On our last visit, we came home with a bunch of things: an old fashion toaster (the type with flaps that open to the side) cause the one we had burnt to melting point, stencils, a traditional blue head scarf from Viana, a salt and pepper mills, a black paper photo album, which got me a name for this blog and black and white photos Pedro is going to transform into lovely postcards.

The stroll back home is always the same. Maybe next time we’ll stop for an urban picnic with bread, pumpkin jam and cheese… what do you say Peter??

Getting started

The hardest part of any project is getting started.

I had been searching for a black paper photo album for some time now. The type of album my dad has from his time in Guiné Bissau and when he and my mom were dating. I got lucky last Saturday when visiting the Feira da Ladra and bought a small black paper photo album with corner stickers still in it, a bit worn, just as I like it! I want it to be a unique place where I can hold the very best of my memories.

So the first page is a remembrance of the day I bought the album: a black and white photograph, bought by Pedro on the same day, of a tree that reminded me of Mondrian’s apple trees. And thus accomplishing the second pending thing on my list: finding a name for this blog…