Simple Things

When it was announced that Molllie Makes, an English Magazine I have subscribed a long ago (and am only now missing number one!) was going to have a younger sister called The Simple Things, I subscribed on the spot. I waited a few months for the first issue to arrive on my mail box and now, twice a month, I enjoy these two treasures!

I really like this magazine because I love what it brings up in me: my simple things. And often these take me back down memory lane and sometimes they make me sing the famous song from The Sound of Music, "My favorite things". I know the lyrics by heart: "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..." and some of "Maria's" favorite things are my Simple Things. I love the sound of rain on my window just when it starts falling, the smell of wet grass, the smell of baked cookies and chocolate cake. Oh and homemade bread too. I like brown paper packages tied up with spring, I really like thick hot chocolate and red tea.
I fiund my shelter when I go to bed at night and rest my head in my husband's shoulder or when my daughter wakes up in the morning and calls Mummy. I love the way my youngest son smiles when we decide to do something just the two of us. I adore the kisses and hugs the two older ones still concede me from time to time. I love watching a storm over a valley and climb a green mountain in spring. I like to wake up in the morning and know that I am loved and that I have so many to love! That is my simplest and yet my grandest of things! And isn't it just simple and grand at the same time?

So when a few weeks back my parents brought me this magazine saying: "we saw this in London and thought it was so you" I just could not resist and say "I know, I have them all". But the funny part of this story is that in the middle of the simple things mentioned in this issue there was one that brought back memories to my father.

Being the son of an English woman and we as her descendants, cookies are a big thing in our family! So somehow these cookies reminded him of his childhood. These lavender and lemon cookies were, it seems, one of his simple things.
I always bake on Christmas eve or the day before with my children so they learn that they can also give something to others although they are still small to purchase: a proof of their love for others and a way for them to thank the gifts they receive.
So this year, these cookies were our simple baked gift. Mind you they were not easy to bake, until you got the hang of the right thickness and oven time, but still we made close to 200 cookies this year.

I am not sure they taste great and I am not even certain I will ever make them again but the moment I knew this was one of my Father's simple things I knew I had to make them for him. You see the thing is that whith a Father it is always hard to tell what he really likes because being the parent of girls (and boys) he always aims to please us so even if dinner is the one thing he loads, he will still tell you it was delicious.

My Father is the most generous person I know, the most humble, the one that suffers in silence and loves with actions more than words. He dedicates himself to his job with a passion and righteousness that is truly uncommon. He rarely complains and yes he for sure has his faults, but for us, he is an example. Funny that in many ways I see his reflection in one of my brothers....and in myself. I have never heard him brag about his achievements, never heard him speak about the good deeds he makes but yet his generosity his uncounted for! He even has an homeless man that we call his friend (too long a story to explain)!

This Christmas we exchanged gifts, some bought, some homemade, some simple some not so, but in every single one there was the recognition of love between a family that has known hardship, pain and suffering, joy, triumph and success but that at the end of the day can still sit on the floor and carefully listen and wait the simple happening of Christmas inside each one of us. And that is my simple thing too and I wait a whole year for it.

Do you know what else is my Simple Thing? My Family. A complex group of 16 people is my Simple thing. Ok, ok, my Favorite thing!

Just because it was Christmas after all I decorated these boxes and bags where we placed the cookies. They were all decortaed my me and in total we gave 19 simple baked gifts this Christmas.

I always find it amazing how a smell, an image, a feeling, a friend, an image on TV can trigger a memory. I do hope that the smell and taste of these cookies provided that trip down memory lane for my Father. If not I will keep trying until I make them just the way you love, Father! And that is a promise (and I never fail a promise).

When I was smaller we always watched "The Sound of Music" on Christmas Day at my Grandmother's house. It is a tradition I am sad to have lost! It was such a simple thing! And one of my favorite things too! And if you do not know Maria's song then you really most listen carefully and then search within yourself for your favorite and simple things. I have found mine, hope you find yours too!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Time

It's funny how we, and when I say we I am including myself in the bulls eye let's say, go through life saying "I don't have time for this, I don't have time for that", etc, etc and so on.
But in fact, if we really think about it for a while we will find out that if there is one thing that we have here on earth with every second that goes by and we are alive, is time.
Each tick of the clock represents a moment of time, our time, time that is at our disposal.
What we decide to do it, what we prioritize into it, what we end up doing with it, it's what grants us or not the sense of possession and control over time.
And what to do with our time begins as soon as we are little and have to decide between homework or cartoons, between writing a report or doing a card for Grandma. And as we grow by the decisions of what to use the time for become more diverse and complicated: do I prepare my class or go to the doctor, do I answer emails or develop a new design, do I dedicate it all to others or do I save some for myself.
And for me, we become "of age", not when we turn 18, but when we realize that life is all about balancing time and choosing what to do with it!
Because yes, we do have a choice. And that is for me the hardest, most difficult lesson to learn. To be honest if I had to grade myself on it I would give me a C- (3-).
So although the clock doesn't stop moving sometimes we do need to stop, to calibrate our needles, recharge the batteries, set our priorities straight, learn to say no, which is the same thing to say: choose what to do with the time that we have.
And that is a good thing! If we could take, even if only an inner trip to a Spa every month and just use three hours of our time to calibrate "our clock" we would not only be more happy but we would be more efficient. So everyone, when is your three hours of this month going to happen? Or have you already taken them? Well, I have and decided that three just wasn't even so I am taking an extra hour or two each day until I feel that I have reached my balance again. Selfish? Maybe, but from it I am certain I willcome out not only more efficient but also more happy. And that is one thing that I won't trade time for!
This Christmas for me has definitely been challenging, time wise. But in a way it has made me realize what in fact is valuable and important in my life and most of all what I want to do it.
So the issue is what to do next, what steps to make, because after you have calibrated your clock and reset the batteries to make it a good instrument of time, you need to the the other part: use it! Use your time wisely!
To visit a friend, to send a postcard, to sew a special bag for someone you love, to bake a cake for a friend, to go and have a cup of cocoa with your children, to take them out to see Christmas lights, bake cookies.....I don't know, so many things!
I have done well with my time this season I believe. I am living it with an intensity I had forgotten it was still possible and although I do not consider myself a decorator I am proud of what I have achieved at home. I have divided the spaces into more and less children wise so that way we are all happy! And it didn't come out so bad!

The Best Friends dinner is always a special day because Friendship is always worth celebrating. I love to set elaborate tables, filled with details. And these friends are worth every single bow, bird, wreath and all the time we have put into this day and all the days that lead to this one. Because investing and building a friendship is also something very time worthy. And that I know for sure!

The ants seem to love the sweets as much as my children do so we are having a very hard battle between them and me! And the bad news is, so far, they are winning!

So you see, you can turn your time into so many things! Just use it to be happy and make others happy. That way, when he seems scarce, you won't for sure regret all the time you didn't use it well for!
And because time spent dedicated to Family and Friends is the best time of all, here is one song about friendship I really love!

I know the song by heart but listen to the chorus of it......my best friends are certainly like that! And I am ever so thankful for having made time for this to happen.
To my other friends, some on the other side of the world, I hope you are having a good time this season and let you know that you are in my mind this Holiday!
Because you know, time in the end, is the best investment you can make in whatever it is you want to see succeeding!

Paper Crafting for Christmas

Foi com a chegada da chuva e do tempo frio que comecei a sentir que o Natal já estava a chegar! E claro que, quer por defeito profissional, quer por ser uma altura do ano que adoro, já comecei a pensar nas decorações para este ano.

Embora nunca saindo das cores tradicionais (confesso que já experimentei um Natal mais de design mas apenas para vir a descobrir que um Natal preto e branco não tem a ver comigo!) gosto sempre de adicionar alguns elementos e variar as decorações.

Este ano o nosso Natal vai ser vermelho, branco e azul claro. Acho que vai ficar lindo e prometo mostrar fotos.

Como também adoro "polka dots" não resisti a este guizo vermelho que fica lindo combinado com letras brancas de madeira que claro está pode adquirir na 512 Ideias.

It was when the rain and cold began that I started to feel that Christmas was coming! And not only but also due to professional occupation I must say this is one of my favorite time of the year and I have already started to plan my decorations for this year.

Although I always maintain the Christmas traditional colors (I must confess that I have tried  a design Christmas decor but only to find out that a black and white Christmas has nothing to do with me!) I also like to add some new elements and decorations.

Thio year our Christmas will be red, white and baby blue. I think it will look amazing and I promise to share some photos.

As I also love polka dots, I couldn't resist this red bell that looks beautiful combined with white letters that you can buy, of course, at 512 Ideias.

Ultimamente tenho desenvolvido vários trabalhos de scrapbooking e Home decor e fiz esta coroa com uma outra colecção de papéis para a revista IT de Scrapbooking, da Editorial Nascimento e esta semana dei dois workshops dessa coroa.
Tal como na primeira que fiz, adoro o resultado final desta combinação de rosetas de diferentes tamanhos e em breve irei dar este workshop numa loja linda, linda em Madrid chamada Papel Vivo.

Lately I have been doing a lot of Scrapbooking and Home decor projects and I made this wreath with another collection of papers for a magazine called IT Scrapbooking from Editorial Nascimento and this week I taught two workshops of that crown.
I really like the final combination in this scheme as much as I liked the first one I did. It uses different sizes of Paper Rosettes and soon I will be teaching this workshop in a beautiful store in Madrid called Papel Vivo.

Numa casa com 4 crianças (que se estivessem agora ao meu lado estariam a corrigir-me dizendo dois adolescentes, uma criança e um bébe) sinto que o Natal deve ser feito de momentos em família que se vão repetindo ao longo dos anos até se transformarem em tradições que passam de gerações em gerações. Espero que esse seja o nosso presente para os nossos filhos!

In a house with 4 children (that if sitting next to me right now would be correcting me and saying two teenagers, one child and one baby) I feel that Christmas should be made of family moments that repeat themselves over the years until they are transformed into traditions handed down through generations. I hope that that is a gift we can pass on to our children!

Mas antes do Natal chegar cá a casa ainda temos 3 aniversários para comemorar por isso os próximos dias vão ser dedicados à cozinha e às decorações azul aqua e verde!

But before Christmas arrives at our house we still have 3 birthdays to celebrate, so the next couple of days will be spent cooking and decorating with green and aqua blue!