Joyeux Noel

Wish you all a very good christmas

Thanks for your kind and encouraging comments

Meet you in 2011

Peace Love Happiness

XO

Yes I can

Love my new spoons...there are more in my studio but the weather was cloudy this morning and i had to rush to take my flight...who is more than 3 hours delayed but still i will manage to arrive in Paris tonight 

Tomorrow heading to one of the few towns where i would love to live for a year...you name it New York but then Shanghai appeals to me and Rio de Janeiro as well. Different energy different people but i love to mingled and wouldn't mind settle for a while and discover the "real"town not the tourist one.

If i had to pick one then it would be Port Towsend. There's the amazing mountains views, the beaches, the art galleries, the fabulous mixed-media workshops, Artfest, Artifiberfest, the fisherman's all this in a small wonderful little town. No crowded plenty of fresh air

 

2010 is ending

2011 new resolutions

GROW

LOVE

GIVE

CREATE

RECEIVE

FORGIVE

LEARN

BELIEVE

BE HAPPY

ACCEPT

UNDERSTAND

EXERCISE

MEDITATE

DANCE

LAUGH

COMUNICATE

ACHIEVE

LISTEN

2011 wishes

Be inspired

Create

Visit Rome

Learn how to take good pictures

Take a lot of sunbath

Dance tango with my man in Buenos Aires

Create(am i repeating myself...)

Learn some chinese

Improve my spanish

Learn new receipes from my mom

Improve my sewing

Eat plenty of tiramisu

Ok make a light diet...

Eat plenty of chocolate cake

Exercise...

Meditate in Macchu Picchu 

Going to my favorite beach Guincho

Have fun with my friends

Improve some relationships

Trust each day a little more

Grow

Have some caipirinhas

Listen to good music

Read a lot

 Open myself to the unknown

...........

Xo

Live and let die

Last year I had installed my studio in this amazing shop Fabrico Infinito and create throughout the day...most of the time having endless conservations with the owner Marcela Brunken i must admit! We had fun...She is a big fan of my work, was and still is  among the ones to continuously promote my art.
Yesterday at a fancy dinner a friend was surprised that i present myself as Alex Castro Ferreira my single name and not with my married name and as an artist. Labels are hard to remove! But it make me wonder of the importance on male tradition which is still very implanted on our portuguese society( not to say around the world) and on how people see us.
I am a flight attendant .......and also an artist.
I am a woman of passion who is eager to learn evolve grow accepting the ups and downs of Life

Live and let die...famous quote of my husband.
Enjoy your day 

On trust

a

I was just telling a friend that whatever i tell to others is always "the mirror effect" that means it can applied to me. This week-end was a huge step for me as I let my husband run the fair and just popped in around 2pm, letting  him decorate and sell my craft  in his own way. I am proud of me because trying to control everything means that i fail to trust Life. 
I trust him and the results were awesome being Luis an excellent seller. I used to say he can sell machine guns to nuns if he's in the mood! Another step on my ongoing therapy process and one that will bring me utter happiness.

Have a good week

I feel good the jet lag stayed in Shanghai... 

xo

CRAFT AND DESIGN Christmas 2010

Perfect day no clouds spring temperature lovely time spent in jardim da Estrela along with my husband, mother and special friend Alex. Last week was another story with cold and rainy weather but still the public showed up, christmas is at the door! I must say that i am running out of spoons which is cool because i loved them and am happy that people find the idea amusing and fashionable.
I was blessed last saturday with the meeting of an old (we have known each other since kindergarden) and dear friend that i haven't seen for quite a while, can't remember why life as set us apart, probably just that... Life! Last time she was single and now she is married with two beautiful sons, i met only the youngest who looks so much like her. That's the kind of gift I receive with profound gratitude, can't wait to be with her again. We are born on the 4th of august in Lisbon in 1969 same hospital! How cool is that? We used to have the same bad temper...i do sense that now she being a mother she must be more patient! I still have a long road ahead... but we share the same openness and generosity among other things.

Have a good week-end

Xo

Cadeaux de Noel

Tomorrow another market "Craft and design", the forecast is a cloudy but sunny day with temperatures around 13C which is ok considering the wave of low temperature in europe at the moment. I still have plenty of unfinished albums at my studio but running out of time to complete them so i will relax today as everything is ready to pack, must be my german side! I can say that the previous year was a determinant one for me despite my tiredness i manage to create a lot.
With insight 2010 was a determinant year for me:


I am proud of me
I love myself inside in an out
I am an artist
I  was able to create  
I have a place to create
I have plenty of new ideas
I am truly blessed
I love my life
I accept the up and downs
I engulfed into them
I love my albums
I love my spoons
I love notebooks
I love my necklaces
I love my art world
I love being alive
I love my nests
I love the circle of friendship around me
I love to give
I accept to receive
I am happy
I am blessed to be in good health
I love being who i am.....
I feel fortunate
I feel abundance
I feel enpowered
I am a woman in love
and now i can say

I LOVE MYSELF each day further and deeper
Gratitude for the constant gifts i receive
I am blessed
Have a good week end
xo

Presentes de Natal...

I am really enjoying being in my studio, savouring each moment, creating the albums above that i would like to receive for christmas! I will not decorate either my home or my mom's  this year as i haven't last year, time is short between work and the studio and i need at least a full week to decorate both houses in a very american way with almost every corner full of angels, candles etc.... it has always been pure excitement so i come up with this crazy idea (if my mother is ok? ) i will decorate the christmas tree in january and store them in her the garage, we will be ready for 2011! In the meantime, she and her friends will do the honours this years again!
By the end of october, i start thinking in cool gifts to offer and now that i'm creating them the question, will they like it,  will they treasure it, arises. It so easy to offer another scarf or perfume for aunt Lili the same sweater for Dad...know the feeling searching for a different present, something that really matches with the person...that has to be different each year!
Have a good week
I will post more  and cross my fingers that it won't rain saturday
Have fun
Xo

Christmas presents

This is for you

 Feira "Craft and Design"
4/5 and 11/12 december  

jardim da estrela

Come and enjoy

        

Looking back

L'avenir

Dream big

Once upon a time...

Just made this new album that i truly love. Love the real nest found under a tree in a friend's house (merci Emanuelle), love the old buttons of the typing machine, love the vintage pages made out of resin ( my father is a quemical engineer worked his whole life with different kinds of resin so i guess it's in my DNA) love the wool pocket handmade by my mom who's a real knitter, love the door knob found in the oldest Lisbon flea market "feira da ladra, love the vintage photos that i have already used in others albums who have this nostalgia energy...LOVE my "Once upon a time" album. Hope you'll like it too, i sense he will leave me soon as being so special and unique.

Started my day with another session of therapy, who's going very well , i can already feel the small changes and am comitted to make the huge ones, each day at the time. One of my dearest friend who's  abroad for the moment, ask me what is ok to write in a blog page? I guess it various on the country and culture, for example i love the openness of my americans friends, they exposed themselves which I believe to be brave but receive it as a valuable gift, I sense that here in Portugal mabe my authenticity may be too much not to speak in distant Japan (but i guess i don't have much japanese fan's!) I won't write about my marriage for instance as my husband is concerned, it's not just about me but about us yet sharing that i'm on a therapy may represent a lot for certain people, who don't believe in it or think it's for nuts or.......The point is i write what feels ok to me and mostly what i like to read in others blogs, LIFE  with all is ups and downs, sharing fears,  hopes,  victories,  blessings, joys. I don't have any power on others peoples beliefs and thoughts, my goal is to relate to ohters, sensing that i'm in my modest way i too belong to the craft and art world, wow! I'M HAPPY WITH THAT and HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO HAVE READERS AND FOLLOWERS. 
THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME and lightens my day so many times when i'm jet lagged and feeling too tired just to get into the studio.

Enjoy your sunday
Xo

On passion

I read all the biographies about Amadeo Modigliani. His intense and tragic life has all the ingredients of a major hollywood film. There was this film with Andy Garcia and the french actress Elza Zylberstein who held the role of Jeanne who loved him so much that she commit suicide a few hours after Modi's death and she was nine months pregnant. What a tragedy, him dying at the age of 35, so young, so full of life and creativity, and she out of despair killing herself.
He was beautiful
He was tormented
He had an enormous talent
He was starving and must today return on his grave after this naked painting being sold 69 millions dollars! Is the world going nuts? 
He was a courageous man unlike the arrogant Picasso though extremely talented of course!
I had a huge crush on Modigliani in my youth...seing myself as Jeanne, living in Montmartre but their reality was not a pleasant one as alcohol and drugs were their close friends.  

He lead a tormented life filled with doubts about himself, about his huge talent, about how to love, how to give... He was a perfectionist never happy with his drawings, paintings, eager for learning, throwing away, starting all over....in a vicious circle of unhappiness which lead him to die too early.
Have a good week end...I am on holidays cool...still jet lagged but i will be for the next 15 years till retirement
xo