Thank you

This week end was a blessed one, i had another Craft and design market, the weather was perfect, the public awesome. I met this french grandma who married a portuguese like my mom from the same city, Vila Nova de Famalicao, how peculiar! I met  this  young mom of two who had a flush of emotion when opening my scrapbook albums, she had tears popping in! How cool... Plenty of friends and friends of friends come along... I feel truly blessed. 

Last week i had all this exams that we woman definitely have to take past 40 mostly due to a pain in my right breast, so there's no need to tell you that i was scare while waiting for the results. Everything is ok but it made me realize that i could have been the other way round. How do yo react when you are ill?
Do you keep it to yourself and fight alone the disease? or do you share it? I am a very private person when dealing with my intimacy and it cross my mind that if i was ill i would tell no one so to keep a semblant of a normal life and not having to deal with pity in the eyes of the others.Yesterday at lunch there was this bald young lady with all her relatives laughing and enjoying the gathering and it was a great lesson for me. I was touched by her openness, her lack of hair showed us "ok i am ill but doing certainly everything that i can to heal", the path is really to open up. When i come back the the fair, a friend was reading the art of happiness from the Dalai Lama, i opened the book and the message was "we all need one another, have you realized that we are all connected?"So true, there's no way we can hide from the world, human relations are the essence of life.

Love is what we all seek.
I am thankful to be alive
I am thankful to be in good health
I am thankful to be in love
I am thankful to have true friends
I am thankful to be able to connect
I am thankful for those who love my work
I am thankful to create
......
endless list
 Make your own
What are you thankful of?
I have my gratitude notebook with me and write down every night all the blessing of the day.


THANK YOU
Have fun
xo

drawers are opening

I am in a good shape well maybe not yesterday as i drink too many caipirinhas! That's the thing with this brazilian drink once you begin it's quite difficult to stop... but i did  enjoy myself and dance with my husband and a dear friend which was great! I was saying that i have recover from the endless flights and have plenty of new items in my atelier, drawers are definitely opening for me.
I am back with ideas, projects.... and am planning to have my own site .
Come this week-end to jardim da estrela, Craft and Design market with a jazz concert at 17h and plenty of beautiful handmade art.
Have fun
xo

What are your strengths?

Do you know what are your strengths?
or like most of us you are trying to improve your weaknesses? I have just discovered this excellent book "strengths finder 2.0" by Tom Rath where he explains just that. How in the occidental and even in the oriental world our education is based on improving our weaknesses, how the enterprises nowadays run endless workshops on "how to improve yourself" in areas where we lack talent! Some of the attendees will have success because of their natural talents with or without workshops but most of us will strive for it. So this book relates to our natural talents, there's this online test in the language of your choice and the result  is in english about 2mn later or within weeks by mail in your own language.
Natural talents i kept repeating it because though i sense it by now (i m more than 40 remember!) i wouldn't have told you they are talents! They are 34 themes that the Gallup organization have come out with and they verified over and over that people have 5 major themes. Wow! My results gave me this underlying confidence which feels so good. I am a person who relates with the past, who goes into the past to resolve present and future problems, i love biographies and feel connected with old people ...so true and the scrapbooking is just that going into the past to know where you want to go from there.
I am a person with empathy who feels the others and who immediately scans someone, knowing with my guts who this person is. I tend to solve problems either mechanicals or in person's life, i am very concerned about the others and rapidly discovered the uniqueness of the ones surrounding me. I could be an excellent therapist i am .......in my own way as friends seek for advice and direction and so on.....
I couldn't recommend you more to buy the book (as to be new so you can have the test) and feel that what you took for granted are talents and the only ones who need to master. I know now that i have to relate with someone who goes into the future, with someone whose talent is a natural salesman...see! So our goal should be improving and becoming an expert with our natural talents so simple.

Have a good week end
Sunny weather in Lisbon
Heading to New york....Barnes and Noble here i come...
Xo

Be blessed

I am still in Seoul going back and forward to Tokyo and have to say that i don't know anymore where i live! A lot as been said about the tragedy in Japan and how it will affect the world for the months to come. Being an empathic person i can only imagine how difficult it must be to reconstruct, to readjust, to regain composure when nothing seems rights when the pain and the agony is so overwhelming. I deeply admired the strength and  the courage of the japanese. Nothing comes out, they keep everything within  not to embarass the others. They will no doubt rebuilt and become stronger. As we say in french "je leur tire mon chapeau"( i am in awe) 
See you in Lisbon...
Have a joyful week
Remember to give and receive 
Be blessed
Xo

Sleepless night in Seoul

It's 2am here in Seoul 17h in Lisbon needless to say that i cannot sleep so what is there to do in the middle of the night in an unknown city?

Reading

Surfing in the net

Listening to my favorite  french radio FIP

Eat chineses noodlles

Trying to sleep...

Waiting for 6am sharp for the breakfast

Check also the site www.strengthsfinder.com buy the book it's worth it!

Reading a little more...

Trying to sleep nan.....

Meditating!

Definitely not seeing the news on CNN as is the fast way to get depressed

I should have bring some chocolates...

Have a good week-end

HAVE FUN

XO

I have been working...

 Hello everyone! I have been working quietly in my studio.First step of my" gousset" watches before applying the resin. I am very excited to have found out in Canton, China a huge market dedicated to pearls and jewelry. I mean 7 floors ( yes, i did them all....) with inumerous little shops with a wide variety of beads from white to turquoise to deep purple!
I was frantic! It took me the all morning then i went to another huge market dedicated to bags...I was in heaven ...and there are huge market for shoes only then one for underwear then another for......whatever you want. Fortunately you can only pay in cash which considerably reduce your craziness but still i had most fun.

Have a good week end.
I am flying to Tokyo tomorrow via Seoul and my night prayers are with those who lost everything. I cannot imagine the anguish and the pain of the families. 
Wish you all the very best
Xo

Create your own agenda

I do love my agenda though is not a small one i take it everywhere with me! Why don't you create your own? Add the photos of your beloved ones along with specials postcards, plenty of vintage papers, where you can  write never ending list of your goals, projects, secret desires. 

My agenda pretty much defines me, it's handmade original and unique. In this world of globalization it is good in my point of view to resist and follow our own path.

What are your passions? (quote minimum 10)

What makes you unique?

What do you bring to the world? 

Are you happy with your life?
Do you like yourself?
I know i have been questioning a lot lately, must ask my astrologers pals what is this all about! But i like it to challenge myself and specially to have goals.


What is there for you?
Do you live life to the fullest?
My secret desire would be to sleep 3 to 4h taking a magic pill that would give me a lot of energy to carry on with day to day life without being tired!

Yet with the years passing by i realize that i have already a lot of energy and that my creativity is blossoming.
   Do you take care of yourself?
 Some friends will say it's easy for you because you are childless....blabla blabla. I used to have my own excuses, the jet lag, being away for  more than 15 days in the month. I have learned to define my goals. My husband 9 years ago didn't even know where was the supermarket and cooked basically two sunny side up eggs! Now, he's the one filling up the fridge and mostly the cooking. It wasn't easy "to trust" him at first, i mean i know every corner of my favorite supermarket and don't come home missing the eggs or the bread! Then i am maniac had to let go on how everything was arrange into the fridge! Major issues...but i stick to it as my therapist tell me to and can say that i like the results.
Yesterday, i was with a longtime friend, mother of three children, who was telling me how she was worried seeing so many of her friends more and more depressed.
What is it with this world nowadays that effectively more and more people lost track of their lives? France is in europe where people take more prozac. Why? What can be done? The information as never been so widely covered and yet people are falling into depression. 
What is missing in their lives that provoke such pain?

Sunday another Craft and design always happy to meet crafters friends and spending a day in a open garden.

Have fun

xo

Homesick...

I have been in Paris for 4 days  heading to Rio de Janeiro tonight both are extraordinary cities but still I miss my husband. I miss his smile, his touch, his kisses, his tenderness and passion ...after 9 years of marriage i should be more independent but i am not and don't plan to be. All my female friends are the same i guess it runs on our genes then for the fortunates ones came the unconditional love for their children but i acknowledge everyday how women's life are bound to their man. A friend was telling me that she should be more assertive, that she should have more rules...which i replied that a woman in love function with her heart not her mental.
Nothing prevails the emotion of being connected, being united, feeling whole.
I will drink a caipirinha to love
Have a good week end
xo

Online shop...Etsy

Eureka! I have open my Etsy shop come and visit me...
I choose the banner above for my shop so i'll know my grandmother and mother will keep an eye on me and will certainly show me the way with their inner intuition and wisdom.
Hope you'll like it. My first choice  is the  Once upon a time album who is very unique and special.

I want to thank  my artfriend Catherine Whalen Mitchel who deeply encouraged me to go for it! I know i have a true connection with the United States and my artfriends.
A new adventure begins...I am very enthusiastic about it. Wish me luck
Have a good week
Xo

I love my bed...

Arrived  from Mumbai this morning ... with the sense of longing and wanting to come back soon. Either you like or dislike India i don't get to see much in between...Just finished this superb book by Javier Moro the non authorized biography of Sonia Gandhi. What an extraordinary destiny! This italian woman coudn't envisioned the life that was ahead of her when she falled  in love with Rajiv Gandhi back in the sixties. She was eighteen and fought for her love against the will of her father who wasn't that happy to have her daughter to depart from distant India even to married a prince. The book is superbly written and we get to see both the life of Sonia and Rajiv and the one of Indira Gandhi. Not to be missed...

Check also on Katie Kendrick's blog joyouslybecoming.typepad.com her new mixed media video. I absolutely love it, can't wait for tomorrow to try her methods. She is so talented i am very blessed to know her.
Have a good week-end
I will plenty of ideas popping in....
Xo