When a man loves a woman...

                                                           
     Latest album ordered by a beautiful woman for her wedding. At first the album was her special heart gift for her husband to be but i sense when creating why not make it a surprise for them both? So they had their wedding in the midst of the forest(how cool is that?) along with their three children, family and friendsand in the next morning they opened the album which celebrates their mutual love. Here is just a glimpse of it of course as the fotos are private...

Hope you enjoy it.

Have a nice week end

xo

Make a wish...

I love the idea of recycling and have been doing some visual journals for some time now. The difficult part i often hear is where to start? I came up with this idea after many requests, to put some of my stuff into the journals and then the buyer will continue and make it her/his own. I forgot to take the pictures of those i already sold but i still have one left for the moment so here it goes!

 The goal of the journal is to have fun! Feel free to scribble, draw, paint, glue, cut, write....unlimited list. I love the idea of a magic journal where one can write down and collage our dreams and projects and feel confident that it will happen in the future.
I wish i have a...
I wish i am...
I wish i can...

BE INSPIRED

HAVE FUN

MAKE A WISH

BE HAPPY

BE BLESSED

XO

Good memories...

About Hope...

 It seems that i have only questions without answers those days. In this moment of huge crise in Portugal what can we do to help one another, to give support, to listen and still be positive?
The state is cutting everywhere, people struggle to remain afloat but it becomes more and more challenging each day to just survive. Some go to the beach to regain energy, i do whenever i can but i like to gather  down my thoughts, my dreams in my "make a wish journals"too. I follow Julia Cameron's advice( the vein of gold, a journey to your creative heart) to write down every single day with no exception 3 pages who will help you to become more centered, balanced and alert. Easy to say when it seems there is no way out, when you found only close doors ahead of you. No need to reply doors will open one day, have to be patient blabla bla... And ye,t you soon realise that human beings have unlimited resources within them after moments of complete despair HOPE arise again and solutions follow. In the meantime we realize how being united and helpful with one another is what truly counts in the end.

 Have a nice week end
Tell a friend how much you love him
Give a huge hug
Look into the mirror and say " i love myself with all my scars, wrinkles, overweight because I am unique."
Be blessed
xoxoxox

On compassion...

 Sorry guys...been rather lazy on blogging lately! This album was a special order from a woman in love. What is there other than being in love? Love for your man, your woman, your kids, your pets, your friends(should have put the friends before the pets but one is never deceived by pets!) Love is what we all seek, yet it can be hard and challenging but in the end is what we'll take with us.

 Just open randomly the Dalai's Lama book " the art of happiness"quoting...
In generating compassion, you start by recognizing that you do not want suffering and that you have a right to have happiness. This can be verified or validated by your own experience. So... let us meditate on compassion today. Begin by visualizing a person who is acutely suffering, someone who is in pain or in a very unfortunate situation. Try to relate that to yourself, thinking, "that individual has the same capacity for experiencing pain, joy, happiness and suffering than i do". Then, try to allow your natural response to arise- a natural feeling of compassion towards that person.

Heading to Paris tomorrow.
Suggestions for the week-end:

Hold someone tightly...
Tell someone how much you love him
Feel grateful
Do something wild
Laugh out loudly...
.........

Thank you

I am really excited about Katie Kendrick online class. She's so inspiring and talented. It's like i have been waiting all these years the green light...and off i go. I have been in my studio with my hands full of paint and watercolors crayons feeling alive. I don't know where i'm going but i definitely sense that a new and exciting path is ahead.
i like to doubt
i like to try
i like to question
i like to explore
i like...myself each day a little bit more
Make something bold this week
xo

Being impatient...

I am very far from home and longing to come back. Last night i watch all over again Katie Kendrick awesome videos about collage and painting and i'm rather impatient to be in my studio. I love her way of teaching and sharing. I have to overcome the nagging fear of not being capable then, last night i was surfing and come accross Lynn Whipple blog. I knew her work already but haven't seen her tutorials videos nor her 100 bad paintings as she call them. There's the 8 steps video which is not only fun but inspiring where she acurately describes the process of creating with all our doubts, fears, wanting to gave up blabla but in the end we just have to keep on trying because creating is what makes us feeling whole.
We practice and practice and sometimes it seems that everything flows and then again we feel stuck. It's really an ongoing process, to know that it happens with all of us who have this need to create feels reassuring and comforting.
I think she called it step 4 where she highly advise us to show our art to someone we trust, who will not turns us down again my fan number one being my beloved husband and i know that he is always there for me to listen, to encourage, to motivate, to lighten up, to laugh... I miss him deeply, hopefully as we say in portuguese "Se Deus quiser"(if God allows it) tomorrow i'll be next to him.
Have a good sunday
xo

Man's search for meaning

I have not been creating lately and am ok with it. I have been flying a lot, preparing my next holidays for july and just relaxing whenever i get the chance!
I have read a lot though and recommend you this powerful biography from Jim Fergus "Marie Blanche" who has written too "a thousand women" both wonderful and poignant stories. If you are into old fairy tales about "Merlin l'enchanteur" read "le lit d'aliénor" from Mireille Calmel superb too then i reread from Dr Viktor E. Frankl "Man's search for meaning".
A book not to be missed and to offer to the ones you like. How Dr Frankl managed to survive from a concentration camp alive and still be able to live a fullfiling life till his nineties. He created the logotherapy on the base that if we as humans find a meaning in our lives we can survive to anything. A book that makes reconsider your own life.


Have a nice week
Heading to Douala
Xo

On pleasure

This album brings back excellent memories since it was started at Artfest 2009. I am rearranging all my photos, classifying and organizing and of course i can see the path that i made in these 2 years.  I remember the pleasure and desinvolture i had, so it's time to get back in track as i like to say. At the beguining it was only for fun now as people are getting more found of my work it do not want the comercial side to take over. It's not that easy to accomplish will I sell this album? Is it overpriced? I hear a thousand advices you should do this and that.....But in the end it's all about pleasure and feeling whole at least it is for me and i want it to remain like that otherwise it will become more and more stressful.
The power of money and greed are fast to arrive....my ego as well!

This album was made out of love since I offered it to my husband and as his own place in our living room. My goal is achieved when people feel the truthness and the authenticity of the album they are buying for themselves or for those they care. My work is about emotion, empathy, being connected.

I do not have to hurry
I have plenty of time
Creating with love and care
Being self balanced
....
What are your goals?
What do you crave for?


DO YOU FEEL WHOLE?

Le grand Bleu

How odd!  I just received an email from my first love back when i was seventeen... It didn't last long but for me it lasted a lifetime. I relish that year as one of total happiness, my grand-mother moved on with us as she wanted "to divorce" after fifty years of marriage as my grand father didn't make the celebrations of half a century they spent together. We didn't take it seriously but loved having Mamie around everyday she cooked us different and delicious meals, sewing in the afternoon, her hands never at rest. 
My first love looked like Mickey Rourke, one of the handsome guys in school and he asked me to date him!  I was feeling whole, my dreams had came true. I remember him as one does with first love with romantic eyes, we never argue, we had fun, we danced... we spent endless hours talking. He had this "mobylette" that i thought was sooooo cool riding behing him feeling his male scent how unerving that was and exciting! We were free spirited but still so shy. He was very protective over me, felt for the first time beautiful and bright.
I remember how my grand-mother loved the idea, how i could count on her. I used to smoke at the time he didn't...clever guy! 
It was 24 years ago...but a simple email brought it back as it was yesterday. I loved those months one of the happiest in my life.

What a pleasant and unexpected surprise. It all come out through the blog. As i look back now i realize that all my past is in my present and certainly in my future. I keep on with friends from childhood who know me for ages, who know me by heart from friends that i have met up recently where souls recognizes themselves out from criativity. Love this continuity,  this balance, this knowing where i come from but this freedom to be who i want to be and hopefully there's a lot ahead of me. I have learned my lessons over the years, don't take anything for granted.
How odd that my first love and my forever love over the centuries  share the same passion for a film a a music " le grand bleu"Eric Besson  when they aren't the same age nor from the same nationality.
God's way i dare to write....
Have a good week
Xo

sweet memories

Foi um dos primeiros livros de scrap que realizei. Simples, com alguns dos meus tecidos azuis preferidos.........e claro a minha garrafa fetiche

O meu marido Luis adora escrever-me "des mots doux" que eu gardo religiosamente e que utilizo bastante nos meus trabalhos

Esta foto foi tirada com o meu cão Pimba, pastor alemão lindo criado pela guarda nacional republicana,"cantava", dormia no meu quarto, partilhavá-mos as bolachas maria as escondidas, quando o meu irmão Stephane lhe puxava os pêlos(de 5 em 5 mn!) foi sempre meigo nunca rosnou

Pode-se dizer que o meu pai conseguiu captar os meus primeiros passos...é uma das minhas fotos preferidas de bébé.






Estou numa fase de transição, tenho que saber utilisar o meu novo laptop mac book que é bastante mais fácil de manejo do que o pc, mas mesmo assim há muita coisa nova para integrar.

Sei que estão todos ansiosos para realisar o meu workshop...está quase!

Be happy enjoy create........life is short