New-old things

An old embroidery manual from my great-grandmother and a new woolen scarf I'm knitting (my first one ever).

A new-old chair for my desk. Love it.

A new playlist for my walks through the city (autumn mood) and some images cut out from an old calendar -  Rodin's work, too beautiful to throw away.

New lives for old clothes (practising my sewing machine abilities)

Old scraps of paper I've been saving in a box will soon be part of a new project.

Old chair, new tricks from Mia (100 meter hurdles...).

A new craft project: granny square blanket

My first attempt doing a granny square blanket, following these wonderful instructions. Not quite there yet, but slowly learning. Quite fun to do, though!

Socks, porridge and fireplace

This weekend, a newly bought book on crafts inspired me to finish a pair of pink/brown socks started a while ago. The chilly nights up north seemed perfect for the task and reminded me that Autumn is slowly arriving, despite the hot temperatures during the day. 

The fireplace was an unexpected detail to an unusually cold night, it felt strange to spend the day at the beach and the night by the fire! Anyway, we decided to eat in, so I cooked us some porridge with pears and we ate watching a movie.

As days go by I...

've finished knitting these socks made specially for a good friend (for her to use in maybe two months time when winter arrives) and resumed my occasional walks with J, taking photos of a few unusual places.

Back to (my present) reality...

Coming back home after summer holidays is (mostly) good... even when there is so much reorganizing to do, preparing for a new year ahead.

Mia was a great help (as shown bellow) just lying around in the floor because its so so so hot...

Reorganizing meant (amongst many other things) folding again some old linen cloths, towels and napkins to free some space in the drawers (linen made in the old days is so wonderfully thick and rough).

Found a tiny crochet piece I had kept to myself years ago, used by my grandmother to cover the water jug. Love it.

Resumed my walks in this city and found new interesting spots as well as some more beautiful buildings (and their secret gardens).




An Orthodox Church tucked away in a narrow street.



The smell of freshly baked bread lead me to an old bakery and I had to buy a loaf to bring home for tea!






And last, but not least, some window shopping!

Its good to be back :-)

A Red day

1 - Girl with a tradicional costume from Minho (region in the north of Portugal), selling water on the streets
2 - Fire station in an old part of Lisbon
3 - You can never have enough (delicious strawberries)
4 - Red door vandalized buy ugly graffitty (a plague in this city at the moment)
5 - Nicely handmade multipurpose round markers. For sale here.
6 - Beautiful red and white blanket (found here)
7 - A present I love from a good friend

8 - Knitting material
9 - Open a red door to find...

  

Mending

Hungry mots snacked 2 big chunks of my favorite duvet. I actually like it better now - now it's unique!

New stuff in my kitchen

Maybe this only happens in my house, but everytime I need to bring a hot dish to the table I never have a proper 'base' to place it on, so I decided to use some scraps of cotton to make these. I also got some vintage plastic boxes to keep cereal, rice, pasta, flour - I am loving them because the shelve looks much more organized now. It reminds me of my grandmother's pantry. 

My niece M. made homemade candy with my mum today and I was offered a few. I love the wrappings.

Masking tape - Japan's new addictive product

I couldn't believe the extent of Japan's addiction to masking tape. That is, until I found the blog "Hello Sandwich" - tons of ideas of what to do with MT. Surprising and surreal (in a good way).
Oh how I would love-love-love going to Japan!