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Showing posts from December, 2011

A TBA for Blooming Hearts stamp!

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«Love handkerchiefs» are a very old Portuguese tradition. Hearts, flowers, birds and small love poems were embroidered in handkerchiefs that girls gave to sweethearts. My hearts and flowers cute stamps are inspired by these traditional Portuguese designs of Lovers Handkerchiefs!It's ideal to celebrate love on every occasion, any time!For a special anniversary or for Valentine's Day. For your girlfriend or boyfriend, for your wife and husband, for your partner. These stamps are just for those who wants to celebrate love the oldfashioned way - writting a letter, sending a card!It's still a romantic aproach and very special way to celebrate love hence everyone is using emails and sms! Thank you Zazzle for this TBA! (This product is not available anymore.)

Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright.

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Beautiful photo from the Iberian Peninsula at night, December 26th! The city lights of Spain and Portugal define the Iberian Peninsula in this photograph from the International Space Station (ISS). Lovely. Credits to EARTH OBSERVATORY, NASA.

Christmas food! How to prepare Fake Scallops!

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One has to be grateful for good food on the table. Yes, food is a great way to celebrate life, and not only at Christmas. I am not a good fork but I like to try everything. Fish dishes are what I prefer. I love all kinds of seafood. If I can't afford the real thing I try another option. These aren't the real ones. They are fake scallops ideal for party starters, and very easy to do - again, don't come here for sophisticated food, I am not a cook! But if it lives on the sea I will cook it because I will certainly like it! You can prepare these with any kind of fish or seafood. What do you need? Ingredients for 5 shells A bag of peeled shrimp - you can buy it fresh and boil it and then remove the peels. But it's more work around the kitchen! 1 bag of Delícias do Mar - it's crab assembled in little rectangular pieces. Again you can use fresh crab for better results or any other seafood you like. 1 small can of mushrooms Garlic, parsley, q.b. For the béchamel sauce 2

Sweet Rice and Christmas trees!

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Just finished some Sweet Rice and took a photo to show you. There it is with a big cup of black coffee! The rice isn't that yellow but I guess my mobile phone camera can't do better than that! Couldn't wait for dinner because I like to eat it while it's still hot! It's very sweet and has a lemon flavor. I posted the recipe below if you're curious and ever want to cook it one of these days! Very easy to prepare, see, I do not like the kitchen space very much...! Yesterday I went to the local mall to buy the rice to make the Sweet Rice - and the last minute gift, that's right, there was one still missing - and there was this display of Christmas Trees decorated by local kindergarten children. Very cute! How to prepare Sweet Rice? Check it righ  here!

Pablo Alborán e Carminho sing the hit Perdóname

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Video Instead of a Christmas song, I am sharing a beautiful and romantic song by Pablo Alborán and Carminho. Carminho is a Portuguese fado singer. Pablo is a young Spanish singer only 22 years old and he's the voice of the moment in Madrid. This duet is climbing music tops in Spain and in Portugal we're enjoying it too. It's not fado but the video was shot in Lisbon. "Fado" was also the name of the first work of Carminho released in 2009 in Portugal. It was considered by the British magazine "Songlines" one of the ten best albums released this year. Fado has now been published in the British market. Check this song and video from Carminho if you want to listen to some more of this incredible Portuguese voice and also watch a bit more of typical Lisbon. Si alguna vez preguntas el por que No sabré decirte la razón Yo no la sé Por eso y más Perdóname Ni una sola palabra más No más besos al alba Ni una sola caricia habrá Esto se a

Are you ready to celebrate the New Year?

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Gold Stripe Happy New Year Paper Plate by DesignsActual How do you celebrate the arrival of the New Year? Today I went to the post office to send my Christmas mail. I bought all the gifts already. Everything is done. Now I start to think about New Year's Eve. I've tried several things to celebrate the arrival of the new year along the years. Several times I went away to a visit a new place and mix with total strangers; on several occasions I met with friends for dinner at a local restaurant and then we went to pubs and then roam the streets waiting for the fireworks; when I was younger I also went dancing all night but it's not a good choice as houses are often too full. I went also to small private parties; I went to friend's houses and stay up all night eating and talking about memories shared! I stayed home alone watching movies! I went to bed, sick with fever...and more! Everyone has a way to spend the last hours of the year and welcome the new one. The i

Portuguese Christmas desserts I like

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By José Conçalves (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0  (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons MEXIDOS RECIPE that I learned from my mother (A typical recipe from the north of the country, it's also called FORMIGOS.) Ingredients: 3 small common breads (two days old or more) 1,4 L water 200 gr sugar 50 gr of butter 1 small glass of Port Wine 1 small glass of honey - you can had more if you like Half a lemon peel 1 cinnamon stick a pinch of salt 100 g pinenuts 150 g walnuts 100 g raisins ( you can use almonds too) How to prepare it: Cut the bread in fine slices. In a small bowl add the Port wine and the raisins. In a pan put the water to boil. When the water is boiling add put the bread and cover. Let it rest for some minutes. Then use the blender. Now you have a paste. Add the pinenuts, the walnuts, the sugar, the lemon peel and the cinnamon stick to this paste and let it boil always stirring. Fire must be slow so the water evaporates slowly. When this past

Online Christmas shopping for sea lovers!

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The Beach is my Happy Place Flip Flops Mug  by  BeachBlissLiving Design your own  photo mugs with text  at Zazzle This will be my final Christmas Zazzle gifts showcase. This time I dedicated my search to sea lovers like myself. I live in a small seaside city for the moment and I like that. I know that I would feel miserable if I had to move to some interior spot of my country. I love the fact that we have a big coastline to the west and south. I like the ocean's proximity, its color and smell of it, and the sound of it. At night I can hear it sometimes when the wind blows in my house's direction. Once I actually could watch a small bit of the sea from my window but some buildings ruined my view! Here it is! Find below a big selection of Zazzle products with marvelous beach photos, mugs with transatlantic memory, several creatures from the sea, nautical designs, sea glass, inspirational quotes, and more. From cute illustrations to serious photography, here's my s