November 10, 2009

Greeting cards with hearts and flowers

Portuguese Valentine heart with flowers Greeting Cards


Hello Zazzlers and friends!

Want to send some loving words the old way? Pick one of these greeting cards and go for it! Hearts and flowers in different background colors and a message you can customize. Matching stamps are available also! Check the store!
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November 9, 2009

CONFIANÇA - A portuguese brand you can trust



From time to time, you will find in this space my impressions on Portuguese brands or products of solid reputation, tradition or cultural value. I'm starting with a brand that's quite dear to me. As a child, I lived in the north of Portugal and visited Confiança´s soap factory. When in Elementary school we often had study visits, many to factories in the surroundings. I never forgot those very big boilers full of liquid soap! But we also had Confiança’s soaps in our house so it was very interesting to discover how it was made before reaching our hands! I am very pleased that Confiança’s offering three fine soaps to my blog visitors. This week you will learn how to enter the giveaway. They are quality products and full of tradition and carry Portuguese history of success. First, get to know this Portuguese brand a little!

Founded on 12th October of 1844 by Silva Almeida and Santos Pereira, Confiança is a reference for the Portuguese cosmetic industry. Initially specialized on Offenbach soap production quickly became a reference of quality for its products.

The good reputation gained allows then Confiança to diversify its products surprising the market with the launching of high-quality cosmetic products, made in Portugal, at a time when this sort of products was mainly imported from France or the UK. Thus, in 1910, first private labels are launched presenting original designs and formulas.

The market awareness of Confiança’s quality products together with the end of World War I takes Confiança to a new and strong expansion period that is translated in the development of new business, technical up-grade of production as well as the conquering of new markets. In 1928 Confiança produced 150 different brands of luxury soaps, rice powder, creams, toothpaste, shaving sticks, colognes, lotions, and essences.

Aware of the market demands since its foundation Confiança starts in the '80s to develop new cosmetics, adjusting formulas and offering a new range of products, especially the new liquid formats of bath gel and shampoo, as an answer to the new lifestyle that was starting to impose.

In April 2007 Confiança gains the ISO 9001:2000 quality certifications becoming the only Portuguese company in its field to obtain production methods and products recognized. 

The production process is carefully accompanied and registered according to quality standards obeying to the best practices used in the cosmetic industry. All ingredients used are natural and 100% vegetable. No animal test is conducted. Quality control is made in all production stages and the final products are evaluated by external certified laboratories.

Text source:Saboaria e Perfurmaria Confiança's catalogue

(To be continued)
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November 6, 2009

Products for Portuguese Water Dog lovers!


The Portuguese water dog is native to Portugal. Probably now that Obama got one for the family it must be one of the most well known canine races in the world as Bo was seen in most TV's and had his photo in magazines when he was adopted. In Portugal, we call it Cão de Água and it means water dog. These dogs worked alongside fisherman many years ago and they are very good swimmers and divers. That's why the lion trim. This shave on the rear of the dog was the best for a dog that worked on the water. The front was left intact because that's where the dog needs to be warmer. You may not believe it if you are unfamiliar with what dogs are able to do. But before technology took over these dogs were trained to deliver messages from one boat to another or from a boat to shore. As they do in the land with houses and property they guarded boats in ports. They helped fisherman to herd and catch fish, they retrieved broken nets and anything that was on the water. Even if a fisherman fell overboard he could rely on the dog for rescue.

Check some photos and videos on this dog:
http://www.caodaguapt.org/gall09/gall09.html
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October 26, 2009

Sunset at Figueira da Foz Portuguese beach


Last Sunday, October 25, we've had Daylight Saving Time clock usual change - 1:00 AM back to 12:00 Midnight. I hate it. As a result, we´ll get an early evening with the sun going down too soon for my taste for the following months. I took this photo 45 minutes ago.In Summer at this same hour we have still a lot of natural light...
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October 25, 2009

My store is one week!


It has been a week since I opened the store. It’s too soon to have an opinion on how it will perform but I have a good feeling about it. I discovered lots of excellent stores, great artists are selling great stuff on Zazzle. It’s a market like any other.

I had two surprises from two Zazzlers, one posted one of my designs (Party Flu!!!) in the front page of the store, the other made a public show of her gratitude on her blog just because I dropped by her Wall page to leave some words. Both reactions are fantastic proof of generosity. We Zazzlers need publicity and so I am happy and thrilled with what these two absolute strangers did.


Moonman’s store theme is all things space. It's called 3DMoonman store. It was fun to visit his (or her) planet on Zazzle as I am such a sci-fi fan. I’ve seen all movies, all TV series and read all possible comics about the conquest of space, alien life, life on the moon, everything! It’s fascinating. 

As for K’s – I call her K- I found her blog by pure accident and read about her Zazzle experience. She sounded a bit disenchanted and so I decided to visit her store and leave her some words of incentive. Her store is named K-Rich's place. It has been only a week but I have already understood that is harder to promote the store than to create products! If we are new to it we must be persistent and keep working. And that’s all I said. So imagine my surprise when I saw her blog post and her Squid Lenz. No need for that at all. I was moved and I really hope she can find time to make more drawing and get new stuff on the store. She’s is a mother of three children so probably she doesn't have much free time. As for me, I do not have children of my own...maybe that's one reason why I create designs for all the children!


(Please tell me if you find English mistakes. This is not my mother tongue!)

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October 22, 2009

The name of the store: A Portuguese Love

Omg Cartoon GIF from Omg GIFs

Things started nicely. I put into my head that in one weak my new Zazzle store should open to the public. I am a determined girl and so I did. I called my shop The Portuguese girl. I liked that name very much. I googled it but not enough and this is a lesson I’ve learned. One must be careful before naming stores. My shop was running and I was happy with it. Well, not too happy. Some of the designs were finished in a rush to fulfill my goal. My new store had 30 visits each day, lots of encouragement on The wall, nice words from the Zazzle community. I joined a lot of Fan Clubs and got my share of fans too. I discovered some pretty good galleries. Two of them belonged to Portuguese girl and mother.

Then on Sunday morning, I googled again and there it was! I found a shop named as mine and selling also Portuguese inspired designs. Ok, I know that I am not being 100% original here. But what a coincidence that a Portuguese girl living in California also fancied the name I picked! I wrote to her apologizing and confessing my surprise. I was not stealing her name, I did not know about it. At that time I still wanted to keep the name. But as soon I as click the send button on my email box I realized I had to change it. I was the one to blame. I did not look carefully. But I was overwhelmed by the idea of re-uploading everything. Starting all over again? Yes. I had to.

I sent Zazzle an email reporting the need to delete the store. Almost immediately Zazzle answered and I was informed that my shop would be deleted. This happened too fast and I wasn’t able to keep the contacts of some wonderful stores I had found in the last two days. The new store opened on 18th October under the name A Portuguese love. Some designs were updated in the process. When I finished doing it was completely fed up with it, I could not look at the monitor no more! And the store looked so empty without any comments on the Wall!

Even today I am still trying to find some of the initial galleries I visited! But most visitors came back and that was sweet! So here's my first advice to anyone reading this post. If you are about to create a store in Zazzle or Café Press or Etsy GOOGLE the store name very well!

(Please tell me if you find English language mistakes. This is not my mother tongue!)
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October 17, 2009

Sweethearts handkerchiefs or lenços de namorados




The sweetheart’s favors or "Sweethearts´ handkerchiefs", also known as "love handkerchiefs" are a Portuguese tradition. It dates maybe from the 17th century. They have a symbolic function - the conquest of a man's love. These squares are made of linen or cotton and have embroidered messages dedicated by a young woman to the man she is in love with. She then sent it to the man and, if her love was returned, he would use the handkerchief in public. In case he didn´t, the romantic dream was over. Often these handkerchiefs have language mistakes and rhyme. Designs include blackberry vines, bouquets, flowers, hearts, and keys to open hearts, butterflies, doves, religious symbols, etc. Linnen is embroidered in cross stitch, in running and stem stitches. 


Here's an example of "lenço de namorados". The maker is Virgínia Fonseca and she lives in Peso da Régua.  I like the simplicity and ingenuity of it all.
I created a line of products inspired by these "Sweethearts'handkerchiefs" and blue color.  Have a look!

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A mug of hot chocolate and spice for Halloween?


Hello!
Here in Portugal, we don´t celebrate Halloween. Mmmmm. Not totally true...a lot of acculturation has taken place. But kids do not do the trick-or-treat thing door to door yet. I like the spirit of Halloween! Pumpkins rule!  I am so fond of pumpkin. I do not know what´s Halloween traditional beverage. But I would like to fill this mug with hot chocolate. I found an interesting recipe at The steaming cup!

"The Aztecs were the first to serve chocolate as a drink, but they also mixed it with hot chili pepper to make a really special beverage. Try something exotic with your hot chocolate today. You can always reduce the amount of chili if it's too hot for you." 

Lot's of different colorful Halloween mugs! It will be hard to pick just one!

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WHY? How to buy from Zazzle?

Welcome to the blog of A Portuguese Love Zazzle Store! 

The products presented on this blog are all for sale. (Some are created by Associate Zazzle Stores, not me. If you buy one of these I'll earn a small percentage.)
You can access to A Portuguese Love Store clicking on this link or the link in the above bar, any product/link on the blog posts, or any product/link presented on the flash widgets available on your right.
How can you buy a product from A Portuguese Love Store or Associate?

1. If it's your first time on Zazzle, you will have to register. It's a simple process. Then, when you find the product you wish to buy, you must click on top of it and you'll get something like this:






You can check product details for more information. Then you must click the button Add to Cart. After, if you have a Promo Code/Gift Certificate you must enter it. Then Proceed to check out and enter the Shipping address. It's pretty easy.

YOUR COUNTRY AND CURRENCY INTERFACE – A Portuguese Love Store is Zazzle.com and this means the American currency and English language. But you can browse the Store under a different country language and currency, maybe even your own.

On the Store page, look down and search for the flag of the country of your preference: UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium.

2. BUT! You may want to customize the product you're about to buy. Look at the blue button on the mousepad. It says CUSTOMIZE. This means you can introduce some elements or change some elements previously arranged by me. If that's the case you must click on the blue button to customize your product. This is what you'll see next:





As you can see the area on your right is now showing what we call the Zazzle tool. What can you do with it? Depending on the options made available to you by the product creator you’ll be able to:


- Remove Text and/or Images from the design


- Alter the image size/orientation/placement (using controls provided in the design tool)


- Alter the text size/orientation/placement/color/font


- Change the layering of design elements (adjusting which is "in front of" or "behind" other elements)


- Add Text and/or images not included in the original design

In this section, you can also determine the style of the product and color of the product you want to buy if there are several styles available.

I used the Zazzle tool to write "I am a good rooster". Have a look!




3. Some things make shopping on Zazzle even more enjoyable. These things are:

VOLUME AND BULK DISCOUNTS ZAZZLE OFFERS ON EACH PRODUCT LINE!
You don't have to buy multiples of the same items to receive a quantity discount. Example: you'll receive a quantity discount on any order of a quantity of different designer bags!

COUPON DISCOUNTS - Coupon Codes means you can buy more for less! Visit the Coupon Center when you’re placing an order to check if there is a discount for the product you want.

TURNAROUND TIME FOR ZAZZLE ORDERS - If you are wondering how long it will take for your product to be produced.

4. Some other things will make you feel at home when shopping at Zazzle. These things are:

ZAZZLE PROMISE/ SHOPPING GUARANTEE / RETURN POLICY

ZAZZLE PRIVACY POLICY

ZAZZLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT VIA EMAIL

ZAZZLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT : 1-888-8ZAZZLE (or 408-983-2800)

Hours: Mon - Fri: 6am - 8pm PST (9am - 11pm EST)

OVERSEAS SHIPPING OPTIONS AND RATES


5. Zazzle currently accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and PayPal, as well as Zazzle earnings and gift certificates as payment.

What are my ideas for this blog?

 - In this blog, I'll write about how I find inspiration for my Zazzle drawings and also about Portuguese culture in a light and informal way. 

- I will show my Zazzle products. 

- Sometimes in the near future I will promote giveaways.

- I'll showcase products I like and stores from Zazzle artists...and more!


Any comments, questions, opinions, and suggestions are welcome!



Enjoy your visit!



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