February 5, 2010

Buy Valentine Greeting Cards online and learn about the legend!




In the III century AD, the Roman Emperor Claudius II had decreed null and void and prohibited marriages, because without family men would be easier to recruit for the fronts of the war. Valentinus violates the unjust imperial decree performing marriages in secret. Discovering its audacity, he is arrested, tortured and sentenced to death for violating the law. In prison, he gets messages of encouragement and flowers from people who believed in love. The daughter of his jailer, blind from birth, visited him frequently during his captivity, bringing him food. Valentine describes the world to her and speaks of God. One daylight illuminates the jail. She bursts into tears because a miracle had happened - she regained vision! With the miracle, her entire family converted to Christianity. On the eve of death, Valentinus wrote a last letter to the girl, whom he had fallen in love, asking her not to part from God and signed "From your Valentine".


From this legend, and over time, the tradition of exchanging postcards between lovers settled in customs. In the Middle Ages in France and England, Valentine has become one of the most important saints. On time of the martyr's death, 14 February, young people sewed the sleeves a paper heart with the name of their partner. They would keep it for one week. Hence the expression to wear one's heart on the sleeve that was synonymous that the person was in love. In the fifteenth century, Charles, the young Duke of Orleans, was among the first to use the concept of Valentine's cards. Imprisoned in the Tower of London after the battle of Agincourt in 1415, he sent on that date poem and love notes to his wife, who was in France. Throughout the seventeenth century, it was customary for lovers to write poems on small cards to send to people they were in love with. From 1840, in Victorian England, Valentines messages began to appear on cards decorated with ribbons and tissue paper. Phrases and poems used then still remain in vogue. Even today there are many passionate people exchanging cards and flowers or making a romantic dinner on the anniversary of the death of the martyr.

 This post was refreshed in 2015

Donuts For You Valentine's Day Cards
Donuts For You Valentine's Day Cards by fancypaperie
Shop for Valentine's day Cards online at Zazzle.com
Cute Valentine Card Truck for Grandpa
Cute Valentine Card Truck for Grandpa by envisager
Browse more Automobile Cards at Zazzle
Chemistry Valentines Day Card
Chemistry Valentines Day Card by bunnieclaire
Check out other note cards online at Zazzle.
You're Tweet Tweety Bowl Greeting Card
You're Tweet Tweety Bowl Greeting Card by looneytunesshow
Check out more Looney tunes show Cards at Zazzle



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A great surprise for Papelustro!



Besides A Portuguese love store, I have another store at Zazzle. It's called Papelustro. Last week I got an email about it. A Zazzler made a feature about Papelustro in his blog called Surreality Watch. He was too kind, really. He wrote these amazing words about my postcard SOFA DOG:

"What a postcard! This design amazes me. It manages to be surreal, humorous, tender and gorgeous at the same time. Seems based in the finest tradition of graphic design (some '40s and '50s styles come to mind) and I do wish you have friends who will appreciate receiving such a work of art. The artist is Belinha Fernandes from Portugal, her store is named Papelustro and everyone crazy enough to follow this blog will be more than happy to go there and take a look!"

Thank you so much!:))

Visit his store, here!


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Moving to another city soon!



It has been a while since my last blog update. In fact,, it has been a while now since I updated my Zazzle store. I made several products for Christmas season and New Year and then I took a little break to re-think the store and my new year's direction. Time went by quickly as several projects needed my full attention. So the store remained abandoned and all my new ideas in the drawer! Then I got the flu and for the past two weeks, I did almost nothing. Now another project is coming my way and soon it will make me move to another city. This is going to be quite a dream come true and I could not be happier. So I guess it will be difficult to go back to my early Zazzle start days when I kept updating several times per week and keeping in touch with great artists! But I will not give up as I found it truly rewarding. Every sale makes me quite happy. It's quite a joyful feeling to know that my designs are there in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada or USA. I would like to send a big thank to my buyers for their preference.
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January 3, 2010

Lots of dead octopuses gave to the portuguese coast


The sea keeps bringing dead octopuses to some northern beaches shores of Portugal. One day after it started authorities still do not know what caused it. Maybe they drunk too much in New Year's Eve underwater festivities?!
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December 31, 2009

I am very upset with Facebook


Just discovered that this postcard that I created and published at Zazzle store is part of the New Year Gift Facebook application! No one asked my permission, no one informed me about it. I think this is very, very wrong thing to do. I would have said yes to the developer, of course. What can we do to protect our work from this unethical behavior? Any similar stories you want to share?

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December 24, 2009

BOAS FESTAS_SEASON'S GREETINGS!

To all my visitors,friends and customers!
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December 21, 2009

Learn how to make RABANADAS! (Traditional dessert for Christmas)


Portuguese celebrate Christmas with a rich table of sweet cakes and biscuits, dry fruits and good wine and liquors. The traditional Christmas cake is 'Bolo Rei' (which means 'King Cake') and is placed in the center of the table. It's a wreath like fruit cake laced with crystallized fruits and pine nuts. There is a tiny present inside the cake and a broad bean. The person who finds the broadbean in one slice will pay the next "King Cake"!!Some of Christmas popular desserts are rice pudding with cinnamon, fried desserts,-"filhoses"- pastries made with honey - "broas de mel" -pumpkin fritters - "sonhos".

I'm about to go to the kitchen to make Rabanadas. These are also a regular presence at our table. Do you want to try some Rabanadas?

What you need to buy:


1baguette loaf of bread - 1 egg - 200 ml (3/4 cup) milk - Olive oil - Sugar and cinnamon


How to prepare it:


1. Cut a baguette into 1 cm (1/2") thick rounds; remove the crusts;


2. Dip into an egg beaten with milk - 1 egg to approximately 200 ml (3/4 c.) milk;


3. Fry in hot olive oil in a skillet for a few seconds on each side;


4. Drain it and then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon;


5. Eat a lot, forget about diet and wish Christmas never ends!
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December 18, 2009

My nephew's school Christmas party

My nephew dancing to one of my favorite Christmas songs - Jingle Bell Rock!
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December 17, 2009

A Poem and a Letter on the Lisbon Disaster of 1755






My eyes' dark circles are getting bigger and bigger. Two nights in a row losing sleep is just too much. Two nights ago the responsible for it was a strong wind blowing on my window. Too much noise around my building. It was really a wind festival. As a result yesterday I was on coffee all day. I lost count on how many cups I drank. As a result of too much coffee, I was still awake 1.37 AM and so I felt an earthquake! 

Its origin was at the south, in the sea - 190 km (115 miles) WSW of Faro, or 265 km (165 miles) SSW of Lisbon, our capital. You can check the link above for more information on it. It was felt as far as Braga, in the north, Madrid, capital of Spain and Marrakech, Morocco. Magnitude of 5.7. No damages but enough shakes to scare good people.

As some of you might know in 1755 Lisbon had an earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake. It took place on 1 November 1755. Geologists think that it was a Magnitude 9 episode and its epicenter was also at south in the sea. Learn about here. It was one of the biggest in destruction history. It was followed by a tsunami and fires and destroyed the capital almost completely. Some say it will happen again. 

I must confess, earthquakes scares me a lot. That episode took away any of my will to sleep! I went to make some tea and switch the TV on. On the moments that followed the earthquake I just wanted to know what happened out here. The TV showed little information but people were Twitting about it. Now I'm again on the coffee regime. Let's hope this night I finally get a good night sleep!


Poem and a Letter almost as famous as the Great Lisbon Earthquake itself!


1. Voltaire:"Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, or: An Examination of that Axiom 'All Is Well,"
1755

Oh, miserable mortals! Oh wretched earth!
Oh, dreadful assembly of all mankind!
Eternal sermon of useless sufferings!
Deluded philosophers who cry, "All is well,"
Hasten, contemplate these frightful ruins,
This wreck, these shreds, these wretched ashes of the dead;
These women and children heaped on one another,
These scattered members under broken marble;

One-hundred thousand unfortunates devoured by the earth
Who, bleeding, lacerated, and still alive,
Buried under their roofs without aid in their anguish,
End their sad days!
In answer to the half-formed cries of their dying voices,
At the frightful sight of their smoking ashes,
Will you say: "This is result of eternal laws
Directing the acts of a free and good God!"
Will you say, in seeing this mass of victims:
"God is revenged, their death is the price for their crimes?"
What crime, what error did these children,
Crushed and bloody on their mothers' breasts, commit?
Did Lisbon, which is no more, have more vices
Than London and Paris immersed in their pleasures?
Lisbon is destroyed, and they dance in Paris!


2. Rousseau's Letter to Voltaire Regarding the Poem on the Lisbon Earthquake,August 18, 1756


All my complaints are . . . against your poem on the Lisbon disaster, because I expected from it evidence more worthy of the humanity which apparently inspired you to write it. You reproach Alexander Pope and Leibnitz with belittling our misfortunes by affirming that all is well, but you so burden the list of our miseries that you further disparage our condition. Instead of the consolations that I expected, you only vex me. It might be said that you fear that I don't feel my unhappiness enough, and that you are trying to soothe me by proving that all is bad.
Do not be mistaken, Monsieur, it happens that everything is contrary to what you propose. This optimism which you find so cruel consoles me still in the same woes that you force on me as unbearable. Pope's poem alleviates my difficulties and inclines me to patience; yours makes my afflictions worse, prompts me to grumble, and, leading me beyond a shattered hope, reduces me to despair....
"Have patience, man," Pope and Leibnitz tell me, "your woes are a necessary effect of your nature and of the constitution of the universe. The eternal and beneficent Being who governs the universe wished to protect you. Of all the possible plans, he chose that combining the minimum evil and the maximum good. If it is necessary to say the same thing more bluntly, God has done no better for mankind because (He) can do no better."
Now what does your poem tell me? "Suffer forever unfortunate one. If a God created you, He is doubtlessly all powerful and could have prevented all your woes. Don't ever hope that your woes will end, because you would never know why you exist, if it is not to suffer and die...."
I do not see how one can search for the source of moral evil anywhere but in man.... Moreover ... the majority of our physical misfortunes are also our work. Without leaving your Lisbon subject, concede, for example, that it was hardly nature that there brought together twenty-thousand houses of six or seven stories. If the residents of this large city had been more evenly dispersed and less densely housed, the losses would have been fewer or perhaps none at all. Everyone would have fled at the first shock. But many obstinately remained . . . to expose themselves to additional earth tremors because what they would have had to leave behind was worth more than what they could carry away. How many unfortunates perished in this disaster through the desire to fetch their clothing, papers, or money? . . .
There are often events that afflict us . . . that lose a lot of their horror when we examine them closely. I learned in Zadig, and nature daily confirms my lesson, that a rapid death is not always a true misfortune, and that it can sometimes be considered a relative blessing. Of the many persons crushed under Lisbon's ruins, some without doubt escaped greater misfortunes, and . . . it is not certain that a single one of these unfortunates suffered more than if, in the normal course of events, he had awaited [a more normal] death to overtake him after long agonies. Was death [in the ruins] a sadder end than that of a dying person overburdened with useless treatments, whose notary and heirs do not allow him a respite, whom the doctors kill in his own bed at their leisure, and whom the barbarous priests artfully try to make relish death? For me, I see everywhere that the misfortunes nature imposes upon us are less cruel than those which we add to them....
I cannot prevent myself, Monsieur, from noting . . . a strange contrast between you and me as regards the subject of this letter. Satiated with glory . . . you live free in the midst of affluence. Certain of your immortality, you peacefully philosophize on the nature of the soul, and, if your body or heart suffer, you have Tronchin as doctor and friend. You however find only evil on earth. And I, an obscure and poor man tormented with an incurable illness, meditate with pleasure in my seclusion and find that all is well. What is the source of this apparent contradiction? You explained it yourself: you revel but I hope, and hope beautifies everything.
. . . I have suffered too much in this life not to look forward to another. No metaphysical subtleties cause me to doubt a time of immortality for the soul and a beneficent providence. I sense it, I believe it, I wish it, I hope for it, I will uphold it until my last gasp....


I am, with respect, Monsieur,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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December 14, 2009

I miss summer so much!

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National Georgraphic Society will promote ALTO DOURO WINE REGION

Photo source: see link below


Today Alto Douro is celebrating the 8th anniversary of Alto Douro Wine Region Inscription at Unesco's World Heritage sites. The wine region in northern Portugal charms visitors with historic and natural attractions. It's an iconic region for wine production.Beautiful landscapes and relatively little tourism have kept cultural authenticity in the region.

An International Conference "Douro Destination - Tourism, Sustainability, and World Heritage", is taken place today in the city of Vila Real. A partnership with the National Geographic Society to promote the Douro as a destination for "Geotourism" in accordance with the principles of sustainability defined by that international organization will be signed at this conference.

Some photos for you to take a look, here and here.
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CONFIANÇA´S soap bars giveaway winners are here!

Jenna(Mariposa Soap) and Tammy(O melhor) ,both from Ohio,and Frannie (O meu sabonete),from New York are the lucky winners! Congratulations!In a few hours they will be on the mail on its way to you!
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December 11, 2009

I got my first Christmas greeting card!


It comes from The Portuense Centre for Photography, Directorate-General for the Archives. I get a Christmas card from this cultural institution since 2001. I attended a photography workshop there. I keep all the cards because they are old black and white photos reproductions just like this one. This old photo was taken maybe around 1910 by Aurélio da Paz dos Reis. He is known as the father of Portuguese cinema. His first movie is similar to the one brothers Lumière made in France. It depicts workers leaving the factory at closing time.
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Just sold 10 pins!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 button
Just sold 10 pins! 
It's a wonderful sensation to know that people will be wearing it in New York! Happy New Year to my buyer! This product isn't available anymore!
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Oldest cinema director in the world turns 101 today



Since 2001 Manoel de Oliveira is the oldest cinema director in the world still in business. He was born in Oporto on 11 December 1908. He was a member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1981. In 1942 he made a movie about children that lived in Oporto's Ribeira near the Douro river. It's called Aniki-Bobó. I enjoyed it when I first saw it many years ago and I still do. A poetic tale and a simple story shot black and white in beautiful Oporto city. Watch the footage below. It has no captions but you can easily follow what's happening with Carlitos and it's cute. He has filmed a lot but his cinema isn't that much appreciated in Portugal. He seems to be more popular in other European countries like France. Some say it's too personal...others say it's too slow and too boring. Others say it's too artistic! I enjoy some of his movies but not all of it. What I find really amazing in Manoel de Oliveira is his longevity. He's quite active and everyone who thinks that old people should retire and stay home should learn from that. And he must be as happy as anyone can be as he lived and lives for his lifetime passion: cinema. Happy birthday Mr.Oliveira!


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December 7, 2009

Only three days left to enter Confiança's soaps giveaway!










THE SOAPS : O melhor - O meu sabonete - Mariposa - read about it,here!

CONFIANÇA'S HISTORY AND PRODUCTS - Visit the site!



A SHORT LIST OF REASONS TO ENTER CONFIANÇA’S SOAPS GIVEAWAY

1.Confiança is a brand of reference for Portuguese cosmetic industry!
2.It has lots of history as it was funded on 12th October of 1844
3.Confiança is the only Portuguese company to obtain the ISO 9001:2000 quality certifications in its field!
4.All soaps ingredients used are natural and 100% vegetable.
5.No animal test is conducted.
6.Quality control is made in all production stages and the final products are evaluated by external certified laboratories.
7.Confiança produces even today according to its traditional methods passed from generation to generation.
8.To Confiança each of its products is more than a cosmetic. It’s a piece of history, a memory and a small part of each one of its co-workers.
9.It's so easy to enter Confiança's portuguese bar soaps giveaway!
10. You get an extra quality gift this Christmas!

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

1.Make your choice! Pick your favorite soap!

2.Do one of three things:

A. Follow me on Twitter

B.Join my Facebook Fan page

C.Subscribe to my blog A portuguese love

3.To qualify for the giveaway you must also click on the link below and leave a comment on my fantastic Giveaway hoste DZ Fantasy's blog. Name the soap you picked leave your email for contact.Best of luck!

http://dzfantasy.blogspot.com/2009/11/winners-choice-giveaway-exquisite.html


START DATE: November 10. 2009


END DATE : December 10, 2009 - 12:00 Midnight CDT


OPEN: Worldwide
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