A Portuguese Love

Are you on Pinterest? I am. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that allows users to organize and share images that they find on the internet. You can create your own boards for any topic you can think of, pin images to those boards, and browse pinboards created by others. Once you create an account, you can add the Pin-It Button to your Bookmarks Bar which will allow you to easily "Pin" any image from any page on the web to one of your pinboards! Zazzle just announced a challenge that involves Pinterest! You can win some prizes, yeah! St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, so show off that Irish pride (everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, right?) by joining our Pinterest Challenge for your chance to win a $100 Zazzle Gift Certificate! Here is how it works: 1. Create a pinboard with the title "My Favorite St. Patrick's Day T-shirts". 2. Pin your favorite St. Patrick's Day T-shirt designs to your board! You can pin as many designs as you...

I've been trying to make this blog more useful to my readers. So when I find a good tool that you can use to create graphics or promote your online business or blog I'll write a small post about it. I use an old version of Photoshop when I need to paint with my tablet or edit photographs. Photoshop is very good but very expensive. Many of us don't need to use all the tools, effects, and possibilities of this Adobe Software. One of the most talked about and used alternatives is the free and popular GIMP . But I found an excellent review about PIXELMATOR and PIXELMATOR tutorials also!! I can't try it because it's MAC software only. But I am not selfish so here it is! Check this link to the PIXELMATOR fully functional 30 day trial . PIXELMATOR isn't free, it costs 30 USD. That's a bargain if it delivers what it promises. Try it and let me know what you think! A suggestion that was left in the comments section - thank you so much! - is a link to a site tha...

Pedro Cruz is the author of these photos. He publishes his work in many newspapers and magazines. I asked his permission to post it for you. He's a local young man, a journalist who is also passionate about taking photos.I think he has a keen eye for photography. Want to see more? Check out this link to his Carnival 2012 album on Facebook. Thousands came to Figueira da Foz to watch the Carnival parade on the Avenue of Brazil, near the beach, on Sunday. The weather was great, lot's of sunshine, no wind. This year the kings of the Carnival were a former football player, Paulo Futre, - I wrote about him before in a post about Licor Beirão advertising campaign - and a local female figure. In addition to several decorated floats that focused on the satire of national and international recent political events, many masked people, adults and children, and the samba schools filled the street with color and animation.

On 23rd February 2012 Figueira da Foz - the city where I live - will play host to the opening ceremony for the European leg of the World Harmony Run, the world's largest torch relay for peace and international friendship. The international team of the World Harmony Run and local schoolchildren will start the Run, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, at 9 am at Cabo Mondego in Figueira da Foz after releasing white doves and proceeds to the official opening ceremony at Centro de Artes e Espectáculos, which begins at 10 am. During the opening ceremony, 400 children from 13 schools will perform and an exhibition of paintings for peace from children will be launched. From Figueira da Foz an international team of runners will carry a flaming torch as a symbol of harmony, passing it from hand to hand and heart to heart, eastwards through Coimbra, Viseu, Fornos de Algodes, Pinhel, and Almeida. The World Harmony Runners will leave Portugal on February 27th and travel on a ...

Image source The next days are dedicated to Carnival celebrations all over the world. So I bring you the oldest Portuguese Carnival. Its origins go back in time. It’s the Carnival of Podence a small village in northern Portugal. The men you’ll watch in this  video are known as Caretos. They become superior beings, they are magical figures when they wear tin masks with a hooked noses, colored wool bangs, and a stick. Only men and boys can wear these masks and suits and they are like devils that chase women on the streets. They grab women, especially single women, and then they shake their body. The belt has cowbells – chocalhos - attached so the dance is quite noisy. The gesture of beating with chocalhos is related to the beating Pan priests gave women in the Spring festivals. They believed women would get pregnant with such a beating. Caretos has its origin in those fertility rituals and Spring announcing festivals. Each year more people go to Macedo de Cavaleiros to wa...

Hello once more! A friend of mine read the recent post I wrote about Monsanto's big rocks and houses and phone me saying that she once visited this house that has been built between four rocks on the hill of Fafe. It stands in the north of Portugal. I made a quick search. It seems everybody knew about it but me! This House of Stone - A Casa do Penedo - was built in 1972 when Rodrigues family discovered the rocks on the hill on a spring afternoon. They decided to build a house and bought the land. They had no phone or electricity or water but they spent their holidays in the House of Stone. It has a fireplace and pool, and interior stairs, what a shame no one lives there anymore. A few years ago everybody was talking about it on the internet as someone took photos of it and called her The true Flintstones house. Because of vandalism, it has bulletproof windows and a steel door! Everyone is climbing the hill of Fafe to take a look at this peculiar house. No one lives there...

Hello Zazzlers and friends! Today I bring you a free download for Valentine's Day - It's the very famous CUPID! I used Scribd before to giveaway printable calendars. You must log to Scribd to download the file. All you have to do is Download the file - Print the file - Cut the parts - Glue it using the grey area - Fold it - G.I.V.E!! I hope you like this small surprise from A Portuguese Love for Valentine's Day! Still a lot of time to play with paper and scissors! An easy way to download it is via GOOGLE DOCS! No need to sign in. Here's the link! https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1i0BetaI52lNGRiNTM3MzMtM2ZjOS00ZDAzLTlmZmMtYzAyNDA2MDNhZDI4 Cupid Paper Toy 2012    

A friend of mine, Lia Flora, - thank you Lia! - went to Monsanto and made a couple of nice photos. I asked her if I could share it with you and she said yes. I prefer to show you photos taken by Portuguese people on travel than to show you the ones I have from advertising sources. Sometimes these late are digitally retouched. This way I give you what you could really see if you were on the spot. Monsanto is a peculiar village. It belongs to Castelo Branco District. It's in mid-Portugal, nearby to the Spanish border. Look at the map. In the summer the temperature is very high in this region, in winter it can get very cold. I am sure you would love the local scenery where the houses are built only with granite stone, a local and natural resource. Some of them are built using rocks as walls or ceilings and one of these big, huge rocks has a restaurant below in the basement. Monsanto really rocks! It's a remarkable village and at the top of maybe 1500 feet high hill, the...

Hello readers and friends! Today's Sunday and it's pretty cold for my liking. Mariana Ewa would laugh about it because yesterday she was facing -21º celsius outside her house. For me, anything below 10º is very cold! No kidding, nights here are terrible, terrible meaning -1º to -3º. I live by the sea where everything is warmer and my body really doesn't react well to low temperatures. My body and mind. I get restless, I can't think straight, and I feel sick. I long for 20º up so I can go to the beach and be happy! Brrrr! Mariana Ewa was born in Sweden. She has a daughter called Emmy and lives on a farm with her boyfriend. She's fortunate to have horses and cats around, I would like that for me too. She suffered an accident and as a result of it, she's disabled. I'm sorry to read about that. She gave me some advice on the MAC computer. I am more convinced than ever that's what I need. But for now, I just have half the money for it. Zazzle keeps launchi...

Can you imagine your Valentine's Day Zazzle designs glued on streets and building walls? Photofunia helps us to picture it! Yes, I've been playing a bit more with this online tool. No, I am not earning anything from this promotion, I'm not in any affiliate program or anything like that! I am just wasting time PLAYING! Sometimes we need to unwind! Several times I had advertising posters I made on the street but it has been a while since I had those moments of glory! Now I do mostly small formats. It was lots of fun to wake up and get on the streets and discover it glued, some in very big format.

Hello! Today I bring you a site where you can have some fun with your photos! It's PHOTOFUNIA . With this online tool, you just upload your file and easily play with it. You add cool photo effects and create funny face photo montages. You can put your face on a billboard, a stamp, or in a Warhol-like work of pop art. Become the Mona Lisa or a bodybuilder. You get over 150 scenes to play with. You're not cutting and pasting; instead, the app "finds" the face in your photo and integrates it with the scene of your choice. Photofunia is lots of fun! I just tried to change one of my photos into a pencil drawing. Not bad and without any Photoshop, even kids can do it! Plus, you can save with resolution enough to print! Then I uploaded one of my Zazzle drawings onto a mug full of steaming coffee! You can use it to advertise your Zazzle mugs. Unfortunately, there's only one background available...This is a .gif but it isn't working unless you doub...

Hello Zazzlers and friends! I think Zazzle gave me a birthday gift! This magnet is one of the 6 Valentine's Day featured magnets! Hurray! I think this is the first time for me. I really don't know if it has happened before because I don't check Zazzle that much. There are so many cute Valentine's Day magnets on display. It's difficult to pick one, really. This magnet - A big heart photo magnet - is for a Valentine's Day celebration or any other day you'll feel like celebrating love with a partner or family any time of the year. A daughter can give it to Mom on Mother's Day too. It's quite simple. But not so simple - the hearts around the big heart where you can upload your photo are made from tiny white hearts. So, lots of L-O-V-E to give! Thank you, Zazzle for picking this magnet! (This product is not available anymore.)

Aquarius Zodiac for kids by aportugueselove Yeah! Today it's my birthday and I had this silly idea of looking for famous people that are having a birthday celebration today also. I have a friend that is also having his birthday today. Yesterday I sent him some old-fashioned snail mail. I hope that someone remembers to send me some postcards too! I really like it! I just found some folks from the movie and TV universe. Two are already dead! So I guess the party will be complete with just this (famous) person and Michael! The first famous person I found is Michael C. Hall who was born in 1971. He's a TV actor. He had a role at the TV show Six Feet Under, which I liked. But where I think that he's really excellent is as the serial killer and police blood analyst Dexter. Dexter is one of my favorite TV shows. I get bored easily with TV series. But so far Dexter has been keeping me wanting for more! Michael C. Hall won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for his ro...