Thank you, Marjo and Sam!

Two lovely ladies have nominated me for awards--Sam, for the Versatile Blogger Award

and Marjo has tagged me too...

Well, first of all, thank you, my dears, for this honor! I am very proud to have been nominated by you both :) 

Apparently I'm supposed to say a few things about myself--let's see if I can come up with somethings that you may not know about me, but some are probably not news.

1. My heart is split between the 3 continents I've lived in: 

• Africa, where I was born, in Angola; 

• America, where I lived in the USA for a total of 8 years (St.Paul, MN, and Brunswick, ME), as a child and during college years and where I love to go back everytime I get a chance;

• Europe, Portugal, where my family is from and where I currently live 

But I guess I could add the other 2 continents, as my great grandfather was Goese (Asia)

...and I've always dreamt of going "down under"...

2. Yes, you've guessed it. I LOVE the

3. I was always the quietest, most dilligent student who would barely be noticed except for when test results came back--and then I used to be among the top 2 or 3. Here, too, I was split between 2 special loves (science and arts) though I also loved languages... So I guess it comes as no surprise that I studied Biology and Archaeology, Statistics and computer science, as well as English, French and Italian (a wee bit forgotten!) A bit of a Jack of all trades and master at none, I guess...

4. I have worked as secretary, lab assistant in a museum of art, Italian tutor, Biology teacher, coordinator of the administrative area in a lab (blood tests etc), seller, marketing project manager, IT project manager...among others and not necessarily in this order. I am currently working for the government and setting my heart (or maybe not lol) on learning how to program with C# and SQL... still feeling quite lost!

5. My true love are crafts, though. I love all crafts of all kinds and have tried many of them--crochet, knitting, cross stitch, petit point, arraiolos

(I made this rug many years ago, though this picture isn't mine), macramé, oil painting, acrylic painting, sewing... I started as a child by dressing up my dolls in fabric and crochet dresses

and I spent a lot of time drawing paper dolls and designing their attires!

6. I have survived breast cancer twice now. The first time was 10 years ago, when I was 37. This 2nd time came as a shock, I thought I had beaten the "Beast" for good and it came back. I was lucky enough to have detected it soon enough that everything could be controlled through surgery, chemo and radiation therapy. Now I know I'll fight it for the rest of my life, making sure it doesn't catch me off guard. Ever. I am not letting it win over me.

7. I am a cat person. This is my little girl, Pantera, who is almost 14 now

and is sitting next to me on the sofa, right now, checking out what I'm writing about her but looking at the window because the birds are going wild outside, as the sun sets. She's a part of the family, of course! Even if she isn't in this picture...

All the rest... well, you can read about it somewhere in here or ask me!


Now... I'm supposed to nominate some people for these awards too... so here are some of the blogs I can't live without :)  Some of these people have become Friends over time, but they also bring inspiration, love and gorgeous things into Blogland and I really can't tell which award is more adequate for each, so I'm nominating them for both (I hope that's OK!)

1. Carla at Simply by Carla
2. Marjo at Marjo's Cosy Corner
3. Meredith at Mereknits
4. Marilyn at Room on the Left
5. MeMe Rose (I'm not sure if I she wants me to write her name here :) )
6. Alice at Crochet with Raymond
7. Tammy at T's Daily Treasures
8. Mia at Mias Landiv
9. Annette at My Rose Valley
10. Jacquie at Bunny Mummy
11. Paula at Paula's Homemade Life
12. Ana at Mãos de Sapo e Pés de Pato
13. Carol at Beads and Birds
14. Annette at Petunia Pill
15. BumbleBri at Live.Laugh.Love.Create

There are many more wonderful blogs and people I'd love to nominate... maybe I'll create my own award for that :)

I'm sure you agree with me if you know them--make sure you pay them a visit, if you don't :)

xxx