Thank you, Marjo!

I haven't been able to post anything for the past 2 days, so this is a bit late...

Have I told you how much I love getting real mail? Snail mail, as BumbleBri calls it :) Yes, I think I have... so you can imagine how happy I was to open my mailbox and find this:

A birthday present from Marjo! And it got here right on the day she had her 2nd chemo treatment...

Now isn't this sweet? A tulip pen from Holland, some beautiful crochet flowers and a sweet birthday card...

(You got me to start craving a new WIP... a shawl or scarf where I can pin your flowers! And I think I know exactly what pattern :) )

Thank you, my dear friend!

xxx

Blogger's acting up again :(

Soul Surfer

Yesterday was a difficult day for me.  


At night we watched a film that appeared to be interesting, Soul Surfer. Have you seen it?  Well... I just couldn't hold it in. I cried like a baby, but it really is worth seeing.




 Especially when Bethany goes to Thailand after the 2003 tsunami. Watch it, if you can, it will really put things back into foccus. And check out what it's all about, it's a real life story: Bethany


 It was the cherry on top of the cake.

In the morning I had met Arlete, a friend of mine from work. I first met Arlete 10 years ago. 

She had just married and was a cheerful and considerate person who was eager to have a nice, big family like her own had been. She almost tiptoed around me as I was recovering from my first breast cancer treatment. When we met my hair was probably just about half an inch longer than now.

Arlete went on to a different location of our service and we kind of fell apart. 

She had 2 wonderful children, Matilde and Tomas. And one day (I don't know how, haven't gotten to that part of catching up yet) they found out Tomas had a brain tumor. 

He was 2 years old. After struggling against illness through half his life, moving to France for a while and then to the USA for different approaches to treating the illness (it was one of the rarest types of brain tumor), after 3 relapses Tomas left his family for good.

Arlete is back to work, with a smile on her face and the tears hiding in her voice but a sense that she did every single thing she could to make his life easier and to try to cure him. She's a very strong and positive woman and she says Tomas chose her because he knew she would do everything for him and now he's her little angel looking over them.

So yesterday we me at the IPO--Instituto Português de Oncologia. When Tomas was being treated there she started a project--to remodel a physical therapy room for children at the institute. She wants to finish it, in honor of her son. We had an appointment with the guy who is going to paint the treatment room walls (check out his blog here).

It will probably come out to be along these lines...

After that she went to talk to the doctors and nurses who cared for Tomas. 

It was really hard seeing those children who are going through the same we are... it's not fair!

There was this 2 year old little girl who liked me imediately and pointed at me smiling and saying "menina!" which means little girl. She jumped from her dad's lap to mine  and started playing with my necklace and sending kisses. She was replacing her catheter because the one she had was no longer working, and she had been there almost since the day she was born. She has a benign tumor in her optical nerve that keeps growing in spite of the chemo. 

There was a lady who had lost her 14 or 15 year old son last night. It was so hard to see... and not to cry the entire time!

I left that place with my heart broken and a feeling that there's something I have to do--something I haven't done yet to help, that is my mission. Does that sound silly? But I have to find out what it is...

These two women are examples of strength, and willpower and courage. I just wish I could be like them!

Thank you for being here "listening" :)

xxx

I could use your help!

Hello, my friends!

I could use your help! Remember this...? I started a cushion for the sofa  that would go well with the new wall and picture colors while we were in the north (not working very fast, I must confess...) and was planning to have the squares in the front and the granny square in the back...

For some strange reason I always end up mimicking nature's colors!

But as I got back and the work went on I changed my mind--one cushion was not enough and I wondered if I'd love it to pieces the way I thought originally... 

You see, we do use the cushions--with 4... errhhh... 3 boys and 1 man in the house it's hard to convince them NOT to lean or sit on the cushions so they definitely WILL get some use! 

Plus our climate is quite moderate so there are more warm days than cold and the crochet part will not feel so comfortable in the summer. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to change the current ones (they're embroidered in "petit point" in wool so they're quite warm and become uncomfortable). 

So the idea was to use both pieces to make 2 different cushions. I will be making a fabric back for each of them. I considered a knit back using Lucy's tutorial at Attic 24, but I really don't have a sweater I want to give up in the right color and it wouldn't solve the warmth problem...

I went fabric shopping and saw a lot that I liked (forgot to take the crochet along so I kind of had to guess) and of course came back with more than I needed :( and yet I can't make up my mind!

 

Finally these seemed to be the best options...

This one particularly pleases me because it's a piece of fabric I had stashed for a long time--you see, when I got pregnant I had this feeling I was going to have a girl... so off I went and got this pretty fabric with green, pink and lavender stripes and pink flowers, made the curtains for the baby's room and a ruffle to put around the baby's bed... and then found out it was going to be a boy! Lol

I still liked the fabric, kept the curtains on for a while after he was born (poor little Paulo :) ) and then one day changed them and saved the curtains for a rainy day... Maybe one day I'd have a girl (didn't happen...)

Well, what do you think about these 2 combinations? Would they be your choice among these fabrics? I probably could find another that matched better... but I'd probably end up with a lot more fabric pieces... 

Like these... Just couldn't resist!!! They won't do for these cushions (too different from the yarn colors) but they probably could set me off into trying a little patchwork... with some matching polka dots, stripes and squares and solid colors... Ok, ok, I'm daydreaming already!

 

Please do tell me what you think. I'm still tucking ends in in one square and making a couple more rounds on the other one, while I wait for your comments :) and I have a feeling I may be making an African Flower front with the bits of leftover yarn...

Hope you're having a wonderful week! 

xxx

48

It's official, I'm 48. 

It's such an odd feeling! 

As a child I thought a 48 year old person was... errhhhh... old... and probably a grandma...

As the years have passed this feeling has been continuosly changing and now I totally understand my 94 year old Grandma when she talked about that "old lady" at the nursing home who was 70... 

Age is definitely in our mind and in our heart, not in the years that have gone by. 

I am not a grandma (thank goodness!!! my son is still too young for that!) and I definitely don't feel or behave old :)

And I am so happy to be 48 and alive and well! 

I am such a lucky person, my health is back, my family is big and we all care for each other, I have a job I like (even though I'll need to relearn when I go back, I've been away for so long) and I appreciate all of life's gifts and beauty... and I have met so many wonderful people here!

So... here's a little gift from me to you, and a big THANK YOU for all your support through rough times these past few months!

It wouldn't be the same without you :)

xxx

School summer camp in Oeiras

We're off to see the Wizard...

the wonderful Wizard of Oz... (or maybe not...)

We want the Sun! Bring back the Sun!

Hope you have a nice, bright, sunshiny day! 

xxx

How to brighten a grey day :)

Ok. I admit it. I am no baker!!!  Well, no pretty-cake baker at least (sniffle...)

It's an icky day, overcast, muggy, almost chilly and probably foggy over the river, I've heard the boat horns sounding. The kind of day that makes everything dark inside and makes me want to bake.

So I baked.

My favorite recipe, yoghurt cake, that you can make a million variations of (yes, there's a recipe below!)

Hmmm so yummy looking! (still...)

Something went wrong...  :(

Is it the silicone cake pan? Is it the new oven that I haven't learned yet how to dominate? My cake came out lopsided :(

Some sweetened lemon juice over it (sniffle... it doesn't help the looks...) and lemon glaze over it...

Well... looks do matter, but then... so does the taste! And my son has been sneeking in the kitchen a few times, the cake is down to about half and it's still not even cold! I guess it tastes good, even though it doesn't look pretty...

Would you care for a piece?  Or the recipe...?

Here it goes:

1 cup yoghurt (use any kind of yoghurt! plain or flavored... I used plain this time) and save the cup to serve as measure for the rest of the ingredients

3 large eggs

3 measures of self levening flour 

1 1/2 measures of sugar (I always cut down... 1 cup for me is fine)

1 measure of cooking oil

Beat the eggs and the sugar, add the flour and the yoghurt and blend well. Stirr in the oil and blend really well. Then add the flavoring you like--I put a bit of vanilla extract, sometimes add cinammon and ground nuts or almonds, orange or lemon juice and zest. It just depends on what mood you're in or what you have around! And you can bake it as a cake or as muffins or cupcakes...

For this one, after baking I poured sweetened lemon juice over it while it was still hot and then a lemon glaze (lemon juice and icing sugar) over it. I love lemon yoghurt cake! And it seems the sun finally came out :)

See? Really easy and good! Let me know if you try it :)

Have a great weekend!

xxx