Beautiful two

Inês turned two on Saturday. I have no words to describe her. I love her very much.

A Inês fez dois anos no Sábado. Não tenho palavras para a descrever. Amo-a muito.

Dancers with hoop, balls and ribbon

Cook, creative/Cozinheiro, criativo

The only household chore I enjoy is cooking. I guess it's because compared with dusting, cleaning and doing the laundry, you can be creative. It's interesting, but I've found that people that like to cook always have some kind of artistic inclination. Now that I have more time, I want to upgrade my cooking, trying new ingredientes and methods. To start with, I'm growing my own herbs.

A única tarefa doméstica de que gosto é cozinhar. Suponho que seja pelo facto de abrir espaço a alguma creatividade, em comparação com limpar o pó, aspirar ou tratar da roupa. É curioso, mas tenho verificado que normalmente quem gosta de cozinhar tem inclinações artísticas. Agora que tenho mais tempo, gostava de atingir outro nível culinário, experimentando novos ingredientes e métodos. Para começar vou cultivar as minhas próprias ervas aromáticas.

# 000

(Thanks Chris for the picture)

Clumsy/Desastrada

I let my camera fall and broke the lens. No pictures of mine here in the following weeks...

Deixei cair a máquina fotográfica e estraguei a lente. Nas próximas semanas não haverá fotografias minhas aqui...

Jack in the box

Never say never.../Nunca digas nunca...

Plastic table towels. I've always hated them and swore never to have one. Until last week. A few years and two kids later, I have to admit: between having to wash a towel everyday, stopping my kids from eating by themselves or swallowing my pride, I chose the last. Be it, at least, with style ...

Toalhas de mesa plásticas. Sempre odiei e jurei para mim mesma que nunca teria uma. Até quinta-feira da semana passada. Muitos anos e duas filhas depois, tive que dar o braço a torcer: entre pôr uma toalha de mesa para lavar todos os dias (com nódoas que já não saem), impedir as minhas filhas de comerem sozinhas, ou engolir um grande sapo, optei pela última hipótese. Ao menos que seja com estilo...

Yellow and orange on a rainy day

# 00

Café con leche

Is there anything better then a hot cup of coffee with milk in the morning? I love mornings, and mine always begin this way...

Há alguma coisa melhor que um café com leite, bem quente, de manhã? Adoro as manhãs, e as minhas começam sempre desta maneira...

# zero

Paper, scissors and glue. This is what I'm going to continue working on.

Papel, tesoura e cola. É nisto que vou continuar a trabalhar.

Paper scraps/Restos de papel

What for some is garbage destined to the paper bin, for others is work material...

O que para uns é lixo destinado ao caixote do lixo, para outros é material de trabalho...

Fairy's/Fadas

Marta, my oldest daughter (she'll turn 4 in March), is in love with fairy's, princesses and ballet dancers. The other day she was talking in her sleep. I asked her if she was okay and she answered: «I have no wings and want some».

A Marta, a minha filha mais velha (fará 4 anos em Março) está na fase das fadas, princesas e bailarinas. Há dias estava a falar enquanto dormia. Perguntei-lhe se estava tudo bem e ela respondeu: «Não tenho asas e queria ter...».

Degas

I've always loved the work of Edgar Degas, the french artist of the end of the 19th century. In Madrid, in the Fundación Mapfre (Paseo de Recoletos, 23) you can see an exhibition (until January the 6th) of some of his works, mainly studies, sketches and bronze sculptures of ballet dancers and horses. It's all about movement...

Very interesting is Nicholas Nixon's foto serie The Brown Sisters, now belonging to Mapfre foundation, exhibited in the lower level of the building. You can follow the aging process of four women (the artists wife and her three sisters) from 1975 up to 2007. One picture for every year, totalling 33. Weight gain, wrinckles, white hair...The body changes (and the clothes, the hairstyles...), but the way in which each one of them faces the camera stays the same.

While looking at the pictures, a spanish man started talking to me saying «they would never let me do this...», with a smile in his face. It took me a while to figure out what he was saying (referring to his wife, I suppose). I must haved looked at him in a awkward way, because he patted my arm and left. I'm a very slow reactor in these situations....