On my desk

Sorry, "on my desk" visitors. There´s such a huge mess on my desk, the kind of deadline-mess you have probably experienced before. Or not.

ETA: I once received a compliment about how tidy my desk was. I don´t want to disappoint my dear readers!

Illustration Friday: Primitive

This is my piece for this week´s IF topic "Primitive". It´s a papercut and it reads "blessed be big-nosed people", for their sense of smell, a primitive sense. If it´s not more developed within big-nosed people, at least it has more "space" (a big nose) to do.

Yes, I have a big nose. And an extremely acute sense of smell. ;)

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Aqui está a minha ilustração para "Primitive", o tema desta semana do Illustration Friday.

Mais cedo ou mais tarde ia ter de fazer a devida homenagem a quem, como eu, é narigudo. E a quem, também como eu, tem um olfacto (às vezes demasiado!) apurado.

Porque, para mim, o olfacto é um sentido primitivo.

La mirada que pinta

I just started this workshop, "la mirada que pinta", with teacher Ariel Mlynarzewicz (in the Asociación de Amigos del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires) but everyday I go there I feel like I´ve been to a "freedom" workshop. Or something similar. It´s such a good training for me: it´s not only about the live-model drawing, which I love. It´s also about composition, about colors. It´s about expression as well.

Click here for more photos.

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Comecei há pouco tempo as aulas do curso "La mirada que Pinta", com o professor Ariel Mlynarzewicz (na Asociación de Amigos del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires).

De cada vez que volto para casa depois da aula tenho uma sensação de liberdade. Não é só o treino de desenho de modelo vivo. Para mim é, sobretudo, de expressão, de traço e de combinação de cores, o que para mim sempre foi um desafio.

Ver mais fotos aqui.

On my desk

It´s Wednesday again (it´s amazing how time flies!) and it´s on my desk day.

Wednesday is also german class day and this semester I´m taking it specially serious (well...) because there´s an exam in July. I´m reading in german, listening to podcasts in german, watching some TV in german... sometimes I even think and dream in german, which means that somehow the inmense amount of vocabulary is slowly sinking in.

There are also two other books on my desk: Illustrating Children´s Books by Martin Salisbury (a present from a friend who came to visit) and Kim Hargreaves´ Heartfelt book. Both are "eye-candy-sort-of-book" and I´ve been keeping them close to take a look at them every now and then.

It´s time to get back to work and put some more things on my desk.

See more desks at kootoyoo´s.

Happy birthday! | Parabéns!

The birthday boy and the birthday girl have received their papercut birthday cards and now I can finally publish it.

The text in the tree is the portuguese lyrics that go into the "Happy Birthday" song.

See more images of the final result here and some of the process here.


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Os meninos aniversariantes já receberam os seus respectivos postais no correio e, como tal, posso finalmente pôr uma fotografia dos cartões aqui no blog.

Mais uma vez, um papercut (estou a ficar absolutamente viciada...).

Aqui estão mais fotografias dos cartões e do processo todo, desde o esboço até ao produto acabado.

On my desk

Well, it isn´t exactly on my desk. It´s spread on the floor and it´s the product of last monday´s acryilic paint workshop. It consisted of five quick poses, ten minutes each and I´m growing to love this exercise because it just brings things out of your system, without you even noticing.

It´s open on the floor for me to look at it because I´m actually proud of the progress I´m making: slow but steady progress. I´m thinking about what i can do with it. I don´t just know yet.

More images here.

And more desks here.

Have a nice weekend! | Bom fim-de-semana!

This is a collage on me sketchbook with some type that I papercut the other day, when making a birthday card (the one that was on my desk yesterday). The little letters looked so nice and yummy and I just couldn´t throw them into the bin without giving them a bit of use.

It reads "have a nice weekend", or, more literally, "nice weekend".

(I forgot to explain: above it is a saying I learnt from my mother about making the best of what you have, be it time, materials... I have no clue of how I should translate "aproveitar". Any help?)

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Estas letrinhas foram cortadas de um papercut que fiz para um cartão de feliz aniversário. Eram tão lindas que não as pude deitar directamente no caixote do lixo, sem passar pelo meu caderninho nem receber dois contos.

Um bom fim-de-semana!

On my desk

It´s already Thursday and, once again, I´m a day late blogging about what´s on my desk. Wednesdays are half-work days for me because I have german class the whole morning. One wouldn´t believe how much energy the class drains out from me. Don´t get me wrong, I love to study german and being in class is, despite of tiring, very... (I´m lacking the words here!) every entertaining and interesting and engaging. Yes, maybe that´s the engaging part of it that takes so much energy.

When I get back from german class I only have half a day to go through with projects and the daily chores, so I guess that blogging just comes after all that.

Well, so here´s what was on my desk yesterday: a new papercut (I can´t show more of it just yet because it´s a birthday present) and the usual stuff: my tablet, loads of water, loads of magazines, well, you know what I mean with "loads of". Basically, what looks clear is just the cutting board!

See you next Wednesday and make sure to check out other desks via Kootoyoo.

Knitting my first sweater | A primeira camisola (tricotada por mim)

Here it is. Well, here it will be. By now it´s just lots of calculations to adapt it a bit. I wonder what will come out of it.

More photos here.

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Aqui está ela. Bem, aqui há-de estar ela, pois neste momento é mais "projecto-dela". Espero chegar a bom porto com a minha "semimurcielago".

Mais fotografias aqui.

Yesterday there was nothing on my desk

Yesterday was a holiday here so I didn´t even turn the computer on. I spent most of the day reading and knitting. And then watching a movie. And that was it. I love it when I can laze like that and holidays in the middle of the week are the absolute perfect excuse.

Maybe my knitting will show up later on my desk. And I´m very happy about the reading part too: I´m reading a book in german, and so far so good! I thought it would be a bit more difficult but at this point I didn´t have to check the dictionary every third word. I don´t understand each and every word, but, then again, I don´t have to.

I still have german homework to do as this semester we´re preparing ourselves for an exam and our teacher gives us lots of material to review and study. That´s good, it´s like gymnastics for the brain. And knitting is like yoga for the brain.

Oh, I love holidays!

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Ontem foi feriado cá na Argentina. Aproveitei a pausa da semana para ler, ler, ler e tricotar, tricotar e tricotar. Sou principiante no tricot e portanto ainda perco algum tempo a adaptar as instruções da revista às minhas medidas, a ajustar a tensão da linha, etc etc. Mas divirto-me!

No campo das leituras, estou a ler um livro em alemão, no âmbito da preparação que temos de fazer este semestre para o exame que se avizinha. Ler em alemão não é inédito para mim, mas também não é totalmente evidente. Apesar de tudo, está a ser mais fácil do que pensava e estou a gostar da história do livro.

Valham-nos os feriados à quarta-feira para uma bela pausa no meio da semana. Sabe tão bem!

Carolina´s apron | O avental da Carolina

My three year-old niece is the cutest niece ever, did I ever mention that? She absolutely loves to wear grown-up´s aprons, to help grandma or, sometimes, to help me.

Well, that´s where this apron comes from! I designed it double faced and the buttons are located at different heights on each face, so that it will grow up (a bit) with her. It is all hand-sewn (another labour of patience - and love!), fortunately with my Mom´s guidance, who spent two weeks visiting us here in Buenos Aires.

My parents left and took the apron as a "special courrier" and I saw her receiving it online, via skype.

(Thank the computer gods, the yarn gods, the needles and fabric gods, thank the technology gods: a big hooray to skype!)

And a big thank you to my Mom, too, who taught me how to open button holes, among other (important) things!


To see more images, click here.


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A minha sobrinha (a mais linda do mundo, não sei se já disse isto aqui alguma vez) Carolina adora usar aventais. Dos crescidos, claro está, com muitas dobras e as tiras de tecido enroladas à volta da cintura (muitas vezes). Diz ela que é para ajudar a avó. A avó adora, a tia também, e portanto aqui está o avental feito para ela, com tiras bem compridas para lhe darem a volta à cintura e apertarem à frente.

O avental é dupla-face e os botões estão postos a diferentes alturas, para que o possa continuar a usar quando crescer (mais uns centímetros).

Um grande viva à tecnologia e ao Skype, pude vê-la (mais ouvi-la que vê-la porque ninguém lhe apontou a câmara) a receber o presente. Acho que ficou entusiasmada e foi buscar o outro avental que recebeu, com o Noddy.

Graças à minha Mãe, que me deu muitos conselhos em matérias de costuras (e noutras também), aprendi a fazer casas de botões (entre outras coisas). Obrigada! E vivam as Mães, as suas visitas, as suas sopinhas boas e a hortelã que nos trazem de Portugal, com a raiz!

Mais imagens do avental aqui.