Happy Holidays | Boas Festas

These are my wishes for all of you for the upcoming holidays. I´ll be doing what I like to do most for Christmas: sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, chatting with family and friends and playing with my niece. May your Christmas be as sweet as you want it to be and see you again in 2009!

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De malas (quase) feitas para as férias e a visita à família, quero desejar a todos quantos me visitam muito boas festas. Obrigada por visitarem este blog e espero que o continuem a fazer em 2009!

Last week was the Handicrafts Fair (Feria de Artesanías de Buenos Aires) at La Rural, Buenos Aires. I´m not a big fan of joining crowds for shopping so I managed to visit it during an unsuspicious Thursday early afternoon. I could cruise the fair´s aisles without much trouble and found some interesting knitting-related objects.

(On a side note, found other objects too and finished my Christmas shopping!)

My most precious find there were these sets of double pointed needles in wood. They are incredibly soft and I´m looking forward to using them in the future. I also bought wool - there wasn´t a huge alternative when it came to wool but it was certainly easier to find good quality, naturally dyed wool there than it is on our local yarn shops. Sad but true, they are mostly stocked with acrylics and acrylic blends, and pure wool is hard to find.

So, armed with a bit more wool for my stash and four sets of wooden dpns, I left the fair feeling that my future knitting will be even more pleasant than it has been so far.

See more photos here.

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Uma expedição à Feira de Artesanato de Buenos Aires revelou-se bastante produtiva não só em matéria de presentes de Natal (completei a lista de presentes!) como também me permitiu encontrar alguns pequenos tesouros deste grande país que, infelizmente, não se encontram nas lojas normais.

No rol dos tesouros relacionados com o tricot, comprei quatro conjuntos de agulhas em madeira, todos de duas pontas, para tricotar meias ou mangas (na verdade, para tricotar "tubos"). As agulhas são extraordinariamente macias e espero ansiosamente terminar o que estou a tricotar agora (mais um presente de Natal) para começar algum par de meias que requeira tais ferramentas.

Também comprei lã de ovelha, bastante macia, fiada e tingida à mão com corantes naturais, da província de Catamarca. Perguntei se vendiam estas lãs em Buenos Aires sem ser na feira e... não, não, só por atacado e sobretudo para empresas na Patagónia! E assim se explica porque é que por cá as lojas têm, sobretudo, acrílicos e pouco mais, o que é uma pena. Guardei contudo os contactos dos produtores porque alguns deles fazem vendas por correio, o que sempre constitui uma alternativa à oferta local, já que a Argentina produz lã de primeira qualidade.

Mais fotografias das lãs e das agulhas, aqui.

ev+pp new website | novo website ev+pp

ev+pp arquitectos is an an architects´ studio here in Buenos Aires. They commissioned me to redesign their website and it is now online.

Programming by QB9.

See more here.

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O novo site do atelier de arquitectura ev+pp, de Buenos Aires, já está acessível. O redesign foi feito por mim e a programação pelos QB9.

Mais imagens aqui.

Claudine Caron

I made this illustration back in 2000, to send as a thank you to a friend who hosted me in the friendliest manners. She wasn´t expecting me, to tell you the truth: I was travelling with my two good friends, who are actually related to her, from the south of France back to Lisbon. We stopped on the way, just before the border with Spain, to visit her and spend the night at her beautiful home.

Well, I felt a bit of an intruder at the beginning but this feeling quickly faded away with her warm way of welcoming us, the amazing time we had during and after dinner, the sound night´s sleep hearing the Atlantic just outside the window and the comforting breakfast the following day.

During those few hours I felt my life changing a bit, as I was going through a difficult period in my life and Claudine suggested that light was in a lot more places than I could see at the moment. It was beautiful, ephemeral and life-changing.

Claudine passed away this week. I never saw her again, but never forgot her either. This is my hommage to her memory.

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Em português, aqui.

News on the knitting front | Novidades de tricot

Last week I finished the legwarmers I knitted for my niece,



the ones matching this beret:



I think she will now be ready to face the cold weather expected for Christmas! The pattern is Dancing Legwarmers, here, although I reduced the size to fit my niece´s legs.

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Terminei as caneleiras para a minha sobrinha, caneleiras essas que fazem conjunto com a boina que tricotei antes. A receita é "Dancing Legwarmers", disponível aqui.

Ah, a garota, agora sim!, está preparada para o Inverno... (as luvas ficam para a próxima!)

Countdown for the holidays | Contagem decrescente

Last week was hectic! I´m glad it is over and that I managed to deliver the two most urgent projects on time, but I still had to make it a bit into Saturday to finish things. Fortunately we had a long weekend, as yesterday was a public holiday here in Argentina (it was a holiday in Portugal too, so it was actually fun to have a holiday simultaneously).

One of the projects mentioned above involved Blurb. The ease of the service really surprised me (hey, I come from a traditionally bureaucratic country and live in an even worse one!). I didn´t use their own software for the design part as it seemed a bit limited compared to the professional software I usually use - which is logical, of course - so I designed everything elsewhere and imported it into their own software. The only real hurdle on the whole process was that I had to export my layout as a .pdf, then convert it into .jpg or .png (I used the latter format) and then import those files (one per page) into Booksmart. I read their forum and everyone is saying the same: please accept pdf files directly into Booksmart! It will be a time-saver and it will definitely improve workflow.

Otherwise, working with Blurb was a smooth experience. I´m looking forward to seeing the results!

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A contagem decrescente até ao Natal é sempre agitada, já que toda a gente quer ter os seus projectos terminados antes do fim do ano. Por isso, a semana passada foi muito ocupada e deu à justa para terminar os dois trabalhos mais urgentes que tinha.

Para um deles recorri ao site Blurb, onde se pode produzir livros de qualidade, sem limite mínimo de exemplares. Devo dizer que fiquei surpreendida com a facilidade com que as coisas se processam - e os preços são bem convidativos! Como entregam os livros tanto em Portugal como cá na Argentina, penso que o vou usar mais vezes.

A única parte menos boa no processo - pelo menos para um designer profissional - é que o software próprio que disponibilizam, o Booksmart, é um pouco limitado nas suas opções. Contudo, é possível fazer o trabalho todo no programa com que trabalhamos habitualmente e importá-lo posteriormente para o Booksmart. Aqui, a única crítica é que no processo de importação dos ficheiros é preciso passá-los de .pdf (formato de exportação do programa em que paginei o livro) para .jpg ou .png, e só posteriormente colocar página por página no software Blurb.

Li instruções e comentários dos utilizadores e todos concordam neste assunto: quando o Booksmart aceitar o formato .pdf para importação, então trabalhar com o Blurb vai ser mesmo uma maravilha!

Estou ansiosa por ver o livro impresso!

Time Freeze in Macau

A friend of mine pointed me to this video. This happened in Macau, last week. You may be asking yourself what´s so odd or mentionworrthy about it, and my answer would be "try to find Macau on a map".

I´m happy to see the city where I lived for nine years, even if it is only through a video.Yay!

The magic of music | A magia da música

Yesterday was a day packed full with emotions. It doesn´t happen everyday, so I think it is good to celebrate it. The day started with rather sad news, which are part of life too. The fact that they came early in the day and first in the sequence of events might have had an impact too.

In the afternoon I had my painting class, the last one of the year. Summer break is starting as of next week and regular scheduled classes will only resume in March, so it is a rather long time without these weekly meetings. The final session was to be a special one, with our model dancing.

For the final exercise, the chosen music was very special to me, as I had brought those CD´s myself. I´ve already mentioned it here, actually, but still it amazed me to see how people responded to the music. We were painting and dancing and enjoying the music and the results were so beautifully different. On the analysis that follows these sessions, where we see and comment on everyone´s work, more than one mentioned the music´s impact.

It´s very difficult to describe it, I believe. There are some things that can only be lived, not told.

More images here. And Rodrigo Leão´s website here.

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Sobre este episódio escrevi, em português, no meu blog pessoal. Porque não vale a pena repetir, leiam aqui.

Mais fotografias do trabalho realizado ontem na aula de pintura, aqui. E ainda o site do músico autor desta música maravilhosa, Rodrigo Leão.

New website online | Novo site

I couldn´t be happier to share that my new website is now online here. There you can see my design work as well as illustration projects.

Please drop by and do send me a line with your comments, requests or suggestions.

Thank you all for your support!

Other links you may be interested in: my flickr page and my personal blog (in portuguese).

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Que alegria sinto por poder anunciar que o meu novo site está online! Contém projectos de design e também de ilustração.

Convido-vos a passar por lá e a fazer os vossos comentários, sugestões e pedidos para o meu email.

Bem hajam!

Outros espaços meus: no flickr e o meu blog pessoal.

Alerta planeta

This was my submission to Revista Colectiva´s "Alerta Planeta" call for entries. Sadly it didn´t get selected but I loved working on it. It goes around my favourite action to save the planet. I used to work in a studio where there was this reproduction (of what was possibly an engraving) accompanied by this simple but powerful idea: "slowing down may be the single, most effective way to save the world". I thought this was a really good approach to the problem and try to remember it every time I get too stressed about work or lack of time to do it. This idea is so powerful that I´ve been applying it to more than a few projects, not only back in university but also later, on my professional life. I love it and try to live by it, as much as possible.

Click here to see it bigger.

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Esta foi a ilustração com que concorri para o novo número da Revista Colectiva, com o tema "Alerta Planeta". Apesar de não ter sido seleccionada, diverti-me muito a fazê-la. Gira à volta de uma ideia que me é muito cara e que ficou para sempre gravada em mim desde que a vi, pendurada na parede do atelier onde trabalhei uns anos, e que tinha uma reprodução de uma ilustração (talvez uma gravura?) com uma frase por baixo: "slowing down may be the single, most effective way to save the world".

Esta ideia ficou tão entranhada no meu espírito que acho que é das que mais me marcou, não só na maneira de trabalhar (porque me obriga a organizar-me para não ter de fazer tudo à pressa) como no quotidiano. Este não foi o primeiro projecto que subordinei a este tema, e seguramente não será o último.

Para ver a ilustração maior, aqui.

More Christmas knitting | Prendas de Natal

Inspite of the very hot weather I managed to finish my second Wedge Scarf. It collected compliments everywhere I knitted it, so I think my list of "to-knit" keeps growing. Birthday presents, Christmas presents, this scarf is definitely a good option, being a simple yet beautiful pattern.

See more photos here.

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Apesar do calor que se tem feito sentir nos últimos dias, consegui terminar o segundo cachecol Wedge. Este é o segundo de três que estou a fazer para prenda de Natal, mas a lista continua a crescer já que de cada vez que tirava o cachecol do saco para continuar a tricotar recebia um elogio. Ou seja, a lista de candidatas ao cachecol continua a crescer! E como adoro a receita, acho que não vai ser difícil convencer-me a tricotar mais uns quantos.

Mais fotografias do cachecol aqui.

On my desk

Or, better said, on the floor. It´s a detail of a painting from last monday´s class and it is there, on the floor, way past "drying thoroughly" into "keeping me company" and "where should I put it"-modes. We had a dancing model last monday and the resulting images are... I´m lacking the adjectives so I better just invite you to see them here.

I´m not sure if the pictures show all the emotion that is enclosed in each and every paiting, but I hope they will. I don´t think I can part with them right now, so I´ll leave them on the floor for the time being. They´ll be "on my desk" for a couple more days.

See more desks over at kootoyoo´s.

Cool Iris

If you haven´t heard about it, head on over to Cool Iris. Download it, follow the instructions and have fun browsing images and video, I mean, have fun researching images for your next project.

Man, the people who create these things? Wow.

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Para quem não conhece, ala para o site Cool Iris, sem passar pela casa da partida nem receber dois contos. É muito fácil de instalar e não há que ter medos. Pesquisar imagens e vídeo nunca foi tão divertido!

Sewing, sewing | Costuras

Me, sewing? Hmmm.

Even I doubted but now that it is finished I´m quite proud of myself. A couple of years ago I wouldn´t have had the time to delve into it nor the belief that I could push another medium-boundary. Well, it´s good to live to prove yourself wrong, isn´t it?

It´s a logo for a new shop. I´ll post (and direct you to it) once it is up and running.

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Costuras? Quem, eu? Um expressivo "hmm" de dúvida e cepticismo.

Esta seria a minha cara há uns anos atrás, quando não tinha nem tempo, nem paciência nem sequer a convicção de que poderia usar a costura (com resultados satisfatórios) como técnica para a ilustração e o design.

Este trabalho é o da nova identidade gráfica para uma loja online que abrirá em breve.

Making of Peony

I just posted a new "making of" series of images here. It´s from the other day´s peony papercut. Can you tell that I´m loving peonies this spring?

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Mora aqui uma nova série "making of" de uma ilustração em papel cortado que fiz a semana passada.

Acho que estou totalmente contagiada por esta febre primaveril que conquistou Buenos Aires, neste momento cheia de jacarandás em flor. Viva a Primavera!

On my desk

On my desk:

- a papercut in progress
- german class homework
- herbal tea
- my heart, jumping with joy for the good news that are arriving from the north of this amazing continent

These are small big things that are making me happy today.

I´m in the process of choosing colours for a project and got distracted by the fact that if I rotated my head it looked like rain. Colourful rain. And it made me think of a Theo van Doesburg paiting.

Oh, distractions...

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Estava a fazer a paleta de cores para um trabalho que tenho em mãos e, de repente (coisa rara e jamais vista!), a minha concentração relaxa e o meu pensamento dispara noutra direcção. De repente esta imagem lembra-me uma pintura de Theo van Doesburg e as já distantes aulas de História da Arte...

Ai, distracções, distracções...

New website coming! | Novo site prestes a chegar!

This is a preview of my new website which will be publicly launched in the next few days. I´m now making some final tweaks and I hope it will help me not only showcase my work but also make new contacts with you, fellow readers.

I´ll anounce it as soon as it is ready and post a link here so please stay tuned!

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Este é um cheirinho do que aí vem no meu novo website, que será devidamente lançado (qual livro) nos próximos dias. Em processo de limar as últimas arestas, o meu novo espaço vai reunir e mostrar o meu trabalho e também os relatos das minhas aventuras rocambolescas no mundo do trabalho de uma freelancer que trabalha a partir de casa.

É graças a vocês, queridos leitores, que tenho encontrado pessoas a trabalhar nas mesmas condições que eu e, finalmente, me sinto parte de uma comunidade - ainda que virtual.

Está para breve, muito breve!

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

If you´re looking for my blog post on Blog Action Day, please visit my other blog.

(I regret that this post is only available in portuguese.)

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O meu post para o Blog Action Day 2008 está no meu outro blog. Para visitar, é aqui.

On my desk

Tax day. Need I say more?

(more desks via kootoyoo)

Information overload | Demasiada informação

Reading blogs is addictive. Well, at least for me. It´s fun to follow someone else´s life and work and imagine all the possibilities life offers somewhere else on the planet. These are some of the reasons I read blogs.

But at one point I found myself spending more time reading blogs than actually walking, drawing, getting inspired or doing things I love away from a computer screen. I got to the point where I was only skimming through the posts and looking briefly at the pictures. Not only because the contents were uninteresting, don´t get me wrong. It was just too much.

The thought of having to put an end - or a filter, at least - to it was gaining space in my mind and it was a good coincidence (was it coincidence?) that I read Lauren´s post about information overload and how to counteract it.

The post is, as usual, very well written and it pinpoints some actions we can all take to reduce the clutter in our mail inboxes and RSS feed readers. I´m still on step number one, the one that preaches "unsubscribing". And phew, it feels good to be able to have a clean(er) inbox. I´m sad I won´t be following so closely the work of fellow designers, illustrators and artists (I have their blogs bookmarked, so not all is "gone forever"), and I do regret that I won´t receive so much valuable information as before, but I simply wasn´t able to process it all and do something good with it.

Reducing the information clutter is a very good way to make myself more productive, and I´m happy about it. Now, step two...


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Adoro ler blogs. Adoro ler textos bem escritos, episódios bem contados e imagens bonitas. Gosto de sonhar e imaginar como será a vida daquela pessoa noutro país, noutra cidade e imaginar os espaços e as situações que descrevem. Gosto de ver trabalhos bonitos e como outras pessoas resolveram problemas com os quais me vou deparando. Gosto de aprender coisas novas e experimentar coisas diferentes e desconhecidas para mim. Estas são algumas das razões pelas quais leio blogs.

Quando encontro um blog de que gosto, subscrevo-o através do meu google reader e assim mantenho-me a par do que vai acontecendo noutra parte qualquer do mundo, à medida que o seu autor publica os seus posts. Mas cheguei a um ponto de total exagero, em que sinto que gasto mais tempo a ler blogs que realmente a passear, a estudar, a trabalhar, a tricotar ou a desenhar.

A ideia de fazer uma triagem da informação que recebo, seja por RSS seja por email (newsletters de grupos de trabalho ou de revistas, para dar dois exemplos), estava progressivamente a ganhar força, mas ler este post sobre excesso de informação (em inglês), de uma das autoras do livro "The Boss of You" e do blog com o mesmo nome, foi o empurrão final para me decidir a fazer a verdadeira limpeza do google reader e das minhas caixas de correio.

A autora enumera acções para controlar o influxo de informação e, apesar de ainda só estar no primeiro ponto, já sinto uma grande diferença: entre as subscrições que cancelei e os emails desnecessários que apaguei sinto que fiz uma autêntica limpeza de Primavera, ainda que virtual.

Apesar de ter pena de deixar de receber alguma informação, estou absolutamente confiante de que a minha produtividade vai subir em flecha. Vai, não vai?

On my desk

I cannot believe another week has passed. Thanks to kootoyoo´s on my desk I update this blog at least once a week.

On my desk today there are sketches and clippings (not visible on the photo though) for an illustration I´m finishing that is due on Friday. I hope it gets selected but if it doesn´t, I had a great deal of fun coming up with the idea and executing it.

My website is on beta testing stage and finally almost ready to be launched. I expect to do it sometime next week, so do stop by again in the next few days. In the meantime, you can visit my old website here.

To check other desks, visit kootoyoo´s.

On my desk

My desk has been nothing but a huge to-do list of things that I´ve been carefully crossing as I complete them. It seems like finally my website will be ready soon, as I´m just waiting for some style sheet changes from the programmer. All contents are uploaded and ready to be showed to the broad audience that is the internet. In the meantime, if you´re curious about what I´ve been doing, check my flickr photostream, which seems to be easier to update. At least all the programming is on the flickr´s team side - and what a great job they´ve done!



In the meantime, I´ll leave you with this photo of a series of skeins of wool I bought last thursday for the things I hope I manage to knit in time for Christmas.

Not totally unrelated, but certainly not to the point, I´ve realised I don´t suffer from the so widespread startitis I read of on the internet. I only have one project on the needles at any given time. (Now it´s the time to ask, am I normal?)

More of what I´ve knit here.

More desks via kootoyoo´s blog.

Holiday knitting? | Prenda de Natal?

This scarf comes from Berocco´s "Wedge" Pattern, designed by Norah Gaughan. I had seen so many projects from patterns designed by her but not had the chance to knit one. This is a free pattern and it is available here.

Well, I´m totally in love with the pattern. It is so easy to remember and yet produces amazing results. I can´t believe I´m knitting this beautiful piece - and that it is actually so easy.

See more photos here.


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Este cachecol é lindo, lindo e muito fácil de fazer. E o melhor ainda é que a receita é gratuita, disponível aqui. É desenhado por Norah Gaughan, para a Berocco. Já tinha ouvido (e visto, por esta blogosfera fora) maravilhas dos desenhos dela mas realmente estou impressionada com a facilidade desta receita e os resultados tão bonitos que produz. Não sei, parece que é tão bonito que teria de ser muito mais difícil...

Mais fotografias aqui.

Rosa & Teixeira new brand idendity | Nova identidade visual corporativa da Rosa & Teixeira

It´s with a lot of pleasure that I can finally post about this corporate identity project, as it was one of the most challenging and interesting projects I had to develop in the last few years. Rosa & Teixeira is a well-known high-end custom tailored clothes as well as prêt-à-porter shop in Portugal that aimed for a new, more sophisticated and premium image.

This was a long project: not only the design stage, as employees and management team needed time to adjust to the new logo, but also because the printed objects were subject to several print-proofs; it certainly paid off to have them going back and forth with all comments and corrections as I believe the final results are very good, thanks to a great team work.

See other images of this project here.

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É com imensa alegria que publico aqui o trabalho realizado para a Rosa & Teixeira, marca amplamente conhecida em Portugal, talvez menos conhecida no estrangeiro. Para quem não conhece, trata-se de uma loja de roupa de prestígio, tendo tanto alfaiates como pronto-a-vestir superior. Querendo modernizar a sua imagem anterior, desenvolvemos este trabalho ao longo de vários meses, criando não só o logótipo como também todas as aplicações de uso interno (formulários e talões, entre outros) e todo o material com visibilidade, como sacos, caixas, facturas, recibos ou etiquetas.

Não sendo um trabalho de fácil produção pelo nível de qualidade exigido, creio que o resultado final é excelente e é fruto de um grande esforço de equipa.

Mais imagens aqui.

On my desk

My desk is so uninteresting these days that I chose to show you one of the exercises from last Monday´s painting class. It was difficult for me to get the proportion of the front leg right but I think I managed to do it better on the second ("second"? no, actually, "nth" would be much more accurate) go:



More desks via kootoyoo´s.

Encuentro de bloggeras tejedoras

El pasado Sábado nos encontramos! Yo llegué tarde pero igual estuvo buenísimo conocerlas a todas.

Vean abajo lo que cuentan las demás chicas con quienes aprendí mucho y compartí ideas:

"Lace and crochet", de Laura

"Sueños de lana", de Stella

"Teje Penelope", de Celes

"Zsazsita", de Carolina

"Caro y sus agujas", de Carolina

"Sabinatejidos y algo más", de Sabina

"Alitas de Dragón", de Andrea

"Ivana teje", de Ivana


Celes sacó fotos de los trabajos que teníamos entre manos, así que ahí podrán ver la primera imágen oficial de la bufanda que estoy tejiendo.

Gracias por organizar, Celes!

September 11th, 2008

Seven years gone by and I´m still amazed by the violence of the events of that day.

I don´t think there´s much I can write about it without repeating what so many people already have said. I remember watching the Tv screen in disbelief, hoping somewhere that this was a crappy, bad-taste Hollywood movie kind of joke. I remember having the feeling World War III would start on the next moment. I´m glad it didn´t, but I´m sad that the fear has been installed unto the people, the normal people who lead absolutely normal lives.

I´m very sad that so many lost their lives or loved ones there. I hope that after Madrid (March 11th) it just doesn´t happen again. I know it´s a long shot, but I want to keep living in a world where clouds are white and fluffy and people are nice to strangers.

Illustration Friday: Clutter

It has been quite a long time since I last contributed to Illustration Friday, but I´m happy to be back to it.

This is a mixed media illustration with a papercut and hand drawn type, later digitalized.

On my desk

Yesterday, Wednesday (the usual "on my desk" day) was spent ouside of the studio. Sometimes I get too attached to the computer and forget to go outside to get inspiration. It´s a weird balance, isn´t it? It´s like you need to step away to freshen your view, but then again there isn´t too much time to do it, because there´s work that needs to get done today. Well, I guess I was lucky I could leave yesterday - so I´ll give you my desk today.

There´s my computer, of course, and ever present element; the same goes for my tablet; there are to-do lists (written, of course, there´s no pleasure like running a line over the task that has just be completed) and there´s my sketch book, showing my hand.

See more desks via kootoyoo.

Encuentro de bloggeras tejedoras este Sábado

Celes está organizando un encuentro de bloggeras tejedoras este Sábado a las 12h en el Shopping Abasto, acá en Buenos Aires.

Yo voy a ir! Ahora solo tengo que ir a buscar que tejer porque todavía no he comenzado nada nuevo desde el suéter que terminé el Sábado pasado.

Buenos Aires by night

A three week vacation is perfect not only to forget about work but also to charge your batteries and start thinking about work again.

One of the projects I had in mind was to make a series of photographs under the theme "Buenos Aires by night". This series will be available on my personal blog. Although I post in portuguese only, photos are images and images are worth a thousand words, they say.

The idea of a series of photographs is not an original one. I can think of SouleMama and FotoBen, to name just two bloggers.

I love photography and haven´t been much involved with it during the last few years. I think that for some reason my interest sailed a bit away, but it is definitely a port I want to go back to. Night photography is so difficult but it can be so rewarding: what I like the most is how those "mistakes" that blurry images are can be so beautiful. And that´s what I want to explore. And the city, too, as it is the city where I live now and the one that has adopted me for the time to come.

I hope you like the series too. There´s a button on the right hand side corner to give you easy access to it.


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Uma das ideias que trago para pôr em prática na minha pequena "rentrée" é a de captar e publicar aqui uma série de trinta imagens da cidade de Buenos Aires à noite.

A minha ideia não é original. Outros bloggers fazem séries semelhantes (lembro-me particularmente da SouleMama e do FotoBen) e a ideia parece-me tão interessante que a vou usar aqui com a expressão empregue pelo homem do marketing cá de casa: "share and reapply". Gosto da ideia, gosto do compromisso, gosto de procurar imagens bonitas, gosto do efeito inesperado do erro na fotografia nocturna e quero partilhar tudo isso.

Espero que também gostem.

Maillot jaune | Camisola Amarela

This sweater was all the knitting I brought along with me for me three week vacation. And what did I do when I finished it, you may ask. Well, I finished it in a hurry on the last day of vacation.

First off: there´s absolutely no knitting in airplanes, specially on the routes I travelled. I didn´t want to risk losing my needles in some airport X-ray machine as circulars are terribly difficult to find here in Buenos Aires and live stitches floating aren´t really the best picture I can imagine.

Well, and then there´s general summer laziness. Knitting on the beach isn´t the best option either with all the sand (and playing with my niece). There were just too many other stimuli I reacted to and the sweater sat peacefully inside the knitting bag. It was basically fun.

(I finished a book and started a new one: "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith. Cannot recommend it enough!)

On the last day of vacation I did manage to squeeze in the time to photograph it before it went to washing and blocking, a task I trusted my mother with. I hope the recipient (well, the mum of the recipient) likes it and uses it.

My maillot jaune sweater isn´t certainly an accomplishment when it comes to speed but I did finish it in time. Just in time, I mean.


More images here.

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A camisola amarela que aqui está foi tudo o que tricotei durante as férias. Pensei que a ia terminar mais rapidamente mas... enfim, as férias têm demasiadas distracções e o trabalho de turista cansa. Cansa tanto que à noite a única coisa que consegui fazer foi ler e dormir.

(Estou a ler "White Teeth" de Zadie Smith. Muito bom.)

Terminei-a, portanto, no dia da partida, a tempo apenas de a fotografar. A lavagem já ficou a cargo da minha mãe, a avó da pessoinha a quem se destina. Por ainda não sabermos se é menino, se menina, a escolha da cor foi esta.

Mais fotografias aqui.

Back | De volta

We´re back. I´m going through my inbox and writing down my to-do list and that leaves me no time for blogging much longer than this.

On my Google Reader there´s more than 800 unread entries - I believe that the "mark all as read" button will have a lot of activity in the next few days...

I´ll leave you with a quick snapshot of last saturday, during a beach stroll before heading to the airport. I miss it already!

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Voltámos de férias. Energias recuperadas (mais ou menos - não são muitas horas de diferença mas eu sofro muito com o jetlag) e vontade de trabalhar. Bem a preciso para ir desfazendo aos poucos a lista de afazeres que aqui tenho.

Para matar as saudades que já cresceram desde Sábado, aqui vai um cheirinho de maresia da tarde, depois do almoço e antes de ir para o aeroporto.

Happy me!

I´m leaving the dungeon that my home-studio became and going on holidays.

This the "happy-me":


I´ll be back in September with lots of news. See you then!


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Deixo a masmorra até Setembro. Até lá!

Hair - not the musical!

These are some of the illustrations I did for Erin at Mankind Mag. The theme was her "Autohairography", a very witty text about some hair-fashion landmarks through the eighties and the nineties, and how she went through hair-stilying phenomena like the peacock bang and other very impacting hairdos. (See some more images at flickr.)

In the middle of the process there were constraints that forced us to change the illustration´s style, into what you can now see at her autohairography and had this as a starting point:


Working with Erin was a good experience and great fun, as her text was so good and I was given lots of freedom. Big thank you to you, Erin!

On my desk

I´ve been neglecting this poor blog the last few weeks but still you keep coming back and visit. Thank you so much for that! Well, the obvious reason is that I´ve been very, very busy doing design related work, meeting clients and finishing files to go for pre-press. The pre-vacation stress is taking its toll and I just can´t wait until saturday, the day we actually start our three-week vacation.

It will sound like a paradox but the summer semester in Goethe-Institut started this week and today was my first class. I´ll be missing the next three classes, but will try to keep reading in german, so that I don´t disconnect totally. I promise no homework, but I´ll fondly think of my classmates when I sit at the beach soaking up the sun and staring and the sea. If the weather helps, that is!

Today I was pleased to receive my german language exam results and actually very glad I decided to take it: studying for it made me learn and memorize a lot more than if I had decided not to. So the good results were the cherry on top of the cake. Next year, same time, same place, next level´s exam!

On my desk there´s tea, of course, my faithful and reliable computer (has been working very hard these past few weeks... hmmm, actually, "these past few months" would be more accurate, but never mind) and my pocket moleskine where all doodles and ideas land. I´ve got to-do lists, books, my agenda and sheets of A4 paper scattered everywhere, but there´s nothing like good cropping to make it look organised.

See other desks at kootoyoo´s.

Weekend, finally | Por fim, descanso

** (em Português, visitem o meu outro blog, sim? Obrigada!) **

These last weeks have been totally overloaded with work, which means that I can´t update my blog as much as I would want. But today is Saturday and I already violated my "rule" of no internet during the weekends and so I´m now officially allowed to blog about the things I´ve been doing apart from working.

I know this is a work blog but it´s always the same: when you´re completing something you can´t blog about it because it´s secret/unpublished/whatever reason, so things can only be mentioned later. Well, we all know that´s the way things go, so...

Although it´s winter holidays here, I´ve been having a lot more work than any other time of the year. That´s something new for me: July and August are always slow months in Portugal, and since most of my current clients are in the northern hemisphere, I was expecting it to happen this year. Well, it didn´t. I don´t mind: I´m a freelancer and every new project is a good project. I love having work to do and dread those months where I finish projects and there´s no new commissions on sight.

So, getting back to what I´ve been doing - that isn´t work or a secret or a mystery:



Purl Soho´s Child Placket Sweater em verde. Tenho ali ainda um rosa velho e um amarelo, para mais duas camisolas iguais.

The green baby sweater above? Finished and blocking as we speak. The pattern is Purl Soho´s Child Placket Sweater and I already have enough wool to make another two. Well, because I bought two skeins for each sweater, I actually have five sweaters´ worth of yarn. But stashing is good, right? I don´t ever want to be caught without yarn to knit baby sweaters, oh no!

More images here.




Bookbinding without adhesives - great fun and general sense of happiness when finishing the books. And I love the tutti-frutti colours!

Those yummy coloured books are a product of the workshop I´ve visited during July at Papelera Palermo´s Casa de Oficios. We learnt four bookbinding models. The most challenging was the third one (blue yarn, yellow pages), but the fact that it was challening also made it the one I loved the most.

More images here: all books, books one, two, three and four (sounds like Feist, doesn´t it?)

On my desk today

My messy desk

The almost finished baby placket sweater

The couple of weeks before leaving on holiday are usually terribly busy. There are some projects that I just don´t want to leave incomplete before going. The best part is that new projects keep on coming, which is very good, considering I´m a freelancer.

Well, on my desk there are lists of things to do, there are some letters cut out of paper, left around after not using them in a preivous illustration (I like to look at them and maybe someday I´ll know what to use them for) and there´s my tea - of course.

The baby sweater is almost finished - I haven´t had a lot of knitting time, lately, and that´s such a pity...

See other desks at kootoyoo´s.

My first socks: finished!

They´re done! Followed knitty.com´s "Generic sock pattern" and managed to finish!

On my desk

This isn´t exactly on my desk - it´s way too messy to show - but it is certainly on my mind: it´s Purl Soho´s Child´s Placket Sweater. I got the idea seeing Pepperknit´s baby sweater and even the colour she used was inspiring. As I have at least another two waiting in queue, I used green wool for the first one; there´s pink yarn and yellow yarn waiting to be knitted into the other two baby sweaters queued. I´m enjoying this pattern very much, specially because it is a great way to learn to knit in the round with circular needles, with quick and very nice results.

There´s lots more on my desk as I´ve been closing final artwork files for a whole identity package for a client, but it´s the kind of thing that I can´t show until it´s ready neither has the appeal of a fine miniature knitted garment.

And tea, of course, there´s tea. And heating, which fortunately is up and running again after a couple of very freezing days with layers and layers of clothes on top of me.

Future | Futuro

Revista Göoo, a local independent illustration magazine, just closed the call for entries for the next issue, with its theme "Future". This is my entry, based on an idea I love so much, the one of "time capsules". I imagine this capsules as containers full of the things that are current and usual to us. The container is then sealed and put away (say, buried, for instance), to be opened in some years´time.

Although I don´t usually do this kind of thing with gadgets, I love doing it with letters, photos, magazines, which then are stored to oblivion. Opening them years later is such a beautiful trip in time, one that doesn´t cost you any money and brings back so many good memories.

That was my idea for this illustration too: what will people from the future think of the contents of such a capsule? What will people think of the gadgets we currently find so appealing and high-tech?

(If they print my illustration, I may well find it out when I open the magazine in the future!...)


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A Revista Göoo é uma publicação local independente feita a partir das colaborações espontâneas que respondem à convocatória periódica. A última, que terminou ontem, tem o tema "Futuro".

A minha ideia é uma que me agrada muito e que adoro pôr em prática, a da cápsula do tempo. Nessa cápsula (ou caixa de sapatos) ponho cartas, fotografias, revistas e toda uma miríade de objectos que se ligam a determinada fase da minha vida. Deixo-a esquecida num qualquer canto da arrecadação (dos pais, claro está, lá é que se encontram todos os tesouros, não é verdade?) para a abrir daqui a uns anos.

Abrir uma caixa destas é uma viagem nostálgica e boa ao passado, daquelas em que suspiro e rio às gargalhadas ("como é que eu usei este penteado horrível e nunca ninguém me disse nada?") e passo um bom par de horas a apreciar como (eu) era naquela altura.

Nesta ilustração usei a mesma ideia: que pensarão os habitantes do futuro ao abrir uma cápsula do tempo cheia dos nossos gadgets, hoje topo de gama e o último grito? Amanhã estarão obsoletos, mas como será daqui a cinquenta anos? Será que alguns chegam à categoria de vintage?

(se a revista me publicar, talvez venha a descobrir quando, daqui a cinquenta anos, abrir a página com a minha ilustração!...)

Bookbinding without adhesives, book II | Encadernação sem adesivos, livro II

This is the second book made during the course of the workshop taught at Papelera Palermo´s Casa de Oficios. It´s a little different from the first model done but it was really nice to build. All in all, the feeling of having made something with your own two hands is just unbeatable, specially in this digital age where no one seems to know what to do without the help of a computer.

See more photos here.


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Este é o segundo livro feito no workshop organizado pela Casa de Oficios da Papelera Palermo e leccionado por encadernadores da Asociación Argentina de Encuadernadores Artesanales. Depois da prática da construção do primeiro, este aqui não foi muito difícil de fazer. É óbvio que apesar de ser bastante perfeccionista (ui!), é um livro feito por uma principiante. Mas estou satisfeita com o resultado, sobretudo com o facto de o ter construído manualmente, artesanalmente, nesta época de predominância digital em que muitas vezes nem sabemos o que fazer sem um computador por perto. Por mim falo, obviamente!

Mais fotos aqui.

On my desk

On my (messy) desk there´s an illustration I´m working on.

(I think today´s tea is easier to spot...)

More desks at kootoyoo´s.

German language exam | Exame de Alemão

I´m not even blogging right now. I´m not even inserting the corrections sent by a client on their flyer. I should be reviewing vocabulary, sentences, letters to the editor and exercising hearing comprehension. But then I realise that whatever I didn´t learn until today, I won´t learn it in the next few hours until the exam.

So wish me luck and tomorrow is another day, maybe even a blogging day.

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Nestas poucas horas que faltam para o exame deveria estar a fazer outras coisas, como rever vocabulário, construção da frase, acusativos, dativos e genitivos. Mas ainda tenho de inserir correcções no trabalho para um cliente e só depois me poderei dedicar às últimas revisões. Mas também acho que não será hoje que aprendo aquilo que não consegui aprender nos últimos quatro meses de estudo e de preparação para este exame.

Estou a fazer figas para saber resolver as perguntas "armadilhadas", distingui-las das que são só "fáceis", e conseguir ter uma boa nota. Desejem-me sorte!

Bookbinding without adhesives | Encadernação sem adesivos

I´ve been away from blogging for a while now and it mostly had to do with work. Last week I was more than flooded with work, which is good, but prevents me from getting close to the internet (which can also be good, I guess!).

Despite the work overload the bookbinding without adhesives workshop started last Thursday and this is the result of the first work session.

See more photos here.

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Apesar da sobrecarga de trabalho da última semana, comecei a frequentar o workshop de Encadernação sem Adesivos , na Casa de Oficios da Papelera Palermo. Este foi o primeiro livro que encadernámos, cosido com fio de algodão.

Mais fotografias aqui.

My first sock | A minha primeira meia

This is my first sock ever. It´s based on Knitty´s Generic Sock Pattern. The instructions are so clear that even I could understand them! I´m a rookie when it comes to knitting (until... two or three months ago I knew nothing more than to knit scarves!) but I want to learn more and this pattern has the right amount of instructions to teach a person to knit a sock. I finished the first one and already feel like customizing the second one a bit, but I guess I can´t. That´s the problem with socks: you have to (well, in theory) make the second one at least similar to the first one, right? Well, I know this isn´t a rule (I´m thinking Through the Loops´Apollo and Artemis here), but I think Paulo, the recipient of these socks, wouldn´t be the happiest guy on earth with two different socks. So I´ll just have to go to the second one and wish for the next pair to be completely freestyled.

They´re knitted on what´s available here: DK wool, no brand, just this. The dpn´s I have, 3.5mm, aren´t the best either, but I´m still not venturing into buying through the internet as stuff here gets either lost or stuck in customs. Neither option is good.


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Esta é a minha primeira meia tricotada por mim. Bem sei que estou a roçar o pleonasmo, mas eu própria tenho de repetir "minha meia" e "tricotada por mim" para me convencer desta realidade: consegui tricotar uma meia, quando até há bem pouco tempo tudo o que fazia era cachecóis.

A meia baseia-se na receita "Knitty´s Generic Top Down Sock Pattern" (que podem encontrar aqui) e, para quem entenda bem instruções em inglês, é muito clara. Além disso, tem umas imagens que ajudam a esclarecer algumas dúvidas.

Uso agulhas de ponta dupla (não sei como se chamam em português; em castelhano são agujas para medias) de 3.5mm. A lã é demasiado grossa para tricotar meias, pelo menos meias que se possam usar dentro de sapatos, mas é o que há cá. E estou feliz. Agora vou para a segunda, mas, que maçada, já me apetecia fazer outra diferente...

On my desk

My Wednesday "on my desk" post is actually on Thursday. This has been such a hectic week, and after having busy weekends with friends visiting or travelling to visit friends, days go by without my having time to even post.

I´ve been working on several new design projects for a very good client and that has been filling my days up completely. Whenever I´m waiting for an answer via email, I frame some of the papercuts that I did during the last few months and knit a few more stitches on my very first sock (top-down; I started one toe-up but had a bit of trouble reading the instructions and unfortunately can´t find videos about it...). It´s also my first time knitting with dpn´s and I´m just trying to get hang of it.

See the tea? There it is, as usual!

ETA: I´ve added a button to my side bar so that you can go directly to Kootoyoo´s for more desks.