A Few Christmas Goodies

Been TRYING to get into the Holiday Spirit......  Bought some pretty new papers, even.  Ba Humbug!  The first is a paper cone, inspired by the fabric cones Mom made for the Rose Family Reunion that never happened.  Ba Humbug.  I'll send it to my friend, Karen, in Wichita.  I haven't gifted her in awhile, so it's hers.  The atc was for the Ornament Swap that I've hosted on and off for several years on atc world.  I thought if I hosted again this year it would help my festive mood.  Last, is a tree topper I made to 'go with' my baby Christmas Tree that is decorated exclusively with all of my ornament atc's from past years.  I love those ornaments....the tree seems to take on a life of it's own with those bitty pieces of art hanging from it!

A Day Trip To Lisbon - Tuesday August 24th, 2011

Tuesday morning, we walked from the hotel Amazonia down to the train station.  A short ride later we were in Lisbon!  The first order of the day was the Fiera de Ladra (The Theives Market).  Nowdays, it is perfectly legal and a great flea market with all sorts of goodies and ephemera for any art project you can conceive of!  I could have spent another day there.....

I included my train pass that was good for the whole day, if you didn't loose it!

This awesome castle wasn't on our agenda for the day, but we had a bit of free time, so from the flea market we walked through Old Lisbon and up to St. George's Castle.  On the way, I snapped a few really cool pictures of old ruins (of what?  who knows? but they look like medieval apartments).  Views of St. George's overlook the city.  The ancient castle has a moat of all things.  I walked the ruins of the castle for a short while with Michael.  Had him ALL to myself!  How did I accomplish that?  I dunno, but I'm not complaining!  The site of St. George's has been fortified since the Roman times (500 A.D.) and the Moors built the surviving structure in the 1100's.  Amazing.

After lunch at Chapito, a circus school, we headed off to Europe's most well known doll hospital.  Mom and I ALMOST didn't go!  Yikes, what a loss that would have been!  It was the most bizarre and fascinating place.  There were doll parts everywhere, as well as a little museum of different dolls.  It was spooky and sweet and the same time.  Before the building was a doll hospital it was a human hospital, and before that a church.  The owner showed me in the floor where one of the tiles was marked "Porta".  This was the doorway to the crypts below.  WISH I would have taken a photo of that!!!!!  Hospital das Bonecas has been in the same family since it's inception in 1830 and they claim they heal the souls of the owners as well as the dolls themselves.

To finish the afternoon, we visited the Maritime Museum to use as inspiration in our Navigator's Journal.  The museum paid homage to Henry the Navigator and the maritime history of Portugal.  It is housed in the same building as Jeroimos Monestary, built in 1502, where Vasco de Gama is entombed.  We visited the monestary, saw the tomb(s) and Gardens.  The highlight of the day for me was Pasteis de Belem.  YUMMY!  I could have eaten dozens of these gorgeous, hot from the oven, custard tarts with just the right amount of crunchy crust and smooth sweet custard HOT from the oven!  The motto of the trip became "eat dessert twice a day", and my hips are still paying the price!  I wouldn't change a thing, though!!!!!! 

The Studio

We also got our first look at the studio where we would work all week on Monday.  That evening we had a delicious supper by the ocean.  More bread and olives!!!!!!   Yea!

Monday was Busy

Monday we visited the tile factory where our tiles were fired.  We had lunch in a friend of Margarita's home. We had a delicious veal stew and, my favorite,  Arroz Dulce (sweet rice).

First Evening

Sunday evening we walked to Margarita's flat for a light supper and to meet everyone in the group.  I loved the walk and took lots of pictures of the homes and gardens along the way.  After dinner we went into Margarita's little studio for some tile painting.  My tiles are the bird and the turtle.  I would like to do them over, but, oh well.

Since our room wasn't ready, Mom and I had a little lunch in the hotel restaurant.  Here I've included portion of a map of Estoril that includes our hotel area, a picture of Mom sitting across the table from me and what quickly became my favorite part of Portugese meals - the fresh, crusty, bread and oil cured olives that preceeded all of our meals while we were there.  Yummylicious.

Travel Day

The first page of my journal has a written background of my travel to Lisbon and all the trials of not meeting up with Mom as planned.  But, I knew it was going to be a good trip and all would work out.  After all, see my seat number?  Then, while we were checking in at the hotel the music playing in the background told me Dad was still watching over us.

A Journal for Memories

Mom and I are going to make journals of our favorite Portugal memories.  Here is the book for mine.  It's one I made ages ago (so long I can't really remember when).  I didn't like the way it was looking when I made it, so it's been languishing on a shelf in my studio.  I dug it out and added some collage and Uszzhhhhh.  Then I decorated the binding with ribbons, yarns and charms as I didn't like the look of the spiral binding.   The inside is watercolor paper which I think I will smoosh up some with different paints before I add my mementos to them. I'm always intimidated by the 'blank page', so hopefully some attention to the white paper before hand will help my creativity block!!!!

Michael DeMeng's Portugal Workshop: The Navigator's Journal

Well.....a new day!!!  After many things that life unexpectedly threw my way, I've been able to return to my creativity.  Many thanks to you, Mom, for taking me along to the Michael DeMeng workshop in Portugal.  Here is my piece from the fantastical nine day trip we took together.  I have SOOooooooooooooo many wonderful memories of our time together, the beautiful setting and the lovely new friends made!  My book started it's life as a 1964 dictionary found at the GoodWill for a couple of bucks.  It was gutted and new interior made from foam core/paints/paper.  The techniques we learned were amazing and I will be using them many times over in future projects.