Favourite Things Thursday - Feet Massage!!!

Here we are again at this great meme hosted by Blue. My Favourite Thing today is Feet Massage!!!!! I die, I kill, I steal for one! I walk too much sometimes or spend too long in bank lines due to my job, so I'm always bothering Rodrigo to make a feet massage session, pleeeeeease, after Lucas is asleep and I have time to relax - he became a master and even took som online lessons to learn how to improve his "skills"! It does makes wonders to me, it's like getting a whole body massage, my body and my mind to calm down, the pain I constantly feel in my back disappear and the world seems perfect...

When I was pregnant I wasn't allowed to take any drugs to relieve my migraines, and OF COURSE, I had two or three major ones during it. The only thing that would help me relaxing and not getting nuts was my hubby's massage. Sometimes I would even fall asleep in the middle of it! If you know what a huge migraine is, you can imagine my despair divided between stopping that horrible pain and not wanting to take anything that could hurt my baby. So there was Rodrigo and his magic hands.

It's well-known that our feet - and hands - reflect our entire organism - when a certain point is pressed, the correspondent body's area reacts. That's called reflexology. I totally believe in this, because I always feel the benefits when I get a massage in my feet.

So that's it for today! For more Favourite Things Thursday, visit Blue's page and - why not - join the fun!

ABC Wednesday - B

Hello again, everybody!! Week 2 is here and the letter is B, and this is for Book vendor! I'm always buying books in "first-hand" and second-hand stores, but I also love buying from my friend Raimundo, a street vendor whom I know for ten years now and who always have something for me. It was from him that I got my Harry Potter books, all my Agatha Christie collection, some hard-to-find Asimov's, a beautiful Don Quixote edition... His books are displayed on a catwalk corner next to my working place, so every evening when I go home after work it's a must to stop and take a look at what he's got that day and to talk about what I'm reading at the moment. He's a walking encyclopedia, knows everything about books! He was the first one who called my son Indigo, the kids new generation, long before this was mentioned on the paper. A very nic guy!

Hope everybody have fun today! For more cool ABC photos, visit the meme's main page, hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt!

Got tagged

SilverStar, from Magical Musings, tagged me on this fun:

• Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
• Open the book to page 123.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the next three sentences.
• Tag five people.

So I took the book I'm currently reading, "The Disney Version", by Richard Schickel - which btw I'm not sure if I enjoy the reading or not yet - and here's page 123:

"As early as 1925 he had made a little short in which a cartoon character semeed to conduct a theater's live orchestra from the screen. He also had toyed with the notion of supplying musical cue sheets to theater musicians so his silent shorts could be properly accompanied. There was also, perhaps, that vaguely defined, yet keenly felt, lust for the 'the finer things' that was so common among people of his lumpen bourgeoisie background."

I have to tag five people, so I tag my friends Maebius, Aileni, Margy, Michele and Blue. But anyone is free to try it! Just let me know you joined!

B-Day on the way

Lucas will be 5 next Saturday! He' so excited he only talks about it. Every day he asks me if today is the day, and I go, "no... just some more day...". I took our fridge calendar and marked the Saturday with a big heart, and now we are circling the days until the special one, so he can keep track of it and gets less anxious, I hope!

Is it a surprise he wants the party theme to be... Harry Potter? Not after our night readings... LOL Actually he wanted Peter Pan, but last week he changed his mind, so I'm preparing little things to give to the guests. I'm so p... off because I can't find anywhere any Harry Potter party supplies!! It's absurd... Thankfully Internet is here to help me, so I'm going to print wheatever I need in special paper and everything will be ok.

As we are sooooo broke lately, we'll have a very simple party. A beautiful cake, hot-dogs, popcorns, soft drinks, music... We invited his closest little friends (5 little rockets) and their parents, plus my mother and brothers and a couple of friends - enough to hve a full house. Probably only my middle bro will be able to come, since they all live in another city.

Until Sat, I'll be more than busy preparing everything! It's going to be fun, seems like time is too fast, soon he'll be graduating... getting married... having his own kids... :-)

A place to relax and think about life...

Sacred Suzie talked here about a surprising new place she found wen walking near her home. A quiet, natural spot where she can breath, relax and stir her writing skills. She deserves it!

I thought about it yesterday, when I went with Lucas to "our" park, Chacrinha. It's two minutes away from home on feet, and it's like being in another dimension. No cars, bikes or skates are allowed, since it's a park visited mainly by young moms and their babies or toddlers. I'm a regular visitor since Lucas was four months old, so I know every inch of it. It's a wonderful park where Nature is exuberant and we even have the company of little monkeys who love being fed with bananas.

Lucas' little friend and father feeding the little monkeys

Although I also live near the beach - which I love -, it's surrounded by trees that I really feel at home. Probably because I spent my entire childhood in a place like that. Every time I'm in Chacrinha, I breath deeply and feel in peace. Whatever stress I'm living under lately, at least disappear while I'm there. You can feel the the Gods' presence and somehow feel like being watched by something good.

In this crazy world we live, I believe everybody needs a place to simply "be", to simply feel it's still worthy living, no matter how bad things are sometimes. This is my place.

Framed Friday

One more Framed Friday week and today the letter is N. I'm going to leave the wiccan theme this week and talk about my favourite body & face Brazilian brand:

It's all about Nature. They are commited to always develop products that are not bad to the enviroment, don't test them on animals, and have society programs to call attention to the Earth's preservation.

Their products are high quality ones and truly reliable. I love their Poliplant Shampoo and Conditioner for Normal Hair (mine, duh...) with Gingko Biloba / Henna in the composition.It's really like a diary treatment and my hair is always shining and with a soft perfume.Now that I'm almost 40 (next June!!!), I started taking care of my skin more seriously - I just want to be a nice old lady with a healthy skin... So two years ago I started using their Chronos 30+ face line. I'm the kind of person who hates spending time in front of the mirror (that's why I only wear lipstick as makeup!), so I had to discipline myself to the big 3s: cleaning, toning up and moisturizing. It was worthy: I did felt a difference in my skin. So now I'm a big Natura fan and even if I'm exhausted (not hard with my little rocket at home!), I never go to sleep without using their products.

For more cool products,don't forget visiting Learning Mama!

Favourite Things Thursday - Taking a shower!

One of the simplest, basic things in the world is also one of my favourite things: taking a shower. I know, I know, everybody takes it, what's the point? The point is that I loooove water. In another life maybe I was a duck, or a fish. I simply love to take a shower in the morning to wake up my body before going to work.

But the best is when I get home after a looooong working day. Then, after playing a little with Lucas, I love taking a long warm shower - very important: I hate cold water, when the subject is taking showers. I know lots of people who loves it cold, which is a mystery to me -but I feel so uncomfortable and upset that if I had a tail like a cat's, it would be whipping back and forth after it. I need the water to be at least warm. In winter time, like now, I take hot showers. It's not the best for the skin, I know that, but the sensation is delicious!

I try not to be too long, after all, water is not to be wasted, but I do enjoy the time I spend under the hot water while letting my body and my spirit to be cleaned from all the dust, stress and bad energy we accumulate along the day. Fortunately we don't have a bathtub, or I'd live inside of it!

Something I learned to do when I really want to relax, is to hang on the shower, above my head, a thin cloth sachet with relaxing herbs, like lavanda, cammomile, so they do wonders to me releasing the herbs' fragrance and properties while I let the water fall over my body.

Well, this is my Favorite Thing for today! Cant wait to see what's yours!

For more FT, visit Blue's page, and enjoy.

ABC Wednesday - A - Third round!!!

The ABC's third round has just began with the letter A. There are some news on the meme - it now has its own page here, and everyone is invited to join the fun!

A for me is for Apples... One of my favorite fruits. The proverb says "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". I think there's a lot of true in this. The apple reduces the risk of colon/prostate/lung cancer, heart disease, it's good for weight loss and controlling cholesterol, and it's also antioxidant. Not to mention the obvious: it's delicious! And there's the pagan appeal, for the fruit is said to have healing properties and its tree is sacred to the druids, being very used in love magick as well.

My son loves this simple, well-known and yummy recipe that I often make for him: I take one apple and remove its core leaving a small hole. Then I fill the hole with a mix of sugar and cinamon in powder, sit the apple in a baking dish, and bake it until the sugar melts and the fruit is soft. It's hard to eat while drooling but that's what happens, so good it is! LOL

For more cool ABC posts, visit its new home!

Busy, busy!

This week is when I'll start spreading my CV around, so if you don't hear often from me these days, I'm alive!

Late Framed Friday - 8

As it was The Full Moon, I was all concentrated on the Dreamboard, and didn't posted about my Framed Friday, so here it is, "a little bit" late! :)

The letter is A, and what's better than Aprons? For those who love cooking or simply HAVE to cook, an apron is a must. I can't cook without getting covered with splashes of whatever I'm "brewing" at the moment... I found some cool aprons at Ananas Designs. They have several products with unusual designs, like this Bewitched Pin-Up Girl apron:

Another simpler one that I like is this black Kitchen Witch apron from the WackyJac site:

Rhanna's Room, the new Etsy page by Rhanna, Kelli's (from Dancing Goddess Dolls) 12-year-old talented daughter, also has cool aprons with cute embroidery designs like this one:


I hope you all had a great weekend. For more products, visit Learning Mama and join the fun!

Lucas' Dreamboard

*Update: Lucas decided replacing the ghost image by a... popcorn bag! LOL That's how it works for an almost five-year-old boy...*

Oh gods, I forgot including my little son's dreamboard! Here it is... I just copied the images he chose to a Word page, and typed the header. He was a little material this time. He wants things! LOL He wants a little pig and a little tree to watch them grow and hold (as I told Suzie, in our tiny apartment it's impossible, but luckly he has his grandpa's little farm where they can live). He also wants a microphone so he can sing his songs out loud at home. He wants to increase his plastic bottles' lids collection. And to meet Hermione (his first crush, no, actually his second crush, the first one was Melinda Gordon from Ghost Whisperer). And the last and scariest dream: he wants a ghost! I was like, "what?!". He says he already sees ghosts at home, but never has time to talk to them, because I'm always asking him to do things... Autumn, please give me a hand on this!! Definitely I don't want any ghosts staying here chatting with my son, bu I had to include the image, he demanded it... Well, we'll have a talk when I get home tonight before celebrating this esbat.

I suggest everyone taking a look at the other beautiful dreamboards at Suzie's Sacred Space, they're amazing! Have a great weekend, friends, see you asap!

Sacred Suzie's Full Moon Dreamboard challenge

Tonight the Full Moon will be up in the skies, and like last month, I joined Sacred Suzie's Dreamboard challenge. I was breaking my head (again) to get to the proper visualization to what I want and need this month, then the wise life helped me on this...

To shorten a long story, I work as a secretary at a small company that manages a small jewelry workshop. It's a wonderful place to work at, because I'm very free to do what I have to on my own way without a creepy boss over my shoulder, since, thankfully, my boss is a sweet (and strong) Russian lady who trusts me. Unfortunately it's getting more and more difficult for her to keep things - bills are accumulating, materials are not being purchased - all the signs of failure - so last Wednesday she had a serious conversation with me and told me that it would be better if I started spreading my curriclum around, because she didn't know how long she would be able to run her business. Ok, I thought to myself, at least she's fair enough to let me know, and I really felt sorry for her, because I do believe in her talent and competence, and always thought that things would be better in time.

So life goes on, and next week on my spare time I'll be sending my CV to job agencies, and will be taking to people who might help.

AND to reinforce this need, I came up with my dreamboard, simple again but now focused in some points I usually wouldn't give attention to like Money.

Favorite Thing 4 - Chocolate

One more week of Blue's Favorite Things meme! Today mine is Chocolate!

Aaahhh... Definitely something that rocks my world! I simply adore chocolate... I just want to eat them all! I just don't like white and half-bitter taste ones. All the rest fits me like a glove! Specially now we're in Winter time, a mug of hot chocolate is perfect... Or...

Eclairs...

Truffles...

Ice-creams...

Cakes... It's a passion since childhood... Of course, there's always a "but": I suffer from migraines, so I have to be careful, because in my case, depending on the amount of chocolate I eat, it can start a severe crisis, and it's not a good price to pay, so I do control myself (well... most of times...)! But at least once a week (or twice, or... LOL)I like to eat anything with chocolate, that melts inside my mouth... hmmm... So that's my choice for today!

For more Favourite Things, go to Blue's page!

ABC Wednesday - Z

So we reached the last ABC letter and this round is over. I really enjoyed being part of this weekly fun - I learned many things throughtout the year, and I intend to keep playing!

Z for me is the title of Vassilis Vassilikos's great book about the Greek democratic politician Gregoris Lambrakis's murder and all the events that antecipated it. When I read this book I was very young and it shocked me how similar dictatorships can be no matter which country it is. Costa-Gravas directed the film based on the story a few years after the book was launched, being, well-deserved, a great success and winning many awards. If you haven't read the book or watched the movie, I highly recommend it!

For more cool Z posts, visit Mrs. Nesbitt's Place. See you in the next ABC round! :)

Weekend of play and music

This Saturday we had Lucas' school Junine party - a very traditional party in Brazil.

Lucas didn't want to join the dance this year, but went to the party and played a lot!

Jumping...

Hiding in the ball's pool...

Suspiciously throwing rings at the bottles...

Playing with his teacher, "aunt" Monique...

Just being with dad...

And taking our photo!

It was an indoor party, because the weather outside was chilli and windy but the all the kids had fun and Lucas got exhausted after all the play!

The day after, he decided creating a song called "Garage", and asked Rodrigo to put the music in it. It was really fun watching dad patiently writting down the lyrics about a car that went to save another and decided to jump into a lake and then go into a garage, followed by another one and start all over again (there were about five or six cars in the song...), and then fitting the lyrics to the music:

It was a good weekend in family, just being together! :-)

Pagan book giveaway!

MSRB, from the cool blog Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom, is launching a fun giveaway as she's recycling her bookshelf to make room for new books! She's first giving away the book Witch on the Go: A Book of Spells to Take with You by Cal Garrison:

"This is a cute little book, 152 pages that will easily fit in a purse. It has a few basics plus some great stuff for traveling (spell for battling road rage, protection spell), for vacations (beach spell, sunrise spell), everyday magical acts (morning sex, coffe ritual) and how to create a portable spell kit with an empty Altoids tin, post-it notes and birthday candles".

All you have to do is to leave a comment in her blog until July, 16th, and his son will be picking up a winner! She's got a list of books to give away, one at a time, so don't miss the chance. I'll not, for sure!

Favourite Things Thursday part 1

Blue launched this cool meme, Favourite Things Thursday, and of course I had to join. I love memes, and this is a sweet one.

Rules: The subject can be anything - person, animal, inanimate object. It can just be photo's, or written words or preferably both, explaining your chosen Favourite. All Blue asks is that you leave her a comment to say you're participating.

So here I was thinking about my endless fav things... I'll start with an easy one, Reading. This is one of my favorite things in the world. I love reading since my early childhood. When I learned how to read, I never stopped. And from my childhood is a Brazilian author, Monteiro Lobato, who is absolutely adored and respected here, and who wrote wonderful stories about two cousins who spend holidays at their grandma's farm. It's called "Yellow Woodpecker Ranch", where everything imaginable happens, in the company of a living doll called Emilia and a wise corn dummy, Visconde de Sabugosa. Lobato explored the Brazilian folklore like no one else did, and introduced me to a vast and beautiful world of wise words and incredible adventures, in a time Internet and cable TV were something light-years away from reality. You can't imagine the impact this serie of books had in my life as a kid, as well as in thousands of other kids' lives.

In the 70's there was a TV serie absolutely fairly-based on the books, with a high quality and perfect cast, and I would never miss an episode! The theme song by Gilberto Gil, echoes on my mind as I type this... I have almost almost the complete collection, and we are going to have a break from Harry Potter once I finish the second book, so I will start reading them to Lucas. Can't wait!! :0)