Andorinha

Yey!

We got it! We got it! Finally! Now that's a big weight off my shoulders. The place is booked, so now we just have to negotiate with the catering company, design menus and seating charts, and the hundred million other things. But the place is booked!

Also, my engagement ring is on its merry way. It looks gorgeous, took me three days of obsessive googling to find, and it's very fairy-tale (in a good way). It has pearls and it has diamonds, so my Mother should be happy, even through it was surprisingly inexpensive (more money for food which is, you know, always good).

I have so many Portuguese tutees now it's not even funny. It's not bad money, and quite fun, but very tiring. It doesn't matter, though - I need the money. Really, really do - if the scholarship doesn't come through until the end of March I have rent to pay out of my pocket and this allows me to do just that.

All the material I needed has now arrived, so I'll start printing and making cards and lovely jewellery for Paraphernalia, hopefully tomorrow. I desperately need a glue gun. Really, really need it! It'll have to wait until I sell some things, I guess.

Have a great middle of the week, lovelies!

Tagged!

Quiet days here at the household; we're still getting back in groove, but my head is teeming with ideas which will hopefully see the light of day very soon. End of the month, tops! The blog also has a spiffy new design, with a clay swallow Cisco bought for me in Evora a couple of weeks ago.

I've been having fun with the almanac project, but as most of my life all revolves around the computer these days, I may end up having to take pictures of my laundry, or the cat. Again.

I've been tagged by the lovely Carolyn! So, here goes:

Six weird things about myself:

1. I don't have routines, or daily rituals. Unlike Mr. Cisco, there isn't anything that has to be done a certain way, just, well, because! With the exception of straightforward things like shampooing before conditioning, or putting foundation on before eyeshadow, I'm completely chaotic. I've only realized this recently.

2. I've always wanted to be an artist, and make a living out of it. Which is funny, since I don't really have any artistic talent to speak of.

3. I have a terrible immune system. I thought I was impervious to bug bites, only to realize in the last couple of years that yes, I'm bitten, but my body just goes "meh".

4. I'm pretty much a self-taught everything. But I can't follow a manual or instructions to save my life.

5.  When making a puzzle, I can't relate the image on the box to the puzzle pieces. So I do it by shapes and general colours.

6. When driving, I can't, for the life of me, tell what distance the cars behind me are in the side mirrors. So Cisco turns his head and does that for me.

I'm sure there's more, but this is what I can think of at the moment. I guess because I'm chaotic, I'm not very weird - strange rituals and obsessions don't really feature in my life. I live with someone whose very slight OCD baffles me constantly, but also fascinates me because I don't get it.

I love him though. (everybody: aaaaaaaww)

Most people have already been tagged, so if you're reading this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged! (and let me know!)

Almanacs

After a 14 hour long trip, and a day fuelled by coffee, cigarettes and junk food, we're back in Manchester. Crowley the Cat is beside himself with happiness and neediness (poor little kitty. My heart breaks when I think of the time he spends alone when we're not here), meaning very little sleep as he takes turns in sleeping on our faces. Poor cat.

Still no word about the place we'd like to book for our wedding, which is making me not a little nervous. We don't really have any more chances of looking for other alternatives, so this is it. Damn it. On a good note, the postcards/wedding invitations have been purchased. On a bad note, the sample of the wedding favours (hand painted tile fridge magnets) I ordered that was supposed to look like a swallow ended up looking like a mackerel with wings. So now I either send the lady some drawings of what I want, or I look for other favours. Dang.

Started my diet today. No, wait, you're never supposed to say the D-word! Lifestyle change, then. Whatever. I'm using Weight Loss Resources again, since it's pretty fantastic. The only bad thing (no fault of their own) is that eating ready meals makes it so much easier to count calories, since you don't have to punch in all the ingredients of every recipe you do every day. But then again, I have the time. Just stop being lazy, Vanda.

Not so much with the crafting lately, but I do have a new thang: Project Almanac. It's basically a year-long photoblog, with one photo a day, from Birthday to Birthday. It's been fun so far, and I needed to get into photography again. I needed to do something creative again. So I am!

(The photo was taken a couple of weeks ago at the Moinho de D. Quixote in Sintra. It pretty much illustrates why I love Portugal so much. It's one of my favourite places in the world.)

Voltei, voltei

It's been absolute ages since I posted - we've been so busy in the past couple of weeks that until yesterday I hardly checked my e-mail!

Christmas was alright, not much to tell - we went over to my Aunt's house, ate, talked, and missed the ones no longer with us. From this year things will be different, since Cisco's family comes into the picture. We'll just play it by ear!

New Year's Eve was a whole lot of fun, though - Adam and Nia finally joined us in Portugal for some holidays away from foggy London, and we took the opportunity of playing a murder mystery game which was hilarious. As Cisco was playing a Gestapo officer, the last crafting I've done in a while has been an arm band with a swastika. It looks freakishly realistic. So, erm, yeah. (Cisco had a lot of fun making comments about how I, his bride-to-be, dressed as a Russian Countess, was lovingly sewing his Nazi paraphernalia. Men..)

The rest of that week was obviously spent touring Estoril, Cascais, Sintra, Evora and Lisbon, with not a moment to spare, that made us fall in love with the city all over again. (not that we had ever been out of love, but..you know what I mean). I think they liked it, but we have some good-natured ribbing always going on with Lisbon-Manchester rivalry, so they could never be too gushy without loosing face. We still love you, guys!

The wedding preparations are slowly advancing, while our wedding planner (we were forced into this by the paternal entities, but it is useful) negotiates a fantastic place for us. Nothing else is ready, bit I'm a little bit less stressed. Just..a tiny little bit, mind you.

We're going back to Manchester on Sunday, since I wanted to spend my Birthday here, and our Anniversary is the day after and we didn't want to travel then either. I miss my cat, and my stuff, but, as always, this is going to be a little bit hard.