BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME - FILIPE VENTURA

Long time, no see this Series I enjoy so much. Today I bring you a friend of mine from Portugal, those rare portuguese who save all money to travel and oh Filipe travels A LOT for a person who works full time and has 21 days vacation per year. 

This is a different post because instead of typing Filipe's story I scanned page to page and you can read from his hand writing :) It was Filipe's idea and I had to agree... this year I want to focus on writing letters, postcards and my journal. 

INTERVIEW WITH FAMILY TRAVEL BLOGGERS :: WE3TRAVEL

Hey pals!

I know how much you love this new series so here goes another one :) 

This time I want to introduce you Tamara who gently answered all the questions, her husband and 11 years old daughter. Although Tamara and her family travel very often, they consider themselves as part time travelers since they aren't on the road all the time. But that's awesome! So we have different points of views here, in the blog. And this might be the situation of mostly of the readers: they don't want to travel as a lifestyle, they just want to go away to their family sometimes per year. Take your notebook and pen and write notes how to do it. Tamara said she wish to started earlier so... what are you waiting for?

SHANTI FAVORITES #11

Heya there, how is everyone doing? Melting like an ice-cream? This Summer is soooo hot, I wanna travel somewhere below 30ºC in August. Any suggestions?

I don’t post a Shanti Favorites since February, as you can see I’m pretty consistent #badbadblogger. To be different, I decided to post about other blog posts I saved in Bloglovin (btw, have you added me already?) only. Ready, set, go!

I have this goal that until the end of this year I will stop buying beauty products in supermarkets full of toxic ingredients, terrible for my skin and myself. Also, I’m more aware about what we throw in the nature and since I need Mother Earth to live I decided to only use organic products. Oh is it cheaper? Bonus! I wanna try all these Five Natural Beauty DIYs especially the toothpaste, it looks super easy! Anybody out there who tried to make their own toothpaste and/or deo?

INTERVIEW WITH FAMILY TRAVEL BLOGGERS :: 1 DAD 1 KID

First Monday of the month is Family Travel Bloggers Series here in the blog! Yey! I’m so excited with these interviews, I’ve been learning so much and connecting with such beautiful souls out there. One of the families I contacted even interviewed me :D

Let’s read about Talon and his son story! Please feel free to ask anything in the comments below.

INTERVIEW WITH FAMILY TRAVEL BLOGGERS :: TRAVEL EXPERTA

Today I’m bringing a brand new series to the blog called Family Travel Bloggers. I’ve been brainstorming for ideas to bring you this topic: how is it to travel with your kids… I mean, is it even possible? Every now and then I receive post comments and emails asking me these questions and I always answer as a outsider who met few family travelers on the road and found their stories pretty inspiring.

Even though mostly of my readers think I don’t want to have kids so I can go on with my travel lifestyle, the truth is that I want to have kids (biological and adoptive) since ever and can’t wait to share my travel adventures with them.

These series are a collection of interviews from full and part-time travelers who didn’t stop traveling just because they had kids, they simply decided to find ways to incorporate the new family members in this kind of lifestyle. Every first Monday of the month you can read a new interview from a different family. Funny that the first interview is live in Child’s Day :) Enjoy!

SHANTI FAVORITES #10

You want to change your hair to a vivid color but don't want to spend a bunch of money? Kaylah has great hair tips, she is bleaching her hair for many years so you can trust her advices. I followed some tips about how to maintain the color and they are working very well. 

SHANTI FAVORITES #9

 Arya Clothing became one of my favorite shops in Etsy, look at this bohemian gipsy hippie skirt! There are also other handmade goodies like hip lether bags, unique design tank tops, hoodie scarves and other ethnical beauties.

SHANTI FAVORITES #8

 How come I haven't tell you about Her Library Adventures Blog yet? It's my favorite blog, my number one! Mostly of bloggers cannot choose only one blogger but I can because I love the way Sophie writes and also what she writes about. (Eg: Living with Less) You also will see a bunch of inspiring pictures, I love her taste! What I really appreciate about Sophie is that even though she has an one year old princess daughter, she doesn't talk about her all the time. Some bloggers I was following in the past became mothers and nearly all the posts were baby related which is a boring subject for me.

SMALL BUSINESS LOVE :: MADAM MIM (BRUGGE, BELGIUM)

When walking in the beautiful streets of Brugge in Belgium, I found this incredible Vintage Store. I had to go in! I said many times how much I'm passionate about vintage in other countries. When I entered this store I felt like visiting a museum, quickly fell in love with all the unique pieces, especially for the furniture, clothing and the famous laces (traditional in Brugge). I had no choice but ask the owner Mim if I could take some pictures. This time I thought I could use the Retro Feature of my camera but it turned out much darker that I wanted to. 

I was back in Portugal already, looking for my awesome pictures when I had the brilliant idea to send a message via facebook asking for a blog interview. I want to thank Jared, Mim's son, who sent all the answers in english, grateful for your translation so this post was possible.

CORK UP YOUR LIFE

Cork products became a trend around the World. They come in all forms you can think of: handbags, shoes, belts, hats, aprons, wallets, jewelry, souvenirs...Cork is not only the wine bottle stopper anymore.

"A symbol of renewal and longevity, the cork oak has a lifetime of 250-350 years and is the only tree whose bark regenerates itself after each harvest. It takes 20 to 25 years before the first cork can be removed from a cork oak. After the first extraction, cork can be harvested every nine years. An adult cork oak produces several hundred pounds at each harvesting and will live for many generations. It survives and prospers as part of a unique worldwide ecosystem: the cork oak meadow." (Source)

SHANTI FAVORITES #6

Tippi lived her first ten years in African Jungle. You can see emotional and pretty pictures of Tippi and her jungle friends here.

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: VIKTOR WAEWELL

One day I was in Romania, doing groceries in the local supermarket for Transylvania Calling Festival, we were about to arrive to Wonderland, a Festival is the high green mountains of Transylvania, wwooooww!

I was passing thru the wine section in the supermarket when I heard something like "This wine looks good" in portuguese language with a brazilian accent. This is how I met Fabi and Viktor from Brazil. The guys who love festivals as much as I do!

We shared a taxi and went to the festival. Needless to say they join our camping and we spent great and fun moments with this lovely couple who were doing a Round the World trip for a year. Can't wait to see them again, I guess is gonna be sooner than we all thought :)

Thanks a lot Viktor to spend some of your time writting for Shanti Free Bird blog. Obrigada irmão, até jah! 

SHANTI FAVORITES #5

I'm so happy I came across this blog! Amy is a free spirit who writes pretty words and takes the most inspiring pictures. If you are a mom (or not) I highly recommend to read this interview by Amy about her lovely child Naia.

SHANTI FAVORITES #4

The movie The Drifter reminds me of my travel story but this one is related to surf and Bali. In the end of the movie Rob Machado says: "Everything moves in cicles. I thought being completly isolated would bring peace of mind. But now I realized that is the people around us who bring our experiences to life. We dream of the perfect wave, the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect love. And when we get there... we dream of something else."

You can watch on youtube here, in english with portuguese subtitles. It lasts less then one hour!

SHANTI FAVORITES #3

I have this project in mind for a while. I love mid century furniture with a modern paiting touch!

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME - JOANNE COLLINS

Hello mates! (As a real ozzie) Today I have the testemonial of Jo, my cousin's Becky friend, who I met in the Rainbow Serpent Festival in Australia and easily loved her for being so funny with a good humor. 

Jo went to Nepal and explored Annapurna, that area with high mountains, tons of small villages (where many locals never seen a city before), yaks, fresh air... I been there 2 years ago, so I wanna thank Jo for these beautiful text and images, they brought me good memories to life. 

SHANTI FAVORITES #2

These Dinka Tribe from Sudan photos by the talented photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher are impressive and speachless.

SHANTI FAVORITES #1

This is a new feature in the blog (I know, I know, another one... I have many interests, too much to share!) about my favorite Images, Do It Yourself Projects, Bands, Blog Posts, Cool Events, Movies, etc. etc. etc. 

I'd love to start doing this every week but cannot promise anything... when you compromise yourself in your blog you have to do it and I don't want to feel that preasure right now. 

This is a pretty awesome organic carpet, sounds like a great plan when you want to lay down in the park and don't have a carpet on you. But then you need palm trees around you :) [does anyone know the source of this?]

PHOTO AN HOUR [MAY 18TH]

On the third day of Road Trip in Portugal I decided it was about time to make another Photo an Hour Post. It was a long day, full of nature landscape, hiking two different trails and sharing "hellos" with locals. Let's take a peak on my day.

8am | Woke up, meditate and finished coloring the mandala I started last night. If I don't do it right the way I will never finish because I lose inspiration.

SMALL BUSINESS LOVE: A VENDA

Today I'm super excited to share the results of my visit to A Venda, a small cozy shop situated in Faro (Algarve, Portugal). I invited the beautiful people behind this interesting project Ana and Vasco for a small interview and take inspiring pictures. They accepted and I felt like a real journalist!(my dream job until I found out that I love too much my life to spend 12 hours per day working) After this I felt more motivated to interview more adorable-to-me small biz and that's how born the new feature in the blog "Smalll Business Love". I will try my best to include as many countries as possible in this feature so you can travel with me.