HARD DECISIONS

Me and dad at grandpa's anniversary, ten years ago, when I thought I was funny :)

[This post is very personal but I felt like sharing my story. No judgements please, hopefully you never have to pass thru a similar situation]

Traveling as a lifestyle sounds the perfect life, no worries, no responsabilities, no bills to pay but the truth is that there’s no such thing as perfect life. Even those millionaire people out there that can afford a castle or an island, there’s always decisions to take, some we are proud of ourselves, some were for the good, some felt the end of the world but soon we understood was for better and some? Some you just want to run away to another planet or dig an hole and hide there, so that we don’t need to face the “problem” but that’s not gonna solve anything. I guess it’s better just to choose by intuition and see what will happen.  I don’t consider problems as problems, they are challenges, stuff you gotta deal to grow up, to experience to understand better the other humans.

VOLUNTEER WORK IS OVER

"Don't be sad because you're leaving, be happy because it happened". This quote translates every single thought of my mind right now. 

Mostly of volunteer work I've done was charity related, so this is another beautiful experience to add to my life. I didn't know what to do on June, no travels planned, so I headed to Tipi Algarve for 3 weeks to be a volunteer. My job was cleaning the tipis, weeding and make sure the whole place was looking neat. In return I had accomodation and food (vegetables and fruit from the garden included), didn't spend a cent while I was there.

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. 

CROCHET TREES PARK

Those moments you are walking with no destination, you just put a smile on and walk. Suddently you stop and can't believe in your eyes: "What is this dude?!!" Exactly what happen to me when I was killing time in Portimão and found this little tiny super cute and colorful park, what a brilliant idea, crochet in the trees.

TRAVEL INTERVIEW AT UNCUSTOMARY ART

Today I have exciting news: My very first travel related interview for a blog! Yehhh! It took me like 5 hours to answer all these questions, they were pretty personal and made me think a lot. When I look back I've done so much, I met so many people from different countries, I learned about myself, about others, about many subjects, I explored places that never seen humans, I watched animals in wildlife, I enchanged smiles with many beautiful souls. But this is a process that takes a life time, so still have a feeling there's a lot to explore, visit, learn, share.

VERTICAL RECYCLED BOTTLE GARDEN

 Ricky is super crazy dog and his favorite hobby is to eat and play with the plants of my parent's backyard. Mom always has parsley, cilantro, basil and mint, these herbal plants give delicious flavor to food and we often use them in portuguese cuisine.

SHANTI FAVORITES #2

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

HELLO BEACH SEASON

When you born and grow up in a 5 minutes distance walking to the beach it's pretty hard to be far away from the ocean. After 2 weeks without ocean I have the need of breathing the breeze, feel the salty water on my feet, walk in the sand. Can be Winter, doesn't matter. Not to mention the stunning sunrises and sunsets!

In my area we live a quiet and stress free life during Winter time but when it's Summer all beaches are packed, traffic jams happen and all you want to do is to yell "Get out of my land!" But that's not cool. Everybody is welcome. South Portugal's main economy source is tourism, we usually work hard on Summer to make sure we have enough money to live during Winter. Doesn't it sound like ant's life?

If you are wondering where this wonderful beach is in ... Portimão. It's called Praia do Alemão (literally German Beach). Look at this paradise! 

FELT OWL PLUSHIES

I guess is Baby Boom around here or... Am I in the age for babies? Well the fact is that all my closest college friends are pregnant or have babies, also my australian cousin and other people I know. Just my girl friends don't even think about it and I'm so glad because I feel I'm not the only one.

Instead of buying baby gifts for my college friends and cousin I decided to make something handmade myself, because I put all the efford and love on them and is something unique, they deserve all the time spent on this.

I never worked with felt before so this project was challeging and slow. But I'm so into felt right now, I started a new addiction and can't wait to make cats, butterflies and other lovely animals.

BUNDI FESTIVAL IN INDIA

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?]

VINTAGE SHELVES MAKEOVER DIY

I always dreamed about a small before/after DIY project so I'm super happy to share my latest craft project! It includes a small bookshelf I found in the trash for 2 years and a delicious vintage fabric I found in a flea market for more then 5 years, finally I had the guts to cut it off (auuuchhh).

VOLUNTEERING IN TIPI ALGARVE

 During the month of June I was a bit lost, didn't want to find a 9-5 job, didn't want to travel so why not do some volunteer work? I told you here before, my life dream is to own a youth hostel so I thought I could look for volunteer work in a hostel, so I can understand how does it work and if it's exactly what I want for my life.

All the hostels I contacted in Amsterdam were full already so I started looking in Portugal and mostly didn't reply so I started looking for a place I'd feel connected with nature. That's when I found Tipi Algarve! This is a completly new concept of tourist accomodation for me. The spot is in the middle of nature but you have both Portimão and Silves cities about 10 kms away, which makes you feel you're not isolated. The tipis outside are gorgeous and inside are glamourous! Sam knows how to decorate and mix colors, it's so cozy inside them. Hopefully I will show you more pictures of tipi's indoors.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO [JUNE 1ST]

Happy Children's Day everyone! Yes, everyone because every single person has an inner child right? I hope so. Look at my lil' pet brothers, the (adorable) children of the family. Love youuu!