The Christmas bug

The weather here has been quite mild, not hot at all, not too cold. Not that I mind the cold. Here we don’t have snow, only once in several years. In the North of the country it does quite a lot. Not here. Even so I like the Winter. When I’m in the Summer, which I can’t stand, I long for the Autumn. But now, that September and October are gone, I can’t wait for Winter. Even without snow.
I want to wear scarves everyday – I wear it somedays now – gloves, everything I have the right to wear in a proper wintery season.



Another thing I’m restless now is about Christmas.
I don’t know if you realized that I put some christmas and winter blinkies and graphics in my blog. And if I could, I would put a lot of counters – yes , I have two and, with the above one, it’s three.
Only 45 days for Christmas now.
I’ve been making lists about everything Christmas related:

. presents for each of my girls, my husband, my mother and father,my brother and sister and their wife and husband, my nephew, my uncle...

. lists of everything I have to buy for meal, including desserts – several – and apetizers;

. things we will eat in the Eve, Chrstmas Day and Boxing Day;

. thigs I will take to my brother’s;

. presents to make;

. what I can make in advance;

. things I have to buy, like napkins, kitchen roll – the christmassy type;

. people to whom I have to send card;

. declutering and tidying list...

.buying wraping paper, bows, celar tape;

. tags : looking for them in the internet, print them and cut to size;

. and so on.

As you can see, my mind is pretty buzy and amuzed. I begin dreaming about driming with this things in September and in the end of October I’m in full Christmas mode. Can you imagine how I am now that November is in full strenght ?

I can’t stop singing Christmas songs. In October, in the morning of my birthday, my husband found me singing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and he said:

- It’s your birthday, silly, not Christmas!

And you? What are you feeling now about Christmas preparations? Making lists too?

Kitchen Poetry VII

Today is the last day of Kitchen Poetry. It has been fun.
In this last post I leave you with a little rose plant my mother gave me. I have it on my windowsill.

Kitchen Poetry VI

As you can see, ther's always a lot of tea in my house. Pitty this corner doesn't show the assortement of drinking chocolate - and the non drinking kind.

P.S.: I'm posting the small version of the picture so you can see it all, because the medium sized is a bit cut on the right.

If you are wondering what is inside the almost empty boxes - usually they are full - I can tell you:

. the one in the left has rice;

. the blue one has self - raising flower;

. the one following has cuscus and

. the one with an orange lid has plain flower.

Near the teas there is another orange lid box that has several seeds inside, like sunflower seeds, etc., because I like to put them on top of pasta.

Kitchen Poetry V

A corner in my kitchen.

That old jug and mug was bought by my husband 20 years ago. The mug lost her handle already, as you can see, but I like it so much even so.

It's a nice thing to have in a monarchic house, as ours is, because it represents the portuguese coat of arms with the crown.

The flowers, which I like very much, come from a bush and are called "sempre noivas", translating "always brides", maybe because of their nice white.

Friday Show and Tell

I’ve been participating in a nice game , idea of Simple Sparrow, that invite us to post a picture about something in our kitchen. Today I’m posting a special thing that I kept for today because I wanted to enter the Show and Tell Friday from There Is No Place Like Home . But, because Kelli wants a separate post for her Show and Tell I must post, in a minute, other thing about my kitchen for the Kitchen Poetry.
I'm in kitchen mode, you see, so I needed to go to the Show with a kitchen picture too.

These preties were made by my grandmother a lot of years ago. Maybe some 25 years ago. And she gave me when I married (20 yr ago). They are pretty vintage and so nice. If you didn’t realized yet, I tell you that they are pot holders made in crochet. The long things with two buttons are napkin holders. Those buttons are even more vintage, they have more than 30 years.

Aren’t they lovely?! I like all them so much.
They are precious to me.

Kitchen poetry IV

See this magnets? It was my husband who bought, for the girls, some years ago in England.

They like it so much. They are always writing something, even the little one.

I keep picking up little pieces from the floor.

Isn't that nice?

Kitchen poetry III

How many aprons are on my kitchen door?
We all have one: my husband, me and my four girls, even the little one has one since, maybe, she was two years old.
Hanging on the door knob is my bread bag, which is a cloth bag - never a plastic one - to keep bread in.
We can also see a thing to drain the water of the pasta after it's cooked. My husband brought that from Italy, one of the many times he went there.

And you, what have you on your kitchen door?

Kitchen poetry II

Another corner of my kitchen.

You can see we have a lot of mugs, some for tea, others for milk chocolate and others for plain milk. We are not coffee drinkers. Sometimes one of my girls have a decafeinated one. That's all.

Finding more space

8 Tips to Double Your Closet Space

I found this article on msn and looks like it belongs to Marie Claire. It has nice advice but one thing is wrong: not only single gurls need to find more space on their wardrobe.

Kitchen poetry - I

Life in our kitchen: a corner, something you like.
An idea of Simple Sparrow .
Go there if you want to join.