Using bottle caps and cloth to make jewelry and decoration objects.

Hey, people!!! I've seen that there are people from Brasil, the U.S. and Germany reading this blog! I don't think I know someone in Germany right now... I mean, I know a few people who speak German and go there sometimes... but that's it.
So, THANK YOU GUYS!!! OBRIGADA!!! DANKE SCHÖN!!! ^^

Well... the idea for today's post is all Adrian's fault.

(click to enlarge)

Adrian is my sister-in-law, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. At least in pictures, because we haven't met in person yet... :(
She lives in Arizona and she's a photographer. She writes about personal experiences at her blog adrianlovesowls.blogspot.com and she writes about vintage style with her friend Leah at their blog http://www.superstitionvintage.com/ . They also have an online shop on Etsy.

Of course I loved her idea of a joint challenge together right away! So I've made something using bottle caps and cloth to make jewelry and decoration objects. I had this idea a few weeks ago, that's why I already have bought the material. The idea is using the cheapest piece of cloth you can find. I bought 1 meter of printed cotton (the name in Portuguese is 'chita'). The long neck beer bottle caps you can find anywhere, and it's a good excuse for you to drink beer! Specially if you decide to make something to cover that big old ugly kitchen table or a rug for your front door... ;)

You'll need these materials:

A cute cat to annoy you while you do it:

Some pictures to show how it's done:

Make a paper circle (about 6 centimeters).

Make the circles on the cloth and then cut them.

I made one and took a bunch of pictures, but I think it was confusing. So I tried to make a video, but I'm not sure it's better or not! So watch it and give me your opinions about it. At the end of the video there are some ideas of how to make things using it, like bracelets, rings, something for you to put a glass container for your things or maybe a flower... you can also make many other things, like earrings, rugs, something to put on a table... The song is 'Ghost of Perdition' from OPETH, one of my favorite bands.




Now it's Adrian's turn! I expect her to make something nice using bottle caps, or cloth, or something related to that...
But feel free to do whatever you feel like and send me the challenge back!!!
I love you, sis! =*

Beautiful land - or Landfill?

Hey few people that are coming to read this blog! :D

Julan and I took two friends of ours to take a walk at Barra do Jucu today. It's a neighborhood at the city limits and there's a nice beach there. And it's where the Jucu River finds the Atlantic.

We took a ride with my folks and we got to a part of the road where we have to cross a footbridge to get where we wanted to go. When we started walking we saw a cute black dog, she probably had puppies recently and she was not in very good shape. My friends and I are animal lovers, and the dog certainly sensed that about us. She kept following us till we found a bar where we bought her something to eat and some water, too. I didn't take any pictures of that cute bitch, though. =\

Then we had lunch. In a 'self-service' restaurant - you pay according to the weight of everything on your plate. It's something very common here in Brasil. We paid a little more then R$5 for my plate. Ana paid R$6 something for hers, Livia R$7 something (and she's the skinniest one) and Julian paid almost R$18... yeah that's right!!! Eighteen reais!!! LOL!!!

We went to the beach and we saw something that is what really inspired me to write this post. And not in a positive way. Because it's the place where the river finds the ocean, there're a lot of vegetation (mangue) around. That's good. But the river brings a lot of dirt from plants and trees from the other places. The worst thing is that it's a very populated area around that place, and, unfortunately, most of people here have absolutely no ecological consciousness. I'm not a very ecologically correct person. I take hot showers for hours, I waste water, energy, paper, natural resources... But in the city where I live we have a flooding problem every time it rains. People complain a lot, others lose everything... And they just don't realize that it's all their fault!!! It's very common to see people throwing trash on the streets and all that garbage blocks the draining system and when it rains it floods everywhere.
Well, back to the beach. I've told you that there is a lot of dirt from the vegetation because of the river. But the most terrible thing is that there is also a lot of human produced trash. All kinds of plastic and glass bottles, plastic bags, and everything else that destroys the environment and the beauty of that place...
We talked to a life guard who was working there and he told us it has been like that for many years now. The mayor doesn't send people over there to clean it, trash keeps coming because people have nasty habits towards the environment. Some people who live in the neighborhood have tried to clean the beach by themselves a couple of times, unsuccessfully.

It's really sad that Brazilians have such a beautiful place to live in, with so many options of energy and natural resources, but because of corruption, brainwashing from stupid TV shows, weak educational system and many other factors, we just can't see how amazing our country is. We could be a first world country. We could be a very important nation when it comes to helping our planet. But I guess that's never going to happen.

Here are some pictures of the place. Feel free to write your opinions about this post!

In the kitchen...

I wrote this and published in my Facebook on May 27, 2011 at 11:06p.m.

I've been talking to people and I've noticed that I'm going to face a difficult situation when I move to the U.S.... There are many things I LOVE eating in Brazil that are not common there. In fact, people think they are bizarre. One of those things is... CHICKEN HEARTS.

Chicken hearts!!! Deelicious!!!

Here in Brazil people eat them barbecued. Just put some salt in it, arrange them on a stick and barbecue them. It's DELICIOUS!

If you'd never tried it before, it's chewy and awesome.

Since I got married I've been trying different things in the kitchen. So I've decided to share with my American friends/acquaintances the things I've been cooking from now on. Specially things that are common in BR but not there (so you can surprise me when I get there, maybe... hehehe).

I know some of you are vegetarian or vegan... But I think it's nice to share all those things that I like with you guys. I feel like you could get to know more of me little by little...

Something I'm cooking today that it's definetely not common in Brazil is Stroganoff of chicken hearts. Here we have them made with chicken or meat (I've cooked one made of meat a couple of years ago that I'll never forget... It was made with filet mignon and a brandy sauce). Chicken hearts are common only barbecued.

So here are the steps:

I'm not writing how much stuff I put in it, because I'm not good with numbers. Every time I try following a recipe It goes terribly wrong. Go with your instinct.

I bought the chicken hearts at the supermarket. Maybe you can find them there with a butcher or something like that...

If you'd never tried it before, it's chewy and awesome.

Since I got married I've been trying different things in the kitchen. So I've decided to share with my American friends/acquaintances the things I've been cooking from now on. Specially things that are common in BR but not there (so you can surprise me when I get there, maybe... hehehe).

I know some of you are vegetarian or vegan... But I think it's nice to share all those things that I like with you guys. I feel like you could get to know more of me little by little...

Something I'm cooking today that it's definetely not common in Brazil is Stroganoff of chicken hearts. Here we have them made with chicken or meat (I've cooked one made of meat a couple of years ago that I'll never forget... It was made with filet mignon and a brandy sauce). Chicken hearts are common only barbecued.

So here are the steps:

I'm not writing how much stuff I put in it, because I'm not good with numbers. Every time I try following a recipe It goes terribly wrong. Go with your instinct.

I bought the chicken hearts at the supermarket. Maybe you can find them there with a butcher or something like that...

Then I chopped an ONION, some GARLIC (ah mah gad, I LOVE garlic... but since stroganoff is a food with delicate taste - and the idea here is to taste the hearts - I didn't put so many spices as I like doing), MUSHROOMS (here we call this mushroom CHAMPIGNON - is it like this there too?) and PEPPER (just a little bit... remember: delicate taste).

So... I seriously think chickens die of heart attacks nowadays. Because the hearts are reaaaally fat. So I clean the hearts (take most of the fat out, but I'm not way too careful about that, otherwise I'll lose half of what I've bought), specialy because there are some chunks of blood in it... I take them off. And then I cut the hearts in smaller pieces.

Then... I have a beer.

And that's what you have so far (see that the hearts don't need to be perfectly cleaned):

Let's start cooking it! Heat some olive oil...

Braise (i'm not sure about this word... in Portuguese it's "refogar"... it's kinda similar to "fry") the onions and then the garlic...

Put the hearts in it. Mix it up. Put JUST A LITTLE BIT of whater and heat it till the hearts get softer...

...Salt... Tomatoe sauce... Pepper... Mushrooms... Cream...

Mix it all up until you get something like this:

Heat it for a while, so it'll get kinda creamy...

The secret now is to turn the heat off and let it rest for 30 mimutes or so... Then re-heat it. It gets really creamy.
My husband is still at work and I've just made this dish. Right now it look like this:

I'm gunna wait a while and then I'll prepare some RICE to eat with that. In the rice I'm probably gunna use a lot of garlic. I cook the rice with a pinch of olive oil, garlic, salt and that's it. You have the option of using tiny potato chips like those instead of rice (or a little of both):

After I eat it I'm gunna come back here and tell you if it's good or not... and if my husband liked it or not.

________________________________________________________________________

It was... DELICIOUS!!!!

So... what do you think of this dish? :)

Challenges! I want Challenges!!!

Everyones, everyones...

Let's see if I can make this work! I'm not a blogger type, but maybe this could be productive for me and for people who read my posts!

I want  challenges. For me to keep writing here, I want you to give me ideas and challenges of what to do and I'll write about it and all the process. Everything about cats, hair, make-up, nails, style, decoration, plants, drawing, etc!!! Every extra time I have I'll dedicate to accomplishing some challenge and write about it, the process, the results, etc. And remember that all your suggestions must work with my lack of money! So, don't you try asking me to make a piece of jewelry out of gold, I won't do that! ¬¬

Soon I'll write about things I have done and things that I haven't finished yet (that's the most difficult part, to finish something). Things in my house that I built up from other things I found in the trash. I'll show everybody all that soon.

I hope to receive many ideas!!!

xoxo.