{ Blog 365 #132 - Friday Favorite }

I came across these old recipes, the other day, and I wanted to do a blog post on them, but after going through my older posts, I realized I had already shared them.

 

However, it is such a special gift to me and something I hold so close to my heart, that I can't help but share again.

 

It may not look like much to you, it may even have you wondering what is so special about these old Portuguese recipes put together quite badly actually with some staples.

But the meaning to me, is one which I find hard to put into words.

It reminds me of my great grandma Ema, matter of fact we put these together when I was just a little girl, sitting around the kitchen, trying to cook just like her, I remember cutting these out of a cooking magazine and then neatly placing them in a pile, I was determined to use those when I grew up, my very own recipes.

The thought thrilled me to no end and my great grandma knowing how much I loved them called me over to her one morning and said "Sandra, let's sit down and get those recipes put together so you don't lose them".

I was so excited, I grabbed them all, placed them in categories and then waited for her to help me.

I can still vividly remember her hands cutting the twine, tying it around the pages.

And I can tell you that I had forgotten what gems of the Portuguese Cuisine lie hidden in these pages....just picking them up again today and flipping through has brought tears to my eyes, I only wish that my great grandma was here with me, watching me cook and bake and carrying on the wonderful lessons and values she instilled in me.

That is my biggest gift ever.  But for now I will just be content in knowing that these little booklets of recipes have a special place in my favorite things :)

{ First real Fall like day and current favorites }

Was awakened at 4am with the sound of thunder and bright lightning flashing through the windows.  A few seconds later the rain started coming down, the temperatures plummeted and the whole house remained dark until almost 8am.

Friday Favorites #7

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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Tea!


We're a tea loving family, or at least my daughter and I are, and not just the normal teas in the tea bags, but the loose leaf teas and especially when they come in delicious combinations.


That's what I'm sharing with you today.


Every year we go to the Arizona Renaissance Festival, and every year we make it a point to stop at Spice Traders Teas and stock up on our favorite flavors.

Without a doubt, the flavor that most stands out and our favorite of them all, is the Cinnamon Apricot.  It is DIVINE!

But this year I picked up a few others to try, this is the Chocolate Chai.........and those are real chocolate chunks in there.

Another one that is new for us this year, is the Bloodberry, but I mean, just smelling it and looking at the ingredients I know it's going to quickly become a favorite.



These teas are perfect on a cold day, they are perfect with some honey and a squeeze of lemon when you're feeling under the weather, they're perfect as a mid afternoon treat with a little smidge of milk and my daughter loves them for breakfast.

Any way you have them, you'll enjoy them....and this is why they've become one of my favorite things in my home :)

To order some for yourself or to browse the different flavors, you can visit Spice Traders Teas online.

{ Friday Favorites #6 }

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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So the items I have to show you today are very near and dear to my heart.  They were bought in South Africa and some brought over with me when I first move to the USA, others were purchased when we visited SA in 2008.


They make me feel like I'm home and they also help to share a bit of my culture with the kids as well.


I'm Portuguese, we all know that, but I was born in Mozambique which is an African country, so I'm African at heart and there is a very strong bond and pull to that continent that will never be broken for anything in this world.


My kids bathroom is all done in an African Theme.  For a while it wasn't, but after speaking to the children they asked if they could the whole bathroom safari style, so my African items have moved into the bathroom and they love it :)


Let me show you, I'll start with this Ostrich egg which is hand painted.  It's my favorite piece from Africa, I still remember picking this design out with Curtis, shortly after we were married.

The amount of work and love that go into these is shown in every single stroke of the paintbrush.

I just love it, but it's also the one piece that the kids KNOW they are not allowed to touch, and if they do they have to be extremely careful.

These are the kind of things that bring me that one step closer to home, I can't be there physically but can definitely be there in spirit.

Another of my favorites.....I adore giraffes :)

This is a candle, it's absolutely beautiful, so I try to not light it very often, I just never want it to burn out :)

Everytime you step into the bathroom, it's like stepping into a safari, I find myself going in their just to look around and smile :)

{ Friday Favorites - #5 }

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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Today's treasure is very near and dear to my heart, for many reasons.
When we lived in Idaho there was a store we absolutely loved visiting and shopping it, it was called Quilted Bear and the minute we stepped through those doors it was like being transported to a big warehouse of crafts, wood crafts, needle crafts, the scent of candles, rows and rows of scrapbook materials and bits and bobbles here and there.

On one of our visits, I came across this tiny little shelves with personalized mugs, any name you could think of and I knew I had to grab one.

I got one for each of our names in the family.

Now if you're one of my friends or have been reading my blog for a while, you will probably be wondering why the names Jennifer and Alexandra are on there too.

Those two little mugs are for the two babies I miscarried, it was the names we had picked out for them and it means the world to me to be able to have these tiny little mugs, as a daily reminder, not that I need one.

Miscarriage is something you never forget, it's something you never quite get over, it just gets easier to deal with as time goes by, it doesn't erase the pain, it doesn't take away the grief, but it does help you move on  with each day.

So as you can see, they may be tiny, but these little mugs and the little shelf hold a very special place in my heart, they are one of the things I would grab if I had to run out the door.

{ Friday Favorites - #4 }

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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I've shown you a few things already but today's is really one of my favorites, because the items I'm showing you make my house a home.

These crochet doilies are ones which I brought with me from South Africa when I got married.  I actually started collecting them when I was a teenager because I wanted to have as many as my stepmother did.  I just loved how she had them all over the home, in corners here and there.

I've talked about how my greatgrandmother was a big influence on my cooking, how my grandmother was a big influence on my sewing, but the one woman who was the biggest influence in homemaking and everything that went into it, was my stepmom Nela.  :)

She is the reason I Menu Plan, she is the reason my grocery lists still look like a carbon copy of hers, she's the reason I know how to do paperwork, how to make a budget, how to pay bills, how to take care of a home and what to clean and when.
I truly have been blessed to have been raised among strong amazing women.

Everytime I walk by one of these doilies I think of her, and I think of home and as much as it hurts that I'm so far from everyone, it does help in a way, it makes me feel just a little closer.

I know many people don't particularly like doilies, they find them old fashioned, but for me, they give a personal touch, they really do say "Home Sweet Home".

{ Friday Favorites - #3 }

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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I love candles.  All shapes and sizes, colors, scents etc.   I use them almost daily whether to release a wonderful scent through the house or just to give it a beautiful glow, but you'll always find a bunch sitting around.

Something else I love is the Renaissance Fair that we go to every year, so last year while walking around and looking at all the little stalls/shops, we came across a candlemaker.  I usually get candles from the Fair but they are from another little store, this one....oh my.

These were all hand crafted candles and at first I thought, there is NO way that is a candle, just no way.

Let me show you the stunning candle I picked up, I have burned it ONCE that's it, but I think I'll pick up another when we go back next month :)

I honestly thought it was a plastic container FOR the candle, I didn't know that it was the candle itself.

The intricate design was definitely one of the most eye catching I've seen, and to think that it was all done by hand

As you can see, I've burned it but once, I just didn't want to see it all burn down, but that was also when I thought we would be out of this base this year and not able to return and get another candle.....hopefully the candle maker is still there so I can get at least one more :)

Beautiful handcrafted candle.  I just can't wrap my mind around the amount of work it took to get it made, it looks so perfect doesn't it?

So anyway, that is one of my favorite things to share with you this Friday.  Can't wait to see what you all have to share too :)

{ Friday Favorites - #2 }

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

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I think everyone know what an important woman my Great Grandmother Ema, was in my life.  She literally taught me everything that I know.

Obviously my grandmother and my stepmother had their fair share, and trust me, it was a LOT of learning I did, but the fundamental and the biggest parts of who I am today, definitely came from my greatgrandma.

She passed away at 96 years old and unfortunately I was not there when it happened, matter of fact she passed away almost exactly a month before Jasmine was born.  It was heartbreaking for me.

After she died, my grandmother gave me a few of her things, which I hold near and dear to my heart, but especially this one which I'm sharing with you today.  I think the biggest reason this one stands out is merely for the fact that I vividly remember her wearing the ring, I can still see it on her finger and remember her talking about it, how my greatgrandfather gave her this ring when they first got married.  She loved it, just like she loved him.

I think it's beautiful, simple, but beautiful.

It is this dainty, light, little ring but it packs so much emotion for me.

I don't wear it very often, if at all, because I'm deathly afraid of losing it and I think if that happened, I would be heartbroken.

So I keep it in my jewelry box, and every once in a while when I'm really missing her, I open it up, take it out, slip it on my finger and tell her that I love her and miss her more than she'll ever know.  I just wish that I was able to tell her all these things more before she passed.

I would have loved for her to have known what a huge impact she made on my life, how she was respected and adored.

I think she sees it now and I think she understands, but sometimes we miss out on opportunities to tell those we love just what they mean in our lives.

I was blessed to have such an amazing woman in mine and I treasure every single year that I was able to spend with her.

{ Friday Favorites - #1 }

Welcome to my new feature called Friday Favorites!

I used to do something similar years ago and I thought it would be a nice feature to bring back to life.

So what exactly is Friday Favorites?

If you have something special you would like to show, if you have a trinket which has a special meaning for you or maybe something you have just found and own or would like to have. It could be anything, a trinket, a book, a new cookware set, a necklace, a photograph, a project you're working on or finished....anything that you love and would like to show us all.

Take a photo, or two, or three...post it on your blog and come back and link up using Mr Linky.

Please only include links directly to your post and only those pertaining to Friday Favorites. Anything not related WILL be removed.

I can't wait to see what you all have to share :)

So I'll start with showing you one of my favorite things.

It may not look like much to you, it may even have you wondering what is so special about these old Portuguese recipes put together quite badly actually with some staples.

But the meaning to me, is one which I find hard to put into words.

It reminds me of my great grandma Ema, matter of fact we put these together when I was just a little girl, sitting around the kitchen, trying to cook just like her, I remember cutting these out of a cooking magazine and then neatly placing them in a pile, I was determined to use those when I grew up, my very own recipes.

The thought thrilled me to no end and my great grandma knowing how much I loved them called me over to her one morning and said "Sandra, let's sit down and get those recipes put together so you don't lose them".

I was so excited, I grabbed them all, placed them in categories and then waited for her to help me.

I can still vividly remember her hands cutting the twine, tying it around the pages.

And I can tell you that I had forgotten what gems of the Portuguese Cuisine lie hidden in these pages....just picking them up again today and flipping through has brought tears to my eyes, I only wish that my great grandma was here with me, watching me cook and bake and carrying on the wonderful lessons and values she instilled in me.

That is my biggest gift ever.  But for now I will just be content in knowing that these little booklets of recipes have a special place in my favorite things :)