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Feira da Ladra

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Portugal Week part 2

September 6, 2013

Hello again! Here are the too many photos of the second part of my visit. I hope you enjoy these too!

Monday was a pretty relaxed day: we went shopping in town (I got myself a couple of things in the sales, woohoo) had some nice food, relaxed and went to the beach with my friend and her daughters at the end of the day.

Mr D and I got his and hers emergency beach towels at the Chinese corner shop. They’re beautiful.

I wore a light cotton dress by Kookai that is perfect for hot Summer days and my Pucci sunnies (both via TK Maxx)

I also visited a church I had never before seen open. As with most churches (and you can find one on every corner) in Lisbon, the baroque art is very beautiful to look at. You can find a couple more images herehere and here.

We also climbed to the top of the Rua Augusta stone arch. It was a novelty for me as it has only opened to the public recently. I got to see the city from a whole new perspective!

You can see what the main street in downtown Lisbon looks like from above here and you can see what the arch looks like from the ground here.

The next day it was my birthday and I started it in the best way possible by visiting the Lisbon flea market with husband and friends. I did some great finds but I haven’t taken any photos yet. Hopefully I’ll be sharing them over the next few weeks.

I wish I could buy the strange naif style paintings. I really loved the futuristic autobahn one, I wish I had asked for the price. I could always kept it for when I live in my own apartment again…

What a funny coincidence that there were two totally unrelated people selling the same image.

The funny thing about this photo is that the sign is misspelled.

It was so hot this cat was sleeping in the shade, under a car. I can see the ZZZZs in the photo!

I also visited this really good shop called Tesouros de Portugal (Treasures of Portugal). They don’t have a website yet but you can have a look at the facebook page here. I went in there because I was looking for one of our traditional northern scarves and I found it there! They have a lot of goodies, all of them authentic or handmade in Portugal. These days because of the tourism boom there are way too many shops downtown peddling cheap made in China imitations of our traditional arts and it’s a shame that a lot of people who visit don’t realize it is so. So when I buy something that’s traditional I actually prefer to pay a bit more and know I am supporting the artisans of my country.

Later that day I met with my family and we had dinner together. I got all dolled up for the occasion and had my first attempt at an updo. I am terrible at doing hair as I have had my hair short for most of my life! The dress is from one of the H&M Garden Collections and  I got it from Ebay. The see through clutch is from Bershka and I got it on sale the previous day. The sandals are the same golden ones from Topshop and the nail polish is by Kiko and was a present from my friend Sandrine.

The next couple of photos were taken by my sister Ines. She is 14 and has a fashion blog called Fashion Maniac. Most of it is in Portuguese but trust me when I tell you that she is good!

The next day I hauled my luggage back to the UK, making me want to come back soon!

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Tokyo Love

May 17, 2013

The last time I went to Lisbon I arranged to do a little visit to my friend Isabel, who runs a little shop called Amores de Tóquio (may be be translated as Tokyo Loves), near the flea market. She is the creative force behind it – every single object in the shop has been hand picked by Isabel, and the majority handmade by her own hands. I took some photos of the shop and some of the details (there are too many to show here, going in there is a real feast for the eyes!) as I think it’s the kind of thing my Blogland friends would like to see.

I’ve met Isabel for the first time through mutual friends and at the time she used to run stalls at craft fairs and I loved her stuff since the very beginning. I’m not surprised that the business grew as she is so very talented and the objects she produces are very pretty. She is clearly inspired by Japanese aesthetics and particularly origami, something I find myself drawn to.

Here I am with Isabel, in her shop. You can see the lovely hat I left with, handmade using Japanese fabric.

If you ever find yourselves in Lisbon, don’t forget to pay Isabel a visit and see what is new in the shop (it is one of the shops around the old fruit market, right in the centre of the flea market). You can always see what’s new online on the Facebook and blog pages.