quality time with dolls

When I was a child my aunt Manela worked at a textile factory with the those days computing program that cut the fabrics in an effective way. From time to time she brought me a bag of fabric waste, tiny pieces of all kinds of fabric that were big enough for me to play with and make clothes for my dolls.

One of the larger fabric stores close by sells random small bits of fabric by the bag. So you can't chose and it reminds me of the bags my aunt used to bring me that enlightened my childhood.

I bough a couple of those to play with my kids. We have made different kinds of stuff for them. Today I just took a couple of hours with my daughter and we made clothes for some of her dolls. Quality time together with my daughter and her dolls. I must confess that I did not check any instructions or ideas on the web. Today wasn't about perfection, it was about time spent together with no screens around us. We had a lot of fun making up the clothes and solving the practical problems we got along the way. Here's the results, a new fashion season for dolls :-) 

a trip to Curia

Curia is a village resort known for its fine water which had been said to have medicinal properties.
Back in the day many Portuguese, and foreigners, took vacations there to relieve themselves from various illnesses and to breathe the pure air of the countryside. I guess you could call it the 1900's equivalent to a spa-vacation, or a retreat in a back then luxurious country side scenery. Pompous hotels were built in the village that was and still is easily accessed by the country's main roads and served by a train station.

A couple of weeks ago I finally surrendered to it's charms and took the kids there for a visit. To be honest I followed my cousin and her husband. We all loved it. We visited a park that is open to the general public for a small fee. The huge park was part of an old hotel and it many facilities. There's a café and you can rent paddle boats to take a quiet tour on the artificial lake (we had a race of course, ahahahah).

You can visit part of the hotel and take part of the expositions, the permanent and the temporary ones.   The building is quite impressive and I loved the mixture of Art Nouveau and Deco in the building and the surroundings. Being abandoned for many years but still in good shape you can almost get a "Shinning" experience when you wonder around, the quiet piano almost played on itself when we passed by, the old bathrooms and heavy doors contrasting to the beauty of fine details on the stairs and chandeliers enhanced the Shinning-feeling. I loved it! Totally recommend a visit.

I know there are many options for those who want to stay and enjoy the place for a few or more days and do not want to check in at the still working neighboring grandiose hotel. Me, I just have the luxury of having Curia just over half an hour from my nest in Aveiro.

Here are some of mine impressions from Curia, hope you enjoy :-)

a dream of a project

I really appreciate having unique things, especially when I can be involved in their creation. This one has a special place in my heart. This has been my Summers heart project.

Last Easter I was wondering around my grandparents (mothers parents) annexes with my aunt when we found the casted iron pieces of my childhood bed. That bead had been my bed until way in my teens and before that it had been my fathers single bed and even before that it had been his grandfathers bed. So as far as I know this casted iron bed is at least has old as my grand-grandfather Chico (from Portalegre, Portugal) born 1907. This bed is probable at least 100 years old.

When I was a child I the bed got a coat of white paint all over, I guess it was fashionable that way then. Still today there are few people from my parents generation that appreciate the original beauty of this dreamy piece of furniture. I knew I had to get this family clenod back and give it a new use restoring its glory.

This is how it looked like when we found it.

It looked abandoned, had lots of rust and the detailed flower arrangement was all blurry due to the white coat of paint it got on the 1980's. Such a shame... So my uncle helped med with the welding and the treatment it required before painting. He also followed med to a "big Swedish furniture company" to by a large bed structure (my husband is quite tall) with but no head piece attached to it and the madrases. Me being a controller freak that methodically tackles a task like putting a bed together and my uncle that is the most impulsive person I know and kept asking for a hammer putting that bed structure together could have been a really funny sketch material. 

The bed structure served well already during Easter. Still it lacked the head piece. That was the fun part of the project. So I took it to my grandparents (fathers parents) basement and carefully painted it with several coats of metal paint with quality brushes. I prepared the basement carefully so no dust or anything else got stuck on the paint during the long drying process. 

Here's the final results: 

I hope this family clenod can be loved by many more generations. Next time I will try to find worthy bedside tables, I'm hoping I get to paint them myself so they match the bed perfectly and had another uniqueness to the room. After that, maybe the lamp?