Summer colors

Summer has such an effect on me! Whenever I feel the warmth of the sun in my pale skin it´s like a whole new different world of possibilities opens right in front of my eyes. I just want to dance and lay in the sand and do things I've been wanting to do in a while. So besides all the business that is my life, with the preparations of my moving to Cambridge, work and summer camps, I have found time to draw and try some new stuff with my watercolors. Well I still wasn't able to finish but I will show you the final result soon!

I've also been doing some shopping and I just purchased what I would like to call part of my summer soundtrack. The Smiths may not be the happiest music ever but their lyrics are just great and oh so romantic, well some of them. If you never listen to them I encourage you to do so you wont regret it! 

Hope you're enjoying your holiday...

**Rita** (photos by me)

25 before 26

It's  that special day of the year again, 25th of July, the day the world welcomed me. It's my birthday! This year I'm going to try doing a list of things I can accomplish before my next birthday. It is going to be particularly hard since I'm rubbish at keeping any kind of list. I promise I will try...seriously!

1. Do a 30 day drawing challenge
2. Learn French
3. Learn how to punt 
4. Move to Cambridge
5. Decorate my own bedroom
6. Learn how to take better pictures
7. Use film camera to take pictures
8. Fall in love again
9. Make someone happy
10. Get better at Photoshop and Illustrator
11. Spend some time improving my blog
12. Learn to drive
13. Have a cat
14. Travel somewhere new
15. Design my own greeting card line
16. Lie on the grass in a sunny afternoon, in bare feet, with someone that makes me happy
17. Learn new English words
18. Make new friends
19. Improve my baking and cooking skills
20. See Matt Corby in concert
21. Do some kind of sport to keep fit
22. Visit old friends
23. Read more poetry
24. Be closer to God everyday
25. Actually do everything on this list!


**Rita**

Jonah and the whale

Today I want to talk to you about something that has been bothering me. As you may or may not know I'm planning moving to Cambridge this coming September. I have been thinking about moving ever since I got back from England two years ago. I actually never knew why I didn't stay there in the first place. I guess in a way it was good to have some time to think and pray about what I really felt and what are really God's plans to my life during this time I am back home. Since last year I then decided I would be moving there permanently and have been preparing things with that end.
One of the hardest parts of doing this is telling your family, friends, etc. about your decision.
My family took it pretty well, I guess they knew I would never stay for long. The person that impressed me the most was my dad. He is always quite skeptical about big changes and risks, he always thinks twice about everything and is very wise in general. As you can imagine I  was expecting some kind of big lecture on how hard things are going to be and that life isn't going to get any easier just because I moved countries.... but instead he was the first one to say he fully supported me, I mean I still got the lecture but it really made me feel like I can count on my parents in case things go wrong. As for my grandma she still thinks I'm joking every time I say I'm moving in September, but she is the cutest! :)
Now about some friends and acquaintances... I have been getting some really weird reactions from them.
They ask me why I really want to go as if I had some kind of second intentions about moving. The main question is always: "What is your reason for wanting to go?" but with the kind of tone that says: "Do you really think you're going to do better out there? Is it really wise to move when you have a job here?" Sometimes I think they all think I'm making a huge mistake, that I'm supposed to stay! I think it is normal to be sad and not wanting your friend to go because you will miss him, specially if your member in a church, but I've been feeling they don't get me at all. As you can imagine I am also really scared and am always thinking: "What if things go wrong? What if this is not what God wants me to do at all?" This kind of attitude has not been good for me at all. Today a lady from church that I really like and respect told me that in her opinion people are better off staying in their home churches because they will grow much more... Really? that is not how I think at all! I love my church and the way God has been working in it but I also think no one is irreplaceable, that you will grow in your faith wherever God chooses you to be. One of the stories that pops on my head with all this is the one about Jonah and the big fish.  


The story opens with God speaking to Jonah commanding him to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh. Jonah found this order unbearable. Not only was Nineveh known for its wickedness, but it was also the capital of the Assyrian empire, one of Israel's fiercest enemies. Jonah, a stubborn fellow, did just the opposite of what he was told. He went down to the seaport of Joppa and booked passage on a ship to Tarshish, heading directly away from Nineveh. The Bible tells us Jonah "ran away from the Lord." In response, God sent a violent storm, which threatened to break the ship to pieces. The terrified crew cast lots, determining that Jonah was responsible for the storm. Jonah told them to throw him overboard. First they tried rowing to shore, but the waves got even higher. Afraid of God, the sailors finally tossed Jonah into the sea, and the water immediately grew calm. The crew made a sacrifice to God, swearing vows to him.
Instead of drowning, Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, which God provided. In the belly of the whale, Jonah repented and cried out to God in prayer. He praised God, ending with the eerily prophetic statement, "Salvation comes from the Lord." (Jonah 2:9)
Jonah was in the giant fish three days. God commanded the whale, and it vomited the reluctant prophet onto dry land. This time Jonah obeyed God. He walked through Nineveh proclaiming that in forty days the city would be destroyed. Surprisingly, the Ninevites believed Jonah's message and repented, wearing sackcloth and covering themselves in ashes. God had compassion on them and did not destroy them.

Unlike Jonah I don't want to ignore what I think is God's will for me. Do not think I'm taking this lightly, I had a whole year to ponder and think about things and to pray about it, I have doubts every day and as I told you before I am afraid that this is not actually what God wants me to do. But I also don't want to be living in a 'what if' land where I regret not having made the move because I was afraid and because of what people say. Are we not called to get off our comfort zones? Or is England considered a comfort zone because it is not a third world country?...I feel like I have taken too much of your time already, but I would really like to know your thoughts on this... 

I really just pray that God truly guides me and helps me to look at Him wherever I am and whatever I am doing. 

**Rita**

(via)

  

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

Wishing you a happy, relaxing Sunday. :)

**Rita**

Everything is average

Pinterest

Do you ever get that feeling you have so much to say but when it's time to say it there's not a word or a sound coming out of your mouth? I do. I've been having what you might call a writers or artist block, not that I'm claiming to be one or the other. I've been feeling like this for months now, it's like part of my nature it's gone, like I lost all my special abilities. 

I feel the need to create, to draw, to write so I take the pencil and start drawing...a line that originates another line, some dots, maybe some hair...no! This is rubbish start again...a line...aaaaaaaah! There's no remedy I feel that everything I do is just not good! Even my pictures, I rarely take pictures that I can say I enjoy nowadays. I mean I have my vintage camera still in the plastic, is this even normal?! 

I think I've finally became one of those people who are just regular. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against regular, I just never thought I would be one, I don't want to be one! 

One of the things I like to do to be inspired is to go online and look for illustrations I think pretty, look for styles and pictures that I think interesting. Even that has making me feel useless, I see so many great work being done for so many people I feel that I will never be that good. I'ts like from all of the things I like to do I'm not really good at any of them. So I like drawing....but I'm just not good enough, I like photography...I'm just not good enough...I like singing...and I'm just not good enough. Is it possible to be just average in anything you do? 

When I read 1 Corinthians 12, I am so glad and amazed on how God uses each one of us, and our different gifts, to glorify Him and do his work on Earth as different part of his body. But then again I can't help but wonder where do I belong, what am I really good at? Where do I fit? 

Have you ever got this feeling, that you're receding from where you were?

xxRitaxx      

Alfama it's Beautiful

I'm not going to make a post telling you how sorry I am for not keeping my blog updated for so long and stuff like that... Instead I just want you to know that It's that time of the year again! Streets are decorated with colorful ornaments, the smell of sardines and typical goodies are always in the air, there's people everywhere and they are actually smiling. It's Santos in Lisbon again!

Hope you're all doing fine, and if you get the change come and pay a visit to Lisbon, you wont regret it! ;)

Rita

Once upon a time there was Candy and Dan

“Once upon a time, there was Candy and Dan.

Things were very hot that year. 
All the wax was melting in the trees. 
He would climb balconies, climb everywhere, do anything for her, 
oh Danny boy. 
Thousands of birds,
the tiniest birds, adorned her hair. 
Everything was gold.

One night the bed caught fire. 
He was handsome and a very good criminal. 
We lived on sunlight and chocolate bars. 
It was the afternoon of extravagant delight.

Danny the daredevil.

Candy went missing.

The days last rays of sunshine cruise like sharks. 
I want to try it your way this time. 
You came into my life really fast and I liked it. 
We squelched in the mud of our joy. 
I was wet-thighed with surrender.

Then there was a gap in things and the whole earth tilted. 
This is the business. This, is what we’re after. 
With you inside me comes the hatch of death. 
And perhaps I’ll simply never sleep again. 
The monster in the pool. 
We are a proper family now with cats and chickens and runner beans. 
Everywhere I looked. 
And sometimes I hate you.

Friday — I didn’t mean that, mother of the blueness. Angel of the storm. 
Remember me in my opaqueness.
You pointed at the sky, that one called Sirius or dog star, but on here on earth. 
Fly away sun. 
Ha ha fucking ha you are so funny Dan. 
A vase of flowers by the bed. My bare blue knees at dawn. 
These ruffled sheets and you are gone and I am going too. 
I broke your head on the back of the bed but the baby he died in the morning. 
I gave him a name. 
His name was thomas.
Poor little god. His heart pounds like a voodoo drum.”

― Luke Davies, Candy 



If you haven't yet you need to watch this film. **Rita**

Just because

a photo....

a book...

a quote...

a film...

one bracelet...

a song...

Hoping you have a great continuing of the week. 

**Rita**