Friday is my day: LuckyCatHandmade

Hello all! This time of the week is here again! Today we will travel to Portugal to meet sweet Mafalda from LuckyCatHandmade! Enjoy the ride ;)

Coin purse, kiss lock or clasp purse, navy blue with orange amd red sakura

Hi! My name is Mafalda, I’m was born in Lisbon but I’m currently living near Bragança, in the north of Portugal, with my husband Filipe and our 3 very spoiled cats: Bunny, Mimi and Socas. Since I finished college I’ve worked in Archaeology but when Filipe, who is a surveyor, got a five-year Job in a dam building site more than 400km from home, and needed an assistant, I started working with him.

Our day starts at 6:30, when we wake up, have breakfast (cats demand to have theirs first…) and get ready to go to work. This is the time I wish I could wear sabrinas and skirts for work… Instead: security boots and a bright yellow jacket...

By 8:00 we arrive at the building site which is in the middle of nowhere... but such a beautiful wild valley with a meandering small river running at the bottom, which in some places had poplar trees

I know... I have mixed feeling about this dam from day one.

We do have to work and it’s supposed to create cleaner electricity but still it´s such a shame to ruin such a pretty place and make a turmoil in the lives of  animals...

Anyway... Filipe is in charge of the surveying in the subterranean part of the dam. Mostly I help him with anything he needs when we have to indicate places to blow up the rock, build underground structures in concrete and verify the precision of the whole process.

I also help him with office paper work when needed but I choose to leave all the complicated calculus to him... Kidding! It’s really scary math stuff...

By 12:00 we return home to have lunch, that I left prepared the previous day, and, of course, pamper the cats a bit more...

By 13:15 we have to get back to work but some afternoons, like today, I get to stay at home because Filipe has stuff to do on his computer so he doesn’t need me to go. Which is great because today I have parcels for my dear customers that I need to take to the Post Office!

By 15:00 I have just finished tidying the place up and I only have to wrap one of my coin purses, finish the packaging and make sure I have all the parcels I need to post today. 

I love wrapping and going to the Post Office... I always find it similar to when I send little surprise presents to my family by Mail (we don’t go to see them as often as we wish...).

I love the purses and other accessories I make and sell on my shop but the best thing is when someone else likes them so much too that they want to keep it... So it’s great to wrap them up and send them on long trip to someone who’ll be happy when they open my package... The Post Office is in a small village 16km away so I have to go by car and it’s a a sort of pretty wilderness I cross but on a lonely winding road...

Everything is still covered in dull colors. Even the almond tree’s blooming (which is beautiful since there are a lot of them around here) is delayed this year: it hasn’t rained since Christmas.

When I get home by 16:30 it’s time to take care of some chores in the garden. Finally my daffodils have started blooming! 

Now is the time for some sewing, listening to Dinah Washington or Nat King Cole. I’m finishing one of my purses with cute black and white cats. It’s Filipe’s favorite fabric. I can’t say which one is my favorite – I love all of them, must-stop-buying-fabric :)

I also browse through Etsy a lot! Mostly supplies, and also to learn how to make my shop more visible (boring stuff...).

By 18:00 I start to get dinner ready and to think up tomorrow’s lunch. I also bake a marble cake - my favorite - for breakfast. With lots of talking to Bunny but mostly to her babies because she has too many pigeons to chase off... And catch! Today we were lucky: Filipe managed to get home by 20:00 so it’s time for dinner but, as usual, Bunny is already in his chair and no one has the heart to remove her... Oh well...

Until 23:00 we spend a calm evening chatting about our day, a little bit of work but mostly our great and super lucky cats! For now they are our only babies... Thank you so much for sharing my day, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did showing it to you... Hugs!

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Thank you Mafalda! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana 

Friday is my day: 11 Compositions

Hello all! This time of the week is here again! Today we will travel to Budapest to meet sweet Galia from 11 Compositions! Enjoy the ride ;)

Valentine's Day gift for her.

06:30 - 07:30
Good morning!!! Everybody is waking up slowly. My husband first. Then my two older daughters. When the baby is starting to mumble - I know it’s time for me to get up too  I’m not a morning person at all!!!

My baby girl (I have three daughters ) with babytogo’s blanket...

07:30 - 09:00
Getting dressed and taking the girls to school. Today I need to dress warm with lots of layers. I’m going to spend my morning outside and it’s freezing cold!!! You see, I’m originally from Israel, and even though it’s my 5th winter in Europe, I still can’t get my head around the minus degrees... And today is the coldest day in Budapest (so far this winter) - minus 8.5 degrees Celsius!!!

09:00 - 09:30
At home after drop off at school. For breakfast I always have fruit. No coffee. No tea. Only fruit - in a salad, as a juice or just as they are. Only later in the day I can eat something which includes carbohydrates...

I eat and drink whilst I check what happened last night when I was asleep. Facebook interactions? (yes, I’m an addict) Emails? New sales? YES!! Yay - great!!!

09:30 - realizing I might be late. Running to the bus, it’s FREEZING!!!!...

10:00 - 11:30

I made it on time to a practical lesson in my photography course. Today’s subject is Black & White photography. Location - the central train station of Budapest. Here are some of the photos I took:

11:30 - I can’t feel my toes!!!! Am not sure they are still there... Need to go somewhere close to defreeze and make sure I still have them...

11:45 - 12:30
De-freezing in my husband’s office. Quietly so I don’t interrupt... An opportunity for some more B&W photography ;-)

12:30 - 13:30
Back out there, to visit my favourite beads shop. I need to get some beads for an order I received, but I’m trying very hard not to buy more than I actually need, because every time I go into a beads shop or a textile shop I find myself spending more than I planned. Do you know this feeling? ;-)

13:30 - 14:30
Lunch time. In Hungary be a Hungarian - eat beef stew with dumplings ;-)
Oops, I was SO hungry I forgot to take a photo at the beginning of the meal, sorry...

14:30 - 16:00
Getting back home to collect the girls from school... Getting them dressed with their jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, boots, bags etc. etc. 45 minutes after arriving in school - we are finally ready to go home. Did I already mention I hate this cold weather??? Now in the car - actively listening to all the stories and adventures. What a day they each had!!! ;-)

16:00 - 18:30
The girls are watching TV, time for my snooze too, just for a bit... not for long though... baby is up from her afternoon nap. Playtime with the girls. Cards, memory games, work books, dressing up. Arts & Craft using some stickers I bought on Etsy.

Girl with a camera stickers were bought from this Etsy shop

18:30 - 20:30
Evening routine is about to begin. Supper together with everyone. Talking about our day. Girls are having eggs, vegetables, cheese and yogurts. I made Shakshuka for my husband and me. (From Wikipedia: Shakshuka is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, often spiced with cumin. It is believed to have Algerian and Tunisian origins). I added some feta cheese on top. Recipes will be provided upon request ;-)

Showers, teeth brushing, bed time story. Bottle of milk for the baby. Everybody in bed...
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ;-)

20:30 - 23:30
The third part of my day begins. The one that is mainly dedicated to my jewelry.
Some evenings I spend preparing orders.
Some evenings I create new items. 
Some evenings I take pictures of my items.
Some evenings I list new items.
Some evenings I create treasuries.
Some evenings I read articles.
Some evenings I “play” - on Facebook, on Pinterest.
Some evenings I prepare marketing materials - like my newsletter (you can sigh up here)

Only a few evenings a month I spend watching TV (CSI or Criminal Minds... National Geographic or a film, whatever is in English and not Hungarian...).

Tonight I need to update all the items in my shop as my launch promotion is finished. I log into Etsy and am surprised to find out I was on “Etsy Finds” yesterday for the first time ever – SO excited!!!!
What a great finale for a cold day - warms my heart ;-)

23:30 - Bed time for me too... zzzzzzzz Good Night!!!

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Thank you Galia! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana

Friday is my day: Rotdaris

Hello all! This time of the week is here again! Today we will travel to Latvia to meet sweet Ilze from Rotdaris! Enjoy the ride ;) 

Leather wrap bracelet in white and blue

>>06.45<<

As usual my alarm clock is ringing and I must get ready for the new day! It is so hard to leave the bed, can’t wait till the weekend when there are no alarm clocks and I am allowed to sleep as long as I want to! It is still dark outside but during the breakfast we will be able to experience a beautiful sunrise. But the working day must start and I shake myself up and get out of the bed!

My husband is making breakfast while I’m taking morning shower and waking up our little daughter. She also doesn’t like to wake up in the mornings so always there is a little battle to win.

Breakfast coffee is ready, morning news on TV are switched on we are getting in the mood of the day.

Today is one of the coldest days in the year and my daughter doesn’t need to attend kindergarten. This makes it all easier for me as I don’t need to dress her up and take her there. She is staying at home with my husband. 

>>08.00<<

It is already eight o clock and I must go to the work. I work in Riga which is the capital of Latvia, country near the Baltic Sea. Riga is a wonderful city with great architecture and interesting Old city with its small streets and intense night life. As I live outside the city I go to work by car. It is approximately 20 km and it is taking about 40 minutes to get to  work. As it is so cold and smaller children don’t need to attend school, the streets are quite empty.

 

>>08.45<<

I’m arriving in the Tieto office - the biggest IT Company in Baltic States and one of the biggest in the world where I work as Project manager and Quality lead for several projects. The day is quite busy and intense so I don’t have too much time to think about my jewelry projects and Etsy shop. But still we are trying to catch a little creative sparkle every day - we have brainstorm paintings on our team board, we have cut some interesting Star Wars snowflakes when there was no snow outside and many other things that make our daily work more colorful. Day flies away in one breathe and it is already time to go home to my family!

>>19.00<<

I’m home at last. My husband is already making the dinner. Today we will have one of my favorites - baked chicken and rice. Doesn’t that look fantastic? While he is cooking I’m playing around with our daughter and cat. 

>>19.30<<

Dinner is ready! Let’s go to eat!

>>20.00<<

Finally - this is the time I can start to work on my jewelry projects! First I need to make photos of my last order - lately I often receive orders for making polymer clay beads and other supplies for other jewelry artists. Flower buds in all possible colors and other flowers like tulips, narcissi and lilac are on the top right now. I use a modified old box from my crafts owen as light box. I have an external flashlight and this works perfect for taking pictures of my works.

 

<<21.00<<

This is Etsy time! Checking messages, statistics, treasuries and team conversations! It is amazing that so many great and talented artists are brought together in one place! 

>>22.00<<

It seems that this day has been long enough and I will have no time to sit at my table. Well, the weekend is near and I will have time to fulfill all my ideas very soon! Feel free to check them in some while in my Facebook page, Twitter and Etsy shop!

Sweet dreams everybody!

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Thank you Ilze! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana