Reasons To Love Portugal: Get Lost In A Sea Of Books!

You might have guessed by now how much of a book junkie I am... Ever since I have a memory, I've loved escaping from this world and diving into a book. To be honest, I don't usually have a preference; I read everything ranging from fiction to biography to novel to short story... You just name it! I also do read a lot of interesting articles on the Internet, but we'll talk about that later. I want today's post to be about books!

So, now that I've made my confession about my mad book addiction, I can introduce my Friday Favourite of the week: FILBO. This is an international book fair that takes place every year in Bogota. It lasts a couple of weeks, and you can just go there and get drunk in books. Nothing I could love more! This year, it took place in the last few days of April, and Portugal was the Guest of Honor. Which means that there were lots of lovely things about Portugal all over the place.

One of the things I liked the most was the exhibition I'm sharing with you in this post. It was all about introducing us, FILBO attendants, to this amazing country. It was all about the sea, since Portugal itself is all about the sea. It had some amazing pictures from wonderful places I can't wait to visit (hopefully soon enough) in Portugal, as well as some art. The details also contributed to the atmosphere: there were pieces of cloth in the ceiling, simulating what waves look like when you're underwater in the ocean. I honestly fell in love with this whole Portugal thing... Can we travel to Portugal now?

Love,

Summer Essentials: B&W

B&W is––no doubt––the colour combination of the season. I love it because it's classic and looks effortlessly chic. Plus, you can wear it to any occasion, during the day or the night and without having to worry about the weather. In other words, it is just perfect!

Love,

DIY mugs

There's one thing I've probably never talked about on the blog before, and it's my love for mugs. I can't get enough of them! I'm constantly looking around for more and more mugs with beautiful designs to collect. As you might have already guessed, my favourite mugs are horse-themed. But my obsession doesn't limit to those. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, I bought a beautiful one with two antique cars on it (although it was meant for Diego to use it, rather than myself)...

But I found out about a month ago how to do DIY personalised mugs. Isn't it amazing? It was a shame, though, that we didn't have time to do them before, since I was dying to share the how-to's on this project on a blog post for so long! We finally had the time to do them last night (read we: Diego, my sister and I), and we spent some time just having fun, drinking tea and doing our personalised mugs!

You'll Need...

Believe it or not, there are only two ingredients to this recipe: mugs and permanent markers. That's it! Oh, and you'll need an oven, since that's the secret for the ink of the permanent markers to stay.

What You Should Do

Once you've decided what you want your personalised mug to look like, use a pencil to draw it!

Then use the permanent markers to make your beautiful design

Put your mug in the oven (preheated at 350ºF), and leave it there for 30 minutes. Once you bring out your mug, don't use it or wash it until it has completely cooled down, otherwise you'll ruin your design.

These personalised mugs will stay with you, unless you put them on the washing machine. You need to hand wash them in order to make sure the ink won't run away.

Love,