In Portugal, every 25 of April is celebrated the Freedom Day. That's a translation that doesn't make such impact as Dia da Liberdade! Basically, and I'm not diminishing the great act that it was, but we were fighting communism, so soldiers and the citizens rebelled against it, using carnations as a symbol.
Our little stroll through Choupal didn't happened at all because of that, but in a way we were celebrating our freedom. We always like to spend a little time together, and if it's only the three of us this is what happens.
I do have to say, I love this little things ♥
Choupal, immortalized in poems and fado of Coimbra. I had been there one time already and I completely fell in love with it, it extends for a lot of miles, we were there for two hours and we didn't saw half of it. But it was, without a doubt a well spent day and I can't wait to have more days like this.
We started the day by having lunch at the same place we did the day before. The plan was to eat and then, after coffee (always) we would drive to the mountains, see snow, and play a little bit.
First stop had to be Lagoa Comprida, the biggest lagoon from the mountains. There's a big wall around the place so you can see it, and enjoy the fantastic view, this time we had the weather on our side, we still felt the cold getting to us, but the fact that the sun came up it made all the difference.
All the way up to mountain we started seeing more white and by the time we were on the top you could only see white covering the landscape. We were going to go to the highest bit, but the traffic was quite intense, so we decided to park on one side of the road and have you fun right there.
We spent most of the day on the way up and down, having fun and admiring the landscape, by the time we realized was time to make way to Coimbra, we had classes to attend the next day.
I used to travel so much with my parents when we were little, that being able to do this with my friends was awesome. I think I talk by all when I say: thank you for the great weekend Sofia, for inviting us and makes feel 'at home'.
I hope that we make more of these, soon! And I hope you have liked this snippets,
A week ago, one of my good friends, asked me and a bunch of friends if we wanted to go to her hometown. She lives in Seia, Portugal which stands near a mountain, as many may know it: Serra da Estrela.
A little history behind this little adventure we had.
We were set to live Coimbra, where we study, an make road by 10:30 a.m, but as we know, we left late, by 11:30 a.m we were on our way. We divided ourselfs between two cars, ours was the one with the most fun of course, we sang all the way there. Took us one hour and a half, through rain and fog to get there, but all was good when we arrived and had a delicious meal waiting for us.
There's a little village near Seia called Travancinha, our first stop. A few people share the same birthday date and every year around this time, they do a get together with friends and family.
The place was really good and pretty.
After we sang Happy Birthday we wanted to go on a walk, but the time wasn't on our side so we hopped on three cars and went on our way to place called Chão do Rio.
This place is magical, and none of my photos make justice to it. You'll find rare flowers, a flock of sheep, houses of stones and thatched roofs and a natural pool. I don't think that I can explain it, you really have to see it to believe it.
If you follow this link you can always reserve one night or maybe two to know the area and see it for yourself, as we did.
After that we went to my friend's place and then to a little coffee in town. The idea was to watch a movie before bed, but we were all shattered and we had a long day ahead the next morning, the mountains were waiting for us.
First of all I have to share with you two of the songs that this month have completely taken me. Ok, maybe three!
So I came across this song last year... But for some reason (a stupid one probably) I completely forgot it and the other day I started humming it and couldn't let it out of my mind. If you don't know MAX: first of all you should; second he started making Youtube videos and I got to know him through another youtuber, Kurt Scheneider, and I instantly fell in love with his voice and songs.
Ed doesn't need presentation, he's probably (in my humble opinion) one of the greatest song writers along side others, but his music always sounds genuine. Shape of You has been on the radios, and as I am typing this he has probably released another music from his new album Divide (he was, and it's also his birthday today, happy birthday 🎂).
Honestly, you probablyonly know this one for one of this reasons: you either love musicals and you seen it already a bizzilion times, or you love Ryan Golsing to the point you see every movie that he makes. I bet is the last one isn't it? I haven't seen it yet (yes I know, it's a crime) but there's a reason, I was going to see it with my sister but then I couldn't make it and I promised I would see it with her, but I'm probably not going to resist much longer and end up seeing alone.
Who would have guessed that Emma Stone could sing like that?
Ok, I know I know I said three. This one is just my ultimate favorite since I saw the movie High Strung... I've a weak spot for violins and cellos and classic music. When it's played out of the sheet (as per say) it's so beautiful, and this one with the choreography, oh man beautiful.
There's more, but maybe some other time. I also have been taking a few more photos...
So, my best friend has moved to Manchester for 6 months. Yes, I'm just going to say it, I envy her right now, I wish I could just get a plane and go as well... But back to what I was talking, before she left she wanted some photos, I have always a few ideas like to make but I'm not always comfortable asking to make them, even if it's my best friend, but somehow I achieved it and I really like this one.
My sister sometimes has awesome ideas for photos, which helps me getting ideas as well. She inspired in one of her favorite films Amélie and we came up with a few photos that we liked.
My cousin is probably the only person that I don't have problems asking or sharing an idea to create in a photography, she always up to it and even helps me do better or a different one from the original. This one was taken recently, but I have a lot more with her that I just love.
Well, I've more things that I have done lately and I'm going to do, but if you want to know you have to stay tuned.
Which musics have been on your head lately or what have you been up to?
It seems only fair that I start, at least, by explaining. For the past few months I've been with a little identity crisis about the blog, and for a moment there I really wanted to not do it anymore...
When you like what you do, but you don't seem to appreciate enough, doubt is the first thing that comes to you, I thought about changing the name, changing the platform of hosting, even thought about giving up (as I said before), but the truth is I like writing here, sharing my passions and interests with you.
This year I've met people that are as much (or more) passionate about the same things I am (you two know very well that and thank you for existing in my life) and somehow that makes me want to create more, to have new ideas.
Although some things will have to change because I feel that the blog can have more potential and that I can do a lot more.
So, welcome back to Coffee at Three, and I hope you enjoy the ride from now on!
Beatriz was in the country and I had some ideas, we came together, things went great and this project was made. Since is sunny outside and hot, most of the days, we wanted to do something by the pool. Between smiles and a lot of silly things I like the results a lot, maybe because my friends are helping with my little dream of photography and I'm surrounded by lovely people.
This are only some of the photos taken, I've been sharing other on facebook, twitter and instagram. I'll upload more on those social media and maybe flickr or behance.
Truth be told, when my father said the ingredients that this takes I thought to myself "that doesn't sound good, it's probably going to rubbish", only because I was not familiarized with the mixture, but what a fool I was for thinking that!
I remember when I was little and every time we went to Sintra we ate little things called Queijadas de Sintra and we loved it so much. At first I didn't know the name of the recipe, but when I first took a bite all the memories from Sintra came back to me, the taste was almost the same and it was delicious.
Since I enjoyed the pie (a lot) that I made with my father, I would love for you to try it as well, alone or with your dad as well!
You'll need:
2 Fresh Cheese, 100g All Purpose Flour, 250g Caster Sugar, 4 Egg Yolk, 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon, 1 package of Shortcrust Pastry Preparation:
First of all, preheat your oven at 160ºC. Then, lay the pastry in a form for pies with the paper that comes with - I bought mine because it's easier, but you can make it from scratch and add the grease proof paper - and poke some holes in the bottom with a fork.
For the filling you start by mixing the fresh cheese with the egg yolks, until it's a smooth consistency, then add the caster sugar and mix. You'll have to mix very well between each thing that it's added. Finally add the sifted flour and cinnamon (if you don't think that's a good amount of cinnamon you can add a little bit more) and mix it.
When all the mixing is done it's time to pour it to the tray with the pastry and put it in the oven for 45 minutes. I think I left a little longer, but 45 minutes is a good time to take a look, if the edges os the pastry are not as wish them to be (golden) you can let it stay for a little longer but not to long.
Hope you enjoy making it as I did and I swear, it's one of the best things you will taste from my country!
Short story: I'm the type of person that tends to have a bunch of ideas at the same time and always try to make it all at the same time as well. No need to say that that doesn't turn out alright, some of my projects tend to be forgotten or never finished. But that needs to change and it starts today.
I make a lot of lists of things I want to create, or things I want to buy, but somehow I loose it in the confusion that is my bedroom, so I decided I that I'll start making the things and make it until the end, no matter what is the result.
Things I'm currently working on:
↠ I love my photos as much as hate them sometimes and I wanted it possible for other people enjoy them as well, so I'm creating some 'products' to launch a Etsy Shop. This is going to be the main project for the next weeks.
↠ Don't know if you have heard of Patreon before, it's social network for creative people and a crowdfunding site at the same time. Unfortunately things can't just be created out of thin air, so I've been thinking and creating some content to put up to my patron and if you would like to help me improve my content, have special treats or even content only available to you, you can go to my page and become a patron.
↠ During the month of April I recorded a lot of clips with my mobile and I'm cutting them up together and, hopefully put up on Youtube, I'll let you know when it's all done.
Until these three are done, or at least almost finished I cannot try do anything else (besides university).
Bright skies, warm weather, birds flying around, these are all signs that spring has arrived. If you have allergies than you probably hate spring, but for me is one of the best seasons, alongside with autumn.
I like cold, a lot more than I like warm, but I think that in between is the best. It's hard for me to explain all the reasons I like this two, but as photographer (an amateur one that doesn't really know what is doing some of the time) spring/autumn have the best colors, best photo opportunities, best light, best inspiration.
Recently I started doing more jogging, and most of the time I take my camera with me (which I find pretty good to make squats since I always try taking 'macro' photos), so these are some of my recent photos.
As always you can check my Flickr account to see the rest of the photos or in a better quality, I'm currently working on changing the layout of the blog in a way I can incorporate the photos and projects in here.
Every now and then people should focus on what they are eating and see if it's the right thing for them. I don't eat right, tend to miss meals and sometimes not eating at all during the day, so the other day I stopped and took a look at what I've been eating lately and the most it's meat.
Wait, I'm not going vegan or vegetarian, but I do have to cut some meat out of my meals if I want to get fit and live better. And in that note, one of the things I want to start doing more is salads, for many reasons, because they're cheaper, lighter, healthier and easy to make.
I had in my fridge a couple of tomatoes and a couple of peppers waiting to be eaten, and before they rotten, this chickpea salad was created!
You'll need:
1/2 Pepper, 540g Chickpea, 1/2 Onion, 1 Tomato
Preparation:
First you start by preparing the pepper, tomato and onion, I took the seeds out and chopped the pepper and the tomato and then put them aside; then I cut the onion half and chopped in tiny pieces.
My chickpea was in a flask, I took them out and passed water on them to take the liquid that they usually come in. And now, this is the tricky part: you have to mix it all together!
At last and not least you season it the way you want, I went for olive, pepper and garlic, but you can use mayo or other type of sauce.
This recipe did three meals for me.
Hope you enjoy this little treat and as you can see is pretty easy to make!
As you may remember, a few posts ago I told you about the photoshoot we tried to make, if you want to know you can check it here.
Today I bring you some of the results that came out of it, and I have to say, I don't think they're perfect, but since it's only the second time I tried taking portraits I think they turned out pretty great, but as I said it's only my opinion.
Hope you enjoy, I'll upload some of them in my Flickr account if you want to see them a little bit better, and don't forget to check out my friend's Beatriz work, here and here!
Have you ever done a quiz online? I bet you have and so have I. The most recent one I did was the one on Pottermore, where you are sorted to one of the four houses, and a question came up where I had to choose between dusk and dawn, and I had to think on it for a while.
It was not the first time the question was made, and most of the times I have to think on it. The truth is: I couldn't choose one, but I could use another way of choosing them, this is the way.
You can't have a sunrise without a dawn or a dusk without a sunset, so what if you had to choose from a sunrise and a sunset? Most people would probably choose sunrise, because is the beginning of a new day, a new start, but for me it's the sunset, and no it's not because it's the end of the day, it's because of the colors it creates! You can have a blurry sunset, you can have a candy-like sunset, you can have harsh color sunset, you always have a sunset different from the other, and most of the times it can surprise you.
These are two of my favorite photos, so far, from sunsets that I've taken, one you had already seen, which I've to say it was a surprise for me because the sunset wasn't happening with this colors first and then, out of nowhere, it turned in to this beautiful colors, the other one it was taken more recently, and the one that gave the idea for this post. They perfectly represent two of the types of sunsets that I was talking.
Hope you enjoy and, if you want, I would love if you let in the comments below your opinion on the photos or even which one would you choose: sunrise or sunset?
Just wait, I know this probably has a weird name for you. As you know, translating things from Portuguese to English doesn't always turn up alright, but that's it's the name of the cake I'm sharing with you today!
As the name suggests the cake is supposed to be made with water, but me and my mom always do with milk, but this time we tried something new and I must say that turned out very good.
You'll need:
4 eggs, 3 cups of white sugar, 1 cup of cream (or water, if you wan't to try this way), 3 cups of all purpose flour, dash of vanilla extract, dash of lemon zest, 1 tea spoon of yeast.
Preparation:
So, instead of using water we are going to use cream, but you can always try how it turns out with water.
Start by separating the yolks from the whites, hand put the whites aside. Then add the sugar to the yolks and beat it until it's all combined (if you think 3 cups of sugar is too much you can always take a lit bit, I always do that).When it's all mixed in start adding the cream, the lemon zest and the dash of vanilla and mix in, after that add the flour in stages so it doesn't create lumps.
Now back to the whites, we have to beat them until they form peaks, when that happens it means that is on point, and then you can add that to your previous mixture, mix in very carefully!
Last thing, and the most important: put in the oven and bake the cake. I'll recommend at 170ºC and keep an eye, I don't usually use a determined time, I only check the cake every ten minutes.
Hope you enjoy, and if you try it let me know int the comments.
As you may know photography , comes from the Greek words photos and phos wich means "drawing with light", and that's one of the things I love more to play and use when I'm taking a photograph.
A photograph is more than a moment frozen in time, it's a mix of lights, no matter what kind of photograph you are taking you can always tell a story with that photograph.
The other day, although it was a grey day, there was this lovely light passing through the windows and I though it was a great time to play with it and using it in favor. I can't this three, and I think they're really cute.
What do you think? I really enjoy how they work out, hope you like it too.
