Friday, November 27, 2015

Great Christmas shopping deals on Zazzle!


Hi friends, customers and followers! 

Love it or hate it, the biggest shopping day of the year is upon us!Black Friday it is! I bet you're ansious to get your hands on the best deals and discounts available outhere! Zazzle offered great deals. This is a sample of products from my two stores No Boring White and Papelustro. It's mainly created for Christmas season. I included some of my most successful items, some of my favorite and recent products like the ones with the cardinal! I hope this short list is helpful!

Ornaments, posters, canvas prints...
Merry Christmas Cardinal Collage
Merry Christmas Cardinal Collage by papelustro
See more Cardinal Ornament at zazzle.com



Santa and Snowman in the snow
Santa and Snowman in the snow by noboringwhite
Browse more Merry christmas Ornament at Zazzle
Cards, invitations, photo cards, postcards, greeting cards, sheets of stickers, sheets of labels, rolls of wrapping paper...
Santa and snowman Christmas Cookie Swap Invite
Santa and snowman Christmas Cookie Swap Invite by noboringwhite
Look at other Merry christmas Invitations at zazzle.com
Christmas Cookie Swap Party Invite
Christmas Cookie Swap Party Invite by noboringwhite
Look at more Santa claus Invitations at zazzle







Watches, pillows, items of apparel...
Red Cardinal Collage Tees
Red Cardinal Collage Tees by papelustro
Find more Cardinal T-Shirts at Zazzle
Red Lizard Collage All-Over Print T-shirt
Red Lizard Collage All-Over Print T-shirt by papelustro
See other For reptile lovers Panel T-Shirts at zazzle
Entangled stripes collage pillow
Entangled stripes collage pillow by papelustro
Find more Network Pillows at Zazzle
Red Lizard Collage Throw Pillow
Red Lizard Collage Throw Pillow by papelustro
Look at other Cute lizard collage Pillows at zazzle.com
Cardinal Bird on a branch collage Body Pillow
Cardinal Bird on a branch collage Body Pillow by papelustro
Browse more Cardinal Body Pillows at Zazzle
Not an artist rough collage pillows
Not an artist rough collage pillows by papelustro
Check out more Collage Pillows at Zazzle



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Saturday, November 21, 2015

What's your opinion on Google+ recent revamp? Tell me!




I’ve been in and out of Google + for some time. I never felt very comfortable using it  and I preferred to use Facebook. Facebook is the real network. Just my opinion.  But last September I gave up Facebook. For several reasons I felt I needed a break from it and decided to give Google + a go once more. And just when I was feeling more at home it happened - this week Google announced a big revamp! I am still adjusting to it. They are still working on it so what we see isn’t final. I am not sure if the changing is a good or a bad one because I don't have enough experience as a user to evaluate it. But I am finding it a bit strange!

Since September I am only using Google +. I am trying to make connections with people with the same interests as myself - arts, design, photography,movies, books, music, birds...I guess I like what most people does. Birds are one of my recent interests. Almost immediately I found a lot of photographers interested in birds. That was awesome.  I made a few good virtual friends on Facebook. I would like to get the same result on Google +. I use social networks to promote my illustration work but I also like to use it to chill out and discover new things and interesting people.

I also found new buddies from Zazzle - I joined Communities of people that work at POD.  I also joined DIY, art, Nature and animal’s photography communities but I was very disappointed because people share a lot of photos without source – no name for the photographer or the piece or place or the animal that has been photographed. I like to watch a photo and to know what I’m watching. 

Another cool aspect I found in Google + is Collections. I did not know about collections. They are much like Pinterest. We can gather content around one topic. It’s a cool feature. I am still exploring it.

G+ team says changes made Google+ simpler. They say it’s easier to post, search, connect, and keep up with great content. This is what G+ say but I am not getting that sensation – maybe because I haven’t used the new version enough. One good thing is that Google+ is now more mobile-friendly – it’s more responsive meaning it doesn’t matter if you´re using a computer screen or a mobile phone, you will get the best experience out of it anyway.

One thing that’s a bit confusing is Google pages. I have some Pages there the same way I have some Pages on Facebook. Lately I wasn’t pleased with Facebook Pages’s performance. But I am not convinced that Google+ pages are any better. On Facebook I used Pages for product promotion and kept my profile clean. At first I did the same on G+. I created products banners and product descriptions for Pages. But G+ profiles are often used for products promotion and I moved my promotion to that stream. I find it confusing. I would like to keep things separate.  I am not sure if the new G+ will keep pages or not.

What's your opinion on Google+ recent revamp? Tell me!

And here's a guide on G+!


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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Can you smell the wonderful aroma of roasted chestnuts?


Before and after! Roasted chestnuts! 

Just do it! First heat the oven. Then, using a sharp knife cut the skin of each nut. Put in a roasting tin, sprinkle with water and salt. Let it bake until the skins open. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes. Inside it gets more color and become tender. The house smells good! On St. Martin's Day Eve we (the women in Portugal) have the tradition of eating roasted chestnuts. Tomorrow it will be the gentlemen's turn! The glass of jeropiga is missing!

Usually we get some good weather in this time of year. We call it Verão de São Martinho (St. Martin's Summer). This year was no exception. What a glorious sun, 77º maybe, really hot, since Friday. But nights are rather cold! I took these photos today, such a wonderful light! 


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Christmas party essentials inspired by the Cardinal bird



Hello my friends and customers!

I wrote about my canary in a post . If you have read it you already know about  my new interest in birds. Out of my recent passion for the feathered creatures I created a line of products for the Holiday. You can check the above board where you can find what you need for a Christmas party or dinner - invitations, postage, envelopes, return address labels, table cards, paper plates and many other essentials like greeting cards, gift wrapp ing paper or stickers. 

And...if you're not in a hurry you can visit my store PAPELUSTRO where you'll find lots of different products with the red Christmas bird. I think they will apeal to bird lovers, man and women, young or old! Have a look at some of it!

Red Cardinal Collage All-Over Print T-shirt
Red Cardinal Collage All-Over Print T-shirt by papelustro
Look at other Cardinal Panel T-Shirts at zazzle.com
Cardinal Bird on a branch collage Tripod Lamp
Cardinal Bird on a branch collage Tripod Lamp by papelustro
Find more Cardinal Lamp-In-A-Box Lamp at Zazzle

The cardinal is a beloved bird.It's easy to understand why. It has this incredible red plumage and a striking singing that can be appreciated in the video I posted above. The males are red, the females have less color but they are also pretty. I read that the cardinal is the official state bird of seven american states - Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. It is also the mascot for sports teams. They gather in big flocks of about 70 birds during winter time - I would like to watch something like that with my own eyes! It must be stunning! Not sure if the name cardinal has to do with the vestments used by Catholic cardinals or if these got the be called this way after the bird...! They like to eat sunflower seeds but the main dish are small bugs like beetles, grasshoppers, termites, ants, flies and other species - they sure like meal variety! You can learn more about cardinals on this site named All about birds!
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How to best use Pinterest?




OMG, I just came across a list with over 100 tips to get the best out of Pinterest.It's a never ending list! Sometimes it's hard to know what's good (useful) or bad information about Pinterest. I wrote about Pinterest already  but I felt I needed an update on it.

 This is a summary of a few tips I consider relevant. Some tips I knew already and some were trivial like adding Pin buttons to your site or sharing pins in Facebook or Twitter. Lately, I've been away of social media novelties. With just a few reads I already learned a few things. I also found out that Pinwoot is now Viralwoot. I used Pinwoot to promote visual content almost a year ago.With it we can publish and schedule Pinterest pins for free for some time. I hope this summary is helpful for my readers also!

1-Be patient, - I need to tell this myself all the time - you won’t grow the following of a group overnight.If you’re lucky some of your pins will go viral and will bring tons of traffic to your account. If you have time pin several times a day and space your pins.

2-Pin what is already viral. This looks a bit silly but it actually works.

3-You can try different image styles and orientations and sizes but vertical images with no faces are more likely to be re-pinned, says the legend. No, wait, it's not a legend.Pins look best when they’re vertically oriented.(I keep forgetting this!) The best aspect ratio for Pinterest images is 2:3 or 1:3.5, with a minimum width of 600 pixels. You can use CANVA  - an online tool. Canva has premade templates that are 735 pixels wide by 1,102 pixels tall (a 2:3 aspect ratio). You can also create mosaic pins. I like that.

4-If you’re not a designer and because Pinterest is all about the pretty you will need mockups and stuff like that. So you can use resources like these ones: 

 - CANVA: drag-and-drop feature and professional layouts to design consistently stunning graphics

 - PINKMONKEY: it's a photo editor. Basic editing tools, basic touch-up tools, fonts, overlays, basic textures and frames and basic effects are free.

- QUOZIO : turns meaningful words into beautiful images in seconds.

 (Please, if you know of similar resources, let me know! Thanks!)

5- Images may have a text overlay on top—a headline or description.Use correct capitalization and punctuation. Make no language mistakes - this one isn't easy for me unless I'm using The Portuguese language! Use strong fonts that are easy to read. 

 Some sites where to find fonts - many aren't free, as you see - to use or just for inspiration are:


- 1001 FONTS -

- FONT SQUIRREL - free fonts but read all about the uses licenses allow

- DAFONT -

- GOOGLEWEBFONTS - a directory of web fonts for the world to use.

- LETTERHEAD FONTS - amazing site with beautiful work

- I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY  - interesting site about typography

- MY FONTS - Fonts and other resources

- FONTSPRING - Worry-free, perpetual font licensing for everyone.Thousands of fonts with easy licensing for desktop, web, ebooks and apps.

- TYPEKIT - subscription font service that brings thousands of fonts from foundry partners into one library for quick browsing, easy use on the web or in applications, and endless typographic inspiration. (There's a free plan)

- FONT SHOP - great fonts and free fonts

- TYPEINSPIRE - a showcase of typography and design

6-Share at optimum times and this means... Saturday mornings?!! Wow, this one was new for me. Best schedule according to experts is: 2 PM- 4 PM and 1AM-8PM.I don’t rely much on the statistics for the best pinning time. But you never know.

7-Optimising is the word to keep in mind! So, prepare yourself for the job, get your patience mode on and work on board covers, titles and descriptions – they must be keyword rich. Keyword rich and not silly meaning people must be able to search it.You can include up to 500 characters in description.And this one surprised me: no hashtags?!

8-Mention what or who you are pinning so people know that you are sharing their content.

9-Organize rows of boards by interest, frequency of pinning, content, whatever.Rearrange boards when you are pinning seasonal or holiday stuff.Most important boards should come first.

10-Pin from the original site and check to look if the link is working.Check for broken links from time to time.

11-Engage.Talk to your fellow pinners, leave a message, say hello, say thanks, say WTF!
Yes, leave comments on pins that you enjoy or find relevant.

12- Find popular group boards via PinGroupie and contribute to it.

 14 - Apply for Rich Pins for your website or blog.Rich pins are a free Pinterest feature intended to add greater detail and information on the pins themselves. (I need to check this one!)

 15 -Special request! If you know any good advice on Pinterest please leave it on the comments  section and I will add it here!I appreciate it and thank you in advance!
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Friday, October 30, 2015

Happy Haloween bloggers!


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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Learning English everyday!

I am always trying to master the English Language! Learning English requires practice. Today Internet offers so many resources. When I was in school I just had my books, my teachers and american movies and cartoons! I stopped learning English when I left highschool. But I learned a lot outside of class, there are different sources to improve English knowledge. I remember I subscribed some English magazines for one year or two. I also read some literature in English language, a few of the classics and poetry. I watched many English series in my youth. Many of it were from BBC. I also watched lots of americans movies. Today I still am an avid movie goer. That's how I expanded my vocabulary. English and American songs were also a big help. Whenever I bought a record I would explore the lyrics. Today is so easy to find songs lyrics, there are internet sites dedicated to it! The internet is a fantastic resource. Lately I've been founding these lists. It help a lot. It's an easy and fun way to refresh vocabulary! I guess I will make a new Pinterest board soon!






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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

A GIF by Romain Laurent

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