“Drawing… it is the best thing that I ever do. First of all because it gets me to be so silent. To not be blurting out what I think about this or feel about that. Second, I become an open observer, jotting down visual notes about something I see. And third, it puts me in the world of praise. To be looking upon an object and taking the time to sketch it is an innocent, unaggressive, and grounding act. It is where bliss resides. It is pure being…” — D. Price, The Moonlight Chronicles.
notes
Watched yet another inspiring video on illustrated journals by Danny Gregory and signup up for his course! 🎨 Between this and the 2 books I read this past week, my drawings have improved a lot already. I went from stick figure to cute colored doodles in a week!
Watched: Murder Mindfully Season 1 📺
Loved it! I’m fully convinced about the power of mindfulness and will get back to my daily practice, as I have many great things to accomplish! 😂 Looking forward to season 2.
Finished reading: How to Make a Journal of Your Life by Dan Price 📚
Inspiring. He can definitely draw, though his style looks deceptively simple. Loved the mix of text, sketches, photos, plants… I feel like being even more fun and free in my own journal, and less worried about how it looks.
Finished reading: Draw Your Day by Samantha Dion Baker 📚
I saw this video by Danny Gregory on illustrated journals and now I’m on a quest to learn to draw and sketch so I can have an illustrated journal. This book was inspiring (even though I’m at stick figure level atm).
“There is a time to go long, a time to go short, and a time to go fishing.” — Jesse Livermore
Back from Rome with my mom and mother-in-law! Their first time in Italy, rightfully enjoyed with a little sightseeing, a good amount of pasta, some aperol, a ton of pizza, and a lot of wine. Didn’t write any weeknotes this week, will get back on track next Monday :)
Just finished my 47th Agatha Christie book and I’m so tired of her formula, I really need a break from this project. Decided to pivot to 20th century dystopias, starting with “We”, followed by “Brave New World”, finishing with “1984”. 📚
Didn’t get ANY sleep last night. A massive storm hit us, power went off, dogs in panic. I locked myself in my office with them, petting and calming music until early morning. Now the storm is gone, they are snoring and I’m here, disheveled, zombified, with a full day ahead. 🐶⛈️
Best Sunday ever, laughing and sweating and taking turns playing RAGNAROK VR2 with my husband, my mom and my mother-in-law!!! 🎸🎮🤘
Today I took my driving theory test and I PASSED! 🚗 I got my license 20+ years ago, but because of fear, never really drove. Now I’m 41 and finally ready to get over this. I want to take my dogs to nice places, to take turns driving on road trips, to visit the plant store on a whim!
I noticed my street’s library box was a bit sad, so this morning I left six books in it! 📚 Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers… Hope someone enjoys reading them as much as I did.
Thursday, September 11, 2025 →
I’ve been waiting months for this moment! Harvested carrots from my garden, grown from seeds! 🌱🥕
Thursday, September 11, 2025 →
Just watched Nosferatu (2024) and it’s one of the bottom 10 movies of my life. A solid 0,5/10 (generous half point for the effort). 🍿🤮
Today I signed up for Posteo and Addy! 🚀 Moving away after years using a single Gmail account for everything is overwhelming, but I’m excited to use my own domain + aliases (and support EU business)!
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 →
Migrated my mastodon account to my micro.blog fediverse account. It’s the perfect solution for me. I can still follow people and comment on things, without the social media/feed/like/repost aspects! 😍
DxO Photolab 9 came out today! 📷 I bought it within minutes of the release! I fell in love with v8 during the trial, it is miles ahead of LR. I’m so happy to be free from Adobe and supporting an European business!
I haven’t read a single book page in two months 😱
Mom, this morning: “Is it Tuesday already?”. Me, annoyed, emphatically: “Of course not, mom. Today is Wednesday”. At 18h30 we found out it’s Thursday and the only possible explanation is we must have been abducted by aliens! 👽
This week the cutest thing happened: five kittens were playing at a parking lot when this one spotted me hiding behind the bushes. She decided to investigate, I pretended to be part of the scenery, very very still, and sure enough, she got close enough for this portrait! 🐈📷
My 73yo mom decided to start blogging too! After a few days trying out wp, micro.blog, publii, we settled on a self-hosted Htmly install. We needed PT-BR support and ultra easy to use UI. Finally all those old poems, stories and dreams will leave her text editor and live at mariza.blog instead!
Sunrise at Mirador El Garbí 📷☀️
A month ago I went to Andalucía. It was amazing, I visited castles, went to two fancy restaurants, took a million photos telling myself I would make an online gallery, maybe even print and frame a few… and I still haven’t downloaded, edited or even looked at the images. It’s a struggle! 📷🗺
Enjoying a little sun during winter!! 🐶
Mediterráneo
Stop sign
Self portrait, 2021. Backlit by the sun.
It’s been almost a year since my last post. Oops.
The view from my desk 🐶
When we first moved to Spain, we rented an Airbnb for the first month in Castelldefels, a small town 30min by train from Barcelona.
Even though we didn’t stay long there, we fell in love with the local people and the city’s relaxed, easy going vibes. It was winter back then, so the next summer we came back to check the beach and yep, it was as amazing as we thought it would be! ☀️
