I’ve been dying to try these techniques for ages, but I just didn’t have the appropriate images. Until now, that is…

Read more on tilt-shift miniature faking on this wikipedia entry.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

I only did half the recipe and still ended up eating Lasagna for dinner 3 days in a row. But this recipe is so yummy, I could have had it for a whole week without complain.

Although all the cooking and even step-by-step photography was made way ahead of time, due to all the work and events going on, I managed to miss the posting deadline. Shame on me! Still, better late than never, so here’s the fantastic recipe , well worth all the hard work.

Reflecting on what it means to be a freelance web designer turned out to be a very interesting exercise, as I realised that 20 years ago, when I crossed that patio for the first time, web design didn’t even exist. A web designer wasn’t what I wanted to be when I grew up, how could it?

Thinking about how it all changed so quickly and unexpectedly, I tried to learn a bit more about the history of the internet and the world wide web, and where it’s going. Technology is moving so fast that I can’t really say what I’ll be doing in five years time. Pretty exciting!

I hope everybody enjoyed my class, maybe learned a thing or two, and went home wanting to find out more about the subject. As promised, here are the links to four fantastic videos that inspired my presentation:

Did You Know 3.0

History of Internet

Predicting Ted Talk: The next 5000 days of the web

Ted Talk: Unveiling the “Sixth Sense,” game-changing wearable tech

Tomorrow I’m off to Barcamp Portugal, in Coimbra, where I’ll be doing another presentation, this time to a totally different crowd. Geekland here I go!

 — UPDATE — 
Another interesting video about the first steps of the internet:
1981 primitive Internet report on KRON (via @cdeath)

The website was designed to contain and organise a great amount of information about the musicians and records and yet remain clean and subdued, somehow taking backstage to the beautiful imagery of the album covers.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

In tone with my anti-valentine attitude, I went for bitter flavours in individual portions. Dark chocolate Valentino in ramekins, topped with lemon cheesecake ice-cream.

The original Valentino recipe can be found here.

Lemon cheesecake ice-cream

1 can of evaporated milk
260g full fat cream cheese (like Philadephia)
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice, strained

In a large bowl, whip the evaporated milk with a hand held mixer and then slowly add the sugar and the cream cheese. Finally add the lemon juice.

If you have an ice-cream maker, just follow the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t, pour the mixture in a shallow container and place it in the freezer. Every half an hour, bring it out and beat it to make it smoother.

Coraline is the beautiful new 3d stop motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book with the same name. I’m such a big fan of Neil Gaiman (and illustrator Dave Mckean), how is it possible that I never stumbled upon this book before? Shame on me!

Directed by Nightmare before Christmas’s Henry Selick, Coraline is a horror movie for children, as dark and scary as it is sweet and whimsical. It’s a great story, translated into beautiful images, fantastic 3d technology that feels like magic, a delightful soundtrack by Bruno Coulais… i could go on and on about it, but it’s better to just go and see it for yourself.

The Portuguese adaptation was left in the capable hands of my friend and Gaiman fanatic Nuno Markl, and the Portuguese cast did a brilliant job. I particularly enjoyed Maria Rueff and Ana Bola as Miss Forcible and Miss Spink - and it was so nice to meet them in person at this avant-avant-premiere. I also loved Nuno Lopes as Mr. Bobinsky, and my friend and client Luís Gaspar, as the cat. Although it’s a shame the original version won’t even be available in Portugal, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.

Until I get my hands on the book, I’ve downloaded the soundtrack from iTunes, and have wasted a considerable amount of time swapping my eyes for buttons on the official Coraline website. Right now, I wouldn’t mind diving into a fantasy world for a while.

And I might just go and see it again, once is definitely not enough.

In addition to all the friends that would stay with us now and then, I saw a few house mates come and go. There was Xico (my boyfriend), Danny, Charles, Angi, Jeremy, Aude, Angi again (who lived in a tent in the middle of Fleur’s studio for three months), and of course, Fleur herself. Fleur was THE housemate.

At the time, Fleur was running her own company, creating and producing incredible costumes with strange fabrics and hi-tech materials, among other things. She was the one who rescued me from the flat-sharing hell I was living in, and invited me to Tudor Road. She also rescued me from the flaky job I had at Argun Stationers and dragged me into freelance world, being simultaneously a mentor and my main client. And we became great friends.

Living and working in the same space makes for very intense and complicated friendships, though. By the time we decided to move out of the house, we were definitely in dire need of some space. As it happens, our time-out lasted about 5 years.

Nowadays, the distance between us is only geographic, and although the Tudor Road days are sadly over, instant messaging is here to bring the chatter back. Great chatter, I have to add. Fleur writes so well, I practically forced her to open a blog (to be honest, she hardly gave me any resistance) and share her ramblings with the world. Please stop by Biancafiore’s Lexiphania. and wish her a happy birthday while you’re there!

I was a bit too far from a stage that was a bit too smoky (and a bit too busy jumping up and down and shouting nananaas like a crazy teenager) to get nicer photos. Same as four years ago at the Brixton Academy, London, (was it really that long ago?!) and at T in the Park festival in Scotland.

I already knew my friend and client André Fernandes was a fantastic guitar player, but it was great to finally see - and hear - it for myself, at the launch of Nelson Cascais Quintet’s new album Guruka.

Next stop: the launch of André’s new album, Imaginarium, on the 17th February, at the Culturgest Auditorium.