My reading list in 2012

Happy new year, everyone! I hope you all had great holidays! I sure had, mainly since I spent reveillon with friends and having lots of fun. I hope 2013 will be a great year for everyone and that we will be able to reach all of our goals.

For 2012, I didn't set a list of goals. But I did set a goal for reading: I planned to read 20 books, and at least 5 of them should be in English. Now I want to share with you all the list of the books I read, kind of in the order I did.

Please note: the first title I'll mention for the book is on the language I read it. If it's a translation, then the original title will follow in parenthesis.

Here is my list:

Books I read in 2012

Luka and some of the books of this list

1. O senhor dos anéis: o retorno do rei (Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), by J. R. R. Tolkien. Rate: 5/5

2. World War Z, by Max Brooks. Rate: 5/5

3. A agência nº 1 de mulheres detetives (The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency), by Alexander McCall Smith. Rate: 2/5

4. Eeee eee eeee, by Tao Lin. Rate: 4/5

5. Três sombras (Trois Ombres), by Cyril Pedrosa. Rate: 5/5

6. Eusébio Macário, by Camilo Castelo Branco. Rate: 1/5

7. O guia do mochileiro das galáxias (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), by Douglas Adams. Rate: 5/5

8. O restaurante no fim do universo (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe), by Douglas Adams. Rate: 4/5

9. How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell. Rate: 5/5

10. Desesperados (Desesperate Characters), by Paula Fox. Rate: 1/5

11. Persépolis (Persepolis), by Marjane Satrapi. Rate: 4/5

12. A vida, o universo e tudo mais (Life, the Universe and Everything), by Douglas Adams. Rate: 5/5

13. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. Rate: 3/5

14. Tia Júlia e o escrevinhador (La tia Julia y el escribidor), by Mario Vargas Llosa. Rate: 5/5

15. Dexter: a mão esquerda de Deus (Darkly Dreaming Dexter), by Jeff Lindsay. Rate: 3/5

16. Até mais, e obrigado pelos peixes! (So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish), by Douglas Adams. Rate: 4/5

17. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Rate: 4/5

18. The Casual Vacancy, by J. K. Rowling. Rate: 5/5

19. Looking For Alaska. Rate: 4/5

Reading Looking for Alaska on my tablet, during the reveillon trip

So, as you see, I didn't reach my mark of 20 books, but 7 out of 19 books were in English, so I'm proud enough. For 2013 I'll keep the mark of reading 20 books, and at least 7 of them must be in English. Wish me luck with that!

Did you read any of the books on my list? Although I didn't write a review for any of them, I'm always willing to debate and comment everything I read. So, please comment if you have an opinion on these books! :)

Christmas cards

Merry Christmas everyone! How are you all enjoying today? I'm just home with my family and boyfriend, and it feels great.
Last month I felt like a Christmas card machine. I sent out almost 30 cards, and yet couldn't do my entire list. Lots of beautiful cards from my friends also filled my maildays, and I'm thankful for that.
Let's take a look!

Incoming Cards

from Sarah, in Belgium

from Mariselle, in the Netherlands

from Teresa, in the USA

from Emma, in England

also from Emma

from Kerri, in Australia

from Amit, in India

Outgoing Cards

Merry Christmas everyone!

December Mail

It's been a long time since I last posted my letters, right? So, I will cut straight to them:

Incoming

from Emma, in England

from Amit, in India

from Kerri, in Australia

from a postcrosser in Russia

beautiful Diwali card from Amit, in India

from Sarah, in Belgium

Outgoing

to Leticia, in Petrópolis, Brazil

to Felicia, in Canada

Yeah, Christmas cards took me so long that I'm way behind on my letters. I better keep writing!

DIY: Decorative Christmas Cards Ribbon

This is an idea I had while watching a series. On the background, I saw several Christmas cards hanging from a ribbon and I found that a great idea. You can display the cards your friends sent you and also decorate your house for hollidays!

You will need:
- a beautiful ribbon;
- double-sided adhesive tape;
- some rivets or nails;
- Christmas cards.

1. Choose a place to put your ribbon. I picked a wooden column we have on the living room, but you can choose a wall or maybe a door. Then, fix the top of your ribbon on it using the rivets or nails. The lenght of your ribbon may vary. Mine took the whole column's lenght. If you have cats, you may want to fix the bottom of the ribbon, to avoid them playing with it.

2. Apply double-sided tape to the back of your cards. I put my tapes unaligned because I wanted to dispose the cards diagonally.

3. Fix the cards to the ribbon. Be careful on measuring the distance between the cards, so that you'll have enough space for them all.

4. Enjoy your neatly decorated room!

I hope you like this tutorial and I'm sorry for the lame pics. Someday I'll take my boyfriend's Nikon to have some decent photos to the blog.

Postcard Thursday #7

A couple of weeks ago I received this totally unexpected postcard. It was sent by a friend of mine who doesn't penpal. He just knows me too well and knows that I love cats, heros and mainly snail mail. I felt so happy that he took his time to go to the post office simply to make me smile!
Who else loves getting surprise mail from surprising senders?

My contribution on the OPP!

Postmuse has this awesome project named the Orphaned Postcard Project, about which you may have heard before (if you didn't, just follow the link). And I'm really glad to take part on it!

I sent her a memory from my visit to Rio de Janeiro last year, which was a memorable trip. Click here to see the full post!

Top List Tuesday #6

Hey, it's been a long time since my last post, right? Sorry about that. But here I am with a brand new top list for you!



Those who know me know that I am a cat lover, but I wonder if they know that is a bit uncommon in here. Many times, when I say I have cats, people will say they hate them and use many unreasonable arguments against cats. I don't know what's the point on questioning a person's choice for their pets. Anyway, there's a lot of injustice on the way people see cats, and today I decided to talk about that.

Top 6 nonsense I've heard about cats
And why they're not true

Holly and Luka are brothers, and they're 6 years old

1. They're "The Devil in Disguise"
Yes, I've heard people using religion as an excuse for their hate for cats. I do respect everyone's beliefs, but honestly I'd never heard of a religion according to which cats are ruled by evil forces or something. In my personal view, I don't see how God would create an animal just to be evil - I don't see the point of that.

Okay, here Luka looks like a little devil...

2. Cats are stupid, because you can't train them
First of all, you can train cats. Here's a video of my cats doing some tricks on my sister's command (if you can't access it, please let me know). But that's not the point. If I ask you to sit down, or to roll in the ground, or to give me your hand or to pretend you're dead: would you do that? Just because I told you so? No offenses, but I don't think you can say the more animals (or people) obey, the smartest they are...

3. Cats don't love you, they only care about the house/food
This obviously comes from someone who never had a cat. There's no logical way I can explain you how much love a cat will give you, asking nothing in return. Really, you can feel they love you. If they don't, well, they possibly have a reason. Now, I hear many people saying that as a comparison to dogs. Well, let me tell you something: if you don't feed your dog, he'll be just as upset as my cat would be, and that doesn't mean he doesn't like you.

Holly and Luka sleeping with my father

4. Cats are bad because they eat birds
Lions eat zebras, which are really cool animals. Do you think lions are bad? I just think that's their nature. Cats eat birds, that is normal to me. Now, humans put birds on cages just to hear them sing! Don't get me wrong, I had birds myself. But I really don't think that's more natural than the cat's hunting instinct.

5. Cats aren't fun, they don't play along
Have you ever visited youtube?

6. I don't like cats because they're too independent
Well, now we've got to the point. I believe that's the reason people really dislike cats. They don't depend on you. They are not your pets, they're your friends and, as any other friends, some days they're chatty and smiley and some days they just want to be alone. And if they don't want to live with you, they'll just walk away. I think that's pretty about a human-cat relationship. They choose to stay with us.

Now, I must let you know that I'm not only a cat lover - I'm the owner of two beautiful dogs, and I love them to pieces. Being a cat person doesn't make me a dog hater, a crazy old woman or something like that. Yet, I hear stupid stuff from people all the time.

Do you like cats too? Have you heard people being irrational about them?