I have no idea how I came up with the idea of using plants to lower the temperature in my bedroom.

No, wait, I’m starting to remember now.

---

Here in São Paulo my favorite places to hang out are the streets around Rua Oscar Freire (I went there today, and it broke my heart to see that so many stores has closed), and there, even with so many cars and heavy traffic, the air is so fresh!!

When you walk in that area you feel a fresh breeze, and in the spots where there are shadows it is unbelievably comfortable to sit...

And then I ask you: those streets are like that why? Because they have a lot of trees!! - which made me think, if it works there, it can totally work in my bedroom.

And you know what? It did.

My air quality is better, my sleep is not so difficult anymore, my room now is the freshest room on the second floor of the house!!

But again, it’s about São Paulo we are talking about, and the desert climate remains until some cold front has what it takes to fight the dry weather and reign in the city for a few days.

For me, the only thing to do is get on my way to the plant store and buy some more sansevieria or other indoor plants, because the 23 plant vases I have in my room could use a backup to crush the hot weather São Paulo insists on having.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com

It is in Brazilians DNA the gift of finding a third door whenever facing a problem they cannot resolve - I guess that is why our creativity is so strong.

When I was about 15 years old, I started to watch a show called “Art Attack”, where basically everything created was made with recycled materials, like cereal boxes - I like to say that that show was my graduation as an artist.

And this week, out of the blue, came to me a huge need to start painting again, and why not, sell my work and not keep it to myself as I was doing until now.

As usual, I’ll be selling the items on the website Mercado Livre, a virtual place where a lot of people sell things to anyone who wants to buy them.

But for now, my sales will happen only inside Brazil (sorry, guys). You have no idea the nightmare that is to send anything out of the country.

Maybe is the government that secretly doesn’t want us to do that?

I will leave you with this questioning...

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com

Another hot like hell day in São Paulo and I had the brilliant idea of “going for a walk”, to visit some stores and share everything with my lovely community. But posting some stories was as long as I could go.

By the way!!

Now that I have a new phone, I finally started to share stories on videos instead of only photos (and occasionally, Boomerangs), and Instagram recognized this as an “unusual activity” and suspended my account. Now I’m on their radar for the next 30 days. A bit ridiculous situation, if I may add.

It was such a stupid idea to go out with this weather. But I had planned everything with a friend days before, and I am not (anymore!) the kind of person who cancels the plans at the very last minute - and I was the one who invited her for it, so...

Too bad that was my friend who canceled the whole thing.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com

You know how these fancy brands like Vichy and Clinique have sckincare products that are life saviours? Well, my dream was always to have a chance to try (and have) one of them, and my day finally come.

But not exactly like that…

A makeup brand called Max Love has now a kind of facial serum, with prices that are quite reasonable - here in Brazil we have so many taxes that a product you normally buy at the drugstore in your country will be heavily over priced.

But let’s return to the Max Love serum.

When I first saw the price on some website, I couldn’t believe it was true - “another attempt to fool who likes to buy things on the internet”, I thought. But then I saw it at a store with a similar price (phew...) - it was "safe" to buy it.

Their facial serum comes in a tiny bottle (30ml) with a dropper (so hygienic!), and the bottle is made of glass!! - I love little glass bottles because I can later use them to “reproduce” my plants.

* I paid R$ 12,99 at mine facial serum

It made me so happy, you know, being able to afford a cool product to use at night before I go to bed.

Truth be told, I’m well aware that it may not be a good product like the Mineral 89 from Vichy (looking forward to the day I’ll have one *-*), and I know it probably doesn't have the best “components”. 

I just hope it’s safe to use.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com

The journey to meet Brazil has officially begun for me (this country is so big that it is like having a lot of mini countries inside of one).

As I don’t have (for now) a penny to finance this adventure, I must warn you that my plans will be executed from the “comfort” of my puff, while I can’t afford a new chair. But what the heck, I’ll make the experience be like if I was there (the lies we tell ourselves, right?).

To make these “virtual trips” less humiliating, my intention is to register everything like if it was a fictional travel diary, but with real places and real prices (and real weather) - with the money from these “diaries”, hopefully I’ll be able to make real trips.

Fingers crossed.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com

In general, Brazilians don't earn much money, which makes it difficult to buy essential items, like food. And for years we were taught to save money instead of earning more, like earning more money wasn’t even an option..

But that’s not my point. Today I wanna talk about things on sale.

Here in Brazil (at least in São Paulo, where I live), the markets usually have a section of products about to lose their expiration date (should I be using “expiration date” for this context? I don’t know if it means in English the same it does in Portuguese…), and the prices goes like, super low, something around 50% of the original price, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the “expiration date” - you can buy things practically for free.

* in 2014, when I worked at the supermarket Pão de Açúcar, I was always buying Lindt chocolates for R$ 1, with the full price being around R$ 10 or R$ 15.

Every time I go to the market, the “expiration date” section is the first place I look. The curious is that I don’t go there because I cannot pay the full price (which I can’t, not right now). I go there because I have this thing of buying what is on sale. I love to save money!!

(yesterday I bought 5 chocolates “5 Star” from Lacta for R 0,77 each - they are costing almost R$ 2 now)

But the thing is, I guess I don’t love to buy things on sale because I’m saving money doing so, but because I was taught to do it by everyone around me since I can remember. And that will probably never change.

Fortunately, I now prefer to make more money and pay the full price for whatever I want, whenever I want to buy it..

Freedom, love, taste like the most expensive chocolate bar in the store.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com

Number 01: I’m not using this as an excuse for not to write

Number 02: I know the words. I know how to write the words I want in English. But sometimes I switch them - and I still don’t know how to use “in, on, at” correctly.

All things that don't stop me, but they do slow me down. What a nightmare is having to check every single sentence in Google Translate - I guess that is how we learn, right?  

But worry not, love. These are only technicalities that cause no more than a delay of one day or two in publication. When there is something to be published.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com