World Of Michael Trent

Hello everyone.  This is my last post about Flat (for the moment).  Flat is leaving me soon but, before he left, I had to teach him about some fruits we have here in Brasil.  He learns about maracuja (passion fruit), caju (where cashew nuts come from), and Cacao, where our chocolate starts out from.  It's just a little bit quirky but was fun to do.  You would think - if I can do this why can't I seem to do crafty videos.  LOL The video seems to be too large for blogger so you will have to click HERE to be taken to the video on You Tube. Below is a photo of what the cacao fruit looks like.  If you want to learn more about cacao check out THIS video. Cacao - where chocolate starts. Below is a photo of what Caju or the cashew fruit looks like.  You can eat the fruit.  You can also plant the cashew seed at the top and grow a cashew tree. Inside the seed is the nut.  Click HERE to see a short video about cashew fruit. C...

Hello again everyone.  This is another post for my cousin Sami about Flat Stanley's adventures here in Brasil.  This post is about the mini vacation we took with Flat down in Porto Alegre, Brasil .   Porto Alegre is the capital  and largest city of the  s tate of   Rio Grande do Sul . It was founded in 1769 by Manuel Sepúlveda and its population is about 1.5 million people. Although it is much smaller than São Paulo, Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous city in Brasil. Porto Alegre is a really beautiful city with a lot of things to do and see but we only had a few days here.  But we will be back (you have to say this in a terminator voice). The first place we visited was the Mercado Municipal, which means Public Market.  The building is a landmark and was built in 1869.  The market has over 100 vendors selling fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, crafts, snacks, plants, and lots of other cool stuff!   This is a cool video of ...

Hello everyone.  Just so you guys know, this is not a crafty post.  I am doing a few posts for my cousin Sami who sent her friend Flat Stanley to visit me.  He got to know  São  Paulo, another city in the south called Porto Alegre, and interesting things in Brasil.   So...Flat arrived.  Safe and sound.  With a lot of luggage.  The first thing we made him do was to send a note to Sami letting her know that he arrived safe and sound! Before we took him into  São  Paulo city, we wanted him to learn a few things about Brasil.  According to The Brazil Guide - 1.   São Paulo city is located in  São  Paulo state (like New York City is in New York State).   São  Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and South America with a population of more than 12 Million people in 2016.   São  Paulo S tate has almost 40 million people.  The population in Florida is about 20 million people...

Happy Monday everyone.  I hope your weekend was great.  Yesterday we went with our friends Baron and Cris explored a town about 45 minutes from us called Piracicaba .  One of the oldest areas this city is called Monte Alegre and was home to a huge sugarcane plantation (Usina) that closed in 1981.  At its height the area had over 5,000 people.  The area is now being renovated and renewed. I will do a separate blog post on the adventure but here are a few interesting photos. The Usina (or factory) in complete disrepair. Another photo of the Usina. Old windows to be used in a new restaurant opening in a few weeks. Now to share a quick card I made for Day 19 of The Daily Marker's 30 Day Coloring Challenge using  two of Donna Downey 's images from Unity Stamp Co .   I started by stamping the Tangled Leaf Background image with Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) on white cardstock.  Then I colored in each part of the image...

Hey everyone.  I've decided to make a little change to my blog.  I am going to start including blog posts about my life here in Brasil.  I used to have another blog just for the travel and Brasilian aspect of my life but having two blogs is just too much and, since this blog is called "World of Michael Trent "and Brasil is part of my "World"...why not.   I know some might not like this move as you are only looking at this blog for the papercrafts aspect of it, and others might enjoy seeing what life for an American here in the countryside of Brasil is really like, but - for either case - when I post a Brasilian topic, I will put in the subject line Brasil - then the topic.  This way you will know it has nothing to do with paper, glue, stamps, tape, or sprays, or textures, or stencils....lol.   For today - a brief video of the newest additions to the household - Bella (the pup) and Gatsby (the kitty).  These two are brand new and are loving eac...