Sunday Museum visit to see Spanish greats Picasso & Barceló

Picasso Museum Malaga

The Picasso Museum here in Malaga is open until 5pm on Sundays with free entry in for the last 2 hours. Normally there would be a massive queue for this attraction during most of the year but with reduced tourists numbers in the city, due to Covid, we were able to rock up at 3pm and head straight in to the permanent Picasso exhibition and the newly opened Barceló exhibition.

Singapore - PIGSY Art!

In PIGSY art news, I can report that there are now PIGSY's in Singapore. See here for details of The Ireland Funds Singapore "A Sense of Ireland 2021" Festival.

PIGSY Solo Show in Spain

In addition to the above, we are working away on PIGSY's next solo show which is coming up at the end of March in La Casa Amarilla, Ciaran is finalising the art work selection and getting pieces framed and stretched. While I'm working on the promotion end of things, writing press releases and getting press packs together.  All a lot of fun and very exciting for PIGSY to have an art exhibition here in Spain!

Saturday in the Charity Shop

Volunteering

On Saturdays I volunteer in the Cudeca Charity Shop on Plaza de la Merced here in Malaga.

Today there was the most beautiful vintage Barbie for sale in the window. Last week there was a different two (see my blog here) but I have to say I really liked this one. It would look perfect at the top of most Christmas trees - yes, that's what I like to do with Barbie dolls!

This is the "Starlight Waltz Barbie". She is absolutely fabulous! I love the sparkly hair accessory and her earrings and amazing full skirt. What a stunner!

She didn't sell today so if you are interested, get down to Cudeca early on Monday morning.

Mannequin makeover

So I did a yellow on yellow clothes display. However, it looked like a bit too much yellow so I switched it up and added a blue scarf and a hat with a blue decorated band. 

Not too sure which one I prefer. Let me know what you think!

In other news, we had a keto friendly dessert of strawberries and cream last night - with more cream than strawberries as you can see!

It was so good and lovely to have after dinner.  We are having it again tonight!

PIGSY Press

 Irish Abroad: PIGSY in the Irish Times

Very exciting to wake up to an article in the Irish Times about PIGSY's art and our life here in Malaga on our "year out" otherwise known as a career break.

Click here to read the full article

Busy Art Day

With the article up online, I spent the morning promoting it on social media and updating the PIGSY website with the details on the Press and Media section. It was quite incredible the amount of traffic it sent to his website and all day he was receiving texts about the article along with emails and of course lots of instagram messages too. A fun busy day for sure!

Helvetik - a newly opened café in Malaga

Helvetik in Malaga

Great to see a new café open here in Malaga. It's Helvetik and is located on Calle San Juan (in what I think was formerly an ice cream shop). I look forward to trying their coffee!

Almond Coconut Chocolate Keto Bark (with sugar free Valor Chocolate)

So for the first time ever I made Chocolate Bark! 

I had seen this sugar free very dark chocolate by Valor in my local Carrefour and wondered what it was like and what I could make from it. Valor is a famous brand of Spanish chocolate and when I looked closer at the packaging I saw that it was made with Stevia in place of sugar. I'm intrigued by Stevia and wondered what it would be like in the chocolate.......oh and I also love dark chocolate!

In order to make the bark, I melted two bars of the chocolate (it broke up so beautifully with an excellent chocolate "snap" sound) and then added roasted and salted almonds along with a small bit of shredded coconut. I then sprinkled the top with a bit of salt for more flavour.

Here is how it turned out

This is the packaging of the sugar-free chocolate - look out for it in your local store, or you can probably buy it online

Here's the nutritional info for the chocolate (per 100g)

Energy - 568 kcal

Fat - 49g (31g of which saturates)

Carbohydrate - 19g (o.5g of which sugars)

Protein - 11g

Little Treat

It tasted absolutely delicious - we had a little bit after our OMAD dinner yesterday evening. A really nice treat and there is a big stack in the freezer now so we can have a little bit every time we want a little treat.

Check this out!

I like the look of these Peanut Bars.  Peanut flour is a new one on me. Have YOU heard of it?!

Stats!

 Blogger Stats

So I like to track things - and I get a kick out of looking at stats, particularly for my blog on the Blogger website and also on PIGSY's squarespace website, which I maintain.

So, for those who are interested, here's some stats about this blog

My stats, after blogging for close to 10 years, are that I am averaging about 50-60 hits a day. LAst month there were 1493 views of the blog while this month there has already been over 1600 views with 7 days to go.

Social Media Shares

I should note that when I share my posts on Social Media I get increased views. However, I don't share all of my posts due to their content, for various reasons.

In total, I have had 1494559 all time views on the blog. That's quite a number!!

CLIC Malaga

In non-stat related news, Ciaran and I were interviewed by CLIC here in Malaga - you can click here to read part 1 of the interview and part 2 here and part 3

Keto Supplies

Saturday in the City

On Saturday I took a little trek around the city to pick up a few Keto supplies. I have only found Almond Flour in Corte Ingles and Mercadona. I know it also for sale in El Hombre del Saco (it's one of those plastic free bring your own container places) but that is closed on Saturday afternoons so I will visit it some other day.

Almond Flour

Anyone it was off to Mercadona with me for almond flour (which are really just ground almonds) as it is cheaper than Corte Ingles. That was stop no. 1

Coconut Oil

My next stop off was in Aldi where I got some Coconut Oil from their organic section. I haven't seen this for sale anywhere so I was glad to get the last jar on the shelf!!

Coconut Flour

And then it was on to Corte Ingles where I bought a bag of Coconut Flour. In most supermarkets there are a variety of flours for sale but not generally Coconut Flour. This bag was just over €4 which compares well to the cost of Coconut Flour that I bought in Ireland.

Coconut Flour Bread

It was cold and rainy here in Malaga so it was the perfect day to get down to a little baking with the supplies that I bought yesterday. As I mentioned I made Keto Bread the other day with the almond flour but found it to be a bit eggy so the Coconut Flour bread is a better option. It turned out perfectly and slices beautifully - I put some in the freezer for over the next few days.

Roasted Almonds

I also roasted some almonds on coconut oil along with salt and pepper. Incredible!!

This was the first time I roasted almonds and I am seriously impressed how they taste. They actually taste too good - so good that you can't stop!

Dr Perter Brukner talks low carb

And if you want to know more about Keto have a look at this video and head off down the rabbit hole on Youtube....then let me know, what you think about it, in the comment box below

Glorious vintage!!!

Vintage Barbies and Juan Fernandiz

Special Edition Barbie Dolls

As I've mentioned before, I volunteer in a charity shop here in Malaga on Saturdays. Today when I arrived in to work I found the most wonderful things on display in the window - vintage and special edition Barbie dolls! I adore vintage Barbies (I put one at the top of my Christmas tree every year( but my twin sister more so - see her blog here about her Barbie collection.

The two special edition Barbies sold within an hour or two of the shop opening, while another Barbie (one with amazing real-like eyelashes) sold soon after. I am glad I got pictures of them before they sold. The Barbie in the blue dress is actually a special edition "Barbie Benefit Ball" featuring cosmetics company Benefit.

Juan Ferrándiz Vintage Books

Other donations for sale included these amazing vintage Juan Ferrándiz children's books. I'm not sure if you can see in the photos but the books include extra plastic items on the books. Look at the book about the tailor - you can see a plastic scissors hanging off the book. They are seriously cute and I would have loved to buy one or two - but I held back as I am only temporarily here in Spain so I don't want to have to buy things that I then have to lug back to Ireland. You can read more about the writer illustrator Juan Ferrándiz here 

Here's a batch of pics that I took of these cute little books. They were only put in to the window just before the store closed. But I imagine they will sell quickly on Monday morning when it reopens. If you are interested in them, get down to Cudeca in Plaza de Merced on Monday at 10am!

I love this cat with his little 3D bell around his neck - if I was buying one of these books, this is the one that I would probably buy

I think the first book is about a Traffic Police Officer - he has a little plastic whistle. As I mentioned the tailor has the little scissor and the character on the right of the pic has a bunch of keys while the Flamenco dancer doesn't seem to have any extras.

Look at the car driver in the centre - she has little plastic shades on her head!

And then the motor cyclist also has a pair of shades.  This book featuring two people on a Vespa was another of my favourites.

Look you can see the whistle here. They are a really cute collection of books with some of them having a more retro look (probably the cat and vespa are most retro looking and this is why I like those ones the best)

And here is the little character with his scissor while the lady on the right has her bunch of keys.  

Let me know in the comment box below if you were aware of the illustrator Juan Ferrándiz - this was my first encounter with his work.