It was my birthday!

On the 28th.
I went to school in the morning.
It was fun playing a recycling game with my 5th graders.

I treated my fellow teachers with this orange pie. Every one loved it.You can find the recipe here.

Coming home I was met with a happy family. Hubby,son, Barca!
I cleaned after Barca, ate fish soup made by hubby, unfortunately not very successful one, and spent the rest of the day with school preparartion and answering e-mails, phone calls and saying thank you to facebook Happy Birthdays! Ok.I would prefer a more lively one, but hubby was under the weather, son was at after school tutoring and Barca was restless!
Anyway here are my gifts.
Hubby updated my computer so now it is much much faster!Great I can blog faster! He also got me a SonyExperia White with his mobile contract for a very good reduced price. But he had given me that weeks ago!I am not yet used to it!Smartphones, my....!What does the name mean? That you should be extra smart to use them?Those touch screen tactile features are beyond me!Anyway I will get used to it!

(photo from the Internet)
Have I told you that the day I got my new mobile I found a Samsung Galaxy in the street? Fortunately I found the owner as well and returned it!
My mum brought me lovely roses.

"She is taking photos! I can go out!"

 "Are they edible?"

Another gift was the blooming of my Christmas cactus.

Finally I received some birthday cards and gifts.
Birthday cards from Brigitte in France, Maria Jose from the Acores, Carolyn and Cathy in England.

" I won't eat those they belong to you!"

And gifts.

Cross stitch magazines from Brigitte.

 Tea cards and Cottage Gardens booklet from Cathy.

Thank you every one for the lovely wishes, gifts, cards, warm thoughts for me!

My 2012 cross stitch finishes.

I did lots of cross stitch in 2012 but only today did I manage to make a complete set of pictures of them.
So here they are in the order of completion.
A Green Fox of Skiathos Project logo pin for Frieda.

The Greek island by Michael Powell.

In a Lidl frame.

For my cousin Kalliope and her husband Sorin who are architects in Romania, gifted when we travelled there.

An alphabet sampler for Braden, my friend Marabeth's first grandchild in the States.I have the exact same sampler made for my son as a Round Robin when he was born.

A coaster I had from a magazine freebie with a lovely pattern from another cross stitch magazine freebie, sent to me from Juliana and made for Cathy in England.

A house warming gift for my best friend Gia.

In a custom made frame.

A set of flower fairies from a magazine for the two daughters of my friend Stathis as a christening gift.

Frames by IKEA.

A Scottish thistle fridge magnet sent as a kit by Juliana.

This is how far I went with my Balinese dancer. I finished all the upper left part of the head.

As you can see there is a lot to make still.

A neighbour's twins birth gift given at their christening. Custom made frame.

Travelling pattern from Kathy's Sit and Stitch blog.

 Framed in an IKEA frame.

 Seagulls sent as a kit from Marabeth framed in an IKEA frame for the beach house.

Humming bird sent as a kit from Lisa in the States.

 Cardinal sent as a kit from Marabeth.

 Flower wreath heart sent as a kit from Lisa.

 Framed in an IKEA frame decorating my bedroom.

 Mermaids, a freebie pattern by The Little Stitcher. Made twice for Dawn and Frieda and framed in IKEA frames.

 Christmas cards made from various patterns.Using left over fabric and threads.Unfortunately I did not take  photos of all.

This one went to Marabeth and I added some buttons I bought from this etsy shop buzzybee.

thalasseaglass shop update

I decided to spend some time on my little etsy shop today.
I am an amateur and I am not a qualified artist but I like making things and want to try my hands to all kinds of things.
For the time being I added these three pendants and more will come.

 Lighthouse pendant 2

 Valentine's Day sea glass pendant

Lighthouse pendant 1

The two lighthouse pendants are made with a variety of techniques. First a Greek postage stamp of 1995 was stuck behind the sea glass I collected myself from the beach at my beach house. Then I painted the lighthouse on the sea glass with permanent ink and covered it with matte glaze. Finally I wire wrapped all around it.That's the postage stamp behind the sea glass. It is the Psitalea lighthouse at the entrance of Peiraeus Harbour.

The heart charm sea glass is for Valentine's Day and is wire wrapped with two different kinds of sea glass.
You can find them all and more in my thalasseaglass etsy shop.

On the 6th of January and a recipe

I had prepared this post but with this and that (it is January 22nd already?) I didn't post it so here it is.
On Epiphany Day January 6th, still off school, I prepared a meal for my brother and sis, my mum and so it happened Frieda, my friend from Skiathos, was here too.

 Simple decor. Glass Christmas trees all gifts of my brother. Ionia porcelain china dishes.

 The coasters were last year's Christmas present from my dear friend Cathy in England.

We finished our meal with Orange pie.Delicious!Thanks to my drama club friend Areti for giving me this recipe.

Orange pie recipe
Ingredients

1 carton of yoghurt (200gr)
1 glass of corn oil
1 glass of sugar
1 glass of fresh orange juice
5 eggs
zest of three oranges
vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 packet of pastry sheets(phyllo, not puff)

Turn on the oven to 180 degrees.
Crush the pastry sheets into small pieces and put them in the baking tray.
Mix all the rest of the ingredients together and add them on the pastry sheets.
Bake for about 40 minutes.
When we take it out of the oven and  it is cold we add the syrup.

How to make the syrup.
Add in a saucepan 1 and a half glasses of water, one glass of fresh orange juice, 2 cups sugar, vanilla and cinammon and bring to the boil. Pour over the pie.