That's how life is...

I don't feel much like blogging right now as there is the on going drama of the ship that is burning and being evacuated amidst a horrific storm in the channel between Italy and Greece.
Half of the people on it are Greek and the other half are of various other nationalities. Rumour has it that some are illegal immigrants trying to escape to the West! It does not matter who they are on it. What matters is that they are saved,  all of them. There is already one casualty, a Greek man from Switzerland. We hope he will be the last and all that will end successfully. We have been watching our TV for hours.You can read about it here.

In the meantime other important things are happening here. We are heading fast for elections as a president has not been elected in today's Parliamentary voting.

And of course New Year's Eve is coming fast and we have to get prepared.

Right at this very "significant" point in time our dishwasher broke down so right now the handyman is here to fix it hopefully!

Other things show evidence of serious trouble, hubby's laptop, the washing machine, my camera! Oh come on!

To make things lighter I will show you photos of......my plants....

I have very few plants at home, in my little balcony. Just mainly succulents.

 Hopefully I will have better mood to blog tomorrow. Have a nice day!

Secret Santa blog exchange

This Christmas I took part in three gift exchanges.
The first one was the Etsy Greek Street Team Secret Santa Exchange about which I blogged here.
Then it was the materials exchange of  In My Closet blog. You can read all about it here.
And finally I took part in the Secret Santa Blog exchange which was organised by Zina of
efzin creations and Gia of One Perfect Day.

I  received a lovely parcel from Helen of ah kounelaki blog.
Helen sent me a beautiful fuchsia picture frame which she embellished with lace and beads, along with a blue felt flower brooch and a cinammon stick and ribbon tree ornament!
I loved everything, thanks Helen. I am looking for the perfect thing to stitch and put in the frame!

You can find Helen here on facebook.
I had to send my gift to Katerina of Kyriaki sto spiti (Sundayprojects) blog. I made a card with felt and embellishments

and I made a paper weight out of a felted wool ball on which I stitched sea glass and beads. Katerina liked my gift and you can read all about it in her blogpost here.

I am glad you liked my gift Katerina!
Zina and Gia thanks for organizing this! It was fun!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone, family, relatives, friends, readers,the whole world!
I really would like to thank especially all those who read this blog  and those who leave comments.
I try to answer all those comments that are connected to an e-mail. Those of you who are no-reply bloggers I am unable to answer.
But anyway it is fun to read your comments and see how you like my blogposts!
Today as usual we spent the day at my brother's.
Both my brother and my sister-in-law had decorated their house beautifully.
They have  a lovely Christmas tree.

With beautiful ornaments on it.

 Look at this gorgeous Santa!

 And they have a forest of small glass Christmas trees (that's one of my brother's collections)

 They had cooked a great turkey with stuffing, potatoes and lots of appetisers and salads.

 My brother made traditional pistachio baklava and kadaifi which were delicious.

I made a Christmas cake. It was the first time I made it following an Internet recipe.You can find it here.I am glad it turned out very good.

 We had fun taking pictures trying to make the perfect family picture!LOL!
Here everyone is looking at my necklace! It is a LotsaLites Christmas lights necklace I bought in the States. I paid 6 dollars for it in the Mystic Christmas in July shop,that's double the price you can see on this site!Be careful it comes much more expensive on other sites!Everyone at school was very impressed too!

 Smile!

 Say cheese!

 Mmmmm very serious....with a Christmas lights necklace and Christmas earrings!

 Cousins!

 Mother and children!

I gave my niece this lovely cushion. I ordered it at inmyc and the photos were taken by my niece who loves photography!

Hope you all had a great day!

Our trip to the U.S.A. (15)- At Maynard Greenhouse

So on the same day July 6th, after the tag sales we went to visit a Greenhouse.

Marabeth wanted to buy some plants in pots for her garden and I wanted to meet Carole Maynard whom I had known through her blog and she just happened to be in the same town as Marabeth.
Carole didn't know I was going and was most surprised to see me, a reader of her blog all the way from Greece.

We chatted a little bit and then we took lots of photos of her beautiful flowers and plants of her Greenhouse.

 Look at the next two photos. One taken by me and one by hubby!

 I loved her dog!

 And we spotted some geese going to the river.

I loved that beautiful house in the neighbourhood too.

We promised to meet Carole again before we left the States but unfortunately there was not a minute free to do so.
Still the gorgeous memories of the beautiful flowers in the Greenhouse are still with me.