Paint

Hi everyone!
I know I haven't blogged for some time now but well so many things are happening and I can't find the time or the mood to blog.
Today I decided to do a short blogpost initiated by today's prompt in
                                                              Our Beautiful World.
Although I stepped down from the contributors of OBW blog for lack of time I said I will take part once in a while.
So it was just a coincidence that today hubby and I went to watch a shadow puppet performance by our dear friend, talented young man Odysseas Kanlis at Sofouli Theatre. The performance was excellent!And there is one more today so my local friends can see it too.

But imagine my surprise when while entering the bar of the theatre I saw two of its walls covered in painted frescoes of various famous actors and actresses, both Greek and international, some who have died and some very much alive.
I adored the paintings and took lots of pictures.
The painter is called George Salpigkidis and he is really talented.

 My favourite was definitely Tzeni Karezi, a famous Greek actress.

 Kostas Voutsas was really life like here.

 I found it so funny that Dionysis Papagianopoulos a Greek actor of years past is in between Marilyn Monroe and George Clooney.

 And Rena Vlahopoulou in between Smaragda Karydi and Johnny Depp!

 And George Konstandinou next to Will Smith.

 But I also found why Angelina Jolie divorced Brad Pitt. That's the man she is in love with! His name is Kostas Chatzihristos!

 The painter has brilliantly left an empty space in between George Clooney and Johnny Depp, my two most favourite actors, for me to take a photo with them!

 I really enjoyed looking at all those actors!
Today I am joining Our Beautiful World. Why don't you join in too?

Big Birthday Blog Hop!

Jo of  Serendipitous Stitching is celebrating her birthday on the 17th September with a
                                                        big birthday blog hop!
She gave each of the bloggers-followers a year to write about.
We had to do three things.
1. Write what Jo did that year, information she provided us with.
2. Write what we did that year.
and 3. Post a photo of something we have stitched.

I got 1968.
The funny thing is that Jo and I have the same age so I was 2 at that year as well, only a couple of months older.

This is what Jo wrote about that year.


1968 - Jo was 2.  She was living in Catterick, Yorkshire with her Mum, Dad, a cat called Snowy and a new baby sister.  Dad was in the Army so Jo was an Army Brat!  The family moved to Catterick at the start of the winter and it snowed for the entire time they lived there before the family moved to warmer climes.



And here's what I can say about me in that year.

1968- I was 2. I was living in Istanbul, Turkey with my Mum, Dad, older brother Michael and grandma Ariadne. Dad was working at a wire factory. I don't remember much about that year. But I do remember living in a block of flats with a back yard and I played with a little Armenian girl called Alin. Our family had to move to Greece a couple of months later (in 1969) as the relationship between Greece and Turkey was getting worse.

As I haven't been stitching much lately I will add a photo of the last thing I stitched which is the month of May from the SAL- Joyful World by Snowflower Diaries.
I am really behind but hope to finish it by the end of the year! We will see.
Having read in Jo's blog about  Justine's Solo September  I thought of taking part in it too, but wasn't sure if I could commit.
So here's how I started

 and here's what I am up to now!

But if this isn't enough for you I can also share a photo of one of my finishes for 2012. That year was a very productive year cross stitch wise so you can read and see all of my finishes of that year in this link.
This one was a house warming gift for my best friend.

Dear Jo, I wish you to have a great birthday! Enjoy the day! And many happy returns!
Why don't you visit Jo's blog to wish her yourself?

Summer is over....

and today it is drizzling and gloomy after two days of heavy rain!
Oooops! Hello friends! How are you? We are ready into fall!
It's been a while I know. I wasn't really in the mood for blogging all summer. That's because on the one hand I haven't got the best of Internet access at the beach house to blog and on the other I chose to do other things instead of being on the computer.
Anyway here is a loooong post full of photos of what I did this summer.
Summer holidays started just after schools closed and we spent four days on Skiathos island in June.

 I will blog about this trip later on although I know I should have done it earlier to trigger you to visit the island as well. We had a great time!And it was so nice meeting our friend Frieda again!
Then we went to the beach house and spent a week cleaning and redecorating.
I loved the clean look of my mantelpiece.

I also loved all the paintings my friends Marabeth, Eleanna and Ian painted for me!They adorn the newly painted guest room.

We also solved some plumbing problems from last year as we were expecting our American sea glass friends Janet and Bruce to visit. 

You can read all about their visit here. We had a great time!
And then a slow paced summer began. As last summer was dreadful with all the plumbing and sewage problems and my gall bladder operation I really needed to relax and do the things I liked this summer.
So I rested a lot and slept well.
I swam a lot no matter what the weather was like!

I even swam during a rainfall nearby! That was quite a challenge for me!

But most of the time the sea was calm and beautiful!

I went sea glassing  a lot.

I found lots of beautiful pieces some rare ones like this yellow one.

I got tricked by this piece that looked black ...

but was green!

That's a light bulb insulator.

And that's a double piece porcelain.

 That's a burnt piece.

 That's an old Greek coin.

But my favourite pieces are these two. This one that looks like a tiny piece from an ancient glass vessel.

And that Vicks jar lip.

During summer we spent time with family and friends. We ate together.

 Our Syrian friends visited us as well.

And we went to the nearby fountain show again.

We also spent a day at Moustheni village where I have relatives. It was so nice meeting them again!

 During summer Barca was our best companion everywhere. As she hates being alone at the beach house we take her with us wherever we go.

But I am sorry to say there are some neighbours who don't like dogs and we have to keep her inside when they are around!

This summer the sunsets again were wonderful!

My favourite pasttime after sea glassing that is was taking photos of nature. My son's rose bush bloomed all the time!

And our pomegranate tree is full of fruit.

I caught a couple of fish with my own hands.

And a couple of crabs but all of them were left back to sea!

I loved birdwatching!

I spotted jellyfish and sea urchins.

A starfish.

Tiny insects.

Bees.

 Spiders (which are not my favourite)

Isn't our neighbour's cat the most beautiful?

 There were lizards of course, and what a pity that I didn't manage to take a pic of the green one too this year!

 A slug.

 A little frog.

 And many beautiful butterflies!

I met a neighbour who went fishing every day and one day he fished this huge pina (which later I learnt he shouldn't have taken out as it is a protected species)

I read lots of books this summer and completed the #readathon16 of So little sleeping and so much reading challenge but decided to continue nontheless.

One of my favourites.

My favourite of all are the last two.

Handicraftwise I didn't manage to make much this summer. Although I also wanted to take part in the Summer Challenge organised by Anna of In my Closet I couldn't make myself do it.I didn't do much cross stitch either

 but I did manage to make some sea glass felted stones!

...to give as gifts!

I also made the house number plate with beeach finds.

And finally I managed to make the Hamsa hand my friend Ruth had sent me from Israel as a wedding gift.

This summer I even fancied trying this!

And this!

 Or make this!

But I didn't!LOL!

This summer we enjoyed watching the Olympics.

We also went to the theatre and saw Aristophanes' Ploutos which was very good.

We went to Saint Mamas open air market.

And to Marmaras to eat some lovely homemade pizza and ice cream at Flavours' House.

During summer we came back to the city for very specific reasons One of them was to wish happy birthday to dear Angela of Poco Loco at a surprise party at Koumbi coffee and crafts cafe. The birthday cake was lemon pie and it was divine!

We also came back to the city to say goodbye to our Syrian friends who left for Athens and from there they will be relocated to Romania. It was a sad farewell but we wish them all the best and hope they find a better life there and make a new start! We miss them already!

 I miss summer already,too!
I miss the daydreaming....

I miss the light....

I miss the sounds...

I miss the carefree times....

Goodbye summer!