And here's the second part of the December post I had promised. The second fortnight of December had a lot of sunshine.
We had coffee with my cousin and it was lovely.
I had coffee with my crafty group and here's a beautiful gift I received from Rania of
Barbadakia.Isn't it a sweet angel?
As I love Rania's work I also ordered one of her baby pendants for my niece but I also took part in her giveaway and guess what?I won! Isn't it the sweetest little baby?
With the crafty group we visited
LamamArt bazaar at the YMCA building. There were so many beautiful things to see there.The artist in honour was
Christine Willis and I was so happy to meet her in person and admire her work!
I bought some of her ceramic angels too. You can see one hanging from my Christmas lights.
I also bought this crocheted tree from my dear friend Lia of
Me and mama creations.Isn't it beautiful?
(photo by Lia)
And I also bought a little hat ornament from
Kapeloneira which I gifted to a friend. (I forgot to take a photo so here is a photo from her page on facebook)
The next day I went to another bazaar.This time it was an art exhibition at
Vlassis Art Gallery where you could buy art in very reasonable prices! There were some really beautiful pieces.
Here's the work by my friend Maria Kanteraki. She paints. and also makes papier mache figures.
And here is the work by my other friend Eleanna Barba who does engraving.
I wasn't sure which pieces to choose...
but finally I chose this colourful little girl by Maria.
And these lovely little houses by Eleanna.
Of course I put them in a frame!
A couple of days later the Parents' Association at my school did a bazaar too where I too gave some handmade things.Here are the lovely papier mache dolls one of my pupils made!Aren't they gorgeous?Unfortunately they were sold before I could buy one!
Here's what I bought.Some good luck charms. The little tree was made by a mother of one of my pupils and I sent it as a gift, the ceramic boat was made by our Art teacher at school who is so talented!
One day I went for coffee at my friend
Georgia's house and another friend
Vicky from Athens was there.I received some beautiful gifts from them.
I also went to one more charity bazaar (ELEPAP) at the YMCA building again. Here's what I bought. Some second hand things that will be gifted.
And this lovely decoupaged tealight candle holder made by my friend Efi, who is a volunteer there.
And some second hand books of course!
One lovely cold afternoon we went to
Asterokosmos, the Christmas village inside the International Trade Fair grounds.
I enjoyed walking around a bit although I felt a bit sad at the bad quality of the scenery around.
But young people were having fun at the ice skating rink.
Anyway hubby made a shadow puppet performance there (replacing a colleague on leave).
Afterwards we went to Vafopouleion Culture Centre. There was an art exhibition there with few interesting paintings.
But we went there to attend one more great shadow puppet performance by our friend Giannis Chatzis.
A day before schools closed for the Christmas holidays the music teacher, the headmaster, a teacher of the school and I took the children to sing the Christmas carols to the Mayor of our city. The city hall is very near our school. That was a fun experience in spite the fact that the Mayor was an hour late to our appointment!
December also brought us rather sad moments concerning the health of a dear friend who underwent operation but is well again!
The weather kept nicely sunny although cold all month!
We spent Christmas day with hubby's son, his girlfriend and her family in Serres. The meal was delicious.
And we received some lovely handmade gifts. The gifts are made by Ellie and her mother and you can learn the techniques how to make them too if you live in Serres at
Fold Your Design, a lovely place where workshops are done on various crafts.
Handmade cement tealight holder.
Makrame bracelet.
The week between Christmas and the New Year was sunny and cold too.
We walked around the city a lot.
Of course we visited relatives and friends...
Both my Godson and Billy, our friend's son, loved playing shadow puppets while listening to the book cd!
The last coffee of the year of the crafty group was when I got one more gift.Lina of
Linabug gave me this beautiful brooch on that day and I couldn't part with it all through the holidays.
There were more things I received this Christmas. The mail brought a lovely cross stitched bookmark from Athanasia of
Creations with Fantasy blog in Sweden.
Handmade gifts also arrived with love from Helen of
Karydotsouflo blog.
My seaglass friend Ian from England and his wife sent me the book their daughter Emma Cox wrote along with a handmade bookmark and card. Emma Cox got the National Literacy Trust New Children's Author Prize for her
Malkin Moonlight.
My mum brought me these beautiful cyclamens and my friend Gia gave me the beautiful white pomegranate.
My friend Frieda from Skiathos made some handmade gifts for me too. I especially like her speculaas cookies.
I also got a handmade ornament from Tua in Finland, some wool to make stones from Ruth in Israel, and a card from Lynne in U.S.A.
Doesn't Tua's ornament look wonderful at Christmas light?
Here's another gift and card from Kim in England.
In December I also received my exchange packets. This is the
So little Sleeping and so much reading #somuchChristmas parcel that I received from Marili.
I also received a gorgeous parcel from Juliana in Scotland.
Juliana even remembered Barca once again and sent her some treats!
Barca has been spoilt recently and she now even expects to eat from our food but of course that can't be done.
Another surprise gift arrived just before the end of the year. It was some lovely handmade items by my sweet friend
Maria Nicol.
And cards from Johanna and Cathy.
Also another parcel arrived,a book I won through
So little sleeping and so much reading.
Nyos by Vassilis Drolias, Kedros Publications.
Cathy's gift arrived earlier in the month but I kept it till Christmas. I love opening my parcels on Christmas Eve.She made me a beautiful scarf and added some more gifts.
My friends Aykut and Sehnaz from Canada sent me a sea glass Christmas card!How great is that!
I'd like to thank here all of my pen pals and friends who sent me their beautiful gifts and cards!Each thing I receive is totally appreciated.
I also mailed lots of letters, Christmas cards and parcels. I can't possibly show you all the things I sent. But this one is handmade so I am showing it to you.Here's a baby card I made for Kikitsa of
DIYmyday whose baby was born in December just before Christmas!
And this is a little wire and yarn wreath I had made earlier in the year and turned it into a lucky charm for Tua.
In December my mum made the traditional kourabiedes for Christmas.
I of course made some muffins.
In December I went to my ceramics classes and finished a coffee pot and a teapot! That's my teapot upside down and my coffeepot at the back.
And that's my coffee pot along with the brown one is which is a sample of my teachers' art.
In December I took part in the So little sleeping and so much reading Instagram photo challenge
#booxmas. I had to take a photo a day according to a theme that was given to us and that included books. I have made a separate blog post about it so you can read it there. Here are some of my favourite photos.
It was the night before Christmas
The best book of 2016
Christmas lights
White Christmas
I took some new years resolutions for 2017 just before the year ended. I decided to read 26 books for So little sleeping and so much reading #readathon17 challenge and 52 books in total for the year. In fact I chose some of the books to start the year. I definitely want to read all the books that were given to me as gifts and definitely War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
Another resolution has to do with my cross stitch. As I managed to follow the Snowflower Diaries SAL and finish the calendar in the year I thought I can manage at last to finish stitching this WIP I have had for ages. It is Thea Gouverneur's
Indonesian Dancer (or Balinese Dancer). I had made the face ages ago, then made half of the head flowers and then the other half but I haven't stitched on it for many many years. So 2017 will be the year to finish it.This is how I had left it.
This is how it will look finished.(photo taken from the Internet)
As I love taking photos before I close this blog post (too long I know) I want to show you the photos that took the most likes on Instagram in 2016.
Top row
The Syrian refugee family we put up,Lalaria beach on Skiathos island in June,White Xmas #booxmas
Middle row
Leaves and water in Petritsi, my beach house fireplace mantelpiece, ceramic stones by otchipotchi, crocheted stones by Margie of Resurrection fern and my crochet motifs covered stones.
Bottom row
Barca wants my food, Mermaid and sailor mixed media art I bought for charity made by Anthi of Chromata kai paramythia (Colours and Fairy Tales), Christmas dinner reading#booxmas
Also here's the Goodreads data for me for 2016.
I read 52 books. In total 17644 pages!That's a WOW!
The last day of 2016 was spent with some quiet time reminiscing things....
...drinking some sweet champagne....to everyone's health....
...eating with the family a great delicious meal that my sister-in-law had prepared.....
at my brother's house with his great glass tree collection....
..eating his amazing baklava....
...and enjoying ourselves...
If you have made it to the end of this looooong blog post you are my heroes!
10 comments:
Wonderful blog I made it to the end and so enjoyed reading it. Happy New Year and good health in 2017 hugs
τι ωραια ανάρτηση γιορτινή !! να χαρείς τα όμορφα δωράκια σου
καλη εβδομαδα ...φιλακια
Wow, you were busy! But with such enjoyable things - lovely creativity, time with friends and family, good food. It all adds up to good memories - thank you for sharing them.
I just love reading your posts! I enjoyed seeing all the wonderful hand made things. My DD and I always exchange hand made gifts. It really makes the gift so much more special. You have amazing crafters in Greece.
Υπέρλαμπρη ανάρτηση , τέλειες φωτογραφίες , μοναδικά συναισθήματα , άπειρη μελέτη 52 βιβλία !!! σημείωσα την πρόταση σου για το καλύτερο βιβλίο , η οικογένεια τα πάντα δείχνουν ότι ο χρόνος γεμίζει με καλές και αισιόδοξες στιγμές !!!Ετσι και καλύτερος ο χρόνος που ήρθε φίλη μου !!Σας φιλώ και τους τρεις σας
What a post! You have been so busy :)
I love the decoupage tea light holder, it looks so pretty!!!
Αριάδνη ήταν πολύ γεμάτες οι μέρες σου! Περάσατε όμορφα απ' ότι φαίνεται και το ταχυδρομείο είχε πολύ δουλειά. Τι όμορφα δωράκια που έφτασαν απο όλο τον κόσμο και είμαι σίγουρη ότι κ αυτά που έστειλες εσύ ήταν εξίσου όμορφα. Εύχομαι το 2017 να είναι πιο όμορφο απο το 2016 και να είσαι υγειής, δημιουργική και γεμάτη αγάπη όπως είσαι πάντα να σε χαιρόμαστε!
Κι έτσι όμορφα να συνεχίσει και το 2017! Κι αν δοκιμάσεις και τα ηχογραφημένα βιβλία το ρεκόρ σου θα ανέβει ακόμα περισσότερο! Καλή συνέχεια!!!
What a wonderful post write up. So much to see and lots of gifts plus the good looking food. Sounds like you had a great December .
I made it to the end of your post......no problem. It was beautiful, I loved it all, especially your dancer. Look forward to seeing it completed. War and Peace......I have yet to finish it, I try and then I give up.I might try one more time.
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