Gifted Gorgeousness February 2018

Jo of Serendipitous Stitching organizes a link-up party where we show stitch gifts we made to give or items that were gifted to us and are related to stitching and sewing.So on the 15th of each month we can link up to her blog. This is my first year taking part in this. Thanks Jo for the chance and the inspiration.

So from January 15th till February 14th I stitched this Valentine's card, an old freebie from a magazine, a heart brooch and a floral sachet also freebies from magazines. The brooch was gifted to me along with the magazines from dear Juliana some time ago and although I don't stitch Valentine things I decided to stitch them for the  Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog hop that Jo also hosted.The flower sachet was gifted to me by Jaquie. You can visit the blogs that took part in it here. And this was the photo I sent to my secret stitching sweetheart!

I also stitched the Craftpod Winter hoop.Now that shouldn't be here as the subscription to Craftpod was a gift to me but I really love to show this.

In January I also put all the threads of my next project in bobbins. The next big project is a framed series of monthly bookmarks showing flowers. Marabeth my dear friend in the States sent me this kit.

I plan to stitch one bookmark each month.So here is January and half of February.We are in the middle of February anyway!

In January I received a stitched giveaway win. This is a good luck pin cushion made by 

Velona and Klosti (which means Needle and thread) and I won it at the Secret Crafter 2017 exchange organised by Anna of In My Closet.

In January I started stitching in my fabric book. This fabric book was gifted to me by my friend Katerina of Mindspinfabrica and I decided to stitch a flower alphabet in it. First I iron transfered the alphabet on the fabric pages.

I decided to use leftover threads from previous projects.

I thought this would be a yearlong project and all of a sudden I realised that I love embroidery!So I started stitching one letter every day, in fact every evening!
A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

 Q

R

S

I even started adding Flower Fairies stickers and colouring pages I colour myself on the paper pages of the fabric book.

In February I stitched one more freebie from an old magazine and gave away the pattern and leftover threads afterwards.

This was so old that the price on the magazine was in drachmas.

I also stitched one Xmas ornament from a freebie from a magazine that again my friend Juliana had given me.

I started the Halloween pattern I had won in Jo's giveaway too. It is Halloween Happiness.The fabric I am stitching on is another giveaway win from Brigitte of the blog At Brigitte's Place. I started like this

and I am here so far.

 The mail brought some more stitchy things among other gifts at this time of year due to my birthday on January 28th as well. From dear Juliana I got this lovely parcel that included a stitching magazine with a lovely freebie, a little Xmas kit and some aida.

And I also got the giveaway win from Melanie of the blog Melanie The WIP slayer which is a lovely pattern and leftover threads and beads to stitch hopefully till Xmas.

So as you can see there is a lot of Gifted Gorgeousness in this post as well!
I'd love to thank all of my friends for sending me so many lovely gifts and Jo for organizing the GG.

Secret Stitching Sweethearts Blog Hop

Hello everyone! Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you do something really sweet and beautiful today and have a great time with the one you love!
Jo of Serendipitous Stitching organised a Secret Stitching Sweethearts Blog Hop this year again and I am taking part! I always need an initiative to stitch something out of my ordinary like Valentines LOL!
I received this beautiful Valentine's stitching photo in my e-mail inbox for the day! I really wonder who it is that made it! Come on reveal yourself!

I am not a cat person in fact I have a lovely dog but still cats are lovely to stitch and this is such a beautiful stitch!Thank you!
I will edit this post with my own Valentine's Day card when my recipient finds out who sent it to her!
So go visit Jo's blog and enjoy the blog hop every one and the day!
I couldn't leave you without a little Barca photo. That's my dog checking out on the flowers I received recently from my school colleagues at the theatre.

EDIT: As my secret stitching sweetheart revealed herself and I have revealed myself to my stitching sweetheart I can now edit this blog post.
The cats in love above were stitched by Leonore of Needle, pen & Sword. Thank you so very much, they are lovely!
I sent my photo to Jo and was received by Astrid of Dragon, stitches and stuff by Astrid. These are the things I stitched for Valentine's Day in order to take part in the blog hop!The card was a freebie from an old cross stitch magazine, the heart brooch was a freebie of Mollie Makes sent to me by my friend Juliana, and the floral sachet was again a freebie from a magazine.

Hubby remembered it is Saint Valentine's today so although we don't really celebrate it he brought me flowers and a lovely cake! That was quite a surprise!

Thank you love!
Hope everyone has a lovely day with the ones you love!

January 2018

It is unbelievable how time flies and I admit blogging is not a priority for me anymore. Therefore although I tried to blog at least once a month in 2017 I stopped in July and didn't manage to go on. I don't think it is very important to blog about the rest of 2017 anymore so I will begin the 2018 months and see how far I go.
So here is January 2018.
It started with a bad cold that took 15 days to get off me. Hubby was also sick so I had to walk Barca one morning out in the cold. The view of the full moon was magic!

Talking about Barca, oh she is such a sweet girl. Look at her how she is watching a dolphin on TV.

And how she follows grandma everywhere begging for a snack from her food.

And she loves flowers.

 January included some pie cutting.I was lucky to win the lucky coin in our pie and

in our ladies' company of friends. That included a watch too and I loved it.

What the mail brought in January. A heavy month due to the Christmas holidays and of course because it is my birthday month. So lots of Christmas cards from Anastasia of
Creations with Fantasy, Tua, Ian, Lynne, Melissa and Gaby. Melissa painted on her card and Ian painted the card himself.And Gaby sent me a Scottish thistle coaster and a lovely beaded snowflake she made herself.Isn't it gorgeous?

I also received lovely gifts from Angeliki pocoloco

and from Theodora and Nikoletta.

From Kim

From Marabeth

From Margrit

From Craftpod, that's a seasonly or yearly subscription and you receive a kit to make during the season or the year.

From Sophie and Aykut, who also painted his own card.

My win from inmycloset giveaway from VelonakaiKlosti

From Marabeth for my birthday

I love what it said inside.

She even sent me the Times about the women's march of last year and it arrived the same day as this year's march.

From Melissa came the book Flat Stanley which I will read to my pupils and Ian painted me a Paddington birthday card

which was followed with Paddington's suitcase full of goodies.

Thank you to all my friends who sent me gifts for the Christmas holidays and my birthday.

In January I took out some fabric bags to use with my shopping as bags are to be paid now every time you go shopping. I always loved using fabric bags so I have a lot in my collection.

 In January I started stitching on my WIPs and started a rotation programme that includes one Xmas ornament, one freebie kit, finishing of old wips, a monthly bookmark and more.So in January I stitched this Greek Santa ornament.

I finished this runner.

I stitched my dolls face features.

I made the Little Mermaid from The Little Stitcher and made it into a bag.

A Valentine's card (an old freebie),a heart brooch and a floral sachet,

Then I decided to stitch in the fabric book that Katerina had gifted me with some time ago.So I stamped on it with some old transfer floral alphabet.And decided to use up all my leftover threads.

In January I made A

B

C

D

E

F

G

and H

I also started on a Halloween piece.

And made the craftpod embroidery hoop which looks lovely and was even included in the craftpod instagram post.

In January I went to Koumpi coffee and crafts cafe to meet with my crafty group and we also cut our pie.

 and I again although I didn't find the coin in my piece I was so lucky to receive some beautiful gifts  from Lena, Kikitsa, Anna, Elsa and Evangelia of Happy Deck

 I also got some books from a friend's destashing that look very interesting!

 At another meeting with other friends Maria gifted us all with this amazing tomato jam from
Family Jar.

My friend Gia also gave me some gifts for me and Barca and the whole family.

I also recieved this amazing painting by Nikos Kryonidis the artist himself.

My sweet son gifted me with this lovely bouquet and guess what I was again sick on my birthday.

I had a birthday cake though at the Drama club as we had some rehearsals too. Me and Ioanna, another member of the team have our birthdays close together so we had a common birthday cake.

And here are the gifts I got from my friends at the Drama club.

The books I read this month Without Family by Hector Malot.

With Family by Hector Malot.

I had read the former as a kid and had really liked it so when I found them at the school library I had to borrow and read them. I also read half of this.

I even arranged my bookcase to see what I have unread and they are many.The top shelf are the books in Greek, and the bottom in English.

In January I made these ornaments with the slices of wood I was sent in the srcret crafter exchange and that won me the in my closet giveaway win.

In January I bought some bulbs too that bloomed really quickly.

And on the last day of the month I acted in the children's play "Game Over" with my Drama club Dithyramvos ex amaxis. The play is written by the teachers Ioanna Katsarou and Afroditi Ioannou and it is directed by Ioanna Katsarou. I play the Assassin from Assassin's Creed in the play and the play talks about the addiction to games and how bad it is for children.

So that was all about my January.Hope you enjoyed reading this and looking at all the photos.