Around the World Blog Hop

It's been some time now that Around the World Blog Hop is taking place.
I was asked by sweet Sarah of Sarah in Stitches to take part so here I am. I am supposed to answer four simple questions.
So here goes:
1. What are you working on?
Currently I am not working on cross stitch. I have so many other things happening. I have been taking part in various workshops and have been learning new techniques.
First I was taught needle weaving by Natassa Fokianidou aka Faraona.
Here is my finished pendant.

Then needle felting by Christina of Celdeconail. Here is my finished Halloween pumpkin.

And then weaving by Anna of inmycloset. Here is my "Sunset at Chalkidiki" handwoven art.

I am hopefully going to continue cross stitching and making my sea glass felted stones and my felt ornaments but I also want to continue with the new techniques I have learnt and get better in them. Of course I have got lots of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) which I wil hopefully continue,too. But Christmas is coming soon and I have to prepare for that.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I don't think my work differs. If we are talking about the felted stones then they are different from other people's because I have added sea glass and other beach finds on them. But the rest of my work is usually something I saw somewhere and got inspired and made my own.
Pink and blue stone, gift to my friend Dora.

3. Why do I create what I do?
I love creating. I love keeping busy. If it is not something handmade, it will be something at interior decoration at home. Or else something on my blog. I love meeting people and learning creative things and making things with them. That's why I take part in so many workshops.
But cross stitch has always been my love. My very first. My grandmother Ariadne taught me how to do cross stitch and we also did it as a lesson at Primary school and I was always good at it. I always come back to it in the end. It relaxes me.
A Michael Powell cross stitch picture I stitched twice, one for my friend Marabeth in the States and one for myself.

My sea glass felted stones were isnpired by the talented Lisa Jordan of lilfishstudios. Her stones I fell in love at once and wanted to try something like that but with a touch of my own so I added beads and sea glass and other finds from the beach. They give me so much satisfaction to make them and each one is so different form the other.

I also do lots of felt ornaments every time I have the chance or if I want to make a gift for some occasion. Recently I made this little closet ornament for my friend Anna of in my closet.

4.How does my creative process work?
With cross stitch I just choose what I like to stitch usually from a pattern in a magazine or maybe a kit if I have one. I always do counted cross stitch and I mainly make things to be framed and I give them as gifts.
With my sea glass felted stones I take a stone and decide by its shape what colour I want to cover it with. Then I take my beads and sea glass and try combinations till I find something I am excited about. I stitch each bead and each item on the stone separately. And the design evolves little by little by itself. No two stones are the same ever.
Well, phewww I managed to answer all questions. Now I am supposed to enroll three people to continue with Around The World Blog Hop. I only managed to find one person so hopefully the rest of you who are interested can enroll yourselves.
So I am enrolling Anna of inmycloset to continue on the Around The World Blog Hop.Anna is the creative organising mind behind all the amazing workshops I have been attending for a couple of years now. I met her through Etsy Greek Street Team as she also has an etsy shop.
Thanks Sarah this was fun!

What the mail brought-online purchases

I am not an impulsive buyer in real life!Unless I find something extra special at the open antique market! Virtually though I buy things more easily!Anyway as things are tough now I have limited my purchases to the minimum.

Here is something I had bought a loooong time ago from Sonia of Cozy Memories. It was to be used with my mobile. In the end it is used for my spending money!Small as my money!

Then I also bought a little card holder. The coasters are generous gifts fromSonia.

And the last puchase from Sonia is this lovely pair of buckets.

Then I bought this brooch which is lovely and is depicting the sea world.

It is made by Diane Bashaw of Thornberry Studio.I am planning to frame this!

Later I bought something I always wanted to, a felted stone made by the person who inspired me to felt stones, Lisa of lilfishstudios.

And I also bought wool to felt from Lisa.I am looking forward to using it in my future stones.

Shop update and a giveaway!

For a time now I was trying to figure out what to make for my little etsy shop that is not jewelry (as that does not sell at all!) and to be something different from all the things I have seen so far that use sea glass!I was trying to form my creativity that has been bugging me into something new!
So I took some things!

...and came up with this idea!

How do you like it?
It is a stone I collected from my beach!
First I covered it with wet felted wool, a technique I learnt from this tutorial and I admit Lisa's stones have been an inspiration for some time now!
Then I glued some sea glass and broken shells smoothed by sea waves and then stitched one by one tiny seed beads or bigger glass beads to make a flowing pattern of water coming on the sand and leaving behind some sea treasures.
That was the idea!
I was over enthusiastic with it and started making some more stones!

Of course Barca had to inspect them and give her consent on my making some more!

The first to give me feedback was Frieda, my friend from Skiathos and my dear Marabeth from the States.

I gave Frieda this stone which she liked very much.

So I made some more stones.

Each stone is totally different from the other. Some have the same base colour felted wool, some have similar shells or the same beads but as each one is made and stitched piece by piece they are all totally different!

And they look gorgeous all together!
I have always had something with stones. I always loved collecting them and I always admired people who painted them or covered them in all kinds of ways.
I love Margie's crocheted stones which have inspired lots more people afterwards, and I am so happy I am the proud owner of one of her bigger pieces too!
And I always admired Paula's beautiful porcelain stones which of course I cannot make.
And I love all the beautiful painted stones that so many artists make, like Geninne, and have been so inspired by Lisa's wet felted embroidered stones maybe because I do cross stitch and use threads. Lisa is an expert in wet felting and needle felting and only recently did I manage to buy one of her stones which I will show you when it arrives.
Being inspired by Lisa of lilfishstudios I showed her first my stones and explained what I am doing so that to tell her that she was my inspiration and she was so sweet to let me know that she liked that.
Thank you goes to all inspiring ladies I mentioned so far!
So here are the stones you will find on my thalasseaglass which I have neglected so much!

If they sell well I will continue making them.If they don't then I guess etsy shop is not for me!LOL!But I will continue making them for myself as they look gorgeous on my table and desk!
I will be adding one stone to the shop everyday for a few days!
And of course to start this new enterprise in a beautiful way I am giving away one of my stones to a lucky follower!
This one that so reminds me of a sea anemone!

So to win, please be a follower and leave a comment on this blogpost only leaving an e-mail so that I can find you if you win. Please like my thalasseaglass on etsy and/or facebook and please feel free to share the giveaway!
I will choose a winner on Wednesday June 5th  World Environment Day at 5 in the afternoon local time (Greece).
Please keep your fingers crossed with this!