Easter decorations

Unlike previous years that we went to the beach house for the whole of the holidays certain things (the weather among them) kept us in the city this year!
Therefore I cleaned up, and decorated with my collection of Easter eggs.
Here are some photos.
My mum's embroidered Easter cloth.

 And some close ups.
I made this collection of animal Easter eggs many many years ago when my son was five, during our first Easter together after my divorce! We tried to have fun and it was so great to make them. The eggs were store bought dyed in various colours and I think I had found the patterns in a Marie Claire Idees magazine.

I hang some eggs bought in Prague from branches I collected at a walk.

The Indian girl.

 Blown glass.

 Two huge ostrich eggs from Africa.

Marabeth's glass egg(painted from the inside) in AtelierStella vase (I had won in a giveaway) and two Romanian eggs.

 Some of the eggs I have made during the past years at Easter. And some given to me as gifts.

 Candle eggs inside candle holders.

 The bird I was given this Christmas by a pupil inside a crocheted basket given to me by another pupil next to Margie's of Resurrection fern stone.

 My aunt's hen next to the porcelain candle holder I bought at Nafplio this Christmas.

 Wooden eggs from Romania along with a wooden ladybug from Prague inside a basket by my best friend next to a bunch of beautiful fabric bunnies bought at the Orphanage Melissa bazaar this Easter.

 Tomorrow I will be dyeing this year's Easter eggs.

Christmas Gifts

This year I tried not to spend too much on gift giving. So I made my own gifts.
I also tried not to spend too much on gifts to myself.
I had to buy my cologne as it had finished and found a day that there was 30% off. Pure White Linen, I have been wearing it for years.I love the little sample gifts they give with the purchase of the cologne.
I also bought 2014 charms and some felt wool for my stones in colours I didn't have.

 That was something I hadn't done for a long time! Buy craft magazines. I bought my dear
Marie Claire Idees which is so good and so cheap. Inspite the fact that I don't speak French, at least I can see the great pics.
I also bought Crafts Beautiful for the felt ornaments it had in the kit and hope to make them.
Finally I bought Mollie Makes for the first time. I had heard so much about this magazine but it is soooo expensive in Greece. But again I really wanted to buy it for the felt kit on the cover and to have the experience of it at last. It is very good. I really loved reading it. I want to try so many things in it.

 Now things I received. A little money that I gave good use to (more on another blogpost).
Two bags.

One from hubby(red) and one from my cousin (felt grey).Unfortunately there was a pin on the grey bag and I lost it!
And a watch from hubby!No it isn't gold.

This lovely coffee maker from my sister-in-law. And lots of coffee and chocolate!

I love making filter coffee without having to use the big coffee maker.

This little porcelain bird from one of my students. I haven't received a gift from a student for ages and it was a nice surprise.

Hubby and I received this beautiful dish with homemade cookies from one of his old students and there were beautiful metal gifts in it.

 The children are designs from an old school book and the other two are Shadow Puppet figures.

I also received my photo portrait from school.

And a gift from my best friend this felt bag with chocolate.

And the things I gave.

This felted stone to my best friend.

 I also made her the fairy bread (I found the recipe in DesireEmpire blog. Thanks Carolyn!). It was super easy, really beautiful to look at and absolutely delicious and the kids loved it and also my effort to make something from their mum's background was appreciated).

 And one of my felt ornaments.

 I made my niece this pendant. I bought the metal charm, painted it and added beads and laces and a chain. She loves photography! That's why I chose this charm.

 I made this stone for my cousin in Athens.

 And this huge one for my other cousin. I had found the coin at the beach and thought that since he is an archaeologist it suits him although it isn't a very old one.

 And this one for my other cousin.

I also made this felt ornament charm for my sister-in-law.

I love making, giving and receiving gifts! Don't you?

A swan landed in my mail box!

Staying away from the computer and the Internet for a week was so good!
A couple of things that I wanted to tell you last week before leaving but did not have time then.
This was a surprise parcel from my dear sea glass friend Ian from England. He painted it himself and sent it to me. He knows me so well. I love swans and I really appreciate his thoughtfulness to send it to me.
This will be framed in the fall.

The sea glass on the corner is John and Juliana's from Scotland.
Something small I bought from a lady who came to sell her handmade jewelry at school a couple of days before we closed.

It is sitting on an otchipotchi lace stone.
Just before leaving I finished the part of my Balinese Dancer that I had aimed for. Now the whole head and flowers is finished. Isn't she gorgeous?
 I decided not to take this along to the summer house. It is too big and too complicated so I took along something smaller and summery! I will show you when it is finished.

These are the 17 books  I took with me. They are both in English and in Greek. Do you think I am too ambitious? Yes maybe I am. But I read really a lot in summer, in winter I stitch more!
The majority are from foreign authors and they were books I had in my library already, some I had bought at book bazaars and are second hand, very few are new purchases. I decided to take them all at the summer house to see how many I will manage to read. And I am going to read them in an alphabetical order of the author's surname. Some of them will be donated afterwards.

And here are the only two magazines I had bought this spring. My always favourite Marie Claire Idees which are the only affordable ones.

 Here are a couple of the ideas in them I liked. I admit I don't find them as interesting as I used to a couple of years ago. Maybe because the Internet gives you so many ideas that magazines haven't got much to add anymore.

I am now back from the summer house. I had a great time. You will see in the next post.Thank you for your summer wishes.

Blooming lentils.

Today we spent most of the day on paying bills, doing chores for my mum who is in bed with a hip problem and then spent quite a couple of hours at the supermarket. We hadn't been to a big supermarket for more than 6 months as hubby wasn't getting paid so we were trying to keep expenses at the minimum. We didn't spend too much this time either but there was more variety in products and we took advantage of sales on certain house cleaning products too.
Now some more things from December's diary.
It is a custom here to put lentils on wet cotton on Saint Barbara's day on the fourth of December so that they bloom by Christmas! I did it this year and here was the result to decorate all this time long!
Here they are near my otchipotchi crochet stones.

 The only Christmas magazine I bought this year was Marie Claire Idees. I always used to buy about five Christmas crafts magazines but this year I thought I should save up! So no money no mags!Marie Claire Idees has the same reasonable price for years and I love to have a look at it although I don't make its crafts very often as I don't really have time. This issue had some fantastic ideas. Here they are!

 Unique Christmas trees!

 This great tablecloth!

 I love this paper craft!

 And this cross stitched runner!

 This is one of the gifts I bought my Godson. There will be another blogpost about our time together on December 30th. This book is called Byzantine Constantinople by Evi Tsitiridou-Christophoridou and he is taught about Byzantium in his grade at school. The exciting thing about this book is that the drawings were made by my cousin Thanasis Demou who is also a very good actor in Athens.

 A photo of the IKEA plant pot I had bought some time ago and here is how it ended up.

 A gift from a colleague and friend who makes them herself. I hate my old looking hand.

 A gift from the Parents' Association of my school to all teachers at school. I added it to my collection of good luck charms on my living room wall.

 And this is how I am using the velvet covered box it came in. So helpful with seed beads.

 A scarf I made in December in just three nights!I don't believe I made it. I now need to add a button to look perfect.