Frieda was here.

I have so much fun when my friend Frieda from Skiathos is here. We do things together and I have an excuse for hubby that Frieda will just stay for a couple of days and we have to do things and see things. So I am away from home all the time!LOL!Not that I need an excuse for that!
So Frieda came on Wednesday and we had some coffee and caught up. Then on Thursday which was Tsiknopempti we went for a shopping walk at the city centre. I bought some licorice tea and some felt to try my hands on wet felting.

Then we had lunch at a small tavern. It is customary to eat meat on that day and so we did.

Frieda had introduced me to this etsy shop dutchsisters and here our bags met each other.Aren't they lovely? I hold mine every day and it has kept its shape so well.

Then on Saturday we went again for a walk.
We saw some lovely tops decorating Koperti, a friend's school in the neighbourhood.

Then we walked more and we saw a new antique store.We had to pay a visit although it wasn't filled  with merchandise yet.

We loved the ceilings and frescos on the walls.

We did a little bit of shopping too.

Here is what I bought at very good prices.
A big hand embroidered vintage tablecloth. I loved the colours and the patterns on it.

 And this 40-year-old Russian book. It is Alexander Pushkin's Poems and Tales and although I cannot read Russian I love its beautiful illustrations.

Then we went to Vafopouleion Institute where we visited an exhibition of realia from the 1821 war of independence.
We had a guided tour by one of the collectors who were presenting their beautiful items there and we very much enjoyed it.One could see paintings, jewelry, traditional clothes, guns and my favourite various types of embroideries.Like this golden work.Isn't it magical?All this handstitched!

 And I loved the portrait of beautiful Katerina Botsari.

 And the vignette about Lord Byron.

 I adored this piece of embroidery too.

Of course such a great walk had to finish with some tsipouro at our favourite Volos restaurant and a walk at the sea front.

It was fun Frieda, let's do this again.
By the way I have probably told you again that Frieda and other talented ladies on Skiathos island are working hard for their "child" the Green Fox Project. They are collecting and recycling all the plastic bottles and tin cans of the island all by themselves voluntarily. They need a car to do this job and they have started a pledge to gather some money to get one. So if anyone wants to help (every little bit helps) you can go here or on the button of the Green Fox project on my side bar and donate as much as you would like to.

Holidays at last....

After a whirlwind of things to be done in December and all the latest very sad tragedies around us schools closed their doors for 15 days so now it's ...holiday time! Hurray!!!!
It is so sad that other people I know will not celebrate this Christmas but as my dear friend Cathy just told me ....

"...Please don't be sad at this festive time. We cannot heal the world, and so we should do our best to make our part of it as beautiful, as peaceful and as filled with love as we can...." ....I decided to follow her advice! Since yesterday afternoon I am off school and all I want to do is have the best of time. That means no obligations, no chores, no bad feelings and bad mood, no more terrible news affecting my family, friends and the world!Can that happen? Maybe if we are all lucky. This week was such a loooong tiring but fulfilling week. Sunday morning we started early with rehearsal and then the actual performance of our play at the State Theatre for the Lampsi.org (the association of parents with children with cancer). The performance went great and we had more than 300 people in the audience which was very good. We also got the congratulations of the technicians of the theatre who considered our Drama club one of the best amateurs they have seen!That was quite an honour. A great meal followed the performance.If you want to see photos of the performance you can visit the Drama Club page on facebook. The chandelier of the main performance of the theatre.  The State Theatre of Thessaloniki.  Red and orange hen! I tried to relax a bit on Monday evening and made some wire rings to give as gifts.Unfortunately there are no photos of them as I forgot to take some! On Tuesday afternoon my friend Frieda came from Skiathos. It was so great to meet her again. We went together to the Ethnological Museum and attended the scarf folding technique workshop and the bazaar.  My friend Yioula's creations. Then we walked to the Vafopouleion Institute where we wanted to visit the Melissa orphanage bazaar and the exhibition of comic strips by Kostas Voutsas whom I have known for years. We loved his exhibition and sketches. We also loved the great buffet that was there and we enjoyed the coffee and food and sweets they served. On Wednesday hubby and I took part in the Lawyers' Union children's party. I was at the card making workshop and hubby was taking pictures.Then we watched Annie acted out by the Lawyer's Association Drama club.It was quite good. It is great helping out our friend who had undertaken the organization of this party and have fun too. On Thursday just after school I met with my Practice students for coffee and I gave each one of them a ring that I made myself. The colours remind me a bit of the English flag, so that they can remember our time together and their first experience as teachers. In the afternoon Frieda came home for coffee and then we went together to my jewelry course. I admit Frieda's jewelry piece was better than mine but we both enjoyed the fun of making something together again. Friday morning was the last day of school and we had our Christmas songs presentation again. My pupils did very well and we enjoyed this so much. The music teacher was very good with the tube orchestra.  But my little ones were also very good with Father Christmas and The lights on the tree.  The kindergarten pupils waiting to perform the Nativity. Then Frieda and I went to the Open Day Christmas party of the nearby 1st High School of Thessaloniki. That was fun because I met so many old students of mine and their parents helping out.My 15-year-old neighbour upstairs was the DJ of the big party they had!Thank God he didn't practice his musical talent over my flat! We said our goodbyes after that with Frieda and we hope we will meet again soon. In the evening we had a rehearsal with the Drama Club again and afterwards we had a party for dear hubby's nameday! Pheeeeeeew!What a week!Sorry this is so long but I really want to tell you all the things that have happened in December before the month and the year is out!

Weekends

Dear friends,
thank you for reading along and for your comments. Today this is probably my preultimate post before my leaving for holidays so it is rather heavy in pictures.
Since April when at last the weather started getting better we have enjoyed our weekends a lot.
Here are a couple of photos from them...
a weekend at the beach in the end of April...
enjoying eating just the two of us...

and collecting some sea glass...

...an afternoon at Vafopouleion Institute to see a Karaghiozis Art Exhibition in May...

...and an art exhibition at the same building...

I loved those spring paintings.
... a Saturday morning at the antique market n June...

 I bought very cheap this cross stitch piece...

 and this old frame with a school prize from 1951. This I will donate to the Education Museum.

 And on the way back I found these crochet beauties on the sidewalk! Hubby was angry and felt embarassed because I collected them but wouldn't it be a pity to leave them there? They need better pictures I know.

...a Sunday morning walk at the sea front promenade where a book exhibition was taking place...

I didn't buy any books as I didn't find anything interesting apart from those glass Karaghiozis figures which we couldn't afford,
but I loved looking at the water lily pond...

and spotting this red dragonfly made me really happy!

 ...walking back home I loved that wall graffitti with the fish. I would love one like that on my summer house wall.

 ...and one more weekend at our summer house...
watching the sunrise early in the morning...

watching a little kid playing at the beach...

watching insects...

 looking at, touching, smelling, collecting, eating fruit from our trees...

...and a couple of days ago attending a shadow puppet performance by Giannis Chatzis, a very good local shadow pupeteer,at Kapantzi Villa. The play was about Las Incantadas, a collection of statues that were stolen from Thessaloniki and are in the Louvre now.

I know I could have made lots of different blogposts out of all these events I talked to you about but since I won't be blogging from now on and for a while due to holidays I wanted to tell you all about them now.I hope you too have enjoyed your weekends in spring and will continue in summer!