Peace and Plenty Blessing

I very deeply and sincerely believe that when one gives to others one gets back lots and lots more.
And I don't speak about money because that's something I don't have to spare.
So I have decided to give things I have or make gifts myself when I want to give a gift or when I just want to make someone happy.
When my best friend Gia whose son I have baptised started building her own house with her dear husband to house her beautiful big family I thought that the best housewarming gift would be a stitched gift. I had received this kit from my dear generous friend Marabeth from the States and I realised it would be excellent for Gia. So I started stitching it, stopped at some point to stitch other gifts,some baby gifts as you have seen recently, and then went back and finished it. I got it custom framed and today I managed to give it to my dear friend while we had coffee just the two of us. Needless to say she loved it and cried with joy. That's my best reward. Her tears and joy and love, that's what I got back, and I am so happy!

It is the "Peace and Plenty Blessing" by Bucilla.

Romania Day 4 Cismigiu Park

After the lovely lunch with my cousins we took a taxi to Cismigiu Park where there was a small Easter market. The park was very beautiful!

 There were some very traditional things to buy and they were all so beautiful!

 Then we met with the rest of our group and were taken to a folk music and dance evening at a nice restaurant in Herastrau Park. The food and drinks were great but what we simply adored was the music. The violinists were exceptional and so was the flute player.

 The dancers presented amazing dances.

 I really loved all the embroidered shirts and skirts they were wearing.

It was an excellent closing to our stay in Romania. I would really love to go back one day!

Travelling pattern Giveaway winner

 

I decided to do this through the random generator. I tried to copy the little picture as I have seen done in other blogs but that wasn't the easiest thing to do.

Anyway I only had six comments.

 

True Random Number Generator

Min:

Max:

 

Result: 6

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

 

As you can see the Random Generator picked Lynn so please send me your full mailing address so that I can post the travelling pattern to you.

E-mail me at ariadnesky (at) hotmail (dot) com

Thanks to those who mentioned my travelling pattern giveaway on their blogs so that more of you came. I hope you will stay inspite the fact that you didn't win!

Romania Day 4 Mogosoaia Palace

After the guided tour to the Palace of the Parliament the bus took us 13 km away from Bucharest to Mogosoaia Palace, a beautiful small palace that houses exceptional furniture and pieces of art and is surrounded by a gorgeous garden and lake.

Then we arranged to meet my cousins Kalliope and Sorin at their beautiful attic office over the VanGogh cafe.

They took us for a lovely traditional meal to an inn-restaurant.

 The rest of the day comes in a final blogpost.

What the mail brought and gifts.

As I have not been writing many letters any more I don't receive many either.
But I recently received...
Spoonful the beautiful zine from Australia. That was the only thing I charged my credit card with for the last six months as I cannot afford any online purchases any more. But I have been reading Spoonful since its first issue and I do not want to miss it. You can buy it here too.

I loved its pages on dragons and cross stitch as well as about Anthea's wedding! Congrats dear!

I also received a letter from Gabrielle, a life long pen friend from Scotland with whom I had lost contact for some time. She wrote a snail mail letter and sent me this lovely pair of earrings. Thank you Gaby!Friends are for ever!

Finally my other dear sea glass friends from Scotland Juliana and John sent me another big beautiful parcel with sea glass from Scotland as well as gifts from their recent trip to Zakynthos, Greece. It was strange getting Greek gifts from Scotland! The Caretta Caretta sea turtle hutches on the beaches of Zakynthos so the tea towel and the onyx egg base are turtle themed.

 Sea glass from Scotland.

 Shells and sea glass from Zakynthos island.

 I managed to frame my Count your Blessings in a beautiful IKEA frame I had. It looks lovely in it, doesn't it? Whoever wants the travelling pattern still has time to comment on the blogpost here only and you might win it!

 Last but not least a lovely handmade recycled gift from a dear friend. She made the pouch and the necklace herself. The pouch is made with recycled cut pieces of chips bags and the necklace has handmade beads made of paper from magazine pages.

I really loved it!
I suppose by now you have realised that the analysis of the photos I am posting is low as I have no more free Picasa space. So you can see my photos even if they are originally beautiful and clear they look a bit blurry on the blog. Unfortunately I can't do anything about that right now.
Also I have changed my background putting the sea sunset theme. It looks so much like the beach at my summer house at sunset that I prefer it for the summer.
Good night every one...or good morning! Thanks for reading!

Elections are over-Schools are over.

Thank you all for reading along and caring for what is happening in my small country.
The elections ended peacefully yesterday and the conservatives won by a narrow difference to the leftists. What does that mean? That the troica and the European strict austerity measures will continue. I am just hopeful that they have received the message (implied by the great advance of the leftists) that we can't accept these measures any more. We need change and a better life. We will see what happens next.
Schools closed for the children on Thursday, one day earlier due to the elections.
The last week was filled with...
...a day trip at Langadas spa park (we didn't do spa just stayed at the park for the kids to play).

...the 6th graders final festivities that included songs and dances of Greece...

...the last day's dances....

...and games...

 ...a visit at my last year's school to attend the 6th graders festivities there too...

...an honourary prize reception at the Prefecture by the administration office for what we,members of the Teachers' Association Drama Club, offered to the public....

I am the one in the brown dress and hubby is the one with the pink and grey striped T-shirt. The administration manager Mr Kartsiotis is in the middle. Vana Vourtsaki,the lady in blue, is our director.
This year was a good school year. I am in a new school very near to my house, I have new pupils, new colleagues, a new headteacher, a new administration manager. Things went cool, very relaxed and happy inspite the general crisis in my country and I loved that. I hope they continue like that.

Romania Day 4- Palace of the Parliament

First of all I would like to thank Kathy from Sit and Stitch who blogged about the travelling pattern and I have already some comments in my previous blogpost. If you are interested in receiving it please comment on that post only here. And thanks to Kathy I have some new followers. I welcome everyone and I am going to visit your blogs very soon.
Also I would like to mention another blog's giveaway which you might like to take part in. It is Chic Crafting.You can find it here.
So today it is elections day in Greece.
Probably the most important elections of all times. The only elections I remember that people have been terrorised so much that if they do not vote for the conservatives or the socialists that the whole country will go to hell. Well, I can only say that the European policy and the media terrorised the people but the people will answer them the way they know best!
Last night it was an exceptional night for Greece as our football team beat the big Russia in the Euro and now goes on to the next phase. Hubby and I watched the match in hope and saw a strong team fighting till the end with their soul. The Greek soul! In the end it wins. In the Greek Soul we trust! This victory reminded me of the summer of 2004. We had the Athens Olympics and we had the Euro in Portugal and we won! We were crazily happy that summer and so hopeful for the future, for a better future and see where we are now, in the verge of financial catastrophy and chaos. Believe me it is not the Greek people's fault;it is their politicians' and bankers' fault!
And since it is election day and elections mean democracy and parliament I am continuing with my trip to Romania Day 4 showing you our visit to the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest. It is the secong biggest building in the world!!!!! HUGE! We had a guided tour and photography was not allowed so we all chipped in and one of our group took photos to share with every one else.We were only shown 4% of the building so you can imagine how large it is!
The outside.

 Inside I loved the chandeliers.

 And the ceilings with all that gold.

 From the balcony...

 we could see the view.

 The halls are huge.

Although I disagree with the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu who lived with the ambition of building the biggest  most expensive building in the world exploiting the poor people of his country now he is gone and this building is still there for every one to admire.It is a legacy loathed and admired at the same time.
Here I would like to welcome Ella,a follower from Romania!I wish I could read your blog too. I enjoyed my visit to your country so very much!
So I will just leave you here. Sorry this blogpost covered too many different aspects of my life and I have mixed you up!