How to catch a cold or simply a redecoration story.

I am down with a flu. Although the almost 5 days off school looked an exciting time I ended up exhausted and with a cold.
Well the thing is I had certain things to do so I took advantage of the short holiday due to the National Holiday and ...cleaned up, changed the position of furniture (again), put the carpet, painted something, finished "Something with buttons" and blogged about it here, cooked, and got a new bookcase (they are never enough, are they?) Of course I also did school work (Halloween things), answered e-mails,read.....and more.
So here is what we did!
First we changed the position of the sofas!

We put those IKEA tables as one coffee table in the middle.

With Barca's leash and collar under one of them in a box for easy reach.

That bookcase came out of the kitchen into the hall.

We added the carpet and Barca felt at once at home. We didn't put the carpet last winter because she had peed on it but now she is old enough to know that's not the right thing to do.

Then this bookcase had to go. It stood in a narrow corridor and looked too cluttered.

I wanted a new bookcase to fit there and make a separation of the space. We were lucky that we found it ready assembled in the "bargains" space of IKEA and bought it 24 euros cheaper than the retail price. Luckily it could fit in our car.

But there was a problem that the second smaller bookcase of the same series we got didn't fit in. So we had to change our plans. Finally I got a lovely partition for the narrow corridor and my very own desk corner on the other side!

I love it!
Then it was time I changed the looks of this suitcase. It was a curb find and no matter how much I tried to clean it it didn't. So I decided to paint it.

 And now it looks better and all our DVDS fit in it.

 Of course I got exhausted and went down with a flu so we didn't go to attend the parade but watched it at home on TV.

 I cooked salmon soup (The Finnish recipe)

 and squash in the oven taken from here, a blog that I love reading, Posie gets cozy! Delicious!

Well at least I know I don't need to do any more redecorating for some time!

Our trip to the U.S.A. (8)- Newport

So after visiting the two Newport Mansions we headed home. But first did a very short visit at Newport town for a snack.

There were lovely little shops with glass.

 And beautiful buildings.

 A huge flag on the side of a building.

 Art galleries.

 With lovely glass art and paintings.

Sweet shops.

 Restaurants.

Like The Black Pearl where I tried the award winning famous chowder.

 We walked around a bit.

 There were wharfs.

 And souvenir shops.

 And narrow alleys.

 Look at this sign!

And we left when it started getting dark.

 We stopped for fuel (gas is very cheap in the States) and we also got some coffee and a doghnut from Dunkin Donuts which proved to be the smartest reasonably priced solution for a snack and coffee when we were on the road. We visited it many a time on our trip as there are branches everywhere.There was  abranch in Athens once too!At the good old times but it closed!
Bytheway is it doghnut or donut? This is what the Grammarist says:

Doughnut vs. donut

The dictionary-approved spelling for the ring-shaped cake made of dough and fried in fat is doughnut. The shortened donuthas been around since the late 1800s, but it wasn’t popularized until the late 20th century, when the successful American doughnut chain Dunkin’ Donuts made it ubiquitous. Today, writers outside the U.S. still favor doughnut by a wide margin. Donutappears about a third of the time in published American writing.

Donut is a simpler spelling, so it may grow even more common now that it has a foothold. Those of us who don’t wish to assist Dunkin’ Donuts’s branding would be wise to resist the trend, though.

 Very near home we went to the supermarket to get some food as after a couple of days it was the 4th of July and everything would be closed due to the festivities. And there I got the shock of how expensive things are at the food supermarkets. Don't be misguided by the cheap labels. You should look at the small letters where you realise that the big letters price shown is without taxes or for half a pound etc.
Here's a photo of cakes in a fridge.

 And cakes out of the fridge. I wonder what these are made of.

And muffins.

 Lots of muffins. They were big and very tasty.

 And in every type you can imagine.

(to be continued)

Something with buttons.

My friend Anna, the creative imaginative person behind in my closet blog and inmyc etsy shop invited us all to take part in a competition on her page on facebook.
The subject of the competition was "Make something with buttons".
So I thought about it, and remembered I had seen something a long time ago on pinterest. I really wanted to make something like that.Or like that. It looked simple enough!
As the deadline is the end of October I had to rush!
Phew!Pals that was hard. Although you can see tutorials on pinterest and people show off what they made successfully, for me it was very hard. I used ModPodge for the first time. I recently found it being sold at Xeirotxnika at Ftiaxto.gr and really wanted to see why people in the States are crazy about using this glue in their crafts so I bought some.
I started with a balloon that I put standing on a jar. I put some Pod Podge and let it dry. Then I added more glue and the buttons.

 I had to use almost half the jar to finish this project and although I did exactly what the tutorial said the buttons kept sliding down no matter how I turned the balloon. And till the glue got totally dry I missed some of them!LOL!It was maddening!

 It took me four days to finish this,oh yes! And I used up all of my little buttons!

 So I had to buy some new ones and the cheapest solution was a little box of buttons from Jumbo!LOL! Going there I felt like a kid. I had to buy all kinds of little cheap things to make more handicrafts with buttons. Here is what I bought.

More ballooons, just in case I am crazy enough to make more bowls with Mod Podge, some felt motifs I couldn't pass and the aforesaid buttons of course.
So I continued with my effort to finish the button bowl.

 My little assistant Barca wanted to play when I let it dry in the cold air faster.

 And I added more buttons that kept falling and more glue.

 In the end and when completely dry I made a small hole to the balloon and let the air come out slowly.

 And with dread I found out that the bowl was not ready yet because it was wet with glue from the inside.

 So I had to allow it more hours to dry.

 And in the end....ta-dah!

 See that jello thing in between the buttons? Well I put that much glue that it became a thick layer of diaphanous material that keeps the buttons together, at last!

 I could trim it all around but decided to keep it as is. Doesn't it look delicious? Almost ready to eat?

 You can put anything light inside, here some candy, or just more buttons but not something heavy as it is fragile!

Of course I also had to make something out of aida and threads and felt and beads and add some buttons too, otherwise it wouldn't be me. There wasn't time for cross stitch (as I am in the middle of decluttering, reorganising my desk and bookcase but that's for another blogpost) so I chose some evenweave fabric, added some felt flowers, buttons, beads and did some ribbon ebroidery and ...ta dah!

And the colours so match my bedroom colours! I loved this one!
Finally I made a ring out of some buttons! But as I am an amateur in ring making I don't think it went that well. But still it is with a button!

So that concludes my "Something with a button" competition entries!
Bytheway Anna mentioned me recently in her blog about the workshop she organized back in June just a day before we left for the States. You can read all about it here. Thank you Anna!
But speaking about buttons I must tell you about a new cafe that opened in the city centre and it is called Button (=Κουμπί) Koumbi Coffee and Crafts I saw the advertising brochure in the Xeirotexnika welcoming bag but Anna told us about it in her blog so we had to go too. We met there for some coffee and to look around! It was fun seeing so many little details, so many craft opportunities and we enjoyed a good coffee and good company. We will certainly go again to craft too!
The beautiful shop sign!

Lots of things to use to make things with a small fee.

Anna looking at the little bags one can buy at very reasonable prices and make something on the spot!

 Buttons and beads of course!

 Even the WC doors have very clever crafty little dolls on them.

 There is a small exhibition of handcrafted items too that a person can buy.

 We will soon attend a workshop there, which I am sure will be fun!