The weekend of love!

It started on Friday night with the Teachers' Association Drama Club pie cutting! We gathered at a restaurant with good food and music and danced till late! Guess who won the lucky coin and a bottle of wine? Me!!!! It was great being with the team members again, talking about future plans and performances! We really had fun!

Saturday morning I had a surprise.
My cousins from Athens on their way to a wedding in a city of Northern Greece came for a visit for a little while! It was great meeting them again!

Then on Saturday afternoon was the party I was preparing for during the week.
I inivited all the girls of the crafty group of In My Closet who had surprised me on my birthday two weeks ago and who had come to my wedding earlier in summer. I really wanted to have them at home for a gathering but since we are a lot in the group it needed some preparation so I delayed it a bit.
Anyway after some speculation we managed to find a day that suited almost everyone.
I made key lime pie,

berry chocolate chip muffins,

red pepper dill cheese muffins,

chocolate pastry,

no knead pizza

my mum made her popular cheese cookies and anise cookies

and walnut filo pastry

It was raining cats and dogs when the girls came.That didn't stop them though and I am glad!
Luckily there was enough space for everyone.
First we played a game my cousins from Athens had told me about.Each person brings a little gift wrapped beautifully to fool others so that they don't understand what's inside.

Then you throw the dice and those who bring 6 take a gift. When all gifts are taken you agree on how long you will play. Then you throw the dice again and whoever brings 6 takes a gift from someone else. It's fun! Till the end you may leave with many gifts or with none!We really enjoyed the game!
In this photo I am holding a box made by Kikitsa of DIY my day blog; many of us coveted it but it was lucky Evangelia who finally got it, not me!

I made some lavender soap as a gift for the game! I have learnt how to make soap from this  recipe in Efzin creations blog.

I didn't win any of the gifts but I was so lucky and happy because the girls brought me so many gifts so I didn't mind not winning.
Look at all these gifts!
Biscuits for two and tealight candle by Lina of LinaBug and a good luck charm by Katerina of beh1ndhome.

 Eleanna's of Aouts-pins gorgeous painting!

 Efi's steampunk mixed media decoupaged box.

 Saint Valentine's breakfast with Kikitsa's cupcakes, Elsa's chocolate from the famous Papaparaskevas' pastry shop in Xanthi, and Evangelia's of Happy Deck petit four,

 bubbly wine by Christina Cel Chan

Heart earrings and card by meandmamacreations Lia,

Framed fairy tale by Evangelia of Lupus in Fabula,

Melina's basket for my handiwork,

 Anna's of In My Closet handmade wedding album in the colours of my wedding dress which I have been working on lately.

Angeliki's of pocolocini mirror 

 and a glass stand by Christina of Christie's trees and more

and a handmade mirror by Sofia my former pupil,

After the game we watched a shadow puppet performance by hubby who was happy to perform for the ladies!

It was a great success with the girls some of which hadn't seen a shadow puppet performance before.
Of course we spent time chatting, eating and drinking.
Barca was really happy because no one was afraid of her and they all liked her very much!

She was naughty at times but in general we managed well with her all around.

Thank you so much ladies for this great visit! Let's do this again soon!
And the weekend ended with lunch with music at To Arhondiko and flowers.

So much love in just so few days!

Things I have made!

Hello everyone!

I know I have not been a very good blogger lately but unfortunately there is too much to be done and the end of May and June are the worst as far as work is concerned.

Today, June the 3rd, I must say that many of my school work obligations are over. I handed in my grades, I handed in my self-evaluation school unit reports, I have also finished the University Students Practice and their evaluation. So now there are only a couple of days left teaching till the 15th and it is fun especially with the younger pupils who are now learning everything in the summer holidays and the sea themes.And we teachers will be going to school till the 21st!For the last time!Because from next year we will be going to school till the 30th June!!!!But that's another story!

On the other hand we are still having the anxiety of my son's Entrance University exams which are till the 21st and some more last minute Drama Club performances on the 15th, 18th and 19th.

And of course the preparation for our dream trip this July is in its final steps. So you can imagine how busy I am.

Still the last couple of months I have made a couple of handmade things so I thought of showing them to you.

First a stone that my dear friend Dawn in the States wanted.Here's the stone along with some olive oil soap and some Greek beach finds for her!

Then two purple stones. I made one for my friend Stella of StellaCreations who wanted one.And the other was the one won at a giveaway by Evdokia of have a ko(o)kie blog.

Then a red one for Mary, my Drama Club friend.

Then I made this sea glass pendant for Nopi.

I also made this red bead and wooden pendant for my friend Evi.

I have also been making masks for the roleplay of my 3rd Graders.The cricket and the ant is this pair and I have made lots more!

This blue sea glass felted stone of mine was won by a lady on Mykonos island who didn't even bother to thank me for winning it. She hasn't even told me that she received it. I posted it registered.She won it in another blog whose blogger asked me to cooperate and make a gift for her readers to win and that would be advertising for me! I obliged. I sent the gift but no news!Disappointing!

These too are other little gifts I made. The lego cross stitch brooch was for Julocka in Denmark. She blogs on moments of perfect clarity and I really like her blog.It was a thank you gift for her generosity to send me a lovely lego mermaid some time ago!The pattern was free on the net.

Then I made this birthday gift for my friend Christina of the egst. She loves anything Japanese and so I made this keyring, again from a free cross stitch pattern on the net.Christina has a lovely shop on etsy celdeconail.

I also made this felted stone as a gift for my friend Dora who lives in Mytilene.

And this as a gift for my handicraft teacher Maria, at the handicraft course at the local library last year.

And this last one as a goodbye gift for my colleague Yioula who is retiring! Of course Barca wanted to see it.

I also made these two bead pendants for the two University students who did their practice with me to have something to remember me with.

I have also been cross stitching like crazy for gifts for my trip meetings but those won't be shown till after the trip!

It was my birthday

on the 28th and I am sorry I didn't make any post for a few days but things have been hectic. I am doing so many things that there is no time to blog or read blogs. But I will catch up I am sure.
So on my birthday, it was a school day, we didn't do much.
I spent all the afternoon trying to say thank you to each and every one who sent me wishes on facebook, by e-mail or on the phone! I would like to say thank you to everyone who remembered me. I admit facebook does a great job reminding us of birthdays so I got wishes from people I know would never remember when my birthday is. But the same goes for me too!
I made a ready made lemon pie

 which of course Barca coveted.

 Spot the candle!
I got some lovely roses from my mum.

And some parcels arrived.
From dear Cathy in England useful school, office and home items.My pupils already loooove the stickers!

From dear Juliana and John in Scotland great magazines (Oh yes one more Mollie Makes issue!!!!!), with kits, amazing beads for my stones, delicious chocolate and handmade earrings!

Also from dear Brigitte in France a lovely notebook and a handmade bead necklace.

And a packet of shells and sea glass from my dear Maria Jose in the Acores!

A beautiful handmade card from dear Carolyn in England

and this lovely e-card from dear Ian in England again.

I know there are parcels on their way to me from other parts of the world, I got notifications from their senders but they haven't arrived yet!
Still I thank you all very very much!
I also received this lovely pendant from Christina (Cel Chan) of Celdeconail who is one of my new friends in my Etsy Greek Street Team.

And  I got this handmade driftwood boat from my long lost High School best friend Dora with whom we managed to meet this weekend after 15 years! (Sorry we were talking so much that we forgot to take pictures!) Hopefully we will meet again soon and take pictures too!

And this beautiful Phantom of the Opera mask earrings from my director and fellow actors and actresses at my Drama Club.

 Again Barca was really interested!

And this lovely Mudo Concept cushion and fistiklocum (Turkish Delight with pistacchio nuts-my favourite) from my dear friends Aykut and Sehnaz from Turkey who were in Greece on a short visit and we also managed to meet this weekend. Again I forgot to take a picture! Unbelievable!

Finally a lovely shawl by my dear best friend Gia whom we visited today for my Godson's birthday!

Thank you every one for the lovely gifts!
It was such a great weekend! I will talk about it more in future blogposts! I am only adding here details that concern my birthday!