Birthday girl!

Have a great month everyone!
Last week on January 28th it was my birthday! My 50th!
As it was an important number hubby and I had decided to celebrate it on the next day at a tavern with some friends but then we both went down with a cold so we didn't arrange anything or invite anyone!
By Thursday, the birthday day, we were almost ok but it was too late for invitations!
I didn't miss a day of school inspite my cold and on Thursday morning I made key lime pie for my colleagues at school who really loved it.

Suddenly a big bouquet arrived with hubby behind it who surprised me pleasantly! He had done that once again many many years ago!

After the first shock my 1st graders and hubby sang "Happy Birthday" to me and then he took the flowers home as I had more hours on my timetable.

Barca was really hungrily happily looking at the flowers when I returned home!

I spent the rest of the day answering the hundreds of wishes that by e-mail and on facebook I received and which were very very sweet!
Thank you everyone who took the time to send me a message with wishes. I appreciate it so much!
This card was from Angela in Canada and there are so many more I can't possibly show all of them but they are on my page on facebook.

And I thought my birthday was over!
The next day Friday 29th was EGST pie cutting meeting at Dimiourgies cafe in Kalamaria.

 Vivika of The Wandering Deer had organized everything.We gathered about 15 people and exchanged ideas and good laughs. We also made a small woven pendant.The pie was delicious but I didn't win the coin! I was very lucky though because one of the fellow Etsy friends gave me a beautiful handmade piece of art. You can find Manos' popRenaissance shop on etsy and his work is highly artistic! Thank you Manos for the gift!

On Saturday morning I attended the "Fairy tales around the world" performance with narrative and music at the local children's library. Maria Gkogka my old friend from the camp was the narrator and and Anastasia Alexaki and Olga Zerva the musicians. It was  a really beautiful performance!

On Saturday evening we had one more InMyCloset workshop meeting this time not in Anna' cozy kitchen but at Koumbi coffee & crafts. We had booked our places in this workshop a long time ago but till the end we didn't know what we were going to make. Anna had said it was a surprise! And indeed it was.
When I arrived at 7, the time of the workshop, everyone was already there and I was impressed by everyone's punctuality as usually I go first!
And guess what! It was not a "real" workshop! It was  a surprise birthday party for me!!!!!!!
I was so so touched by all the girls' thoughtfulness!
There was a delicious chocolate cake,

that was served in beautiful "English" dishes with assorted napkins,

there was a beautiful handmade card made by Kikitsa Stav, with a beautiful window open out to sunshine.

I really loved the interpretation she gave why she made the card like that . You can read all about it in her blog here.
There was a gift which I will spend in no time soon at IKEA.The girls know me so well!

But most of all there was so much care and love and friendship that I was very very touched!

 We had coffee and drinks and played board games and had a good laugh and it was fun!

Thank you Anna for organising all this.
And thank you to each and every one of the girls Kikitsa, Katerina, Evangelia, Elsa, Sophie, Eleanna, Nefeli, Angeliki and Vangelitsa who were present and Demetra, Christina and Christina, Efi, Lina, Martha, Vasso and Lia who couldn't be there!

They had all been organising this "behind" my back over on facebook, by privately chatting and managed to keep it a secret! How sweet is that!
The next morning Sunday 31st, I had one more surprise a birthday cake for me after our shadow puppet performance at Koperti from hubby and our best man and best friend Tassos, the school owner.

The weekend ended with a gorgeous sunset, a gift from the sky!

It was a great birthday! It's such a great feeling to be loved! Thank you everyone!

There were good times...in November!

I was a birthday girl yesterday and I spent a huge part of the day answering e-mails, the mobile, the phone, facebook mail and it was such great fun! I answered more than 200 messages! Thank you everyone, family, relatives and friends, colleagues and pupils,old and new, classmates and pen pals, facebook friends, sea glassers and bloggers, crafty workshop friends and etsy greek street team friends,drama club friends and campers, beach friends and practice students, and so on and so forth!
It was magical to see so many people taking the time to write a message public or private. Thank you!
And as there were other things to do yesterday, more important than celebrating my birthday, we didn't celebrate it! But still I enjoyed it because of all the people who communicated with me in one way or another.
Now as I am very much behind with my blogging I will show you things we did in November!Right it's almost February!Wow! How time flies!
So in November...
we watched one more Broadway musical  Beauty and The Beast (like we had watched The Cats last year). It was rather expensive but comparing it to the American prices of theatrical performances I realised it was a good price to pay to see a Broadway musical in my own city! And it was a very good performance too!

...we were invited by our friend who owns Koperti Kindergarten School to meet his...dog Bikos whom he adopted from Stray Dogs Thessaloniki, where we adopted Barca from! Isn't he sweet?

 And he lives in such a beautiful colourful environment!

...we had a shadow puppet performance in the same school with lots of assistants.

 ...we visited an exhibition at the Museum of Byzantine Culture about Ancient Philippi.

 And finally we celebrated hubby's 60th birthday at Penindaraki restaurant! It was great!

 My Godson even played bouzouki!

 And Bill the chef did his best to make us happy!

November was a great month after all! There are more blogposts to come though!

The Christmas bazaars

I always go to lots of bazaars of handmade and second hand items before the Christmas holidays and try to support local artists and charities while buying my gifts.
This way I manage to help local artists survive and charities get a bit of money when they need it most. And this way I also manage to save money as usually prices are reasonable.
The first bazaar I went to was the bazaar organized by a school I had worked at some years ago. Asylo tou paidiou organizes a very big bazaar with handmade and second hand things at their premises in the city centre every year on the 25th and 26th November. I have bought really beautiful things there.
This year I bought a tin box that I later filled with chocolates for my mother-in-law (no photo) and hubby bought those lovely semi precious stone eggs because he loves minerals as much as I do.

The second bazaar we went to was organized by the StrayDogs Thessaloniki, the charity that we adopted Barca from. We love going to their bazaar to buy food for Barca and little gifts and support them and show this way our appreciation for taking care of stray animals and Barca up till we adopted her.Sofia, Lia and all the other ladies there are really great.We always take Barca with us to meet them again. And we were very happy because this time she wasn't car sick for the first time while going there.
This year apart for food for Barca I also found second hand books in excellent prices (showing only two here)

lovely pottery boxes which I filled with chocolate for my relatives, (you can see the one I kept next to the standing snowman)

 and a cap! Do you like my model? My childhood doll!

Then we went to the bazaar organized by Koperti, a friend's school.They give the money they collect to charities so we always support them.
I bought some charms to wrap on my chocolate boxes and a handcrocheted cap!

 There were lots of things going on while they had their bazaar...Santa was there....

 ...lots of people....

 ...singing.....

and clowns.

Then my school organized their bazaar.
Some teachers and the mothers of the board of the Parents' Association gathered up and made some handmade things to sell so that the Parents' Association can gather some money to help the school.
We made lots of felt ornaments, wreaths, cards,clay ornaments and platters with candles.
I made some felt ornaments at home.

 And more things were made at school.

 That's the total of the ornaments I made.

 I loved those made by others too.

 Mothers and teachers working together.

The bazaar took place the same day we were giving out our reports so when I finished talking with the parents there were very few things left.

I managed to buy this lovely card and this clay good luck eye both made by our art teacher.

And finally I went to the Goethe Institute bazaar. They were selling lots of handmade things as well as second hand things.
I bought some books to give as gifts and to use at school.

 This one was written by one of my former students who is a librarian.What  a great surprise. I read it before giving it away as a gift!It was very good!

And I also bought this lovely Turkish bowl.

 It was great to visit those bazaars.