Diane of Lavender Dreams too lost her blog.

EDIT: Diane got her blog back! You can read it here.

I have a blog land friend Diane, a sweet lady who recently sent me sea glass from Cape Canaveral.

She had her blog for ten years and all of a sudden her blog was removed by blogger for unknown reasons.
Those of you who used to read her blog you can find her now at Lavenderdreamsnew.
Her new address is https://lavenderdreamsnew.blogspot.com
Imagine losing a blog you have been carefully and beautifully writing for ten years.
So back up your blog just in case not to lose all those photos and comments etc.
For those of us who blog just to keep a record of our daily lives and keep contact with our friends in blogland Diane's story is devastating.
The rest is what Diane and her husband wrote in her new blog about the situation.

The Behemoth squashes the little Lavender Dreamer

That's right. "The Rise of the Machines" is upon us. Our former happy little blog (lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com) was suddenly terminated.

Why and how was it done? It wasn't someone reporting us. It was Google's automated piece of software (a bot) that roams the Blogger world looking for pre-programmed words of woe. Once it detects something it kills the whole blog without warning. Without any notification about these supposed offending words. Without an opportunity to fix anything. Just ZAP ... your digital life is deleted. Everything is gone!

Ten years of blogging, thousands of posts, many thousands of photos, over ten thousand comments and a hundred thousand heart-felt words all gone in an instant. Devastating! Be warned all you innocents in blogland.

The blog was actually removed twice, for "phishing". Which, as you all know, is absurd. We have never asked for your personal, private information. The Appeals process reinstated the blog the first time then the Google Bot zapped us again the next day. But the second time we were locked out of the Appeals process. We tried sending Feedback. Never got a answer. Tried to post to the Blogger Help Community. They never published the post. Located twenty phone numbers for Google. The numbers are all automated and only a couple allowed you to leave a message. We left messages. Never got a callback.

Google/Blogger pronounces you guilty using an "automated system" (their words) and gives you little or no opportunity to prove otherwise. It's been a nightmare. (for more details see the timeline post below)

So what choice do we have now that Google/Blogger has burned down our blog? Like the Phoenix from Greek mythology we shall rise from the ashes with this new blog. We will start over and hope that our many friends and followers will be able to find us and that they will never ever have to suffer the same fate.

Mr. Lavender D.

---

You can imagine how devastating this has been to me. I appreciate my sweet hubby taking the time to help me start a new blog. But can I ask all of you to do me a favor? Will you please put a sentence or two in your next post to let people know where I am and what has happened to me? You can say that my blog was unfairly removed by Blogger and we are trying our best to get it back, but for now I will post updates on the process here:

lavenderdreamsnew.blogspot.com

And also a plea to Blogger to bring back lavenderdreamstoo. We're a supportive community! Maybe they will listen if we all voice our consternation together!

Thank you, Lavender Dreamer Diane

You have our permission to copy and paste any part or all of this post to your social media. At the very least please post a few lines on your own blog about what's happened to Lavender Dreams and include our new blog address. Thanks. MrLD

February Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello everyone!
It's Gifted Gorgeousness time again. And for those of you who are new here it means to present in a blog post things we stitched for gifts or stitchy gifts we received.

This is an idea by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching blog.
So from January 15th to February 15th we have...
I used up very low count aida I was gifted along with vintage left over dmc threads in all kinds of blue to make a sweet heart ornament cushion for someone I love very much. I chose a pattern from pinterest. The link goes to this blog.

I also finished a mini DMC Flower Fairy kit that my friend Kim gifted me with and this is going inside my fabric book.Remember the one with the embroidered flower alphabet? This shows a chicory flower fairy.

I have been working on a collage lately. I had bought a Daphne's Diary for 2017 but didn't use it so now I am adding on it all kinds of photos from magazines and I paint on it and stick stamps and all kinds of embellishments to make an art book. Here are a couple of pages from it.

This month the mail brought....

a lovely package from Diane of  Lavender Dreams Too blog. It included some cross stitch patterns, sea glass and shells from Cape Canaveral (yes where the rockets get launched) and a handmade coaster! Thank you Diane!

Christmas cards from Sophie, Maria Jose and Annette,thank you ladies!

A Permin of Copenhagen cross stitch kit and a handpainted card from Ian and Penelope, thank you guys!

Birthday cards from Sophie and Maria Jose, many thanks again ladies.

A huge birthday gift from Juliana with cross stitch magazines with kits and a handmade quilt card from Cyprus.With glass dishes and sea glass gifts and a lavender heart and a lovely lip balm and stone shaped candles.Thank you dear Juliana you always send me so many beautiful things.

Another great handmade gift I received was from my friend Anna of In my closet who sent me this lovely handstitched pouch by Veronica of Rountes Fountes.

Finally I will close this GG blog post with photos from the SKETBE  art exhibition. The first photos are by Ioannis Perdikis and come here first because they are fabric art.

Here I am with my High School History teacher Nickos Bedilas,who makes amazing mosaic art pieces.

Excellent paper sculpture art piece by my friend Christianna Iliopoulou.

Beautiful shadow puppet paintings by our friend Yiannis Chatzis.

I adored these mosaics by David Panayiotides

I loved this colour combination by Floriana Iliopoulou.

My favourite painter currently Fotis Kllogjeris

Collages by Dorothee Mesander

Ceramics by Christine Willis

Painting by fellow teacher Magda Mademli

There were lots more of amazing art pieces but I couldn't possibly show you everything!
Hope you liked my GG post this month! Wishing you all the best.

December Gifted Gorgeousness

So this is the last Gifted Gorgeousness of the year and I am so happy for managing to do a complete 2018 GG. This was my first year and I must say it made me stitch more in order to have a proper blog post every month. Thank you Jo of Serendipitous Stitching for making this possible. You can find the linking party here and see all the posts from other stitchers too.

So from November 15th to December 15th I stitched the following!
First this little dragon pin cushion. The pattern is December 2015 Holiday Treat from J.L. Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams Inc. on facebook. You can find lots of free dragon patterns there. This travelled to a dragon loving stitching friend but has not been received yet so I can't say who it is.

 At another occasion I stitched three little beautiful trees to give to charity. We gathered at our friend Anna's of In my closet kitchen and made the trees for Dromoi Zois, a charity in Athens. I managed to make three. Their bazaar was this weekend 15th and 16th December in Athens.

We made really many here are some of them.

 I stitched this for an expecting friend too. I gave it during her baby shower therefore had to delay this GG post so that she doesn't see it!LOL! Pattern by CREATIVITa found on Pinterest.

 This sea glass felted stone and the cactus pin cushion in a pot I made for the secret crafter exchange Anna of In my Closet organized.

 The cactus pin cushion is based on this post by a crafty composition.

 I also started making felt ornaments for my tree but they are not ready yet. I was going to give some of these as gifts but never managed to finish them in time for the mail.

I also made some other felt tree ornaments with sequins using the materials I was sent at the secrecrafter exchange as well as things I had.

I am decorating my Christmas tree with these this year.

I received my secret crafter exchange parcel from Poppy of Poppysstuff. There were lovely things inside.

 I especially liked these vintage stitched pieces that belonged to a relative of the sender.

She sent me all that!

She knows how much I love blue and sea glass.

 Using the material she sent me I made some brooches for pet friendly people.

 And I also made this sea glass felted stone for a friend's new offices.

 I also received a parcel from Mia of Craftartista which I had won in her birthday giveaway.

 She sent me lots of stitchy things. I loved the stamped angel and all the DMC.

I also sent the January birthstone 

 and the All dolled up pattern to Diane of Lavender dreams who won it in my last giveaway.

I also sent Clare of Aimetu's Stitching what she won in my giveaway,too, in the previous GG.

I made and sent lots of 3d paper cards this Christmas too. Like this one.

 Here's the lot.

 And added some embellishments to some IKEA cards to send too.

And something else I received.

From dear Rania a stitched card and handmade bookmarks. Thank you so much Rania.

Finally I would like to show you some stitched pieces I saw at Art Thessaloniki this year. Unfortunately I didn't write down the artists' names.

So that was all.

Hope to see you in the next GG in the middle of January in the New Year. Enjoy the holidays and have a merry Christmas!