July Gifted Gorgeousness and the Super storm in Chalkidiki.

Hello everyone!
GG or Gifted Gorgeousness is Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching brainchild.
Jo asks us to show in the blog post something we were gifted cross stitch wise, or something we made and gifted.

Unfortunately I haven't managed to stitch at all this month. We were supposed to be at the beach house and I would stitch but things evolved differently.
Anyway let me first of all show you the new summer craftpod I gifted myself. It is dedicated to bees which are getting extinct and we should do something to protect them.

This summer again I am taking part in the summer craft challenge organised by Anna of In my closet. This time Anna is collaborating with other blogs to challenge us to be more creative. The first collaboration was with Katerina of Mindspinfabrica and Katerina asked us to make something stamped. So I used my sea themed stamps ( a gift from Karen some years ago, hence it belongs to GG) to stamp on self drying clay and make some ring dishes and key rings. The end result isn't very good but I loved making them.

Finally I'd like to share here with you some photos from the aftermath of a cyclone or Supercell or superstorm or waterspout that happened on the evening of July 10th at Chalkidiki where my beach house is. The phenomenon was awful and very very strong. It had continuous lightning, typhoon winds, rain and hail at the same time.  Unfortunately seven people were killed in the area, six of them tourists among them two children. One tourist, a Russian father with his two-year-old child was killed at the hotel next to our house.
The photos are all mine and they are in our neighbourhood.

Half of the tree missing.

 Huge wooden deck flew and dropped at our beach.

 Only trunks from the hundreds-year-old pine trees.

 I just hope this supercell won't happen again. It was something I have never seen before and my family and I were very lucky not to have any injuries or damages.Thank God!

June Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello everyone! Hope you are already in a summery mood!

GG or else Gifted Gorgeousness, Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching brainchild continues.

This month I didn't stitch at all! Oh yes, unfortunately!

But I received a gift which I'd like to show you.

It was a thank you gift from Mia Craftartista! Thank you so much Maria, this is so sweet of you!

 And here's a recent find at a flea market which I couldn't possibly pass. A whole cross stitched runner with beautiful colours, lots of silver in it too, and dark velvet all around. It is in excellent condition and bought it very very cheap. So this will adorn my big dining table in winter!

(the photo contains the rest of my flea market finds. A book, a Mdina Glass vase from Malta and a new handmade hair ribbon made by my friend Katerina of Mindspinfabrica)
Nothing else to show you! Hope you enjoy summer!

Gifted Gorgeousness March 2018

Jo of Serendipitous Stitching organizes a link-up party where we show stitch gifts we made to give or items that were gifted to us and are related to stitching and sewing.So on the 15th of each month we can link up to her blog. This is my first year taking part in this. Thanks Jo for the chance and the inspiration.

So from February 15th till March 14th I stitched...
the rest of the letters on my fabric book.The fabric book is a gift from Katerina of mindspinfabrica. I used leftover threads from various other projects.
T

 U

 V

 W

 X

 Y

 Z

 I added those paper and fabric ladies which I made them from an exchange kit.

 I also added fabric at the back of the stitched letters.

I want to add a video of me opening the pages of the fabric book but it is probably too big for blogger so maybe I won't manage after all.

I then continued with my flower bookmarks.This cross stitch kit by Bucilla was a gift from my friend Marabeth. I stitch one bookmark each month.

 So I finished February

 and started March.

 I also made a seaglass felted stone with lots of different beads for a friend.

 I stitched this beautiful cactus ornament from a kit sent to me by my friend Kim in England. It turned out lovely!

 I also made a bunny for Easter.The pattern was a free one from the blog The world according to Agi. She has lots of free patterns in her blog and they are beautiful but I especially liked this one. It's a great way to use up left over bits of thread.

 Then I finished the bunny as an ornament and made an egg from a free pattern from Kathrin's blog.I turned that egg into an ornament too. Finally I turned an older beaded egg which I had received as a kit from my friend Marabeth into an ornament too. I might give those ornaments away as gifts this Easter!

 Or I might put them up in my Easter egg ornament tree along with my Metropolitan Museum of Art Easter eggs.

I also kitted the next big project I am going to make. This is my husband's figure of Karaghiozis, the Greek shadow puppet theatre protagonist, which another stitcher turned into a cross stitch pattern using pic2pat free cross stitch pattern maker. I am going to stitch this for a huge piece of art that is a collaborative work and lots of stitchers will stitch pieces that commemorate the Greek civilization. I will tell you more about this later.

Something else I dealt with this month was these eggs which are beaded with some beads I had received at an exchange.

 I made them

 and then remade them for a better look.

Finally something I won as a giveaway from Jeremiah's Mum blog!Jeremiah himself chose me to win this!Thank you so much.These are two lovely patterns with charms.

 Although not all thinsg qualify for GG I think there are still a lot of them here. Thanks Jo for organizing GG once again.
Finally a giveaway from me. I have this pattern by Stoney Creek that I know I am never going to stitch so I would like to give it away to any one of my readers so if you would like it please say so and I will randomly pick a winner and send it along. Please no no-reply bloggers. I need to have a way to contact you.Otherwise leave an e-mail to me. Thanks.