Gifts sent and received (in November and December)

Although I have become rather slow in writing letters I still send cards and parcels and other things around the world but also receive lots.
So here is a blogpost about mail I sent and received in November and December!
I sent lots of Christmas cards and received lots but I didn't take photos of them all.
But I did take photos of other mail I sent.
At some time in November I sent my friend Marabeth in the States a thank you gift.
I made her a Shutterfly photobook with photos from our trip.
I also made her a Shutterfly thank you card and I cross stitched her a card as well for her birthday.

Now here's the parcel I sent for the In My Closet exchange. Although I shared what I received (you can read it here) I never shared what I made and sent.So here it is.
I made a stone of course. And as Aliki of My Angels, My World blog loves white I made it in her favourite colour. I loved that stone, one of my favourites!

 Here's the rest of the parcel.

 I also made this little cute Christmas card in a box!

Here is a sea glass felted stone I made for my Etsy Greek Street Secret Santa Exchange and it went to far away Canada to my dear Stella of Inspirations by Stella. I also made her a sea glass pendant, both in her favourite colour turquoise.

I made this sea glass owl pendant for my dear Juliana in Scotland for Christmas. I used the owl charm that Erina Katerina sent me along with other supplies in the In My Closet exchange.

I received lots of Christmas cards.Here are the ones from my friends Annie and Stavros and Julia and Stratos in the States, Johanna in Finalnd and Christine in France.

This is a lovely gift from Andria, another friend in the States. She sent me this lovely card, and my name made with wire and a little parcel with her love. Don't you love everything?

More Christmas cards from Kerry in the States, Tua in Finland and Andrea in Trinidad&Tobago.

 I made this little green fox for my friend Frieda on Skiathos island. Frieda is trying hard to support The Green Fox of Skiathos recycling programme so I made her this little fox in green for her. I found this in Crafts Beautiful magazine if I remember correctly!

It was in brown so I made it in green for Frieda and added one of Erina Katerina's art supplies she sent me.

 Some time ago I had bought this emroidery from the destashing sale of Laura Lupin of
Bugs and fishes. So I put it in a hoop and it looked lovely for Christmas. Laura still has a destashing sale in her shop.

 I made this card for Anna's of In My Closet Christmas card competition. I used a bamboo box in which I had once received a gift in. Some washi tape.

Felt and felted cut outs I had bought at Xeirotexnika.

And some stitched wishes and a 2015 charm and some buttons of course!

One more stone I made in December.

I will make another blogpost about the Christmas cards I received (most came in January) and more mail and other things that I sent and received in the two first months of the new year!

Frieda was here.

I have so much fun when my friend Frieda from Skiathos is here. We do things together and I have an excuse for hubby that Frieda will just stay for a couple of days and we have to do things and see things. So I am away from home all the time!LOL!Not that I need an excuse for that!
So Frieda came on Wednesday and we had some coffee and caught up. Then on Thursday which was Tsiknopempti we went for a shopping walk at the city centre. I bought some licorice tea and some felt to try my hands on wet felting.

Then we had lunch at a small tavern. It is customary to eat meat on that day and so we did.

Frieda had introduced me to this etsy shop dutchsisters and here our bags met each other.Aren't they lovely? I hold mine every day and it has kept its shape so well.

Then on Saturday we went again for a walk.
We saw some lovely tops decorating Koperti, a friend's school in the neighbourhood.

Then we walked more and we saw a new antique store.We had to pay a visit although it wasn't filled  with merchandise yet.

We loved the ceilings and frescos on the walls.

We did a little bit of shopping too.

Here is what I bought at very good prices.
A big hand embroidered vintage tablecloth. I loved the colours and the patterns on it.

 And this 40-year-old Russian book. It is Alexander Pushkin's Poems and Tales and although I cannot read Russian I love its beautiful illustrations.

Then we went to Vafopouleion Institute where we visited an exhibition of realia from the 1821 war of independence.
We had a guided tour by one of the collectors who were presenting their beautiful items there and we very much enjoyed it.One could see paintings, jewelry, traditional clothes, guns and my favourite various types of embroideries.Like this golden work.Isn't it magical?All this handstitched!

 And I loved the portrait of beautiful Katerina Botsari.

 And the vignette about Lord Byron.

 I adored this piece of embroidery too.

Of course such a great walk had to finish with some tsipouro at our favourite Volos restaurant and a walk at the sea front.

It was fun Frieda, let's do this again.
By the way I have probably told you again that Frieda and other talented ladies on Skiathos island are working hard for their "child" the Green Fox Project. They are collecting and recycling all the plastic bottles and tin cans of the island all by themselves voluntarily. They need a car to do this job and they have started a pledge to gather some money to get one. So if anyone wants to help (every little bit helps) you can go here or on the button of the Green Fox project on my side bar and donate as much as you would like to.

My 2012 cross stitch finishes.

I did lots of cross stitch in 2012 but only today did I manage to make a complete set of pictures of them.
So here they are in the order of completion.
A Green Fox of Skiathos Project logo pin for Frieda.

The Greek island by Michael Powell.

In a Lidl frame.

For my cousin Kalliope and her husband Sorin who are architects in Romania, gifted when we travelled there.

An alphabet sampler for Braden, my friend Marabeth's first grandchild in the States.I have the exact same sampler made for my son as a Round Robin when he was born.

A coaster I had from a magazine freebie with a lovely pattern from another cross stitch magazine freebie, sent to me from Juliana and made for Cathy in England.

A house warming gift for my best friend Gia.

In a custom made frame.

A set of flower fairies from a magazine for the two daughters of my friend Stathis as a christening gift.

Frames by IKEA.

A Scottish thistle fridge magnet sent as a kit by Juliana.

This is how far I went with my Balinese dancer. I finished all the upper left part of the head.

As you can see there is a lot to make still.

A neighbour's twins birth gift given at their christening. Custom made frame.

Travelling pattern from Kathy's Sit and Stitch blog.

 Framed in an IKEA frame.

 Seagulls sent as a kit from Marabeth framed in an IKEA frame for the beach house.

Humming bird sent as a kit from Lisa in the States.

 Cardinal sent as a kit from Marabeth.

 Flower wreath heart sent as a kit from Lisa.

 Framed in an IKEA frame decorating my bedroom.

 Mermaids, a freebie pattern by The Little Stitcher. Made twice for Dawn and Frieda and framed in IKEA frames.

 Christmas cards made from various patterns.Using left over fabric and threads.Unfortunately I did not take  photos of all.

This one went to Marabeth and I added some buttons I bought from this etsy shop buzzybee.