It's April really?

Last week started with more shooting of the film we took part in.In fact we were shooting for 12 hours on Monady. It was tiring!But so fullfilling!

Then there was a fire at a neighbourhood building.

 Fortunately it ended well because of the courageous efforts of these guys.

On Wednesday when April came we had at last a sunny day and we did a custom of welcoming spring and the swallows with the children at school.

 In the afternoon I paid a visit to dear Georgia (aka Ahtida of this blog) because I had won a candle for Easter and went to receive it.
Ahtida was so sweet and so was her little Claudie that kept us company. We had coffee and chatted over everything!We tried some selfies with not much success!

 And I looked around her house which is filled with her beautiful art and colourful details.

 Ahtida gifted me with this gorgeous painting of a seascape!This is so generous of you dear!It will definitely be a statement piece at the beach house.

 And here's my Easter candle!With a little painting on an easel!

I also gave Georgia some muffins and some of my mum's cookies that she really appreciated and I also made her one of my sea glass felted stones.

I so loved meeting this courageous talented lady in person!Don't you love it when blogland friends become real friends?

On Friday was the last day at school before the Easter break and all classes did various crafty things for Easter!

This week was supposed to close with out taking part in the 5000m run that was organized by the municipality. I went and got the things we were going to wear and our participation numbers.
It was a glorious day and I took the chance to walk a bit at our sea front.

 Aren't the skies gloriously painted?

Unfortunately hubby wasn't feeling very well so we ended up in hospital instead of running!But that's life, right? We will try it next time!

One more workshop! Weaving!

On Saturday November the 1st, the month started beautifully!
Anna of In My Closet blog organized one more very successful workshop!
This time she chose to change the venue and instead of her cozy welcoming kitchen we moved to cozy welcoming Button (Koumbi) Coffee and Crafts. I have mentioned this really nice crafting beehive cafe here and Anna made her workshop there.
This time we were more people scattered in little tables all around the cafe.

The plan was to make a cardboard loom and weave wool around it.
That's mine here. I used Anna's lovely wool and couldn't put it down!

  Sipping coffee and weaving!So relaxing!

Everyone made really beautiful things....
Melina wove very fast and finished before everyone else!

 Sophie (my former pupil!) made a great combination of colours!

 And Eleanna of aouts-pins made things more exquisite by adding shapes to her work!

 But of course all of us were in trouble with the tension of the loom as it tended to be narrower in the middle.

Some others finished their work of art really quickly! Like Lia of Meandmamacreations...

 ...and put it into good use!

Unfortunately I was too concentrated to my work to take more pictures but you can read about it here too as Eleanna of aouts-pins blogged about it as well.
We of course ate a little bit too, some fantastic chocolate mint cookies by Vasso of daxtilostovaso and Eleanna's cookies of course and my usual muffins!
I also made something for Anna to commemorate my one year of attending her workshops.
A small Christmas ornament, a closet that looks like her kitchen cupboards! I found the pattern on the web and transformed it into a felt piece.

And finally I finished my woven piece the next day!

 It so reminded me of sunsets at the beach house!

 So I added a setting sun and put it into an IKEA frame I happened to have at home and for the time being it is set on my new bookcase.

 Thank you Anna for one more great workshop!

A great day at Xeirotexnika

Xeirotexnika is an art and craft exhibition with workshops that takes place every year in Athens. This year it was also organised in Thessaloniki.It was this weekend 11th and 12th of October.

Xeirotexnika is organized by two very talented ladies Elina and Valia who were pioneers in this country in the craft world. They started some years ago with a blog about crafting called ftiaxto which evolved into a site with an e-shop. They taught us through tutorials how to make things and I really learnt a lot from them.So I was really very happy to meet them in person at the exhibition and take a photo with them.

I went early on the first day.

This funny little car decorated with crafts was outside the exhibition.

This beautiful huge cross stitch board was in the entrance.

 I went early in order to manage to get enrolled in the needle weaving workshop and I am glad I was one of the ten people who managed to get in! For only 5 euros you had a two hour workshop to learn how to make a mini needle weaved piece of jewelry and it was great!

Our teacher Natassa Fokianidou aka Faraona was great in teaching us all one by one and I hope to finish my piece soon and show you.

Here are a couple of photos of what we did.

 You will soon see the finished piece.

After the workshop it was high time to visit the exhibition. My photos are not very good though.

First I saw this quilting exhibition. Quilting is not very popular in Greece yet but that group here is trying and they have made some really beautiful things.

 They made this fantastic group quilt with the theme of Greece.

 And here are quilts made by people who have fallen victims of Human Trafficking.

 Lots of sellers from around the country were selling their supplies.
I was so eagerly looking around to get ideas and find products that might interest me, that I didn't take too many photos.
There was lots of wool!

There was silk!

There were exhibits to give you ideas.Like this from 2objectrepair who take old furniture and turn them into something new.

And beautiful little nooks.

There was lots to see and to choose from!

 I really loved the idea of making your own book by this couple.(photo from their site)

But didn't take photos of every seller of course.

I did a little bit of shopping too but as I am on a tight budget I only bought a couple of things from two shops fiaxto.gr and crafts and paper.

I bought ModPodge from the former and the felting needles too. And I bought those lovely felt pre cut patterns for my crafting from the latter.

All in all it was a great crafting day!