Some purchases and a gift!

I have little money to spend on purchases but some things just beg you to come back home with you at times, don't they?
So here they are in random order....
Three little tables from IKEA bought at very good prices during the sales.
First the IKEA PS 2012 side table. It comes in three different styles. Flat, fruit bowl top, or four bowls top.
You can see them here.

(This photo is from houzz site)
I bought the fruit bowl top one for 15 euros. I put my felted stones inside and covered it with glass. It looks great as a display and I can take great photos of my stones too.Barca seems to agree.

Then two small side tables made only of wood and glass for 10 euros each. I put some of my grandma's crochet on top. All three tables are in the living room as we didn't have any side tables there.

Those lovely colourful socks, one for each day of the week I bought at Lidl.

 Then this online purchase from a favourite shop Dutchsisters. They make amazing bags from vintage embroidery. They even added this lovely heart on the parcel.

The embroidery is all around the bag, so I can hold it on both sides.

When I went to buy a book for my Godson, I just happened to see this notebook and all of a sudden I realised that I could buy Geninne's notebook-journal here at home. I bought it at Public. You can find it online here.

 There are empty pages to draw or write.

 Pages to colour.

 Pages to paint in watercolours.

 And lovely colourful pages.

 I tried to videotape the pages as I have seen being done on online bookstores but Barca didn't really allow that. Still you can have fun with her here.

Finally a gift I recently received from a very generous lady. Zina of EfZin Creations chose me among her other blogland friends to gift me with one of her lovely jewelry pieces. She even managed to choose the proper colour for me, blue.

(Photographed on an otchipotchi stone)
You can find her shop on etsy and read her blog too. Thank you Zina.

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.

Again back in July.

I so enjoyed July. Somehow the sea and the sky wanted to compensate me for the lost dream of the trip to the States and kept so so beautiful most of the time.
I started the Rosebud Wreath.

 I spotted two beautiful wooden boats filled with scouts that came to our beach for a night.

 I found(yes I did) one of the gemstones Elysabeth Williamson of partner yoga had thrown into the sea!

 I found a piece of a probably fossilized sea urchin.

 There the five gemstones all together.

 Another fabulous piece.

 Hubby made another shadow puppet. This time it is a ship.

 I played around with shadows.

 I continued stitching.

 I made an extravagant purchase (for my financial situation of course!)
Ever since I had seen my friend Frieda's bag from the dutch sisters I wanted one of my own. And as soon as I saw this amazing piece I bought it! It will be my winter school bag. Maybe some of my students will be inspired to stitch or to read from it! The bag arrived wrapped in a beautiful paper and with this little heart ornament!Isn't it lovely?

 It is made out of a vintage needlepoint embroidery.

 I spotted a great tree trunk on the beach but have to space to take it to.

 I walked late after the sun set.

 More stitching and sea glass.

 I drank lots of this delicious juice from Mexico!

 These are glowing phials that fishermen use at night to attract fish.

 I took pictures of my neighbour's huge flowers.

We barbequed a lot this summer, pork chops, sardines, Frieda's tuna, and peppers.

 The wreath goes on!

 Some sea glass is like jelly!

 Patience, it will end!

 Lovely colours!

I read three of Jane Austen's books (Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion)

 Hubby snorkeled and caught some fish.

 Almost there!

 Rainbows appeared out of nowhere!

 I added one more framed cross stitch, the sea gulls!

 Almost again!

 Isn't this sea tile face funny?

 And I loved this black and white stone heart!