Let the people choose-February-Hearts

Hi everyone!
This wasn't a good week. It started with my birthday and I was sick!Had the flu so nothing much to say for my birthday. Also other things happening around make me sad and I don't really feel like stitching.
But there are some things I can do. Like this.Let the people choose, Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching first Saturday of the month activity is to show you things one would like to stitch or have stitched according to a theme.
This month the theme is Hearts!

   If you are looking for free cross stitch heart patterns there are some here at the DMC site.
I have subscribed to their newsletter and they send me their news about patterns every now and then.
This is one of their free patterns.

Also Alita page has free patterns also Valentines.

What have  I stitched?
I have lots of threads some are not DMC, some are old, vintage, no numbers on them but I really want to use them up so I decided to use them on gifts I want to make and not to care about numbers.
I wanted to make a heart gift for someone I really love so I chose this free pattern from pinterest.

 I followed the link and found the pattern on this blog from Brazil called Croche maravilha de art.
So I stitched the pattern with all the blue threads I had on a gifted fabric with huge holes and turned it finally into a cushion!I won't show it to you now as I am keeping the photo for the Valentine card blog hop.

I'd also love to stitch this heart too one day.It's from the blog Passion Creative

Which heart would you choose to stitch for someone you love?

A Christmas exchange-share what you don't need

Anna of In my closet (my Secret Santa, remember?) organised a fantastic Christmas gift exchange in which I took part.

 The exchange was organised in perfect detail!
120 crafters took part in it and Anna really went out of her way to match all of them with each other for perfect exchanges!

We had to make a parcel that would contain a handmade gift but also something sweet and five materials we don't need and would like to send to someone else who might use them.

We had to take pictures and show our parcels in our group on facebook.
We were even given info on how to post the parcels.
It was great looking into your stash to find what you would like to share with others.
It was fun trying to figure out which one of the parcels shown might be yours.
It was exciting to anticipate the parcel sent to you! Or to see the reaction of the person who received yours!
One again I was very lucky! I received a lovely parcel from Crete island from dear Erina Katerina of rozkardies (=pink hearts) blog.

Erina loves scrapbooking so she made some lovely paper crafts for me.
A card,

 a bookmark,

a door knob sign

 and a gift tag.

Here's the whole handmade collection!

She added lots (and I mean lots) of buttons, ribbons, paints, a stamp,

charms, embelishments, stickers,papers, felt,

and little paper and fabric flowers she made herself for me to use in my crafts.
(Doesn't that picture have an Attic24 colour combination in it?)

Here's the lot of the "5" materials!That's 105!!!!!!

And there was bitter chocolate too! My favourite! Ooops, there was more, but till I find the right light conditions to take the pictures it was gone!

Thank you so much Erina for all the lovely things you sent me!
I hope the recepient of my parcel likes it too!
And thank you Anna for organising this whole thing! It was such a brilliant idea to reuse things in such a way!
Now I have one more thing to do. Make something with at least three of the things I received! Mmmm, let me think!

The mermaid and Karagiozis

Recently Yannis Hatzis, a famous Greek shadow puppeteer invited hubby and I at his home.

Two other shadow puppeteers Agapios Agapiou and Odysseas Kanlis were invited to Yannis Hatzis' house as well.

 First he showed us all around his collection of fantastic shadow puppets and paintings for the shadow puppetry.It was at that time that I spotted probably my most favourite of his paintings Karagiozis and the mermaid and he offered to paint one for me too!!!!!!How generous and gentle is that! Then he talked to us about Karagiozis and Greek shadow theatre.

Finally he and his sweet wife Tassoula took us out to dinner.

Here's the painting he made for me. Karagiozis meeting the mermaid at the waters of the Thermaicos Gulf in front of the landmark of my city Thessaloniki, the White Tower.

And here's the custom framed piece I made.

Giveaway winning and a lovely gift.

Some time ago I was the happy winner of what generously was offered by Kim 

of Wisdom with needle and thread

Here's what Kim sent me ...her own handmade thread holder, along with a scissors keep, some cross stitch tags and some beautiful cards.

Kim was kind enough to let me choose which gifts I wanted from these.

And from these....

She also allowed me to nominate one more cross stitcher friend to whom she also sent similar gifts. I nominated Sarah of Sarah in Stitches. You can read all about it here.

Thanks Kim!

Also I recently received a lovely gift from dear Anna of inmyc.

She made this beautiful cushion out of one of my sea glass felted stones photograph. The photo was taken by Mak.Semers Digital Artist.

Thanks Anna!

Life is full of happy moments and sad moments....

I know I haven't blogged for some time but as the title says life is like that, filled with all kinds of moments....
and I am starting with the most recent and unfortunately the saddest moment.
On Saturday my son was the witness of the death of a young man at a motorcycle accident at his dad's village. He and his friends were playing football when a motorcycle roared by and in a flash they heard the awful sound of the accident. They immediately ran to the spot and they saw the young man die on the street.
For a teenager to witness the death of a young person is shocking.I know he will never forget it in his life as I have never forgotten the deaths I have witnessed in mine. But that is how life is and maybe he will grow more mature through this.
Sorry I made you sad at the beginning of my blogpost today but I wanted to share this with all of you old and new readers and followers.
To happier things...
December, which came rushing in with sunshine, then torrential rain and then cold and sunshine (today), is leading us fast to Christmas and I am not ready, not ready at all.
I haven't decorated yet or cleaned up or put the carpets.
I haven't written Christmas cards or made parcels.
And I really don't know when I will as there are so many things happening here.
For example last Wednesday 28th hubby and I spent hours outside the courthouse supporting our friend teacher who was on trial unfairly accused for assault against the German delegate. Fortunately he and the co-accused where found innocent which made us really really happy!We were all crying outside the courthouse that day!
Here is a video of the short speech our friend made after the trial.
"...I fight for my children , my grandchild to be and my students..." he said in court and everyone applauded.

Edited on the same day: Unfortunately the three accused are going to be in court again for the same accusations as the Public Prosecutor of the area decided that the result of the trial was false!

On the other hand school goes on as usual with all the things we have to do before Christmas!!! Tests and grades and songs and lots more! I am ready with the tests and the grades,that's good!So I will be spending all the next weeks singing all kinds of Christmas songs at all levels!
It was hubby's birthday last week and at last I told him what my gift for him is. At first he was shocked because I told him "I will give you your present in six months although I got it three months ago!" I don't know why but he thought I was pregnant and wasn't happy at all.LOL! That wasn't intentional I assure you!
Well his gift is a painting he admired very much some time ago at an exhibition but could not buy as he thought it was rather expensive. I made a secret arrangement with the painter Konstantinos Kougioumtzis and the painting will be with us in six months after travelling around Greece and abroad to various exhibitions! Themis was absolutely thrilled with the news!
Here's a photo of the painting showing Karaghiozis as a soldier at the war for the liberation of Macedonia.

A couple of shadow puppet performances will be given by hubby this month to benefit various causes. It is this time around Christmas we do such things.
Finally an announcement....
We are rehearsing heavily to prepare for a performance with the Teachers' Association Drama Club to present our play Koutornithia at the State Theatre to benefit children with cancer and their society Lampsi.
So whoever from my local friends wants to attend and contribute  this will take place on December 16th at 11 in the morning at the State Theatre ( Θέατρο Εταιρείας Μακεδονικών Σπουδών) with a ticket of 7 euros, all procceeds go to Lampsi. We are so happy and proud with this collaboration!

A swan landed in my mail box!

Staying away from the computer and the Internet for a week was so good!
A couple of things that I wanted to tell you last week before leaving but did not have time then.
This was a surprise parcel from my dear sea glass friend Ian from England. He painted it himself and sent it to me. He knows me so well. I love swans and I really appreciate his thoughtfulness to send it to me.
This will be framed in the fall.

The sea glass on the corner is John and Juliana's from Scotland.
Something small I bought from a lady who came to sell her handmade jewelry at school a couple of days before we closed.

It is sitting on an otchipotchi lace stone.
Just before leaving I finished the part of my Balinese Dancer that I had aimed for. Now the whole head and flowers is finished. Isn't she gorgeous?
 I decided not to take this along to the summer house. It is too big and too complicated so I took along something smaller and summery! I will show you when it is finished.

These are the 17 books  I took with me. They are both in English and in Greek. Do you think I am too ambitious? Yes maybe I am. But I read really a lot in summer, in winter I stitch more!
The majority are from foreign authors and they were books I had in my library already, some I had bought at book bazaars and are second hand, very few are new purchases. I decided to take them all at the summer house to see how many I will manage to read. And I am going to read them in an alphabetical order of the author's surname. Some of them will be donated afterwards.

And here are the only two magazines I had bought this spring. My always favourite Marie Claire Idees which are the only affordable ones.

 Here are a couple of the ideas in them I liked. I admit I don't find them as interesting as I used to a couple of years ago. Maybe because the Internet gives you so many ideas that magazines haven't got much to add anymore.

I am now back from the summer house. I had a great time. You will see in the next post.Thank you for your summer wishes.

School printing/engraving exhibition

One of the great aspects of this school year was that the Art teacher Alexander Dimitriades is a painter but has also majored in printing/engraving.
Hubby and I had visited his exhibition back in March.
Alexander did a great job with the children and in the end of the school year they presented their works of art all over the school like the picture below.

 I loved lots of the pictures like this zebra by one of my 6th graders Alex..

 This was my favourite and I admit I asked for it and my 4th grader Maxi gave it to me.

 This train was made by a fifth grader.

 This was in black by another of my fourth graders.

 I really loved this one too.

Alexander made this video of his students' work. I hope it will upload.

But what impressed me more in the end was that Alxander was very generous to give me a goodbye gift, his three watercolours of glass vases that were decorating his art classroom and which he had made some years ago. I had loved them the moment I laid eyes on them and he was so nice to give them to me. These will be beautifully framed in September and find their special room on my walls. Thank you Alexander!