2019 Online Advent Calendar

Hi everyone!
I know you haven't seen me for some time here. It seems that even blogging has become difficult for me these days. Anyway...

Thanks to Jo of Serendipitous Stitching though I managed to make my last blog post for 2019.
And that's her Advent Calendar.
I am on December 22nd so here is my photo.

I had stitched this Christmas stocking for my son back in 1997. I managed to finish it for his third Christmas and I really like it so very much. There is so much detail in it. And beads too.

I had found the pattern in Cross Stitcher magazine issue of December 1996 and my mum did the finishing into a stocking when I finished it in time for Christmas 1997. So it was totally a labour of love from a mother and a grandmother to my little boy Miltos. I hope he will treasure it as a heirloom. And I hope you like it too.
For this Christmas I only stitched this little piece from Winter 2018 Craftpod kit. It's beautiful isn't it?

The red berries branch is from an older Craftpod kit too.
Jo also asked us to say in this blog post our favourite Christmas movie. If you read all the blog posts you will find lots of interesting movies to see for Christmas.
My favourite Christmas movie is a Finnish film called Joulutarina ( Christmas Story). It was sent to me as a DVD gift by my Finn friend Johanna and her family after we had visited Finland after Christmas 2006. You can find the movie with English subtitles on You tube and I personally show this movie to my pupils of the 6th grade every year and they love it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0772176/
The second movie I love to watch not only every Christmas but also through the year and I have watched really a hundred times is You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Rayan. In fact I am going to watch it today again as it is on our TV although I have it as a DVD as well when I want to watch it at other times. I especially like the scenes from New York at Christmas.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/

I recently saw another movie on Netflix and really liked it so I thought of suggesting that one too. It is Klaus and it is animated and very very witty. I am sure you will like that, too.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4729430/

 I also thought of adding a few photos from this year's minimal Christmas decorations at our house.

 This is our big table with some fir branches, lights and tealight candles.

 My porcelain mushrooms, a wooden advent calendar winter scene, my nativity scene, and my crystal tealight candle holders.The blue cross stitched piece I made myself.

 This is where the stocking stands.

 Also you can see another Nativity scene, my son's first ornament a Santa on a bike, two little houses I got from Poland  and two music boxes from my friend Juliana.

That's a tea light candle holder I got as a gift from a pupil this year and the reindeer is from Finland.

 The wreaths I made last year. I had also made some blue ones that I sent out as gifts this year.

My pomegranate collection and the lights are from Finland too.

No Christmas tree this year.

But I admired this one at the city centre mall and loved it.Maybe next year!LOL!

 If you have read so far then I have a gift for you. This is a Christmas kit I had received from my friend Marabeth many years ago but I know this is not something I am going to stitch so if you feel like stitching it please say so in your comment. I will pick someone on 31st December.

If you would like to visit all of Jo's Advent blog posts you can do so here.

Thank you Jo for the inspiration once again.

Have a great Christmas and New Year's Eve. Enjoy the holidays.

EDIT. I finally did a drawing and the kit was won by Purple Pixie Dust.

Craftartista Birthday Candy

Hello there,
the year is coming to its end and I still want to blog a bit.
I recently won a beautiful giveaway from Craftartista blog from dear Maria (aka Mia) who is very talented and makes beautiful things. She was celebrating her blog birthday and chose 22 winners! Wow! I was one of them!
Here's what Mia sent me.
Mia made for me a beautiful fabric tote which I will definitely use a lot. The lovely doilies were made by her grandmother and I really loved them. She also added a stamped cross stitch fabric which although I don't stitch on stamped fabrics I really want to do this one as it looks so sweet. She added lots of DMC threads, wooden items to stitch, three pairs of earrings she made herself and a lovely card she also made.

 

 Look at the earrings. And the detail of the doilies.

 The stamped canvas, and the chocolate!

 The wooden items and the card.

Dear Maria thank you so very much!

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.