Making Christmas ornaments for charity.

Around this time of year Anna of in my closet organises a Christmas workshop!
Last year we had gathered in her cozy kitchen and made Christmas trees. You can see the blog post here.
This year there was the idea to make ornaments but not for ourselves but to donate them to charity. It was joyfully approved. There was a proposal to offer them to ELPIDA (=Hope) The school of people with autism.
Workshops are not an easy thing to organise. But Anna is a master on that! So first we gathered in Anna's kitchen to decide which ornaments we will be making.

 After coming up with some ideas we took the time to dress up some Christmas baubles with fabric and somehow recycle them.

 We decorated the baubles on a wooden pallette Christmas tree made by talented Vasso, Anna's sister.

Then the next day we gathered up at Koumbi Coffee and Crafts cafe. I adored their Christmas decoration!

We were about 20 people.

We divided into smaller groups and each group made one type of ornament. My group made Christmas trees. Eleanna of auts-pins, Christina of Christie's Trees and more, Evangelia of Happy Deck and myself made the trees.

The other groups made little gloves,birds, hearts,boots and more.

We enjoyed the meeting and while making crafts we sipped coffee and ate the lovely sweets that Anna's sister Vasso of Me to dahtylo sto vaso made. I had never before eaten cake pops and loved them. And so did Santa's little assistants like Sophie, my former pupil! Can you believe I taught this little girl English in a Primary School years ago? And now we are crafting together! It is so great!

All elfs and reindeer were concentrating on their job.

The next day Anna and Melina decorated the pallette wooden tree Vasso had made with all the ornaments and gave it to ELPIDA.You can see it here.(Photo taken from Elpida site)

Their bazaar was today and it is still on tomorrow Sunday so local friends why don't you visit them?

You can also read all about the workshop and see more photos in Anna's blogpost here.(Following photo taken from Anna's blogpost)

A performance.

For my local friends.
The Teachers' Association Drama Club is presenting our play "Griothesia" for "Allazo, the friends of people with special needs", at DeLaSalle College. We will be happy to see you there!

I am sick and tired of this rain......

A month ago the Municipality started replacing the pavements in our street at a length of more than 500 metres.

 I don't know if it is wise to start replacing pavements at the beginning of December but maybe that's when the Municipality got some money.
So they came and started breaking up the pavements! Noise all day long and dirt of course!

But well ok at least we will have new pavements this Christmas!

Now I don't know whom to blame but the weather hasn't cooperated with the Municipality and it started raining.

In fact the last two weeks it has been raining all the time and the last three days it has been raing non-stop 24 hours a day!

So when it is raining the workers cannot work so the pavements have been left to their state till the weather gets better.

The workers come and go every day trying to do some work every time there is an hour's stop of the rain but the work evolves slowly.

 I am not a specialist but thought of telling the person responsible for the work that the pavement is too low and when it rains it will get flooded since there is not sewers to get the water in! Well, they told me that the people who designed this are obliged to do it this way so that people in wheelchairs or mums with prams can go up the pavement easily! Fair enough! Only when it rains they will simply get through the pool to get on the pavement!

 Oh yes and the electricity column is in the middle of the street too!Couldn't the pavement become bigger to take it in?

Let me not mention again the noise but the dirt is unbearable as the works are not coninuing!

Now another problem has arisen! Here in my neighbourhood, maybe it happens in yours too, people love to consume but when time comes to have the garbage bin in front of their block of flats they don't want it.

Up to now the bins where moveable. "Ghosts" moved them every day (or should I say night). There was no permanent space for them, people assumed they could put them anywhere they liked. So every time someone wanted to park they moved the bin somewhere else. Some bins even vanished to another neighbourhood or just vanished altogether!
So now the Municipality decided to make special spaces where each bin should be!
(Normally each block of flats has one bin in front of its building! Or somewhere in the periphery of the building!But well some simply do not want a bin in front of their buildings or in front of their shop.)
See the space in the following photo?It is designed for a garbage bin!

But well maybe first the Municipality should have built new parking places because people don't know where to park their cars. What's the easy solution?
They move the bin! So the bin has been moved to a space where a car should be parked and a car is parked on the bin space.
And therefore the pavements are being made for the cars and not for the people (with or without prams or wheelchairs!)

And the rain keeps on. Maybe that's why I am sick but also tired......

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!

In my closet a Secret Santa hid an Advent Calendar!

I know I know a strange title!
Well, the story goes like this.
I am still a member of egst although my little "shop" is dying! Every Christmas the members play Secret Santa. Actually the members exchange gifts. You send a handmade gift to one member and receive from another!It is fun and all in the Christmas spirit!
I sent my gift but as I have no news from the recipient yet I won't talk about it yet!
Last week hubby and I joined my crafty girlfriends to a shopping walk for crafty materials. We had fun but I will talk about that too in another blogpost!(already promises for two future blogposts)
Before leaving the shop Anna of in my closet blog and inmyc etsy shop gave me a bag she meticulously was carrying for two hours while our walk lasted saying "It is for you! I am your Secret Santa!"
I was astonished with happiness! Anna is such a talented girl so being her "recipient" is a priviledge! I was wondering what there was inside my box!

 When I got home I opened it.There was a card and a big pizza box covered in stickers! The child in me was eager to see what's inside!

So I opened it and first I saw a little bag with some little buttons!

I wasn't sure what they were made of but the smell proved they are soap buttons. Anna had them custom made in this shop. Aren't they lovely?
I put them in my button bowl of course.

And then went on to uncover the rest of my gift. And saw this!
An Advent Calendar! I so much love Advent Calendars! It is a frame on which Anna glued after having painted a number of tin boxes! Such a great idea of upcycling!

Anna not only made her own gift for me but wanted it to last a whole month!
It even shines in the dark! Just in case  one feels like opening it at night!

I made a promise to myself to enjoy it every day till Christmas so I didn't open the little tin boxes. Instead closed the box and left it to rest somewhere I wouldn't be able to reach it (and neither would Barca). But as the box felt rather heavy I looked underneath the frame of the Advent calendar and found one more gift.
This lovely cushion cover from inmyc shop!

 Isn't it lovely and so appropriate for an English teacher like me! Thank you Anna!
Barca of course had to have a look! But you will hear her opinion in another blog post!(third promise!)
So today I opened my first little box!

 And inside there were some beautiful little...buttons! Of course!Anna adores buttons!

I will be posting a photo of what's inside my Advent Calendar every day (hope I manage! Ooops one more promise!)
Anna thank you so much!
Have a great month every one! And remember it's the countdown to Christmas! Hurray!