A week of CHANGE!

Although according to the Grow Your Blog instructions I shouldn't blog for a week or two so that the Grow Your Blog post comes first for people to get to know me and my blog the events around me do not allow that!

So I will blog again today.Whoever wants to learn more about me, my blog and my giveaway, should look into the previous blogpost here. Anyway thank you everyone who have visited my blog through GYB and for becoming a follower too.

As many of you might guess from the title of this blogpost this week was a very difficult week for our family and for our country.

It was a week of CHANGE!

On Tuesday my sister's-in-law father died. So on Wednesday we had a funeral. No matter how old a person is when your own father dies it is a shock. That's a big CHANGE!

Bytheway my father died in 1998 and I still remember him like he was here yesterday! I still miss him so much!

Another big change this week was the elections yesterday. It was a historical election. After so many years in Greece there is a Leftist Government. That's a big CHANGE! Having been for so many years into a financial and political crisis we are hoping for the best.

 On Monday afternoon I attended a seminar on Teaching foreign languages using new technology. It was quite interesting and since my school is one of the very few in Greece that has tablets and an interactive board in one classroom and computers and projectors in three others we are considered lucky and we have to learn how to use them to teach!That's a big CHANGE!

And as technology takes over everywhere hubby thought that I needed a new mobile so he bought me a Samsung A3 for my birthday which is on the 28th. It is quite easy to use it and I can add so many new apps. I am excited! I was never excited with mobile phones! That's a big CHANGE!

This week hubby and I also had a cardiologist's check up. We are doing well, but he has to stop eating salt because of his high blood pressure and I have to walk at a fast pace for 45 minutes a day. For a person like me that never liked walking fast that's a big CHANGE! We already started walking since Monday and it feels good!But I miss my "spotting beauty around me" moments while walking at the sea front!

Today Demis Roussos died. He was a singer I really loved and had always listened to and sang his songs. When artists you remember seeing in movies or listening to their songs all your life die then you start feeling that you are getting older, right? Or do I feel like this because my birthday is this week?

That's another CHANGE!

Do you feel good with CHANGE?

Grow Your Blog

I am taking part in the Grow Your Blog event organized by Vicki of 2BagsFull this weekend.

It is an event where people present their blogs and get to know each other better and visit other blogs to get to know people.Sounds very interesting. I have to do this blogpost today so here it is.
According to the instructions I have to present myself first.

So I am Ariadne, in my late forties, a teacher of English in a Primary State School.

I live with my boyfriend (called hubby in most blogposts), my dear son Miltos (a University student) and our dear sweet Barca (female dog).(All seen in the above picture!)
In my free time I take part in the Teachers' Association Drama Club presenting plays for children and adults, help hubby with his hobby which is shadow puppetry and do lots of other things too.
(photo from rehearsals and trips with the Drama Club)

 I love travelling so in my blog you will find lots of blog posts regarding my trips in Greece and abroad.(My friend Marabeth,me and hubby in Newport, RI,U.S.A. last summer)

(Nafplion, the Peloponnese,Greece, last January)

I love handicrafts and I mainly do cross stitch, (pieces I stitched for friends)

and felted stones.(I made this one for a life long friend)

I love attending workshops doing handicrafts, learning new techniques and ...

(photo from Etsy Greek Street meeting)

helping charities with my crafts.

(photo of the felt ornaments I made last Christmas for a bazaar at my school)

I love collecting sea glass and add it on my felted stones as well as make jewelry with it.

I love watching movies and reading books.

I love taking lots and lots of photos.(Elizabeth Park, Hartford, CT,U.S.A.)

I love going out for walks and especially at the sea front of my city Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece!
(photo taken after a storm at our sea front in 2012 and was published in a book)

(The White Tower, the landmark of my city)

I don't love cooking very much but I love making muffins.And from time to time I present a recipe.
I'd love to giveaway one of my felted stones or jewelry made of sea glass.
So if you would like to win it add a comment to this blog post only and tell me your favourite colour as well as your country and be sure to leave me a way to communicate with you if you win.
I will choose a winner randomly on February 15th.
If you want to follow me there are two ways a bloglovin button and a google friends connect button on my side bar.
It has been great talking to you!
Now, after leaving a comment, go visit lots more blogs!It's fun!

Spotting beauty everywhere.

This is a difficult week.We had a death in the family.Therefore a funeral.
I had to do a doctor's check up too and there is not much time to deal with my blog. But this is going to be a long weekend because of the elections on Sunday so I will just show you some photos today which didn't make it to the blog till now and write a couple of blogposts on the weekend.
So as always I try to spot beauty everywhere.
Detail from a mosaic outside the International Trade Fair.

A plant left alone in the street!

Muffins of course!

When I was making gifts for friends before Christmas.

 And writing Christmas cards.(I know,what a mess!)

Spotting details in the street.

Making things at workshops for charity just before Christmas.

Wordless Wednesday-RIP

A very early in the morning dog walk at the foggy sea front before attending the funeral of a family member. RIP dear father of my sister.

Hommage a Teriade

We had a very tiring week but a very happy one too!
 We had so much to do....
...a dermatologist's check up, a fridge repair and a thorough kitchen cleaning afterwards( I should have taken photos;it was a lot of work!), a general cleaning, sessions of laundry and ironing,coffee with a friend, a test preparation,paying of bills, a visit to another friend and school of course.
(We played with stickers at school)

 (And we roleplayed Midsummer Night's Dream)

But in the evenings it is MY SPECIAL CREATIVE TIME! So I also managed to make one felted stone, do some cross stitch, finish one book "An Anthology of Chinese short stories"
for the So little sleeping and so much reading 2015 Reading Challenge.

and almost finished "Animal Farm", listened to four old cassettes one of which was
Sounds of Canterbury (remembering the wonderful days I spent there years ago),
watched The American (oh that Clooney!) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (It received nine Oscar nominations but I didn't much enjoy it on the flight to the States so I gave it a second chance and I really liked it this time!)
And this weekend following my 2015 motto "Every weekend is a holiday" and since my cousin was visiting from Athens we...
.... had a dinner with the family at home, had a dinner out,

enjoyed talking with my cousin during long relaxed breakfasts,we walked the sea front under a glorious sun and the city centre window shopping and chocolate shopping at sokolatreia,

we had coffee meeting more relatives and watching the sunset,

and we also went to the Telloglion Museum for the exhibition  Hommage a Teriade.

It was really a very good exhibition with many famous paintings and some of my favourite folk painter Theophilos Hatzimihail. There is also an exhibition of  watercolours by Kostas Maniatopoulos, director of the Teriade Museum-library on Lesvos Island which was interesting too. And there was also an exhibition of works of art made for a competition.
On the way out we loved the new digital fun the museum acquired. You could take a picture with one of your favourite paintings and send it directly to your e-mail! Here are some we took!
Hubby and I in front of Konstantinos Romanides' painting "Tarsanas"(=shipyard)

 And I immitating "The Ancient Florist" by Theophilos Hatzimihail.

So now you know why it was a good week! Sorry for the bad Instagram photos. First my mobile does not take good photos and secondly I don't enjoy using hubby's old camera very much!I need a smaller new camera or a new better mobile! (Hint!Hint!)

Our trip to the U.S.A. (17)-Fiddler on the Roof.

So after visiting the Trove antique store we went to Marabeth's relatives for lunch.
On the way there were some very beautiful houses!

 The views were exceptional.

 And so was the view of the house we visited.

Look at this view of the marsh.

 And this gorgeous blown glass bauble.

 Inside the house was decorated beautifully with great taste but not wanting to intrude I will only show you a couple of things.A mirror my friend Marabeth had gifted to her sister-in-law. It is made with rope, sea glass and starfish.

The very beautiful living room. I love those colours.

 And the Yankees collection of the host!

We had a great lunch with traditional hamburgers,hotdogs and corn on the cob.

 And we adored these two little guys who live in this house too. Aren't they sweet? They did everything together.

Our hostess loved playing with our shadow puppet.

We really felt such a warm welcome in this family!

We had to leave though because we had booked seats for the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam CT. Broadway was too expensive for us so we chose a musical at a smaller venew.

We passed this magnificent iron bridge.

And arrived at this impressive theatre.

 The theatre inside.

 We watched "Fiddler on the roof" which was exceptional!

 The performance and the songs were great!
After the performance we waited for the actors to come out.

 And we got an autograph from Mr Adam Heller, the protagonist!

 I will leave you with this link to hear my favourite song from the play.Sunrise Sunset.
And this link to see how they did an exceptional dance with bottles on their heads!