Easter in Our Beautiful World- Kyra Sarakosti

This week's prompt in Our Beautiful World was chosen by Ros of Mikey's Mum and is

Easter

Since we are mainly Orthodox here in Greece we celebrate
                                                                             Easter 
                                          way long later from now and I haven't decorated with
                                                                             Easter 
                    decorations or eggs yet, so I haven't much to say.
But this Monday is Clean Monday and the 40 days of fasting for
                                                                             Easter
 begin and we have what we call Sarakosti (40 days) and there is already some decoration at school. The mother of one of our pupils sent to her daughter's class this Kyra Sarakosti (Mrs Lent).

Isn't she beautiful with her dress and lace and all the goodies in her lap?

Her face has no mouth as she is not supposed to eat or comment on other people during this period.

 She has 7 legs as many as the weeks before
                                                                      Easter 
                                                                                 and each week the class will cut one little leg.

Last year the Art Teacher had organized an exhibition of all these ladies pupils and parents had made. You can see them in this blog post.
For the time being I can only wish my friends abroad
                                                           a happy Easter 
as it soon comes to them and if you like link your blog post with a theme about
                                                                  Easter
 to Our Beautiful World.

Home

This week's word in Our Beautiful World is

Home

chosen by Kirsty of Handmade Little Things.

Home

 is where the heart is they say!

(little heart made by Ifigenia at the ceramics class)
And Jane Austen said "There is nothing like staying at

         home 

                                                                                      for real comfort."
For me

home

                                                                                     is many different things.

It's the people, my son, my husband, my mum next door, my brother, my sister-in-law, my niece and all my relatives,

                                          (hubby and I dressed up for Carnival)

it's my dog, 

(Barca and Miltos always together)
it's my friends and the time I spend with them,

(today's coffee with my lady friends)

(my crafty group at my surprise birthday party)

it's my school, my second home,and my pupils and colleagues,

(sorry, pictures of the pupils are not allowed so here's our newly painted school again)
it's the groups I belong to and spend time doing things with them, accomplishing aims,

it's my hobbies,my crafts,

(Dreams made for Eleanna of aouts-pins as a gift for entering the Art School)

(my first pyrography pieces)

but

home

is also the little and bigger things that make me comfortable and happy inside my house just like Jane Austen meant it.

So it's the paintings all around the house,

(clockwise prints of old Karaghiozis booklets, Eleni Kastrinogianni 's Karaghiozis, Yiannis Chatzis Karaghiozis and the mermaid, my dad's custom made painting of Pierre Lotti Hill in Istanbul)

(vignette with an old sewing machine, cross stitch framed pieces, books, flea market finds, family photos)

it's the books in the bookcase, all the souvenirs I buy from trips,and the gifts and cards friends give us,

(Karaghiozis by Yiannis Chatzis, cards by Marabeth, souvenirs from Barcelona, Malta and New York, a huge collection of various kinds of books)
and those books and ceramics I have on the coffee table,

(book by Chrysavgi Koutsikou, my cousin, The icons of theZacharias Portalakis Collection, ceramic lace stones by Paula Valentim aka otchipotchi, ceramic candle holders by Polytimi in Nafplion, my ceramic bowl)

it's my cozy cross stitch corner,

(armchair saved from the street and my Snowflower diaries SAL, cushion by Sis-style)
it's my tiny balcony corner with its flowers,

and the smell of freshly baked muffins.

Also home for me is outside in the neighbourhood,my city Thessaloniki,

the sights like the White Tower standing proudly,

and it's the sea and the sea front,

 it's the sunrise

and the sunset of this city,

it's the beach house and the sea glass,

it's this blog,and what I share with everyone in my social media pages,
it's my past, my present, my future...........

 that's

home

for me!
Why don't you link your blogpost with what you feel it is

home

 for you at Our Beautiful World?

March is here!

Yes it is here and inspite the fact that February had a day more this year time flew by so quickly!
So March is here and I made a little bead bracelet to put on my wrist as the custom has it.That's my Martis.

March is here and I finished the March part of the Snowflower diaries SAL I have been making along with thousands others around the world. I will talk about this in another blogpost.

And our school is being painted by the Municipality in lovely bright spring colours.It isn't finished yet.(I know I showed this in a previous blog post but I love it so much!)

And teachers and pupils have been making our school beautiful from the inside too with blooming almond trees on their doors.

Have a great month and thank you for all your visits and comments. I try to visit everyone's blog posts and leave comments. I also try to answer everyone but most of you are no-reply bloggers.

Rare Disease Day

Today is February 29th and that happens every four years so we call the year a leap year.
Did you know though that February 29th is also the Rare Disease Day?
I know.
My dad died 18 years ago from a rare disease, mesothelioma, caused by asbestos he inhaled as a kid working at an asbestos factory.
Just recently I found out about Heather Von St. James, a lady in the States who has suffered the same type of cancer and had a lung surgery and has been a survivor for ten years now. You can read her story here!Isn't that great? You can see her story and her efforts to make rare diseases and her own known to the public.
I have a rare disease too, an immune system one. But it doesn't matter. Most of us have something. As long as we go on our lives and don't suffer or die of it all is well!!!!
Some people who suffer of something rare need our help and it is good to give a hand from time to time. It is good to help financially even with a couple of euros/dollars when especially a young boy suffers from something  and needs  surgery abroad which costs thousands. So here I join Katerina's plea to help Pavlos a young boy who suffers from leuchemia type T and needs to go to the States for surgery.

I have been reading Katerina's blog for a long time and I know she is honest and true in what she says.So I am sharing this for anyone who reads it to help.
The bank account is at the bottom of the article.
Thank you.
Edit: Unfortunately Paul died only a couple of days after this blogpost. He didn't make it to Boston where he was going for a treatment. He didn't make it. But his parents and all the people who loved him in his short life donated all the money that was collected to Lampsi The Association for Children with Cancer.

Colours

This week's promt on Our Beautiful World  is

colours

and it was my choice.
I had in mind that it would be around Carnival time so I thought what best than

colours 

as

colours 

is what Carnival is full of.
Our school has been full of masks made by our Art teacher, she is so talented.In all the

colours 

 of the rainbow.
Also our school is being repainted by the Municipality! Look at those

colours

The Fuchsia is my favourite!!But look at the sky too!Yeah!

Last week we attended a very strange parade.It was the Bell Roads parade.
It is the third time it takes place here in our city and it is the parade of people dressed for carrnival and bearing bells.
The tradition of bell bearing is all over Greece and the Balkans around Carnival.
Here is the story about it.
Here are some of the photos I took!
The first group we saw was from Serbia.

This Greek group were dressed like bears and were playing with a dog.

There were huge bells.

 And heavy thick hot costumes.

 The symbol of the Bell Roads.

 Sohos Group was very impressive.

You can see a short video here of one of the groups and the sound they made!

 The leaflets and symbol of the Bell Roads.

It was so warm and sunny everyone enjoyed the day.

And look at that

colour!

Why don't you join us with something colourful in Our Beautiful World?