Diane of Lavender Dreams too lost her blog.

EDIT: Diane got her blog back! You can read it here.

I have a blog land friend Diane, a sweet lady who recently sent me sea glass from Cape Canaveral.

She had her blog for ten years and all of a sudden her blog was removed by blogger for unknown reasons.
Those of you who used to read her blog you can find her now at Lavenderdreamsnew.
Her new address is https://lavenderdreamsnew.blogspot.com
Imagine losing a blog you have been carefully and beautifully writing for ten years.
So back up your blog just in case not to lose all those photos and comments etc.
For those of us who blog just to keep a record of our daily lives and keep contact with our friends in blogland Diane's story is devastating.
The rest is what Diane and her husband wrote in her new blog about the situation.

The Behemoth squashes the little Lavender Dreamer

That's right. "The Rise of the Machines" is upon us. Our former happy little blog (lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com) was suddenly terminated.

Why and how was it done? It wasn't someone reporting us. It was Google's automated piece of software (a bot) that roams the Blogger world looking for pre-programmed words of woe. Once it detects something it kills the whole blog without warning. Without any notification about these supposed offending words. Without an opportunity to fix anything. Just ZAP ... your digital life is deleted. Everything is gone!

Ten years of blogging, thousands of posts, many thousands of photos, over ten thousand comments and a hundred thousand heart-felt words all gone in an instant. Devastating! Be warned all you innocents in blogland.

The blog was actually removed twice, for "phishing". Which, as you all know, is absurd. We have never asked for your personal, private information. The Appeals process reinstated the blog the first time then the Google Bot zapped us again the next day. But the second time we were locked out of the Appeals process. We tried sending Feedback. Never got a answer. Tried to post to the Blogger Help Community. They never published the post. Located twenty phone numbers for Google. The numbers are all automated and only a couple allowed you to leave a message. We left messages. Never got a callback.

Google/Blogger pronounces you guilty using an "automated system" (their words) and gives you little or no opportunity to prove otherwise. It's been a nightmare. (for more details see the timeline post below)

So what choice do we have now that Google/Blogger has burned down our blog? Like the Phoenix from Greek mythology we shall rise from the ashes with this new blog. We will start over and hope that our many friends and followers will be able to find us and that they will never ever have to suffer the same fate.

Mr. Lavender D.

---

You can imagine how devastating this has been to me. I appreciate my sweet hubby taking the time to help me start a new blog. But can I ask all of you to do me a favor? Will you please put a sentence or two in your next post to let people know where I am and what has happened to me? You can say that my blog was unfairly removed by Blogger and we are trying our best to get it back, but for now I will post updates on the process here:

lavenderdreamsnew.blogspot.com

And also a plea to Blogger to bring back lavenderdreamstoo. We're a supportive community! Maybe they will listen if we all voice our consternation together!

Thank you, Lavender Dreamer Diane

You have our permission to copy and paste any part or all of this post to your social media. At the very least please post a few lines on your own blog about what's happened to Lavender Dreams and include our new blog address. Thanks. MrLD

February Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello everyone!
It's Gifted Gorgeousness time again. And for those of you who are new here it means to present in a blog post things we stitched for gifts or stitchy gifts we received.

This is an idea by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching blog.
So from January 15th to February 15th we have...
I used up very low count aida I was gifted along with vintage left over dmc threads in all kinds of blue to make a sweet heart ornament cushion for someone I love very much. I chose a pattern from pinterest. The link goes to this blog.

I also finished a mini DMC Flower Fairy kit that my friend Kim gifted me with and this is going inside my fabric book.Remember the one with the embroidered flower alphabet? This shows a chicory flower fairy.

I have been working on a collage lately. I had bought a Daphne's Diary for 2017 but didn't use it so now I am adding on it all kinds of photos from magazines and I paint on it and stick stamps and all kinds of embellishments to make an art book. Here are a couple of pages from it.

This month the mail brought....

a lovely package from Diane of  Lavender Dreams Too blog. It included some cross stitch patterns, sea glass and shells from Cape Canaveral (yes where the rockets get launched) and a handmade coaster! Thank you Diane!

Christmas cards from Sophie, Maria Jose and Annette,thank you ladies!

A Permin of Copenhagen cross stitch kit and a handpainted card from Ian and Penelope, thank you guys!

Birthday cards from Sophie and Maria Jose, many thanks again ladies.

A huge birthday gift from Juliana with cross stitch magazines with kits and a handmade quilt card from Cyprus.With glass dishes and sea glass gifts and a lavender heart and a lovely lip balm and stone shaped candles.Thank you dear Juliana you always send me so many beautiful things.

Another great handmade gift I received was from my friend Anna of In my closet who sent me this lovely handstitched pouch by Veronica of Rountes Fountes.

Finally I will close this GG blog post with photos from the SKETBE  art exhibition. The first photos are by Ioannis Perdikis and come here first because they are fabric art.

Here I am with my High School History teacher Nickos Bedilas,who makes amazing mosaic art pieces.

Excellent paper sculpture art piece by my friend Christianna Iliopoulou.

Beautiful shadow puppet paintings by our friend Yiannis Chatzis.

I adored these mosaics by David Panayiotides

I loved this colour combination by Floriana Iliopoulou.

My favourite painter currently Fotis Kllogjeris

Collages by Dorothee Mesander

Ceramics by Christine Willis

Painting by fellow teacher Magda Mademli

There were lots more of amazing art pieces but I couldn't possibly show you everything!
Hope you liked my GG post this month! Wishing you all the best.

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog hop

Hello every one and happy Valentine's Day whether you celebrate it or not!
I am taking part again this year in Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.
This year I stitched something I gave as a gift to a person I love very much which you will see in my next Gifted Gorgeousness blog post.
Today I am showing you the card I received via Jo.
It is a lovely beaded heart, stitched and framed! I really loved it!
Who made this and sent it to me? Who is my Secret Stitching Sweetheart? Is it you?

Thank you for the lovely card!
And thank you Jo for the chance to take part in Valentine's Day blog hop again this year.
This post will be edited when I find out who made this!
EDIT! It has been revealed! This sweet bead heart was finished by Mary H of Mary's thread who inherited the talents and this half finished heart from her grandmother and finished it in time for the blog hop!
Thank you very much Mary! You may visit her blog here.

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?

January Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello everyone! This is the first Gifted Gorgeousness of the new year 2019. I hope I will manage to keep up with it this year too. GG is the brainchild of Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and I am happy to say I have been motivated to stitch more since I started taking part in it.

But first I'd like to show you a bit of my Christmas decorations this year. The table I covered with my stitched piece from last year.

 And put some more stitched pieces on it. The big one at the back was a gift from dear Marabeth from the States and I custom framed it.

 The little piece I stitched last Christmas and had won the pattern from Kaye of Kitten stitching and also gifted the pattern afterwards.The caroler next to the stitched piece is a gift from Marabeth's personal collection too.

I decorated my Christmas tree this year with stitched ornaments made by myself, or by friends.

And I added all the Christmas cards on the table. Not many cards this year.

This Christmas I  made some more felted trees and ornaments. I used fabric and beads that were gifted to me by my In my closet secret crafter exchange partner Poppy of poppysstuff.

 They look similar but they are not the same.

 I also made some wreathes with little fabric pieces I was given from dear Anthi the owner of Koumpi Coffee and crafts cafe.

 There was more blue fabric than green so I added sea themed items on the blue ones.Some of these will be gifted in future.

 I managed to stitch only two little pieces during a train trip to and from Athens recently. These were freebies from cross stitch magazines and they are needle cases.One of them I already had but was gifted the freebie once again.

 And I gifted the patterns to the fb Adopt a WIP page.

I received some handmade gifts this Christmas. Like this amazing metal Xmas ornament by Veronika of  Rountes Fountes  and the cute polymer clay baby ornament from Rania of Barbadakia during her baby shower event I attended.

 I also received this amazing sea glass ornament from Andria of  Andria's Serendipity. The card was handmade too and I loved it.

 The mail also brought two lovely parcels from dear Juliana which included cross stitch magazines

 as well as a felted mermaid from Nepal and sea glass art. I was so impressed.

The mail also brought a DMC Flower Fairy gift from England along with lovely cards. Thank you Kim!

 Also more cards and a DMC Flowers patterns booklet from dear Tua. Of course I received lots more cards and gifts and thank you very much everyone for sending a card.But of course they are not related to GG.

More gifts I got.A friend from school made me some kitchen ornaments that decorate my litchen now. Thank you Despina. 

 Another friend made me a makrame bracelet. Thank you Despina.

I recently found some vintage lace in my mum's drawers so I am planning to use it in future projects.

 Here are some gifts I gave. Purses made by Fani of Skeftomai kai ravo.

I kept the top one to use for my mobile phone.

 Also Fani made these sea glass purses for me which I gave as gifts to sea glass friends.The fabric was gifted to me by dear Marabeth and I decided to share the happiness of the sea glass fabric with others.

These are other handmade gifts I custom made at Evi of To Fourfouri.

I made some gifts to myself too. I ordered the Fancy Owl creations book box which apart from books it included handmade gifts too like a little crochet owl and a handmade felt bookmark.

I also bought the Tell Tale Book Box from faraway Dubai and had a friend who brought it to me.

 That contained handmade ornaments too.

 Also the winter craftpod box arrived and is very beautiful.

 and I bought this stitched cushion from a an open market seller.

 I hope you are not tired as I have more to show you.
Stitched pieces of Art by Ioannis Perdikis seen at an art exhibition.

 Photos from a walk in the city centre of Athens. I saw many shops selling threads and crafts materials.

 Look at those stitched pieces.

 Some photos from my aunt's house in Athens. I should have made a close up of that cross stitched piece.

 And some photos from the Benaki Museum that house a Yiannis Moralis' exhibition. Some works of art are fabric art related.

 This huge woven tapisserie was amazing.

Here's what I bought from the shop museum.See the cross stitch card?

 Before I go I have to show you something else. It recently snowed a lot in my city. I wasn't there the first time as we were in Athens for the funeral of a relative. But when we returned it snowed a bit again and I managed to take some macro photos of snowflakes.

 And finally I will close this very long blog post with some cross stitch on sea glass. Isn't it gorgeous?

 Thank you for reading all this! See you next month in the next GG.