First Giveaway!!

 So.. We've reached 50 and more!!! How amazing is that?!

  When I started blogging I never thought that more people than friends and relatives (after being threatened) would actually read it!! I never even thought I'd actually start my dream of making jewellery!! I'm pretty famous of having several "bright ideas" in the past that all have failed!

 But I did it and here we are all to have our first giveaway to celebrate it!! Time to share what I make with you guys and here I present my "giveaway love set"!!

 I wanted to give more than one presents, so I made one very feminine, romantic, yet minimalistic necklace and two sets of earrings! The necklace is made out of black chain, black lace, white, black and bright fuchsia glass beads and a small, pink dangling heart of glass!

 The first winner gets the necklace and short earrings made of similar materials and the second winner gets the long, fashionable, lace and chain earrings!!

 To enter the giveaway just leave your comment bellow and tell me how much of an amazing and talented artist I am and how much you all love me....! (Just kidding! Hihihi!). For an additional entry please follow my blog!  (those of you following already, get a double entry anyway, cause you guys rule!).

 Leave your comment up to next Saturday (4th of June - 12.00 p.m. Athens time/ GMT +2). I'll draw the winners on Sunday and post on Monday (6/6/2011). Then you'll get your goodies within the week! I'll post everywhere, because I love you all that much!!

 

Thanks for being there and supporting me! Thanks for spreading the magic!! Good luck to all! I'll see you next time!  

p.s. - For all the Greek friends that happen to be in Nafplio for the weekend, I'll be at the Town Hall square, peacefully demonstrating, at 6 o'clock (afternoon that is!) later on today! Come and say hi!! I'd love to meet you!

25 getting to know you questions

 Hello people! How are you? I found this lovely game of questions and answers over at my friend Wendy's blog! She's an awesome stylish lady that lives in Johannesburg! (How exotic is that? Right? Right?)

 I love getting to know you all more, so I'm stealing Wendy's game and I give you my answers after each question! Check them out and tag yourself if you feel like it!! Φιλάκια!! (that's kisses in greek!)

25 Getting to know you questions

1. What time did you go to bed last night and were you alone? 

-It was 1.30 pm and I sleep with lovely G.! (lucky girl!)

2. If you could be given ANY gift what would it be?

-The gift of touching people and making them realize how important it is to have love, respect,values and health in your life. I would eventually make them share everything and stop war, fighting, politics and bring peace to the world. (and save all the third world countries!)

3. What was the last film that really moved/disturbed/thrilled you and why? 

-We saw "Ed Wood" a couple of nights ago and I was really disturbed by many things. Especially by the story of B. Lugosi and by Ed's irresponsible (according to me) behavior.

4. What is your favourite TV show of all time i.e. you've seen them all, can watch it over and over again and quote lines from it? 

-I guess a mix of "Friends" and "Sex and the City". 

5. What's your favourite way to wake up and what's the first thing you do? 

-Wake up next to my boy (especially on days off), get breakfast in bed and cuddle!!! 

6. What would you call yourself if you could choose your own name? 

-I think I'm over that phase when you hate your name and I totally feel like a "Dimitra" now!

7. If you had to do a bushtucker challenge (you have to eat insects/grubs etc) what would be the worst thing you had to eat? 

-Why would I ever do that? Ewwwww!

8. What's the worst/most embarrassing CD/Album you've ever owned and do you still have it? 

-I like all music for the right reasons.
 

9. What would be your dream vehicle (bikes, cars, boats, bat-car and millennium falcon is allowed!)? 

-Can I choose teleportation? If not, black-holes? But I settle for a private jet too... I'm humble really!

10. What's your favourite fantasy people sandwhich? 

-My what?? G. is enough for now!

11. What characteristics do you dislike in yourself? 

-Too many to start bothering!

12. Your favourite item of clothing and why? 

-DRESSES!! I look like a woman, without really trying.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be and who would it be with? 

-French Polynesia! I just want to live there happily with G. and freeze time!

14. If you could have any animal/creature, what would be your ultimate pet be? 

-A pretty huge aquarium, complete with sharks, piranhas and other exotic species! And corals too! (...and mermaids, if they existed!)

15. What did you want to be when you were little and do you think you ever will be? 

-A singer, an actress, a doctor! I'm none, but you never know, right?

16. Whats the next planned event you're looking forward to in your life? 

-A party with my mother's colleagues next month! With barbeque and nice food!

17. What were you doing before you started this? 

-Watching "Friends" with G. during lunch!

18. What was the last thing you ate that you really shouldn't? 

-I enjoy all my food and never regret it. (I'm now eating ice-cream!!)

19. If you were an ice cream/haagen daz/ben an jerrys flavour what would you be? 

-I'm not familiar with those types of ice-cream, but in general mocha or hazelnut.

20. Who was the last person you spoke to that you didn't want to talk to?

-I can't think of any right now!

21. What was your favourite toy as a child  . . .and now? 

-Barbies!! Many many barbies.. Now, I'd go for board-games and puzzles. 

22. When was the last time you cried laughing and why? 

-I don't think I laugh that much. But I smile a lot!!

23. What is stashed under your bed/mattress? 

-Nothing.

24. What did you dream about last night? 

-Fighting zombies. (can you sense some anxiety there? Nah.)

25. What are you really afraid of? 

-Sickness, pain, loosing your mind, dying before everybody I love, dying after everybody I love... many, many more things. (I'm not that brave, see?)

My first tutorial: Let there be light!!

 Hey lovelies! I'm having a nice but busy week! Other than the small hotel renovation that I'm currently involved with, I'm also doing my "spring cleaning" this week. It traditionally includes washing blankets and curtains, insides of cupboards, carpets and in general cleaning everything that you're too lazy to clean during the rest of the year!! As much as I love you, our relationship hasn't yet reached the point where you get to see my cleaning outfit... 

 So here's a tutorial instead: how you can make your own lovely DIY lamp shade with just ribbons!!  

You will need:

1. Your trusted glue-gun.

2. Ribbons - any color (I'm using blue and green since it matches our living room. You can make it with one color for a more "serious look" or multi-colored for a kid's funky room. Just use your imagination!)

3. Cord (to hang it)

4. A plastic cap/lid (This will be used for hanging it as well. The one from "Pringles" is ideal, I'm using one from an espresso box here)

5. 4 pieces of wood to make your frame (you can use three for a triangular shape, or make a round one with wire! I'm using some spare wood from a broken bread-cutter that I had around - recycling rules! )

6. Scissors 

7. Coffee or other beverage of your choice to get you going!! This will take a while...

What you do:

a. Glue the four sticks of wood to create your frame. Do that first, to allow some time to cool off!

b. Cut pieces of both ribbons in various lengths depending how low you want it to hang. A medium length is from 30 cm (11.8 inches) to 60 cm (23.6 inches). If you're a control freak, you can measure your ribbon to create a variety of pieces cut 30, 40, 50 and 60 cm long. But if you do it randomly it will add a nice, care-free touch!!

c. Start gluing!!! Use a drop of silicon on the three sides of your stick and wrap your ribbon around it!

d. Keep gluing! Here's the part where you need to be patient! 

e. When you do the first side glue 2 pieces of cord at the four corners of your frame, forming an "x". This is how you will hang it. Cover the corner with ribbon to hide the cord! Keep gluing!! 

f. Cut an "x" mark on your plastic cap using a cutter. Pass your cord and bulb through your frame and then through the cut of the plastic cap and hang it!

g. Here's your light!! 

 I think it's pretty amazing, considering it costs less than 5 euro!! What do you think?? It also has a lot of fun possibilities! You could use sheer or silk ribbon, cut them all at the same length or even add some dangling beads and charms!!! It'll look amazing in a baby's room!

 If you try it, please link back! I'd be so happy to see your creations! 

 After my first tutorial, I decided to do my first giveaway when I reach 50 followers and my second (more spectacular) when I reach 100!! So.... show me some blog-love!! When I reach 50, I'll post with giveaway instructions!! 

Be happy! Create something fun! Ask your loved ones to help out and glue your fingers together! Kisses!

A coffee in the sun and an outfit

 Hello dears! Almost every day of last week, I've been working on the small hotel renovation. This is a lovely opportunity to wonder around in the center of Nafplio instead of the suburbs... It's such a lovely town with beautiful buildings and views everywhere! So you get to see some nice pics of the town, instead of the usual background of orange trees !!

 For those of you who missed that post, I'm just helping out Rania (my mother's cousin), to freshen up her small lovely pansion in Nafplio. She's a very pleasant and nice girl and even though I'm not an interior designer professionally, I was more than glad to offer some help!! This is the lovely neighborhood the pansion is located and we're currently working on the top-floor/attic.

 A lot of the talking and arranging takes place at the corner cafe across the pansion to combine business with small pleasures!

 And this is a typical outfit of the working week in an attempt to be stylish, comfortable and weather appropriate! (the last being a bit difficult since the weather has gone nuts....)

Outfit:

Skirt - Sprider stores

Top - Sprider stores

Jacket - Ysatis

Shoes - Urban Outfitters

Bag - Hondos Center

Earings - handmade (by me)

Glasses - Dior

 Today was one of those days (we chose fabrics)!. But now, I'm back home and we're listening to my amazing man's record collection! Yes, that's vinyl, thank you very much!!

 I guess that when it comes to the dilemma of free time vs. money, we choose the first!! See you all next time! Stay happy!

White bohemian skirt

 Hi people!! How are you? If it wasn't for stupid blogger deleting stuff and sad events happening in Greece, I would've posted sooner. But... no mood + bad weather do that I guess.

photo by I.Kafkas (diffusedlight.blogspot.com)

 (For those of you who are interested about more Greek news, I have to say that I'm quite shocked from what is happening to our country... Mr. I. Kafkas - who was hit brutally by Greek policemen on the head and remains in critical condition - is also a very talented photographer and blogger. I thought that the blogging community should be aware of incidents like that. You can visit his blog here.)

 On to happier and more girlie things, as soon as we got a little bit of sun, I wore this favorite skirt of mine! 

 There's a liquor store near our house, so that's me playing top-model around some empty beer crates! I don't like beer and don't drink it, but I appreciate the colors! 

Outfit:

Skirt - too old to remember... (hey! That's vintage now!)

Top - Sprider

Jacket - Ysatis

Belt - Local shop

Shoes - Urban Outfitters

Bracelet - handmade (seen here)

Bag - Hondos Center
Glasses - Dior

Look - skulls!!! Cool right? 

 More talking next time...! Kisses!

New stuff I've made

Hi everybody! How are ya?

  I hope you had a fun and relaxing weekend and you're ready to face the new week! (...I know that was yesterday, silly... but it's more dramatic to say those things on a Tuesday!)

 I have many reasons to nag for this week, but I'll limit myself and just say this: I want the lovely, famous, sunny greek weather back! It's soon June and the weather is absolutely confused and acts like it's November!!! It's cloudy, windy, rainy... you name it! It's everything else rather than sunny and swimming appropriate as it was supposed to be!! 

 Since I just lost a job... weather conditions are crucial for my mental stability right now - and I need some SUN!!!

  Enough with the nagging! I'll just stop now and show you nice pics of cute jewellery I've made! The first ones are inspired by the one I made for Stavroula a while ago (check it out here), so they're made at a smaller size - for young girls or really thin older girls who feel young! 

 I've been postponing blogging because I can't take any decent pictures in this weather, but since we're not getting any sun this week - that's the best I can do I'm afraid!!

 ...And these are made for older funky girls!

 

 

 

Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!!

Kisses!!

Another remixed summer dress

Happy mother's day everyone!!

 Let's send the warmest wishes to all mommies out there! I don't think I ever mentioned how cool my mom is! She is a Greek language teacher and her name is Irini, which means Peace in greek! (pronounced Ee-ree-nee). We're soooo different and we mainly disagree, but we love each other a lot and she's the one responsible for me being the lovely freak that I am! So... thank you mommy!

 My schedule today is a bit loaded, although it's a Sunday! I have plans to have a coffee with a friend and then meet my cousin. She's actually my mother's cousin, but she's to young to be called an "aunt"! 

 She's the owner of a lovely pansion downtown and she's thinking of renovating the place, so she desperately needs some help! Time to put my decorative skills at work! If we agree and the whole project is finished, I'll have some "before and after" shots for you guys! We'll see!

...On to the outfit!!

 This is another summer dress worn before its time! I guess I'm secretly relieved for losing my job and actually spending a whole summer...... on the ground!!!

 

Outfit:

Dress - "I&D" local shop

Top - Asos maternity

Jacket - Ysatis

Belt - Local shop

Shoes - Urban Outfitters

Necklace - Asos

Bracelet - my "love" bracelet - I'll show some details of it sometime!

Bag - Urban Outfitters
Glasses - Dior

Taking a walk with Billy

 In all I was happy with the colour coordination of the outfit, but this is a dress of this type:

Image found here

(-...What's the name of that in English, anyway? -) so it gets fluffy in the wrong parts of the body! I thought I look bloated the whole time...! Here's a pic of my back instead!

Bye-bye!

Do you feel like that sometimes?

 Following the previous post... this is how I feel lately....!

 Please visit Jackie's blog and show her your love for letting us all share the beauties that she draws... She's an artistic genious if you ask me and probably the wisest and kindest high-school girl-blogger! Thank you sweet Jacqueline - keep'em coming!! xxx

A magical little church

 You know readers, sometimes the best things in life come for free... During our travelling last week we encountered this little, old, half-destroyed church standing alone on a rock.

 G. filled me in the historical part, saying that it's dedicated to Saint Vlassios and it was built in 1804. During the war in 1821, the church has been vandalised by the Turks, who took out the eyes of every saint pictured on it's walls. When I thought about what are people capable of doing to each other during a war, I got chills....

 My next thought was that people can also be extremely good if they choose to be. And although I'm not particularly religious I thought that this little church is still there because of faith.... The faith that it represents something good and that it should be preserved no matter what.  People still go there and light candles....

 Those thoughts apply on a more personal level, because I lost my job yesterday on top of everything....

 That felt like a slap in the face.... My original reaction was to panic. 

 I thought about how I started my blog with the intention to make jewellery, dress up, meet people and have fun.... How I even succeeded in doing so for a while. 

 I thought about all the nice, interesting and trust-worthy people out there. And how much I probably let them down since I have no good news to offer, no mood to dress up and play chatty and a lot of anxiety about the fact that I can't get a job in my hometown, our money is running short and soon  we won't be able to afford the bills or the rent.... 

 I have to focus on more serious and real problems and forget about the rest....

 Then I thought again about the church and faith. And that it's possible to stand alone on a rock if you have faith. Faith in everything you choose: A God, an idea, a passion, yourself or a loved one, a silly dream. Just have some faith and blog about a magical little church... But keep blogging anyway!

A special thank you to my newest followers and visitors - who visited on their own free wil - and gave me new faith!! 

You guys are awesome!!

Greek views and some news (loooong post.... grab a snack!)

 Hello lovely followers of this blog and random clickers!!

I hope you had tons of fun during your Easter holidays and precious moments with your loved ones! I know I did! 

 I really needed this week of rest as I was feeling like a million pieces scattered all around the place! I was over-active during the last period of 3 months, which led to feeling quite exhausted!! This post is full of nice views of the nearby greek countryside, the result of me and G. having a couple of road-trips during the week! This is what we saw!!

 We spent Easter Sunday with my parents, brother and some friends and the next day we visited G's parents in the village. The village is up a mountain and this is the view on the way there! Really typical greek scenery, I love it!!

View of the village, as you enter

Byzantine Church

 Then on Tuesday, we drove to Poulithra, which is a small coastal village about 100 km away. A friend of G's and his band were playing music at a nice sea-food taverna (greek restaurant that is), so we went there as "groupies"!!

Happy, dancing greeks in the taverna!

On the way....

 As picturesque as the village may be, this is a day I actually want to forget.... Because what is a greek blog about if you don't include a little bit of "tragedy" anyway?? 

  On the way back (btw the road to that village is dangerous - 80 km of nasty turns right at the edge of the cliff...) it started raining and the road got slippery. As a result G. lost control of the car in one of those nasty turns and we crashed on the sidebars..... We're very, very lucky to not even get a scratch!! But our poor old Peugeot is dead....

 As you can guess, the rest of our holidays were pretty much ruined and we spent the next days visiting car mechanics and taking offers on car parts. Turns out we need about 2.000 euro to fix it and it doesn't really worth the trouble because the car is more than 10 years old... We need a new car... *sigh*...*thinking of bank account*....*double sigh*.....

View of the sea to calm down.....

 So then we got engaged in various car conversations and cheched a dozen of car forums to choose what car we should buy! And then.... it's freaking Monday all over again and the end of all vacation!!!!! .....*some really nasty greek words* ...........* sigh *......!

 Oh well..... what's life without some tragedy that happens when we have other plans?? 

 On a happier note - I don't want you to think that you're not getting any outfit pics after finishing my remix! Oh no sir.... Kendi created a little monster here and it's unleashed and out of control!!

You thought I stopped blogging, didn't you??

 More posts of outfits, fancy new bling I've made, some tutorials, places we go, food we eat and extra greek blabbering and nagging on top of that, coming up next!! Kisses to all of you, my dear friends!