A heart that's true

Ok so I lied when I said I was going to stitch a dvd player cover.  What I was really stitching yesterday is in these pics.  The occasion?  I'm going a bridal shower!  As I am totally unfamiliar with the tradition I didn't know what to get.  I thought it had to be something like handcuffs or a whip so I was stalling for ages.  When I told Maria she laughed at me and said underwear or sleepwear is traditional.  Phew!  No need to take Kimona (age 3 and absurdly curious) around a sex shop then.  So I figured a tee-shirt totally counts as a nightie since thats what most girls I know wear to bed.  A little dig around my Sublime Stitching toolbox for tee-shirt stabilizer and I got to work.  When I was finished it was night-time and the shops were shut so as a gift wrap alternative I pulled some pink from my last christmas felt mountain and made this envelope with black wool and a vintage button.  Voila!  Bridal shower gift complete.  I hope she likes it:) 

Get Your Semedaki On

A month of living on garden vegetables and sipping (ok guzzling) wine under a sky filled with a bjillion stars can do things to a girl. For the first week so high on life I could embroider nothing. Then, when I got started all I could do was felt coins of owls with stars and hearts in their eyes. Living in traditional village houses (three weeks sea village one week mountain village) I started to feel domesticated in a way like never before. Some of you may be familiar with the-ahem- 'neo-classical' Greek style of house decorating, placing doilies (in Greek 'semedakia') (σεμεδακια) on the tv and fridge. Quaint eh? Naff ? No! I get it. Its about pride. Pride like I live in this house and I'm going to make the absolute most of my space. No matter that I have this ugly big metal box in the kitchen. Nothing that a bit of embroidery won't sort out. I'm totally into it. Maybe I'll find a way to update the look! Some of you may remember my post about pride. Well now I think it’s a good thing, to a degree. Its life affirming! I guess it takes some time away from the info overload of urban life to realize the heady joys of domesticity. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to stitch something to cover up the dvd player:)

 Washing up is not so bad if you can see the sea...

 A vintage radio from the Folklore Museum in Hora, Serifos.  Nice 'semedaki' no?

 

My grandmother's beautiful village and...