where's my mojo?

I'm back... but not quite myself. Feeling a little down these days and not up to much blogging. So here in the meantime, are some more inspirations from Flickr for you to enjoy. Hope to get my mojo back soon....


1. Untitled, 2. The Book Collection, 3. Untitled, 4. urchins, 5. New Labels, 6. generations, 7. Pearl's Dream, 8. Join the circus - embroidery, 9. ..., 10. happy bike, 11. pencil roll, 12. DSC_0007, 13. Untitled, 14. Silas, 15. Raspberries- nom nom nom, 16. ...

summer's here...

It's that time of year again! The year-end in Greece is usually the end of July. They don't really stop for Christmas - maybe a couple of days off - but you don't really feel that psychological break as we do in England or the US. August is the time when pretty much every Athenian buggers off for a month, while the tourists come in (not so many this year of course). I could never figure out how industry could just sort of shut down for a whole month (they do it in Italy too), but that's exactly what happens, and everyone is in holiday mode from about the end of June! During August, most Athenians will go 'back to the village' where they usually have a country home. This may sound grand, but it's anything but. The notion of actually coming from Athens is pretty new, maybe by only one generation or so. If you ask most Athenians in their 30's and 40's where they come from, they will usually name the villages or islands where their parents are from. As property is very much kept in the family here, most will still have maintained a property there, which will eventually be passed on to their children and so on and so on. It's where most will spend their holidays and maybe escape to for the odd weekend here and there too.

This year, as George and I have no money whatsoever, we are putting a tent in the back of our 13 year-old Nissan Almeira (The Beast of the Asphalt) and driving round the north of Greece. This will happen next Friday. In the meantime, I am off to Crete to stay with a dear friend for a few days and George has taken off to an island this morning with his mates for a bit of male bonding time. I am no big fan of camping, but I will throw myself into the spirit of things this year. Even though I haven't been working, I desperately need a break from the house and the city. Just to switch off, relax and forget about it all for a while. Everything will spring into action come September, I just hope I will be able to too.

Thanks to all of you who have followed along so far, have a great summer and look forward to catching up again in a few weeks!!

five minutes of fun

Ah, nostalgia. We never grow up that's for sure... remember those cut-out doll templates that you used to dress with cut-out clothes with the foldover tabs? I used to love those... and now, courtesy of Boden you can do it online, using their entire range of clothes. I spent more than five minutes actually... a bit addictive if I'm honest.


Here's one I made earlier (Trinny & Suzanne... your jobs are safe)...

Home Spun

There's not much I miss about England, but I do miss events like this. If I were there now I would do my best to attend this years Home Spun fair in Cornwall, followed by a large cream tea!


And such a pretty shop too...

spotlight on... Lulu Dee

Spotted on Simply Stated today [an offshoot of Holly Becker's great Decor8 blog], I love these simple retro mid-century modern prints from Oregon based designer Lulu Dee. They are hand printed in short runs of 40... and now she has lowered her prices as she knows times are hard. Grab yerself one quick!

little jug of mystery

I can't remember where I spotted this little jug, so if anyone knows who I should credit do let me know. I do, however, love it and wanted to share it with you!

[edit] Emma solved it... it's from the perfectly lovely Found Vintage Style. Unfortunately sold :(

just a perfect day

Sometimes I can't believe I actually live here. Yesterday, George had to go for another one of his business meetings, 4 hours drive from Athens. The notion of conference calls don't really exist here and business is still very much conducted on a face to face basis. Which is no bad thing sometimes. Again, despite a very early start, I joined him for the ride. Most of the landscape we drove through looked like this...


sadly a lot of it is still burnt from the terrible forest fires, trees standing like ghosts...


but sometimes it even reminded me of the hedgerows of England...


We ended up in a place called Pylos in the south-west Peloponnese, and while George went for his meeting I had my coffee and then climbed up to the castle at the top of the town...


wandering through the shady grounds, I discovered secret little entrances and gateways...


which you would walk through and suddenly come upon a view like this...


and then turn around to see this...


I found a bench under a shady tree, sat down and breathed a deep satisfied sigh. This was my view for the next 2 hours...


I sat and read my book and looked far out to sea, the only sound the wind in the trees, the occasional sound of children's laughter, and a choir of a million cicadas. They're ugly little beasts... a bit like giant flies, about 2" long...


but they sound like this...

I realised after a while I couldn't hear another soul around, perfectly blissful. Eventually I wandered down to the gate to leave and found it locked. The castle had already been shut for an hour! Luckily somebody let me out, but I was almost sad about it. I'd found a little peace of heaven.

And then, if that wasn't enough, we went for a swim here!