Giveaway winners and flowers

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The Wandering Workshop's giveaway ended on Saturday but as you see it took me a couple (o.k.maybe three days) to draw the winners: congratulations to Fishes make Wishes and Akamatra! Thanks to all who participated and of course many thanks to Athena and Jose of The Wandering Workshop with the amazing handmade, eco-friendly toys!

I will leave you with some pictures of the roses in my vase to convince you and myself it is May, although it has been raining for the past three days. My garden has not a single spot of color, no flowers at all, just greens, grass, bushes, trees. That's why  friends and neighgours are for, to bring us flowers from their gardens, like this magnificent roses bouquet.

Spring wreaths

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Come with me today to Etsy Greek Street Team blog for some spring wreath inspiration.

Meanwhile the craft goodies giveaway is still open.

Favorites from the web

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It's been raining for days and the winter seems endless. But you know the cure, a bit of crafting can blow the blues away. 

Looking for ideas to personalize a lampshade? I love this one with the small pom poms but you will find many more here.

Kids Kubby

Pastel colors and romantism

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Today spring still seems to be a distant dream so I will share with you a couple of my discoveries on the internet, similar in mood, which I hope they will bring a lots of color, beauty and inspiration in your day.

First of all Silly Old Suitcase, where Maartje from the Netherlands who also has an etsy shop, shares her treasures, creations, diy projects and corners of her home through the most delighful pictures.

Silly Old Suitcase 

Selina Lake is a freelance interior and lifestyle stylist working for many magazines and catalogues. This is her blog.Go admire her amazing work and steal ideas, there are tons of them. 

Selina Lake 

DIY chalkboard Christmas tree

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Today I am showing my last DIY Christmas tree, made with chalkboard paint, on Rdeco. Many thanks to Marianna of 365 Days of Bliss for her photos. Click here to see more.

Another non traditional Chrismtas tree

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It 's Friday again, and it 's time for the third Christmas tree I am making for Rdeco. I decided this one to be a Christmas tree just for girls, romantic and elegant, made of jewelry and lace. Click here to learn more about it.

Have you seen my other handmade Christmas trees, here and here?  

This post links to: 
Shine on Fridays 
Happy hour link party 
French country cottage 
Frugal Friday 
Friday flair link party 
Delicately consturcted 
Whatever you want Wednesday

Favorites from the internet: Holiday vignettes

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Even if you don't have a fireplace, a table top or a shelf can host a small holiday vignette that can enhance the festive atmosphere in your space. There are lots of inspiration around the internet, here are a few of my favorites.

Shabby gipsy 

Monday Moodboard #3

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Who wants kitchy mass produced Christmas ornaments for his tree? Not me. For the begining of the week here is a small collection of handmade Christmas decorative items by European crafters.  

 1.Gifts and Stars   

2. My Christmas tree  

3. Cla Contemporary 

4. Sirli mosaic

For more Monday Moodboards visit Star of the East.

Time for some fall decoration

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Things are a little slow in our new home as far as it concerns decorating. We had to deal with more practical issues such as heating and waterproofing the roof. And since painting and furniture makeovers and choosing some new fabrics and curtains are delayed I decided to fool myself by playing with the details. In fact that has always been my favorite part. After deciding the place of the furniture (we were done with that early) and choosing colors and painting the walls, after deciding about curtains and throw pillows, comes the never ending game of making arrangements with decorative objects. I can spend hours grouping things together, steping back, take something off, changing an object's place or trying new combinations. I don't have an infinite collection of decorative items so this process helps me look at them with a new eye.

My favorite online interior design magazines

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Back in the not so far days without internet I anticipated impatiently the moment to buy my favorite monthly interior design  magazines. It was something that could make my whole weekend. I didn't have much to spend but I usually bought 3 to 4 magazines each month which I read again and again. I still read some of them since I keep many old issues on my shelves. The time has passed and the internet brought tons of house tours, how tos, deco tips and inspiration in our screens with just one click and most of all for free. At the same time things in Greece have changed so dramatically that buying magazines is considered now a small luxury for most people, for me too. So, thank God for the internet! And although the feeling of a real printed paper magazine in my hands, the smell of the ink and the sound of the turning pages is unsurpassed for me, despite the fact that I am a computer addicted person, I can but really enjoy the monthly releases of online interior design magazines. So here is a small list of my favorite online interior design magazines.

Lonny magazine 

A ray of light

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Today I found this quote on The Design Shop and thought I should post it here because it made me feel good . Of course it will take much more than the sunshine to fix this mess but it's a start. Besides the sun is a symbol of so many positive things, hope, power, inspiration, life itself.

(For those who don't understand what this is about, it refers to what is going on in Greece right now.)

Mondays

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Mondays are Mondays, nobody likes them. And rainy ones are even worse. Some beautiful sunshiny photos to say goodnight to a rainy Monday.

 

Light of some kind

Kim Reiss Photography

 Hey Harriet

Jenn DiGuglielmo 

via Piccsy 

Chesire Smile 

Need some color inspiration?

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Whether you are ready to start your next crafting project, or you are building a new website,  or you are renovating a room or even planning your wedding reception, it's sure you will have to decide about colors. Do you feel you came out of ideas or the ones you have proved to be rather unsuccessful? Don't panic, tones of inspiration are waiting for you on some sites.


Kuler is a free web hosted application you can use to generate color themes for your project, whatever that is. You can explore thousands of color themes, make and try  your own themes, create color themes from a picture.

Do you have a favorite color but have not a clue about how you should combine it? Visit Color Hunter,
write the name of the color you love and tens of color palettes including this color will appear. For example if you put turquoise, you will get these

and many more.You can also make palettes from images you can upload from your computer or from the web.

COLOURlovers is a site loaded with everything you would like to know about color. Thousands of palettes and patterns, tools, color trends regarding handmade creations, home interiors, fashion, and a very inspirational blog for those who need something more than plain palettes to get inspired.

If looking at color palettes is not enough to sparkle your inspiration, it is very likely that a visit to the following blogs will do.
On the famous decor8 under the tag color me pretty you will discover pictures bursting with colors that will make your heart beat.

Modish on the other hand uses the title color me happy for the colorboards he puts together where clothes, accessories and home decor objects in one or two colors, for example peaches and cream

are combined to give you tones of color inspiration


100 Layer Cake is a blog about weddings, nevertheless it can give you lots of ideas about color combinations. Color is color whether it's about your sofa and curtains, or the wool for the next scarf you want to knit. I love the colorboards on this blog.

And if you still haven't found what you are looking for, try the inspiration boards

of The Craft Begins 

and The Picture Boards Blog

Don't forget to check  Ali Edward's post . She is a  scrapbooker and she gives an A to Z list of color inspiration sources. From art and candy to quilts and the zoo, it seems that thousand of color combination ideas are around us.

Simply gorgeous jewelry

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This blog has been very lazy lately (it had its reasons) but hopefully this is about to change.

And you know what? After all this time I feel like taking a look at really beautiful, inspired, unique, well designed  jewelry  of great craftmanship, that will make me feel jealous as a crafter and as a woman. Here some that caught my eye. Don't forget to click on the artists' names to see more of their work.

Brooches made of silver, acrylic, stainless steel by Chris Irick 

 

 polymer clay necklace by gRIS bLEU 

rings by Ronna Sarvas Weltman 

anodized aluminium bracelets by Jane Adam, 
I think they are my favorites in this list

Marina Massone's pleated metal necklace

Yoko Izawa's veiled rings

jewelry made of lenses by Jiro Kamata

 polymer clay brooch by Louise Fischer Cozzi

gold, pearl and velvet set of jewelry by Katerina Ioannidis

gold and silver earrings by Sydney Lynch

Liked them? I believe you did.


Before closing this post I'd like to thank Eve, Christiana and Xenia for giving my blog the sunshine award.

I know the rule is to  pass the award to 12 other blogs but I 'm afraid I'll let you do the job. Pick your favorite blog from my blogroll or the list of the blogs I follow. They are all pretty, interesting, inspired blogs and really deserve it.

Inspired by fall

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As we are in the last month of fall I'd like to show you some very pretty fall settings you could easily create in your home to make it feel warmer and more ambient now that the weather is getting colder. Warm oranges, browns and reds, dried leaves and fruits, bare branches and of course lit candles will create the right mood.

hgtv

boosalis bloggle

Penelope Illustration

Tiny Prints 

Jeanne Winters

My Cottage of Bliss

Renae Moore Designs 

Marie Claire Idees 

Marie Claire Idees 

Doilies, the come back

If you have spent many years hating this kind of handcrafted creation, thinking of it as boring, old fashioned and bad taste, it's time to change your mind. Doilies are everywhere, either the real thing or their motifs, but happily, they now look fresh, contemporary and desirable. And if you have thrown away your grandma's doilies you will be very sorry.



On Supermarket I found this wall vinyl decal by Elly Nelly



beauideal makes these stylish note cards.




Look at this easy way to decorate your candle holders, it would be perfect decoration for a wedding reception, found on Sweet Paul.




Ravenhill makes this beautiful garland from doilies and linen. It would also look very pretty in a wedding party I think, but I would love to put it in my house too.



Here's a key fob by MaryMo




Another wedding decoration on Once Wed.







This is a table made from laser cut acrylic, designed by David Eveleigh and Melissa Evans, found on MoCo Loco.






Look how beautiful are these stones covered with crochet. They're made by knitalatte.




I loved this idea! What a nice way to reclaim all those doilies you 've been hiding for years! You 'll find this lamp in nice.




If you appreciate all the work behind a crocheted doily or have memories connected to it and wonder how to incorporate them in a simple and elegant interior, here's a pretty way. See how to do it on Craftynest.