a small life

After watching the film 'You've Got Mail' yesterday, these words stayed with me:

sometimes i wonder about my life.

i lead a small life;

well, vabuable, but small.

and sometimes i wonder:

'do i do it because i like it,

or because i haven't been brave?'

Sometimes I wonder.

my {home-alone} sunday

some reading and crocheting

washing curtains, washing windows (the whole thing)  and putting curtains back up

 a simple meal for one :omelette with  pasta (angel's hair), spring onions and green peppers

a favourite film (you've got mail), coffee and a little treat

~ Can you tell by the way I write that I'm not really into words? ~

Have a lovely week!

xxx

The Island

Have you read Victoria Hislop's The Island?

I've read it and was impressed by the power and determination of wounded souls.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I heard that a Greek channel has turned it into a TV series with the author's contribution.

Below is the trailer of the series (in Greek but still really worth watching)

and a short interview with Victoria Hislop.

There's also this great video, which I couldn't embed, with English subtitles wherever necessary.

I can't wait for Monday evening to come!

yesterday...

there was....

a birthday card for a friend made by little hands

a happy, cosy mess on the kitchen table

a little quilt and a tiny pillow made for a special bunny

a simple meal of spaghetti and tomato salad


a mum-son movie night ...in (a bit of furniture rearrangement made it more exciting)- Garfield was fun but I slept half way through, anyway

plans made over afternoon coffee;

we'll be leaving tomorrow morning

to go find a new (temporary) home here.

~~~~~

Happy Days!

F is for...

... flowers

... freesias to be exact

... friends

... fabric

... fiction
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

...films

... fun

... felicita (felicity)

xxx

December!

What do you do when you're on the verge of insanity?

No!

That's not a rhetorical question;

I do want an answer!

Here's what I've found particularly soothing:

a cup of hot chocolate... a good book (or two)...

making Christmas ornaments...
(I'll show you the end product when they're ready)

making Christmas cards...

learning how to crochet
(this could actually make things worse if I allowed myself to be discouraged - but I haven't- and
Yes! Feel free to laugh all you want; I know there are so many mistakes!
So glad if I made you smile! You're welcome!)



watching my favourite film
and dreaming
I could own a little shop like that
one day...



I must admit
all these cosy, homey, seamingly trivial things
have brightened my days.

The last days of November were stress-loaded.

December is a very comforting month, though.

Thank you all for stopping by. I do appreciate each and every one of you and am excited to get to know you little by little through your blogs and e-mails.

HAVE A WONDERFUL, BLESSED NATIVITY MONTH!

xxx

November

Hello ladies!

I just got back from work, prepared little one a snack -he's always hungry when we come home although he's had lunch at school- and sat at my desk to wish you all a wonderful, sweet, cosy November and show you a few of the things we did over our stay-at-home weekend.

Soooo, ...

...there was changing pots to some newly acquired herbs (thyme and oregano); I know this sounds more like a spring task but the little plants were a gift

... there was a ♥ precious ♥ family breakfast


... there were beautiful colours in the sky (please ignore the rooftops)


... there was a delicious, warm meal on Sunday



...there was lego-playing while mum was ironing (imagine whole mountains of clothes)

...and 'pic-nicking' on the living-room floor (the piles of clothes you see is the 'food')

...and of course, there was coffee, home-made biscuits and a good book

...and, needless to say, more coffee, cake and the same good book.

How was your weekend?


While thinking about November, these two ideas sprung to mind:

film: Sweet November (listen to this song by Enya-gorgeous!)

and

song: November Rain

Can you suggest anything else relating to this month?

Enjoy what's left of autumn and be prepared to welcome winter (scarves and gloves all ready here)

Take Care

xxx

Carpe Diem!

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived."

Henry David Thoreau - Walden

This poem from one of the films that's marked my being, Dead Poets' Society, sprang to mind completely out of the blue while I was drying my hair of all possible times!
I was obsessed with it (the poem) when I first saw the film, had written it on a piece of paper and put it on my desk to read every day. It helped me through some tough times but I haven't thought about it for a while.

Carpe Diem my friends (and myself)!
Seize the Day.

When Time Passes By!

Hello blogpals! How are you doing? I haven't been able to decide what to blog about - so many things, so little time - that's why I decided to show you a bit of this and a bit of that.

The picture above shows my son's buddies. We played 'school' with them one afternoon. Well, like mother, like son. I do hope he chooses something else though -it's soooo exhausting. (tough day yesterday; I'll spare you the details as this is my place to focus on the bright side of life - see banner)

Well, "don't you just love New York in the fall? Makes me wanna buy school supplies". I know what you're thinking: "has she gone nuts? N.Y. isn't in Greece". No, I haven't gone nuts, not yet anyway!!! :)
That's a quote from my favourite film.


Haven't you guessed yet?


No??!!


REALLY????


Who said it? You, sitting in front of your laptop?
You're right. "You've Got Mail"!!!
Sorry if I tired you with that but I can't help it; it makes me happy.

So on that note, I stayed up late Monday evening, night rather to sort out my material - I should have done it during the summer break but I couldn't (some of you know why).
I beautified my folders...

... and added smiley stickers on them.

One more thing I like doing when the weather becomes cooler and we don't go out as much is to leaf through my museum books. I have a whole shelf of them. The painting below is...

... from the Vincent Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I'm not satisfied with my pictures these days. If I manage to take some decent ones I'm thinking of making a museum series with, say, one museum a week, with links to their websites and everything. What do you say?

* -* - * - * -

Little one wanted to play with his 'professions' puzzle. He's had it for two years and never gets bored with it. I don't mind doing it again and again as we talk about more things every time and he enriches his vocabulary (teacher talk, sorry!)

These are my two favourite pieces:

the watering can

and the mail ( I loooove getting mail - but you already know that!)

Finally, I proudly present you little one's latest crafts from pre-school.

He didn't use to draw specific images, just fill the paper with colour in a second and leave -sometimes with amazing results if I may add. But now he's making faces. The line for the mouth is supposed to be straight; this is not a sad deer!!! The colourful stripes have the days of the week written on them.

I still haven't bought wooden pegs for his display as you can see. I'm looking for the little cute ones.

Although it's still Thursday I'll wish you a Happy Weekend as I know I won't have time to post anything else. I'll see most of you at your lovely blogs though!

Take Care!

Snapshots from an Ordinary Saturday

Sunday morning. We just had breakfast; toasted bread, butter and homemade plum marmalade or honey, yellow cheese, juice, coffee (if you eat four slices, every combination is possble). Hubby prepared breakfast and I'll do the dishes later. For now, I've let the boys play with little one's Legos -no, I hear a Christmas (!!!) book being read and came to the study to finish my coffee.

So, yesterday was a Saturday pretty much like many others. Just one small difference: I decided to take it all in; to make it memorable. I can't wait for special days to come to my life. I'm making each day special.

Come along. I'll give you a tour of "Saturday at Yiota's".

I started the day by airing the bed linen, even before my morning coffee. It was a crisp morning with some rain later on. I'll spare you the boring details of cleaning-you all know how that is done, anyway :) Let me just tell you that I had regular blogging breaks, visiting 'friends'.

This is little one's bed, fresh linen and all. I had hardly taken my pictures before he jumped up and enjoyed making a mess with it. Never mind, as long as he's having fun...

This is my bed with a knitted white blanket hubby's grandma made (click to enlarge) which I had forgotten that existed (the blanket, not the granny!) It stayed like that all day long, which is a miracle considering my son likes playing hide and seek in our bed!

"Why is Bunny-bunny" hanging from the handle on the bathroom door, dear?"

" I spilled some water on it and put it there to dry". Oh, well...

Little one's favourite pastime: looking at the crafts he made at his first pre-school; he's holding a card for Animal Rights Day.

"Mum, let's play with Thomas". Ok, you're entitled to some time with mommy. Toot-toot.

Time to make some lunch.

What do you make with...

a bowl..

... eggs and seasoning...

... veggies and tomato sauce...

... boiled pasta...

...and a baking pan?

An oven 'frittata'!
I got the idea from here.

Some zucchini fries and a beetroot salad (forgot to take a picture) and an unexpected early return home by our daddy made it a great lunch.

Just before the supermarket closed I decided I wanted a few things.

Came back with goodies for little one...

... and the ingredients for a lemon cake.

Turned out the dosage was for a tiny baking tin, which I didn't have.

Flat though it was, the cake was delicious. We ate almost half of it as soon as it got out of the oven. I'll definitely do it again but double the dosage!

By that time little one was fast asleep, just in time for a movie evening. Dirty Dancing was on as a tribute to Patrick Swayze (I'm quickly skipping this part as I'm still too sensitive on cancer issues) so I had a shower, put on my lovely pjs and joined hubby on the couch. I hadn't seen the film in years; it was wonderful!

See? I told you it was nothing special but it was so very special to me.

Take Care!

Have a lovely week!