Seasons in a bowl!!

Spring is here my dear readers!! Tomorrow March is making its entrance to our world 

and my heart and mind are full of its vivid, sweet colours and smells.

New life, new dreams and hopes, new plans!!! Spring heralds the rebirth of Nature and boosts our energy. It awakens and urges us to get rid of winter’s grey cobwebs. 

I love the changing of seasons and I always try to celebrate them in my little colourful house.

I usually make little changes and add little things here and there to mark the change of seasons and create little spots of interest .

 It is always nice to come back from work, tired and have a nice ,little something to welcome you on a table or shelf , at a corner of your house!

Today, I will share with you my ‘magic’ bowl. A bowl for all seasons, which appears either on a kitchen  shelf or on a table at the hallway, ‘smiling’ at me when I enter the house.   

It is a glass bowl, standing on a glass ‘leg’, neither big nor small, but just the right size to add its colourful decorative detail. 

I actually use it as a little ‘world’, where I imitate different scenes of life and nature, according to the season.

Look, this is the autumn version of my little world. A tiny wooden bird house, with a red roof, pine cones, acorns, little pieces of wood, some splashes of yellow and a little wooden critter, create an autumn scene. Do you like it? 

 When the first snow falls and the days are short and cold the tiny house rests on a layer or sugary snow, with some cinnamon sticks for fences, snow covered cones and some red, for extra colour.

Christmas finds the same house covered with a bit more icing sugar and a tiny Santa Claus ready to pay a visit to whoever lives in it. Some holly and some more pine cones are more than appropriate for this Christmas scene.

 Spring brings with it two tiny, colourful houses which you may remember from this post (little houses and a necklace) and lots of green grass, along with flowers and lots of happy little critters ready to celebrate all things flowery and sunny.

I hope you like my idea and you try it yourselves. It will definitely make you smile.

I always try to give you some easy ideas for things to make for your house, because I definitely believe that these colourful, artistic or even quirky   additions to our home, help create a more positive ambience and improve our mood. They also welcome friends and family in a sweet, cosy, family environment which attracts us and make us feel a ‘warmth’ that we all need .

Enjoy your night dear readers and tomorrow you will wake up in a new season!!. Isn’t that amazing!!

Happy Spring and my greetings to you all!!

Till next time, 

Tina xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Carne Vale!

Hello dear readers,

I hope you are all well and that you have enjoyed the weekend.

This was actually the last before Lent. It was time for partying, for putting on masks and fancy dresses and for dancing under the ‘disco ball’! In other words it was Carnival time!!

A bit of history for those who may be interested:

Carnival originated as a pagan festival in ancient Egypt which was then celebrated by the Greeks and the Romans. This popular festival was adopted by the Roman Catholic Christian church in Europe as the festival of Carne Vale. The Carnival festival was transported to the Caribbean by the European slave traders and from there back to Europe.  The word Carnival is made up of two Latin words, carne, meaning meat and vale, meaning farewell. So we actually say goodbye to meat before the beginning of Lent and fasting.

I always add some decorative touches to my house at this time of year and I particularly like masks which resemble the handmade ones made in Venice.

  In the 18th century in Venice, Carnival lasted for six months, from the first Sunday of October till Christmas and then from the day of Epiphany till Lent .It used to start again on the day of the election of a new Doge and on every other occasion worth celebrating! During this time, people used to wear Carnival costumes to go to work or shopping, visit each other or send their letters .I am always fascinated by this. Can you imagine us going around in fancy dresses for half the year! How different would our lives be! Venetians loved the mystery and anonymity; they liked living incognito and the fan and lack of punishment their disguise entailed!

Well, I just said all these, to stress out the fact that those guys really knew how to make a good mask and also how to use it. The masks they still make are really fantastic and they match them with the perfect hat , with feathers  and lace or a small veil. I once had the chance to visit a small workshop of handmade masks and hats in Venice and I was really amazed by how skillfully they were made. 

I bought a  mask for myself , a very simple one but I like it a lot and I always display it  in my house along with other  ones which I have been collecting over the years. A humble collection I would say, which I always enjoy looking at during the few weeks that Carnival time lasts. 

  Well, the party was good fun and lots  of confetti and streamers were used. The masks , hats , wigs and fancy dresses dazzled under the sparkling lights of the disco ball for yet another year . 

We dreamed and pretended to  be someone else , someone we might wish to be or whose face we randomly used just for one crazy, carefree  Carnival night……….

Good night everyone .

                                    

Till next time,

Tina xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh so White!

This week has been extremely cold and snowy for Greece.

We are always looking forward to snowy days as it is something rather rare in our country, especially for those of us who live in central and southern areas.

When snow covers towns, hills and mountains, snowmen at all sizes and ‘outfits’ appear and families head to the closest park or open area, to play with it and have fun, because it doesn’t last for long.

Now that I am writing, the snow has already melted and it might not visit us again for yet another year. But it is still very cold and the mountains in the horizon are covered in icy white.

It is amazing how fragile flowers and buds survive the cold and icy veil of snow!
Look how pretty the almond tree buds and tiny, pink flowers  are .
Bright  yellow marigolds,  whose stems  appear from underneath their snowy cover , look determined to survive and dominate the landscape , in a few weeks when spring arrives.

Oh the beauty of nature ! 

 The deep red cyclamen petals contrast the whiteness of the snow in a pot outside my house.

I’m glad the weekend has arrived , because it is nice to spend some quiet time at home when it is freezing cold outside .

Also , don't forget, dear readers,  it is Carnival time , so put on your masks and fancy dress costumes and enjoy the weekend with your Valentine!!!!:)

My  love to you all  and thank you for your sweet comments. 

Till next time, 

Tina