Rustic houses

I love how these little clay houses ended up looking! Every one I make is unique and one of a kind as I simply paint on them whatever I feel like at that moment. These two are finished, now all I have to do is photograph them and list them! Let's see if I can do it with this heat...
Wishing you a cooler day,
Aleka

Linked to Wow me Wednesday
 / Annemarie'sHaakblog

The whales

Hi!
A bit of experimenting with clay and these little cuties happened! These three clay whales are a sort of prototype for me as I'm trying things out with their coloring, I find I prefer the light wash of color that brings out the sanded surface to the more uniform coloring. And now I need to figure out how to make their shape more consistent, even though this way each one is unique :-)
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Linked to Wow Me Wednesday 

Good vibes only

Hi!
Little hand embroidered banner is in the shop reminding you to look for the good things in life :-)
Things I like: these photos of Tokyo, this movie & this book!
Wishing you a lovely weekend,
Aleka

A parliament of owls

Hi there!
I wanted to call these guys a gang but apparently a group of owls is called a parliament. Well this parliament is busy scheming plans on world domination for the googly eyed owls. You can find them in the shop, as they are made with no mold each one is a bit different but still adorable and cute :-)
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Felt Pumpkins Tutorial

Hi there!
Today I'll be sharing a super fast and easy tutorial on making felt pumpkins. All you need is felt, stuffing and thread. start by cutting two round pieces of felt.

Use a whip stitch to join the two pieces but leave a small opening. You can either fill it now and leave the stitch on the outside or follow the next step.

Turn the pumpkin inside out, keeping the stitching on the inside and fill it with the stuffing. Use a hidden stitch to close the opening.

Take a thread with a contrasting color and go through the center of tour pumpkin. Leave a "tail" of thread behind, you will need it to finish the pumpkin.

Start by dividing the pumpkin first in half vertically and then horizontally. Take your needle around the outer edge bring it down at the center, pull the thread to create a section. Next take your needle on the opposite side, around the outer edge and back into the middle again pulling to create the next section. Each time you will bring your needle up in the middle and pull tight to create the sections and they don't have to be perfect, real pumpkins aren't completely symmetrical either!

Once you've divided it into four parts next begin by dividing each part in half, again keep bringing your needle around the outer edge and through the center. When you have finished you should have eight sections. Bring your needle down to have it in the same side as the tail you left in the beginning. Tie the two threads together in a tight knot and cut the excess thread.

Use a piece of brown felt to create a stem and glue it into place, hiding the closing knot.

You can see the two different versions, two are made with the seam on the outside and two with the seam on the inside.
Hope you liked this diy :-)
Aleka

More clay houses

It's been quite a while since I added new houses in the shop! So this time I added a lot of houses and trees as well as sets of two houses with a little tree. Some are done in natural colors like the brown house but for some I picked bright colors like the yellow and blue set of two houses.
I do love working on them, each house is individually hand formed, then I sand them to create surface texture and then the fun part begins: taking out ALL of my acrylics and picking color combinations that attract my eye. And once I am done it looks so good to put all the houses together, it's like a colorful little village with one of a kind homes and trees!
Aleka

Autumn sales!

We are celebrating autumn with sales! All through September you can purchase anything from the shop and enjoy a 20% discount using the coupon code "FALL20"!

Wishing you a lovely week,
Aleka

Greek summer in thread

Fall is officially here! It's been only a few days into September and the weather has changed a lot, it's been raining since yesterday and it seems it will continue like this for a few more days.
I didn't get to travel anywhere this summer but I did a bit of mental traveling by starting an ambitious embroidery project. I made these hoops as a reminder of my travels in past years, the dovecot is from Andros island, the temple is from the temple of Poseidon and the windmill from Santorini island!
Each hoop took a few days to finish and is one of a kind! I loved this project so much though I was a bit uncertain when I started and there were a couple of moments where I had to rip stitches and do them over. But overall it was a very fulfilling experience so much that now I'm trying to find another idea, something new that I can create with thread on these little hoops :-)
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Hello again

Hello, it's been a while! So here's to a fresh start and (hopefully) more blogging with new projects, things I make and things I like.

This little blue house is playing hide and seek! I've been busy making new houses and adding them to the shop. It finally looks like a colorful little village hehe :-)
Wishing you a great week,
Aleka

Mini banners

These mini banner flags are such fun to make! Me & you, shine bright and the diamond are already in the shop. I'm writing down ideas for new designs :-)

Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Aleka

What's new?

Our newest additions to the shop are housewares! We've added green and yellow flower coasters, blue and green circle coasters and an orange lace doily. There will be more added soon :-)

Have a lovely day,
Aleka

A black heart

I'm not really big on Valentine's day, it's just one of these holidays that never appealed to me. But I had this idea for an anti-Valentine's heart and with the help of a friend this is the result: a stupid cupid heart!
Thank you Christine :-)

xoxo,
Aleka

Sunny and working

The sunny days are here, it's like spring in the middle of winter :-)
And I have a stack of hearts to make for the weekend, hopefully I'll stay concentrated long enough to finish them!
I've been working and finishing a couple of new things too, I've been busy with the gloomy weather.
Now all this sunshine makes me want to go out :-)

Wishing you a great weekend,
Aleka

Christmas angels

 Gold heart angels

Green heart angels

Red heart angels

I really enjoyed making these angels and playing with the metallic thread, it was a bit frustrating at first but I think I got the hang of it. I used gold, green and red thread to embroider the hearts on white felt, I embroidered sleepy eyes on their faces and I think they look so peaceful :-)

They are listed in the shop along with many more Christmas decorations!

Wishing you a great day, 

Aleka

New in our shop

 Black and white flag cupcake toppers

Pink clay miniature house

What's new

It's been weird these last few days, yesterday's flooding rain was unbelievable and today the sun is shining.
A few updates in the shop:
the dove bird with text from Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen and two new houses, a purple high rise and a green one.
I have a couple of ideas I want to work on, something inspired by spring and summer with lots and lots of colors just need to find the time and energy to do them :-)
Wishing you a great weekend
Aleka

New things

Autumn leaves garland

White clay houses

Embroidered brooch in blue

It's been a while since I posted things from the shop, the brooch finally finished and listed and a felt leaves garland with a set of white clay houses. I still need to get a bit more organized, I've made a couple of listing and I'm not happy with the photos, they definitely need to be re-shot and I need to start making some new things. Lots of ideas, very little concentration!
The Etsy Greek street team is celebrating it's 4 year anniversary and they are having a huge giveaway, you can win one of our parrot birds too :-)

Wishing you a great weekend
Aleka

Happy Sunday & a feature

Working on an order, our little heart tags in progress :-)
Wishing you all a lovely Sunday,
Aleka
ps. A lovely feature on us and our decor shop, you can read it here!

In the Etsy Finds

A big surprise came in the mail today: our retro Christmas ornaments were featured in the Etsy Finds newsletter!! I keep looking at the newsletter, smiling and giggling when I see them pop up, it's such an honor to be featured with so many other wonderful picks :-)
Wishing you a great Saturday,
Aleka

Busy bees

 {1/2/3/4}

It's been silent her on the blog but we've been busy these last weeks and the reason is that we opened a new Etsy shop: FishesMakeWishesHome. We decided to move all our home decorations there, so far we got little clay houses, Halloween decor, felt hearts and clay tiles but we'll be adding more things soon! It's been exciting but also a bit of a whirlwind, how we'll manage three shops without going nuts now that will be a challenge :-)
Hope you have a great week,
Aleka