I have a cousin who has studio apartments for rent on Paros during the summer season. She’s always commissioning me to do various things for her studios (like the large paintings below), but this time she’s asked me for my little stone collections.

Normally she gives guests a small basket of local products to try during their stay, but this year she decided that for the rest of this season and next season, she will be giving them some of my small decorative stones as gifts.

So here are a few more groups on 5 I did for her, including the one above.

She also asked me to do some tic tac toe games. I’ve only done one so far because I need smaller stones for those and need to gather more:

Below is the packaging – simple cotton bags with her business name on the front, and either the game or one stone image so she knows at a glance what colour the stones inside are.

Here are the black and gold stones with their bag.

They’re fun to do so I’ll be doing tons more for her or anyone else who might want to give away small gifts. Anyone?

Mind you, I believe that anything over 3 is a good ‘grouping’ but 5 is better especially when they’re smaller items – of course 10 is even better if you put them in a bowl! But stones are heavy and not everyone wants to add to their luggage weight. So a small group of 5 is just enough. Guests always have the option of buying a second bag for themselves or as a souvenir. Stones collected from Paros beaches.

The weather turned suddenly today, like someone flipped a switch labelled Autumn. It was hot and windless yesterday but it’s cool today and it’s been raining all morning so far. It’s a lovely change when you haven’t had rain for months!

I love the smell of rain!

On the downside, since I groom outside, I can’t groom when the weather is dicey. Not till my container grooming room is up and running.

z