I love being on Paros but there’s always some reason to come back to Athens. This time its Christmas and mom, but its also dogsitting and looking after a grooming salon. ie, doing any dogs who happen to need grooming while the owner is away. I mean, I’m here anyway…
The dogs I’m dog sitting are Grumpy, a tiny 17 year old yorkie who is deaf and blind, and Pacquiao, an american staffie. And a kitten called Gato. They are all gorgeous of course.
I managed to go see a rockabilly band on Saturday night and have a few dances. That was fun. There’s tons happening in that scene here – not so much the REAL rockabilly scene maybe, but the swing dance scene. Seems its become extremely popular and there are tons of people dancing in various degrees of success and rhythm. I plan/hope to get to quite a few more.
And I’ve organised to get to a big dog show in mid January. That should be super fun too…. I’ve missed the smell of hairspray!
Other than that, you know… the usual. I’m binge watching Vikings cause it must be done. And so far I’ve successfully avoided doing any craft or artwork. I will get to it though. I brought my art supplies cause I have a poodle portrait commission, and some fabrics and sewing supplies for an etsy project I have in mind.
Its been a long time since I shared a creative project (yeah, Christmas crafts don’t count).
This is something I’d been planning to do for ages. I started it in Australia and brought the bits with me to Greece to finish it.
Basically its a memory box type of photo display dedicated to mom’s parents.
My grandmother was a seamstress and my grandfather was a fisherman. Since I already had tons of vintage sewing bits and pieces, it was easier to work with the seamstress theme.
I printed some old photos, going back to 1932 for the first one where my grandparents only had 3 of their 7 children, then a photo of my grandmother with 5 children. I didn’t have a photo with all 7 children…
On the left, my grandmother is the one on the right and grandfather is the one sitting at her feet with 3 children (my mother is the baby in his arms). On the right my grandmother is surrounded by her 3 daughters (mom on the right) with one son on the left and one in her lap.
My favourite photo of my grandparents is the one below where they are mending fishing nets together. Thats how I first remember them.
I lined the back of the box with a vintage sewing pattern and added various bits and pieces from my mother’s old sewing box.
The only thing missing is the vintage little pair of sewing scissors I have… I know they’re are here somewhere but they’re obviously packed in a craft box. When I find them I will add them to the box.
Phew. Its been busy around here. Makes me think I must have been REALLY wicked in a previous life.
Firstly, I thank my lucky stars that I’m the kind of person who is never without a job. In fact, I look forward to downtime between jobs and end up with another job before I manage to start a single one of my own projects.
After the hectic summer job in a travel agency and car rental office, I finished up end of October, had a week in Athens to visit mom, went back to Paros to start creating… and got another job. More on that in another post…
I also decided to help PAWS (Paros Animal Welfare Society) raise money for their new shelter by making stuff to sell for the Christmas markets. Firstly my friend Barbara and I ran a craft workshop (total disaster…) and then I just stuck to making things at home in the peace and quiet of my own living room/kitchen/office/craft room/sewing room while binge watching Netflix.
These are some of the things I made… gift tags, DIY air dry clay decorations, pocket warmers, among other stuff. It was work, craft, work, craft. Then it was market, market, market.
Lainee helping at the market.
I also fostered the cutest little jack russell for 3 weeks, and dog sat a cute little dachsund for one week. It never rains it pours.
The cute Toby.Sleeping dogs in a mess of crafting supplies.Indy who made himself at home.
But its finally over!
My new job is over for the season and I don’t go back till March too, so time for Zefi… but no….
Now I’m on my way to Athens again to look after a pit bull, a tiny blind yorkie, a cat and a grooming salon.
Boy was I wicked in that past life!
Since I haven’t posted in so long, prepare for a barrage of posts.
I’ve been in Athens for 5 days. I’ve had a headache for 4.5 days…
Ok, not quite so bad, but it did take a couple of days to acclimatize to the noise and traffic here. Not that we don’t have those captivating attractions on Paros… but at least you can step away from that easier on an island.
I had such plans for my time here. I did manage to tick stuff off the list but I also spent more than my fair share of time watching a new series on Netflix and being a sloth. I’ve been watching Mindhunters and enjoying it. So much stuff to watch, so little time.
I’ve also driven more in Athens on this trip than I have in years. And I’ve managed to pay tolls twice on every trip I made. Me and Google Maps obviously don’t speak the same language. When she says ‘ in 100 metres lean right (or left)’ I end up exiting the toll road and have to get back on. Sheesh. Sort of defeats the purpose of being on the toll road to start with.
I brought the car over to get some work done on it and cause I needed to bring things from Paros to keep in the Athens house. I have a store room on Paros but its too damp for me to risk my paintings etc. So a full car came to Athens and a full car will return to Paros cause I have things to collect from here and things people give me…
I am a well known collector of things which could be useful.
Not that I have the room to collect things to do stuff with at the moment in my tiny house, but I figure I can give away stuff I don’t want.
I went into the center of Athens once on this trip so far to buy crafting supplies for a project I’ll share later. My cousin and I happened to go into Athens on the day of a demonstration and walked down to Syntagma Square to find it empty and barricaded by police.
I do love Athens without traffic…
It was also the day the weather changed from summer to winter. We were totally unprepared for the storm and got soaked. But despite that, a visit into the center of Athens is always fun. There are so many great shops, so many wonderful cafes, so much to explore.
We found the best button shop in the world. How cool is this tiny place filled from top to bottom with any button you might ever need? This shop has been here since the 50s and I bet they still have stock from then too!
I think I need a bulletin board at home to pin all the business cards from the shops I discovered so I know how to find them again or to be able to order stuff from them. Great sources for all kinds of things. So much fun!
Meanwhile, I’ve caught up with friends and relatives and generally have had a nice time relaxing in the family home and enjoying mom’s cooking.
I met a greek australian guy who owns a grooming shop locally and will dog sit for him over Xmas and look after his dogs. He let me wash and groom Lainee there which was nice as I haven’t yet set up a space to use dryers and stuff at home on Paros. She’s all fluffed up now and looks wonderful. Fat but wonderful…
Thats all the news on Athens for now but despite my quietness there are tons of things going on I’ll share when I can.
Every time you get your head up someone tries to get you down? Maybe you are a part of a Wack-a-Mole game!
That’s exactly how life feels now.
Seriously. You have no idea how complicated everything has to be here. I spend my time thinking about how I’ll make a living/survive and I’ll get an idea and get all excited about the potential and sure enough, something/someone will come along and wack me back under my rock.
Its really depressing.
I’ll give you an example. The town council advertised for a fine art teacher. Its a part time job, on contract for 9 months, they have funding for up to xxx amount of hours and would run classes depending on how many people joined up for them.
The perfect job for me I thought. I had the qualifications… so I applied. Its apparently based on a point system: a degree in Fine Art is worth 15 points. Every year in a related job is worth 1 point. Etc. I figured I had a shot…
I spent time re-writing my resume, translating it into greek, got together what they asked for: a letter of application, a photocopy of my ID card and the declarations they wanted (that I had never been fired from a council position in the past and that I wasn’t precluded from a job with the council under some code, paragraph, subsection etc. I figured I was probably ok, not having worked in Greece in a public servant capacity ever, and took them to the town council building in person.
The woman who took my envelope looked at it and said “where are your supporting documents?”.
I’m like “what supporting documents? I brought what you asked for asked for to apply for the job”.
She said, “where is your degree and your high school diploma and …(whatever)?”
I said, “this is my application. I’d be bringing that stuff (including a folio of work) to the interview…”
“Oh, there is no interview. Its a point system. Whoever has the most points gets the job.”
HUH?
You mean some creepy guy with slimy hands and dog breath, no personality and a total lack of ability to relate to people and actually teach them anything might have more points so he gets the job over someone who may have a few less points but can teach and create enthusiasm in a class or make it fun misses out?
Yep. I can see the sense in that.
Needless to say I didn’t apply for that job. Mainly cause she said take this and come back with your supporting documents or you’ll lose points. So off I went to look for my documents and after searching for over an hour I gave up. Not finding them meant I wouldn’t have enough points, but not leaving my application meant zero points anyway!
Stuff it.
And what about the post office debacle? Seems one of the postmen quit or left or ran off to join the circus or something, so mail (in parts of the island) hasn’t been delivered for almost 2 months. Okay… my house and my first delivery address of choice wasn’t in the affected areas but work is. But never once did I hear anything about mail not being delivered so I could make it a habit of going past the PO once a week to check on mail.
Let me explain Paros to you…
This is a greek island. So, not only is it in GREECE, its an island so things are doubly backward.
Up till the last few years there were no names on any streets or roads on this island. Then names began appearing cause apparently the local postman, who knew everyone, was retiring and no new postman stood a chance of learning how to deliver mail.
There are still plenty of streets with no name and buildings with no number. I have no address at my home. When I wanted a phone line put into my place I had to give them a neighbouring phone number so they could figure out where I was.
When I tell people where I live I say “You know the road that turns right to XXX Hotel? Well, you go past that but just after it there’s a road that heads up a hill on the opposite side…. thats where I live. There are a ton of building up there, but the first building is at a right angle to the road, then another is parallel to the road. That’s my building, my place is the xth unit with number x on the door.”
Putting that on an envelope imposes a challenge…
So instead I opted to have stuff delivered to my a hotel my uncles co-own, but since I was living in my grandmother’s old house and the postman knew me, he would just deliver stuff to my door. Then when I began working I asked him to bring mail to my work cause its very close to the post office. He passed that info on to his replacement but we won’t mention the parcels that got left on the doorstep of the old, unoccupied, house…
So, about a week ago two things happened simultaneously. A friend asked if I’d gotten my replacement credit card in the mail, which she’d sent ages ago. No… I hadn’t.
And I checked on the status of an ebay purchase which had never arrived. I’d given it extra time just in case. Turns out it arrived, sat in the PO for 2 weeks and got sent back to China!
When I went in to the PO to yell at people that this was unforgivable, that NO ONE notified me that my mail was in the PO, that if I hadn’t overheard my boss telling someone mail wasn’t being delivered, I wouldn’t have had any idea!!! You know what the guy behind the counter said? He said he’d seen my parcel sitting there for ages and wondered why I never went to pick it up!
(insert swear word of your choice here)!!!
There’s more… but I won’t bore you with it. Well, at least not in this post. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more in later posts…
You know, it occurred to me that I haven’t share any DIY/craft projects for a while… and this post has been sitting in my draft folder for quite a long time (given I started this project while living in Tasmania!) waiting for more up-to-date-though-never-finished pics.
I figured I may as well share what I’ve done to my plain denim jacket so far. I hadn’t had a denim jacket for many years and decided I needed one, but when I went looking I couldn’t find one I liked so I bought a cheap one thinking I’d jazz it up myself. The one I ended up buying was comfortable but didn’t have breast pockets which made it look really boring… ugh.
Don’t know about you, but I love the crazy stitching a la boro/sashiko/japanese style etc. I also love visible mending and generally badly stitched and mended stuff. I have a huge collection of such images in my Pinterest boards if you wanna visit.
This image is the inspiration for part 1 of the jacket makeover.
Only I went with a patchwork of fabrics, and only under the collar for that flash of colour. At least in Part 1 of the makeover…
Step 1: Distress the jacket. I used a razor blade and worked at fraying some of the edges. I had planned to run over it with the car a few times but chickened out.
Step 2: Select fabrics that compliment eachother in colours you like. I chose different red tones and patterns.
Step 3: Start sewing them on. I did this by hand as I didn’t want the stitches to show on the top side of the collar. Plus I wanted to do it in my own very messy way. (I’m really not that good at hand sewing… or sewing in general for that matter… its part of my charm.)
Sorry for the blurry pic.
This is how the collar looked with the fabrics layed out and pinned to be stitched on.
Step 4: Colourful seams. I brought some needles and embroidery thread with me when I came to Greece on holiday last summer and whiled away some quiet hours inspired by this image on Pinterest:
I loved the different colours and thought they’d make the jacket stand out a bit… and turns out I was neater with the stitching than I meant to be.
Funny story actually… I have a natural tendency towards neatness and have real difficulty with randomness. I worked hard to loosen up my art for instance – not using glasses so I couldn’t focus on details, using my whole hand and pastels instead of coloured pencils and my face an inch from the page, forcing myself to go for expression rather than each individual hair on a dog’s head, etc.
Reversely, my sewing sucks. No matter how hard I tried for years to make my stitches neat and even, I just can’t do it. Yet when I want to be messy and random I end up with something that looks neat. How on earth does that happen?
Ok so I couldn’t find a photo of the jacket with just the coloured edging on the seams, so you a step 5 image…
Step 5: Embroidery… I began sewing random patterns and trying really hard to do messy embroidery. My french knots are pretty bad actually.
This is how the jacket looks currently, but its a work in progress. The blank area on the right side needs more french knots, kind of scattering out. The back yolk needs a whole lotta embroidery. And I’m considering something big on the back…
By the end of it I should know how to do any stitch you care to name, have made up some of my own, and have a jacket I need a forklift to put on.
It seems so long since I got my Ikea bookcase and thought about white washing it (or liming it or whatever you want to call it). I actually started on it about 3 weeks ago thinking “great, one evening to lime the entire bookcase, two to varnish, done in 3 days!”
Three weeks ago and this is all I’d done:
I’m ashamed of myself. Where is the Zefi I used to know? The one who works like a machine and gets things done? It seems she has some bad days at work and comes home to sit in front of Netflix all night eating chocolate… Not good. Especially after all the hard work I put in last year in Australia to lose weight and get fit…
Well, I finally got off my butt and did some painting the other day. Of course it went a whole lot faster once I pulled the whole thing apart to paint it… turns out shortcuts are longcuts… painting the bookcase without taking it apart was a stupid move.
I still have to do it in sections, but now I have the whole first section (ie half the bookcase) painted. I still need to varnish the bits I painted before I can put it back together and start on the next half. I can’t do it all at once cause I dont have the space. Its way too windy to varnish outside cause things will get stuck in the varnish. Liming was quick and I did that outside since I can sand any dead insects off anyway. Not that I need to… it dries so fast.
I wanted the wood grain to show through so I just used some white acrylic paint I found in the cabinet when I bought my place, watered it down and used a kitchen sponge to apply the paint, rubbing it in and spreading it over the timber. I found I needed two coats to achieve the look I wanted… but I’m halfway there on the first half now.
And then I hit a road bump. A big one.
Once I was ready to move onto part 2 of the first half of the bookcase (varnishing) I went and bought some varnish. I went to my favourite hardware store (favourite cause its owned and run by a woman) and selected the varnish I thought I needed – it was water based, in gloss (a new thing for me! I’ve always done satin before) and said protection and varnish on it in Greek and English… Then along came the MAN who works there and said, no, this is what you need. I didn’t even read the label well – mainly cause 1. it was all in greek and 2. I couldn’t see the fine print without my glasses.
I did what I knew better than to do… I just got what someone recommended like some newbie.
In fact, I feel like an ignorant newbie a lot here cause I don’t know the words for things in greek and the greek writing on packaging sometimes stumps me. You’ll see me at hardware stores going ‘buzz buzz’ to indicate a drill, doing little spirals in the air to indicate drill bits, etc…
So I got home during my break (split shift day yesterday) and got to work sanding everything. Then I dusted it all off and started painting on the varnish…
It had a bit of a smell. It was sticky on my fingers. It was quite thick. I had a quick read of the instructions, not really letting them sink in. I just worked away thinking that one liter of the stuff wouldn’t be enough – but they don’t sell it in bigger sizes…
I was just about to start on the shelves when I decided to re-read the instructions just to be on the safe side. Something just didn’t feel right…
Yep. It was oil based, not water based. A low odour oil based product. It was the five hour drying time that really woke me up. But the worldwide icon for dummies on how to clean up wasn’t on the tin, and the greek word for turps was nowhere to be seen. They recommended ‘brush cleaner’ for cleanup… I was thinking it was some kind of SOAP.
Sigh.
I was pretty annoyed at myself for being such an idiot and not realising soon as I opened the tin…
By the time I stopped I’d done three uprights and the only shelves I didnt remove – the ones that hold the drawers cause they are a pain to do cause they have those little lugs that hold them in place. I’m not that lazy, but when I removed them last time I ended up breaking one shelf end bracket thingy… I didnt want to risk making it worse.
Meanwhile I hated the look… the varnish went on dark, a yellowish tinge to it even though its clear varnish. It didnt seem as clear as the polyurethane I used on stuff in Australia. I was thinking that I’d get water based varnish to finish the bookcase and hope that the difference isn’t really visible.
Last night I had to sleep with the bedroom door closed cause low odour or not, it bothered me. But the good news is that this morning I liked the way it looked and felt. It dried lighter than it went on and I’m loving the gloss finish.
So now I’ve started I just gotta keep the momentum going.
Mind you, you’d think that would be easy… I can’t really be moved in till the bookcase is finished cause I can’t bring my stuff out of storage till I can put things where I want them. So I gotta get it done. I will get it done.
While I’m on the subject of Pinterest and things that work (or not), thought I’d share one trick that actually works.
See, I bought some solar powered cork fairy lights off ebay cause I was picturing myself sitting on my patio, surrounded by fairy light filled wine bottles, having a drink while cuddling my poodle… So I began collecting white wine bottles.
Of course, removing the labels is not easy… So I did what every self respecting crafty person does: I looked it up on Pinterest to see if I could find an easy, fail proof way to do it.
I found tons of links. Some I knew didn’t work, but one link suggested something I hadn’t tried – a combination of methods in fact: hot water, vinegar and bicarb soda for the paper label, then peanut butter for the gooey glue residue.
Greek peanut butter… crunchy too! I think you’re meant to use smooth, but hey, you use what you have!
I admit. I was skeptical at first… I mean, I’d heard of it before… but peanut butter to remove sticky gunky stuff?
Yet it works!
So, after spending years of my life trying to remove labels by soaking them in boiling water (or running them through the dishwasher) then trying steel wool and eucalyptus oil or lemon oil or anything I could think of to remove the sticky goop, I have a method that works every time!
Its so easy. I ran hot hot water into the sink. I added 1/2 a cup of vinegar and 2-3 tbs of bicarb, watched it fizz a bit then added the bottles making sure to sink them. I let them soak overnight.
Next morning I used a butter knife to scrape off the labels. They came off really easy. Leaving behind the obligatory gloop.
Then comes the peanut butter. Using the same butter knife, I spread the peanut butter over the goopy areas and let the bottles sit on the sink while I was at work (or overnight).
After that, a paper towel will wipe off the peanut butter AND the glue residue. A good wash and you have sparkling clean, glue, goo and peanut butter free bottles!
Yippee!
On the down side, not all my fairy lights work, and some only work when they feel like it. The wind blows the bottles over so I can’t keep them on the table on my patio till I fill them with small stones to keep them standing… But hey, I’ll sort it out. At least I have label free bottles now!
Have you ever surfed Pinterest and thought “I want to do that!”… Go on. You know you have!
Well I’ve always looked at those doodle mugs and bowls, made using sharpies and a hot oven, and lusted after them. So last night I decided it was time to try it. I had my sharpie, some bowls and Orange is the New Black on Netflix.
I’ve always doodled lines and curls, so I decided to follow some of the examples I saw on Pinterest that I liked, combining some of my own elements and some I saw on other’s projects.
The good: It was easy to do. The sharpie glides on easily, its really pleasant to draw on the ceramic surface.
The bad: baking them discoloured areas of the bowls and trying to get the brown bits off rubbed off the drawing too.
I wasn’t overly fussed about perfection, I wanted them to look handsketched and imperfect. I achieved that….
What I learned: Probably best to use new bowls/mugs etc. The bowls I used had been used, mainly for breakfast cereal, and they discoloured in areas I suspect there were traces of milk left. A bit around the inner rim, a bit on the side where it might have dribbled…
I did what the Pinterest links suggested: I baked them in a high oven for 1 hour then let them cool before removing them.
And before you ask, YES, I do wash my dishes… they LOOKED clean… Maybe I should have wiped them over with pure alcohol before drawing on them… something to try next time.
The tiny bowl which had had olives in it did not discolour… interesting…
I’m not really happy about the rubbed off and discoloured bits… Still, they look pretty on my little kitchen shelf. I just wouldn’t recommend doing this on a plate which will need to be scrubbed to clean, I don’t think the drawings will last well enough on those.
I have 2 more of the white bowls to do, I’ll try alcohol on them and see if it makes a difference.
Another link suggested using a clear varnish as an alternative to baking. I might give that a try too… I was just concerned about putting food in a bowl I’d sprayed with varnish… but its the inside you put the food in… as long as the varnish doesn’t go yellow with time that might be an option to try later on.
Note: make sure you get all residue of labels off the bottom. That tends to burn and create more brown stains around the bottom of the bowl…
But enough about what I don’t have. Lets concentrate on what I do… I have a carmine bougainvillea which I’m looking forward to enjoying once it grows up my back wall and flowers. (The one above is not mine but I have my eye on one I would like to take a cutting off which is paler pink and white…)
I have some bright pink flowers in pots and some succulents growing in a variety of containers not originally intended for plants. Of course.
I have a small courtyard at the back where I will create a little relaxing/reading nook one day. And to hang my washing. And to make things and use power tools…
I have a patio out front with a sea view and eucalyptus trees blocking most of the view. But that’s ok cause I love eucalyptus trees. They remind me of home… My real home. Or my other home.
Being from two countries really sucks. I’ve always felt Australia was my real home, but who am I kidding? I’m greeker than I am Australian, but its that Australia has always been where I chose to live. Till recently.
Anyway, adjusting to life in Greece hasn’t been easy. I have issues with so much here, from the way people behave, the way they drive, the way they manage their environment, the tax system, etc etc. But I chose to come here to live so I have to suck it up and move on.
Adjusting to living in a single bedroom unit has been hard too. I love my little home but its not easy going from having 4 bedrooms, a huge living room, spacious kitchen, a yard, paddocks, and more outbuildings than you can poke a stick at to a little unit where I can literally see everything I own at one glance.
I mean I’ve always loved the idea of living in a one open space type of place, but in my fantasies the place was a warehouse, not a small unit!
Yesterday mom said a friend of hers was giving away a beautiful old wardrobe. Do I want it? Hell yeah, I want it. I want to refinish it and sell it… but where would I do that exactly?
sigh.
I know I’ll sort my life out eventually, I know it takes time to settle into a place and find my niche (my space, my work). It just gets me down at times… I had just gotten my life in Australia to a nice place: working from home doing something I love (grooming dogs), with the space to work on any project I got into my head, my radio show, friends to go out dancing with, a gym I loved and actually wanted to attend…
Figures I’d want to change it all just when I got it right. Its the same principle as meeting a dreamy guy the day before you move interstate…
I love change and starting over, but doing it all at once can be as exhausting as it is exciting.
junk4joy 