Having long ago accepted the fact that I somehow can’t help but doing at least two different things at the same time, I’m presenting two (OK, perhaps more....) of my favorite activities on this website:

 

         -Herbs, with the term including fascinating-to-exhausting walks on slopes and mountains in order to find and collect them, 

hours of experimenting, preparing, testing, labeling -oils, tinctures,  wax creams, soaps, cosmetics….,

or just making buds of and enjoying them.

         -And crafts, which may sometimes mean hours of staring at colorful stones, beads, pearls, lace and all kind of wonderful  little things -with nothing coming up…….. and then suddenly you grab something, and…wow! Here’s the Masterpiece!!!! 

(-OK, occasionally  the Freak, as well, but…that’s life!!!)

 

Concerning HERBS....

.......I’ve always been fond of being out there in the nature, listening to the mountains and the sea, watching insects or birds, or picking flowers and herbs -so, it's no news that I studied Forest Engineering.

Now I spend most of my time in a village at the entrance of Tembi(Tempi or Tempe, as well) Valley, at the foot of Mount Olympus -yes, the famous one, that with the ancient gods on!!! And I usually move to Pelion for the summer -which happens to be the place the gods chose as their summer residence :)

There’s plenty of wild herbs around, plus I cultivate some myself.

 I only wish I could sufficiently depict the feeling I get each time I watch them blossom or wave in the breeze!

In 2012 the Australian channel ABC (in ‘Foreign Correspondent’) made a documentary film about Greeks trying  to find ways to get by the economic crisis. They discovered me and asked from me to participate.

So here I am, featuring for my “couple of minutes of celebrity” (from min.17.04 until 20.35) on this film shown on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp9apX-OnOM

One thing I hate about it is the way they made me look during this awful  ‘still screen’ I had to pose for, with scissors in hand, in the beginning of my part of the film. I’M NOT AT ALL THE WICKED WITCH SHOWN, I SWEAR!!!

Plus, back at that time, I had just begun thinking of including jewelry making for a profit in my activities, so you can find no hint about this part of me in there.

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As for the CRAFTS.....

.....Since I was 0 the picture of my mum knitting and crocheting has always been so familiar to me that, when I first started using the crochet to create some of my jewels (which only happened recently), it all came so natural, as if I had been doing it for all my life

And I’m really glad I started doing so just in time for her to see (and feel proud of) some of my work of that kind before passing away, in her late 80’s.

I’d like to believe that, up there among the stars and the galaxies, she can somehow see me crocheting and think that all the pullovers and scarves and dandelion lace she had lovingly made for my sister and me were good worth it!

Not, of course, that I stick to crocheting only!

A variety of techniques, as well as plenty of different materials are there for me to choose when bringing my babies to existence :)

Beads, pearls, wire, lace, metal plates, sterling silver, alpaca silver, brass, all kinds of stones, recycled materials, are mixed and matched and labored in various ways.