These days and my first bazaar in Chalkida

The day after Christmas finds me listening to this album, a little melancholic and blue. Instead of cleaning up the house as I have planned for today, I'm browsing some favorite blogs and drinking hot coffee all day...guilty! And as I was thinking that I haven't posted all the stuff that I intended to (a post on curly hair, on knitting, and movies were only some already planned posts), I decided to share some photos from the past weekend.

These are some shots I got while I was preparing for my first bazaar in Chalkida. It was a fundraising Christmas bazaar for stray animal, where I had my booth, along with my mother's-in-law booth of sweets ^_^





It was a really good extended weekend, I spend almost 5 days there and met a whole bunch of new people, and connected with really interesting crafters that live in Chalkida. It was a success! But my home now looks really bad...concluding that I am terrible at planning!

Christmas day was good and so I am expecting the next weekend to be, but for today blue is all I have.
How are you feeling these days?
so long
<Marietta

   

p.s. here is Lolita, Paris, and Tickis the cat, my friend's Nasia, pets! Nasia, Paris and Lolita accompanied and helped me for most of the days! Aren't they the cutest?

New about page and an interview

Updated:
You can read my new about page here , have you noticed it yet?!
 and here is an interview I gave to Dimitris Gioulos for Postin.gr (sorry it's only in Greek!)

Big Kiss!
Oh and I forgot to mention that I am not in a Christmas mood, at all (...again)

What about you!?

first Past Tense of 2013

Hallo! this post is about our favorite bazaar, that you are already familiar with: the "Past Tense"! Since, this weekend, the first Past Tense of the year is taking place, there is a huge giveaway, but is only for the residents of Athens, Greece! Sorry guys!! (if you haven't heard about it, today is your last chance to win a Past Tense gift! go go go)

There are a lot of new participants ,that we can't wait to meet, and some old good ones that can't wait to share our latest news with! See the list of the participants here.

Here are some photos from the previous Christmas Past Tense! (Vintage Renata Malavazou, Chere Zouzou, Smalltowngirl, Daydream Handmade lingerie, Kounia Bella, Lazy Di, Run Around Sew, Bourbon Mademoiselle, Swell Dame, were just few of the participants)

We will be there, with a lot of new bows, lace cuffs, neck{lace}es, and more!
looking forward to seeing you!
DCs

In my little corner of the world

  While Panagiota is away on Christmas holidays, I'm here trying to organise my post-Christmas life! Dude time flies! You might already know that I was not "ready" for this year's Christmas (hehe) with all the stuff I had in my mind, I didn't even realise when December hit me. So in the mid of December I started re-arranging our craft studio (cause cleaning up is obligatory for the New Year's arrival), I did a great progress, but there are still a lot to be done.

After that, we had the Christmas bazaar, I did my best to maintain the Christmas spirit and then I got sick for about a week and a half. Thank God now I am good as new, and holidays were super relaxing and fun. My new year's resolution is written down, Double Crochets' also, and now I am ready for the new year...contrasting my messy craft supplies bookshelves.

Regarding crocheting, I've crocheted 4 shawls, in the last months, and one more is already a wip, (one for my mom, one for my sister, one for me, one for a friend) it's super addictive! I'm not sure, yet, for the best way to style and shoot them , so for now you can only see a pile of them... Lot's of stuff need to be photographed, and much more were sold or gifted without having them on photos! I don't worry though, cause it's a sign of creativity!

 maybe putting everything on me? ...donno.

 Right above you can see a side of my desk at the moment...

So that's some peeks on my post-Christmas life. Is anybody out there as messy as me?
At the moment I am studying for my school, that starts tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

big kiss
marietta ♥

New Year's resolution: 2013

  I am posting today for reviewing our last year's resolution and putting up some new goals! 

so let's see 

2012:

1. CHECKblogging more frequently.  Maybe do a blog makeover also? Spending some more time on our blog is something we both wish to do, although it can be so tough with the everyday routines!
   Pretty tough goal!!! Although we did better than 2011, we didn't blog thaaat frequently. anyways I'm counting in this one..
2. CHECKkeep having fun and dancing more.  We both adore dancing and we are proud members of The Rollin Foxes, the rock 'n' roll dance company of Athens!! All we have to do is keep on rollin! 
   Panagiota did this, while I was not such a dancer this year. Wow dude, how things do change!! I mean c'mmon, of course we still love to dance,  but Blue Fox and its dance group isn't on our weekly routine anymore. One can say it's a pity, but peoples' lifes change, (my best friend moved to another country, I'm mostly at Chalkida instead of Athens because of my fiance) and at the moment other stuff are more important than just having fun. Although we'll always love the super cool memories we have from that bar!
3. CHECKdo more collaborations.  Yes! we have so much talented friends that would be a pity not to work with them on fun and creative projects this year...
   Yeap Yeap!!! We did that, and we have already some more collaborations planned out...
4. do more outfit photo shoots for our blog.   mmmm yeah okaymmm yeah okay for sure. we didn't do that.
5. set up a Double Crochets online shop. At the moment all of our creations are made exclusively for gifts and friends, it would be nice to do it for more professional reasons, too.
   We are still working on this! but we have made a lot of important steps!
6. CHECKdocument our crochet meetings.  We already do this, but sometimes we get too obsessed with what we do and forget to document it! 
   Yes we did that , at least for as long as we had a crochet club! Unfortunately life has its own rules, and since we had small (or bigger) difficulties with our crochet club, we no longer have documents of it either.
7. "spread the thread"!!  This is the tagline of  our blog and the main reason we started our crochet club, to teach more people how to crochet/knit and spread the love for needle work!! 
   Still willing to work more on this!
8. organize a yarn exhibition.  With pictures of our favorite crafts and crafters, and some actual crocheted/knitted objects.
   nope, didn't do that.
9. CHECKparticipate in a local craft bazaar. There is the Vintage and Crafts bazaar organized by Les Broderies Anglaises, happening at our favorite district (Exarheia), and we really love it, it's a dream of ours to participate to a bazaar of this kind. 
   Y-e-s sir!!!
10. CHECKcrafting more.  crochet more, aaaaaand more, and more, and more!!!! okay some more knitting,sewing,embroidering would be awesome, too! Make do and mend more....  
    Definitely YES!!!!!

6/10 great score may I say!!  yay!

so for 2013!! (great combo of numbers by the way) we have some goals:

1. Be a better blogger (will need: planning ahead, read more blogs, document more,shoot more photos, writing down, or sketching (why not), a journal for keeping track of the blog posts)
2. Keep collaborating and connecting with people who share the same passions! 
3. Set up an online shop (yes I'm putting this again!)
4. Never stop crafting and learning new things! (a 365 project will help for this, but I have already tried "making an origami crane every day" on 2009 and I only made to 2 months. On the contrary when I tried a weekly project "Sunday's time reviews" for which I was posting, photos of my week, every Sunday for a whole year, I made it through)
5. Be thankful to people who support us (thank you people who support us!!!)
6. Stay united, no matter how far we may be next year!
7. Manage to develop both and each of us, her own unique style on Double Crochets' products.
8. Organise our studio, our craft supplies and our stash.
9. Do a blog makeover, develop new packaging and bring new, fresh air on Double Crochets online.
10. Stay happy ,free and creative!!! 

Things learnt: a) Imagination and creativity are important skills, don't waste them on people that don't deserve them. b) It's important to fortify your own brand/creations/ideas no matter how insignificant you might thing you are, but don't mind the copy-cats, they will not last c) Sometimes being a bitch is necessary, and the word "no", too.  d) Don't take anyone's shit e) As long as you are passionate about something , you will make it run!

yes that was it....
joy and hapiness to you and to your families!
♥ marietta

a knitting lady

{(Are these Christmassy, festive photos over at Double Crochets, at last? But wait! is Christmas gone already!? eeeeh nevermind!)} There is this little knitting lady of our childhood, that our grandmother along with my godmother had bought us, that takes a battery and moves her little hands like she's knitting. We always put her out with the Christmas tree, because she was concidered to be the wife of Santa Claus! I'm not sure, but I think we had a couple of them!

We hope everybody had a great Christmas and we wish you a very Happy New Year!!!!
come over again, tomorrow, for our New Year's resolution for 2013~

♥
Marietta of the Double Crochets

in christmas mood

December is finally here!!
this means holiday mood, mittens and snow!Christmas tree with with extra festive accessories and tree ornaments! Sweet preparations in front of the open fire! Handmade presents and Christmas bazaars!

Double Crochets couldn't wait to feel this mood!! :) we are already creating unigue pieces for the next Past Tense bazaar and cannot wait for all of you to see them!
Besides, crochet and knitting couldn't fit more in this festive mood! What would be better than sweater weather with tea, cinnamon cookies and yarn crafts?

Well the perfect music has to be there also.

What I love listening to while crocheting during Christmas is "A Charlie Brown Christmas", an album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, released in 1965. It is among the most popular Christmas music albums of all time and one of my favourites!

If you are not the biggest fan of jazz or Snoopy (if this can be possible..), here is another really nice Christmas playlist:

Even the most demanding could not resist to get in the mood.
So let's get started! Pick your favourite yarn, your hooks and needles and make some Christmas presents!
What music do you usually listen to while creating for your loved ones? And what would be your playlist for Christmas crocheting?

Can't wait to hear from you.
Big hug,
panagiota