New Clock

I took a standard IKEA clock and made it into a pretty one of a kind clock to go into my daughter's room and since she is my little Ladybug, it only made sense to make the face numbers with ladybugs.

Supplies:
           Buttons of your choice from Button Mad ( I needed 3 button cards to put in 12 places) 4 Large Ladybugs L6, and 8 small ladybugs L530
           IKEA clock         

          The clock cost 2 euros, or in the States it is $2

IKEA Clock

Incomparable Buttons

 I especially love the sticker on the back of the card, "handmade fully washable giving employment to women in South Africa".  The quality of the clay button is really hard to believe, they charge 2 euros for a plastic button here, I couldn't believe I got a whole button card of these hand crafted beauties for 6 euros.

small ones for the 1,2,4,5,7,8,10 &11 spot, big ones on the 12,3,6 &9 numbers

 My picture really doesn't do them justice, you have to go and see their catalog and all of the cute buttons they make.  If your a dog lover a cute idea would be to use these button cards on a clock.

L43

L55

Okay So Let's get down to making one.

  Carefully remove the plastic lid, I popped the 3 clips from the back and then slowly lifted the lid with a screwdriver.  Next take the second hand off by unscrewing it going counter clock-wise, then pop the battery off from the back and the minute and hour hand will come off also.

Next trace a circle on your colored paper from the plastic lid, and cut just inside of the line you traced.

Make a little hole in the center.

 Place dots, where you want the buttons to go, I just followed the ones on the clock, I put mine a little to close to the edge to begin with- you will want to be careful because you need to leave room so the plastic lid will fit back on without bumping the buttons.

I placed my buttons on using Zots Dots, medium for the large buttons and small for the smaller ladybugs.
I also cut my hour and minute hand a little bit so as not to hit the buttons, the second hand just skims over them so I didn't cut it.  Put everything back in making sure everything is secure with your choice of adhesive and viola you have a pretty one of a kind clock that will fit your decor.

A special clock just for my kids.

I had a couple of extra buttons so I used the 2 small ones to make this project.
And have not decided yet what to do with the big ladybug, maybe add it to an outfit for my daughter or in a quote that will go in a frame for the wall, when I do I will let you know, or if you have any great ideas please let me know.

Thank you Button Mad for giving me one of your lovely button cards to make this project.

Ancient Clock

Tower of the Winds

In the Roman Agora of Athens, just below the Acropolis is an Ancient BCE Water Clock and Sundial called The Tower of the Winds.  The 8 sided monument is made out of marble and was truly an ingenious construction that included a compass, weather vane, sundial and water clock.

source

scrap-page

DCWV Upcycled Cereal Box

I love re-purposing items and especially if I can make them look prettier.
I really like DCWV Scrapbooking supplies, they make my life so much easier, there isn't a page that goes by that I don't use at least one of their products.  Especially their adhesive backed matstacks, I always, always have to put a mat behind my photos, it is like an obsession and the adhesive part helps in making it adhere so much easier, and no measuring because it is already at a perfect 6.5"x4.5" to go behind my 6"x4" photos.

SO on to the project, check out this cute transformation.

 Supplies used:
              DCWV Holiday Collection Adhesive Cardstock Matstack
              DCWV Nana's Kids with Glitter Cardstock
              DCWV Children Clear Stickers-"Quote Sticker Stack" black and white
                          (like using Vellum with out having to figure out how to attach the quote)

               Mini box of Cereal
               Ladybug button from Button Mad
               A rhinestone that fell off of my daughter's clothes
               EK Success Ladybug Stickers (my mom sent them for my little ladybaby daughter :)
               Ribbon (picked mine up at Michael's dollar bin)
               Scissors and your choice of adhesive
              

 First I covered the box with Adhesive backed Cardstock, starting from the bottom of the box and then up the side(back of the box), for the front I covered the front and the lid of the box, tucking in the edges at top and folding over the sides.  The cardstock did not cover all of the side so I added a cute ribbon down one side and around the bottom to the other side, tucking the ends inside of the box.

down the side

tucked inside of the box

Next I added a sticker that I found in my DCWV quote sticker stack, love all of the quotes in the pack, and a couple of ladybugs from EK.

 For the front of the box, I cut out a glitter cardstock frame from DCWV's Nana's Kids 8x8 cardstock (sent to me from my Aunt Jeanie).

 I added 2 ladybugs that I purchased from Incomparable Buttons (Button Mad) that I had leftover from making my ladybug clock.  And a little tiny rhinestone that fell off of my daughter's pants, probably not archival safe but it's not going into a scrapbook page so I thought it would be okay.  No need to add glitter it is already on the cardstock.

Love adding a little bit of 3D to my projects.

Tie it down for a little bit to make sure things stick.

 Ta-dah a cute addition to my kids room, for their future desk.

Back of box, filled

Front of Box, filled.

DCWV even has adhesive cardstock in 12"x 24", so you could do large cereal boxes with it too, I just want to let you know that you shouldn't score the cardstock, because it has a white base and this will show through, but even though the cardstock is very thick, it bends really easily making the edges smooth.

I'm linking up to:
Creative Craft World-mini challenge
The Squirrel and The Fox -use ribbon
Repeat Impressions DCC1024 ~ Anything Other Than A Card
I also entered it in the CREATE , DCWV challenge

Button Bracelet

Super Easy Button Bracelet, Select you favorite button from Button Mad, put a pretty colored nylon ribbon cord through the 2 holes, and Ta-Dah a pretty bracelet.  My kids loved them and were jumping all over the place as I made them and put them on, so I had to take a picture with them off, because they were moving to much.

BUTTON MAD BRACELET

Mykonos Island

 Mykonos, a very popular Island in the Cyclades, it is your jumping off point if you want to go to Delos (the island I talked about earlier).  On TV they always show Mykonos very busy with the bars hopping, full of young beautiful people drinking and dancing half naked.  When I was there in October this was not so, during the day the cruise ships would let off a massive amount of people but they would be gone by the time the evening came. So if you want peace and quite come during the colder months, if you want to party and be partially naked then come in July, August and maybe even September.

The waves breaking on the walls in Mykonos Town.

Morning Quite on the Sea Front of Mykonos Town.

 During my time there the weather was cloudy and overcast with lots of rain, so I did not explore the beaches, but I have heard that they have some good ones on Mykonos.  The town itself was a blast to explore with the narrow windy white washed roads and small shops.  Cats where in every door step and the pop of color from flowers was breathtaking against the all white houses.

Mykonos Windmills while the sunset.

The Pelican, the island's mascot, I did not have consent from this man so smile.

Of course no trip to Mykonos is complete unless you find a Pelican to take a picture with, they are huge and unfortunately for this restaurant, very hungry and insistent on being fed (they kept trying to walk in).
You can fly or take a ferry to Mykonos, or if you are lucky enough a yacht.

  

6 years ago

6 years ago I came to Greece on vacation for a month, 2 weeks by myself and 2 weeks with friends sailing the Cyclades.  I had a premonition that the trip would be life changing, in fact I bought life insurance thinking that a plane might fall down or the yacht would sink.  I knew that this trip of a lifetime would be life altering, I just didn't know how.
My first night in Athens I went to a Taverna and was showered with rose petals by the patrons and waiters, a good start to my trip.
The next day I walked around the ancient sights of Athens, I walked through the Plaka region and picked up a bottle of wine.  I went up to the top of the Acropolis before the sun set and watched the Greek Military boys take down the Greek flag, it was a very nice moment, not very many people around at that time of night.  I walked down to Areopagos the slippery rock just below the Acropolis and opened up my wine to enjoy the sun setting over Athens.  You would think I got this idea from Matt Barrett, but really I came up with it on my own.

A very pretty handmade button from South Africa by the company Button Mad

The flower on the page matches the one in my hair.

I cut out little rectangular boxes to look like a flag and placed patterned paper strips behind and then placed the Greek cross symbol that is used on the Greek flag over the top.

 This was just the beginning of a great trip.
Thank you Button Mad for the wonderful button.
I am linking this scrapbook page to :
Creative Craft World 
Purple Pumpkin 
Scraptastic Club

P.S. this is the first scrapbook page that I have done in a very long time, I was going to use some embossing powder and I put it on my page and then used my hot air gun thingie to melt it but instead everything started flying around, I couldn't understand what happened and then I remembered I was supposed to use Versa Mark and sprinkle the embossing powder over that, oops, well I scratched that idea after the powder just flew everywhere.  

Stay tuned to why this trip ended up being so life changing.

Delos Island

 One of the many floor mosaic's seen on the island.  This is the House of Dionysus' it is a luxurious 2nd century private house named for the floor mosaic of Dionysus riding a panther.

The Terrace of Lions dedicated to Apollo by the people on Naxos Island shortly before 600 BC, had originally nine to twelve squatting, snarling marble guardian lions along the Sacred Way, today only seven of the original lions remain.

They generally had their water wells built under the beautifully decorated floor mosaic's.

This house was just amazing, 3 floors still standing and in the past it had a 4th.

Cleopatra House, not sure why it is called that, but when I was there a guide told me that they had these outside of the houses and would interchange the head depending on who lived in the house, kind of like a prehistoric way of having house numbers and street names, pretty cool if you ask me.

Delos is one of the most important historical, mythological, and archaeological sites in Greece, just a quick boat ride from Mykonos and part of the Cyclades, no one has lived there since 100 AD.  Remains of a settlement found on top of Mt. Kinthos show that Delos was inhabited since the 3rd millenium BC, that is 5,000 years ago! 

According to Greek mythology, Delos was the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo, the twin offspring of Zeus by Leto. When Leto was discovered to be pregnant, Zeus' jealous wife Hera banished her from the earth, but Poseidon took pity on her and provided Delos (a floating island at the time) as a place for her to give birth in peace.

In order to make the Island fit for worshiping gods and goddesses they would not allow anyone to be born or die on the island, everyone about to do either was shipped off to the closest island, (maybe people didn't have heart attacks back then).

Delos became more prosperous in 166 BC, when it was declared a free port and became the financial and trading center of the Mediterranean. They had a very large slave trade as well as a central banking system on Delos with a variety of foreigners living on the island.

In 88 B.C. it was attacked and the population of 20,000 was either killed or placed in slavery.

Although it has been looted a number of times it is still full of archaeological finds that you can see either while walking around or at the museum, for those of you interested I believe the museum holds one of the largest collection of marble phallus's around.

I found this site more interesting and in better condition than Delphi, it is also worth the extra money to have a guide, they will find you on the boat.

Some more information can be found here. 

My all time favorite Man Made Monument

At the Acropolis you can find the amazing Erechtheum, you will recognize it when you see the photo, each time I go on top of the Acropolis I can't help myself from taking 30-40 pictures of just this one building.

On the south side you can find the "Porch of the Maidens", with six draped female figures (caryatids) as supporting columns, each one is sculpted a little different, to make each one unique.  

 The north and west side are about 10 feet lower than the south and east side, making the building look kind of lopsided, the fact that this was built 400 years before Christ is truly amazing, I am sure that modern society could not replicate.

The engineering of the caryatids was done in such a way that their slenderest part, the neck, is capable of supporting the weight of the porch roof while remaining graceful and feminine, this is with the help of their hair as you can see from the photo above. source

The New Acropolis Museum holds the 5 original carytids, the sixth one is still at the British Museum thanks to Lord Elgin who removed it in 1801, with permission from the Ottoman Empire.  He first had it in his home but later sold it to the British Museum to help with his debt issue.
I still stand in awe even as I look at these pictures at the beauty and symmetry of Greek Architecture.

Kea, Greek Island

This stone lion is from 600 BC (that's BEFORE CHRIST)

Kea is part of the Cyclades group of Greek Islands. It is also known by the name Tzia and is one of the closest Islands to Piraeus port in Athens or if you are at the southern tip of mainland Greece in Lavrio you can take a ferry from there.

Kea is a small island but lovely and so very easy to reach that it has become a favorite for weekender Athenians, but during the week and not in August you will find it fairly peaceful.  I would say it is one of my favorite islands but of course this could be due to the good experience I had there.  My travel partner and I went on a very long walk and it was a beautiful scenic walk on a dirt road around the island but when it came time to head back we were a little tired.  After walking for about 1/2 an hour a car approached (very few vehicles had been on the road we were taking) and the female driver stopped and asked if we would like a lift.  We said sure, she was very nice for a Greek person and told us a little history of the island and then she drove us to the other side of the island to see the ruins.  It was a wonderful day in Kea.

The Acropolis, Athens

When you come to Greece you must stop in Athens to see the Acropolis.  This can just take 1 day but I suggest at least 2 days a visit in the morning hours and a visit in the evening, I wouldn't suggest going in the middle of the day it's to hot, besides the best photos are taken in the AM and PM.  The ticket price is about 12 euros but this will also get you into some of the other ancient sites including the Ancient Agora (just below the Acropolis), the Roman Agora, Theatre of Dionysos, Kerameikos, Tower of the Winds and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the ticket is good for at least 48 hours and you can also get a 48 hour subway ticket.

Why go to the Acropolis?  The view is probably the best you will get of Athens because that is what the Acropolis is - an ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city, affording it some of the best views of modern Athens.  Then there are all of the ancient buildings on top - Parthenon, Erechtheum, Temple of Athena Nike, there are over 20 buildings on top, plus the Theatre of Dionysos is just below.