Friday, January 18, 2013

Samaria Gorge, Crete

The Longest Gorge in Europe or so some places say.

The gorge is 16 km long or a little over 9 miles. This is a day trip, there is no staying in the gorge (national park) the best thing to do is take a bus to Omalos Plateau and the entrance of the Gorge, at the time of this writing the admission is 5euros, the park opens in May and closes in October.

How long will it take to walk is dependent on how fast you walk, going quickly about 4 1/2 hours and taking your time 6 hours or more.

The Gates, 4M (13ft) apart and 300M (1,000ft) High.

Leaving on the boat

You will want to know what time the last boat leaves from Agia Roumeli, I have heard of people who have missed the boat and had to stay in the small fishing village. There are of course a few places to stay there and if you want to hike with your traveling gear then it is a great quite place to relax. Otherwise you will want to take the boat to Hora (village) Sfakion and catch a bus back to your original location.
More information from Wikipedia.
Some great cautionary and details of supplies needed from GoGreece.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Fabric Fanatics Facebook Giveaway

I wanted to share this giveaway.

Go here to like and share on Facebook.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Greek Hexagon

Did you know that the word Hexagon is from the Greek language. A Hexagon is a polygon with 6 sides, Latin hexagnum, from Greek hexagnos, having six angles. But the crazy thing is that in Greek there is no H it is -

εξάγωνο derived from the word εξι (six)

I was lucky enough to be invited by Shirley at Simple Sew into a Hexagon Bee created by Stacey over at the Tilted Quilt. I can't wait to get my hex on! and have made a Pinterest board with a lot of Hexagon info on it.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

My Word Day- KokaRoka

We have a lovely house just below the rocks of Meteora/Kalampaka Greece and I wanted to celebrate and write a few words about how happy it makes me to live here and in general what I love to do. TRAVEL and HOME.

Some nice pillows for the home

In the beginning of December last year I did a little English Paper Piecing project for the Travelling PicStitch Bloghop and I wanted to do something with the block that I made and I really thought it would make a great pillow. It is the first one, with the word Travel on top, it depicts the rock behind our house and it is a part of the name of the Taverna that we own.

The second pillow is how I feel our home is, full of color and life, plus I have just fallen in love with EPP hexies, they are so fun to make.

I changed the picture and took this, this morning with the rocks behind

Sorry Madame Samm for not doing a very good job with my photos, I have learned how to make great photographs from you, but these were taken very late at night. The little appliqued heart is resting on a grey rock with the words KOKAROKA around it, this is the name of our business. For both the TRAVEL and HOME words I used Linda's "secret" technique of glue and glued them on and then stitched them in place (p.s. I will never use a contrasting thread again, it shows the mistakes to easily).

this shows the colors a little bit better.

outside hanging from the laundry line and not on a pillow form

The Greece postage stamp I printed off of my printer using Ookie La La's technique, super easy, and I really want to thank Roxanne because she sent me some linen fabric which is exactly what I needed for my postage stamp, go visit her at Scrapbook-chickadoodle, by the way linen fabric is 60euros a yard here in Greece that's like $80 bucks, thanks again Roxanne for being my Pay It Forward buddy.

This is so cool! Even my husband was impressed.

Don't forget to visit the rest of the wonderful creators for the day.
Friday, January 11

Jane's Fabrics (Jane R.)

Jane's Quilting (Jane C.)

Nuts 4 Redwork (Heide W.)

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio (Cherry G.)

Bits and Pieces (Martha R.)

Life in Every Breath (Jennifer B.)

Quilting Lines (Patricia L.)

Travel Thru Greece (Mara)-this is me!

Meadowbrook (Kristen K.)

Count It All Joy! (Denise P.)

Sophie Junction (Sophie W.)

And a big Thank you to Madame Samm and Linda for creating and hosting another very fun hop.

On the post below I am having a giveaway- 2 1/2 yards of Salt Water fabric created by Tula Pink, so make sure you check that out also. I just got my fabric in the mail today and it is ohh so pretty, the coral color is beautiful. I am doing a traveling QAL to Tula Pinks Anchors Aweigh Quilt, the button is on the side and the info is on a seperate page that you can find on the top of my blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mara

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Salt Water Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed, thank you

for looking.

I am giving away all of the Salt Water fabric needed for you to make the Anchors Aweigh Quilt!

1/3 yard Submarines and Seaweed in Aqua PWTP036
1/3 yard Bubble Shells in Aqua PWTP030
1/3 yard Sea Stripes in Aqua PWTP034
1/3 yard Ocean Peonies in Aqua PWTP031
1/4 yard Tortoiseshell in Aqua PWTP032
1/4 yard Floaties and Sinkies in Aqua PWTP035
1/4 yard Sea Debris in Aqua PWTP033
1/4 yard Submarines and Seaweed in Seaweed PWTP036
1/8 yard Octo Garden in Aqua PWTP029

Almost 2 1/2 yards!

All ready for you to make this quilt.

What can you do to win this bundle of goodness:

First become a follower and then in your comment below tell me where in Greece you would like to Anchor? Please be sure to leave a comment on this post, so Mr. Random Number dude can do his job.

I am doing a Anchors Aweigh Quilt Along and would love it if you joined you can get all of the details here.
Giveaway ends January 23rd. Goodluck.

I just got my Salt Water fabric in today from I don't do dishes... I sew instead I was the lucky winner during the sew mama sew giveaway, when Caitlin at I don't do dishes gave away 3 Salt Water bundles. Thank you Caitlin I love my beautiful fabric and can't wait to start making this oh so pretty quilt.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Vikos Gorge

The deepest Gorge in the World!
Right here in Greece, just a little northwest of Ioannina, a little less than 2 hours away from Kalampaka and 7 hour drive from Athens.

Vikos Gorge, Greece

At one point the gorge measures 900 m (2,953 ft) deep and 1,100 m (3,609 ft) wide from rim to rim.
Someday I'm going to hike down to the bottom to find some dinosaur bones, the lower layers are from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. We went when the kids were smaller, I wouldn't suggest that, the majority of the time my heart was in my throat fearing that my son would fall over the edge somewhere.

Right on the edge of the lookout point.

You can stay in one of the many Zagorian villages with there gorgeous stone houses or make it a day trip from Ioannina (with the beautiful lake) or Kalampaka (and Meteora). On the drive up you will need good directions because the signage is not very good (hopefully they have corrected this), this is one sign we found on the road in Monodendri, a very nice stone village.

That's right just before you get to the gorge/canyon you drive through a stone forest, my pictures don't do it justice it is really a must see for yourself type of place and I would suggest in the springtime with all of the flowers.

fascinating stones stacked up, the stone forest.

sitting in the flowers surrounded by the standing stones.

The map showing the villages and gorge.

This is a must visit again place maybe when the kids get older or with out them because it is a very very deep gorge.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

In Your Words Blog Hop Starting on Monday

Hello All,

A new blog hop is starting next Monday and it will be great fun because we were given free reign on what to make, so lots and lots of variety. Here is the list of everyone participating so please check out a few, mine is on Friday 11th, I am also having a giveaway, yippee!

Monday, January 7

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch, Stitch (Cyndi H.)

Kwilty Pleasures (Kathy G.)

Debby Kratovil Quilts (Debby K.))

Sew Darn Quilt (Carolyn R.)

Mary On Lake Pulaski (Mary K.)

Traveling Quilter (Debbie A.)

Just Let Me Quilt (Carol S.)

Vroomans Quilts (Sharon V.)

Cate's Linens (Catherine R.)

Nini and the Sea (Denise)

Sew Much 2 Luv (Karen)