Giveaway Winner - Irene the kid's artist Lady!!!!

Hello my friends!

First of all I would love to wish you a wonderful new week! Another giveaway just ended. 

It was a qunique experience to have my friend Irene, a really great lady, a mother, a talented artist  in my blog and having a short interview from her. Thank you Irene for being in my blog, it was really an honor!

So now is the time to pick a Winner, a lucky lady that wins One of a kind Handmade Painting from LaCameraFelice creations!

A winner has been chosen by Rafflecopter and the lucky lady is:

Congratulations Despina!!!!!! We will contact you soon!!!

Just do not forget to visit Irene in her etsy shop for more amazing creations or follow her in her facebook page!

Stay in touch with Ef Zin Creations blog for the next amazing posts and the next Giveaway on in a few days. Another amazing and very talented lady will be really soon in my blog. 

      Mats Mouts

So Much To Celebrate

We're coming off of a family and fun-filled week. I think the busy-ness is part of the reason I love the holiday season. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, all in three short months! And after the family leaves, the calm is even more defined and appreciated.

Yesterday we celebrated my mom's Halloween birthday, a couple days late. We were originally going to spend the day at her house. But thanks to a crazy windstorm which took out my parents' power, the party was relocated to our place. All four of my siblings and our kids were gathered together. It was nice to all be in the same place.

We had a nice cheese plate for an appetizer and I made our family's favorite Spaghetti casserole. It's amazingly delicious and insanely easy! I always use whole wheat pasta and the kids never even notice, much less protest, the extra healthiness.

The kids showed off their cute costumes.

My cute niece was an adorable bumble bee! 

Ryan showed off his eating skills.

My dad showed off his wrestling skills.

I filled a pinata for the kids....but since we weren't planning on having the party at our house, we were slightly under-prepared (can you believe we don't own a single rope?!) So we all improvised.

Jacob body-slammed the heck out of that pinata.

All the kids with their buckets of loot.

Everyone at the party was at risk of being pummeled by bouncey balls as Ryan practiced his throwing arm on unsuspecting guests. The kid has an arm!

Then we all sang happy birthday to Grandma.

When the guests left, my husband and I sat on the couch to watch a movie and sip the left over wine. The kids, blissfully unaware of Daylight Savings Time, woke us up at 6:00 a.m. My husband and I took turns dragging ourselves to the living room to comply with their occasional demands ("Mom, I'm hungry!" "Baba pees mama!" and  "Ryan POOPED!"). Then we snuck back into the warm covers and drifted in and out of sleep.

As I was about to get out of bed, my husband pulled me back in.

Husband: "Happy Anniversary."
Me: [holy crap! Totally forgot! Play it cool CP] "Happy Anniversary sexypants."
Husband: "I got you something."
Me: "You shouldn't have gotten me anything." [no seriously, you shouldn't have]

My husband hands me a plastic bag which clearly contains the sole object of my desire for the past three months... A Seahawks Russell Wilson jersey. (Did I really want the jersey or did I want the man....hmmmm, that's a hard one).

Me: "OMG. Thank you!"
Husband: "Don't buy me anything."
Me: "I didn't."

Ooops.

But in all seriousness, I'm so fortunate to be celebrating six years of marriage with this guy.

Dating

We don't agree on a lot of things. Ok, we don't agree on most things. But we are able to respect each other (mostly) and, most importantly, learn from each other. He's made me more appreciative of details and order. I think I've helped him to embrace the big picture and to enjoy a little bit of chaos and spontaneity once in a while.We made a good team. And cute kids.

Today is promising to be an awesome day, although we have no real plans to celebrate our anniversary. I'm going to meet up with my sister to find a bridesmaids dress for her March wedding in Tennessee (plane tickets BOOKED! I love flying!). The Seahawks are playing a home game today. I'm going to have to find a way to keep up with the game in between pulling bridesmaid dresses over my head. And I have a brand new Seahawks jersey to celebrate!

Go Seahawks!

NEW MEDITERRANEO RING!

There we go! A new ring has joined my Mediterraneo collection! A gorgeous piece of beach pottery, collected by me on a beautiful beach in Rhodes. The original glaze shows an interesting dotted pattern, and I have highlighted it with acrylic paints.

- Symi, June 2012 -

Bad Mommy

Very, very bad mommy.

Turtle Power!

Two weeks ago, my sister-in-law and I got together to plan Halloween costumes. For the past three years, we have gone trick-or-treating at their house because they live in an awesome kid-friendly, trick-or-treating neighborhood.

This year, the kids wanted to be Ninja Turtles. But we didn't like the store-bought costumes. The flimsy material would do nothing to keep out the cold. So we decided to make our own costumes. Without a pattern and with much gestimating, we bought materials and completed the costumes in two evening sessions while the kids played. We sewed the big pieces (front plate and shell) and then "cheated" by glue-gunning them together.

The kids (and our masterpieces) looked awesome, in my humble, biased opinion.

Ninja poses!

The backs (we found snake material for the shells- close enough)

Ready to protect the world!

Between the four kids, we had the entire gang of Ninja Turtles. Leonardo (blue), Donatello (purple), Michaelangelo (yellow), and Raphael (red). Donatello, however, was altered a teeny bit for my pink-loving neice :) As a former TMNT fan who had dressed as Raphael for five consecutive years as a child, I was a tad jealous. My childhood turtle costume consisted solely of green sweats and a red eye mask. 

My precious turtles.

Sadly, I ran out of energy to make costumes for the adults. The night before Halloween I stopped by Goodwill for a last-ditch effort to pull together an April O'Neil or Casey Jones costume (I totally know everything there is to know about TMNT due to years of turtle obsession). But no such luck.

My sister-in-law and I make a really good team. By the time I'm worn out doing something, she is able to jump right in, and vis-versa. It's so much easier to do anything when you are a two-person team. This wasn't the first year we worked together to make home-made costumes. 

Family of Angry Birds, circa 2011

Every year, Halloween is more fun than the previous year. Jacob and his cousins were experts this time around. They led us throughout the neighborhood, identifying houses that were giving out candy and bravely went up to ring doorbells and sing "trick-or-treat" all on their own as the parents watched happily from the sidewalks. I, however, had an excuse to join in the fun as I followed behind Ryan. Last year we carried him from house to house, this year, he ran up to the houses like a big boy and even sang out, "ticka teet!" at each house. 

Ryan loved following the big kids. But he was less focused and more easily distracted. He would run in circles on people's lawns and stop to pick up leaves or candy wrappers. We often trailed behind a bit. Ryan, who absolutely loves being outside, was thrilled to just be running around. 

My barefoot turtle practicing his "ticka-teets" before nightfall.

The candy was also a bonus. As people put candy in Ryan's bucket, he exclaimed, "CANDY!" and would instantly take inventory. He pulled out each sucker, and held it up to me saying, "Candy, please? Sucker please?" The sight of my toddling little turtle looking so expectantly at me was too much to bear. Ryan had five dum-dum suckers that night.

Candy, please?

The kids loved the spooky decorations this year.

Fight, fight!

My happy trick-or-treater.

When the kids' buckets got too heavy and as 7:00 approached, we headed back to my sister-in-law's house to warm up. That night, Jacob laid out all of his candy in rows and counted each piece, twice. When he went to bed, I snuck three of my favorite pieces and promplty replaced them with three of Ryan's treats so as not to disrupt the candy count!

I absolutely LOVE Halloween! It's so much more fun as a parent than as a kid :)

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

Happy November, my friends! Kalo Mina!

Fashion Trends - Glamorous Purple

Happy November!!!!

Yes…we are closer to Christmas and maybe to Winter??? I do not know, since so far here we have a really great weather, a hot Autumn. I am not complaining of course, since I am not a person who loves cold, I love sunny days and hot!

Νovember started already so beautiful! I had a cup of coffee decaf of course, a few cinnamon cookies and then an amazing post from my great friend Akamatra!  Thank you my sweet!!! 

1.Dress 2.Pendant 3.Earrings 4.Purse 4.Shoes

So for tonight or for Saturday exodus, I will choose two of my favorite colors, a wonderful combination…purple and gold. Dark Purple a beautiful color especially for this season, with gold accessories that will add a spark in your outfit. Beautiful minimal gold details, are always in fashion.

Have a wonderful Friday night and an amazing weekend!