Just One

Only one card to show you today. This one uses the same basic black & orange background as the others, overstamped with a Harlequin pattern (stamp by Posh Impressions). The skull comes from Tim Holtz's grungeboard collection. To cover up the clothes the model was wearing, I colored them with a pigment ink pen, then embossed. The speckles of embossing powder on her face and hands were a mistake, but one I was quite pleased to see.

I started another card today, the final in the series, but didn't have time to finish it. I ended up working for most of the day, translating things for the new Maccabi Tel Aviv website. I doubt the work I did today will be there before tomorrow, but you never know.

Tomorrow night is the first game of the season! Actually, it's not a regular season game; it's a special game meant as an opportunity for Maccabi fans to say goodbye to a wonderful player who, after six seasons playing in Tel Aviv, has changed teams and is now with a Greek team called Olympiacos. We originally had only two tickets to the game (because we are season ticket holders) but thanks to my new position (!) we are supposed to have two additional (free) tickets waiting for us at the box office. Keep your fingers crossed!

Some Cards

I've had a productive few days in my stamping room lately. I call the card above Lejba and Matjas. The image of the two little boys is a photocopy of a cabinet card taken in Siedlce, Poland in approximately 1909 (but don't hold me to that date, I'm only guessing here). The boys are Lejba (on the left) and Matjas (on the right), two brothers who grew up to become Louis and Max, my great uncle and my grandfather. Aren't they adorable? I wonder who knit their snazzy striped socks? The yellow paper (I tried to tone down that color; I think it still needs work) is a photocopy of the ship's record of the family's passage to America in 1920. It was from this document that I learned what my grandfather and his family were called back in Poland. The clock face was a free image I found on someone's blog, and the clock's hands are acutally game spinners from Tim Holtz.


This card and the one that follows are the start of my Halloween series. The woman in the images is quite possibly Israel's most beautiful model. The pictures came from a clothing catalog that came (unrequested) in the mail. I just love altering these things! I used crackle medium and orange paint on black cardstock for the background, then stamped various images over that. The words come from Collage Stuff.


I have one more Halloween card nearly ready to show you, and a couple more still in progress. I'm getting ready to move on to a different theme, though. I usually don't like doing a lot of the same thing, and even with different stamps and photos that's what these cards are. So keep a weather eye on the horizon; there will be more to see soon, I hope!

Costumes and Trimmings and Socks

Oh my! I realize that this sock looks fairly odd, but I hope it will fit.


Here's where I am on the second sock (nearly ready to mark the spot for the afterthought heel). I knit almost all of this on Monday.


About a year after we moved to Israel, I designed and hand sewed this costume for Liat to wear in preschool during the holiday of Purim. She wore it several times that holiday, and often for the next few years as a "dress up" costume (photo on the left). Later, Meital wore it to her preschool Purim celebration (photo on the right), and also wore it many times when she wanted to play "dress up."


Almost thirteen years have passed since I made this costume, and I finally decided something needed to be done with it. It has taken a fair amount of abuse over the years, and I didn't feel right donating it anywhere. So today I started the dissection process. Right now, I am taking apart the skirt, which is actually made up of a sandwich of two pieces of red fabric with black mesh in between. I should be able to re-use just about every part of this costume, and you know that makes me happy!

I've been working on some Halloween cards today (having tons of fun altering a clothing catalog that came in the mail), and hope to have things to show you tomorrow. I keep deciding to do things that then need to dry, so the process is taking longer than I'd anticipated.


I suddenly decided that what I absolutely needed to do today was knit a lace trim in Halloween colors. I am probably going to use this on a card; I just need to figure it all out. Maybe I'll use it with the "skin" I took off of my broken umbrella last night. Lots of lovely, shiny black fabric just waiting to become something! I Googled recycled umbrellas last night, and saw projects for using old umbrellas as bat costumes (including the inner workings), shopping bags, and even a snazzy evening dress made out of 20 recycled black umbrellas! Amazing what people can think up. I wonder what I'll end up doing...

Something Different

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail today with a link to something cool she had seen. I checked it out, then decided to see if I could replicate the idea. The result is in the photo you see above. Yes, a cute, little knitted cupcake with a pipe cleaner cherry on top! I am going to try this again one of these days, because I think the top of the cupcake is too pointy. Still, not too bad for a first attempt.

Yesterday I knitted on the second knee sock for my niece for almost 6 hours straight. Yes, I finished the first sock, and immediately started the second. Now that I know what lies ahead (and now that I have done all the math!) I think I will complete the second sock a lot more quickly than the first. Sorry there is no photo today - I forgot to take one before it got too dark for pictures.

I spent some pleasurable time working in my stamping room today, as well. I hope to have something new to show you from there tomorrow, too. But I really must get busy on Halloween cards, and I've been pondering my next move there for some time now... I hope to have my idea refined and ready to implement very soon.

When Genealogy Meets Art

It dawned on me earlier this week that instead of spending money on copies of old photos to use in my various art projects, I could use the old photos I already have! I printed out a small selection of the many photos I now have on my computer, and gave it a try.


Here we have my great-grandfather (well, one of them). He brought his wife and three sons from Poland to California in 1920.


And finally, this is one of my great-grandmothers, whose name was Ray (presumably short for Rachel). I am still missing many of the details of her life, but I can tell you that she left her adopted country, the U.S., to move to what was then Palestine in 1929. She lived in Tel Aviv until her death in 1958.

The background for the first item was made with my trusty Adirondack color wash sprays (Raisin and Stream) and Glitz Spritz. The backgrounds for the ATC and the second card are actually from the same sheet of paper; I took Trish Bee's challenge and used the scrap paper that covers my stamping table to make a Worksheet Wonder background.

It's no surprise that these pieces mean more to me than most of my recent efforts. I will probably still buy collage images from time to time, but I really enjoyed getting my ancestors involved in one of my hobbies. Aside from the sentiment involved, I can print out as many copies as I like, and can adjust the size of the photo to suit my project. Pretty cool, huh?

Published!

Thank goodness for the wonderful people at Club Posh! If not for them, I never would have learned that a card I submitted to a stamping magazine has been published. Above is the scan I made of the card before I sent it out to Just Cards, a magazine I don't get and have never seen.


Thanks to my friends, I have now seen this page (33, if you want to look for it) in volume 11 of Just Cards. The funny thing is, my card is apparently in the Everyday Cards section of the journal, while it was intended to be a card for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana). No matter, I am very happy to know it was published.

I haven't knit much today, but I have done some creating in my stamping room, which is something I've been wanting to do for a while. Later on, I'll have some work to do, as Maccabi is playing a basketball game tonight. Sure hope I'll be writing about a victory, but we have an almost completely new team this season, not to mention an all-new coaching staff and team manager. They've been playing well, and I suspect in a few more weeks they will really have pulled together.

The Big News

I have big news to share. Or, should I say Big News? But first... can you guess what this is? A very shy fellow, he hid amongst the leaves and I couldn't get a good shot until...


the neighbor's dog started her traditional whine/howl/bark thing that she does whenever her insensitive/stupid/evil... ahem... owners leave her alone. Hey, folks - buy a clue! The dog is a husky, suited to mushing over the frozen tundra with her team of pals, not lounging around all alone in a Middle Eastern backyard. (Sorry, pet peeve sorta slipped in there...). Anyway! The dog did her thing, and the kingfisher flew over to the other side of the yard and I was able to get a better photo.

What's that? Oh yeah, The Big News. Right. Well, this week something very wonderful happened with our business (Samin Translations). We signed a new client: none other than our favorite/much beloved basketball team, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv! Yes, I am now responsible for translating articles for the team's English website. There are still some kinks to be worked out, but this is just so exciting for us, you have no idea. It's like having the L.A. Lakers as a client (not that I love the Lakers, my team was/is/always will be the Golden State Warriors, but that's neither here nor there. Especially not here).

Anyway, I'm a bit fragmented here because I am just so thrilled with this opportunity. Not only is it a huge boost for our translation business, but it is a heck of a lot of fun for all of us (especially me). So you can expect posts about Maccabi to increase, and I hope you won't mind.

After all, this is Bag of Chocolates. You really never do know what you're gonna get!