Nina's surprise Easter gifts

Hello dear readers,

I received a wonderful surprise from Nina in Germany, a large parcel containing easter gifts. Nina is a lovely person who collects and writes stories in her blog, all about a community of Sylvanian families residing in Riverside. Nina's blog will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary.  There is a giveaway for this occasion, the link is on the sidebar of my blog.

Very delicate little Easter eggs and birds with a beautiful Easter card.

Mozart chocolates, no traces left. (except in this photo.)  

Three Lindt chocolate sheep-shaped chocolates that will make the kids very happy indeed, as well as a lovely egg-shaped candle.

A notebook., very useful for absent-minded me. Now I can note down all my important resolutions and ideas for future works.

A Riverside 2021 Calendar with beautiful photos 

THANK YOU, DEAR NINA.  YOU MADE ME VERY HAPPY WITH YOUR VERY GENEROUS AND  LOVELY GESTURE.

I'm very excited about working at the day center for the elderly.  I've been researching and collecting materials for workshops and found something that may be very suitable for them to make.  Actually, I got the inspiration from Tiina who posted about skeins of wool.  I saw many of the ladies doing beautiful knitting items in real size.  I'll try finding instructions for mini knittings somewhere in my stash.  Maybe we can make one like the one in the photo below. (I created it seven years ago for an exhibition that displayed the works of several Israeli miniaturists.)

Again, I wish you all a very happy Easter holiday with blessings!

Passover and Easter 2021

Hello dear readers,

We are right in the middle of our 7-days holiday, Pessah (Passover).  It is also the end of the first term in school with a 3-week holiday and we get to enjoy our young ones visits.  Although we still expect some rainy days, spring is here in full splendor.

I had a wonderful family Pessah dinner at my daughter Galia's home. I made little gifts for my beloved family members.

I made 6 of these bunnies in a nutshell tiny scenes.

At a local disposable dinnerware store, I found these transparent egg-shaped boxes which help keep the little scene dustfree.

I also made about a dozen flower arrangements in little blue clay vases. 

Another transparent box, the only shape left at the store but serves well as a dust cover.

Yesterday a new surprise Easter gift arrived from a very generous sweet blog friend.  It made me very happy.  As soon as I take photos, I'll post about it.

I wish all my Jewish friends a marvelous Passover and all my Christian friends a marvelous Easter!

Happy Holidays with blessings!

 

Volunteer work

Hello dear friends.

The daycare centers here for the elderly have reopened. Being an elderly person myself, I can understand the need to be busy and volunteered to work at one of the centers twice a week starting in April, after the Passover holiday. It will be good for me to have something I love to do. In the meantime, I am preparing a few workshop plans, considering that the center has a very limited budget for creative supplies.

I'm thinking about small attractive scenes that people love to make and receive as gifts. for example, stands.

This one only uses two pairs of chopsticks, two bamboo skewers, and acrylic paint.  It can be displayed for shoes or cakes, etc.

This stand is also made from scratch. Some pieces of wood scraps, a few thumbtacks, and acrylic paint. The baskets are very easy to make, especially the ones made from jute. The ladies I met are great knitters and also do very fine crochet works.  The gentlemen will be happy to do some wood cutting.

For the next few months this will be enough.  Later on, I hope I'll have more plans.  Any ideas for easy beginners miniature crafts will be very welcome.

After the long months of the epidemic enclosures, when it was impossible,  I managed to get a very nice maid to help me with the house chores.  Together we have been spring cleaning and throwing away tons of junk. She will be with me once a week and slowly the house will return to normal. I am also happy to see more of my family. The grandchildren seem to have grown up all at once.

There was very little time lately for minis except for visiting and enjoying the new posts in my favorite blogs. 

I wish you all good health and happy crafting with blessings and hugs.

The miniature shoe collection

 Hello dear readers,

Way back in the late sixties of the last century, when most of you were not yet born, my miniature shoe collection started. Those were the years when family members or friends returning from a trip abroad always brought little souvenirs back. My friends and family knew about my passion for r/l shoes,  so my gifts were souvenir miniature shoes from all over Europe.  Not wanting to offend the people who gifted them to me I displayed the shoes on a shelf. Those were also the times before online blogging, f/b, twitters, p/c smartphones, etc. There were only penpals from abroad with whom to swap hobbies and gifts. The penpals soon became good friends, some visited and stayed in our home here in Israel. Slowly and steadily more items from our own travels around the world were added to the collection, and it began to grow until it reached a monstrous number of hundreds of shoes most of them in pairs. 

A large part of the collection is now on permanent display in special glass cabinets. The rest kept in card boxes and hidden away.  Although I stopped collecting mini-shoes once there was no end to the variety, new and very cute ones still keep coming in.

Ten years ago I posted about this collection with more photos, (link below http://drorasminimundo.blogspot.com/2011/03/miniature-shoe-collection.html). I made one more shop facade for some of the hidden-away shoes. The shop is called in Hebrew "One small step"  I used a shallow wooden box for the interior and covered it with cardstock on which I glued self-made ceramic tiles, burned in my daughters' kiln. The faux windows and door are from craft sticks and bamboo skewers.

This is how it looks from the back. I glued on (to hide the check painting from the quarter part of the original wooden backgammon box and also to save scratches on the wall it hangs on.  This is also the way I usually add rooftops to the square boxes when I want the shops to look like country-style ones.

These are shoes from the display.

I wish to welcome all the new followers of this blog. Thank you for following.  If you have a blog please let me know so I can follow back.

Please take care of yourselves and stay safe and healthy.  Thank you for your visit and blessings!

Latest Xmas gifts and little wooden houses

Hello dear readers

Entirely unexpected, with no previous hint, a  surprise parcel for Christmas, sent from Spain to Israel over two months ago ARRIVED!  Dear Pilar sent me the most precious miniatures crafted with her magical fingers. This was a lovely and very generous gesture that moved me to tears. 

All the books are readable in spite of their tiny size. Pilar's work is totally amazing. I already have plans for the books. They will be in my future book-nooks and remain in my family where I can see them displayed all the time.

THANK YOU, DEAR PILAR, from the bottom of my heart, for your stunning gifts, and especially and more importantly for your friendship.💓

I don't have enough words to express my emotions to let all of you how lucky I am to have blog friends.  Every comment on my posts gives me all the encouragement needed to keep going on.  I don't feel lonely, and my days are full.  I know I have friends who care about me. 

At present, I am working on a new book-nook, preparing windows, doors, and other elements. I have not yet taken photos.  Later on, when the walls will be cut, I'll post pictures.

I'm also working on some small gifts.  They have to be ready for Pessah and Easter. I started with the laser-cut wood slices from Aliexpress.  There were 18 pieces from which I already used a few.  From the rest, I want to make little dollhouses for the dollhouse.  All I use for wood cutting is a hand saw.  I'm getting older and I find cutting wood much more difficult than before.  I'll just have to buy an electrical table saw.

What a messy work table and I have to clear all these several times a day as it's also my kitchen table. 

I wish you a lovely, relaxing weekend with blessings.  Stay safe!

While there is very little progress with my second book nook project and It's intended to be a surprise birthday gift in July not much will be posted about it until after it gets to its receiver.  Still, in between, I'm working with craft wood and my faithful saw and miter box.

Pinocchio's father Jeppetto's table was probably much tidier than mine. In the end, there'll be no escape, I'll have to buy an electrical table saw.  I'm getting older and my carpeting skills clumsier. 

I'm working on the house-shaped laser-cut wood slices which I bought from Aliexpress. Some I already finished and posted about previously/  My intention is to finish all the 18.

Treetop House tutorial

 Hello dear readers,

While still enclosed at home, I started playing around with the craft materials Birgit gifted me.  First I made the tree for Birgit's little house then I made another one from the Rosmarin twigs in stock. This time I decided the tree to have a house on top with a ladder to climb up. I had some laser cut house embellishments, that I turned into little wooden houses with the use of Birgit's popsicle sticks. It was so easy to make that I want to share how it's done for any of you who want to make one for the garden around a country-styled dollhouse.

Materials - Easy to find

The little house embellishments are very cheap laser-cut slices. I got them from Aliexpress, 18 pieces,  3x6 different house shapes for about 4.00 US$, including shipment delivered to my home post box.

The foliage foam is one of Birgit's gifts.  It saved me a lot of work.  Before, I used to make the foliage myself by tearing teeny-tiny bits of pre-dyed thin sheets of foam which served quite well.

The ladder is made from two long thin round bamboo sticks with light brown painted pieces of Rosmarin twigs.  The tree is also a Rosmaring twig.

Here is how the houses look inside.  I added pieces of the popsicle sticks Birgit sent me. 

I cannot decide which house looks better on the platform ( made from the white craft stick. This house slice was blank.  I glued on a door and a window, cut from both ends of a coffee steerer.

Also, I haven't made up my mind regarding the color of the treehouse.  Maybe, I'll just stain it to make it look more weathered. 

I hope someone finds this tutorial useful.

Today I received my second shot of inoculation - Hurray! I'll have to wait a week before I can meet my family without wearing a mask.  But, according to regulations we all have to wear masks outdoors.

I wish you a nice weekend with lots of blessings.

Hanukkah and Chruistmas gifts (2)

Hello dear readers,

After the long wait,  nothing was lost or damaged.  I am very happy to show you the beautiful gifts from two great blog friends and one beloved granddaughter.

The first parcel arrived on Sunday. It was brought home from the post office by my daughter Galia. it was the parcel from dear Birgit.  You can imagine both Birgit's and my relief at its arrival. Nilly, my other daughter, surprised me by coming to visit a little earlier.  A visit from both daughters at the same time was a cause for celebration.  We sat down and happily opened the parcel, drawing out treasure after treasure.  Then we had tea and devoured the marzipans before I had a chance to take photos.

Craft stuff and delicious"have-been" marzipans.

 

Solly:  Why didn't you stop them? The three of them shamelessly ate all the marzipans and left nothing for us.            

Baalatova:  While they did it,  I silently confiscated the beautiful glass robin. Like you, it also has wings.  You'll be able to have a lot of fun flying around together. We'll keep the robin.

 from the German Christmas shop of Käthe Wohlfahrt

THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR BIRGIT!

On Monday, Faby's parcel Fabiola awaited me in my post box with the lovely handcrafted items by Faby.  I'm very sad that my own gifts for Faby haven't reached her yet.

THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR FABY!

Another parcel for Hanukkah, I received from my granddaughter Tali who for the time being lives with her husband and 3 little kids in a charming and very beautiful city, Utrecht in Holland.

THANKS, MY DARLING TALI!

I haven't started yet on a new BookNook. While waiting for the strict lockdown to be over, and having plenty of new lake shells from the Sea of Galilee, as well as seashells from our Mediterranean sea beach, I decided to make more shell items.  I also made some flowers again and used beads for 3 of the flower vases in the photo below.

I also used Birgit's craft supply to make a little tree.  The tree trunk is a Rosmarin branch and smells lovely.  I touched it up with a diluted brown acrylic paint, when dry, I stuck to the branched pieces of the ground green foam.

  

I wish you, my dear readers and friends, a nice weekend and good health with blessings.