Drora's surprise giveaway

Drora's surprise giveaway
4 Dec.2019

Thursday, May 25, 2023

A garden for Solly and Kitty (Final)

Hello dear readers,

The garden project took a long time to be completed.  Everything you see in it is made from scratch except Rosa's beautiful birds in the bath and Jodi's lovely little birdhouse (On the tallest fence post), a gift that inspired me to make more birdhouses.



 
The garden between Kitty's and Solly's houses.



The garden on Solly's lefthand side.




The garden on Kitty's righthand side.






Kitty:  I think the garden is a wee bit too small for us.

Solly:  At least we can admire the view and smell the heavenly perfume of the flowers.

Kitty:  Let's ask Baalatova if she can shrink us to fit Drora's bench.








Baalatova: 
 No way! There is plenty of room in my roof garden where you can come and play                                    Drora should better be careful or I shall shrink her if she miscalculates garden sizes again.
                    Meanwhile, enjoy the view from your windows.




      I wish you all a lovely weekend with blessings.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              












Wednesday, April 26, 2023

A garden for Solly and Kitty (Part 4)

 Hello dear readers,

It doesn't show much progress, but considering the Pessah holiday, family visits, and an important birthday (Dana, one of my five beloved great-granddaughters turned 17), there was not much time left for crafting.


The fence had a makeover.  It is now painted white with three taller strips of wood, two to accommodate birdhouses and one ready for ivy climbers.  The third birdhouse just sits on the fence itself.  (I got carried away and made several shapes of birdhouses from scratch.  The shrubs are awaiting flowers and a little blossoming tree is also almost finished and ready to be planted.  




Making the bench was very easy. I just glued together two square identical laser woodcuts. When dry I glued these to a piece of 1.3 cm thick, 2.5 cm wide long piece of wood.  The only hard work was cutting it to fit the size of the laser cuts. The sides too are triangle laser cuts which were in my stash. For the legs, I used 4 little wooden beads. Now I have to make a flat padded cushion for the seat so my witch Baalatova will approve it.






Here is a photo of the tree.  The flowers are just for demonstration.  They seem too large for the proportion of the garden which is about 1/24" scale.



Well, that's all for now.  I have to get myself ready to go out and celebrate with my family our 75th Independence Day. 

Happy Independence Day Israel to all my local friends with blessings to all my dear readers!

Friday, March 31, 2023

A garden for Solly and Kitty (Part 3)

 Hello dear readers,

As I mentioned before, this project is a slow-go one.  Making tiny-tiny star flower cushions is time-consuming. especially when they refuse to stick to the foam cushions. Using the smallest 6-flower shapes punch I own, I punched out hundreds of tiny flowers from thin colored paper, then I shaped them one by one. This is how they look at the end.  I have not glued the cushions to the grass circle.  I find this one too large for the small garden.  I'll make a smaller one and see if it's better.



  



 

The windows are finally fixed permanently on the walls.



The two new window boxes are out of popsicle sticks with a piece of metal jewelry finding decoration.

Still to make a bench and many more other flowers,  The fence in the photo will be replaced by another much higher one.

Hoping to be able to show more progress next post, I wish you all, dear readers and friends, a lovely spring weekend with blessings.





Friday, March 24, 2023

A garden for Solly and Kitty (Part 2)

 Hello dear readers

Since the outdoor walls of the two homes will be part of the garden, I decided to make a faux window facing the garden for each home.  I made 2 identical windows for each home one for indoors and the other for outside. It involved sawing pieces of wood strips, a job that I try to avoid, and the result is not perfect, but good enough for these humble structures.






For the windows' flower boxes, I followed my own pansies tutorial, https://drorasminimundo.blogspot.com/2017/03/pansies-tutorial.html but needed a smaller butterfly punch which I was unable to find, so I used instead a 1/24" Punch Bunch leaf one that makes a reasonable butterfly if you cut the tiny piece that connexed the leaf to the branch.




The box is made out of one popsicle stick and a piece of metal jewelry find for decoration.


I hope to be able to show more progress next week.

I wish\you all a lovely weekend with blessings






Friday, March 17, 2023

A garden for Solly and Kitty

Hello dear readers,

Finally, I found time to start a small garden.  It will be a slow project as I want this garden to be filled with colorful flowers, and making tiny paper flowers is a time-consuming job.

The first thing I made was a birdbath.  There were waiting to be used, these two beautiful tiny birds made by Rosa Maria that were gifted to me a few months ago.  Nothing is glued together yet.




I made a fence from recycled bamboo cocktail forks.  Will be painted when I'll decide on a suitable color. 



I hope to be able to show progress in my next post.

For a change, the Israel post behaved nicely and a new parcel from dear Rosa arrived on time, making me super happy. Everything Rosa makes is exquisite. I was overwhelmed seeing this lovely composition. I put a match in front of it so you can note how tiny the little angel is.



 

And Rosa, being the generous lady she is, added three more gorgeous handmade treasures.



THANK YOU DEAR ROSA FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL GIFTS AND, MOST OF ALL FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP.


I wish you all my dear readers and friends a lovely weekend with blessings.

Friday, February 24, 2023

Egg-carton pots, Pansies, and the feast of Purim

 Hello dear readers,


At the Daycare Center for the Elderly, I'm helping make miniature flower pots as "Thank you" gifts for the wonderful, kind, and dedicated members of the staff. These gifts have to be ready for the giveaway on Purim.  11 out of about 20 little flower pots are almost ready.  There are only 3 days of work at the center before Purim and a lot to be accomplished.  Making kits at home consumes a great deal of my time.  


To make the flower heads I followed my own tutorial  (https://drorasminimundo.blogspot.com/2017/03/pansies-tutorial.html)

This is a sample of what each kit contains. Before assembling the flowers and leaves cut-outs they have to receive a second touch of paint.


Purim is a cheerful Jewish feast in memory of the liberation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia.  The Scroll of Esther in the Bible tells the story of Purim.  Traditionally it's a fun time for carnivals and masquerades, sending sweet treats to the poor, and most importantly, reading the Scroll of Esther aloud.


Baalatova:

Drora is in bed now so I can openly express my opinion about the Israel Post authorities. They employ stupid morons. One of these morons wrote by hand, in bold letters, and in Hebrew "לא נדרש" (In English it means "not been claimed"). How on earth could it be claimed if they didn't notify Drora that the parcel arrived? Only after about THREE months and a thorough investigation, the parcel was found. I am furious!!


Solly:

Please, Baalatova, Don't put a spell on the Iaraeli Post Authorities, just make them more efficient in the future. Let me look again at what my dear mum Birgit sent.  I love the beautiful glass bird and hope Drora will find an excellent place to display it.  Oh, look Baalatova, the delicious marzipan, and chocolates disappeared already.

Baalatova

Don't worry my dear boy, these delicious, luckily still edible, treats have not completely disappeared, they are safely hidden on Drora's hips. Personally, I prefer a warm bowl of calorie-free eyeball soup.  

BTW, I'm confiscating the lunchbox. It will serve as a safe for my spell books and other witchy items.






DEAR BIRGIT

Baalatova,  Solly, and Drora thank you from the bottom of their heart, for your gifts, your patience, and most of all for being our friends.





For Valentine' Day, Dana, my sweet (already 17 years old) great-granddaughter gifted me a packet of edible miniatures - adorable tiny bunny chocolates.  These too, have long ago disappeared to "safety on my hips".


I wish you all, dear readers, a pleasant weekend with blessings. 

 

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Tu BeShvat - The Trees New Year






Hello dear readers,
The Hebrew Calendar has 12 (sometimes 13) months a year.  Each month has a name. "TU" means the middle of a month.  Shvat is the name of the month in which the feast of the trees is always celebrated. (I already explained about this feast in my post on January 2022) Sadly, this year too, children were unable to go out to plant trees in the woods as expected. We experienced BARBARA and one of the coldest, stormy, rainy days of this winter exactly on the day of the feast. 

On Sunday, the day before the storm, a class of college youngsters came to visit the daycare center and offered cakes made by themselves.  They also helped decorate and plant pansies in little plastic pots gifted to all the members of the center.  The following photos show my experiments in making a tiny paper version of the real flower. I'll show my attempts to the ladies in the Center.  If they'll like it we can start making more together.  I'll supply the cut-outs.











This photo shows the cut-outs from my punches which I used for making the flowers. 




It's really very late to show the gifts I received for Christmas. There were many other gifts from family and friends and there's still one to come from overseas.


Megan sent me a very large box of wonderful treasures.  The items you'll see are all involved with miniatures.  


Trinkets 



Tiny Fimo hand-crafted teddy bears.

Tiny Fimo frogs




picture frames



embellishments




Paper boxes


books



conserved tins

There were also sweets, tea bags, flower seeds, hand cream, etc., etc.

THANK YOU DEAR MEGAN FOR ALL THESE WONDERFUL TREASURES! AND ESPECIALLY FOR  YOUR FRIENDSHIP!

Another very special and useful gift is from my daughter Galia, an iPhone case Galia embroidered for me.  Sometimes when I don't wear clothes with pockets in them it's hard to hear my phone that is not next to me ringing.  My daughters worry when I don't answer their calls. Now no more excuses left.




I wish you all a pleasant and peaceful weekend to enjoy with blessings.