Celebrating the arrival of 2015 with wonderful gifts from Ukraine

Hello all,

Before I show you the wonderful gifts  Tatiana created and sent me for the New Year, I want to wish you all a HAPPY, PROSPEROUS AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.  The parcel arrived today, just in time for the New Year celebrations.

Tatiana's beautiful flower vases.  I'm sorry my photos don't give full justice to all these fantastic
miniatures.

A tiny Christmas tree and a very cute, tiny teapot as well as a lovely flowerpot and the tiniest ever
winter scene.

Christmas cake with a very delicate table mat, a jar filled with candies and a lovely decorated table center.

The tiny glittering winter scene

I couldn't take a better shot, but assure you that this skull with the candle of top is a real
treasure.  Skelly and  Skella will be delighted to see it on Halloween.

Beautiful glass ornaments.  A square plate with the delicious yummy goodies all made by Tatiana.

Some brass ornaments and two lovely green paper boxes.

Couldn't resist putting some flowers in the lovely green jar.                                                                   

THANK YOU TATIANA FOR ALL THESE WONDERFUL TREASURES. I am so lucky
to have your friendship.

Soon the fireworks will begin and we'll welcome the New Year.

Hugs and blessings to all

Stan Munro, a man with record patience

Hello all,

I owe you an  apology for the link that didn't work.  Instead, here are some photos of
Mr. Munro's incredible work.

It's all done with huge amounts of toothpicks.

Writing about talent and patience, I am showing again the Santa created by Melli.  This precious, one of a kind, hand crafted jolly Santa is to be found on Melli's etsy shop. (If it hadn't been snapped up by now.)

I'm sure most of us are sitting and drooling over the beautiful mini gifts received and exchanged this Christmas.

Hugs and blessings

Olive wood Nativity Scene

Hello all,

Today we enjoyed beautiful weather and decided to visit the
miniatures exhibition in Jaffa together with friends who were unable to go
there before.

Afterwards we took a walk down to the Jaffa flea market.  Jaffa is a part of Tel-Aviv
where the population is a mixture of Christians, Muslims and Jews. It's also very old
with several ancient cathedrals and churches as well as a sea port. It's one of the sites we
love exploring and take visitors along  with us.  Being always on the look out for miniature
finds, one of the shops caught my attention.  Look what I found....

We didn't make it to the flea market.  It got late and our friends preferred going to lunch in
one of the local restaurants.

I want to share with you photos of the works of an extremely patient artist who uses toothpicks
for building materials.


https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/from%3Aamieilat%40netvision.net.il/14a808c61d482a8c?projector=1

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday, just as we are here.
Hugs and blessings

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my celebrating followers!

On this opportunity I wish to give special thanks to all the wonderful artists who shared their
tutorials on the  Spanish Advent Calender.  It was as if I got a gift on every one of the 24 days.

Also thank you Melli for your lovely card. I love your Santa!  Incredible work!

Happy celebrations!

Gifts from Germany

Dear readers,

I couldn't wait until Christmas to open this parcel of gifts from my lovable and very generous blog
friend Birgit.  After all it's Hanukkah here.  Dear Birgit, I know you still don't have access to internet.
I, and I'm sure all your other online friends, wait anxiously for it to get over.  We miss you.

The famous and yummy, yummy marzipan and beautiful greeting card, among other goodies.

Christmas items and two tiny animal toys.

Sweet little angels.

Tiny Zebra and a little elephant.

THANK YOU!!! I am very happy with my new treasures.

Remember the link for Advent Calender Tutorials I gave in one of my previous posts - today I had just the right time to try and make gladiolus from Victoria's tutorial.  I am sure my next efforts
will bear better results but these are not too bad.

Have a wonderful Sunday.  Blessings to all.

Spending a wonderful time with a fellow miniaturist

Hello again

This morning I enjoyed a great time with Sarit, a lovely and very talented miniaturist.
Sarit is the only one from our new forum of miniaturists who lives in my town.
First we went to see some of her works, displayed at a local municipal gallery. I took
some photos to share with you.

A teapots shop in a kettle

A birdhouses stall. (I love it).  Most of the birdhouses are hand crafted by Sarit.

A seafood stall

A falafel stand on wheels

The ice cream car

What most impressed me was the Gulliver scene.  I am sorry the photo doesn't do it
justice. It's behind two barriers of glass.  It's really awesome. Sarit is so clever.  She created
all the dolls in these photos except for the tiny railroad characters.

After the visit we went shopping together.  We found many more affordable paper punches.  Some
I purchased with intention to send them as gifts for my friends. The good thing about these punches is that they 1/4" and fit for making tiny flowers.

A warm welcome to my new followers Sigrid and Alafosca.  Thank you for following.

Best wishes to all who are celebrating, Happy Hanukkah!

Hugs and blessings to all my readers

X-mas Advent Calender

Hello dear readers,

For the first time I did an Advent Calendar swap with Pirkko .  It was Pirkko who explained  to me What an Advent Calendar is.
I was very grateful and happy to go along.  It was exciting to wait to open my little parcels on the days agreed upon. It was also worth the wait.  Look what treasures I received.

A beautifully packed parcel.  Even my post lady was impressed.  One adorable 10 years old boy is just as happy with the beautiful stamps.

A beautiful card and very yummy chocolate candies.  These vanished
in record time.

There is also a little parcel from Rauha and Ilona which was probably meant to be
opened on Christmas but this was too long for me to wait. Their little gifts are so cute!!!

I already admired the cutlery set on Maria's blog. Imagine how happy I am to get it.

These oven mittens are so perfect. I just love them and the little rolling pin and tiny purse.

The wooden flower box with the adorable birdhouse is beautiful.

Dear Pirkko, it was a pleasure doing this swap with you.  I  hope you will like my gifts
as much as I do yours and I thank you so much for being my friend.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend with lots of Calender gifts to open.

Blessings and hugs

Meeting with local miniaturists

Hello all,

Yesterday I met with 10 fellow miniature artists.  It was a very pleasant meeting arranged by Goldie at her home.  Goldie is one of the best miniature artists here in Israel, in fact, I consider her as number one. Goldie's home is a mini art gallery.  One could spend hours looking at her dollhouses and room boxes.  But above all, she's one of the most generous miniaturists I met.  Look at what each of the 10 of us sitting around a long table received as a gift from her.

There was also an exchange of handmade gifts.  Each of us had to bring something small, packed
as a gift.  All the parcels were on the table and passed around.  This was what I received, made by
Goldie herself.  My own gift was given to a lady called Shosh who I met for the first time. I hope she likes it.

It was decided, among other issues, that we meet and work together once in about six weeks.  At each meeting one of us will  teach how to make a miniature.  We are going to make shoes next
time.

Given the work kit, we had the tools to make a tiny miniature while we sat and talked, laughed
and enjoyed ourselves.  Here is what we made.  (Something very similar to what I've done and posted about before.)

Gifts keep arriving and I just have to wait until Christmas to open them.  This is an exciting wait
but let me tell you it's hard and soooo  tempting.

Don't forget to have a look at this wonderful tutorials site, a tut for each of the 24 days before
X-mas given by very talented Spanish artists.  http://www.mundorecetas.com/foro/showthread.php/297101-CALENDARIO-DE-ADVIENTO-2014-(-NO-escribir-por-favor).

hugs and blessings

Flower Boxes for the Fantasy House

Hello friends,

At the end, I'm hesitating about leaving the flower boxes on the terraces.  Somehow, they are more
suitable for a chalet type of house.  You be the judges.

As for paper punches - I learned a lesson.  Never buy an all in one flower punch.
This one was on sale.  It was affordable but the postage cost was in the sky.  It
served me for a short time and then got stuck.  No matter how hard I knock on the under side I can't
release the spring.  If anyone knows how to repair stuck punches, please let me know.

Yesterday,  I posted almost all my Christmas gifts.  You should have seen my work table, what a
mess!  It will take me a week just to return everything to their right place.  After I packed 8
parcels, put the addresses on and sealed them, I found three lonely letters on my table.
People who get my gifts without a card or letter, please excuse me.  Next year I'll prepare my
gifts two months in advance.

Blessings to all my dear friends