Happy Hanukkah and the Winners Are.....

Tonight we celebrate Hanukkah and light the first candle.  In Holland a huge Menorah has been erected, the largest in the world, here. Thank you Gonda for this link.

Our family will be celebrating and exchanging gifts tonight. Personally, I love and prefer the eighth day when all candles are lit.


I've added the following participants of my giveaway to the previous list.

66. Diane
67. Melli (iciri-piciri)
68. Melli (pipibar)
69. Sherika
70 Sharee
71. Mely Mel
72. Elena (milideas)

CONGRATULATIONS TO

Patrizia, Doortje,  Genevieve , Please email  your addresses to drorahed@gmail.com .

Once more I'm a little sad that I cannot give prizes to all the lovely people who joined this
riffle.  I can only promise that there will be another giveaway, as soon as there are 600 followers.
Not very long to wait as there are already 585.

Happy Hanukkah and blessings to all






     

List of participants in my third blog anniversary giveaway

Hello dear readers,

Suddenly I realize that my giveaway draw is only 3 days away.  Here is a list of participants. Please check if your name is included.  There is still time to take part for those who missed my post. New participants will be added to the list.

This is the Random number generator that will be used for the drawing.

 1.  Anisflora                                  
 2.  Anna Galli
 3.  Mari
 4.  Lisa
 5.  Doortje
 6.  Hannah
 7.  Rosella
 8.  Wyrna
 9.  Contar
10. Anne
11. Sylvie
12. Ewa
13. Isabel
14. Carmen
15. Sschaffer
16. Sognatrice
17. Bridget
18. Munir
19. Fabiola
20. Kikka
21. Irina
22. Paky
23. Sanne
24. Maisa
25. Ludmila
26. Jeniffer
27. Ana Acamarah
28. Patrizia
29. Maria Ireland
30. Keelin
31. Marisa
32. Malu's
33. Susan Korman
34. De
35. Shaairah
36. Maria Fernanda
37. Adela
38. Birgit
39. Carol (Wee Cute Treasures)
40. Pam
41. Pilar
42. Rosethe
43. Susanna
44. Pikko45. Tatiana
46. Julia
47. Ascension
48. Ilona
49. Isabel Garcia Gonzalez
50. Donna
51. Veronique
52. Eva Tatalamaru
53. Angeles
54. Chris (Minis and more)
55. Victoria Cascales
56. Genevieve
57. Dorien Litjes
58. Cinamon Cat
59. Francesca
60. Tuikko
61 Rosa Maria
62. Katrina
63. Sarah K.
64. Franca
65. Veronique

Pipe cleaners dwarfs tutorial

These cute little dwarfs take only a few moments to make.  Here is my tutorial

You need pipe cleaners red and green (Or any other color of your choice),
a wooden bead, a piece of red felt fabric for the hat.

Cut two 5 cms (2 inches) long red pieces and one 3.5 cms long green piece.
fold the two red ones in half and join them as you see in the photo.  Place the green
piece between the upper fold and twist the red halves tightly together.

You can make them smaller by cutting away a few millimeters from the legs and arms.

Now you can now start pushing the twisted part through the wooden bead. Push until you
reach a neck size.  You can always cut away what is protruding and cover it with the hat.

Cut the hat from the piece of felt and glue it on. That's all!  You can always add a beard if you like.

While I was not looking, the cute little punks invaded my plants.

I wish you all a pleasant evening and blessings.

Baskets and planters

Dear readers,

I needed more baskets so went to that huge store with the tiny craft corner to buy more.  Guess what -
the ones I bought several days ago were all sold out.  There were bigger ones which at first I couldn't figure out what they were for.There were 9 in a packet which also is unusual.  Then I caught on -
Hanukka of course! These are candle bases for the diy Hanukka candelabrum which has nine branches.

They make great planters.  Down the street where I live, there is a small tree with flowers and leaves
similar to these.  The flowers give out a heavenly perfume, especially at night.  I sometime pick up
fallen flowers and keep them in water for a day or two.  They smell good for a long time.
My flowers are paper ones which I made myself. The leaves are plastic commercial.

I used all 9 already.  There are swaps and gifts to prepare for both Hanukka and Christmas. I have
to get to the store again and buy more before they are sold out.  They make excellent knitting baskets and lamp shades and can be painted any color.

Here is the one I used as a hanging planter beside the new one.

I also found these cute scissors.  Pity they are too large but can be used as shears maybe. I believe
they are Barbie size.  Couldn't resist buying  them.

I use every spare moment to work on my gifts.

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

Isabel, Veronique, Victoria, Dorien

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and blessings.

Lisa's Giveaway

Hello dear followers,

I was very lucky to win Lisa's beautiful giveaway which arrived today.  The miniatures are exquisite.
Lisa is a very talented miniaturist and her work is perfect.  I love it and am proud to own it.
THANK YOU DEAR LISA.

Beautifully packed with a gorgeous card.

Perfect for my green house furniture.

Lisa also added a beautiful dish cloth and cutting board, perfect for my blue kitchen.  I love these surprise extras.  Thank you again Lisa.

A warm welcome to Maisa.  Thank you for following this blog.  Maisa has a great blog and right now hosts a beautiful giveaway. I recommend a visit to her blog.

Blessings and hugs to all my readers.

Third blog anniversary giveaway

Hello dear followers,

November 27 my blog will be three years old.  How time flies.  I had to overcome my hesitations, the language barrier, my poor knowledge of computers, etc before opening this blog. I remember the thrill and surprise of getting my first followers.  After having more than 500 I still get a thrill and am happy with every single new follower.  In gratitude to you, especially those who take the time to read and leave comments on my post, I'm going to host three giveaways, one for each year.

All you have to do, is be or become a follower of this blog and  if you like the giveaways, make a comment on this post and say which one you prefer.  The draws will be on November 27.

Giveaway #1

Giveaway #2

Giveaway #3                                                                                                                                                   

A warm welcome to Genevieve. Thank you for following my blog.

Blessings and hugs to you all

Hanging baskets

Hello dears,

Last week, a friend who is also a miniaturist, invited me to go shopping with her.  There is a big department
store with a small craft corner where we sometimes find items that can serve as raw material for miniatures.
I get bored working on one project and  put it aside for a while to do other things.
Finding these large bead caps made me think of hanging flower baskets and this is what I've been up to.

The silver color metal was covered with linen color acrylic paint.

I had some laser cut wooden corners in my stash. I cut two ends of the long wooden
stirrer and covered he fancy laser cut piece, drilled a hole and installed an eyelet in it. Now
it can be fixed to a wall and a flower basket can be hung from it.

Geranium filled baskets.

Now that Halloween is almost here and pumpkins are so popular, I'd like to share with you these amazing photos of pumpkin curving art. These are done by Ray Villafane, an incredible talented young artist.

Happy Halloween to you who celebrate this day.

A warm welcome to Jannet.  Jannet has a new blog, worth visiting.

Hugs and blessings to all my frieds.