New earrings

I have been down with the flu all week. And I do mean down. With a fever of 102 and constant coughing I spent most of the week either asleep or cursing the moment I was born. After a week or so of this I am finally getting better yet still at home, which was a great opportunity to shoot the new earrings I made and list them on my shop.

I am also working on a custom ordered Flutterbutt, which I will tell you about later on, and plan to make a second very special puppet, which I will also revel in due time.

I simply realized that all this "I haven't been able to create anything since my mother died" story I was telling myself is just that - a story that I can replace at any given time. So I stopped telling that to myself in hopes that is all that is needed in order to get my creative wheels rolling. We shall have to wait and see!

Inner joy missing

I haven't been able to make puppets since Mamisha passed away 5 months ago. In fact, the last puppets I made are the Sex and the City Girls, which I made back in March I think. This is making me anxious, I must admit.

Making puppets is somehow connected to a place of creative inner joy, which I haven't been able to tap into lately, obviously. I just cannot bring myself to cut foam, not to mention actually sit down and design a puppet. I want to, I have several specific puppets I want to make, but I just cannot bring myself to actually sit down and do it. Just like a diet I cannot start (which reminds me, I also can't get any weight off).

I also haven't been operating puppets for a long while, not for significant amounts of time anyway. I think the puppets are means of communication with people, and were a way of playing and relieving Mamisha's (and mine) stress and pain, and now that she is gone - I don't need them as means of communication, cause she isn't here anymore, so I just let them sit quietly and stare at me. I actually feel guilty towards a specific puppet I hardly touched for months now. Oy.

If you have any inspiring words to share, please do. I believe this fear that "I lost IT" is caused by mere anxiety and nothing more, but who knows? All artists are afraid of losing the creativeness, we are nothing without it aren't we?

Guess who's back?

Yesterday I had a wonderful surprise waiting when I got home - Tzipi the World Traveling Flutterbutt returned home from her almost year long trip. On January 31st she left Israel to go on a world tour visiting friends in England, Scotland, France, Belgium, New Zealand, Florida, Arizona and Virginia!

On her trip, Tzipi made some wonderful friends.

Was hosted like a princess with yummy foods, excellent accommodations and traveling to beautiful and strange places.

And even managed to get some work done.
 

So now what? Well, the original plan was for Tzipi to return and spend some time with my mom, but since it is too late for that, Tzip will join her fellow Flutterbutts in preparing for all the exciting projects we have planned for 2011.

Happy New Year everybody, and thank you for making this year so much better. And a special thank you for all those who took the time to host Tzipi and show her a good time while abroad. Especially to Sue and Donald in Florida, for whose health I am praying daily.

Organ donor's card

This morning I was invited to add my photo to a Facebook gallery of Israeli trendsetters who showcase their organ donor's card gallery. Obviously, I agreed, since organ donations are an explosive issue in Israeli society, as orthodox Jews oppose to harming the wholeness of the dead body, which means they oppose to donating organs. So there is always this or another argument about this topic in the news or media, and I feel it is important to take a stand.

Since this is a serious issue (too serious, perhaps) I decided to ask Nick the puppet to pose with me. This is one of the photos we took (gosh, I love my camera's remote control!).

I signed my card while going to the hospital with Mamisha, while she was getting chemo. It seemed that the moral thing to do, when my mother is being treated for cancer, is to add my little bit of good karma for her and all the other people who are suffering. It was the right thing to do.

I hope that you, wherever you are, carry your local version of an organ donor's card. We can help make this life a little more beautiful, especially during the holiday season. It is one simple thing we can all do in order improve the world we live in (and Nick thinks so too).

And the winner is..

The winner of my international giveaway is..

I just sent you an email, and am waiting for your reply. Thank you for everyone who listed and a very Merry Christmas!

Blog Giveaway - Handmade Earrings

Well well well, it's been a long while since I held a giveaway on this blog (my fashion blog had several these past few months). In order to keep this raffle international, I will be be giving a small item, that I can easily ship abroad. So... (drum roll please)

The winner will be getting a pair of humming bird in a hoop earrings in matte gold and aqua worth 22$ and handmade by yours truly.

In order to join this giveaway:

1. Follow this blog.
2. Got a Facebook account? Like my Facebook fan page.
3. Fot an Etsy account? Favorite my Art & Jewelry shop. 
4. Comment on this thread and leave your email address.
5. Tell your friends about this giveaway on your Twitter, blog, Facebook, local grocery store and town crier.
6. I will randomly select  a winner on Sunday the 26th of December.

 That is it, let the giveaway begin!

1 day sale on my Art & Jewelry shop

I am holding a single day sale on my Art & Jewelry shop today - Sunday the 5th of December.

All items on the shop are 25% off. In order to enjoy this discount, enter the following code on checkout - 25offDec5th, as shown in the following image.

1. Step 1 - Enter the Shop Coupon Code on checkout and click Apply.

step 2. The price now reflects the discount and you can continue to check out.

Here are some examples of what you will find. There is still time for international shipping in time for Christmas!

Jackie the four wheeled giraffe will cost 27$ instead of 36$

The rose quartz and brown hues necklace will cost 56.25$ instead of 75$

Bird in the nest headband will cost 21$ instead of 28$

Lotus and dove earrings will cost 22.5$ instead of 30$

My favorite place on earth is burning

Israel is currently facing the greatest natural catastrophe since its establishment - An enormous forest fire has set the north of the country ablaze, with the entire Mount Carmel burning for over 3 days now and no end of it in sight.

So far, 41 people had died in the fire. Most of them prison guards who were on their way to evacuate a prison on one of the mountain tops when their bus got caught in a fire trap and burnt to the ground. Entire towns and villages have been evacuated and burnt. The animal population is partially extinguished. Today, my favorite place in the world has died. The Carmel Resorts Spa and Hotel has been burning since noon and shows no sign of the fires burning out, putting the entire area at risk.

The last time I was there was quite a while ago, on my 30th birthday. I went alone to enjoy the quiet and the view. It will be years before I am able to go there again, but I am certain they will rebuild the place, as they will the entire area.

All this

 

Has turned to this

As blog is my witness, I'll never be hungry again

Yesterday morning I joined a wonderful group of bloggers for a trip up north, to the Sea of Galilee, to enjoy a preview of the טעם כנרת festival (Sea of Galilee Flavors, if you will) which will be held on Hanukkah (2/12/10-11/12/10). The festival offers some exciting culinary attractions, some of which we visited on this long day. And let me tell you - I consider my self a savvy glutton but visiting 4 restaurants in a raw proved to be too much even for me.

First stop was Marinado - A Golan meat house, with a restaurant and a chain of stores that sell meat and local Golan produce. We had the most amazing breakfast, with their very own young and splendid wine (Marinado 2009, a blend of sirah, merlot and cabernet, so yummy with very little astringency), which was followed by a poyka tutorial that resulted in a tasting of one of the best lamb dishes I have ever had.

Teaching us about the parts of the lamb

Poyka pot filled with all the goods of the country

 

Myself enjoying breakfast

Then, we went to קצה הנחל - a restaurant specializing in Lebanese home cooking, where they set us a table fit for kings.

These are just the starters

Salads and fried pastry filled with meats

Pullet stuffed with meat and rice

and neck of veal stuffed with smoked green wheat

My favorite dish of the day - dumplings filled with chicken breast in yogurt sauce

My mouth is watering just from posting these photos.. Everything was so good!

We continued to our third stop - a Mexican tortilla workshop with chef Itamar Davidof at  מרכז המבקרים תמר בכפר. The chef, who is the owner of the Tres Pesos factory and shop for Mexican foods, showed us all sorts of food I personally didn't know and made tortillas for us, which I was far too stuffed to taste. The homemade Limoncello was wonderful though.

These tomatillos are actually a kind of gooseberry and not real tomatoes. They are used to make Salsa Verde.

I had my very first plantain (לֶחֶך in Hebrew, BTW)! We ate it fried with salt, and I didn't enjoy it like I thought I would.

I did enjoy the limoncello though

Tortilla filled with rice, black beans spread, chillies, chicken breast and guacamole.

At this point, I was truly about to explode. But no, we had one more stop before going back home - גליתא, an ice cream and chocolate house. Galit, the owner, dreamed of such a house for many years before finally opening one on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. She gave us a chocolate workshop, in which we made truffles and pralines. It was so much fun, molding the chocolate and decorating it. We felt like four year olds, up to our elbows in chocolate and nugget.

Welcome to Galita's house

Injecting the truffles with chocolate filling

First stage of my coconut filled praline is done

Second stage of the pralines

Et voila!

After some coffee and some more chocolate (I also bought myself a bar of dark chocolate with dried cranberry, which is divine. I had some just before sitting down to write this) we headed home. The long drive was so pleasant. The minibus was dark and quiet (some fell asleep) and I had good conversation with old and new good friends. The only problem was the occasional speed bump on the road, which I feared would lead to everyone losing the 4 huge meals we had since we left Tel Aviv 10 hours earlier (not to mention the occasional snack).

It was a wonderful day, with wonderful people and loads of wonderful foods and fun. I highly recommend my local readers to pack their families and friends and go up north during the holiday - you will not be disappointed!