A friend of mine had a run-in with another vehicle and her car was left in a bad way. Apparently the guys at the local garage she dealt with were amazing and so she asked me to create a thank you card especially for them. She drives a white Mazda so requested that I illustrate her car, along with a picture of a happy, smiling car mechanic. This was a sweet, simple card to create and, according to my friend, they loved it at the garage. The Hebrew greeting on the card says 'Toda', thank you.
I can also show you a 'Sweet 16' card that I created last week because I know that the birthday has now passed. The birthday girl plays the guitar and is very involved in the 'Tzofim' (Scouts) here in Israel, whose badge you can see on the left hand side of the card. I was also asked to emphasize the age '16'. My husband was the delivery boy for this card and reported back that mum was happy with it, and I hope that the birthday girl liked it too.
Last month I wrote about the Jewish festival of Shavuot and showed you a photo of the delicious cheesecake I had made. A few of you wrote to me and requested the recipe, so, courtesy of the charity cookbook 'Modi'in Cuisine', I am happy to tell you how to make
'The Best Cheesecake Recipe Ever':
Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
200g butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon flour
Combine and press firmly into the bottom of a 10-inch (25cm) springform pan.
Filling:
16 oz (450g) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 lemon, juice and pulp
Blend all filling ingredients together until smooth. Pour onto crust and bake at 185° C / 365° F for 25 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
Topping:
1 pint sour cream
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Reheat oven to 185° C/ 365°F. Blend topping ingredients well and pour on top of cooled cake. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
Optional: sprinkle lightly with more cookie crumbs.
Chill in refridgerator for at least 12 hours.
Bon appétit, or b'tayavon as we say in Hebrew!
There was a brief change in style at 'Handmade in Israel' recently and I was very pleased with the end result, though it is quite, quite different from my usual work. A friend was travelling back to the UK for her niece's Batmitzvah and showed me the fancy invitation to the celebrations that she had received. She asked me whether I could work with the design in any way and create a card to match the Batmitzvah girl's pink and black theme. I decided to have a go at recreating the invitation, with my own twist on it of course. The end result was this black envelope, with a black card inside and a pull-out personalised pink card inside that. I am told that Sophie was delighted with her card and that everyone loved it. Whilst I love creating my more illustrative style of greeting card, it was a challenge to come up with something so different, and I am very pleased that it was so well received.
I mentioned in a recent post that I have joined a local women's networking group and that I was due to give a short presentation about my business and the cards and pictures that I create. Thank you for all your kind comments. It went okay. I was very nervous and it is most certainly not my favourite thing to do, but it's done and now I can sit back for a while and listen to what the others have to say. At that very same meeting another participant had a little giveaway and I was the winner! This participant is the web producer for a business called my stone company and the prize, below, was a gorgeous South African Tiger's Eye stone. This Friendship Stone, as the company calls it, is to be passed amongst friends and loved ones as a reminder of their presence and love, and to give the present owner strength as he or she faces their daily challenges. I am enjoying my beautiful stone for the moment but one day will pass it along and hope that it continues to give joy to it's future recipients. Thank you, my stone company, for my lovely prize.
This week we were happy to join a good friend in celebrating the Barmitzvah of her son. The Barmitzvah boy is a gingie, or 'redhead' in Hebrew, and so, when his Mum asked me to make him a joint Barmitzvah and birthday card, this little image of him was easy to put together. Apparently he is a real bookworm and always has his nose in a book, so that was the theme that his Mum decided to go with. 
I am a proud member of the 
A few weeks ago a family friend from England was holidaying in Israel. She came to see us for the evening and proudly showed me photographs on her digital camera of some beautiful handmade cards that she had made. I was therefore flattered when she asked me to create a special birthday card for a good friend who was soon to celebrate her 70th birthday. They studied nursing together some years ago, so she asked me to illustrate her blue-eyed, blond-haired friend's nursing career, but also wanted me to include the fact that she practices yoga and enjoys music. It was a lot of fun to create this card, and I do hope that it made the birthday girl smile.
This last weekend we hiked with a group of friends up in the north of the country, in the beautiful setting of Nachal Amud, or The Amud Stream, near 
On the crafty front, I have been working on an idea for paper crafted embellishments for notebooks, which is in the early stages. This little cupcake, or bun, as I called it growing up in England, below is a new design, and one which may well go on a notebook and some handmade cards too.
Last month I was excited to tell you that I has been contacted by someone who had seen 
Yesterday some friends came over for lunch and I decided to have a go at making 
