Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary!

It's been a busy few weeks in the Handmade in Israel home. Back in May I celebrated my 45th birthday. As I get older, less and less fuss seems to be made about my big day (a shame because I quite enjoy the fuss!) but my sisters-in-law came up trumps this year and sent me a fabulous necklace from Zincwhite. Made using recycled Derwent colouring pencils and combined together to make blocks that are cut and shaped by hand, the beautiful round pendant they ordered for me is a unique and individual piece and I am really enjoying wearing it.

A few days after my birthday we observed the festival of Shavuot and I made, as I do every year, delicious cheesecake. Then at the beginning of June Mister Handmade in Israel and I marked our 17th wedding anniversary, which sadly fell on the same day as the Yahrzheit (a Yiddish word meaning "time of year") for my dear Mum, marking the 10th anniversary of her passing according to the Hebrew calendar. It is a Jewish custom to light a 24-hour candle at dark on the evening before the anniversary. It is believed that the candle represents the soul of the departed which is never extinguished in our hearts and therefore the flame of the candle reminds us of the soul of our loved one. A few days later all four of us flew to England for a long weekend to celebrate our nephew's Bar Mitzvah. I will show you the album I made for him in another post.

I told you it has been a busy few weeks.

Mister Handmade in Israel likes my papercuts. I think he likes them even more than my cut paper pieces, but that's a discussion for another time! For our anniversary this year I made him this card, cutting the message and love heart detail by hand from white stock. I then lined it with a bright red paper inlay because everything I make for Mister Handmade in Israel has to be in red, the colours of his favourite football team.

I think he was impressed.