A Grandma Who Loves Gardening, Reading, and Games

On Thursday morning, the last day of Passover, after 40 days of war, we woke to a ceasefire. The quiet felt unfamiliar. No planes overhead. No sirens. Not even the usual blaring alerts the moment I stepped into the shower. It was almost unsettling in its stillness.
And yet, I can't help but wonder - is this really what we hope for after everything we've been through? Homes lie shattered. Too many lives have been lost. And despite it all, the Iranian regime remains a global threat, continuing its pursuit of nuclear capability while tightening its grip on one of the world’s most vital waterways, the Strait of Hormuz.
We find ourselves standing in the wreckage, somehow expected to return to normal after more than a month of living on edge, in a reality that feels anything but ordinary.
Soon, Israel will shift from this fragile quiet into remembrance. The country will mark Yom Hazikaron, the day we remember Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Since losing Gadi, this day has become deeply personal for me, and I can no longer make the emotional transition to Yom Ha'atzmaut, Independence Day, which begins the following evening, the moment Memorial Day ends.
And still, despite everything, I return to my cards. With paper and glue and careful hands, I keep creating. It is my way of holding on and, in some small way, moving forward.

This card request followed soon after the extra-large 80th birthday card I designed for another special grandma, and the briefs for the two projects were strikingly similar. Both grandmas, it seems, enjoy gardening, so once again I started with a background of a garden and shrubs. This grandma, Vicki, was turning 85. She has 5 grandchildren and, as well as gardening and flowers, she enjoys reading and board games.  

My customer wanted her children's names incorporated into the flowers, which I arranged into girls and boys for visual balance. I also checked which board games grandma enjoys and learned it’s backgammon, cards, and Rummikub.

I chose to depict grandma sitting at a garden table, a Rummikub rack before her and a tile poised in her hand. Next to her sits a small pile of books, waiting to be read. In the background, I added the requested flowers, along with a plant pot and trowel. Finally, a large 85 marks her age.

Her daughter, my customer, was delighted with the card!

* This post has been shared on Happiness Is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Handmade Monday, Busy Monday, Monday Morning Blog Club, Talking About It Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, Creatively Crafty Linky Party, Little Things Thursday, Funtastic Friday and Crazy Little Lovebirds.

Loved, Cherished and Celebrated

Some cards come out just as I want them to, and this was definitely one of those!

My customer asked me to create an extra-large card for her mum's 80th birthday. She shared that her mum loves embroidery - stitching cushions, challah covers, and tallit bags - as well as gardening and flowers, and she also enjoys a nice glass of red wine.

In addition, she asked me to add three balloons to the front of the card, each with a letter - Y, M, and A. These are the initials of my customer's kids, and she said her mum truly loves them.

I decided to show bespectacled mum doing some embroidery, needle and thread in hand. Next to her are some embroidery scissors and a glass of red wine. She's sitting at a table in her garden, surrounded by bushes and plants, with flowers decorating the table. I also added the initialed balloons - all tied together with another flower - and a big red number 80 to celebrate her milestone birthday.

I thought that the greeting my customer sent me was just lovely: 80 Years Loved, Cherished, and Celebrated. It perfectly captures the warmth and joy of such a special milestone birthday.

The card was very well received! My customer, who lives nearby, came by to pick it up. At the time, only Mister Handmade in Israel was home, so she sent me this sweet message:
"Sooooo beautiful ❤️❤️❤️"
It really made my day to hear how much she loved it!

* This post has been shared on Craft Schooling Sunday, Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Handmade Monday, Busy Monday, Inspire Me Monday and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

Happy 70th Birthday Savta

My customer had a special request. She wanted an extra large card for her mum's upcoming 70th birthday. Her mum has seven grandchildren and she wanted a card that could fit them all on.

My customer sent me a bunch of photos showing each grandchild. After a lot of discussion about their various ages, heights, hairstyles and hair colours, I was able to work out who was the tallest amongst them all and who was the shortest. I was told that mum herself is quite short, so the two oldest grandchildren needed to be taller than her!

We also decided to put the Israeli flag and a Union Jack on the card, since mum is an Israeli living in London, though she was actually born in Morocco! I added a big number 70 to mark her age.

The greeting on the card says "Happy 70th Birthday Savta". Savta or safta is the Hebrew word for grandmother.
My customer told me that her mum loved the card.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Tuesday Turn About, The Happy Now Blog Link- Up and Sundays on Silverado.

A New One for the Frame

* This post was written in May 2022, shortly before I lost my youngest son.

Some of you may remember the post I shared with you about a customer's mum who saved the cards I made her over the last few years and had them beautifully framed. Her daughter joked at the time that, since her mum had framed all the cards she had received, did it mean that she didn't need to order one for her 72 birthday, since she wouldn't have the space? Her mum replied, "Don't worry! I shall frame all future ones, until I am 100 years old!"

So, April rolled round once again and my customer did indeed ask me to make another card for her mum. She sent me some wonderful photos that mum, a talented photographer, had taken in Ashkelon, a Mediterranean coastal city in the Southern District of Israel. She thought I could use one of them, since they depict her mum's adventures in that particular place.

My customer also wanted to show her children on the card but didn't have a picture of her mum with all three of them together. I imagined the grouping and created a design showing the four of them on the card. The three children are in the front, while blonde-haired grandma is proudly standing behind them. In the background is one of her photos of Ashkelon National Park. Finally, I added a big number 72 to mark her age.

My customer told me that her mum loved the card.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop and Karins Kottage Linky Party.