Agistri

The island of Agistri was the third stop on our Greece trip. It is located just 35 km from the port of Piraeus in Athens, and a stone's throw from Aegina. Like Aegina, Agistri is in the Saronic Gulf, part of the Saronic Islands.
Agistri is a small island (14 sq km), with only four villages of any size. The rest of the island is covered in pine forest. Only two kilometres apart, Skala and Megalochori (also called Milos) are the two villages that cater most to tourists on the island. Megalochori, which means "big village", is the capital village of the island. It has traditional whitewashed stone-built houses - some of the oldest on the island, tiny, winding streets, a sandy beach and a small port where fishing boats moor. We stayed in Skala, the main port of Agistri. Skala is just a twenty-minute walk from Megalochori along the coastal road.

For those who love hiking, Agistri is ideal for walking. Many old footpaths crisscross the island and lead to tiny chapels, small settlements, beaches, and hilltops with breathtaking views to the sea. But hiking is best in autumn and spring when the weather is not so hot. In summer it would have been uncomfortable. There are a few interesting churches on the island, but it was the sandy beaches with blue-green waters that were the main draw for us. The beach closest to our hotel was the beach of Agioi Anargyroi, located at the beginning of Skala, next to the harbour and in front of the all-white Church of Agioi Anargyroi. The church, the newest in Agistri, was the first thing we spotted when we arrived on the island. It is an imposing all-white church, which stands out from afar with its blue dome.

We spent three days on Agistri. On our last day we took a boat trip around the island. We admired the bays, swam in secluded coves and discovered the small islands that are around Agistri. Our skipper told us about the island and pointed out locations of particular interest. We learnt that the population of the island is approximately 1,100 inhabitants, but in the summer months it approaches 5,000. Until 1960, transportation was done by boats coming from Aegina but in 1960 the island was connected directly with Piraeus. In 1973 another important service was made available on the island - electricity.

The boat ride was stunning and a wonderful way to end our Greek holiday. We had just one more night in Athens before our flight home. Hopefully we will be able to return to the area again one day, to discover more of the different islands that Greece has to offer.

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.

Elinor and Galia

Elinor's mum asked me to make a special card for her daughter's upcoming 18th birthday. She plays the violin and is a competitive swimmer, so a violin and swimming cap and goggles were requested. Elinor also likes to bake, so mum asked me to include a chocolate cake with decorations. Finally, I was told that she drives a grey seven-seater Mazda 5. I had to look that one up!

Mum was delighted with the card. "You did an outstanding job!" she wrote to me. "Elinor loved the card!"

Galia started her medical studies several months ago. Back then, her mum asked me to create a card somehow featuring the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine. I went one step further and showed Galia wearing a blue medics overall and hung a stethoscope around her neck. Behind her is the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine logo, along with a small pile of medical books, a bottle of pills and a syringe.

"Galia's card is just brilliant" mum wrote to me, then followed that up by telling me that Galia too loved the card.

* This post has been shared on Busy Monday,  Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Skiing and Studying

A new customer wrote to me to tell me that her son's Bar Mitzvah was approaching at the end of January and she wanted to order a card. "They're beautiful!" she wrote to me. Her son's passion is skiing and if they weren't in Israel, her son was going to have his Bar Mitzvah celebration on the mountains in Colorado. She wanted to know if I could create a card that incorporated the Bar Mitzvah theme and tefillin, along with mountains and skiing.
Of course I could!

I showed the Bar Mitzvah boy wearing a green ski jacket and holding a pair of skis. He is also wearing tefillin. Tefillin (sometimes called phylacteries) are cubic black leather boxes with leather straps that Orthodox Jewish men wear on their head and their arm during weekday morning prayer. Jewish men start wearing tefillin just before their Bar Mitzvah.

Tefillin have two leather boxes, one of which is worn on the arm and the other of which is worn on the head. If you are right-handed, which this young man is, you should wear tefillin on the bicep of your left arm. The tefillin box worn on the head should be centred just above the forehead with the two leather straps wrapped around the head, then hanging down over the shoulders.

Behind the picture of this young man I cut out some snowy mountains and a ski lift. I added the number 13 to mark his age and the age that Jewish boys become Bar Mitzvah.

His mum wrote "The card was super cute!"

Eliya was turning 17. Her mum told me that she is a swimmer and is completing a Wingate* course to become an instructor. She was a madricha (youth leader) in the Scouts, or Tzofim as they are known in Hebrew, and is now a רשג״דית (ראש גדוד or senior counsellor) in charge of a whole age group. Finally, Eliya's mum told me that she is taking 5 units in Arabic, maths and physics at school. Israeli kids graduate from high school after taking exams available in different levels of difficulty, marked as units. 5 is the highest level. Eliya is obviously a smart young lady!

I have shown Eliya holding a pile of books. Each book shows the subject and number of units she is taking. To her right is a swimming costume, swim cap and goggles, along with the badge of the Academic College at Wingate. On her left I added her green and white striped tie, which shows her rank in the Israeli Scouts.

Mum told me that "She loved the card. It was perfect."

* The Wingate Institute, officially Orde Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports, is a sports training facility located south of Netanya, established in 1957. It is named after the senior British Army officer and supporter of Zionism, Orde Wingate. The facility serves as the host facility for numerous Israeli national teams.

** This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things

A Singing Savta

This special savta (savta or safta is the Hebrew word for grandmother) was turning 70 and her daughter asked me to make her a card. It actually turned out that this card was pretty meaningful for me. Savta's 70th birthday was on the exact same date that my mum would have turned 80. I couldn't make my own mum a special card, so it was my pleasure to be able to make one for another much loved mum...

Mum's prominent features are her glasses, her smile and dangly earrings, her daughter told me. I suspect that I may have made her earrings a little bit too dangly actually, but they made me smile, so it seemed a shame to trim them! Themes on the card should cover swimming, walking and (lots of) grandchildren, her daughter wrote, adding "if you want one more, music/singing" too.

I have shown Savta happily singing, with outstretched arms. Some music notes surround her. To her right are some walking boots, a swimming costume, swim cap and goggles. On Savta's left I added a sparkly silver number 70, to mark her special birthday. My customer told me that Savta has 11 grandchildren, which is of course wonderful but too many to fit on one card! Instead I created three little faces and added the word "savta" on a banner in front of them. The heart shows how much they all love her!

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Inspire Me Tuesday, Tuesdays with a Twist and Creatively Crafty Link Party.

Swimming and Spurs

Gavriel and Amitai are twins. Their mum told me that Gavriel likes playing the piano, swimming and Molly the cat. These themes were very similar to those that mum gave me last year, so I made sure to make Gavriel's birthday card as different as I could, primarily by starting with a vertical layout.

I showed Gavriel holding Molly. He plays the piano but practices on an organ at home. It is his dream to have a piano, so I showed one on the card. I added a swimming pool ladder and some water and Gavriel is wearing some blue goggles on his head to illustrate his love of swimming. A yellow number 15 marks his age.

Amitai's favourite football team is Tottenham Hotspur. Mum sent me a picture of Spurs 2018-2019 teal coloured third kit (Tottenham Hotspur Football Club are commonly referred to as Spurs) and asked if I could show Amitai wearing that particular shirt. She also told me that he is a regular at the gym and asked me to show him doing a squat, with a bar on his back. Finally, mum suggested I include his silver laptop computer as well.

I added the Spurs emblem, a cockerel standing on a football, along with a black and white football. Did you know that those footballs were first used in the 1970 World Cup, chosen specifically so that spectators watching black-and-white televisions could clearly see the ball, with the black accents on a white background revealing the ball's direction of spin?

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Creatively Crafty Link Party, Thursday Favorite Things.