A New Door Sign

My eldest son and his girlfriend needed a door sign for their student apartment. I decided to create a papercut sign for them, with their names, in Hebrew, in the centre. Of course I added my signature little bird as well.

I hand drew my design, which is made up of foliage and seed heads, then scanned the image and flipped it, before printing it on a piece of Textura Recycled Bright White Card.

I am sharing photos of the piece as I cut it and as their names emerged from the card.

Hila, my son's girlfriend, likes natural colours and seems to favour a pallet of cream and beige, so I backed the piece with a dark beige backing paper. It is mounted in a 13x18cm lightweight picture frame, which could easily be stuck to their front door.

Nadav and Hila were delighted with their new sign. They have since told me that every person who has seen it has complimented them on it!

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday Turn About and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

Twenty Four

Our eldest son, Nadav, turned 24 last month. I shared his 22nd birthday card in January and his 23rd in July. I am squeezing this latest card in at the end of the year so that I can get back on schedule!

Nadav moved to the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva in September and recently began his university studies in Computer Science there. Be'er Sheva is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel and is often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev". He and his girlfriend Hila found a nice apartment there and have made it their home. Their student flat is a lot different to the ones I lived in back in the day!

Nadav's card this year shows him using his new ASUS laptop. He is wearing his 2024/25 red Arsenal home shirt. The logo of the university where he is studying, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is on his left. The flame symbol comprises the letters "alef" and "nun", the first letters of "Universitat Hanegev" (University of the Negev - the name of the University until 1974). The colour orange was chosen to symbolize the different hues of the desert, focusing on the vision of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, to establish a university with a mission to develop the Negev.

Next to the logo I added a road sign pointing to Be'er Sheva, representing Nadav's move to a new city.

On Nadav's right I added a red heart with Hila's name on it. She is an important part of his life and could not be left off the card! Behind him is a photo of their apartment. They have done a great job of making it look nice. Finally, a big red number 24 marks his age. 

There was a homemade birthday cake as well, though he only got to enjoy it the day after his birthday, when he paid us a flying visit. On the day of his birthday itself there were university studies to get on with!

* This post has been shared on Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and Creatively Crafty Linky Party.

Yonatan and Yishai

Yonatan was turning 21. His mum asked me to make him a birthday card showing him wearing his black army vest top with the logo and name Magist (מאגיסט) on it. Yonatan's black vest in fact has the logo on the back of it but, with some artistic licence, I put it on the front.

The MAG (a heavy machine gun) is one of the oldest and most powerful weapons of the IDF (the Israel Defence Forces). A Magist (heavy machine gunner) is a soldier who, on long marches and trips into the field, is charged with carrying a gun five times the weight of the normal M-16 rifle most soldiers carry, and wearing a tactical vest weighing twice as much as well. 

Mum also asked me to show Yonatan playing the guitar. I didn't want to cover his vest, so had him holding the guitar instead. In the background I added two badges of Sayeret Golani, the Golani brigade's scouting unit. It is one of several units which specialize in intelligence gathering and surveillance. Sayeret (סיירת) means "Reconnaissance", Golani is one of the five infantry brigades of the IDF.

A big 21 marks Yonatan's age.

14-year-old Yishai is Yonatan's cousin. He had seen the cards I have made for Yonatan and his brothers over the years and put in a request for his own. Apparently he loves my cards and they have inspired him to make a few in a similar style to mine.

Yishai wanted me to show him with Disneyworld in the background. He has big blue-turquoise eyes, his mum told me, so we decided to show him wearing a T-shirt of that colour. She asked me to add a 14 on the card as well.

The card was very well received. "It is gorgeous!" mum messaged me. "Just perfect!"

* This post has been shared on Create, Bake, Grow & Gather

Aliyah

A customer admired my Am Yisrael Chai papercut and asked me to make a card with the same message on it for her daughter who was making aliyah. The Hebrew word aliyah literally means ascent or rise, but for generations it has been used to mean "moving to Israel". My customer wanted a nice card for her daughter to find when she arrived at her new home here.

Jewish tradition views travelling to the Land of Israel as an ascent, both geographically and metaphysically. The opposite action - emigration by Jews from Israel - is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida (descent). The Law of Return that was passed by the Knesset (the legislative branch of the government of Israel) in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity. 

I created a card with the blue and white flag of Israel on it. The flag consists of a white background with a blue Star of David in the centre and two horizontal blue stripes at the top and bottom. The Star of David is a widely acknowledged symbol of the Jewish people and of Judaism. The stripes recall the design of the tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl. A white dove with an olive branch in its beak, a symbol of peace from the biblical story of Noah's ark, is hovering in front of the flag. Noah released the dove to find dry land after The Flood, and the dove returned carrying an olive branch, signaling that the flood had receded. I added a bright red pomegranate, one of Israel's Seven Species. In Jewish tradition, pomegranates are, among other things, a symbol of love. Finally, I cut out the Hebrew letters spelling out the words Am Yisrael Chai, "The people of Israel live". The slogan is used as a patriotic phrase, an equivalent of "Long Live Israel." The word "Chai" - meaning life, living, or alive - itself has a very special meaning and long history as a Jewish symbol, all explained in my Chai blog post.

My customer's daughter was delighted with her card. "Thank you for this gorgeous card!" she wrote to her mum. "I don’t know how you managed to get it posted here successfully!" she said. And that, dear readers, is a whole 'nother story...

* This post has been shared on Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop

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.