That's a lotta Corgis.

This past weekend we had a lot of fun hangin' out with some noxer friends of ours at the Corgi Beach Day held annually in Cannon Beach, Oregon. And, of course, we snuck in some boxing, as well :)

Corgi costumes!

the 'house' flag - artist S. Silverman

Obimaster trying to capture Corgi enthusiasm!

As the day progressed, there were many doing just this - takin' a snooze!
Artie (short for Artemis) is just over a year old,
and this was her first Corgi Beach Day. She did great!

Haystack Rock played peek-a-boo in the summer fog

What an amazing assortment of very short, happy dogs! There was easily hundreds of Corgis with their owners. You cannot look at a Corgi and not smile. I did manage to garner a bit of a sunburn, too, but not bad. This was definitely a sight to behold.

And then, the letterboxing. We sandwiched the 'running of the Corgis' between jaunts of boxing. Boxing on the Oregon Coast is fantastic, and we had fun exploring new trails. One of the boxes really had us stumped ... as it turns out, we went right to the trailhead initially, but whizzed past the starting spot. We checked out at least a handful of other possible trails up and down Hwy 101 before landing back at the right spot. What an amazing, fun, chaotic hunt! But, once we put our feet on the right trail, the images quickly found their way into our logbooks. 

On Sunday, we decided to head inland to hopefully find some boxes we had not previously hunted. We were successful, but the heat had us turning tail and exploring the Washington side of the Columbia River, heading back towards Long Beach. And, that was such a good life choice! Not only was it cooler as we headed west, but it was a gorgeous drive. We managed to leave a few boxes for others to find, as well - bonus!

always awesome views on the Oregon Coast

summer trees are a favorite of mine

he caught me zooming in with my camera!

this is a squadron of white pelicans - they are also referred to 
as a pod, pouch, or scoop of pelicans (lol!)

on the Columbia River

in the small town of Cathlamet

the historic Grays River covered bridge, built in 1903

As we all know, letterboxing takes you to some amazing places you would not have visited otherwise. I am not only grateful, but also itchin' for our next adventure! 

the smile of success!

is it really a boxing outing if you don't visit a cemetery?

For Sweet Sarah

A special stamp for a special young lady - I'm so proud of you, Sarah!

Getting Ready to Give Thanks

Just a little something extra for our Thanksgiving buffet...

I thought it would be simpler for our guests to have the silverware in a handy bundle, so I found some festive napkins and made paper rings. Unfortunately, I didn't have a stamp that would quite work with what I had in mind, so I carved one up. Sweet!

Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving 

filled with the blessings of friends and family!

Matchbooks

Well, they used to be called matchbooks.  Do you remember those?  My grandmother used to decorate them for the holidays with pretty foil wrapping paper and display them in a cut crystal dish on the coffee table.  Of course, that was during the days when everyone smoked, so it was practical as well as beautifully festive.

Since my early days of acting as festival coordinator for our congregation I have decorated match boxes.  For our biblical festivals it seems like we are always lighting candles for some reason, and I took the opportunity to spruce up the plain, generic match boxes (instead of books) to correspond with the festival.

Here's my latest for Hanukkah, which is coming up quicker than I would like to admit.  I used hand-carved stamps on these, but there are many store-bought stamps you could use, as well.

Simply craft paper cut to size, decorate with stamps then glue them to the box. (I used Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive - one of my favorites.)  I chose to add a little festive sparkle with small Swarowski Elements crystals.

Now we are ready to light that menorah!

Festival Craftiness!

Now that I feel like I'm getting my feet back on the ground, my thoughts have been trickling back towards things artistic...even crafty.  To get in the spirit of the season - the season of Sukkot, that is - I needed some new decorations for the sukkah.  Somehow all my decorations from the last time I held a sukkah party have all disappeared...they were getting a little worse for wear anyway.  So, with a few extra bucks in my pocket, I set out to decorate two sukkahs (technically called succot) - one is mine and one belongs to a dear friend; this year we had 'dueling sukkahs'!  (And man, was that a fun party!)

I found fall-themed garland and floral picks at the local craft stores for 50 - 60% off regular price.  Alright, so that was a start.  Then, the thrift store was hiding a candle holder with a leafy-theme and this really cool basket that featured glass leaves woven into the design - cool! Walmart had some cheapy vinyl tableclothes and votive candles to add to the ambiance.

me & Padawan applying decor*

my fun thrift store find*

waving the lulav & etrog - what a party!*

I decided that we needed some artwork to hang in our temporary shelters, so onto the computer to print out some appropriate scriptures and blessings.

But, my favorite crafty item for the festival is my new etrog box; I've never had one and this year I got inspiration to make one.  Here's the progression of my very cool etrog box:

a $3.50 wooden box from Michael's

four little wooden 'flower pots' and some refill ink

foam padding covered with moleskin scraps...

etrog & lulav

*photo credit: Netanya Leicht

Homemade Hanukkiah

Chag Sameach!  (Happy Festival!)

In honor of the last night of Hanukkah this year, I thought I'd share a Hanukkah menorah, or hanukkiah, that I made back in 2003.   Made for a homemade hanukkiah contest, I had too much fun hand-painting symbols of the Biblical festivals on each of the cups that hold the nine candles required for Hanukkah.

The base is a piece of corrugated cardboard painted gold.  The candle holders were found on the 'wooden' aisle at the craft store and glued to my cardboard base.  To light a hanukkiah, you light the candles from the right to left (the same way you read Hebrew) - adding an additional candle each of the eight nights of Hanukkah.  So, I made the far right candle holder to represent Passover (Pesach) - the first festival in the yearly cycle of festivals.  Then it's Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur.  The tall holder in the middle represents the Sabbath and that candle is the 'helper' candle or the shammash.  It doesn't represent a night of Hanukkah; it is lit each of the nights and used to light the other candles.  On the left side of the shammash, is Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim and lastly, Tu B'Shvat.

Each candle holder is painted on both sides with different elements of each festival.  You can see the Passover candle holder has a seder plate featured.  For Shavuot, or Pentacost, the stone tablets were fun to paint.  Rosh Hashanah has to an apple (apples & honey are eaten traditionally) and the famous shofar (ram's horn), since it's the Feast of Trumpets.  The Yom Kippur holder has a yartzeit candle, or memorial candle, as we remember those that have gone on before us on this festival.  The Shabbat (Sabbath) holder actually has four traditional Sabbath symbols on it; the Sabbath bread (challah), candles, flowers and wine.

Going from right to left again, the Sukkot holder is featuring a booth or sukkah, for the Festival of Booths.  Then Hanukkah, of course, has presents, gelt (chocolate coins) and a dreidel (a toy top).  Next is Purim, a festival of carnivals, costumes and the story of Esther.  The last holder shows what Tu b'Shvat is all about - trees and celebrating the produce of Israel.

The backside of the hanukkiah has the festivals in reverse order (obviously!).  On the right, it's Tu b'Shvat again with a pomegranate, figs, grapes & olives.  Then it's the party of Purim with a noise maker and confetti.  You can pick out the Hanukkah holder with our hanukkiah, the nine-branch candle holder (which is different from the candle stands in the Temple, which featured seven branches).  Sukkot is the last one before the shammash, and I painted the lulav & etrog that represents the beauty of the Land; the lulav (branches of the myrtle, palm and willow trees) and etrog (citron found in Israel) are waved in the sukkah (booth) as an offering and rejoicing before the LORD.  On the Sabbath holder, you can see the Sabbath candles and the flowers for the erev Shabbat meal table.

From the shammash on the far right, where you can see the candles again and the wine used for the blessing (kiddush), we move to the Yom Kippur holder featuring the prayer shawl (tallit).  Yom Kippur is all about introspection, prayer and repentance.  Next, the Rosh Hashanah bread (challah) is braided into a round shape to symbolize a crown and is traditionally sweetened with raisins and sugar glaze.  Shavuot, or Pentacost, is the celebration of the giving of the Torah, so I chose to paint a Torah scroll similar to the ones that are read from during the liturgy.  Our synagogue's Torah scroll is 500 years old!  On the last candle holder we come back to Passover and show wine and everyone's favorite - matzah!  (Matzah is unleaven bread made especially for Passover and no, everyone doesn't really like it!)

This little hanukkiah was so much fun to paint, although, I have to tell you that I didn't win the contest.  Honestly, I don't remember who won that year; probably someone who used toilet paper tubes and dixie cups!  Just kidding...

Happy Hanukkah!

Bar Mitzvah!

This past weekend our congregation had the distinct honor of witnessing our newest Bar Mitzvah. So, what does that mean, you ask?

According to Jewish law, when Jewish children reach the 13 years for boys and 12 for girls they become responsible for their actions, and "become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah" (English: Son (Bar) or Daughter (Bat) of the commandments). Prior to this, the child's parents hold the responsibility for the child's adherence to Jewish law and tradition and, after this age, children bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition and ethics and are privileged to participate in all areas of Jewish community life.

In modern Jewish observance, the occasion of becoming a Bar or Bat Mitzvah usually involves the young man or woman being called to read the Torah, a Haftarah portion, or both at a Shabbat service where the Torah is read. (source: Wiki)

This fine young man worked diligently on his Torah portion (studying both in Hebrew and English) and all the other incredibly cool projects his homeschooling parents directed for him - he is absolutely wonderful. What a privilege to watch such a promising young adult take hold of his faith.

I was thrilled when my friend asked for a stamp to help decorate for the celebration - what fun!

Chag Sameach!

I am having way too much fun with these 'scrapbook' pages for the Favorites project - just had to share another one. Since tonight is our Passover seder, this seemed most appropriate...

Happy Passover, everyone!

Out of the scraps...

Four new stamps for the Purim Carnival!

Still carvin' up what is left of my PZ Kut, this time pullin' out of the scrap bag. These stamps were carved for the Purim celebration and carnival last Sunday. The large one measures 2.25", while the three little ones are only about 3/4" in length - fun, huh?

And, just for fun, here are some photos of our celebration...

The Purim Carve

stamp size 1.75" in diameter

Purim, which is this coming Sunday, is a festival of fun, costumes, children, carnivals, sweets and drama. It is the story of beautiful Esther, her humble uncle and their cruel adversary. It is a time to remember persecution and glorify the G-d who saves.

I carved this stamp a couple of years ago, I believe, for Purim. In our congregation, we hold a carnival for the kids that is quite a memorable occassion for children of all ages. We create booths of fun games for the kids to play and win small prizes or candy. Each child carries a little passport card with them as they make their way through the carnival and get it stamped at each booth. As you may have guessed, I carve the itty-bitty stamps that represent each booth. The kids love it!

the inside of a 2009 Purim Passport

I have been carving these little booth stamps for years now...can you tell which ones are earlier carves and which are later? lol!

Happy New Year!

the Cantina Band, 3.25" x 2"

It seems only right to feature the Cantina Band for a holiday such as New Years, don't you think?

I wish all my letterboxing, carving and crafting friends a blessed new year filled with family, friends and lots of good times 'boxing, carving, and creating.

So, raise your glass with me for a toast...

"Here's to a blessed 2010!"