Getting ready to ship these beauties.

Am I crazy for sitting in front of these packages of fibers, just gazing at them? They are gorgeous, if I may say so myself.

If you haven't already signed up, you still have five (5) days to do so.

Oh, and BTW, I still haven't heard from you giveaway winners. I'll wait another 5 days after which, if I haven't heard from you lucky gals, I'll have to draw new numbers. I can't have these lovely gifts sitting here on my cutting table.

Hope you are enjoying your holiday time. We'll talk again before 2010!

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Fabulous perk for Cirque de Fleur!

first...

Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas!

and then...

A reminder that there are 7 more days

to sign up for our Cirque de Fleur Cyberworkshop

Here is the exciting part: we are offering an instruction book with laminated charts at the end of the class for $25, however, bring a friend to the class and get the instruction book FREE! When your friend signs up for the class, have them name you as their buddy in the comment section and we will sign you up for the book. Also, have you already signed up and want to invite a friend? No problem, have your buddy mention your name in the comment section and we will take care of the rest.

Let me know if you have any questions.

lastly...

Have a wonderful Holiday
(with a bit of stitching as well)

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Outage and Winners!

Yesterday was a day of outages. All emails sent to me bounced back to sender ,(sorry if you sent me anything), I was one of many Blackberry users that didn't get emails to their phone yesterday, and getting out of our driveway was difficult due to the snowman (named Christian) and snowdog (named Willy), that Nina and Andrea built.

Today it seems that all technologies are working, so, on to the winners of our UltraSuede giveaway...

Since we had over 60 comments, there are two winners, bravo! And the winners are:

Keep Sewing said... oh boy nice nice!! I would use it as backing for a brooch or embroidered embellishment on a bag :) happy holidays.

Moon Child said... What a lovely giveaway. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Congratulations! Please email me at orna@ornadesign.com to claim your winnings!

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Talk about a White Hanukkah!

The snow is building up on our window sills. From inside our warm home it is such a silent snow. I hope you are all nice and warm. We are having our annual Hanukkah party today. Needless to say, there will be fewer guests but still quite a few coming!

Take care!

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Painted Birds - our very first

I know there is so much going on, but as is usual with me, I produce in floods and dry spells. It's flooding here at Ornaments/designs by Orna!

Our very first painted canvas designs. I'll tell you more about them soon.

In the meantime, don't forget to sign up for the giveaway! and bring your friends along. The more signed up, the more prizes!

The Oriole

The Quail





The Pheasant

We'll talk some more soon.

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CONGRATULATIONS AND A NEW GIVEAWAY!

Thank you for all your wonderful comments!



Congratulations to our winner:

"I just checked my CraftGossip email update and found your lovely site and designs as one of the featured stories. I'm like so many of the fellow posters here, amazed at your talent and so grateful to have been directed to your site. Please sign me up for an chance to win your current prize. Thank You, Nikki"

Email me, Nikki, at orna@ornadesign.com to claim your loot!



and immediately on to our next gift...

I use it for everything. UltraSuede®, or man made suede, is an amazing material. It has so many advantages; you don't need to hem the edges, no fraying, the colors are deep and rich, it looks wonderful with needlepoint as a backing or as applique´. The one drawback, it's pricey! At $54 a yard I use it carefully, like gold.

I would like to share some with you, as a gift. These are 6 - 3"x4" pieces of UltraSuede®. If you'd like to enter this giveaway, let us know how you would like to use these pieces. To top it off, for every 30 comments I'll add another pack to the giveaway! Pass on the information to your friends. That means the more people sign up to win, the better your chances are, right?

I never was very good at statistics, but I know a good thing when I see it! UltraSuede®, in the words of Martha Stewart: It's a Good Thing!

Tune back in, winners will be announced on December 22nd.

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CYBERWORKSHOP IS HERE!

It's here, it's here, I'm about to burst!

Our very first CyberWorkshop, on our very own website, is ready to go! There are pieces I design that I love, there are those that I like, and there are those that I can live with, but I'm not too crazy about.


Then, I have designs that make me so proud. They feel so balanced. They make me want to sneak over and snatch another look. Cirque de Fleur belongs to this group.


So, on January 15th we will begin. Registration has started and will go on until December 31st. There are different package options to allow for every pocket. Take a look. Enjoy!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. It's a night when we talk about miracles. Did you know why we celebrate Hanukkah for 8 nights? Yes, yes, the tiny drop of oil lasted way more than it should have, but why 8 nights?

Back in those times traveling from Jerusalem, where the Temple was, down to the coastline, took 4 days on foot or donkey. When the Temple was destroyed, and no oil was to be found anywhere in Jerusalem, they needed to travel down the mountains to the coastline of Israel to get oil, and then turn around and climb back to Jerusalem. Yes, you got it, 4 + 4 = 8.

May you have many miracles tonight and for many nights to come.

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Holiday Giveaway - finally!

YES! a giveaway in time for the Holidays.

A complete kit from Dimensions of my design CLASSIC from their Gold Collection. The kit contains the threads, ribbon, canvas, beads, needle and instructions.

Now I know how busy you all are. Who has time for yet another task? So all you have to do to enter this giveaway is post a comment about how you came upon this blog. You know, "best friend sent me a link", "took a class from you", "by mistake, I'm really into cars".

I will post the winners here, on the blog, so tune back on December 15th to find out if you are the one!

More to come very soon!

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Abba

Abba in Hebrew means father. The word is a combination of the two first letters in the Hebrew alphabet; aleph and beit. Transliteration to English, (coincidence?), it's a combination of the first two letters of the English language. It's very subjective, but when I hear the word Abba, I think of wisdom, unconditional love, kindness, safety. This was my father. This past Saturday it was 2 years since he passed away, since I lost him. I miss him. I miss him very much.

I remember sitting in the bathroom in the early morning hours watching him shave. We probably chatted but I don't remember those conversations. I just remember sitting on the bathtub rim, looking up at him as he meticulously shaved his face. It was always calm, I always felt safe.

Many mornings I step out of our bedroom and at the other end of our big loft I see Nina and her Abba sitting at breakfast and chatting. I don't know what they talk about but I see her looking at him as he makes her bowl of cereal. I see her swinging her legs under the table to a playful rhythm in her head and while I can't hear the words, I hear the love in the air. I stay away to give them this private time together. She, too, will remember her mornings with Abba.

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Key Matters and other matters...

They are here. The days leading up to the holidays with all the buying, preparing, partying. While Hanukkah is not really a holiday, (in Judaism it's considered a festival, a level below holiday), we still get caught up in all the craziness. But then, of all the things we could be going crazy over, holidays are not a bad thing!

So whether it's a stocking stuffer or a gift for the third night of Hanukkah or Kwanzaa... we wanted to offer a few goodies for you or a friend.

* Our key-chain project called Key Matters. It's a very pretty design, comes with instructions, chart, frame and key-chain. Best of all, you don't need more than 24" of any single color fiber, so this is definitely a stash project!

It comes gift wrapped as shown below, all ready to receive or give.

* New Ultrasuede packs are in the house! These are packs of five coordinating colors, each piece 5" x 5". These luscious color combinations can come gift wrapped as well.

* From now until December 24th, you will be able to purchase A Year in Cards kit at a 20% discount. (Just enter HOLIDAY as your coupon code at the check out.)

I find it so relaxing to sit in front of the TV at night with a small project in hand, peeking up every now and again to see the screen. A couple of nights hearing TV and I have a card that's a gift in itself.

* Last, (and certainly not least!), we are conducting a trial run for our cyberworkshop system. I know there will still be glitches, there always are, but you will be understanding, won't you? We will send out a formal announcement for our first class, Cirque du Fleur, early next week.

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