Nina's piece played on the stage of GAMP!

Last night Nina's piece "Lucas' Theme" debuted on the GAMP stage.  So very proud.

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Nina, an amazing photographer!!

On Friday Nina visited the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival.  She brought the festival home on her camera! I love her eye for photography!

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Thank you so much!

Your response to my October collection has been phenomenal, I am so appreciative.  It is such a pleasure for me to curate and prepare these collections and when you love them it is very satisfying!

I have added 3 more combinations to the collection...

 Don't forget the discount code, it will allow you a 20% off price for these combinations: Collecting.

Today I am off to see Ruben and Nomi.  Ruben will be 2 years old next month, they grow up so very fast!  He and I have a shared love of construction toys.  The two of us can spend endless amounts of time on the living room rug building legendary structures.  Have you seen the magnetic construction toys that are ever so popular?  Ruben and Nomi have magnetic tiles that allow you to put together shapes and imaginary houses.  Today I will bring him a new magnetic building toy, we will have loads of fun, I know!

Have a lovely day!

Orna

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She's there!

My delightful, wonderful, goofy daughter left on a big, big plane to Israel last night.  Our Nina will be there for 6 weeks, with the family and at camp.  She arrived safe and sound this morning, and of course, not until I heard her voice, was I able to breathe again. 

As Nina, Reid and I were sitting in the airport last night, I kept thinking about the time we sat at the airport with her on our way home from Cambodia.  She was 9 months old.  In 10 days she will be 13. It was very emotional for me, (deep inside of me, so she wouldn't notice), to send her off.  There she was, a young lady, sitting with us, chatting in Hebrew, getting ready for an adventure from which she will, no doubt, come home different, in a very good way.  

What joy this child brings us every single day!

Nina posing with a duck-face, clothes shopping with me the day before she left on her adventure.

You little goof ball, Nina Willis!

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Kvelling!!

Irene Urban sent me beautiful photos of her Yuval cuff.  The colors, the jewels, all her choices!!  She describes the colors as a bit Bollywood.  I love them!!  Thank you, Irene.  I admire your choices and the speed in which you created your Yuval cuff!

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We had Nomi with us for 5 days and Ruben for the weekend.  Ahhhhhhh, just kvelling.  

Nina will be on her way to Israel in a week.  I'm already missing her.  It's going to be difficult so I will need to keep very busy preparing for Seminar in Chicago.  Already the studio is bursting with kits, fibers, embellishments, instruction books.  It's very yummy around here.  

Will you be at Seminar and if so, do you have any special requests for merchandise night?  I'm always looking for help on what to bring, how to display it all for your ease in viewing.  Any tips? 

Upside down photo by Nina

A fun bath before heading home

I'm off to make some order in the house.  I'm finding toys in the strangest of places!

xo

Orna

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57 is the new 57.

It's actually pretty cool that today is my 57th birthday and I was born in 1957!
It's been such a wonderful day and it's only 9am!

Here is what Reid got me for my birthday...

It's a painting by one of my favorite artists, who happens to be a friend as well, Ira Upin.  The painting is traveling in Europe at the moment, but will be here at the end of the month. I'm SO excited! (You've seen his work back in 2012 on my walls here).

Shiri wrote the most amazing birthday message for me on Facebook, (Imma is mother in Hebrew).

Reid woke me up with fresh orange juice and coffee, Nina came into bed with a funny card with a beautiful personal message in it, friends and family have been calling and writing and I'm so happy!


PS. here is photo of those turkey-loaves from here.

PPS. do you have a Silpat?  They are amazing!!

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A brief list of random thoughts.

A brief list of random thoughts:

1.  Tomorrow I join 17 others to take a journey into their color worlds.  This two day class is always an amazing experience for me. 

It usually begins with a room full of faces that seem apprehensive, unsure, skeptical and at times downright pouting.  I completely understand, they have decided to trust me and join a class that promises to teach color but refuses to use a color wheel.  A class for which preparation is to collect stones, feathers, fabric, beads, paper, inspired by a magazine photograph.  Weird. 

It usually ends with a room full of excited, confident, open and at times downright jubilant faces.  What more can a teacher ask for?

2.  Overnight, (I swear it happened overnight), Nomi decided to try out the terrible twos. She must have got her hands on some sort of Parenting book and she turned into a walking NO! machine.  What I love about this?  As a parent I would probably be crying, as a grandparent it makes me laugh.  She is so cute when she yells NO!

3.  Nina has a new love; Folk dancing.  She discovered it in Jerusalem this past summer.  Right outside the stone walls of the Old City we came across a large group of adults dancing to folk music from all over the world.  Most of these people were our age and older, and seemed to be familiar with the dances and the beautiful music.  I noticed Nina moving to the music.  Next thing, there she was, grabbing hands on both sides and joining into the circle of dancers.  Her head down watching the feet of her neighbors she danced so beautifully and effortlessly, catching on to the steps at record speed.  She was glowing.  So, we came back home and I looked into finding a folk dancing group she could dance with and found one in Philadelphia.  During the summer months they dance outside, on the upper terrace of the Art Museum, at the top of the Rocky steps.  It's beautiful out there and with the folk music in the air and my daughter dancing with such elegance, it is quite the view!

4. I've been noticing plaid in fashion everywhere.  So I went investigating and Googled plaid fashion 2014.  I was right, it's a trend. 

Which made me feel that my design Contemporary Tartan was a trail blazer!

5. I noticed the plaid when I went looking for some nice dresses for Nina.  Being 12, going on 13, she has a year full of Bat and Bar Mitzvahs to go to, which posses a problem when you have a tomboy daughter who HATES dresses.  

 

 

Nina might go for plaid in a dress, making it less "girlie". These are just a few examples, (Free People).  I've brought home and taken back unprecedented numbers of dresses for her to try on, with no luck.  I'm about to head out the door for my next return/search expedition.  I need to make it fast so I can complete my packing for the workshop I'm giving tomorrow. (See 1.)

We'll talk soon!
xo

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A highlight of my visit... Ayala Gordon

I missed you!

Looking back on the last 6 weeks, I see many highlights.  One of my new "art-online-friends", Shulli Goitein, took me on a day trip to Jerusalem.  We were going up to see the end of the year exhibit of the graduating class at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.  But before that we were to meet at her aunt's home in a wonderful neighborhood of Jerusalem called the German Colony, "Moshava Germanit" established by the German Templer Sect.  It is a charming neighborhood with old stone houses and beautiful vegetation all around. 

Shulli's aunt is Ayala Gordon, one of the pioneers of art in the burgeoning State of Israel.  She established the Youth Wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. A curator, educator and author, she worked at bringing the love and appreciation of art to the youth of Israel.

Here she is with a class of children circa 1960

We were to meet at Ayala's home and see her fiber art, stories of her family done in mixed media with a strong base of embroidery and fiber applications.  I arrived to a beautiful spread for lunch, a typical Israeli meal of pita bread, salad, cheeses and pickled vegetables.  Ayala was a delightful host, sitting me down at her table as if I was a regular weekly guest. We ate, chatted and enjoyed the cool breeze from the open windows of this stone home.  After the meal we went to see her studio behind the house.  The door opened to walls of art, beautiful storytelling using threads, fabric, paint, sculpture, separately and all together.  Breathtaking!

I was so honored to be invited to meet Ayala Gordon, a true highlight of my trip.

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Musical brilliance!

In the times of holiday concerts, the one we are most excited about is at Nina's school, GAMP.  This is a public magnet school, with a very big emphasis on music, classical, jazz, music theory, choir, and more and more.  The children are expected to keep up their academic grades and when they are absent from a lesson because of one or another of the above activities, it is their responsibility to complete what they missed.  Quite remarkable.  No wonder the concerts at this school are phenomenal! 

The kids along with past students who just happened to be in the audience, are singing Handel's Messiah.  PHENOMENAL!!

 

The entire school crowds the front, the aisles, the back of their wonderful concert hall and sing for us!

Today we are off to see Nina play her saxophone in a few smaller ensembles.  Can't wait!

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