GOOFY WITCH!

Here we are again, October 31st.



This year I took things much easier. Not as easy as I thought initially, but still much easier.

It started with a skirt and hat that Nina saw a month ago. She begged to be a witch. I said yes, sure, and immediately bought the two items paying much more than I should have.

All was well until yesterday. I woke up and panicked. My child in a store-bought costume? What kind of mother am I? I dropped Nina off at school and was at Jo-Ann fabrics by 9 am. An hour later I was on my way, leaving the store with fabric and trims.





The hat has lots of embellishments that aren't showing in the photos.





Unless she is wearing her good shoes, I love this stance!

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HAPPY!

I'm feeling soooo much better.
Thank you for all your wonderful wishes.


(I'm off to embellish Nina's Halloween outfit. So much for this year I'm buying. More later with photos.)

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Sad

I've been away from my computer and from you, my friends, due to an eye ailment. I woke up one morning and felt something in my eye, so I went to the mirror and started my search. I looked right, left, turned my eyelid inside out, all sorts of scary stuff, but nothing. As the day progressed, it got worse. Now it was both eyes and it felt as if someone was sitting on my upper lids and pressing down, sort of like when you sit on a suitcase to make it close. It was Friday and too late to see a doctor. The weekend was really bad and the whole time I'm thinking, not my eyes, please not my eyes. My eyes are everything to me. I know this must be true for everybody, but you know how when we were kids we used to ask, "if you had to loose either your eyesight or your hearing, which would it be?". For me there was never any doubt, I would keep my eyes.



To make a long story a little shorter, I finally got to see the most wonderful doctor on Monday afternoon and he diagnosed the problem as Meibomian gland dysfunction. While it's not life threatening, it can be very difficult to live with. Imagine sand being dumped in your eyes while the guy from the suitcase (see above), is trying to get your eyes to close. There is no magic cure, just lots of tear drops and bathing your eyes in Johnson's Baby Shampoo. It is hard to beat since it can become chronic but I am determined to be among those that beat it!



Oh, and did you know that when you are at the computer you blink much less therefore your eyes dry out more and therefore, if you have this condition, you should try to limit your computer exposure. I'm not going away, I just may have to make my visits shorter.



xoxo


me and my eyes.

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Autumn BLOWOUT!

Now that it's getting cooler out, isn't it nice to have plenty of projects to keep busy while you stay cozy indoors. Since I know you all don't have enough needlepoint projects (ha ha ha), I thought I'd tempt you with more...

For every Mini Wishes or Taltul Kit you purchas, we will include a FREE instruction book for one of the other Wishes designs. Each Mini Wishes kit includes the instruction book, fibers, and beads you will need to stitch one colorway.

Taltul is a special design that can be worn as a pendant or brooch. Each kit also includes the instruction book, fibers, and beads needed for one colorway.


These projects are sure to keep you indoors and happy at that!

Check it out!

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Teaser

a new feature on Ornaments/designs by Orna...Cyberworkshops.

Back in 2000 I taught one of ANG's first cyberworkshop for my piece Jerusalem 2000. It was a daunting piece and cyber studying was quite new. I loved the contact with people from all over the world (!) and I look forward to teaching another cyberworkshop for ANG in 2011.

In the very near future we will be offering a cyberworkshop on our very own website! You will be able to participate in a class and have access to detailed lessons, videos, a chatboard dedicated to the class, (and as the King of Siam would say), etc. etc. etc.

I'm loving this design, brand new for our very first class.


These are teasers.

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The Gardens at Longwood

It's been about a month since we took our first trip to Longwood Gardens. It was a spectacular day, warm and muggy, but still beautiful. Nina loved the gardens, running from one section to the next. Later we had tickets to an outdoor concert and listened to the music and the crickets at the same time. Lastly we went to see the water show, huge fountains spurting water to classical music with displays of color bursting in the sky. Quite something!

Here are some photos I took that day...

and a glance at the flowers in my studio garden.













and the prettiest flower of them all...






I found this photo from back in the wedding prep days. I thought I'd share this with you as well.

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Flying Horses

Saturday morning and I'm home alone. I spent the past two hours working on this color interpretation. Can't make it happen. The horse was a gift from Shiri and Orin brought back from a trip to Mexico.

While I do think I'm pretty close in "real life", the colors in the photo aren't right. One of the hardest colors to find was the blue in the mane. I don't have a single fiber in that exact color. The color made me think of a chalk blue. I found the pastel crayon and the colored pencil, but still not right.

UGH!!

So, two hours later I decided to present you with one I couldn't do. Anyone want to give it a try?

UPDATE!

That's better, just needed to take the photo together, flying horse with fiber.

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What a deal!

I continue to look for ways to make the experience of receiving a package from us fun and inspiring. We have new packaging for our threads. "What does that have to do with needlepoint?", you ask. For me, everything. I want to present you with your kit, not just mail it to you. I want to put a smile on your face. I want you to feel that we've paid attention to all the details in honor of you and your needlepoint piece.

We are offering a few new items to enhance your experience without taking much away from your stitching budget. We call it our $3 bin.



Ultrasuede® packets of five delightful 4" x 3" pieces of color.

and beautiful scissor fobs, grosgrain ribbons attached with embroidered, sparkly buttons.

Visit our shop in the other things section.

I'm not a very religious person however tradition and continuity mean everything to me. Holidays always send me back to my childhood. On Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, Israel comes to a stand still. Nobody rides in cars, no public transportation, the street are full of families walking to synagogue or just meeting up with friends and family, all on foot (and bikes). It's such an amazing feeling, walking in the middle of a main street or highway along with other people dressed in their holiday best. While we don't have this experience anywhere else in the world, I still want to give my girls a sense of this day being different from other days. We will be together, walk to synagogue, explain the meaning of this day to little Nina, (I started talking about it this morning but when she heard that it was a day of fasting, she did NOT like that one bit!). We will build memories which will surface every time a holiday comes around. These memories will give my girls a sense of continuity and meaning.

May we all be written in the Book of Life.

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Inspired

For those of you who don't already know me, my name is Alexandra and I'm Orna's assistant here in her studio. Painting has always been a great love of mine and I earned my degree in it. One of my favorite painters is Matisse. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is is having a show right now titled "Henri Matisse and Modern Art on the French Riviera" and if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it. His body of work was so large and covered so many styles, all of which were fantastic, but he always kept it very colorful. Color!, which we all know Orna loves.

Two important pieces for me are The Blue Window and Memory of Oceania. As a fun experiment I decided to pull colors from both paintings. The first is a loose interpretation where I play with the large but varying shades of blue, and the contrast in quantity against the red and orange.

The Blue Window

In the second I decided to keep it much more direct, recreating his Memory of Oceania piece with threads I pulled.

Memory of Oceania

Taking inspiration from beautiful works of art, I bet Matisse would be flattered!

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