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As many an artist know, creating art can be a bit of a draining process.  The mental strain, time constraints, being one’s own worst critic… all of these weigh upon me yet I still love to create and show my work.  Must mean I was born to be an artist, so create I must and create I do, so I am here to give you a bit of a preview of what is to come, both in art and blog posts.

First up I am teaming up with the talented Paoling Che of KOKOCANDLES to design artwork for a line of candles with a Zodiac theme.

Aries are the cutest of all, if I do say so myself.

Second up is a bit of new artwork I am in the process of creating for my Alice in Wonderland collection, the White Knight and his mighty steed.

Along those lines, I saw the trailer for the new Sam Raimi movie, “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” which got me thinking that I do need to do a collection for the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Possibly with a steampunk flair, but as always with the dark but cute style that I so love.  But as many artist know, when using established work that is in public domain, one must check to make sure certain interpretations of said material are not copyright protected (hint: those damn ruby slippers).  But that is a post for a later date.

Lastly is a small poem, written by Shawn Givens, for one of my more popular drawings Zombie Girl.

There was a girl with a Glasglow smile,

who walked for what was many a mile.

A rose in hand to lay on the grave bed,

of her boyfriend who is quite undead.

**Don’t miss out on your chance to win a Moomin mug and plate set! Click here and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning! (European addresses only)**

An important part of Reading Round Europe for us is going to be using the books we read as a family to explore other countries and cultures. So to go with our reading of It’s Snowing in Animal town (review here) I searched high and low for a genuine, fun Finnish activity for us to get up to us a family. I wanted something more interesting than colouring in the Finnish Flag so I reached out into the blogosphere for suggestions and discovered Ruth who blogs at The North Wing.

Photo: Ruth Landesa

Ruth is a jewellery maker and designer based in Finland and when I stumbled across her blog and website I was immediately drawn in by her beautiful photography which reminded me of another blog I enjoy, Bloesem. I wrote to her asking if she could help suggest an activity for me and my girls and despite it being the week before Christmas when I contacted her, she came up trumps and very generously wrote up a recipe for Pannukakku, “a very, very traditional Finnish dessert that is really easy and good to prepare with kids“… what could be better than that?!

Photo: Ruth Landesa

Ruth’s Pannukakku

For 2 generous portions

For 6 portions

1. Preheat the oven at 225 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add half quantity of the milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add the rest of the milk. Add eggs and whisk.
4. Grease a pan (Ruth uses a glass oven-pyrex pan for the small pancake and for the 6 portion pancake a pizza pan of about 30×40 cm size). Place the butter or margarine into the pan and put the pan for a few minutes into the oven until the fat melts and starts to get a little colour.
5. Pour the mix into the pan and bake at the middle level of the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the pancake has puffed up and has a beautiful colour.
6. Leave to cool in the pan and cut.
7. Serve the pancake as a dessert with fresh fruit – Ruth normally use berries, berry jam or comp

NOTE TO MYSELF: SMALL ACTS CAN LEAVE BIG IMPRESSIONS


As a youngster, Christmas was somewhat of a demoralizing time of the year. Since our family was of the Jewish faith, we celebrated the holiday of Chanukah, which didn't seem to me to be half as exciting as the furor that went along with trimming a tree.

On occasion Chanukah fell during the same period as Christmas and somehow I couldn't work up as much enthusiasm for lighting a candle even if it was colored, as my friends seemed to experience placing ornaments on the branches of their trees.

It was difficult for me to accept that a tree even a miniature one was out of the question, in spite of reminders that people of the Jewish faith don’t celebrate Christmas. Even the protestations that we could call it a Chanukah bush, it was obvious that there was no way a fir tree would be part of our celebrations.

Traditionally at Chanukah, children receive gifts of gelt or money and light small colored candles in a hanukiah (candelabra) one per night for the eight days of the holiday. While this was nice, in my mind it didn't measure up to all the excitement related to the "other" holiday.

At Hebrew school we always celebrated the various holidays, big and small and Chanukah was a particular favorite especially since our class, being the eldest students, entertained the residents of a senior’s home. Each year the teacher would select eight students to sing and perform to play the role of Chanukah candles with fierce competition for the part of the shamash or lead candle.

Not being blessed with a good singing voice and barely able to carry a tune, I knew that my chances were slim at best to play any candle, never mind the lead candle. My biggest rival was Zelig, who had the voice and promise of a future opera singer. Not only did he have the best singing voice, he was also the top student scholastically. He was also the teacher's pet. Whenever games were played for prizes during the holidays, Zelig won everything, which didn't exactly ingratiate him with the other students. Actually, we were all jealous and would have liked nothing better than for his voice to change in the middle of a concert.

Class auditions for candle parts were held a few weeks before the onset of the holiday and at best, the most I could hope for was a minor part and even then, only if the rest of the students had an off day or laryngitis. Each student auditioned for the teacher and as expected, Zelig got the lead role, which irritated me no end.

My resentment was eased somewhat by being assigned the role of a minor candle, probably out of pity more than anything else. Those students not chosen became part of the chorus singing "tra-la-las" at the appropriate time.

Excitement was at a fever pitch when we arrived at the seniors' home, ready to perform for a live audience who were, for the most part, in wheelchairs. They were brought into the auditorium where we were lined up on stage, anxious to perform.

Glancing around the room, many of the seniors appeared half asleep.

"You will be entertained today!" their nurses might have insisted as they wheeled them into the room before our arrival.

The first students opened the concert and sang well and those who followed performed admirably. Finally, it was my turn. My voice didn't fail me and I felt very proud of my accomplishment.

When Zelig opened his mouth it was like a chorus of angels had entered the room. His voice was strong and melodic and suddenly the seniors perked up, smiles on their faces in obvious appreciation of what they heard. When the last notes of his solo faded away, they all clapped appreciatively.

The musical recital was over and we performed a variety of Israeli dances, moving off the stage to mingle among our audience. Although Israeli dancing was a passion, I was consumed with the memory of th

A Moleskine thing from a collaboration with author Jeff Vandermeer.

NOTE TO SELF: CHANUKAH CONCERT TAUGHT ME THAT ALL CANDLES CAN CAST A GLOW

BY ELEANOR TYLBOR

As a youngster, Christmas was somewhat of a demoralizing time of the year. Since our family was of the Jewish faith, we celebrated the holiday of Chanukah, which didn't seem to me to be half as exciting as the furor that went along with trimming a tree.

On occasion Chanukah fell during the same period as Christmas and somehow I couldn't work up as much enthusiasm for lighting a candle even if it was colored, as my friends seemed to experience placing ornaments on the branches of their trees.

Even though my parents explained time and time again that Jewish people don't celebrate Christmas, which meant that a tree even a miniature one was out of the question, it was difficult for me to accept. In spite of protestations that we could call it a Chanukah bush, it was obvious that there was no way a fir tree would be part of our celebrations.

Traditionally at Chanukah, children receive gifts of gelt or money and light small colored candles in a menorah (candelabra), one per night for the eight days of the holiday. While that was nice, in my mind it didn't measure up to all the excitement connected to the "other" holiday.

At Hebrew school we always celebrated the various holidays, big and small, and Chanukah was a particular favorite especially since our class, being the eldest students, entertained the residents of a seniors home. Each year the teacher would select eight students to sing and perform as Chanukah candles and competition was fierce for the part of lead candle.

Since I wasn't blessed with a good singing voice – I could barely carry a tune – I knew that my chances were slim at best to play any candle, never mind the lead candle. My biggest rival was Zelig, who had the voice and promise of a future opera singer. Not only did he have the best singing voice, he was also the top student scholastically. Plus he was also the teacher's pet. Whenever games were played for prizes during the holidays, Zelig won everything, which didn't exactly ingratiate him with the other students. Actually, we were all jealous and would have liked nothing better than for his voice to change in the middle of a concert.

Class auditions for candle parts were held a few weeks before the onset of the holiday and the best I could hope for was a minor part and even then, only if the rest of the students had an off day or laryngitis. Each student auditioned for the teacher and as expected, Zelig got the lead role, which irritated me no end.

My resentment was eased somewhat by being assigned the role of a minor candle, probably out of pity more than anything else. Those students not chosen became part of the chorus singing "tra-la-las" at the appropriate time.

Excitement was at a fever pitch when we arrived at the seniors' home, ready to perform for a live audience who were, for the most part, in wheelchairs. They were brought into the auditorium where we were lined up on stage, anxious to perform.

Glancing around the room, many of the seniors appeared half asleep.

"You will be entertained today!" their nurses might have insisted as they wheeled them into the room.

The first students opened the concert and sang well and those who followed performed admirably. Finally, it was my turn. My voice didn't fail me and I felt very proud of my accomplishment.

Zelig opened his mouth and it was like a chorus of angels had entered the room. His voice was strong and melodic and suddenly the seniors perked up, smiles on their faces in obvious appreciation of what they heard. When the last notes of his solo faded away, they all clapped appreciatively.

The musical recital was over and we performed a variety of Israeli dances, moving off the stage to mingle among our audience. Although Israeli dancing was a passion, I was consumed with the memory of the applause and accolades bestowed upon Zelig.

After our presentation and some refreshments, an elderly woman wheeled over to talk to me. She smiled, her trembling hand gently covering mine.

"Thank you," she uttered weakly and breathlessly. "You were all wonderful. How special you are to visit us!"

There was the sudden realization that it wasn't important who the lead candle was or who had the best voice. It was significant to our audience that we had taken the time to come at all.

It wasn't long after our successful performance that Zelig's voice finally broke and he never knew whether he would sing soprano or alto. Tough luck for him. My voice on the other hand, never changed and could always be depended on to sing off-key.


http://holidays.net/chanukah/


For some good Chanukah recipes and recipes for all year round, surf on down here:

http://www.gourmania.com/recipesmlym/mlnym_nofrylatkes.htm