First night of Hanukkah

is tonight! We are going to light the first candle, sing Hanukkah songs ( or listen to them) and eat sufganiyot! Yammi! To make it even more fun I decided to have a Hanukkah celebration on my blog - I am going to share some Hanukkah history, picture and giveaways.

What is Hanukkah? From history.com:
Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days and nights, starting on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar (which is November-December on the Gregorian calendar). In Hebrew, the word "Hanukkah" means "dedication."
The holiday commemorates the rededication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem after the Jews' 165 B.C.E. victory over the Hellenist Syrians. Antiochus, the Greek King of Syria, outlawed Jewish rituals and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods.
In 168 B.C.E. the Jews' holy Temple was seized and dedicated to the worship of Zeus.
Some Jews were afraid of the Greek soldiers and obeyed them, but most were angry and decided to fight back.
The fighting began in Modiin, a village not far from Jerusalem. A Greek officer and soldiers assembled the villagers, asking them to bow to an idol and eat the flesh of a pig, activities forbidden to Jews. The officer asked Mattathias, a Jewish High Priest, to take part in the ceremony. He refused, and another villager stepped forward and offered to do it instead. Mattathias became outraged, took out his sword and killed the man, then killed the officer. His five sons and the other villagers then attacked and killed the soldiers. Mattathias' family went into hiding in the nearby mountains, where many other Jews who wanted to fight the Greeks joined them. They attacked the Greek soldiers whenever possible.
Judah Maccabee and his soldiers went to the holy Temple, and were saddened that many things were missing or broken, including the golden menorah. They cleaned and repaired the Temple, and when they were finished, they decided to have a big dedication ceremony. For the celebration, the Maccabees wanted to light the menorah. They looked everywhere for oil, and found a small flask that contained only enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days. This gave them enough time to obtain new oil to keep the menorah lit. Today Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days by lighting candles in a menorah every night, thus commemorating the eight-day miracle.



Here is some flickr goodness that I found. Pretty.


1. first night lit up, 2. First night of Hanukkah, 3. 303/365 - Happy Hanukkah!, 4. first night, 5. The first night of Hanukkah..., 6. is it my birthday?, 7. First night of Hanukkah, 5768, 8. Hanukkah, 9. hanukkah ~ and menorah is lit

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

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My kids are getting gifts on each day of Hanukkah. And you will too :) I have Cloud 9 Love clear stamps and Stamping Bella Rubbah stamp and emBELLAshments. Post a comment and you will be entered into the random drawing :) The winner will be posted tomorrow.

And now I just want to say - Happy Hanukkah!

Some "lost" layouts

I relaized that I didn't post few layouts back form October that I really like.
This one all Jenni Bowlin kit.

This one again Jenni Bowlin, with some Haidi Grace chipboard.

Snow day happenings

The little guy woke up and was happy to see his sister talking to him.

Elves invaded our house.

Than they got dressed and went outside to play in deep deep snow. 13" today in Brookfield. This winter is close to become the second snowiest winter here. Guess what year holds the second place now?... 2007... yeah... two years in a row...

This is a little castle made from snowballs. The picture is taken by the architect Ms. E

Snow day

It is 9am here. 9.5" of snow so far and still snowing. The school is cancelled so our winter vacation had officially began. The boys are still in bed. :)

Another Inspired Blueprints sketch

I finally scrapped some of my CHA photos. I love how it turned out. I used Heidi Grace paper and finished with some Heidi Swapp bling in the corner of my picture with Heidi Swapp. Very smart, isn't it? LOL The sketch is by Inspired Blueprints.

Good day for a snowman!

Said Ella after running outside this morning and checking the snow.
First real snow. I knew it will come and here it is - white and wet. For some reason I am not so happy to see it this year. Really hoping for the mild winter this year :)

Fisk-a-link Friday - Thank You Card

This week I am joining the Fisk-a-link Friday posts that are done by the Certified Fiskars Demonstrators. Each post shows a project, an idea or shares some tips related to the Fiskars products.



My Fisk-a-project for today is a quick Thank You card.



Tools used: Desktop rotary trimmer with scallop blade, medium heart squeeze punch, medium april showers squeeze punch, stamps



1. Gather your supplies and pick few scraps of green and pink cardstock and pink patterned paper. I pulled out my pink scrap drawer and picked 3 different scraps of pink patterned paper.

2. Cut 8.5"x11" sheet of white cardstock in half and than fold each piece in half. You have 2 plain cards. Cut 3"x4" piece from green cardstock and 2.5"x3.5" piece from the pink cardstock using the scallop blade.

3. Adhere the green piece to the center of the card, adhere the pink piece on top of the green piece.
4. Using April Showers punch out the flower petals from the pink patterned paper. You will need 12 petals per flower.
5. Put some adhesive in the flower center and adhere 6 petals as shown. Curl the petals with the fingers before adhering.

6. Add more adhesive in the middle and adhere the second layer of petals. This time the petals should touch each other in the middle. I rub them with the texturing stylus to make sure the petals are glued down. Use a glue dot to add a button in the center.

7. Punch out 2 hearts from the green paper. Score in the middle and fold.

8. Add 2 pop dots as shown



9. Add the hearts to the card forming the leaves. Stamp Thank You sentiment (from the Fiskars "Baby" stamp set)

10. All done!

Hope you liked it. :) I made a bunch for my daughter today to write her "thank you" notes after the birthday party.


Enjoy the Fisk-a-link Friday posts from other Fiskateers:

Michelle's Fisk-a-link Friday goes grey!

Debby posted an Easy Stamp Press Demo

Kathleen reports about the recent tools demo and gives all pros and cons. Great post! In this post she shows how to make a cute favor bag.

My big girl is 10. Smart, responsible, sensitive, loving sister to Ella and Eli. That's my girl.




And if I am on the bragging wagon here is something else. Few days ago I was working on this card.


Ella saw me and said that we also wants to make a card. Here us what she made. I only helped to make a bow. She picked the paper and did everything else. I am one proud mama :)

International Babywearing Week

I found out that November 12-18 is an International Babywearing Week from reading Just Jess blog yesterday morning. She posted the cutest photo of her baby girl in the sling and gave the link to the Adventures in Babywearing blog. They are having a contest to celebrate International Babywearing Week by posting your favorite babywearing photo. The winner will get a new sling by Nonny & Bo .

So here it is. Eli was just 10 days old here :) So warm and cozy and safe :) This wrap is the bestest! I don't use it now as much as with Ella but it's a lifesaver at the ice skating rink. I am spending hours there waiting for Lila. With the baby in the wrap I am sure he is warm and I don't have to struggle with the stroller and the stairs. (No elevator there!).

Thank you mom and dad!

Something I don't say enough. Here it is - Thank you mama! Thank you papa!

This layout is from Cathy Zielske's class at BPS

MAMBI paper and embellishments.