creative jewish mom

A Crocheted Beanie: For A Costume Or A Cute Baby Gift!

Suffice it to say, this year I'm going all out on the costumes for my little ones. A working sewing machine and a blog that demands lots of new material are helping motivate me to create lots of fun things for Purim, and in doing so I'm also sharing with my children the joy of creativity and a love of everything handmade!

This beanie is the "cherry on top" of a cake costume (that's still on the drawing board) and I discovered that a simple crocheted beanie is really a great foundation for any type of costume or cute baby hat when paired with your  imagination! My youngest son is going to be a bunch of grapes, so his costume will be topped off by a purple beanie decorated with grape leaves. And I just love how the leaves came out, in literally five minutes, (per leaf) using free form applique on the sewing machine, so fun!

One of the nice things about these beanies is they work up really quickly, depending of course on the type of yarn and hook size, but I made this one while putting the kids to bed (slowly) and finished up a few more rows the next morning. A bit of a funny sight I guess, but you gotta find those pockets of time for creativity wherever they may be! One can crochet quite a few rows while patiently waiting for children to brush teeth and get a drink of water before bed! Now you know how I manage to do it all, well sort of. If I could just figure out how to crochet and do the dishes at the same time I'd really have it made!

The pattern I used for this beanie can be found here. I made a slight revision in the pattern in that I alternated two rows of single crochet with a row of double crochet starting with Round 10. This is a really easy pattern to follow, so while you're at it, why not make a fun beanie for each member of the family, you'll make them so happy!

A Happy New Month On The Jewish Calender!

Some of you may or may not be aware of this, but the Jewish people have their own calender. And we really do live by this calender except for things having to do with business and government operations which are run according to the Gregorian calender in order to be in sync with the rest of the world.

The Jewish calender is a lunar calender, and instead of having leap year, in which one day is added, we have a leap month! Every few years we add an extra month so that our holidays will occur at approximately the right time, season wise. The extra month that is added is always another Adar, which is great because Adar is a happy time, and who wouldn't want two whole months of joy?

And guess what? Yesterday was the first day of the month Adar, which means that Purim is just two weeks away, yikes, so much to do still!  The first day of every month is a special day in itself, with a half day of school, and children wear white shirts to honor this day. My children came home from school with some fun crafts they made to celebrate the ushering in of this joyful period, and so I thought I'd take a photo to share with you, as many of you have expressed interest in learning some more details of my life in Israel.

Wishing you all a new month full of blessings and joy!

Folded Paper Flowers For A Simply Festive Centerpiece!

You may have a hard time believing that I actually used these pink and gold flowers for Bar Mitzvah centerpieces last week, but I did! As I always say, who says pink is just for girls? And since the only other alternative to the pink paper was a tacky dark green, well, I think you'll understand why I went with the pink! And I should mention that I actually thought the paper was something closer to purple when I bought it!

That said, the centerpieces were a hit and added a shot of joyful color to an elegant yet simple affair. And the best part is, now I have half of what I need to decorate tables for a women's Purim party next week, as well as something to share with you!

Here are a few quick photos I took at the actual event, but was too embarrassed to spend time styling them, so they're not the greatest photos, but you can see how I lucked out with the centerpieces somehow matching the tablecloths and natural wood chairs really well! And in case you're wondering, the pots are plastic from the dollar store, and spray painted silver. (I'll show those to you another time)

If you've been following the blog for awhile, you may remember these flowers when I first wrote about them at Succos time, and you can find the complete tutorial here. Those original flowers however were all one color, whereas in this version I've not only used two colors but also added a small piece of fabric or paper for the center. That center piece was pre-cut, before being accordion folded together with the two layers of paper. I used the same idea in the photo below showing how I made some additional filler flowers from disposable tablecloth material and some scraps of gold paper.

On a side note, one of the really great things about this endeavor is that I finally found a use for those Taster's Choice jars collecting dust in my cabinet! How? Well I placed some foam in each jar, stuck the flowers into the jar, wrapped the jar with fabric and placed it in the pot. Much more successful than trying to arrange the flowers directly in the rather large pot, and now my cabinet has a bit of breathing room!

Also, the metallic crepe paper may not be available in the United States, so substitute two-sided thick craft crepe paper instead. You can even use inexpensive crepe paper, just try using a double thickness. Enjoy!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday International Blog Linking Party!

 
Sunday is actually the first day of the week for us in Israel, so I'm especially happy to start the week with a little inspiration from some of my oh so talented readers out there! I hope that as the weeks go by the party will grow (please help spread the word!) and we'll all continue to enjoy seeing what our fellow crafters and moms are doing around the world.

This week was once again full of great projects, and I've chosen some to share with you here. Enjoy and thanks so much for joining me here at Craft Schooling Sunday!

Upper Westside Mom made these super cute toilet paper roll people with her kids, and I was thinking that it would be a great Purim craft as well if you gave the people funny hats and clothes!  Shawna in Maine of potatocraft made these  felted and embroidered mittens from a recycled sweater, love the flowers!

Phyllis is an admirable homeschooling mom and does lots of great educational crafts with her kids, including this violin that you can really strum! My friend Tali of growingupcreative.com made these great tiger hand puppets with her girls in anticipation of the Chinese New Year, another craft that could be great for Purim as well.

Mymommymakesit created these wonderful felt tea bags for her daughter, just too sweet!  And that picnic blanket which appears to be indigo dyed vintage linens looks amazing, don't you think?

Linda at diaryofacraftaholic embellished simple pumps with a great zipper flower, and Cheryl of sewcando made this hilarious hairdo hat for her baby, a great costume idea if you ask me, especially since it looks like Purim will be a cold one for many of you!

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by last week, I can't wait to see what's up for  this week. Though the posts have been mostly crafts up to now, please feel free to link to any project you'd like to share, whether it be more in the DIY home improvement direction, something from the kitchen or some great parenting advice!

Here's the rules:

• Add a link to a specific post on your blog, and please post a link on that post back to this party.
• The link on your blog can be a written one saying "I'm linking up at Craft Schooling Sunday" or better yet, drag one of the logos below onto your computer and paste that at the bottom of the post, or in your side bar
• Please write in Capital letters at the beginning of your link your country of residence (USA, CAN, etc.)
• Please try to visit at least 3 other links from the party and a leave comment!
• Have fun and feel free to give suggestions as to how to make this virtual gathering even more interesting!

Decorate Recycled Cans & Fill Them With Party Mix (For Purim!)

I have to be honest, I've often struggled with the idea of what food items to give my friends and neighbors in the recycled containers I've crafted for Purim! (the ones shown here are covered with shiny contact paper, and you can see the original post here.) This year my good friend Raizel said she was planning on filling her baby formula cans (see that project here) with Caramel Corn, and that got me thinking. One could actually make a party mix of some kind that contains three different food items and more than satisfy the requirements of mishloach manot in one fell swoop! Great idea don't you think?

I have no experience myself with party mix, and really try to stay away from margarine and wouldn't know where to buy corn syrup, but if you would anyway bake with margarine, so this is a great alternative.

And of course, one could make super healthy trail mix with items from the health food store as well! Or since Purim is our junk food day of the year, you could just let go for once and make something delicious.
And in any case, we're not talking about bucket fulls of the mix, just a little nibble!

Rather than pull some recipes off the internet from people I don't know, I though I'd ask my friends Lois and Roberta of KosherEye.com for their advice. They of course had a few tried and true recipes to offer, since food is their thing! They were kind enough to send me their three favorite recipes as listed below, which I've posted here.

1. Caramel Popcorn and Nuts
   
2. Original Party Mix: Cereal, Nuts & Pretzels With A Spicy Sauce!
3. Puppy Chow Mixture: A sweet mix made from cereal, peanut butter and chocolate chips

And while you are at it, so why not wrap up a few tiny prizes to hide within the mix. A fun idea that's definitely in the Purim spirit!

 

A Cute Pillowcase Dress: A No-Sew Costume For Purim Or A New Dress For Spring

Before any of you wonder about this photo, let me just tell you it's seven years old! I usually do not post photos of my kids, but I'm making an exception here because well, she's just a baby, and secondly it's hard for me to even fathom that that was my baby. Isn't is weird how that happens? And I really wanted to share with you this wonderful idea for a cute almost no-sew Purim costume, or if you sew, even just a little, a great addition to any Summer wardrobe, for those who are pillowcase size that is!

Little Queen Esther Purim Costume (No-Sew Pillowcase Dress):

You'll Need:

• A patterned, embroidered or lace/eyelet edged pillowcase (mine was something vintage from the thrift store)
• Wide ribbon for the shoulder straps
• Additional ribbon, buttons and trim if desired
• Hot glue, or fabric glue, staples, a needle and thread

How To:

1. Measure height of child and cut off length from the closed end of the pillowcase.
2. Cut quarter-circle shaped armholes.
3. If pillow case is too wide at top, so gather in a pleat (see photo) and glue in place. You can also cut wider armholes to eliminate some of the excess fabric.
4. To finish raw edges either fold over and glue, or cover with ribbon.
5. Sew wide ribbon to front and back of shoulder area (two pieces of ribbon for each side) and tie in a bow.
6. To accessorize the outfit, sew pearl buttons on pink baby shoes, and make a crown with wire and beads, and then attach it to an existing headband together with a bit of shear fabric. (I would be able to do a much better job on this today, that was seven long years ago!)

Sewn Pillowcase Dress How To:

I just took a quick look around the web, and there are quite a few tutorials to choose from! This one, from ehow.com has no photos but is straightforward, and I like the idea of a gathered neck not created with elastic, but with ties. Here's a photo of a really great looking version, but with no specific instructions, though I think you could make it by slightly altering the pattern from ehow, and looking at the photo!

Have fun collecting some great pillowcases for this project, and hey, maybe you'll just want to save some of those pillow cases you collect to use as.....pillowcases!

A New Job For Me + Great deals On Amy Butler & More!

Dear Readers, I love this blog, and it's a labor of the heart, but it's time to start making some income from it if possible! I would never think of trying to sell garbage, or entice you into buying something you definitely don't need, so with that in mind I've decided to become a saleswoman for one of my personal favorite places to buy fabric and notions, fabric.com. Over the past four years I have made numerous purchases from fabric.com, and always with great success and good customer service. And they have amazing deals on fabric with new patterns all the time and lots of sales and promotions.

Yesterday I went to look at their 50% clearance section and just couldn't believe the selection of great stuff, the first thing that caught my eye were Amy Butler Nigella Heavy Weight (for decorating as opposed to quilts) for only $7.99, a bargain! And if you buy over $35 worth, you get free shipping, plus there are additional coupons for more off, so don't walk run, before the stock disappears!

Here's my favorite patterns on sale now, with some photos of projects made with these patterns, to show you the scale (not the color) of all of the fabrics. Gotta love those floor pillows!

Nice isn't it? I've got some relatives coming to Israel soon, I think I have just  enough time to order some myself and have them bring it for me. You can click here to find out more! Fabric.com

Cute & Simple Purim Costumes From A Little This & That!

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that Purim costumes area a major deal around my house! We talk about it for months before the holiday and I do my very best to make sure that my kids are not only happy with their costumes, but appreciate wearing something "mommy made." I keep a whole box of interesting thrift clothing finds from past years in the attic, and as Purim approaches we usually take out the box and see what we might be able to work with this year. Women's skirts can easily become high waisted dresses for girls, women's sleeveless shells make great tunics for boys and look great belted. One year I made a very nice cape from an apron. So take a good look around your house and I'll bet you too can come up with some great original costumes from just a little of this and that!

As for this photo, well, two years ago preparations for Purim were easier than usual as my daughter wore a store bought dress from a neighbor (gasp!) and this son decided he wanted to be a pirate, for which we already had a few accessories on hand. This women's embroidered blouse was the perfect pirate shirt, and gluing a little bird on his shoulder completed the outfit!

I can't say I'll be getting off so easy this year, now that my crafting abilities have moved up a notch and I have a working sewing machine. And even the older boys have decided they want crocheted hats just like the one I've already made for my 4 1/2 year old! And what mother can refuse a request like that? Okay gotta go pick up the crochet hook, I'm officially crocheting four purple beanies with crocheted grape leaves and one red beanie that will hopefully look like a cherry when I'm done! Wish me luck!

Make Original Costumes For Purim (Or Play Dress-Up!) With Thrift-Store Finds!

Doesn't he look like he just stepped off of Broadway? I must say this was one of our more successful costumes, and I still find it a wonder how it all came together! When we lived in Jerusalem there was a monthly 1 shekel (25cents) sale at our local thrift store, so we would go two weeks before Purim to find pieces of interesting clothing to make costumes. I don't remember at what point my son decided he wanted to be a Jungle King, but we sure had some good luck in finding these interesting pieces of clothing. And the zebra fur collar as a hat? That was his brilliant idea!

I stayed up quite late the night before the school Purim parade, making the scepter for him, and thanks to the make-up expertise of a neighbor, well I think he won first prize!

So the message here is, don't ever let your young kids near all those stores selling un-original costumes and you may just be able to convince them that homemade is the best! And when they're a bit older, you'll have no problem convincing them, as long as you invest just a bit of time and creativity into the whole process! 

I've been making costumes from thrift store clothing for years, with absolutely no sewing knowledge, and for that matter, no sewing! Since the clothing you'll be using is certainly not anything precious, so a trusty pair of good scissors, a glue gun and some safety pins here and there will most likely do the trick!

In some cases, so a few store bought accessories are necessary to make the costume look its best (a sword, a shield, gloves etc.) but creative re-use is the funnest for everyone! And assuming your kids aren't shy, so they'll just love all the compliments and attention lavished upon them. Go for it!

For this Jungle King Costume I Used:

• 1 red paisley long sleeved woman's dress
• 1 petite sized woman's jacket with gold buttons and red embellishments
• 1 zebra patterned collar for a coat
• 1 broom stick + 1 plastic leopard for scepter (together with red and gold spray paint, some wooden beads and some lanyard cord)
• a white shirt and a pair of pants

Have fun and if you need some advice, so drop me a line, I'll be happy to help!

From A Simple Crocheted (& Felted) Square: A Sweet Envelope Or A Potholder!

Need a little something handmade to show you care? Want to practice crocheting and have something to show for your efforts? Looking for a little project that will fulfill an immediate need to craft? (That was me, by the way, which is how this came about!) When the idea struck, I quickly crocheted this square from 100% wool yarn while trying to feed my kids dinner Saturday night. I wanted to finish the square in time to throw it in the laundry with the day's load of darks, in order to felt it a bit. Sounds like fun? It is!

Today I pressed the square with my hot steam iron, photographed it flat and then sewed it up into the little envelope that you see here! How's that for a behind the scenes description of my creative adventures?

You'll Need:

• 100% wool yarn in two or three colors, I used "worsted weight"
• crochet hook slightly bigger than what you'd normally use if you plan to felt your work, I used an "I", though I'd normally use a "g".

How To:

• Guage is unimportant in this project, the goal quite simply is to crochet a square using the single crochet stitch.
• If you'd like to felt your square, so take into consideration that it will shrink by about 1/3 if you choose to utilize my casual felting method, which is to throw it into the washing machine with a load of like-colored clothing, and then into the dryer! You can put it through the washing machine again if the felting isn't as dense as you'd like.

1. Crochet a base chain roughly 8.5" long
2. Turn and start crocheting in the second chain from the hook
3. When turning work for all subsequent rows, chain 1 at beginning of row.
4. Change colors where desired for stripes, and stop crocheting when you have a square.
5. Make a colored border by crocheting around the entire square. Crochet three stitches into each corner to form an actual corner.
6. Weave loose ends into work with an large needle, weaving horizontally into rows of like colored yarn to hide ends.
7. To make the envelope, bring three corners together and sew seams with a needle and like colored yarn. Attach two buttons as shown and braid a small tie to loop around the buttons as a closure.
8. Who wouldn't love to get a card in an envelope like this that can certainly be used again to store jewelry or small precious items!