creative jewish mom

Decorate Canvas Tote Bags With Fabric Markers

Canvas tote bags are great for crafting and simply drawing on them with fabric markers could be a really fun take-home party project, or gift bag just about any time. Purim is just around the corner, and my daughter and I had fun making these to use either on Purim for transporting little gifts, or even as gift bags themselves. We're not quite sure yet, but we still have a week to decide! In any case, these bags were only 3 shekels (about 75 cents) each, so there will definitely be some more in our future!

You'll Need:

• inexpensive blank canvas tote bags
• fabric markers: we used Tulip fabric markers, Tulip neon fabric markers,  and some Crayola medium point fabric markers
• a pencil and eraser
• freezer paper to iron on to the inside for stability, or a piece of cereal box cardboard

How To:

Iron a piece of freezer paper to the inside to stabilize the fabric and prevent ink from leaking through to the other side, or  simply cut a piece of cardboard to fit snuggly inside the bag. Draw your design with pencil and then go over it with fabric markers. Set aside to dry and set according to manufacturers instructions. 

I don't think anyone can ever really have too many tote bags, so these would be welcomed gifts anytime!

How To Make All Natural Almond Milk

Photo source here.

Ever thought about making your own all natural sugar-free almond milk at home? And guess what, it's really quite simple and a great way to enjoy almond milk without all the additives you'll find in the store bought version. And, for those of you, like me, who might for some health or allergy reasons be avoiding cow's milk at the moment, almond milk is the solution to not having to forgo that morning cup of coffee or tea with milk. A big PHEW, is all I have to say. It's pouring rain outside a the moment which means taking photos of some recent projects isn't possible with ease, so I thought I'd share this with you!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds, soaked for 8 hours in water, or blanched
• 1 liter of water
• 1 large date (optional)
• a splash of vanilla 

How To:

Add almonds, date, and half of the water to a strong blender and blend. Strain almond milk into a pitcher using a cheesecloth bag, or in my case a clean brand new knee high. (You can also use a fine strainer over a bowl, or a piece of cheese cloth inside a strainer over a bowl.) I put the knee-high over the mouth of the blender, put the bottom of the knee-high in the pitcher and then carefully pour the contents of the blender into the set-up.  Squeeze out the straining device of your choice into the pitcher to get every last drop, and return the remaining pulp to the blender one more time and repeat with the remainder of the water. 

If you will be using the almond milk for coffee and it bothers you if it separates, I just read that one can heat the milk to avoid this happening. Heat on low and simmer for 15 minutes. Not sure if this extra step is worth the trouble, but just keep it in mind. Also, the milk keeps for no more than 5 days, and possibly less if not well sealed, so you may want to consider halving the recipe, which is what I've been doing.

Do save the left over almond pulp for baking, or adding to ground meat or who knows what else. Haven't done too much with that idea yet. I did add it to some whole wheat pasta, which seemed like a great idea to me, but wasn't met with so much excitement by at least one kiddo. So maybe I'll try some healthy cookies or something, I'll keep you posted! And by the way, almond milk really is delicious as a milk substitute with say oats or quinoa, or granola, and I have to say it's the only milk substitute that really actually stands on its own taste wise. So giving up cow's milk really can be done with minimal discomfort, yippee! 

Castle Centerpiece From Recycled Cardboard Tubes

Purim is just around the corner and I'm thinking about castles — castles made out of recycled cardboard tubes and a shoebox, of course! I've always wanted to make a castle, and realized that a colorful castle crafted by mom or the kids or both, could be a fantastic centerpiece for the Purim sueda (meal). There's so many ways to go with this one as far as materials and size. And if you don't need a centerpiece so how about a castle mishloach manos? Just build your castle on the lid of  the shoe box and voila! I think I may just have to use that idea myself, for the kid's teachers that is, who deserve something really special, and are expecting something creative! I guess that's the price one pays when you don't hide your crafty ways!

And the great thing about this castle is that is looks great from all sides, assuming you take that a bit into consideration when building it! Here's a view from the back, and yes the pieces aren't perfect or straight, as my son pointed out to me this morning, but I did that on purpose, because ya know perfection isn't everything!

You'll Need:

• cardboard tubes of all kinds, also mailing tubes which tend to be much wider!
• round cans or just about anything thick and round, how about a piece of pvc pipe?
• a shoe box
• wrapping paper
• colored paper
• sheer patterned disposable table runner fabric, it's stiff and easy to work with
• glittered craft foam
• hot glue and/or high tack craft glue like Alene's
• mod podge
• wooden skewers

How To:

Follow my directions, but since your castle won't be exactly like mine, don't be afraid to re-invent this project a bit!

1. Cover the bottom of your shoe box with some fun patterned wrapping paper. If you'll be making a castle gift box, so cover the bottom of the shoe box and the lid separately, and continue to build your castle on the lid. 
2. Cover the bottom of the shoebox (namely the base for your castle) with a solid piece of paper, using mod podge or diluted white glue, as the patterned wrapping paper might be a bit too distracting.
3. Cover toilet paper tubes, some cut down to half their size and some stacked two together (or more) with the sheer sparkled (gold in my case) table runner material.
4. Cover your largest tube, (mine is actually a box that held a bottle of scotch, so glad to finally use it!) with a bright piece of solid colored paper and make some window or castle like details of some kinds by applying other colors of cut outs with mod podge.
5. Make some window and door details for the shoe box portion of your castle and affix with mod podge.
6. Now it's time to make roofs and details using the sparkled craft foam! Roofs are basically circles with a slit in them, and then you overlap the pieces on either side of the slit to form a little cone shape, and adhere with hot glue. Attach the roofs with hot glue or high tack glue. Attach look out tower details (forgot what those are called) to the tallest tubes, as well as some peep holes and tiny windows, using hot glue or high tack glue.
7. Glue everything together, both to the base and to each other where possible, make a few flags and you're done!
8. Sit back and enjoy gazing at your wonderful castle and give yourself a pat on the back, you really are royalty if you managed to make this palace with everything else that's going on before Purim!

 

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was just a bit smaller, but that doesn't mean we didn't have great projects and crafters from around the world. You know, places like Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, France, Great Britain, Macedonia, Italy, The United States, Singapore, and Israel! Love typing out that list and feeling like I'm traveling around the world by connecting with you all! And now for the wonderfully creative features:

Lilla A. is right on with these cabbage printed dish towels, and Craft and Creativity wrapped boxes with yarn and together with some matching paper made these really wonderfully joyful boxes.

And now for the two crafters who regularly contribute to the party and who both deserve the title "classy crafters" since really all of their projects are just that, beautiful and elegant. First off Rita from Design Megillah made some wonderful tzedaka boxes for giving charity on Purim (and year round), and Carolyn over at Carolyn's Homework made these great little stands from capiz plates from the dollar store.

Bon bon's for your doll's tea party? So sweet from pysselbolaget. And speaking of sweet, like double sweet, Jen over at the crumb factory came up with this super simple idea for balloon cupcakes! 

Linda from mermaid's creations made some great Estonian Independance Day cards with her daughter, and those blue corn flowers are made with a carrot stamp! Love this crocheted granny beanie, and Revlie over at revving it up, has a wonderful step by step tutorial, so all you need is the yarn!

Kathy over at nurture store made these really crafty garden tiles with a group of kids, and the ever creative Michele over at mich in L.A. just can't stop making jewelry from the most unexpected things.... this time a pacifier!

Sandy over at Sandy's Place made this amazing paper charms bracelet, and Tali over at matzo soup did this celephane and dish soap stained glass window, which I think could be great for Purim!

That's all for now, hope you're inspired to have a crafty creative week! And now for the next installment of Craft Schooling Sunday, come one come all!

 

Signs Of Spring In The Upper Galilee

When the wild red poppies start covering the fields in the Galil, you know that Spring is here. There really is nothing quite as lovely and inspiring as taking a walk and suddenly coming upon a field of gorgeous wild flowers. Especially when you're not expecting it! 

This week I took my son to the dentist in the little town of Rosh Pina, and fortunately brought my camera along!

Ah, an orchard of olive trees and the lush green rolling hills of Northern Israel. Looks like Northern California, right? While you're pondering that thought, brace yourself for the next photo, which I'm quite sure will totally change your perception of what Israel looks like!

What? A snow covered mountain? Yes, my friends, this is Mount Hermon, the tallest mountain in Israel, who also happens to bridge the border between Israel and Syria. We can't see this mountain from our home, so when it came into site on the way to the dentist, our jaws just dropped.

Now really, where in the world do you think this might be? Colorado? Utah? Montana? 

So now I can say that I have witnessed two of my favorite things together, red poppies and snow covered mountains. Simply gorgeous. I've been carrying this awesome picture in my mind all week as I've been busy with all kinds of things other than crafting!  There's really only one word to describe it....wow.

Shoe Box Dollhouse Craft For Kids

As you know from yesterday's post, we've been busy making some shoebox dollhouse rooms, and I'm so happy to say this project was a huge success. My kids are even talking about building their own multi-story house from the shoe box rooms they'll make. And, if one lets the child really do as much as they can on their own, this can be a truly creative project!

You'll Need:

• 1 shoe box, without the cover
• colored paper
• foam scraps, for the bed and pillow
• small round mirrors in a few sizes
• a paper doily makes a great rug
• little medicine boxes (turn them inside out and paint them) for furniture
• a crocheted blanket that you asked mom to make

How To: Glue colored paper to the inside of the box and make the room of your dreams using all kinds of little bits and pieces of craft supplies and recyclables. Do it all in one sitting or work on it over the course of a week or so. Enjoy, I know we certainly did! Whoops almost forgot there's one more room to show:

The light is made from a soap bottle nozzle, pretty great right? And that rug, well it's just so lovely I'm trying to figure out how to make one life sized. And by the way, I forgot to mention that these two rooms were made by my 9 1/2 year old daughter, and I have a feeling these are just the first in a series of many!

 

Shoe Box Dollhouse For An Exhibition!

Shoe box dollhouses are so much fun to make, for boys and girls alike! I've been wanting to do something like this with my kids for ages, but it took the Shoebox Dollhouse Exhibition over at Lilla A. Design to get us moving. And I'm so glad that we decided to participate, because my two kids who chose to make rooms both loved it so much they want to make more. In fact my daughter is working on her second room right now!

The idea for the exhibition is that the kids should do the project with very little help from their parents, so I can honestly say that was the case here. I sat my 6 1/2 year old down with an Ed Emberley's Make A World, and suggested that he might like to draw some of the furniture for the book. He fortunately had his own idea and decided to make a room for a policeman! (Yes, that's really a pilot, but he'll do for now.....) I cut the foam for the pillow and the piece of felt for the bedspread, but that's it. 

My son's main concern at the moment is whether anyone will be making a kitchen for the dollhouse? We may just have to give it a go ourselves, we'll see what transpires after school today, and stay tuned for more photos tomorrow! Oh, and by the way, entries will be accepted until Feb. 21 (tomorrow) so there's still a bit of time to get your kids involved in this fun project!

Lastest Breaking News: Our friends over at the great site Se7en have informed us that they are making a kitchen, so we're off the hook, phew!

Foraging For Edible Wild Greens

Above, left to right: Milk thistle and wild Mallow, both edible plants.

Dear Readers, I have a little surprise for you! Today's post is going to introduce a topic which I know nothing about, but which certainly falls in the category of creative living. Just the other day it came to my attention that Ronit Peskin was knowledgable about foraging for wild edible plants, so I asked her to write a little guest post since it certainly does sound interesting! And the short list of edible plants that she gave me includes many that I already recognize from our nature walks, so exiting! Of course I'm not so sure I'll be harvesting any Milk Thistle anytime soon, due to those huge thorns, but you never know. Enjoy!

The following guest post was written by Ronit Peskin, a mother of 3, who lives in the Jerusalem area, and loves foraging for wild edibles, as well as writing about the topic of frugal living in general.

It's no secret — food prices are going up dramatically around the globe. For those of us with growing families and an income that is, unfortunately, not growing, it is getting harder and harder to feed our families good, wholesome meals without breaking the bank. Imagine being able to pick your own nutritious, organic veggies that you could use to supplement your family's diet while lowering your grocery costs...

Living on a farm and growing my own food is a dream of mine, but unfortunately not reality while I'm living in an apartment with no yard... Even for those with a yard, gardening might seem a bit too daunting, getting the seeds to not only sprout correctly but overcome pests and bad weather... and in Israel, with the high price of water, gardening may not turn out to be so cost efficient.

The solution? Foraging for wild edibles! In Israel, I've heard that 90% of the plants that grow are edible. Now I don't know if that's exactly true, but it certainly seems that way; nearly all the plants I've been able to identify have turned out to be edible (with only a few exceptions). I've become obsessed with wild edibles lately. People have asked me when I forage and I respond that the better question is when I don't forage. You see, knowing just how many plants are edible means that when I see a plant somewhere, whether its on a walk to the library, at the playground, or going to the store, I can't help but pick some to eat. (Provided, of course, that the plants are in a place that I'm permitted to pick and its not stealing.) I've started bringing shopping bags with me any time I leave my house, after too many times that I was caught with a huge amount of plants I wanted to pick but no way to carry them home.

Above, left to right: Wild Mustard and Chickweed, both edible plants.

I'm a self taught forager. I picked up a few books here and there about wild edibles in Israel, but most of them have been of terrible quality and very limited in the plants they cover. In addition to those books, I scour the internet for information about plants I come across to ascertain whether or not they're edible, and then if I discover that they are, add them to the already long list of plants that I pick and eat.

Because I love foraging, I love to share my knowledge of all these amazing wild edibles with anyone who'd like to learn. This Tuesday, Feb 21st, I'm leading a wild edibles walk in Gan Sacher in Jerusalem where I can pass on my love of plants to you, so that you too can discover all the delicious and nutritious food growing right beneath your nose. If you'd like to join us, you can find me on Facebook on the Gan Sacher Wild Edibles page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gan-Sakker-Wild-Edibles-Walk/133084346809802, email me at rmpeskin@gmail.com or call me at 052-396-5577 to reserve a spot for yourself.

Cost of the class is 25 shekel for adults, 5 shekel for children between the ages of 5 and 17, and includes a print out with information to help you identify the plants even after you go home. If you can't make this class, we'll be having another class on Monday, February 27th at 10:30 am.

Looking forward to spreading the wild edibles love!

Above, left to right: Nettle and Wild Fennel, both edible plants.

Thanks so much to Ronit for wetting our appetites on this interesting topic! Maybe we'll have to have her back with some recipes! In the mean time, you can find tons of information on the web, and just please do be careful to only eat plants that you are absolutely sure are edible. We certainly don't want anyone to get sick! Oh, and that list of edible plants that grow in my area is: wild mustard, wild fennel, chickweed, sow thistle, milk thistle, plantain, mallow, nettle, and many more! 

I think foraging may just be a great reason to get out there and enjoy nature!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was packed with amazing projects, thanks to all of you amazing crafters from around the world. And now, without further ado or a list of all the countries that participated (my favorite!) here's the features from last week:

Love this poetic wood scrap house project from that artist woman, and am completely blown away by this brilliant wine cork and champagne cork makeover by Alessia, though you'll need to review your Italian to understand her instructions......doesn't that make it that much more interesting?

I love the decoupage job that Aisling Beatha did on her Marmite jar, and these upcycled garden markers from spoons are great, kuddos to domestic goddesque!

Here's two treat ideas that would be perfect for Purim: monster candy boxes from a creative cookie, and heart shaped rice crispie treat pops from nurture store.

I just love this bag and Kindle cover from happy in red, and Sandy from Sandy's Space made a bunch of these great crowns for a tea party!

Maggy over at red ted art made these great paper bag wild things masks, and this felt pirate hat from tales of the scotts would be perfect for Purim too!

That's all for now, do step up and join the party, won't you? And, you don't have to have a blog to participate, you can also link to photos from a flickr account, just please add a description to your photo.

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Crocheted Curls For Purim!

I know, these probably look more like crocheted rose buds to you, but no my friends, for Purim this year they are most definitely crocheted curls! With Purim a little less than three weeks off, and a packed schedule on top of that, I figured I'd better get started on the costumes a bit early this year. Maybe I can finally be ready early and avoid that all-nighter making the costumes?

Old habits die hard, and funny enough, a few days ago when my eight year old saw me furiously crocheting another project for Purim, he got a little anxious thinking Purim must be right around the corner. When I informed him that Purim was in three weeks, he got a strange look on his face and said "so why are you doing this so early?" Sweet boy, even craft obsessed, sleep deprived, creative moms can change their ways, right?

So in case you're wondering, I am crocheting these aqua curls as I'm in the process of making this adorable crocheted wig for my daughter. (I have to tell you though, I first tried following the pattern, but since my gauge must have been off the whole thing was a disaster and I ended up ripping it out and simply making my own pattern for the base.) 

While most of you will most likely not be making this same wig for yourself or your darling daughter, you could use the idea of crocheted curls in other ways— sew a bunch onto a little baby hat for a cute little head of curls hat, or don't you think they look a bit like a little lamb's wool.....wouldn't a little lamb costume be just adorable? I'm sure you'll figure it out, just let me know when you do! Okay, gotta run still got 40 more curls to crochet.

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