creative jewish mom

4:30 am Notes On Last Minute Succah Decorating!

Last year's succah, a subtle combination of pinks and golds......

If on account of the 90% Lindt chocolate that I ate about an hour ago, I still have energy at 4:30 to write this post, then it's a great discovery and much healthier than coffee! Well dear readers, tomorrow at around 5pm we will usher in the wonderful holiday of Succot, and so now is the time to finish decorating our succahs, especially for those of us who still have cooking to do tomorrow!

So some last minute advice for those of you whose succahs still need a little bit of color: strips of inexpensive satin fabric do wonders for blank walls, and if you buy the cheapest fabric you can rip it vertically as well as horizontally, which is what I did!  Paper chinese lanterns and round lamp shades in all sizes are great touches, as are anything you might find in a Pier 1 type import store!

This year my succah is well, lets just say on the very bright side, as opposed to the elegant gold succah of year's past, and I think my kids will certainly enjoy it, though everyone else may need to don sunglasses. Not really, just it's a major change and I'm still a little bit in shock myself!

And my last tip before the holiday is cupcake liners! Yes indeed, take a big needle and some thread and string the cupcake liners for vertical or horizontal garlands. Okay I didn't do that exactly, I actually turned the super cute cupcake liners inside out and pinned them to my strips of satin fabric polka dot style along the bottom portion of the fabric, 10 cupcake liners per strip of fabric. If you want to be the second person in the whole world to do this in your succah go ahead, I think it's kind of cute, and certainly a little different!

That's all for now, wishing you all a wonderful Succos, and while I won't be posting any crafting ideas during the holiday, you can look forward to lots and lots and lots of photos of my recent European adventure! All the best!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, it's great to be here with so many creative bloggers from places like Australia, Singapore, Jakarta, Macedonia, The United Kingdom, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Portugal, Sweden, The Netherlands, The United States, Germany and maybe even a few more places I may have overlooked! Last weeks party was packed with amazing projects, thanks to you all!

 

Tomorrow night starts the wonderful week long holiday of Succot, so I'm running off to get my succah decorated. If you ever decide to give yourself a name similar to creativejewishmom, just do consider that all eyes will be on you, and the pressure will be on to have the best succah in town! Oh well, it's too late now, and since I'm always up for loosing sleep for crafting, I guess I'll just have to rise to the occassion and drink some more coffee! Wish me luck and enjoy the features from last week's party:

Rings made from broken china from mormors glamour and this adorable crocheted mushroom (and knome) book end from Anne Marie, what a brilliant way to incorporate more crochet into one's home!

Some fun fall crochet: a unique bracelet from homemade at my place, and this adorable little crocheted pumpkin, with pattern, from happy in red.

Love these fabric and corn husk pumpkins from craftiments, and these yarn wrapped fall letters from repeat crafter me, which she actually framed, so take a look!

Love this colorful tunisian crochet phone cover from Joy Jonne hooks, and this fun quilt from sweet crunchy jewy.

And since Succos is almost here, two fun projects for the holiday: a hula hoop chandelier from design megillah, and a fun coloring page to download from Ann Koffsky. 

This recycled bottle apple, made from my tutorial here, was submitted by 10 little lucky, and she did a great job! And even more exciting, is that organized 31 was inspired by my recycled bottle apple to make woven pumpkins, brilliant!

That's all for now, looking forward to seeing what you've been up to!

Plastic Papel Piccado And Other Rain Proof Succah Decor Ideas

Here in Israel we do occasionally have rain during Succos, but not enough to really influence how we decorate our succah. This morning I was speaking with an old friend in Montreal, who does have to worry about rain during succos, so I thought I'd do a little post with some ideas for decorating a succah that won't fall apart if in fact it does rain.

I have some plastic paper piccado, the Mexican tissue paper decorations that are gorgeous in plastic too. You may not have time to locate some this year, but look for them in import stores, Mexican stores and stores that sell colorful kitsch. This won't be too helpful for most of you, but I did see them at Kitchen Kitsch in Amsterdam, if you're ever there, and of course you can certainly purchase some in Mexico, which is where my husband bought this one!

As far as other ideas for rain-proof decor, here's a little list:

• Think about using oil cloth, or thick patterned plastic table cloth material to make "paper" chains, or even cut out shapes of any kind and make fun garlands. Oil cloth is great for those who sew too, you can make fun bunting banners and all kinds of wall hangings!
• Plastic bottle flowers are perfect, and can be used in so many ways.
• Make lanterns out of plastic bottles by cutting off the top and bottom and decorate with a fringe of strips of torn fabric.
• Use embroidery hoops and strips of fabric to make fun wind catchers, or tiered lanterns of sorts.
• Come to think of it, how about hanging plastic beads from metal rings, or making garlands from wooden or plastic beads, that will certainly hold up in the rain!
• Or how about making some fun decorations using metal lamp shade frames, there's so many ways to go with that idea!
• And of course you could crochet some flowers from plastic cord or plastic bag yarn if you're so inclined. 

So my friends, the chance of rain is really no excuse for a bare succah, go for it!

A Giant Paper Chain For The Succah!

Paper chains are traditional succah decor around here, and my kids love making them. Infact they surprised me with this one last night after I came home from running some errands, and I just love that it's big and chunky as opposed to some of the more delicate chains they've made in the past.

Now, I have to confess, in previous years my elegant gold toned Succah really couldn't have sported such colorful chains, so fortunately in the past we have actually had two succahs, one for sleeping and one for eating, so the sleeping succah contained all the kid's artwork, while the eating succah was my turf. This year however we're having fewer guests and so we really only need one succah, and fortunately I had already decided that the elegant gold toned Succah has run it's course and it's time for some color, so I will find a way to hang this chain center stage!

Have a wonderful time decorating your succah, it's the perfect opportunity to share your creativity with family and friends. Plus we get to sit in the succah for seven (eight outside of Israel) lovely days and enjoy our efforts! Okay, gotta run!

 

Yom Kippur Is At Our Doorstep!

Dear Readers, Yom Kippur is knocking at our door, so I'm just stopping by for a few minutes to wish you all an easy fast and a day of meaningful introspection! Gemar chatima tovah to those of you celebrating the holiday, and wishing the very best for each and every one of you who join me here.

I have a little surprise to share with you, and that is that I've actually been on a little European adventure the past two weeks! I don't know how much I'll be able to share of our very last minute Succah decorating, but I will certainly be back to share with you lots of travel photos that I'll post during the week of Succot while we're celebrating in our Succah. So stay tuned!

Ceramic Plaques Crafted By Kids (For The Succah?)

I just realized that these sweet ceramic plaques created by my seven and eight year old sons will be perfect decorations for the Succah! We try to hang things in our Succah to honor great sages and important figures in Jewish history, so these creations which depict the burial site of Rachel Imeinu are really quite perfect!

While of course Succot is just around the corner, next Sunday night, you could make something similar from air drying clay that could be painted, or keep this idea in mind for next year! 

My efforts at succah decorating are going to be a little last minute this year on account of a very busy schedule, but I'll try to keep you posted with some last minute ideas! Enjoy!

The Yaffo/Tel Aviv Flea Market!

A few weeks ago I at long last made it back to the Tel Aviv/Yaffo flea market in search of some treasures for an interior design project I'm working on.  I have visited my fair share of flea markets around the world, and this one is certainly worth a visit even if you aren't in the market for any fleas! Though I must say, one must really know the value of the things one may want to purchase or you could end up paying twice what they're really worth, especially with say new items from India or antique linens.

Yaffo in itself is a very interesting neighborhood with lots of old buildings and is located right on the Mediterranean. While you can't enjoy the gorgeous sea from the flea market, it's quite close.

The flea market consists of several streets of warehouse like stores that bring many of their wares out on to the sidewalk, as well as several little lanes of stalls selling things like jewelry, clothing and linens.

If you're looking for French antiques, like these chairs, this is the place. As I recall these chairs were 600 shekels each, not a steal, but not a bad price since a new dining room chair of questionable quality will cost you at least 800 shekels.

As we ventured inside to view more French antiques, I couldn't help but marvel at this amazing vaulted ceiling!

 

 If you're looking for interesting lighting, there are a few stores that also sell new fixtures that they will assemble for you from the parts of your choice. I found some great wall sconces in this store,  after the owner said, "ah, I think I know what you're looking for, I don't know why it's not here, I'll just bring one out for you." And sure enough, he was right, that one last choice was it!

After spending hours in the lighting store I went outside and looked up. Wow, what an amazing balcony filled with blooming bouganvillea in a range of colors!

 Where I live we can only grow the magenta bouganvillea as the other colors are not hardy enough, but this is a great idea for those of you who live in central Israel or any tropical climate.

And if you need a little break from all things dusty and rusty, so head on over to this sweet shop called Sofi, on Rabbi Nachman Street. A great place to visit if you can't make it to Amsterdam.....

 Another look at a typical street scene.

A beautiful antique Chanukah menorah.....hmmmm.....forgot to ask how much they wanted for it! I guess we'll just have to go back to the flea market again soon!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome back to Craft Schooling Sunday! It's now a new year on the Jewish calender, which means a chance to start anew. Maybe just maybe I'll actually start sewing this year and maybe even start that quilt I'm dreaming of? Time will certainly tell, but in the meantime, I'm so fortunate to have you all here sharing your creativity with the world! Last week's party was full of great projects, and here are just some of my favorites:

Love this crocheted zpaghetti (t-shirt yarn) mandala cushion from estrea chikitu, and this gilded coconut bowl from family chic is just gorgeous!

 

Carolyn's Homework revamped an old planter and made this fab one, and I just love Joy Jonne's egg cozy, with a free pattern to boot!

This peacock pillow from the sewing loft blog is a charmer, as are these cut paper gems from mini eco.

Mich in L.A. is brilliant as always with a leaf bracelet made from artificial leaves, perfect for a costume! And repeat crafter me made these fun zip up apple containers which are great anytime!

 

Love this postage stamp jewelry tutorial from jewelry making journal, and Can't Stop Making Things has a great tip for how to use shoe polish in your crafting projects, really!

And for the kiddos, try a fun autumn nature mobile from Red Ted Art, or make your own patterned paper and use it to cover your books, from Se7en. That's all for now, what have you been up to? 

Decoupaged Napkin Plaques Kids Can Make (For the Succah!)

 These decoupage napkin plaques were made by one of my older sons quite a few years ago, though I thought I'd share them with you as this is an example of the kind of craft that kids of all ages can do with just a little bit of instruction! My son had a great time choosing napkins that would represent some of the fruits and grains that we honor in the Succah (grapes, olives, dates, figs, pomegranites, wheat and barley), and as I remember, sat for hours assembling his works of art by first decoupaging the napkins to the mdf crafting plaques and then decorating with sequins and little plastic mosaic tiles. 

This could be a great project to set up for the kids and in no time you'll have lots of great art for your Succah!

Decoupage And Sequin Ornaments (For The Succah!)

It's time to get crafting for Succot dear readers, so here's a really fun way to make some beautiful ornaments for your Succah or even to add a little festive touch to your fall table. This is a fun project for all ages, and while the kid's versions won't look like these, they will be sweet and child like, which is even better sometimes!

Hang them from fishline, singly with some beads knotted on the string, or hang a few sizes on the same string for something that one might hang in a window or on a wall.

You'll Need:

• styrofoam balls
• patterned napkins
• mod podge or any decoupage medium
• sequins and sequin pins
• a very long needle (for making a hole through the ball for hanging)

How To:

Decoupage napkins onto foam ball following the instructions here. I usually poke a wooder skewer into the ball so that I can then poke the ball into a piece of styrofoam as a stand for drying. After ball is dry apply patterns using plastic sequin pins and sequins, or with straight pins and sequins if sequin pins are not available.

Display in a bowl, or hang with fishing line or the string or wire of your choice. Gorgeous!