creative jewish mom

A Long Awaited Visit to the Kotel

We moved to Northern Israel from Jerusalem about 2 1/2 years ago, and the 3 youngest in our family had not seen the kotel since then, and certainly had no memories of this Holy place. Our neighbors were making a wedding for their oldest son in Jerusalem, something we couldn't miss, so we used this opportunity to make the trip into a one-night mini vacation.

The Kotel in June was packed with visitors of all kinds, Israeli soldiers, school children on their year-end field trip, tourists from all over the world and us!

I taught my seven year old daughter about the power of davening at the Kotel, about what to ask for.....
Like generations and generations of women before us, we are but a link in this holy tradition. What greater gift can a mother give her daughter? I think she got it:

Here are some typical yet beautiful images from the Kotel:

Looking up at the plants that grow from between the stones.

A close-up of the notes of request left by visitors— crammed into every possible crevice.

Jewish women of all kinds pray with heartfelt sentiment. Truly something very special.

Not a typical photo, but I've been telling my children a story about a bird that visits the kotel, so I thought I'd take some photos for the story.....I was a bit embarrassed to do this, and wondered if wasn't so respectful. But my intentions are to instill in my children's hearts a love for the holy place, so I hope it's okay!

We took a walk up into the Old City and I spotted this gorgeous Jacaranda tree in bloom.

Now that we are home and I am posting these photos, I have to admit that traveling with small children isn't the easiest thing to do! But I am happy to say now that we have finally visited the Kotel we will have something to talk about for weeks to come. And if I could just get some of these photos printed onto real paper that would be really good too!

Enjoy traveling with your children this summer —whether your outings are local or to far-away places.
The main thing is not to plan too much for little children and to always be prepared with hats, sunscreen, water, sandwiches and some sugar-free candies to use as bribes when they have exhaustion induced tantrums in which they lie down on the hot dirty sidewalk. (Take it in stride it happens to the best of us!)

Quick Cork Board Collage — Floral Inspiration

 

What is this you ask? Well, it's that oh so simple project that I dreamed of and saved for a good 12 years ago! (A co-worker of mine did a similar thing in her cubicle.) And it finally came to fruition as a Shav uos decorating project. What might that be? A collage of beautiful flower and garden photos collected from old magazines. A very modern clean reference to Har Sinai.

A mini-escape for those of us who are garden lovers and a great way to teach our children appreciation for the bounty of color and design we can find in nature. And all you need is a cork board (or two) some pushpins, and some magazine or catalog photos. Or really, all you need is the photos and some tape and you could achieve the same effect on the door of a closet, a wall you don't care about, or really any piece of furniture, even as decoupage!

These cork boards actually reside in my children's small toy/coat room and so I added some photos of birds and other animals to keep it interesting for them. But a board like this would look great in any room of the house, and if you want to get even more artistic with it you can add bits of fabric, ribbon, real leaves, you name it.

Have fun and enjoy your new work of art. Like me you'll be grateful for the addition of such a simple joyful element to your home.

A Picnic Dinner In The Park

Now that the days are long and the weather quite warm, the perfect end of the day activity for me and the three little ones is a picnic dinner in the park. Nothing elaborate, not even a picnic blanket, but a great way to get outdoors at the end of the day and breathe some fresh evening air.

We started the climb from our house to a lovely park at the very highest point of the city, and on the way stopped to marvel at some wild red poppies growing between the cobblestones.

We continued on our way and stopped to look at a cut-iron balcony rail I had never noticed, and a charming old carved door frame recycled as a decorative window frame.

Finally we made it to the top of the city, and took a deep breath as we looked up at the towering trees and the big sky.

We entered the park and enjoyed looking at some of the plants, especially a fig tree just beginning to show small fruits and a pomegranite tree in bloom.

By this time the sun was starting to set, and we needed to get on with the serious business of eating our casual picnic — whole wheat pizza roll-ups (I set aside some dough from a pita baking session earlier in the day to make these picnic perfect baked sandwiches) and cucumbers.

Somebody around here definately loves his food!

We enjoyed the grass and the sunset, and a group of highschool girls nearby happened to just have three extra popsicles which they offered to the children for dessert! Soon it became time to head home, and after a stop at the store to buy a few neccessities we headed home down the carless cobblestone streets.

After a quick shower the children hopped into bed with smiles on their faces and more than ready for a good night's sleep.

Note to myself: Do this more often!

Note to my readers: Getting out of the house with a picnic dinner is great for you too. No dirty dishes, and that great feeling of having actually gone somewhere and done something even if your destination was just around the corner!

A Kallah's Chair and a Chandelier

I guess you must be wondering what a Kallah's (bride's) chair and a chandelier have in common in order to share the title of this blog entry? Well the answer is artificial roses! Now let me just start by saying that once upon a time I surely would have turned my nose up at the idea of artificial flowers of almost any sort, but now I've come to appreciate them for what they are. I'm not going to run and fill vases full of plastic flowers to decorate my home, but they can be used in some very interesting and beautiful ways that would be difficult with real flowers and you have the added bonus of being able to enjoy your creations for as long as you choose! And I found these quite realistic looking white roses and peonies at the dollar store for a dollar a stem, so I bought them all.

The purpose of my purchase was to decorate a special chair for a Kallah friend of mine. It just so turned out that Shavuos fell right before the wedding and so I grabbed those flowers and quickly used them to decorate the chandelier hanging over our dining room table. I simply layed the stems of the flowers across the arms of the chandelier, and they nicely complemented the small strings of apples that have been hanging there since a Bar Mitzvah celebration a year ago. The result was beautiful and very fitting for the Shavuos holiday.

The morning after Shavuos/Shabbos was over, I quickly took the above picture and then took down the roses for their next mission. Using the ladder back chair in the picture above, a hula hoop (to make a raised back) and about five white table clothes I created the chair for the Kallah. Whew! the chair looked great in the wedding hall, and for a "carpet" leading up to it I quickly taped a long piece of lavender disposable table cloth material to the floor! (At this point guests had actually started to arrive so I was just a bit embarrassed to be down there on the floor, but that's the life of a creative woman!) Sounds a bit funny but it actually looked beautiful. Oh, and I didn't have the standard rose petals to scatter on the "carpet" so I cut petal shapes from some shiny lavender and aqua ribbons that I had used to decorate the mechitza and that did the trick. After the wedding I brought the chair home to use for the Sheva Brachas at my home the next night, and I'm still enjoying looking at it days later.

Before signing off, I'd just like to offer some advice regarding dining room chandeliers.Go for something with multiple arms that you can use as a base for a myriad of decorations. Every birthday I drape the chandelier with colorful ribbons, on Chanukah I hang dreidels from the chandelier, one Tu B'Shevat I hung pinecones, just to name a few ideas. It gives such a festive feeling with very little effort —instant decorating at it's best.

My Baby is Four Years Old!

I just can't believe four years have passed since my youngest was born. Time flies by as we watch him grow and change and become even sweeter every day. I think the "baby" of the family probably touches every mother's heart in a different way, so when he requested a "doobie cake" (teddy bear) I just had to comply even though I'm really not much of a baker or a cake decorator. I always go for simple good-tasting cakes and decorations that make a statement without too much time investment. So honestly, a teddy bear cake, even one baked in a teddy bear shaped pan is a little beyond my realm, but I had to give it a go for my baby.

I really didn't know what I would do, but armed with some parve whip, some black licorice, some round chocolate m&m type candies and sprinkles I got to work. Sitting on it's own on the tray, the cake looked a bit funny, but with the addition of some paper balloon cut outs and a crown, I was really happy with the result. And best of all, my son was literally speachless when my husband brought the cake to his class for the school party.

Icing the cake, decorating it and taking this picture took around 1 1/2 hours. The licorice was cut into thin strips for the paw and ear details. The eyes were made from round sugar-free candies with another chocolate candy pasted on top with the icing. In case you're wondering about the cake I used as presents for the bear to sit on, well there was another cake that broke apart when I turned it upside down to take it out of it's pan, so I used some of those pieces here!

Have fun creating for your children the cakes of their dreams, and don't worry, their dreams are not nearly as perfect or complicated as yours are! Whatever the result your child will be happy knowing that his mother made a cake specially for him!

Quick Party Decorations - Paper Flower Silohuettes

Welcome to Creative Jewish Mom.com! I am so excited to finally be getting this blog off the ground, and rather than spend more precious time on the details of the page design etc. I'm diving off into the deep end with my first real post!

I was hoping to post this before Shavuos as "quick Shavuos decorations", but since that didn't happen you'll have to use this idea next year, or better yet, for your next summer get-together.

These paper flowers were created snowflake style with a package of large sheets of thin shiny paper (in hebrew it's called niyar mavrik) something similar in weight to origami paper. I made many different variations, and then layered the different shapes for a really great effect. For a more stable, long-lasting version, cover each of your creations with clear contact paper, especially recommended for larger intricate designs. Have fun with this simple yet stunning project!

Here's the flowers arranged on my kitchen counter:

And here they are assembled in the entryway to the kitchen. This wall happens to be the side of my kitchen cabinets faced in formica and thus the perfect place to tape up decorations without damaging anything. I lucked out on this one!

The colors from the package of paper that I least loved (brown and dark green) look great outside, taped onto the tile walls of our entrance courtyard.

Instructions:

Start with a square of any size. Fold in half to make a triangle. Fold this triange in half again to make another smaller triangle - twice. Then fold the triangle in half again to form a cone shape. Cut off the excess top portion, resulting in a perfect cone shape. For flowers round off the top to create an ice cream cone with a scoop shape, for geometric shapes experiment with a variety of cuts at the top.

Cut out shapes from the two sides of the cone and cut off the tip for a hole in the center. The surprise that awaits when you unfold your creations is so much fun. My younger children are not yet ready to manipulate scissors to this extent, but I let them open up the flowers after I cut each one to involve them in the project.

If you create a flower shape that you want to repeat, fold the flower back up into it's original cone shape and trace the cut out areas onto another uncut cone. For mass production of the same flower, one could even make a cardboard template to trace.

Enjoy!