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It is now officially vacation time for the whole country here in Israel, and while my daughter has two months of vacation my little boys only have three weeks, eight days of which are actually spent at half-day day camp at school! So I am very empathetic when it comes to their desires to fill the days with activities and ice cream!
Continue reading "A Walk Around The Block In Northern Israel!" »
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I'm in love with Verbena, and this year I've finally had a small success with a few little seedlings by virtue of the fact that I planted them in a big empty patch of dirt at the base of my lemon tree! Flowers that consist of clusters of tiny blooms always seem to be amongst my favorites, and verbena especially just says summer!
While you can use Verbena in a planter mixed with a bunch of other species, it's really at it's best as a ground cover where it can spread out and charm all those that pass by!
Depending on where you live, Verbena, which loves full sun, may or may not be a gentle perennial, though they are drought resistant, self seeding (a great one!) and are often found in butterfly gardens! And Verbena will bloom all summer long, so with a good three months left of gardening, why not add a few of these little beauties to your garden?
PS: Verbena, also known as Vervain, has a very rich history both as an herb and in making liquor as well as being mentioned in many writings of all kinds. I quickly read this info on Wikipedia, so thought I'd pass it along in case the history of horticulture interests you! It is interesting to know a little bit about where your plants really came from, right?
P.P.S: In case you're wondering about that pipe running through the photo above, that's our drip watering system. The pipe is supposed to be a tiny black pipe, but Amos the egg seller from a local farm didn't really know that when he offered to put a system in for us last summer. I almost tore the whole thing out due to the lack of aesthetic, but am really glad now that I didn't.....it's huge time and water saver! Oh and by the way, drip watering was invented in Israel!
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Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday. Today is a very important day on the Jewish calender, Tisha B'Av, which means that I'm fasting and spending the day in a mournful yet hopeful way in accordance with the holiday. While I could sit at the computer, it's just not in the spirit of the day, and so thanks to modern technology, the party can still go on, as I've written this post ahead of time. So, I'll just say thanks to everyone for sharing your great projects, and here are my favorites from last week:
Crazy about this Altoid tin water color set for traveling by Shealynn's Faerie Shop, and this wonderful yet simply granny square afghan by Happy In Red.
And for the kids: a fun "painting like Jackson Pollack" activity from mama's little muse, and Japanese peg dolls from domestic goddesque.
Great simple yet fabulous coffee filter flower from all things paper, and a fun crocheted mini-granny pouch from Lanas & Hilos.
Love this hand painted and doodled on pillow from Aunt Peaches and this adorable little watermelon change purse from repeat crafter me, including info about a "sharp" crochet hook than enables you to simply start by crocheting right into the zipper!
Go check out this Calder inspired circus craft from Se7en, and love these magnetic bug jars from Yesterday on Tuesday. That's all for now, can't wait to see what creative adventures you've been leading this week!
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Need a super quick birthday cake theme? I sure did last week when my daughter's tenth birthday party coincided with a very busy week. And after spending hours folding beautiful paper cranes, they were really the life of the party anyway, so the cake just needed to be cute enough and look festive. Plus I really didn't have even a few minutes to spare, especially since unbeknownst to me my oven was not working properly and the cake took at least two hours to bake! (I thought that silly distracted me had added twice as much water as necessary!)
So my friends, here's the tip: look into your crafting supplies closet and just pull out whatever you find and stick it into the cake! Okay, not exactly, but you get what I mean. I did plan ahead and purchase the little birds, only I didn't realize I'd be using them on the cake, and lucky me I bought exactly ten! The birds had little wires attached to their feet, which I wrapped around toothpicks. And I bought various sizes of little mushrooms in Amsterdam last year, which have come in handy throughout the year. As usual I baked the cake according to my favorite chocolate cake recipe, and dripped over the top a chocolate mocha glaze, which I then covered in sprinkles.
That's it!
PS: Yes, dear readers, I do realize that to many of you this birthday cake might look more like a winter cake, than a summer birthday cake, but here in the Holy Land the ten year old girls don't realize that white birds and mushrooms might be more likely found as decorations in December in The Netherlands, so you just gotta do what you gotta do!
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I'm in love with origami cranes made from brightly colored origami paper. And I can still say that after having folded about forty of them for my daughter's birthday party last week! I used my origami cranes to create an origami crane mobile of sorts, which I hope to photograph soon, and share with you. But in the meantime, why not learn how to fold an origami crane and make some in your spare moments.
And a handy tip for those whose crafting moments are sparse : you can do all the folding just before the last step in which you form the head and tail, and then store your nearly created cranes flat in a big envelope for a later date. I think they'd look great in a Succah, are fabulous over a baby's bed or hanging just about anywhere! Their beauty though is somewhat tied to the fact that they look great in numbers, so the more the better really!
Continue reading "Origami Cranes...Perfect For Birthday Parties or Your Succah?" »
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Last week my sweet daughter turned ten (how did that happen?) and instead of playing party games like we did last year, we decided to do a craft project—organza flowers! Truthfully, it went over quite well, with only one out of the ten girls giving up mid project.....and the rest went home with a nice flower to wear in their hair for Shabbat. Now since this project does involve using a lit tea light, I would only advise doing it with girls at least nine years old, and do make sure that all hair is tied up and out of the way!
In case you're wondering, I did offer some other color choices than the ones you see here, but these girls are not risk takers, so they all went with something well within their comfort zone, fair enough!
We attached black hair bands to the back of each flower with a tiny strip of fabric and hot glue, and my daughter was even wearing hers today. And infact this morning she made a few more, even nicer ones which I'll share with you soon.
To make these flowers, see my DIY organza flower tutorial, and check out my Chair-back Flower Garland post from last year to see how I actually used flowers like these to decorate at last year's birthday party!
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Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Thanks so very much for joining me here every week for this international crafty get together. Shall I list the countries in which our contributors from last week live? Sure why not, here it is, more or less: The United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Gautamala, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa, The United Kingdom, Portugal, Hungary, Romania,Turkey, and Muldavia! Hope I got you all! Pretty great right, and you see you can even take that around the world trip you're dreaming of by stopping by Craft Schooling Sunday! Enjoy!
Two simply gorgeous photos for two projects that simply say summer: a lovely summer beach wreath from Silly Pearl, (inspired by a trip to a beach I used to visit as a child in Marin County, California!) and a set of cute crochet patterns to use in so many ways from chic and rustic crochet.
Love this crocheted flower, with a pattern from aduo scriptum, and these fun crocheted rings from Hanni Craft.
I adore this crocheted stool cover from Joy Jonne, and this granny poncho from estrea chikitu is so much fun! And while it looks like a winter garment to many of us, The Netherlands has been having a very rainy summer, so this poncho is probably even perfect right now. Sending some sunny days their way........
Love these Shabbat wine glass charms from made by mamaleh and a super slipper tutorial from Sew Can Do.
Northern Art Teacher shared a fun little weaving project that she made using a creative jewish mom project here, and domestic goddesque shared this fantastic coffee filter/tp tube peacock! That's all for now, looking forward to seeing what you've been up to this week!
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Can anybody out there identify this lovely tree with lilac-like blooms? No luck with Dr. Google......
Last week my husband and I happened to drive by a wedding hall with a fabulous garden, and we just had to take a peek. Here in Israel weddings tend to be very large and so there are many many wedding halls of all kinds to accomodate all budgets and styles. In the city, wedding hall usually have very little outdoor space, but here on the highway between Hadera and Emek Hefer there was plenty of room for this wedding hall to spread way way out, and so they did, with a gorgeous green garden. Take a look for yourself!
Continue reading "A Beautiful Garden Grows In Central Israel......" »
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It's official, I have decided to "go for it" and make a large blanket from the crocheted filet starburst squares I've been working on. Of course I could have stopped at baby blanket size, but when my sweet eight year old requested a crocheted blanket for his birthday (in two months....there's time!) well, I just couldn't disregard his request! I've never made a large crocheted blanket, you know the size that could be a bedspread on a twin bed, so there's always a first! Of course if I make one, I'll definitely have to make at least two, younger brother won't want to be left out of this one!
I'll admit, the color scheme is a bit random based really on the skeins of Red Heart super saver yarn I brought back from the US last January, but I think after I add some white, and possibly black, using white (or grey) to crochet them all together with a raised edge it will somehow work out? Not 100% sure whether to use the variegated squares, so I'll just have to make more and decide when I lay the whole thing out. About fifty squares down and another twenty or so to go. And fortunately by the time I'm ready to crochet the blanket together, the weather should have cooled down just a bit!
For the pattern for this square see my previous post here. Enjoy, this is a great take along project to work on all summer long!
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Here's a great little craft activity that my kids loved — drawing with crayons on hot rocks! Yes, not recommended for little ones, but so much fun! I had my kids hold a crayon in one hand and a spoon in the other so that they'd use the spoon for turning the rock if necessary!
It's not so simple to draw anything complicated on small rocks that we had, so I'd recommend using the biggest rocks you can find and creating some really special works of art!
You'll Need:
How To:
Heat up your rocks in an oven set to say 350F or 200C. Carefully remove the hot rocks from the oven and place them in a tray of some kind that was not in the oven, at least the tray won't be hot and dangerous for the little ones! You do want the rocks to be good and hot so they'll stay hot, and an oven does the job well, but if you work quickly stones heated in the hot mid-day sun could work well too. (Let me know if you try it!) Draw simple designs on the rocks with the crayons, and enjoy, it's really so much !
Thanks so much to The Artful Parent for this great idea, which Jean posted about here.
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