creative jewish mom

Kale Chips At Long Last!

Yippee, I popped into the vegetable market and when I spied kale on the shelves I was beside myself, as this was quite honestly one of the things that was really missing in my life.....so now I can relax and start giving my family salads and other foods packed with the number one most nutritious greens!

So my first foray into cooking with kale, was to make kale chips, and guess what, it was a total hit! The kids thought it was so amazing that the kale smelled just like pototoes as it was baking, and actually gobbled up the paper thin crispy leaves eagerly. 

Kale Chips:

• Preheat oven to 350F, 170C
• Wash and dry leaves, remove thick lower stem. Check for bugs and scale (which I did find) in the form of little dots, by holding up to the light, and remove anything that looks like bugs.
• Tear leaves into pieces and toss in a bowl with just enough olive oil to lightly cover leaves, and salt to taste.
• Spread kale pieces on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, and bake for 10 minutes or until leaves begin to brown. 
• Enjoy! 

I will make these chips now and again, though since my family are big salad eaters, a kale salad will go over well too! As my daughter said, it really has no taste, sort of like lettuce! All the better to be eaten by taste discerning kids?

Mason Jar Bouquet With A Lidded Mason Jar!

Sure, everyone knows about using mason jars as vases for casual bouquets, but how about lidded mason jars, which have a fun rustic character all their own? And here's the big idea: one could certainly place a table number or a sweet message within the lid which hangs off to the side! Let me know if you do it! And you can also check out my DIY succulent centerpiece which I also assembled using a lidded mason jar.

I made this arrangement with the left overs from our gorgeous Shavuos flowers, and am now thinking that I need to fill the house with flowers, even a little arrangement like this, more often! As my Dutch readers know, that's one thing that the Dutch have figured out.....fresh cut flowers are one of life's simple pleasures, and one should not be without them!

And this by the way is just one of the fantastic things I noticed during my visits to The Netherlands.....can you tell I'm in need of a little return visit? 

Crocheted Giant Doily Rug In Two Colors, And Pattern Corrections!

Isn't this crocheted giant doily rug made with two colors of t-shirt yarn just gorgeous? I can say that since while it is my pattern, it's not my ingenuity, the two color idea that is! This is the work of Liat, who blogs in Hebrew about her crochet love, here. And the two color idea was just one of those things....she ran out of turqoise and decided to use what she had on hand!

Shoebox Carnival Toss Craft For Kids

I'll admit, I made this shoebox carnival toss craft for my eight year old, but kids just a bit older can certainly make one themselves, with help from an adult in the last step — cutting out the holes.

It's apricot season which means that it's "go-go" season at school, meaning boys of all ages scramble around with huge collections of apricot pits which they use to play all kinds of games in the hope of adding more to their mounting collection. From what it sounds like, the playground at my son's school is tranformed into a mini apricot pit carnival come recess time, so I helped him out with this shoebox toss, and will hear how it went when he comes home. The idea of the shoebox toss isn't mine, just taking it one step in the cute direction (as opposed to just holes with numbers) is. 

Note: I intentionally didn't make it too professional looking such that other kids wouldn't be green with envy not having a crafty mom like me at home.....I do think this version is do-able for just about anyone?

You'll Need:

• 1 shoe box
• contact paper, I used wood grain
• white paper and markers
• glue or double stick tape
• a good craft knife

How To:

Draw a series of sketches that are related to one another or not, on white paper. Where possible  draw holes in different shapes and sizes. According to the size of the hole, assign a number which denotes the reward given if the player's pit lands on the hole, or goes in it. Cover your shoebox with contact paper, and affix your sketch to the top of the box and cut out the holes carefully. 

Rules: From what I understand, for all the games played on the playground, there is one set distance from which the player tosses. Tossed pits that do not result in a reward go to the owner of the shoebox. Other games with pits are played similar to marbles, and there is also a simple can toss.

Gotta love basic games, they're the best! Of course you may have to buy your kids a basket full of apricots, so maybe get into the canning business! Some kids around here literally have thousands of these pits in their stash! Enjoy!

 

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! As you may know, a crafty get together with crafters from around the world, last week from: Australia, Singapore, Jakarta, The United States, The United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, Hungary, Turkey, and Israel! And as you might guess, with crafters from all these places there were certainly so many fabulous projects to choose from for the features:

Two clothing upcycling projects: a girl's dress made from a dress that used to be her great grandmothers from cabin of bows, and a cute pair of shortened and stenciled pants that green issues made with the wearer, her eight year old son, love it!

Mod podge rocks made this fabulous pendant with dimensional magic, and speaking of dimension, puff paint works really well for creating dimension of these spray painted bottles by embracing creativity.

These crocheted cupcakes from van anna's hand are just the sweetest, and loving this lacy crocheted baby hat (with pattern!) from lacy crochet.

This crocheted basket with bow is just too sweet from made by annabelle, and I just love what homemade at my place is up to with her crocheted circles!

Some  cute needle work: crochet frog applique from hanni craft, and knit fairies from Ginx craft.

Covered button jewelry is a perfect project to do with the girls, from pysselbolaget, and love this skirt from threading my way, perfect for fall in Australia or summer for those of us up north!

Two fun projects to use up those rocks collected a long the way: a rock covered pencil mug from roots of simplicity, and the cutest little pet rocks from there's just one mommy.

And now, two projects that involve a little ingenuity: a curtain rod made from plumbing parts from a little of this, a little of that, and some fun stamps made from bottle tops and craft foam shapes from crafty journal.

Greek Yogurt Smoothie With Fruit....Delicious and Nutritious!

Greek yogurt is all the rage in the US, and touted at the healthiest dairy source, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and introduce it to my family, especially since I'm all in favor of consuming dairy products made using goat's milk, and greek yogurt is one of them!

I whipped up this greek yogurt smoothie as a quick meal for my daughter as she was on her way out, well, she wanted to be on her way out, but she had to wait for me to photograph this new concoction, alack alas.

And the wait was worth it, as the smoothies were refreshing and filling! I made the exact same thing a few hours later for my eight year old to slightly less rave reviews, his comment being "You can taste the yogurt." Hmmmm, well, yes!

Of course you'll need a blender to make smoothies, but investing in one is well worth it as smoothies are all the rage these days and a great quick meal for everyone. If you live in India, and you're looking for a multipurpose blender appliance, I just noticed that there are some great choices at Yebi online, so be sure to check out these Yebhi discount coupons.

You'll Need:

• 1 cup of Greek yogurt (goat milk yogurt)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 banana
• 1 pear
• 1 apple
• 2 slice of pineapple

or just bananas and nectarines, which I tried today it was also great!

Put it all in the blender and serve immediately of after chilling. Oh, and of course for guests a little sprig of mint on top does make it look just a little bit special!

Fingernail Polish Crafting: Magnets!

Crafting with fingernail polish is so much fun, and when there's a few bottles sitting around, one must find something to paint, and fingernail polish magnets is just the thing! I just love how these turned out, and from afar they're even cuter as one doesn't see all the little imperfections that you see in these close-ups!

One little warning: do not leave your freshly painted magnets sitting around anywhere, as one sweet little eight year old may just innocently decide to stack them, thus ruining most of your work and making the magnets inseparable for the most part. Sigh. I guess we'll just have to buy some more!

You'll Need:

• magents, love these lifesaver ones!
• nail polish in your favorite colors

How To:

Have fun painting your magnets in simple designs or solid colors. Make dots by letting the first coat dry, slightly and then use the end of the brush to apply the dots. So simple with great results!

Set aside to dry for at least 24 hours, and if your magnets are strong, try to keep them separate as the fingernail polish may make them difficult to separate even when dry. 

For another idea for crafting with fingernail polish, check out my fingernail polish glass pebbles!

Fingernail Polish & Glass Pebble Jewelry For Your Summer Wardrobe!

After our craft failure with the fingernail polish marbelizing craft we had hoped to enjoy, I fortunately had some glass pebbles on hand for this fun fingernail polish and glass pebble craft! I think these would be a great addition to your summer/vacation wardrobe don't you? 

If you're not up for making your own baubles, but looking for some inexpensive jewelry to add a fun touch to any outfit, you might like to check out these Dorothy Perkins offer codes. Okay, sorry about that, on to the DIY!

My daughter had so much fun painting these little pebbles, which I recommend doing outdoors on account of those toxic fumes! Using several colors, make simple little works of art on the backs of the glass pebbles, and set aside to dry......

Turn them over, and wow! These little glass pebbles are great for so many crafts, making jewelry from them being the simplest by simply gluing them onto ring blanks or pendant blanks, though one can certainly use them for mosaic projects and or course as magnets or glued to a blank napkin ring for example.

You'll Need:

• clear glass pebbles, we used the small size
• finger nail polish, solid colors
• a well ventilated area, preferably outdoors
• jewelry blanks (optional)
• epoxy or appropriate glue

How To: Paint patterns on pebbles, in one or two layers. One of my favorites is the polka dots, was done in two layers. Set aside to dry, painted side up, away from little fingers. Allow for significant drying time, like at least overnight if there are globs of fingernail polish! Enjoy your little creations as is, or use to make some fun jewelry or decorative items.

I was inspired to make this craft by a video I saw on You Tube, using sparkly fingernail polish, here. 

Fingernail Polish Craft Failure!

I've been wanting to try crafting with finger nail polish for months, and after picking up some bottles at the dollar store, we were all set to go at long last. Unfortunately however, things didn't go quite as we had expected them to go......which also happens to every crafter, and is certainly a possibility any time one tries something new!

I had shown my daughter a really great little fingernail polish marbelizing DIY on You Tube, and it looked so simple! So when we dropped drops of the polish into a cup filled with filtered water we were quite surprised that the polish didn't spread as it did in the video and seemed to dry too quickly to create the marbled effects with a toothpick. Oh dear. Now what?

I really don't use fingernail polish, so I didn't know whether we could add acetone to the bottles to make the polish a little runnier, in any case, I just used up my acetone to clean some contact paper residue off my tile walls outside, sigh. 

We dipped a few rocks into the cups to catch the polish designs, and also realized that it only works on very smooth rocks, not on anything with rough texture. So much for this little project, that also happens to be very toxic, and maybe not worth it for health reasons! Do people really breathe all those fumes every time they paint their nails? Worse than airplane glue!

There is however a happy end to the story, which is that I did come up with a little craft project using nail polish, with great results, and I'll be sharing that with you soon! 

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! I'm so happy to be the hostess of this party with fabulous contributors from around the world, last week from: Australia, Jakarta, Israel, Turkey, France, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Portugal, The United Kingdom, The United States, and Guatemala! And now, for just some of the amazing projects that inspired me:

Love these crocheted stars (which of course you can make as six pointed Jewish stars as well!) from little woollie, complete with tutorial(!) and this fun milk/juice carton fairy house craft from red ted art! 

Crafting with office supplies! A post-it and paper bag pinata from red ted art, and fun decoupaged frame with a different post it book marks, from mod podge rocks.

Love this fabric and messenger bag from happy in red, and a very sweet idea for a four generations of women photo from little ladybird.

A gorgeous block stitch crocheted blanket in the making by homemade at my place, and a fun nautical crocheted granny throw from Lanas De Ana

 

Super sweet decorated shoes from hope in every season, and a cute little crocheted UFO applique from aduo scriptum.

  

Love this adorable boy's shirt from time to craft, and crocheted sleeves from estrea chikitu. That's it for the inspiration, what have you been up to?

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