creative jewish mom

Slice Of Life: A Sweet Anniversary Gift

I just love the simplicity and classic beauty of this bouquet with just three roses. Just enough to enjoy the feeling of fresh flowers, and not so many that when they all wilt and die within days, it's a sad event. 

My dear husband gave me this today (after arriving home with all the purchases I'd requested for my day of shabbat cooking,) and he said he could have given me a large bouquet, but he thought that this seemed so much more personal. And you know what he's right! I really truly appreciated the gesture, as this was to celebrate our wedding anniversary, which we have forgotten more times than remembered. And when we do remember it's usually because my mother remembers by sending an e-card! (Thanks Mom!) What can I say, life is busy and we're usually focused on others, I'm happy to report.

I'll end this post with a very public thank you to my husband for all his love and support, and to let you know, that honestly, while he does say on a regular basis "the blog has to go" he really does appreciate everything I do here, and I think it shows. So for the time being the "blog is on" and I look forward as always to connecting with you all.

PS: That shaggy blanket which is on my couch happens to be a Moroccan wedding blanket, with woven kelim details and metal sequins. Moroccan wedding blankets are all the rage in the home decor scene, though the one's I've seen are usually 100% creme. The blankets are woven by the family to give to the bride, some are made large enough to cover a bed, as is mine, while others are long cape size and the Berber bride wears it as a wedding garment. A lovely tradition, and I'm so happy to have this blanket gracing our couch!

A Visit To Girona, Spain, Part 1

Last fall, when I was fortunate enough to visit Barcelona, which I posted about here, here, here, here, here, here and here, we also took a day trip to the wonderful city of Girona, which like Barcelona is located in the Catalonian region of Spain.

After posting so many photos of Barcelona, the photos of Girona would have been lost, so I decided to save them for a moment in the future, and at long last I am sharing them with you! I don't have time at the moment to really elaborate with the captions, so just enjoy!

Salad Days......

Why are you taking a picture of that? My daughter asks? Well, I need some material for my blog, and this is what I have to show for myself at the moment. A nice healthy salad, packed with nutritious veggies! (Spinach, baby greens, avocado, grated carrot, onion, mushrooms, red cabbage... delicious!)

Summer is a great time to start eating more salad, and even making salad the main course for most of your meals. Fruit salad in the morning, and vegetable salads for lunch and dinner, oh and some beans and nuts and whatever else you feel like....in our case we're doing the vegan thing about 6 days a week at the moment, as it's just too challenging to try and make our Shabbat meals vegan too, especially when it involves children and guests who most likely want to enjoy fish, and meat. Oh, and the husband also wants to reward himself for eating healthy six days a week, which is a big accomplishment!

So there you have it dear readers, instead of crafting I've been chopping fruit and vegetables. Also a very worthy pursuit I must say!

DIY Faux Parchment Paper —The Summer Craft For Pirates!

Every summer crafting experience should include making some faux parchment paper, don't you think? And we're here to help you! We, meaning me, the photographer, and my almost 11 year old daughter, the crafter!

See this roll of parchment paper,that may very well contain the map directing us to the buried treasure? Well, guess what, my daughter actually made this paper all by herself, with just a few simple supplies. And let me tell you the results are truly stunning and its hard to believe that it's not the real thing! 

While we have yet to do anything with our faux parchment, I keep imagining beautiful stencils, or if I could draw, then gorgeous illustrations in white or pastel colors. For kids, well one could certainly make maps and secret messages, or how about cutting letters out of magazines, painting them with some tea to age them, and pasting them on to the paper to make a mysterious letter of some kind? I do think you could keep the kids busy for hours with this one. And while they're at it, it might be wise to make a whole bunch to have on hand, you never know when you're going to need to write a top secret letter that needs to look like it's been around for years and years!

You'll Need:

• letter sized white laser printer paper
• powdered coffee, or crushed granulated coffee if that's what you have on hand
• water 
• a paint brush or cotton balls

Step 1: Crunch your letter sized laser printer paper into a little ball, and then smooth out flat on your working surface.

Step 2: Using a paint brush or cotton balls, apply water to the paper, being careful not to over-saturate the paper. 

Step 3: Lightly sprinkle powdered coffee over the entire surface, and don't worry if the distribution is not equal, the more inconsistent the better.

Step 4: Your paper should look something like this. 

Step 5: Apply water to the paper using either a paint brush or a cotton ball. 

Step 6: Continue painting with water until your entire page is covered in splotchy coffee "paint."

Step 7: Put in the sun to dry.

Step 8: Repeat steps 2 through 6 on opposite side.

Step 9: Do a good job of covering the second side, and don't panic if it looks too dark, it will lighten up considerably in the sun, and this will be outside of the parment paper letter, which should look darker!

Step 10: Place in the sun to dry, for a second time, and ta-da, faux parchment paper is born!

Note: There's one important step that we forgot to do this time, which does help it look even more authentic, that is to tear the edges. You can do this in step 2 when the paper is slightly wet. Enjoy!

 

Crocheted T-Shirt Yarn Granny Square Rug!

Isn't this giant crocheted granny square rug made with t-shirt yarn wonderful? I can't take credit for it though, that goes to a reader Anneke Wiese in South Africa, who has been busy crocheting using my giant crocheted doily rug pattern, and granny squares too, I am so delighted to tell!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was bursting with creativity from around the world, with contributors representing: Australia, The United States, Portugal, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Denmark, France, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Israel, South Africa and Jakarta! Thanks so much to everyone for joining me here, and now for the features from last week:

Love this interpretation of the ethnic evil eye beads from Mich in L.A., and this fabulous origami card, from all things paper, which of course one could use anytime! 

A fun recycled bottle bowling monster project from miss petel, and a fantastic tp tube beasts craft from red ted art.

A hama bead bowl craft for kids from red ted art, and a fun schedule to get the drawing in every day from Se7en.

The cutest ever crocheted tape measure cover from little things blogged, and super sweet cherry pom poms on a crocheted bag from homemade at my place.

Adorable crocheted creatures from chris in de haak, and a super cute crocheted elephant from happy in red.

Love this knit headband with daisies from ginx craft, and super simple yet fabulous crocheted granny shrug from teszek-veszek-vacakolok.

Gorgeous crocheted book mark from anna simple crochet, and a beautiful intricate doily from lacy crochet.

Shrink plastic earring from spoonful of crafts, and fun flower button earrings from jewelry making journal.

Fun clay floral brooch from penelope pickle and bleach pen decorated napkins from design megillah. That's it for the features, what have you been up to this week?

שטיח מפית קרושה ענקית Crocheted Giant Doily Rug Pattern In Hebrew!

Thanks so very much to a generous reader Liat, the crocheted gianty doily rug pattern is now available in Hebrew, yippee, and while most of you can gaze at the interesting letters and ponder the idea of being able to read what is written, those that usually struggle with the English can sit back and enjoy---sorry can't figure out how to get the punctuation to work here with the hebrew so will be ending this sentence with no period

שטיח מפית קרושה ענקית

מתח הסריגה אינו חשוב בדוגמא זו, ניתן להשתמש בכל עובי מסרגה שמתאים לחוט או לחבל שניתן לסרוג ממנו. במקור נסרג משני גלילים של חוט טריקו ומסרגה mm12.

קיצורים:
ע"ש/עה"ש = עין שרשרת || ע' = עין || ח"ע/חה"ע = חצי עמוד || עמ' = עמוד ||

סיבוב 1: 8 ע"ש, לסגור לטבעת בע' שטוחה. 3 ע"ש, 17 עמ' לתוך הטבעת. ע' שטוחה לע' העליונה ב- 3 עה"ש ההתחלתיות (סה"כ 18 עמ').

Teaching Kids About Design With Homemade Birthday Cards

Homemade birthday cards are a family tradition that I grew up with, and am happily continuing with my kids. I have to say, the cards my kids were making were sweet, and included lots of wonderful sentiments, but the visuals were generally lacking. So, now that they're just a bit older, I decided to use the birthday card making as a little design lesson, by starting with a short discussion about birthday cards in general, and then a discussion about using the blank page as a canvas.

Here are some of the questions I asked:

• What makes a great birthday card, and what are the components of a birthday card?
• What should the cover of a card communicate versus the inside? 
• Using a letter sized piece of paper, how many different ways can we fold the paper to make a card?
• Should we plan our drawing before we start in order to achieve results we'll be happy with?
• Does how we choose to fill the space with our drawing make a difference?

After this discussion, the kid decided to make slim horizontal cards (for their brother), and I think they did a great job of using the space— my son pushed the limits of the space with his eight-shaped chicks in birthday hats, and my daughter centered her adorable Ed Emberly inspired design in the middle of the card. The top card is more successful color-wise, so next time we'll have to have to focus on the idea of using color to enhance a design. There are so many things to teach our children when it comes to design, some people are naturals, others can learn!

After this design exercise I was thinking that one could certainly use adorable kid's artwork to make printed invitations or even stationary and blank notecards to give as gifts. Don't get nervous, this doesn't have to be time consuming or costly, check out these great deals on Vista Print products, and get started! Upload a scan of the artwork, and in a few simple steps make gorgeous printed pieces from the heart. 

Note: There are two ways to go in terms of using your kid's artwork to make printed cards. If the drawings are made on white paper, to be printed on white, you'll have to remove the background, even though it's white, using a setting on your scanner (possibly?) or using a photo editing program. Alternatively, bring the scan of your photo into any program and add a colored border around the illustration so that removing the background won't be necessary. Don't have a scanner? You can have the drawings scanned for you at digital photo store, or printer, and if you just don't have time to leave the house, so taking a photo of the drawing in bright daylight (on a white surface) isn't quite as polished but could work too. Have fun, your kids will love seeing their efforts in print!

Spelt Challah – A Welcome Addition To Our Shabbat Table!

Introducing mini spelt challahs, made from my spelt oatmeal roll recipe, with the quantities doubled. And because the spelt dough doesn't rise nearly as much as dough made with white flour, the braided loaves really retain a distinct braid. These loaves were made with a braid using six strands, my current favorite. I even recently showed my neighbor how to do it with six knee highs and a clothespin, that was funny!

I took a look on YouTube for videos showing how to braid a six strand challah, to help you out, though funny enough both the videos I looked at used two different techniques that are different from mine! Guess it's time to get into the video making, because my technique is much less complicated once you get it! (Some of you may have the cookbook I was looking at, over and over until I got it, it's called Spice and Spirit, and it's a big purple Jewish cookbook.)

Oh and in addition to making those mini spelt challahs I decided to make a bunch of rolls to freeze for some guests who are due to arrive any day, and maybe for my kids for school sandwiches.

Would you turn down a sandwich made in a roll like this? Two out of three have enjoyed great sandwiches made in these rolls for the past three days.....hopefully the third will catch on soon!

 

In My Window Garden: Mandevilla In Bloom!

There's nothing quite like the small pleasure of enjoying gorgeous blooming flowers right outside your kitchen window! My kitchen window garden, which is actually on a small Romeo and Juliet wrought iron balcony, which I had installed for just this purpose, changes with the seasons, though I'm always the happiest when there are flowers in bloom. This summer I'm giving the pink mandevilla vine a try, and so far so good. 

Mandevilla is a tropical flowering vine, that many of you may be familiar with, and I actually bought mine at IKEA of all places! Yes, we do have IKEA in Israel, two of them with a third on the way apparently, because everyone needs IKEA, especially me, and the new store will be much closer to our home, a little dangerous I might add!

Here in my mountaintop location in Northern Israel mandevilla will not survive the winter outdoors, so I'll be nurturing it indoors come November, until spring arrives. I do have a few things to learn about wintering plants, so I guess I'll practice some more on this one!

Do add some blooming flowers to your life this summer, you won't regret it!