creative jewish mom

Crocheted Doily Stool Cover Is Quick And Simple!

At long last I have whipped up a crocheted stool cover for one of our simple wooden stools, and it turns out to actually be a crocheted doily stool cover! Truthfully I bought this stool last spring because I just had to crochet a stool cover, really. And then we realized how handly these stools really are, so the good news is we bought two more, which means two more stool covers to come!

I crocheted the doily portion in just one hour as I was waiting for my kids on the couch of their piano teacher, and it was pure luck that it happened to be exactly the diameter of the stool. This morning I finished off with the sides and a bit more so that the cover goes under the stool where I threaded a string through a row of double crochet to pull it tight.

That's all for now, will be back with another post with the pattern, which I actually took from a vintage thread crochet purse, this was meant to be a medallion in the middle, but it's a perfect stool cover!

Simple DIY Wrapping Paper With A Doodle Yarn Message!

It's time to start thinking about holiday season, with Chanukah just one month away, yikes! So why not start with some simple DIY wrapping paper that is all about doodling.....a great way to relax before you start stressing out about all the holiday preparations (in my case, not yours of course!)

Getting To Know Lake Merrit, in Oakland California

On our stay in Oakland California for three weeks this past summer, we had the joy of getting to know Lake Merrit! I visited Lake Merrit many times as a child, and even took sailing lessons there, but this was really the first time that I was able to explore it from every angle. As it turns out, Lake Merrit, while not all that large, is the largest urban lake in the United States, and greatly enjoyed by the inhabitants of the city, who come to run and walk around the perimeter on a paved trail, or enjoy the grassy areas and other amenities. We spent several days exploring Lake Merrit, and have fond memories or our city vacation which included a little bit of lake!

At the Lake Merrit sailing club one can learn to sail, starting with the smallest single sail boat out there, called an El Torro, I believe, though experienced sailers can rent sun fishes as well as slightely larger sail boats. Paddle boats are also available for rent, and this is the perfect place to learn to sail as there's enough wind but not too much to make it scary. Plus, the water isn't deep, so in the event of capsizing, one can very likely even stand up. Next time I think I'll plan ahead and take some private sailing lessons to refresh my memory, and then rent a sailboat, much more fun than a paddle boat!

Then again, there is also a rowing club, and I imagine one can learn to row, for some real exercise!

The historic rowing club building is now a very well designed upscale restuarant (not kosher) and they were so very nice about letting us use the bathrooms, plus that enabled me to take a look around!

There are many grassy areas around the lake, though unfortunately the Canadian Geese have made quite a mess of things, so one will need a blanket to sit on the grass.

The historic Dunsmuir House is not open to the public as I believe it once was, but nonetheless a stunning example of a free-standing Victorian home.

The views as one explores the perimeter of the lake are quite beautiful, this one looking west.

An apartment building which is a reminder of Oakland's rich history as an upscale suburb of San Franciso.

Looking across the lake with the sailing club in the foreground and the Kaiser buildings on the right.

The lake was fairly recently converted into a salt water lake, (connecting it to the San Francisco Bay) making it more ecologically sound and a much better environment for wildlife. Look at this pelican!

And of course, not to forget the lawn bowling club and it's gorgeous historic building! One can learn to lawn bowl or just come to watch on weekends. (There is also a lawn bowling club in Golden Gate park with free lessons, check it out!)

And last but not least, a visit to Lake Merrit with children, might include stopping by Fairy Land, a park for kids with all kinds of structures and play areas dedicated to Mother Goose. So brush up on those historic tales if you want your kids to get something out of it, and it's a sweet place for kids say up to ages seven or eight, and my kids ages 8, 9, and 11 at the time enjoyed it, but weren't ecstatic, then again their knowledge of Mother Goose is almost zero.

Note: One of my favorite memories from childhood was the rock-a-bye-baby up in the tree, but that has been taken down as the rhyme is actually dreadful, as really are many of the Mother Goose rhymes, so interesting that this was considered material for children!

So that's it for Lake Merrit, a nice place to visit if you'll be spending time in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay area. Oh, and there's also a bandshell where one can enjoy concerts on Sunday at noon I believe, so keep that in mind!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was filled with great crafts from around the world, specifically Australia, Jakarta, Guatemala, ARGENTINA (a new one!) Brazil, The United States, The United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy and Israel. Fabulous list, though I know there are many more of you out there that could step us and share, don't be shy! Thanks so much to all of you who join me here each week!

Love these crocheted mushrooms from Helena haakt, and her fabulous photo!

A fantastic DIY wood grained sweatshirt from hands occupied, and some lovely crocheted pumpkins and a gourd form teskek vezsek.

Fun crocheted stars from homemade at my place and an adorable amigurumi alarm clock from my crochet projects.


Love this oh so comfy granny square shrug from teszek veszek, and a fun idea from Mich in LA, using the spokes from a broken umbrella to make some beaded stakes.

Lanas de Ana knitted some gorgeous scarves using a variety of yarns, and estrea chikitu crocheted this fabulous lampshade, love it!

A fun crocheted owl from la muscetta, a sweet knit bow from spoonful of crafts, and a fab crocheted dress from bolmara de marco, our first contributor from Argentina!

How about some wine cork snowflakes from make it easy crafts, or a wintery white crocheted rag rug from hill house homestead

 

Fun fabric cups to hold LED lights, even outdoors, from family chic, and delicious challah from our resident baker, Winnie.

Weaving In The Ends While Crocheting vs. Weaving In At The End?

While I can't share with you my progress in my latest crochet project, as it's a gift for Chanukah, I thought I'd share a little glimpse of what the back is looking like just about now, and multiply this by about ten, and you've got a sea of ends. Well, it could be worse, I've only used two colors per hexigon, as opposed to the standard four for this pattern, so this is really only half the mess it could have been!

And, in case anyone is wondering why I'm not posting more craft projects lately, well this is the answer, but the good news is that I'm in the home stretch, which means that weaving in all those ends will be a reality in less than a week or so! The good news is that this won't have to be a last minute effort, and that then I'll be able to move on to a bunch of other projects for Chanukah, yippee.

So, to answer the question that I've posed as the title to this post, I decided this time to just take a deep breath and weave in all the ends in one fell swoop, at the end, since that is what works for me. Others of course prefer to not be overwhelmed by all the end weaving, which is done with a yarn needle, and weave in as they go. It's really just a personal thing, which do you prefer?

Container Gardening: Overwintering Treasured Yet Cold Sensitive Plants

Dear plant loving readers, I have some food for thought for you, which may be helpful if you live in a cold, or fairly cold climate. Ever heard of overwintering? It's not a new idea, in fact it originated in Victorian England in order to save some of the exotic species collected from around the world from the English winter. The concept is that one watches the outdoor temperatures, and does some research as to which plants can or cannot tolerate those temperatures, and those which can not tolerate low temperatures, are quite simply brought into the house and placed in the appropriate spot (either sunny or bright indirect, depending on the plant) until the temps outdoors go up again.

Sounds simple but in fact there is some science to it, as far as acclimating plants to come indoors, as well as what to do when you put them out again in the spring. For the former of these two, take a look at my recent article on overwintering on Houzz.com.

And in the meantime, I'll be doing a little research on just how to overwinter my mandevilla vine, who is still flowering in late October, but does not tolerate the frosts (and one or two days of snowfall) here in our mountaintop home in Northern Israel. Wish me luck, I failed at an attempt to overwinter last year, hopefully now that I've become a little more educated on the subject all will go well. Fingers crossed, love those pink blooms.

Hula Hoop DIY, You Can Make Your Own!

Yes, you really can make your own hula hoop, and a hula hoop that works oh so much better than those you might buy in the store. And you can make giant ones for adults, which are so much fun! As it turns out, most inexpensive hoola hoops that one can buy are much too light which makes it very difficult to actually keep the hoop up and spinning! Phew so relieved to hear that as now I konw why the hoops I had actually bought for crafting just didn't work.

On our trip to the US this past summer, we were staying in Oakland, CA for much of the time, and happened to visit the Jack London Square farmer's market on a sunny Sunday, where we met a wonderful woman, Betty Lucas who when in town spends a few hours on Sundays teaching people how to hula hoop. The photo above is of the hula hoops that she made and teaches with, all for the sake of bringing joy to others! My kids had a great time, and really learned to use a hula hoop. The next day my eight year old told me his tummy hurt, and it took me a while to realize that he had sore stomach muscles, so it's great exercise too!

To DIY a hula hoop, all you need is a specific weight of plastic piping and some joiners, and decorative tape and you're all set. You can find complete instructions here. And if you live in the Bay Area and would like to learn hooping from Betty, she is also available for classes and events, and truly a joy. If you'd like to meet her at Jack London Square, it's advisable to call her to make sure she'll be there. Her number can be found on her site lucashooping. Enjoy!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Hard to believe another week has flown by, but indeed it has. And I had great crafting plans for last week, oh well, better luck this week! As always last week's party was wonderful on account of all the amazing contributions from around the world. Thanks to all those who joined me here! And now for last week's features:

 Knit cell phone cozies from ginx craft and more crochet ripple blanket inspiration from happy in red.

 A fun clip board painting project from Se7en, and 3-D paper pumpkin crafts from jellyfish jelly.

 So cute and simple, crocheted baby hats from lanas de ana.

 Some fun stuffed house ornaments from leah makes, and a 1 hour neckwarmer from the crochet caretaker, a fantastic gift!

Love this spool of thread costume (a great idea for Purim!) from maker mama, and a retro apron from simply sewing.

A great crocheted jar cover from Anna simple crochet, and an easy baby beanie crochet pattern from happy in red.

A sweet crocheted autumn wreath from howling at the moon, a fab felt flower adorned market bag from aura verde, and a giant crocheted ripple blanket from estrea chikitu, plus you can find the pattern for the crocheted skirt on her site too! Thats it for the features, have you been crafting this fall? We'd love to see what you've been up to!

A Trip To The Orthodontist In The Golan Heights!

A view of the top of the Kinneret (Lake Tiberius) from Moshav Ramot, Western Golan Heights

Who would have thought that a visit to the orthodontist would mean getting acquainted with a gorgeous moshav on the western border of the Golan Heights? Not me. Don't orthodontists see patients in city offices? Here in Israel, one should always expect the unexpected, including getting care from a top notch city orthodontist who happens to see patients once a week in the Golan Heights, lucky for us! Now we don't live in the Golan heights by any means, and its an hours drive from our home, but I have to say, going to the orthodontist is going to be a great way to get to know a region of the country that we have yet to explore. Sometimes crooked teeth and even an underbite which requires attention from the age of eight, can also include good things. Sigh.

Crocheting On The Road.....

Crocheting on the go is one way to fit some crafting time into a busy schedule! And especially small items that only take about 6 minutes each, so you really can make use of those spare moments here and there. And for those of you not familiar with crocheting, in my biased opinion, it is a much more compact craft to take with you than knitting for example as crochet hooks are quite small and easy to tuck into a purse. Not to mention that unexperienced knitters generally need to stick out their elbows a bit, and traditional needles can be long, so this wouldn't be so great to do on a crowded bus or train, though I have knitted on the NY subway certainly years back. Nevermind. Knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and needlepoint are all examples of crafts one can do on a trip, assuming you're not the driver!

This week, with two days spent traveling around beautiful Israel, I was so happy to have a project in the works which allowed me to crochet circles which I'll later make into hexigons which are connected as they are crocheted, a task to do at home. More than that I can't reveal as this is a surprise project that needs to be finished in another 6 or so weeks. I may reveal more in a bit, but in the meantime, you can see the pattern here for the circles I've crocheted, with rows 1,2,3 in the same color, as well as the last row which forms the hexigon, of which I've already crocheted and joined 72! (And still going strong!)