creative jewish mom

DIY Simple Flower Napkin Rings Lovely For Any Occassion!

We made these very simple yet oh so lovely flower napkin rings in just minutes to use on our Passover table, but truthfully they'd be great for just about any occasion, especially weddings, sheva brachas, or any time really! They are so simple to make that you truthfully could make a hundred or so in no time. I packed these away with the Passover dishes so that we can use them again next year, but am already thinking about looking for some larger flowers to use on our table for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, in which we decorate out homes with flowers and greenery, perfect!

Ready to make some, or pick up the supplies to have on hand, let's do it!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, the Passover edition! Sunday night we observe the holiday within the holiday called "Shevi Shel Pesach" the seventh day of Passover, on which we remember the Jewish people's crossing of the Red Sea.....truly exciting! We start this holiday at night, as with all Jewish holidays, and in our home we also celebrate my oldest son's birthday on this day, so double the fun! In our community this special day is observed by getting up at the crack of dawn for the prayer service (I generally do this as well now that there are no little ones left at home, we all go together) and then of course taking a little nap before the mid-day holiday meal. This is the last day of Passover for those of us in Israel, and so there is always a bit of sadness for many of us as we could be very happy eating matzo for another few days, no problem!

In case you are wondering, the minute Passover is over all the Passover dishes are packed away as quickly as possible, as until then one certainly will not want to bring any leavened products into the house. Moroccans have the custom of having a "mimouna" party in which mufleta, Moroccan tortilla made with flour, is served, something I'd love to do, but will wait until I have a full clean up and mufleta preparation crew on hand to do all the work, ha ha. (I do have to remind my family from time to time that some of these very lovely Moroccan traditions were originated in multi-generational homes often with several wives as well, so all the labor was distributed among many, not just one little me!)

Wishing you all a wonderful last day of Passover, and thanks for joining me here. And now for the features from last week's party:

  
Love this DIY air drying clay and beads wall hanging from a pretty fix, and these Jewish home dollhouse blocks from Chana's Art Room.

A  crocheted unicorn from frau tschi tschi, and a cute crocheted heart key chain from Anne Marie.

Wild Red Poppies In Bloom For Passover!

Though the Jewish calender is lunar, and thus isn't static like the Gregorian calender, there is one thing that is a given: Passover must always occur in the Spring, yippee! In order to make this happen we even have to insert an entire extra month some years, and that extra month is always a second month of Adar, which is right before Nissan, the month in which Passover occurs. Why am I telling you this? Because one of my very favorite things to do during the week of Passover is to take some trips around Northern Israel, not far from home, to enjoy the gorgeous topography and to witness fields of wild flowers in bloom, up close and in person.........something everyone should experience!

It is true, the flowers are on their own schedule, so the blooming period doesn't always coincide exactly with our plans, but this year, well, I had to squeal with delight as I saw little bushes of actual red poppies (as opposed to the red anemones that bloomed a good month ago.....) dotting the roadside hills all day long. I asked my husband if he would stop for me to photograph them, but that didn't really work out, instead I took a few photos to share with you when we arrived at our first stop.

Today we took a lovely road trip and saw some amazing holy sites, which I will share with you next week, but in the mean time I'll give you a sneak peak with a little flower show......hello red poppies!

Budget Friendly Floral Arrangements Made With Floral Filler!

Would you like to whip up some lovely floral arrangements for your holiday table without breaking the bank? The answer my friends is floral filler, yes, the little flowers and stalks of greenery that florists use to fill all the space around those precious lovely flowers in the arrangement, got it? (You'll have to visit a florist to get this and take a look at all the buckets of loveliness to choose from....) I'll admit that certainly one can make more dramatic arrangements using large flowers, but that will be quite a bit more costly, and in many cases not last nearly as long. Israel is one of the largest worldwide exporters of cut flowers (after The Netherlands of course), but flowers are still way too expensive here......I can buy an amazing plant or even two for the price of a bouquet of flowers. The huge lovely bouquets that the florist made for Passover were around 200 shekels (about 55 dollars) and my bunch of floral filler cost 60 shekels. You decide!

For our Passover table I envisioned at least two or more small arrangements that would evoke a field of wild flowers in the Spring, and for that look, floral filler, with all its tiny blooms and intense color amidst green leaves, is perfect!!

Keep on reading for specific instructions for how to make these sweet arrangements.......

Welcome To Our Passover Seder Table!

The eight day (well for us in Israel seven days, actually) Jewish holiday of Passover starts with a bang, namely the most important part of the whole holiday, the Passover seder!  The Passover seder involves the re-telling of the story of the Jewish people's exodus from Egypt and includes eating lots and lots of matzo, at specific points in the seder, as well as drinking four glasses of wine or grape juice or some combination of the two. And of course there is also a festive meal! Outside of Israel the Passover seder is actually observed on two nights, something those of us in Israel just can't imagine, and vice versa, but in any case as the Passover seder approaches it is truly an exciting time, as there is something very special about Passover, and the idea that even today the holiday is an opportunity to leave behind those things to which we are slaves is awesome!

The house, and especially the kitchen, is sparkling clean, the spices are fresher than fresh, and even my Moroccan salads had more vivid colors than the rest of the year......what can I say, to re-live our deliverance from slavery in Egypt is truly special, and this year we did it with our entire family as well as the guests dressed in festive Moroccan robes.......truly a sight to behold, though not unique to our family, many Moroccans do the same. Not only are our clothes spared from wine stains, the ethnic element goes really well with the Egypt theme! Not to mention that robes are perfect for reclining, which is what we do during the seder when eating the specified portions of matzo and drinking the four cups of wine. "Reclining" is interpreted differently in every home, and some homes even put a bed at the head of the table, or eat around a low table. At our seder table each person has a pillow on their chair, and we simply lean to the left.

As usual I was rushing until the last minute to finish all the preparations for the holiday, I did manage to take a few quick photos, as in accordance with Jewish law we do not use any electronic devices like cameras and phones, for example, on Jewish holidays, so I could only capture the table in its pre-holiday state, not really in all its true glory!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, the "Passover starts tomorrow night edition", yikes! The eight day (seven in Israel) holiday that is mostly known for the fact that we eat matzo rather than anything "leavened" requires hard work, but truthfully we wouldn't have it any other way. How can one truly relate to being slaves who were miraculously set free from from Egypt if one doesn't put in a little bit of elbow grease? Hmmmm, maybe I could conjur up that concept sitting at a hotel in Greece, ha ha, on the other hand there really is no greater feeling than preparing for the holiday with all of our neighbors and community. Because this shabbat is so close to the beginning of Passover, and of course we are still eating that bread that we have worked so hard to remove from our homes (physically and spiritually) our community is hosting shabbat meals for all the families, a huge relief, phew, and a large operation for those making it happen! So since I'm not cooking today, that means I can get to work with the last minute preparations, so gotta go!

Thanks so much for joining me here, and wishing all those celebrating passover a lovely and meaningful holiday! And now for the features from last week's party:

 DIY kitchen island graffiti wall to doodle on any time, from lolly jane, and tissue paper wild flower seed bombs 9to use instead of wedding rice) from do it your freaking self.

A lovely and simple door handle upgrade from chatfield court, and a fantastic recycled globe craft from simply darrling.

Braided Garlic Is A Passover Tradition!

As you may or may not know, the holiday of Passover is all about tradition, yes, you know, Jewish tradition! If not for the strictness with which we observe these traditions we would not thousands of years later still be remembering and reliving our deliverance as a nation from slavery, got it? Now as you may also know the definition of "Jewish tradition" varies greatly as we the Jewish people are a very varied bunch, with skin color that ranges from the palest white to almost the darkest black and customs that were developed over the thousands of years in all the places that we wondered to. While all Jews of course adhere to basic laws of not eating leavened bread, and drinking four glasses of wine at the Pesach seder, what is eaten varies greatly between Ashkenazic and Sephardic jews, as well as Jews from Yemen who actually eat matzo that is soft and can be rolled!

The family is calling me to get back to work, so I'll just say that one of the traditions we enjoy here in Israel is fresh garlic for Pesach! This year my husband brought home this gorgeous stalk of braided garlic, and we hung it in our courtyard for decoration and or course to use......and believe me, with the Moroccan cooking we serve, this is not a lot of garlice. Keep reading to see how it looked a week ago....

Grow A Beautiful Pineapple Houseplant From A Pineapple Top!

Today as I was cleaning the living room for the quickly approaching holiday of Passover, I let out a little yelp of joy. Why you may ask? Well, to my great surprise I actually succeeded in rooting a mini pineapple top, something I've been meaning to try for years. The thing is that we don't eat pineapple all that often so the opportunity just doesn't arise, but now that I've had success with rooting this mini pineapple top, I'm gonna treat myself to a regular sized pineapple as well, if I happen to see one! And since all things pineapple are all the rage, well this idea is perfect right now.

The idea behind making a nice houseplant using a pineapple top that you would normally discard isn't that one could actually grow pineapples, but rather that one can enjoy growing a tropical plant with nice folliage without spending a dime, well except for some soil possibly. With this in mind, when you buy that pineapple do pick the one with the nicest top, as that will become your plant. And come to think of it, a few pineapple tops in one planter would look great too, right?

Recycled Paper Towel Tube Palm Trees For Passover (Or Anytime, Of Course!)

Passover (or more correctly "Pesach" as it is said in hebrew) starts on Monday night, and the only way I have found time to post this little craft is that the husband and kids are out doing some grocery shopping for the holiday, meaning there is no one who thinks that there may be more important things to do right now........no one that is, who realizes how important you, dear readers, are to me!  So I'll just quickly introduce you to this little idea that was born on account of going through a ton of paper towels as we try to wrap up the gigantic job of cleaning the house and most importantly the kitchen, for Pesach. Introducing recycled paper towel tube palm trees, the perfect craft for remembering what the holiday of Passover is really all about, namely our deliverance from slavery in the dessert!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

 

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, and thanks so much for joining me here! Spring crafting is underway in the northern hemisphere, and those of us who observe the holiday of Passover are right now getting really serious with the holiday preparations, as the week long holiday starts next Monday night.......Of course there are those (the club I have yet to join) who have already finished  all the hard work and are starting to cook and freeze food, as they will be hosting their large families, and cooking ahead certainly helps those who prepare the food enjoy the holiday more. Many families, and especially those living outside of Israel with larger homes have small kitchens that are just for Passover, which means that they don't have to do what I do, namely turn my whole kitchen over to "kosher for Passover" before actually cooking for Passover. But truthfully, if I have to choose between a small kitchen for passover or a place to keep all my crafting supplies, well the crafting supplies would surely win out, at this phase in life!

Speaking of crafting, I hope you enjoy the features from last week's party, lots of great ideas for everyone!

 

 

Mason jar lid map coasters from the scrap shoppe blog, and fabulous Ikea Moppe map covered project from pillar box blue.

Fun hand lettered mini notebooks from busy being Jennifer, and a sweet spring printable from lolly jane.