creative jewish mom

DIY Floral Centerpiece Is Gorgeous And Budget Friendly

Aren't these flowers just gorgeous? Now is the time to take a trip to your local nursery, buy some inexpensive pots of flowering plants, and make a gorgeous DIY floral centerpiece. You can assemble a stunning floral arrangemet in minutes that is so budget friendly you'll only buy cut flowers during the winter! Okay, maybe you'd rather spend a small fortune on truly gorgeous bouquets, but around here flowers rarely last more than a week, as opposed to flowering plants that we can enjoy for months. Ah yes, and I just love the natural look of using flowering plants that come with their own greenery!

I actually purchased all these little plants to make centerpieces for my son's bar mitzvah, and after we enjoy them for the holiday of Shavuos, coming up Saturday night, most of them will be planted in my container garden or in a garden that I designed just down the street. Plants raised to be planted in the garden can certainly be enjoyed indoors for a week or two, though likely need the kind of sunlight or light levels generally only found outdoors to keep flowering.

Want to hear some more about how to make a gorgeous centerpiece  or centerpieces using small pots of flowers from the nursery? Keep on reading.......

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

 Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! The Jewish holiday of Shavuos is coming up in just one week, so now is the time to start thinking about greenery and flowers which we use to decorate our homes in honor of this joyful holiday.  I won't be thinking about Shavuos until Tuesday as right now we are in full Bar Mitzvah prep mode......though since the Bar Mitzvah centerpieces are going to be assembled using gorgeous flowering plants I may just use them in my home before planting them in my container garden, yippee!

I think you'll find more than a few great ideas to get crafting for Shavuos from last week's party features as inspiration, so lets get to it, shall we?

Bare Trees In The Ukraine: Inspiring Photos Taken From The Car Window

On our recent trip to the Ukraine we spent many hours traveling by car, and I was mesmerized by the patterns I saw in the bare trees. Field after field after field, lines and lines and lines of bare trees that beckoned to be sketched into a pattern, to march along the fabric I was designing in my head........I kept thinking about sketch books and the idea of recording such inspiration, and fortunately thought to just take some photos, blurry or not, from the window of the car. Knowing that I had captured this inspiration gave me great comfort, and hopefully I'll have some time to use these images for some creative exploration. In the mean time, maybe you'll find my images inspiring, or maybe just the idea of capturing inspiration from the car window will lead to some interesting photos on your next adventure?

Note: Most of these photos were sharpened in photoshop, a necessity when taking photos from a moving car! Enjoy, ah yes and there is a surprise image at the end of the post, so keep on reading......

Swans On An Early Spring Day In The Ukraine

On our trip to the Ukraine this past Passover we visited the The Mezhyhirya Residence, an estate near Kyiv, in the Ukraine, where Viktor Yanukovych lived (and spent tons of money on himself) when he was Prime Minister and then President of Ukraine. The Estate is now a park open to the public, and while our visit occurred during the very early Spring, when the gardens were still sleeping, we had a wonderful time just watching the beautiful swans, and photographing them as well. For those of you who are swan lovers, or never really gave swans much thought, enjoy my photos and don't forget to spend some time just enjoying the great outdoors. I vote for sitting next to some water, you may prefer a mountain view, either way, take a mini vacation right now and join me for a few moments just watching swans! Shall we........?

Mezhyhirya Residence Just Outside Of Kyiv, Ukraine

My son's bar mitzvah celebrations start this Shabbat, so I am very pressed for time, and will share with you hopefully all the creativity my daughter and I are doing for the event next week. In the mean time, I am sharing with you more photos from our Passover trip to the Ukraine, so enjoy!

At the end of our trip we stayed for two nights in the wonderful city of Kiev, actually Kyiv, and on one of those days, which actually happened to be a Ukrainian holiday, we took a drive out to Mezhyhira Residence which is a park open to the public on the grounds of the estate of the Ukrainian Prime Minister who was ousted in 2014. He escaped to Russia via helicopter with a ton of cash apparently, and now the people get to enjoy his excesses! Well, the grounds anyway, which even in the winter are quite lovely, and a perfect place for a picnic, a bike ride, a run, you name it. One can rent all kinds of bikes and motorized segway type things at the entrance, and there is also a golf cart tour of the whole estate, which in retrospect would have been great, I didn't realize how huge the place is, and we did not see everything on foot.

Ready for a little tour, come with me.....

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! It is still very much a busy weekend around my neck of the woods, we welcomed more than 1/2 a million visitors to Meron (across the valley from us) for the holiday of Lag B'Omer, and many have stayed around to enjoy the things that are a part of our everyday life........mountain views, peace and quiet, holiness and thousands of years of really impressive history. Do come visit sometime, but in the mean time, great connecting with you all here at this virtual party.

And now for the features from last week's party:

Vernacular Ukrainian Architecture In The Western Ukraine Countryside

I love vernacular architecture and so I especially enjoyed viewing all the charming cottages in the Western Ukrainian countryside on our recent trip to the Ukraine. Most of the houses I saw were viewed either from the car or on days when I did not have a camera with me, though on our visit to Mezhybiz I did have a camera, so I took photos of all the houses on the one dirt road near the Jewish quarter of town that took up to the Historic Baal Shem Tov shul. Please understand it was still very much winter, and zero degrees with flurries, which is why the photos are so gray, though lovely nonetheless, and certainly timeless as you will see. Okay, lets go for a little walk, shall we?

The Gravesite Of The Baal Shem Tov, Medzhybizh, Ukraine

The father of the Jewish Hassidic movement was a very special and holy man by the name of Rebbi Yisrael Ben Eliezer, The Baal Shem Tov. For those who view Kabbalah as Jewish mysticism that is trendy, well I have news for you! Hassidic Judiasm is actually a way of Jewish Torah observance that includes Kabbalistic ideas. So while Hassidic Jews may look like the most old fashioned folks on earth, they are actually the ones truly living the Kabbalah......how's that for a fresh outlook?

The Baal Shem Tov is buried in Medzhybizh, Western Ukraine, and his burial site together with several hotels and historic and modern day shuls has become very accessible and quite wonderful. Okay, accessible is maybe stretching it a bit, as it is a four hour drive from Kiev, and a six hour drive from Uman, on roads that are most suited to four wheel drive vehicles. There is an old castle just beyond the Jewish quarter, and the Baal Shem Tov's spring fed mikveh has been turned into a modern day facility open 24 hours a day. And of course one should not miss the historic recreation of the Baal Shem Tov's shul, which I found to be completely lovely.

Come with me for a small tour, won't you?

The Historic Baal Shem Tov Shul In Medzhybizh, Ukraine

On our recent trip to the Ukraine for the Passover holiday, we made sure to save a day to travel to Medzhybizh to visit the grave site of the very holy Baal Shem Tov, who lived in Medzhybizh from 1742 until his passing in 1760, and was buried there in the old Jewish cemetary. Because the Baal Shem Tov is the father of Hasidism, he has many many many "children" who come to pay their regards from all over the world. That said, the trek to Medzhybizh, in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast province in Western Ukraine, is not simple, because of its location quite a distance from airports, and because the country roads in the Ukraine are quite simply a disaster. The drive to visit the Baal Shem Tov is 4 hours from Kiev and about 6 hours from Uman, but since time seems to have stopped in Medzhybizh, so too the time one invests to travel to and from this special place seems to just melt into thin air somehow.

Today, there are several Jewish hotels in Medzyybizh, so one can certainly stay over night there, and I would highly recommend it, especially in the summer season when the countryside is lush and green. I'm dreaming of going there sometime for the holiday of Shavous, which is also the anniversary (Yarzheit) of the the Baal Shem Tov's passing, so a very auspicious time to visit.

Lest I ramble too much, one of my very favorite places to visit is the historic replica of the Baal Shem Tov's shul, torn down during WW II for fire wood, but rebuilt recently and they did an amazing job, as you will see.......won't you join me?

DIY Tin Can Pots Ten Ways: A Round up

Tonight is the beginning of the very festive (around our neck of the woods) holiday called Lag B'Omer, though for the moment (a quiet moment before all the guests, action, etc.) I am dreaming about making a festive tin can garden for the next big Jewish holiday, Shavuot! Tin cans of all sizes can be up-cycled to make the most adorable or fashionable tin can garden or centerpiece. Check out the ideas I've assembled for you here thanks to a bunch of talented folks, and don't dream, collect those tin cans and enjoy!