creative jewish mom

Simple Moroccan Theme Centerpieces For A Jewish Henna Party

A Jewish Henna party? Yes indeed dear readers, Jews from places like North Africa/Morocco, Yemen, and even Iran do have the tradition of a henna ceremony sometime before the wedding. The main difference between the Jewish henna ceremony and the henna ceremonies I've seen from India is that the Jewish ceremony does not involve drawing designs, rather a large round mark is made on the hand with the henna, and there are even little round badges with ribbons that are used to tie the henna to the palm as it must be held in place for a while in order to leave a mark. The three hebrew letters that spell henna are chet, nun and hay, and those are the first letters in the words that spell the three mitzvot that are exclusive to women. These three mitzvot are Challah, Niddah and Haladkat Neros, meaning taking the challah portion (with a blessing), observing family purity, and lighting shabbat candles.

My neighbor's daughter got engaged last week, so I was recruited to help with decorations for the Henna portion of the evening.......needless to say I had everything on hand and everyone was thrilled with my efforts, which I'll be sharing with you here, well a few photos in any case. Before I realized that I needed a largish centerpiece as the tables at the hall are huge, I came up with the idea for this sweet centerpiece, and truthfully you can take this idea and use it for any theme you like. Let's get started shall we?

Giant Origami Fruit Centerpiece IKEA Hack

What do you get when origami meets IKEA? You get a giant origami fruit centerpiece that is very budget friendly and great for large parties with lots of tables. You know like Bar Mitzvahs, and Bat Mitzvahs and budget weddings, or sheva brachas, or a community event or a large birthday party, or just about any occasion that warrants a creative touch without breaking the bank. Not every creative touch centerpiece I've created over the years (and believe me, there have been many) has been as sweet as this one, and best of all when the festive occasion is over you can give away the origami fruit and just keep the stands, or make a fun mobile with them, or save them for a bit to re-use. I think I'm going to add some gold polka dots to the origami apples that survived the second occasion, (a brit milah with a ton of kids) and use them to decorate the house for Purim! Actually I have a bunch of small origami apples that never made it to the phase where they actually become fruit, so those might be nice string light covers, or look great hanging from the ceiling somewhere........Purim is a festive holiday and a great excuse for someone like me to go a little crazier than usual, right? Okay, back to the Ikea Hack centerpieces, lets get started.......

Giant Origami Apples Are Perfect For Any Party

A few weeks ago, just after the holiday of Tu B'Shevat I needed to make some simple centerpieces for a community women's party, and I decided to try my hand at making a giant version of my origami apples and fruit. Fortunately the results were fantastic, especially with the addition of some gold leaves, and the same centerpieces were re-used a few days later at a shabbos Brit, which is perfect. Now, if your gears are turning, great, just know that there is a size limit to these origami fruit, namely the width of your paper, and once they get large folding the paper isn't difficult, but expanding the shape can be. So make some origami fruit in a bunch of sizes and colors (I did, actually, as you can guess) and enjoy. They won't last forever, and I believe a few of mine succumbed to having drinks spilled on them, but that is fine, after all sometimes it is great when you don't have to save everything! Ah yes, and it is true, these lavender versions may look more like plums, but that is great too, the more fruit the better. Okay, lets start making some giant origami fruit, perfect for Purim, shabbat, a baby shower, a wedding, a teacher appreciation gift, or just because.

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! The last month has been a very busy one for me, and so the inspiration from Craft Schooling Sunday is a breath of fresh air, thanks to all the wonderful contributors! We are about to start the Jewish month of Adar, which usually means the festive holiday of Purim is just around the corner, but this year is leap year, meaning we have two months of Adar, and Purim occurs in the second month, phew. Nonetheless, with Purim in just six weeks, now is the time to start planning (note to self) so that you can truly enjoy the holiday (another note to self.) Then again, all kinds of festive occasions keep happening that require my help, so we will just have to play it by ear. This week I hope to share with you the Moroccan Henna party decorations I made for my a neighbors engagement party last week, the decorations I made for our women's party that were then re-used for a nieghbor's Brit on Shabbos, and more.....so far this coming week there is a brit for my neighbors twin grandsons, together with the pidyon HaBen for the firstborn twin, and another engagement party......a lot going on around here, so I"ll just get this party started! And yes, just to explain, the Brit Milah is generally done on the 8th day, and the Pidyon HaBen on the 30th day, but since the twins were born small their brit was postponed, and since the father's family lives hours away the two simchas are being held together to save them from having to drive for hours, twice.

A Few New Paintings In My Clothesline Gallery

Finding the time to invest in my painting process is the biggest challenge at the moment, and I have not added to my kitchen wall gallery in the last two weeks or so, waaah. The thing about painting, or deciding to try your hand at a creative practice of any kind is that it truly requires consistency, time and producing enough so that your skills improve over a shortish period of time. Slaveing over one painting isn't going to make you an amazing artist unless you happen to be Leonardo DeVinci, who carried the Mona Lisa around with him for years, though of course he was making lots of other art as well. As far a my goal of 100 floral paintings on paper with acrylic paint, I am now at #77 or so, and some landscapes have snuck in there as you can see, but I think I'll have to just let them. Hoping to find some more time soon to paint another 25 floral/landscape paintings, and then I'm going to delve into painting clouds! Maybe 100 of those, and then who knows? And just by the way, of those 77 paintings, many were painted over twice, a few went into the garbage, and most of them will look like the work of a beginner in another year or so, and that is exactly how it should be!