creative jewish mom

Artful Commercial Window Decor In Stockholm

One of the joys of visiting new cities is simply looking and looking and looking. In Stockholm I spotted a number of charming window displays that I thought I'd share with you, as the art of making a statement in a storefront window is something that can truly transform a business, and yet so few establishments actually do it! For starters, look at this lovely window full of fresh oranges at Cafe Schweitzer, truly stunning, and while the Cafe is famous, I only became acquanted with it due to their visual statement, ah yes and the many bags of orange rinds blocking the sidewalk, complete the look and attract attention, brilliant! (We did stop for some fresh orange juice, so it worked!)

Lets Explore Stockholm!

The second stop during our 2 plus weeks in Sweden this past summer was Stockholm, a true delight! I loved the architecture and of course the water, and there is even a small kosher food store, as well as a Jewish community. We only had two actual full days to explore the city, so there were many things that we did not have a chance to see, which is always the case with travel! And now I've put together a few posts on Stockholm for your armchair travel experience, so sit back and enjoy!

A Tiny Peek In Our Succah

Wishing everyone an amazing and meaningful holiday of Succot! Here in Israel the holiday is seven days filled with mostly family and friends and living in the Succah, and that is followed by another holiday called simchat Torah, in which we return to the comfort of our homes and celebrate the Torah with lots of song and dance and a night and day packed with festivities. Phew! Right now all is quiet in our home, as I have already prepared and served a largish meal in the Succah. Tonight there is a community meal in the large synagogue succah and then festivities called Simchat Beit HaShoava, which I won't go into here, but is connected to the festivities that took place in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during Succot 2,000 years ago, wow. Okay, so since that is a bit difficult to grasp, lets speed forward to today and take a peek at some of the decorations in our Succah, 2019 style!

A Gorgeous And Rustic Bamboo Chuppah For An Israeli Wedding

The Jewish wedding ceremony is held under a chuppah, and while once chuppahs consisted of four wooden poles with a Tallis or embroidered velvet roof piece, today many prefer a free standing chuppah. I attended a friend's wedding just a week before Rosh HaShana, and was completely in awe of the gorgeous rustic yet elegant bamboo chuppah adorned with lovely floral arrangements. Truly stunning and wonderful inspiration for a chuppah or even for an outdoor event of some kind, or maybe even a succah? The color of the fabric was perfect and the floral arrangements truly complemented the look. And since this was a chuppah with a mountain view, well the whole thing was just wow! Keep on reading for some more photos!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! Fall is here, which means a whole new crafting direction, but the most exciting thing on the radar is that the 7/8 day Jewish holiday of Succot starts Sunday night, and that is something to truly celebrate! It is a special holiday indeed, filled with lots of family time, and gathering in the succah, and in general is just an amazingly lovely holiday. I'll admit, here in Northern Israel the succos celebration really couldn't get much better. In my little neighborhood we are all blessed with at least one large porch on which to build our succahs, and many folks, especially those with large families are able to build 2 succahs, one for sleeping and one for eating! As I write this, there are still many things to do for Shabbos, not to mention succos, but fortunately the succah is basically built, just waiting for my final touches. This year we couldn't find the boxes with the new decorations I'd made last year, but not to worry, no shortage of decorations from previous years, as you can well imagine! I am hoping to make a bunch of vertical "vines" consisting of accordian folded paper leaves and paper medallions, to hang on top of my brightly colored striped Moroccan tablecloth wall coverings, but that will have to happen Saturday night, right now the kitchen is calling! Wishing everyone an amazing and meaningful Sukkot! And now for the gorgeous features from last week's party:

Tips For Creating Greater Financial Security To Avoid Stress!

Above: My succah, the year that I was frugal with both time and money by re-using the decorations from my son's bar mitzvah celebration!

Raising a family is expensive, period. Jewish families, especially those who live by Torah values,  face an increasing cost of raising their families while living a kosher lifestyle. Besides the standard costs of raising a family, such as the high costs of buying a family home, Jewish families face specific costs like synagogue memberships, a kosher diet, the cost of Jewish days schools, and celebrating week long festivals like Succot.and passover. Practicing good financial habits can help maintain financial security and most importantly avoid the stress of scrambling to cover expected and unexpected expenses!

Simple Last Minute Succah Decorations

The glorious 7/8 day Jewish holiday of Succot starts on Sunday night, so in my nieghborhood the drills are wizzing and there is lots of hammering as folks hurry to get their succahs built! That late night quiet with a few pounds here and there is something I have gotten to know well over the years as 2am seems to be the time when I generally am trying to get the succah decorated! Truthfully I have so many decorations from past years that at this point other than some new paper decorations, like the accordian folded medallions and the accordian folded leaves I shared last week, I think I'm going to go with decorations we already have, for the sake of sanity and sleep! Of course that could change, but with shabbos arriving before the holiday, and then just a day for last minute preparations, that does seem like the way to go.....On the other hand I have been cooking up a storm in order to leave time for succah decor, so we will just have to see how today goes! With three teens in the house who can do most of the hanging of lights and colorful fabric panels, I am feeling like today is going to be very productive day!

If you have not yet started succah decorations, not to worry, there are many quick and festive things one can make quickly, and I've assembled some for you here. The main idea is quantity, namely whether it be paper medallions, yarn balls, straw starbursts, or giant tassels, make a bunch, or rather a ton, to really fill those succah walls! And don't forget, hanging real pomegranites, branches of dates and other items to represent the 7 holy species can also be your succah decor! Okay, lets take a look at those simple decoration ideas for the succah!

Recycling Crafts Make Perfect Succah Decorations

I was about to make a new round-up of recycling crafts for the succah when I realized I had already done something similar, so in order to save time, at this moment when time is truly fo the essence, I am re-publishing this post, enjoy!

The glorious Jewish holiday of Succot starts Sunday night, so there is no time like the present as far as using every spare minute to make fabulous decorations for the succah! This year I got a bit of a head start as most of the decorations that I made for my son's bar mitzvah are now going to be put to use in the succah, but preparing for the holiday will feel really strange if I don't make something! So having just taken a look through my archives I put together a little roundup of recycling crafts that are perfect to make now, and likely you'll have many of the supplies on hand,

And just by the way, tonight, which is the night following the hoiday of Yom Kippur, there is a tradition to start building the succah, so that is what some of our family is doing as I type this! And I might add that a few hours ago the whole neighborhood was filled with the sounds of succah building, one of my favorite kinds of noise! Speaking of noise, YIKES there isn't much time for crafting, so lets get started:

Recycling Crafts For Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur starts on Tuesday night, so now is the time to honor the holiday with some simple recycling crafts! It is true, that if you are building a succah, crafting time might be more well spent on making succah decorations, but if you are among those that travel to family for Succot, then why not make some Yom Kippur crafts? And, two out of the four crafts I've presented here can also be used in the Succah, so with time of the essence, lets get crafting!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! I am back from Rosh HaShana travels which I will share with you as soon as I finish sharing my summer travels, with so many more photos to go over and edit in that area, no complaints! We are now in the period on the Jewish calendar called the "Ten Days of Repentence" which leads up to the holiday of Yom Kippur, so this is a serious period for lots of introspection and righting our wrongs, as well as preparing for Yom Kippur, but mostly the 7/8 day holiday of Succot. I'm assuming that most folks that include creativity in their lives are multi-taskers, so this would be a great time to get those multi-tasking gears working to have a meaningful and creative week! I am going to start serious preparations for my succah on Sunday, in an attempt to avoid the last minute stress of creating under pressure! So, wishing everyone a wonderful new Jewish month of Tishrei, and lets add some inspiration to the mix, from last week's party features!