creative jewish mom

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! This week we are still in mourning on the Jewish calendar, but Wednesday night we usher in the very joyful holiday of Lag B'Omer, which, depending on your custom, either ends the mourning period, or is a break in the mourning period, and either way is a day when 3 year olds boys have a celebratory first hair cut, bonfires are lit, and music is played. We live in Lag B'Omer central, as this day is also the day in which the great Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai left this world, and so on this day we celebrate his contribution to the world. And believe it or not, more than 1/2 a million visitors now come to Meron (across the valley from our home) on this day, and it is quite a way to celebrate the holiday! Of course roads are closed, there are many logistics involved and one can only arrive to Meron on buses, and those buses don't stop arriving all night long! If you ever decide to come and want to book lodgings in the area, be sure to do it months ahead. Whether or not you will be celebrating Lag B'Omer with a trip to Meron, you can certainly make lots of fun crafts, right? Check out the carousel of posts at the top of my blog, and get inspired! And speaking of inspiration, lets take a look at the features from last week's party:

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! We are now finally back home after an unplanned trip, followed by a planned trip, and I can't wait to start making things, which is how I always feel after a major holiday. We are now in the Jewish month of Iyar, which means that the festive holiday of Lag B'Omer is just around the corner, and while we are currently in a period of mourning on the Jewish calendar (no music, weddings, haircuts) one can certainly anticipate the upcoming holiday with some fun crafts! Additionally Spring is a wonderful time to get outdoors, and start thinking of creative activities that involve nature, whether it is gardening, or nature crafts or even sitting under a tree and drawing, ahhhh, that sounds amazing! My schedule is still packed with too many things to even allow me to get back to my painting exploration, but hoping to carve out some time soon, yes very soon, gotta do it! Speaking of "do it" take a look at the wonderful features from last week's party, and get inspired to add some creativity to your upcoming week!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! Spring has arrived in full force here in Israel, and if one takes a drive just about anywhere there are colorful wild flowers everywhere! The huge quantities of rain and a winter that really just ended have somehow led to blooms galore, some of which I will share with you soon. In the meantime, crochet some flower coin purses, make a fun wind chime from recycled cans, use of those old crayons or create a lovely baby blanket, just for starters! Enjoy the features from last week's party, pick a project and include some creativity in your everyday!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! I am writing this before Passover, in order to open the party at a time when I will be very very busy packing away all my Passover dishes and kitchen items, which is necessary before bringing any leavened products into the house. Passover was actually over for us here in Israel Friday night, but since that was then shabbat we continued to eat as though it were Passover, making Passover actually 8 days for us this year. And that dear friends is fine with me, as after all that hard work the week goes by so quickly and I never for a moment miss bread, the matza we eat, handmade large rounds of hard cracker is delicious.......On another note, I did not in the end succeed in totally cleaning out my studio, ( our plans changed last minute, and I lost an extra 2 days for cleaning ) so I closed the door and locked it for the whole holiday, including this computer! So now I'm ready to finish my studio and get crafting once again......! Enjoy the feature from the party 2 weeks ago and how about taking your creativity outdoors?

Craft Schooling Sunday Is Taking A Passover Vacation, See You Next Week!

Thanks so much for dropping by for Craft Schooling Sunday. I made a last minute decision to simply take a Passover break with the party as that means I can literally stay unplugged all Passover long, which is truly one way to make sure I'm not a slave to my blog or the internet, right? We celebrate our deliverance from slavery every year, though we also apply the idea of slavery to our lives today giving the holiday many layers of relevance, and the all the house cleansing before Passover in turn leads to a spiritual cleansing on the holiday!  So dear friends, I'll be back next week, with hopefully a nice clean slate after crossing the Red Sea, so see you on the other side!

Wishing everyone a very meaningful and joyful Passover.

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here. With Passover in less than a week (starts Friday night) the pressure is on to get the house and most importantly, the kitchen, truly clean! The fridge is scoured as are any cabinets and counters that will be used for Passover and all food items not "kosher for Passover" are locked up or eaten before the holiday, and if that food is crackers or bread or anything containing flour, that item most likely will be eaten outside starting on Sunday in order to avoid pieces or crumbs in the house. While Jewish law requires considerably less cleaning than many of us do, we really wouldn't have it any other way as it just wouldn't feel like coming out of slavery if we didn't work to make our homes orderly and shining as well as free of leavened products! There is no feeling like sitting down at the seder on the first night of Passover with everything sparkling clean physically and spiritually and all the work getting there is part of the journey. With that in mind, gotta run, so enjoy the features and happy Passover preparations!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday and wishing everyone a chodesh tov, a happy new month, as it is now the Jewish month of Nissan! Nissan means Spring, and it also means the pressure is on, with Passover in just two short weeks and soooooo much to do. Not one but TWO close neighbors are marrying daughters this week, and we have to go to both weddings which are several hours away, so my daughter and I are going to take a mini vacation and just stay overnight in the Tel Aviv/Ramat Gan area, meaning the pressure is on even more to finish all of our huge tasks. At the moment I really need to finish totally clearing out my office/craft room that became a storage room, yikes! That is truly an act of experienceing coming out of slavery, so just before Passover is a perfect time for such a thing. So happy everything and wishing everyone joyful Passover preparations! The features from last week's party are amazing and inspiring, so enjoy!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! With Passover in just under three weeks, the clock is ticking and spring cleaning and trying to escape from the slavery of our possesions (in my personal case) will be happening in full force this coming week. I'm sure you can understand why I'd want to hang onto a bag of milk cartons I've been collecting and plastic ice cream container tops, among many other recyclables, right? Thanks, because no one in my immediate family sees the virture of these items and so I have to wage a personal battle in the name of hopefully using those items in the near future with some kids who could really use a creative boost. Very fortunately I do have a basement space in which to store these items in numbered boxes, and I'm thinking that maybe I'll make a goal of using up all these stored supplies in the next year, that could be great! Then again maybe I should just donate it all to a school and spend the time painting, hmmm. While I ponder that thought and you ponder your thoughts about spring cleaning, lets take a look at the features from last week's party:

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! With all the joyful celebration that comes with Purim, as well as the costumes and food gifts for friends and neighbors, and the hosting of large quantities of people now under our belts, we can relax for a moment........and then it is time to get to work preparing for Passover, which is exactly in four weeks! This year my craft room absolutely has to get cleaned out and organized as we need the space as an extra bedroom.....I think I'll spare you the before and after photos, but truthfully really excited about the prospect of having to stay clean and organized in the room that is my "office." And maybe just maybe, my prize will be a space dedicated just for painting and making a mess somewhere not in the house, and hopefully not in our basement space with no light or air either. Of course that would mean I'd have to actually use that dedicated painting space, so we'll just have to see what develops! And now for the features from last week's party, enjoy!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to craft schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! The very festive and very crafty Jewish holiday of Purim is on Wednesday night/Thursday (and on Thursday night/Friday in Jerusalem) which means the coming week will be very busy indeed. I am in the middle of finishing up a Queen Esther costume and a mitzvah dragon costume, needed for the school costume day on Monday or Tuesday, and hope to share that with you, and then it is time to think about the mischloach manot, the gifts of food for neighbors and those we want to honor....In previous years I always used a recycled container, but now I'm more concerned with giving something that will add to the recipient's holiday in some way, or at the very least make them smile. For the neighbors I often give a small healthy meal, as the morning of Purim tends to be a bit hectic and everyone forgets to eat something before getting into all the junk floating around. Since everything is still undecided I"ll just go with the flow. And if the husband actually goes to a lemon tree or ours across town full of organic lemons waiting to be picked, then I may just make quick pickled Moroccan lemons for everyone and do a lemon themed package. So many options and it all just depends on how much time there is, as I also have to prepare a feast for Thursday.......so now lets just take a breather and enjoy the features from last week's party: