creative jewish mom

How To Paint Red Poppies With Watercolors

After the holiday rush I decided that it was truly time to start dedicating some time to learning some new artsy skills, which really doesn't have to take a whole lot of time or money courtesy of skillshare, which I am happy to say is truly an amazing site with sooooo many great things to learn. I totally recommend it, and when you click HERE, you can get 3 months for 99cents, really folks, don't miss out on this one. (Or click on the ad below for a free month, but I'd go with the 99 cents.)

Given my wide range of interests I had a hard time figuring out where to start, (after the crayola calligraphy and brush lettering which we need to get back to) but something using supplies that we had on hand surely seemed like the best way to go, and i loved the idea of a challenge of sorts, so I started the Expressive Florals 7 Day challenge, which starts with painting poppies, a favorite of mine as they are native to my area here in Northern Israel.

The poppies I painted here, can certainly improve, but I'm happ with this as a start especially since this was done with brush only, no drawing with a pencil folks, as that makes things too tight, and the point here is to get loose, which I succeeded in only partly, but it is a start!

 

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 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!

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....

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!

Ceramic Kid's Craft: A Red Poppy Ring Dish

Spring is here, and the fields of Israel are covered with wild flowers, a truly lovely sight, In Northern Israel, the red poppies are an indigenous species that we look forward to seeing every year, and this year we were inspired by our love of this special flower to recreate it in the ceramics studio. With my guidance (I have to admit) my son made this sweet red poppy ring dish, that I think we will use on our passover table this year to hold salt.I only wish we had made a bunch of them so that the table would look like a field of wild flowers! Ah, yes, that is what I'll start to work on for next year, as I just love this one and was thinking I would make some more delicate ones.

A floral ring dish or even votive candle dish is a great project for those just beginning to explore the realm of ceramics (or truthfully paper mache as well), or air drying clay, as it involves just a few simple steps, ready?

Note To Self: Passover Needs For 2017

Above: Some migrating heron spotted on a little trip we took to the foothills of Mt. Meron during Passover

If there is one thing I've learned over the years regarding the great Passover kitchen change-over, is that having everything you need already on hand is certainly preferable to having to rush out and buy items that are missing. Plus, with this in mind one can pick up necessary items during the year when you spot them on sale, or see something particularly cute that you really don't need but that you could use for Passover! That said, I'm using this little space on my blog to make a list for myself of all the items I need to replenish for our Passover kitchen. This year I actually removed a number of items to use during the year, so remembering for example that we no longer have drinking glasses for Passover is certainly an important one, right?

True, Passover is already a few weeks behind us, but I actually scribbled my list on a piece of paper, and am now getting around to typing it up here. I can't say that I'm a huge list maker, but this Passover list together with packing lists for trips and a weekly list of all the food that needs to be cooked for shabbat are truly life savers!

What Is The Meaning Of "Next Year In Jerusalem"?

Above: A beautiful remember Jerusalem wall hanging one of just many other Judaic items with references to Jerusalem that one can purchased at judaica webstore.

What is the meaning of the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem" or in Hebrew, shana habaa b'Yerushalayim that we say at the end of the Passover seder?  "Next year in Jerusalem" means that all Jews should actually be living in their homeland of Israel where they can come to Jerusalem. It is of course very important to note though that the Jerusalem we are referring to is Jerusalem as it is ideally meant to be — with the Temple, the Sanhedrin and a Jewish Monarch! Even we here in Israel and in Jerusalem say "Next year in Jerusalem!"  

Okay, you say, but with the world as it is right now, how can we possibly think that Jerusalem can return to what it once was thousands of years ago? The answer to this question is rather deep and something better left to others, but I can tell you that this longing and the belief that we can return to this ideal is one of the foundations of Judaism, and one of the reasons why the Jewish people have survived over thousands of years. And just by the way, this idea of never giving up hope on the human race, and always striving for peace is one of the gifts that the Jewish people have actually bestowed upon the world.

Connected to the idea of "next year in Jerusalem" is the phrase "remember Jerusalem" , seen in the remember Jerusalem wall hanging above, which is really the same concept, only something that we think about every day, as opposed to at the end of the seder.  Okay, then so what does "remember Jerusalem" mean? The words, are taken from tehillim (psalms) written by King David and refer to the purpose of Jerusalem's existence, namely as a spiritual capital of the world.

It is true, the hebrew words on the plaque don't actually say "remember Jersualem", they say "if you forget Jerusalem" but for some reason that is how it is translated, I guess just to be positive about it, which is certainly legitimate.  What else does the plaque say? Happy to tell you, just keep on reading!

Make Fun Beach Toys From Recycled Bottles

With Passover just a few days away, we are frantically cleaning our house from top to bottom, which means lots of cleaning products, which means lots of cleaning product bottles that I can't help but eye for some fun recycling craft! I figured out a great use for the bottom portion of the floor soap bottles that we are going through like crazy, (more on that later) and as I was cutting off the tops, I realized that they would make perfect beach toys for all ages. Perfect for scooping sand and water, and one can unscrew the top to let the sand out of the other end, so much fun for little ones. And of course bottle tops with handles are great for making a set of catch!

I've now got about six of these waiting for our next trip to the beach, and in the mean time I've figured out that for this particular bottle I need to make a little adjustment for it to actually function well as a catch toy.

MIni Bouquets For The Passover Table

Mini bouquets for the Passover table are so very sweet and especially so if there are children at the table. And since the Passover seder is truly to pass on Jewish tradition to our children, making the table a delight for the little ones should truly be a priority! Yes, it is true, that our Passover table should be the most elegant and gorgeous or any holiday table, and we should save our best dishes for this holiday, so these little bouquets while cute and little, can certainly look great on any table, no matter how elegant.

Maybe you have figured out what i used to make these little arrangements, but the photos are artuflly blurry, so it might be a bit difficult for those not familiar with all the kid stuff associated with Passover?