creative jewish mom

Container Gardening: Growing Lemons

2012-02-10T07:17:00+01:00

Yes, you can grow lemons in a pot! Of course what I mean is that you can grow a lemon tree in a pot, and you can get some fruit from that tree. While most trees really won't thrive in a pot for more than a few years, a lemon tree can apparently do just fine as long as you give it the loving care it needs, meaning basically a big pot and of course lots of sun.

I'm quite happy with the ten lemons that just ripened on my lemon tree, (a good yield I believe for a tree in a container) and now I'm thinking maybe I ought to fill my container garden with more lemon trees. On second thought I'd rather have flowering vines, so scratch that idea. It sure was a great feeling to wander down the steps to my little tree, on a cold winter day, and harvest these fruits, quietly of course, because except for the Hedenbergia who is about to bloom, the rest of the garden is sleeping....shhhhhh.

Garden Mosaic With Broken Tiles, Stones and Ceramic Shapes

2012-02-09T10:41:11+01:00

How about adding an artful mosaic to your garden this year. Mosaics with a mix of elements such as stones, broken tile, ceramic pieces and glass are particularly wonderful! And you know, you just sort of glue it onto a big board or even a bare wall, and grout it and voila! The very imperfect, artful mosaics that I've been seeing here and there lately are great— not too studied, a little casual and certainly unique!

I was walking to an appointment and I was a bit late on account of photographing the blooming almond trees, so I took a little short cut down a flight of stairs between two apartment buildings, and suddenly, gasp, wow, look at this garden mosaic! Now I myself have done quite a few mosaic pots in my day, but never a flat mosaic, so I was particularly inspired, especially since it was so unexpected.

An otherwise very dark and dull retaining wall was turned into a little joyful corner, wonderful don't you think?

And then I turned the corner and gasp, a flock of ceramic birds, bringing a little cheer to this dreery wall. I don't know if a mosaic is planned around them, but either way they're so much fun!

Inspired? I know I am, maybe this summer we'll have the chance to use all those broken dishes and tiles I've been saving! And while my future with ceramics is uncertain at the moment as I'm just soooo busy, seeing these mosaics using elements made in the pottery studio has certainly gotten me thinking. And by the way, for indoor mosaics, one could certainly substitute polymer clay for real ceramic and get a similar result. Hmmmm, more food for thought!

Today Is Tu B'Shevat, The New Year For Trees

2012-02-07T12:26:02+01:00

Today is a special day on the Jewish calendar, it is Tu B'Shevat, quite simply the beginning of a new growth year for trees. Tu B'Shevat coincides with the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle. In most cases, the earliest blooming tree is the almond tree, who this year is right on time here in my neighborhood!

We mark the day of Tu B’Shevat by eating fruit, and especially grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On the night of Tu B'Shevat (last night) many set a festive table with platters of dried and fresh fruit and nuts, and some embue the holiday with even greater meaning by participating in a Tu B'Shevat seder, originated by Jewish Kabbalists living in Israel in the 16th century.

I went on a walk yesterday in search of some blooming almond trees to share with you, and I was greatly surprised! It is truly a beautiful sight to see these delicate blooms dotting the hillsides when the green grass has just started to grow and most of the other trees are still bare.

Many of the almond trees in my neighborhood are hundreds of years old, and it's so exciting to see them awaken from their slumber!

Here you go, one last photo of the blooming trees and our gorgeous mountain view, namely Mt. Meron, the second largest mountain in Israel. Have a wonderful Tu B'Shevat!

Woven Recycled Bleach Bottle Basket

2012-02-07T11:15:29+01:00

You can use a recycled bleach bottle to make a really fun woven basket. And when you add a little felt liner, your recycled bottle basket suddenly becomes really amazingly cute. If I do say so myself. Now, I must admit, I made this basket over two years ago, and for some reason never quite fit it into my schedule to take some photos. So in a way this little woven basket craft is new to me too! But now that I'm revisiting this one, I can't wait to make more, and I may even make some to use for gift baskets for Purim......you know for the special people like teachers and such who deserve (and in my case, will expect) something just a bit special.

Here's another similar photo for those of you who love to study things and needed a slightly lower shot.

You'll Need:

a large opaque bottle, like a bleach or floor cleaner bottle
colorful yarn, the thicker the better, but a variety of thicknesses is good too
good scissors
masking tape

How To:

With a kitchen knife, cut the top off your bottle. Thoroughly wash out the piece you'll be using. Trim the remaining basket portion to the desired height with scissors.
Wrap a piece of masking tape around the top circumference, and mark off even increments of about 2 cm , or just a bit larger, on the tape. Make sure that you'll have an odd number of pieces so that the over and under process will work out at the end of the round! Place another piece of tape around the bottom of the basket as a guide for where to stop cutting.
Cut slits in your basket all the way around, making sure not to cut beyond the bottom guide. (If you take a good look at my photo, you may notice that I cut without marking anything off which is fine if you're just anxious to get going, and aren't a perfectionist, but then you may have to fudge things a bit as I apparently did as I actually cut an even number of pieces, but go figure, this was a million projects ago!)
Tie a piece of yarn to one of the pieces from the inside. Start weaving!
Make a felt sleeve using a sewing machine and two colors of felt. You could also quite simply glue fabric or felt to the edge to conceal it. Or glue a piece of fabric to the bottom and sides, and then cover the rim with a felt or ribbon edge that covers both the inside and outside rim.

And just for the record, the ever creative Gail over at that artist woman, had a very similar idea which she posted here to my great surprise after I made my basket. I love her version with sections of different sizes and she used foam cups I believe, decoupaged with recycled paper, adding another dimension to this project. So now that you have two source for this wonderful project, collect those bleach bottles and recycled containers, and lets get started!

Dried Orange Slice Pendants For Tu B'Shevat

2012-02-06T09:57:37+01:00

Dried orange slices are great for crafting, and at long last I stuck some in my oven to make some things for Tu B'Shevat, which my friends is tomorrow night! Rather than show you say a dried orange slice garland or another ornament, I came up with this fun idea which could also be a great little activity for a Tu B'Shevat party. Yup, that's right, dried orange slice pendants! And on little kids these pendants are well, quite large, making them all the more fun and festive. And when the party is over, you can simply hang your pendants somewhere for decoration. Enjoy!

You'll Need:

dried orange slices, see my friend Maggy's tutorial over at red ted art

pony beads

colored leather cord, or any natural cord like cotton rope or hemp

How To:

Make a hole in the top of an orange slice, find the center point of the cord, attach cord, and add beads on both sides. Enjoy!

Welcome Back To Craft Schooling Sunday!

2012-02-04T17:27:28+01:00

It's so great to be back on Craft Schooling Sunday, though I have to admit, I got so caught up in looking at all of your lovely projects that I burned not one, but two pots of food that were cooking on the stove. Yikes! And not even at the same time! I think the chicken is rescuable, since smoked chicken is fine, but the gefilte fish that I was making to save time, well it isn't so great smoked......I know since this is not the first time that this has happened. Please don't mention this to my husband, okay?

Now on to more important topics, like how happy I am to have you all back and how great it was to see crafters from around the world, from places like The Netherlands, Denmark, Singapore, France, The United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Macedonia, Japan and The United States! And now for those amazing features from last week:

Lilla A. is always great, so this paper doily stencil shirt is no exception, love it! I can imagine even doing a large piece like a table cloth or a sheet, can't you? And this precious boat from Se7en, well it was done as a part of a call for entries for a project connected to Lilla A. and it is just fabulous. Check out the rest of their fleet!

Carolyn over at Carolyn's Homework made this lovely lace decoupaged bottle, and the always brilliant Camilla from family chic made this heart shaped box from a tuna can, yes really!

Kate from mini eco made some great weavings with Hama beads, and infact we've been having a little discussion on how to replicate some really great vintage Swedish Hama bead baskets that we're both crazy for. And the sweet modern birds, well that's Lilla A. once again, gotta love them!

Crazy about this stunning crocheted clutch from anna simple crochet and these lovely tea cup candles are from haakensmaak.

Rita over at Design Megillah made these great place holders for the upcoming Tu B'Shevat seder, and I just love these baskets crocheted with yarn and roving from Craft Sanity.

That's all for now, it's time to show your stuff all you talented crafters out there, don't be shy!

Spring Craft: TP Tube Trees In Bloom

2012-02-02T12:16:45+01:00

Who would have thought that toilet paper tube trees could be so sweet? And especially these little toilet paper tube trees in bloom, just in time for Tu B'Shevat, when we celebrate the New Year for the trees, and hopefully witness the first fruit trees (almond trees) in bloom. I've been wanting to do some crafting with little hole punches, and so here it is.....punch holes in some colored paper and you've got yourself the perfect sized little circles for this project!

You'll Need:

recycled toilet paper tubes

colored paper

a hole punch

glue

How To:

Lightly draw a tree shape on your tp tube with pencil, and cut out with small scissors. Make sure to leave a complete ring on the bottom as a stand for your tree. Punch out little circles from colored paper and glue them onto your tree! So simple and sweet!

Place your little blooming trees on a tray together with some brightly colored fruit, and try filling small shot glasses with candles (that's what I also did here, just it was too windy to photograph the lit candles) and use the trees as a candle surround. Or place just about anywhere as a fun decoration to usher in Spring! Enjoy.

Trifle Bowl Candle Centerpiece

2012-02-01T16:01:28+01:00

If you happen to have a glass footed trifle bowl, you can make an elegant centerpiece with just a few simple supplies! I was recently in New York for my nephew's Bar Mitzvah, and while I had offered to bring a suitcase full of paper flowers all ready to go, my sister in law figured we'd just figure it out when I got there. And that we did! As you can see, we used this trifle bowl centerpiece on the dessert buffet, but it would look great just about anywhere.

You'll Need:

a glass trifle bowl

wide ribbon, preferably all ready to go with little flowers

some glass crystals

a wide candle

a hot glue gun

How To:

Wrap a piece of ribbon around the trifle bowl and secure with hot glue. In my case the flowers on the ribbon were a bit sparse, so I cut off the flowers from some additional ribbon and stuck them on with hot glue. Add some glass or plastic beads or crystals to the bowl, place your candle in the middle and there you have it! A super simple yet elegant centerpiece in minutes, just my speed.

Crocheted Chunky Lacy Quick Scarf

2012-01-31T07:30:00+01:00

Looking for a quick chunky scarf to whip up? Something a little lacy with a bit of texture that you can crochet at the speed of light? This is it! And actually after looking at one crocheted cowl after another, a long scarf actually looks great!

Now, one might think that after crocheting gifts of five delicate neck warmers and four chunky masculine cowls for family in New York, (in addition to the flowers and other recent projects) I just might want to take a break from crocheting, but no my friends, the crochet bug is alive and well. So while I had planned on making this scarf during my trip, I actually got around to it while fighting jet lag, first mine and then my eight year old son's, like at three in the morning! Of course at times like that what better way to lull the little one back to sleep than with some crocheting?

The thing that I love about this scarf is that you could drape it casually to show off it's open work, or wrap it around for warmth. Oh look, a young model has just appeared on the scene to show us just how that might look!

I followed this Lion Brand pattern using two strands of medium weight Vitalgo (Israeli brand) acrylic yarn and a size k hook. I used exactly two balls of yarn, and stopped there, but you could make this one super long according to the pattern if you like and it would be great. Their version uses a much chunkier yarn and a bigger hook, as you can see in their photo. And I might add, that while their wool yarn version will look great for years to come, my acrylic version will most likely start to look like a rag at some point in the not too distant future, sigh.

Note: In the Lion Brand pattern, the two ends of the scarf do not look the same, so I took the liberty of improving upon their pattern and adding a final row that at least resembles the first row, an important finishing touch in my book. I'll be back with the final addition soon in the mean time, start crocheting!

Orange Rind Candle Centerpiece For Tu B'Shevat

2012-01-30T17:24:36+01:00

Ever heard of candles made from orange rinds? Or candles made from clementine rinds? Great idea right, especially now that Tu B'Shevat (Feb. 8th) is right around the corner! Basically, according to the original source, one carefully removes the fruit, leaving the two halves intact, and when you are careful not to sever the stem that's connected to the top inside of the peel, you can actually use this as a wick once olive oil is poured into the rind.

Well my friends, this little idea sounds great, but just didn't work for me, since maybe the stem was too moist or not soaked enough in oil. (Another post suggested leaving the half rind and stem to dry overnight, but who has time for that?) So I got just a little creative with this one and got out the round floating wicks which work perfectly here! Fill your empty half-citrus shell with olive oil, add a floating wick, light it and voila!

Now, while my orange and lemon and clementine rinds look great with little wicks floating in them, I just couldn't stop until I had also tried making a beautifully carved cover with the top half of the rind. (I kind of felt like I was making up for all those pumpkins I never carve?)

And I must say, the carved tops look gorgeous, but once again I came upon another problem, the top started to burn. Now I did read that one should make sure to make the hole in the top big enough so it doesn't burn, but I had the same burning problem even when the hole was huge. So, if you have some extra time, go ahead and carve a top or two, and experiment, or better yet, enjoy my photos and just skip it all together?

The assortment of citrus halves do look lovely just as they are. Don't you think? And while my family won't be surprised when I actually do this on Tu B'Shevat, yours certainly can be!

For complete instructions, see the original post on this subject on Apartment Therapy and entitled How To Make A Clementine Candle. You can also choose to watch their How To Make A Clementine Candle Video, which I'd advise if you want to work through all the kinks that I encountered. And as far as working with lemons and oranges I removed the fruit by cutting around the perimeter as one would when eating a grapefruit. Have fun with this one!

Note: In case you are not familiar with the floating wicks that you see in my photos, they are widely available in any Judaica store world wide, and possibly in the Jewish foods sections of major super markets with a Jewish clientele. (They are generally used for lighting Shabbat and Chanukah candles using olive oil, and come in little boxes slightly bigger than matchboxes.) Or you can always order them online, even through Amazon! Just google "round floating wicks" and you'll find lots of sources. Oh, and in my last photo you can see the "large" size and the "regular" size, which refers to the size of the little round cork floater. Okay enough about floating wicks, you'll love them!