Big Lull

I've been feeling a bit stagnant in my hobbies lately and have been thinking about taking on something new. Celeste at 70s Home has been sharing hand carved lino stamps on Facebook and I've been listening to CraftSanity podcasts talking about sewing, weaving, designing fabrics, etc. I've also been busy and not doing much of anything creative lately which leads to this feeling of stagnation.

As I considered buying some linoleum or reading up on weaving it occurred to me that I don't really have the space or time to dedicate to experimenting with new hobbies. I also really like the ones I have. What I really need to do is spend some quality time with each of my hobbies and see where its leading. Right now I cook, bake, knit, take pictures, and do digital and paper scrapbooking. I also dabble in sewing, embroidery and dying yarn.

What I'd like to do is take the camera out once a week and then spend the evening editing the photos and making plans for some scrapbooking. Finish up Batya's birthday dress and then pick a fun new project and not feel pressured to work on one of my sweaters waiting for me. Start back on my "mastering a dish" program and work on recreating some delicious dishes.

So that's what I'm going to try. But first I need to finish Batya's birthday dress. Which I haven't even started yet.

Big Crowd

One of our last projects for Pesah this year was the creation of a crowd of Israelites leaving Egypt. We used a couple of my blue scarves to represent Yam Suf and the girls had fun naming each of the figures.

Hanukkah Project #3

Today we are out shopping most of the morning and then I have some cooking in preparation for Shabbat and Hanukkah to do so I'm not sure how much time I will have for crafty things with the girls. I'm a bit sad about it because we have gotten into a nice routine of breakfast-Montessori activity-lunch-movie-craft-dinner with a lot of playing and snacking in between. But life does happen and any routine has to be flexible so that we can stock up on food and pick up our next-to-last CSA box (boo!).

In anticipation of no craft yet wanting to continue on my craft-a-day theme for the Hanukkah countdown I spent some time with wrapping paper and books. I haven't gotten all of the books I've ordered, so there are only 5, but it is a good start.

I've noticed that a few mommy blogs I read have advent traditions with a new book each night of December. I like that idea and incororated it into our own celebration. There are eight books (one for each night of Hanukkah, duh) that I wrapped in bought (gasp!) paper and stenciled alef-yud on the front. Each night one family member will open the book and we can read it.

I'm also considering doing this for Pesah from Rosh Chodesh Nissan and for Rosh HaShanah through the month of Elul since those yamim tovim have more of a sense of anticipation and preparation which the original advent idea is meant to express.

Hanukkah Project #2

Again, this project turned out better in my head than in reality. I had envisioned sheets of foil with sponge stamped images on them. Instead the girls used the sponges to wash the foil in paint and also fingerpainted the foil. Oh well. Still cute and I'll still use it.

As an aside, you know those plastic tablecloth covers you get at the kosher market? Those work great to cover the table and let art projects dry inside on a rainy day.

Also, FYI, washable magenta tempera paint stains white furniture.

Hanukkah project #1

I've been cruising the web looking for Hanukkah crafts for the girls and I to do. (I know, I need to get that list of links posted!) I found a tray on Chinuch.org that featured a mosaic-style hanukkiyah and used that as the inspiration for our foam sticker hanukkiyot.


I have a bunch of adhesive foam sheets hanging around so I spent last night cutting squares. I drew the outline of the hanukkiyah on black board and then told the girls to cover the lines with the stickers. As you can see, they did pretty well.

My original idea was to add a candle and flame each night when Aba lights our hanukkiah, but since they weren't interested enough in the project to finish them, I'm not sure how much they would enjoy that. Since I've already cut out the candles and flames, we'll give it a try, though.

Review--Color a Cookie and Paskesz Gelt

Before we left for Israel I got an email from Sam at Oh!Nuts offering some of their goodies for review. When we got home, the package was waiting. Insert an unplanned trip to San Diego and we just got around to decorating cookies this morning. Don't you love craft projects that have a built-in snack?
These cookies are adorable! For the girls' first birthday party I had a table set up with undecorated sugar cookies and various decorations so the older kids had something to do. It was fun, but a lot of work and I had to go to many different stores to get kosher parve frosting and decorations. With these cookies, that work is all done for you.


In each package you get a cookie (in our case they had the outline of a dreidle on them) and four flavored decorating pens. The only downside of flavored decorating pens is that toddlers might decide to suck on them and bite off the tips causing a flurry of screeching from other toddlers in the room. (Chaya, I'm talking to you!) The pens colored the frosting extremely well (I was asked to color in various parts of the design by each of the girls) and they didn't have that food coloring taste. (I sampled a bit of Shira's cookie much to her dismay. She is still asking me why I ate her cookie.)


For $4.99 per cookie it is a cute thing to have around at a hanukkah party for kids to do or just to keep your own kids quiet. The only downside is that messy kids will have blue hands and mouths for a while since the food coloring stains pretty well.


Color A Cookie are certified kosher parve by the Star-K and are Pat Israel.

Sam also sent some chocolate gelt made by Paskesz. These I passed out to some other people to try also. I was surprised that they had a bit of a bitterweet taste and was pleased that they didn't have the "parve chocolate waxy coat in my mouth" thing. Aba declared them "not bad" which is like a B for him. (His grades are "yuck," "I wouldn't mind if we never had that again," "it was okay," "not bad" and "do we have more?")

Batya has decided they are the best thing and is wandering around the house asking for "ch-locate daka" (chocolate tzedakah).

Paskesz chocolate coins are certified kosher parve by Rabbi Weistheim of Manchester. (And are a product of Holland which I didn't know and makes that bit of Dutch in me very happy.)

A Hanukkah Plea!

I have quite a few crafty and parenting blogs on my reader and lately they have been full of holiday crafts and projects for children. Sadly I've only seen one for Hanukkah. I know I am also to blame since I haven't done anything with the girls yet, but come on! There are only 13 days until Hanukah starts. We need to start!

If you have any cute projects you are working on now, did in the past or have seen on the internet, post a link in the comments. I'm going to get on-the-ball and do some things with the girls and hunt down some stuff. I'm going to try to get a decent list up on Sunday for the start of Ima On (and Off) the Bima's Hanukkah countdown.