Fusible Bead Sukkah Decorations

Back in the dark ages before Pinterest,
(let's not even begin to discuss the REAL dark ages, before the internet)
those of us in the Jewish blogging community worked hard to share our project ideas and such.

I read this blog post from Carolyn and was enchanted with the idea of using fusible beads to decorate our sukkah! (check it out, hers are amazing!)

We've been doing this kind of decorating since then, but this year the kids have been very into these beads, so we were a little more ambitious:

The "Sukkot" sign is from a previous year!

We hang them with zip-ties. 

Want to see more Sukkot decoration ideas? You CAN go to Pinterest!

Pinspiration

You have probably heard of Pinterest.
I have actually blogged about this back in November.
(If you want an invite, let me know.)

The other day was full of Pinspiration.
Here's what I did, all inspired by Pinterest:

 I displayed a bunch of photos, in a super-simple way. And Solly looooved it.
How beautiful is this? About six weeks ago I printed 50 free prints from Shutterfly (thanks to another obsession - online coupon sites), with the intention of creating something with them. And then they sat around...until today when I was inspired by this pin. (And it's very high-tech - I used scotch tape.)

 We also tried out the broken crayon project that has been pinned many times. It was fun, it didn't work exactly the way I wanted it to but we still had a good time. I wanted to use this project for Yael's upcoming birthday party but I'm not sure it will work. I have to muse on it a little more...

 AND I learned that you can freeze avocados. Did you know that?

What have you learned on Pinterest?

Snow Day Project: Winter Sun-Catcher

We had one of the biggest February snow storms in Chicago history this week. Not as bad as the east coast, but I was quite content with our blanket of snow.

A perfect time to try this project from Family Fun magazine, which I cut out for just such an occasion!

It's a Winter Sun Catcher.
Very easy to do, first you make colored ice cubes. We didn't have ice cube trays, so I got some in the Dollar Spot at Target, and yes, they were heart-shaped.

My kids wanted to watch them freeze. Keeping the freezer door open is not the optimal way to get that done. So we went sledding while we waited.

Then you put the frozen cubes into a round cake pan, with a plastic cup filled with water also set in the pan. Our ice cubes ran a bit, but the almost-finished products looked like this:

Then we popped them out and hung them in front of our house:

I wonder what they'll look like when it starts to thaw...good thing that's not predicted any time soon!

Where My Creative Energies Have Gone

...or in other words, Why I Didn't Do the Wrapped Emotions Challenge this week...

Those of you who read my blog regularly have seen some of the Wrapped Emotions creativity challenges that I've been doing each week along with Melody and others. Some weeks it's a challenge to get it done, other weeks it just seems to fit in.

This week, however, I've been planning birthday parties. Saturday morning was Sam's 2nd birthday party. A simple low-key brunch with a Blue's Clues theme. And these gorgeous cupcakes, made by yours truly!



And, not to be outdone by myself, David's 6-year-old birthday party is today. Here is the beautiful cake I've created for that party, with a "ninja" theme. It promises to be much less low-key, much noiser, with six seven 6-year-old boys running around the house. (One per year, plus David)



These cakes/cupcakes have kicked my butt this week but they were so much fun! I explored the joy of candy melt.

Things I've learned:
1. It's hard (almost impossible) to change the color of the candy melt after it's melted. (Maybe because I didn't have this)
2. It's really really hard to get true black and true red color. I used gel food color, which is supposed to be better, but I still couldn't get real black. More like silvery gray. Oh well.
3. Food color stains your hands. I'm now a medley of blue, black and red.
4. Spray food color is harder to use than it looks.
5. It's just not as easy as it looks!

The whole thing was a lot of fun though, and my boys were very excited about their treats.

It does beg the question as to why I didn't just buy the cake and cupcakes. After all, I'm a busy mom of 3, with a full-time job, and much of the cake decorating happened during time I could have spent resting, relaxing, or...blogging (grin). For one thing, I enjoyed doing it, knowing that I was making something special for my kids. I also like the opportunity to try out a new craft. Crazy? Maybe.
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Five Places I've Been This Week

A Funny Cake - and making fun of W*lmart too!

Zucchini Muffins with Gumdrops - sounds weird but looks yummy

Bar Mitzvah Behavior

Splashup

Cake Decorating Basics

from my del.icio.us
Where have you been?

Flowers for Melody

Wonderful Melody, who blogs at Slurping Life (if you're not reading her...you should be) and creator of Wrapped Emotions, is going through some rough times with her family. While she would normally be posting for us a creative challenge (or hiring it out to a guest blogger, like me!), Jenny at Live and In Color has posted a project to "send flowers" to Melody.

Here's what she said:
If I knew her address, I’d probably send her a card or flowers, just to let her know I care. But this is cyberspace, so it’s time to get creative.

My challenge to you, whether you’re a regular WE participant or not, is to help me “send” a bouquet of flowers to Melody. Draw, paint, craft or photo a flower this week and post it to your blog. It can be as elaborate or simple as you like. Maybe say a few words about what Melody and Wrapped Emotions have meant to you.

How awesome that Jenny stepped up to the plate.
So much about life is just that -- stepping in when we need to.

For Melody...I have been thinking of you each time I turn on my computer, and a few other times as well, including at our services each time we say the prayer for healing...

But interestingly, I also thought of you today as my son and I began to carve our pumpkins.

Back story: I'm not a big Halloween fan. Wait until later this week for that story. But needless to say, it takes a lot of cajoling from my 5-year-old to get me to even begin anything that even smells of Halloween...so here we are, carving pumpkins.

I suddenly realized that this was the solution I needed -- I would carve my pumpkin for Melody! And along the way I could explain to my son how I was making a flower for a lady who was sad and needed cheering up.

So....without further ado, my flower for Melody.


May it bring blessings and hope.

See more of the bouquet here.

P.S. Stay tuned Monday for my first-ever give-away. I'm awfully excited.

Necessary Bindings...Wrapped Emotions #3

This was a crazy week. Not to mention that the whole thing that Melody asked for on this week's Wrapped Emotions post almost made me quit the whole endeavor...I'm not even sure why except that I felt like I'm very happy within my little bloggy world doing these creative exercises but when it comes to the real world...yeah.....it's harder to keep up, I guess. Plus...this was a crazy week (did I mention that?) and I knew I wouldn't be able to do it. Tonight, I was feeling guilty (who knows why...it's not like I made a contract to do this or anything -- and don't get any ideas, Melody!) and I had a sudden flash of inspiration....so here goes.

Once upon a time, someone told me about the "craft" of altered books. After getting over my initial "I can't deface a book" instinct, I fell in love with the whole idea...and got a little bit started on my first "altered book." I went to a rummage sale and rummaged through books 'til I found one that "felt" right and was, in my opinion, okay to destroy...a cookbook. It happened to be a Kosher cookbook, which was also interesting to me... and a bit old, so I didn't feel at all guilty. I made a pretty cover for it, and I folded some of the pages, tore a few others, and did a few of the things that were suggested in the altered books book (i'm a geek) that I took out of the library...and then I gave it all up. Some of the things were too messy, some too crafty, and I just never found it to be a way for me to express myself...

until now! I was so excited to reclaim my altered book for this project. I glued up the folded pages to make them stiffer, glued in the first week's project (which I had almost thrown out...oops) and made a page for the second project, which I have now sent to be really printed by the photo printer. I don't think I'm going to put in the posts or prompts, but maybe...anyway, it's a work in progress and I'll keep thinking about it. But I was very excited to have actually done this, even though I thought I couldn't. Okay, so here are the pictures....(sorry for the length, and the lateness too!)

Go to Wrapped Emotions to see more of the posts...