Sara In Akko

After much Googling for the perfect Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday cake, I decided that for baby 3's 1st birthday I would go way over the top with some sugar-dough painting. If you haven't ever worked with fondant or sugar-dough, it helps to look at the dough as clay; sticky, quick drying, finicky clay.

However, I took a slight gamble on painting the individual elements of this caking, hoping it would produce a watercolor-ish, Eric Carle inspired VHC birthday cake.

Here's how it turned out:


I started with a non-dairy pound cake recipe, lots of green gel food coloring.... and more fake "buttercream" frosting than I care to admit.

I think the most inspiring element of the Very Hungry Caterpillar is that the illustrations look vibrant and timeless, so I used the bright dots on the cake as well as in the invitations and other party elements. 

The cupcake toppers and wrappers were just a few quick DIY projects, maybe a quick tutorial template to follow? Let me know if anyone is interested.

How do you throw an entirely successful "Very Hungry Caterpillar" 1st birthday party when you are either on a budget or live in a nation with no caterpillar party accessories in sight?
Very Hungry Caterpillar party idea are pretty easy to come by after a few dozen searches. So if your setting out to craft the bajeebeez out of your child's birthday, you're in good company.

All envelope and invitation formatting was achieved through a process of what can only be described as "futzing."

I'm not sure what it is that compels me to make my kid's costume instead of buying them. It just goes against my DIY nature. Also, I'm fairly sure I never had a store bought costume in my lifetime.

So here's the princess dress made entirely out of T-shirts.

I have lamented before, but if you are new here you should know that my child is a "fancy" child. I'm learning to work with it.

After seeing a small strip of rainbow ribbon I'd been storing away in the stash, my 4 year old became wide eyed and full of delight.




Lo and behold, it was true. "Fancy Nancy, Every Day is Earth Day," features Nancy (or Mancy as she is known to us) with a rainbow headband. The kid already saw the supplies, how could her mother not agree to make one for her?


 Step 1). Draw a cloud shape and cut two from white felt.

Step 2). With white thread, stitch around the outside of your clouds.

Step 3). Draw interlocking hearts on one side of your clouds, break out the rainbow thread and start embroidering your pattern. Set aside for about 2 minutes to make headband.

Step 4). Measure your head to make sure it isn't much larger or smaller than my measurements. Press ends of ribbon about an inch (give or take) turning inward, *secure the elastic so that the final measurement of the headband will allow it to fit snugly on your head. Secure your embroidered cloud to side of headband.

*the elastic only peeks out a few inches at the bottom but should be strong enough to keep your hair back and the ribbon on your head.

You may not be aware, but Valentines day is actually totally foreign here in Israel. As a rule, you can usually count on most St. anything days being out. Some people might have a growing awareness that it's a big deal elsewhere, but culturally it just misses the mark.

Even though I grew up in the US distributing my handfuls of store bought, tear apart valentines with matching stickers, my children won't be receiving the same childhood memories. No classrooms decked out in cupids and hearts or the big sugary parties with the classroom moms. It's just not what goes on around here and I'm Ok with that.

BUT, there are so many great Valentines day crafts that have been circulating the blog world recently, I'm starting to get a creative itch for some projects that, although heart-based and adorable, but not overly Valentine-ish.

I've always loved simple softie making patterns, and this is a perfect one from LollyChops 
who created and shared this excellent pattern and step-by step tutorial about a year ago for a sweet Hedgehog named Hamie. Go check it out!

To get over my "heart ache" (sorry) my matching hedgies have bright colored hearts.



This is a great quick project and the outcome is so terribly cute, it's worth all of the tiny cutting to make the furry bits. Originally, all the tiny hearts were larger scraps so it was great to be able to plow through a bit of that left over to remake something adorable.

I'm a fan of plain muslin for dolls and softies, it's like a blank canvas for your imagination. Even if you're the biggest fan of February 14th, this hedgehog would rock any way you craft it up.

We're not big on physical gifts to adults for birthdays or holidays in my husband's family. Maybe a family dinner but that's usually where we draw the line.

However, my mother-in-law does like to bring me potted orchids that I somehow manage to turn around and kill within weeks.


But there is more to this phenomenon than the orchid entering my care and then suddenly dying. There is first a hopeful stage where a new plant is gifted to me. I vow that it will not die on my watch and then I feeble try to assess which mineral water will best sustain the life of my new pant. I dutifully grimace at my plant and will it to live with all the good intentions I can muster. I have heard  that talking to your plants can help them grow and I have taken to gently whispering to the these fledgling flowers "Grow damn you!" But all to no avail. Within a few short weeks I find the petals wilting from the yellowing plant and I know I have failed again.

Sometimes I am lucky, and my mother-in-law rescues the orchid and magically nurses it back to health. I'm not sure what she does to resurrect these delicate buds but I am almost positive it involves love, patience and some sort of flower doping. Really, this is the only possibility for the success of all orchids once out from under my watchful eye. My mother-in-law cheats nature by pumping the orchids full of some super-botanical flower drugs. These things are probably so hyped up they could pedal in the Tour De France.

But I digress. Another birthday has come and gone and I am left with the seemingly not so large burden of caring for another floral thing. When it entered the house I checked to make sure it wasn't last year's orchid making a reappearance from beyond the grave. It was not. I asked my mother-in-law to set up the plant in the optimal place, in her expert opinion, to receive appropriate sun and humidity. Check. I review the care instructions of watering once a week with mineral water for set amount of time from the pan below. Yes. I then run to the internet and check the facts that I already know to be true. OK... so what now?

Now I sit staring at this ticking time-bomb, waiting for the day when I will have to relinquish custody back to the family flower caretaker.

Is my inability to keep these orchids alive some sort of in-law issue lurking just bellow the surface? Is it possible that of all the species I have dutifully cultivated over the years, orchids are just my Achilles heel? Is "someone" poisoning these plants to later step in and save the day?

February 2, 2011 Thank you little orchid plant

Dear Orchid Plant,

Although we have only known each other a short while, I am thankful for everyday you continue to flower and grace my home with splendor. I hope we continue to grow together. Your resilience despite my ineptitude is a triumph of natural beauty and I hope we share a long and healthy future together.

I am not the mother who bribes her children (normally).

Really. My kids aren't looking at the candy at the check-out line to take home with us, they know it won't happen. But if they behave very nicely for the entire time in the market, they are allowed to reorganize the misplaced packs of gum.

So why is it that this week, a week with no birthdays or holidays, I'm trying to craft little gifts to get them through the days?

One has a mysterious returning (but otherwise symptom-free) fever and the other a spastic cough with an asthma diagnosis trailing behind. With MD visits, x-rays, blood tests and long inhaler sessions, my 4 year old's child-sized patience is waning (the penguin is our nebulizer friend, he's sort of a frienemy).

So what can I do to make the littles in my home feel better?


Ten minutes of playing with scrap organza and some shredded black chintz turn very unhappy child above into super happy child bellow.

The winter chill has caught up with us here meaning mommy is sick. And with our daytime care providers also out of commission, everyone is stuck at home with whatever sick-mommy can dream up as appropriate time-occupying activities. Although we haven't got a TV, we have laptops and YouTube and lots of cartoons that have never been seen by the likes of my kids before.

The 4 year old is familiar with the story of Aladdin so I figured I could give in and let her watch this one Disney-ized cartoon without scarring her for life. We skipped over some of the more fiery "Cave of Wonders" parts but somewhere towards the end of the movie I must have passed out only to be awoken by a very concerned child screaming.

"Mommy! Mommy! This is wrong! Look! Isn't this all wrong?"


Ah yes, we'd arrived at the scene where Jaffar has become an evil sorcerer and Jasmine his helplessly bound prisoner. The costume our heroine now dons is straight-up Princess Leih, but crafted by Disney so slightly more sexually explicit (cause she's a cartoon and that makes it OK).

I shook myself from my fevered stupor I began to think of the ensuing discussion. I figured it could be brief and PG but include some of the following points:

1). Jaffar is behaving very badly
2). It is never OK to force someone to do something they don't want to
3). Our bodies are just for us
4). Forcing a princess to be your sex-slave is wrong etc...

"No Mommy! Look at her hair. It's all wrong! That's not her dress! It's WRONG!"

Wait, we're concerned about a ponytail and a red version of her usual harem costume? Jasmine the sex-slave hasn't phased you? Don't you even care that this princess is in chains and in imminent danger?

Oh, alright then. 

In all honesty, I was slightly relieved that the world was still this simple. Evil exists in inconsistency and bad is just bad. By her estimation, Jaffar had not grown in his scoundrely evilness from the beginning of the movie to this point. Jaffar just had greater control over Jasmine and her ponytail now, and that's wrong.

Does this make my child insensitive to another's plight? I am sure it does not.

She responds appropriately to babies crying, her brother's playtime injuries and even sick mommy passed out on the couch. She is concerned when she feels story book characters are in danger and when Brobee is about to eat food off the floor. Women in chains kneeling before evil men is just slightly out of her frame of reference, the whole situation is wrong and she doesn't have the spectrum of evil to help her decide which is worse, not yet at least.

I suppose the outrage a grown adult feels over a cartoon depicting something reminiscent of the final enslavement of women is just not the appropriate response of a four year old. At least not this one. And you know what? I'm glad. She has a lifetime to fight misconceptions and discrimination, unfair treatment and objectification. Today she is allowed to be pissed about the inconsistency a couple of animators tried to perpetrate against her otherwise enjoyable cartoon.

The above Demotivational poster was found during a quick web search titles "Jasmine sex slave."

It seems there are plenty of results of pissed off people who also think that Jasmine, the sex-slave, is wrong. Or maybe they're just concerned about her hairdo?

The trouble my children have with sharing toys isn't usually their lack of desire to share, it is mostly their lack of desire for sharing to interrupt their own toy enjoyment.
Take, for example, our doll farm. This is what my four year old calls a wooden barn house where all the small doll live with their tiny pieces of furniture and accessories. Also residing in the doll farm are the many tiny animals that belong to my two year old.

For the most part, these toys live together in harmony. Unfortunately, for the two year old to get to his toys, he must rummage through his older sister's well-organized doll house.

The solution? The felt barn toy carrier.


This is inspired by one of my favorite tutorials from  UKLass. This tutorial also appeared in One Yard Wonders, but I personally like the original dollhouse from the blog the best.


I decided against the fold out design and side closures because two is a delicate age where all sorts of hidden toy elements set off tantrums on occasion. Best to steer clear with something more straight forward that I won't have to open and close a thousand times a day to appease two year old whims.

This year's party had a fish theme, not for any particular reason other than I had fish cookie cutters, a great goldfish stamp and tiny goldfish to work with lying around. I thought I'd give it a swim (sorry).






Where are the pictures from the party itself you ask? Don't ask me, I was passed out between the kitchen and the buffet shortly after the cake (loaded with lit sparklers) was presented to a happily confused birthday boy.

I am an unfancy mother, I mean that as plainly as you can take it. But, I am the mother of a fancy child.

My daughter seems to have inherited the same phantom fancy genes that my sister has. Part of this rare genetic condition must be in it's random selection of sufferers. Despite the fact that they see one another rarely, my four year old has found that her kindred aunt spirit is the one to go to for the glitz and glam her mother so obviously lacks. She is drawn to the glamor of an aunt who travels with a make-up bag and full wardrobe, an aunt who knows about the importance of being fancy.

When preparing for a wedding some months back, my daughter was a ball of giddy excitement. Auntie Leah was coming to paint her nails. I spent days listening to how she would hold her hands very still to allow the polish to dry, how she would hold her fingers to show everyone her nails, and hours upon hours deciding what color each tiny nail would be.

One wedding? Sure, I could handle ten little non-toxic painted nails for a few days while outside of our normal daily routine.

But somehow while on this particular vacation, there where so many reason to need nail polish. At least by my four year old's reasoning:

-Dinner out was pretty special, we don't do that at home.
-Off to visit a new friend, super special.
-On our way to bug-camp, a camp entirely about bugs, crazy special
-"Look mommy, I ate all my dinner!" Will the special-ness never cease?

I put my foot down swiftly, I wouldn't be humoring this particular flight of fancy the entire vacation.

"Painted nails are for very special occasions only like weddings. When you are much bigger you can paint them as often as you'd like. For now, no!"

My four year old is the rational sort, she knew the rules and I really didn't hear another word about it for the rest of the summer.

But just half a year later, our family was preparing for another wedding... the kid knew her rights. Weddings mean fancy, fancy means nail polish and she wanted what was coming to her.

I bit my tongue knowing that I myself had come up with this rule.

We painted nails with her special polish (oh why did it have to be neon pink?) and had fun showing everyone her very lovely manicure. She was happy, I was happy she was happy and the whole event was probably more pleasant because of this compromise.

So why am I still raking this over in my mind?

It seems to me that mothers once said "Nail polish on children? That looks cheap." But somewhere along the road to a nail boutiques in every city and hamlet it became acceptable and even popular to let girls have their nails done right along with mom and friends. And why not, if there is a safe way for kids to have fun and play grown up, what's the harm?

Personally, my soul gnaws at me over this one. Playing grown-up is the harm. Little girls who are tiny grown ups with a tiny person's adult sized demands are a problem. Vanity and fickleness, these are concerns I have about raising a fancy daughter.

We don't have a television at home, we don't have licensed character apparel, toys are homemade and books take up more space than any other single item in our household.

Does one tiny pink bottle undermine all of these well-honed values?

Searching the web I really thought I'd find some people who found it distasteful to let little girls wear nail polish but instead I found this blogger who asks at what age is nail polish appropriate but seems to come up with only supportive answers, little kids love nail polish let them paint away.

I've also turned up a posting board for step parents deals with this from the opposite direction, why does this make our children slutty? The consensus is that it doesn't. Even trend spotters have taken note of little Suri Cruise's painted piggies and her favorite brand of nail polish.

To be honest, the tiny painted nails didn't bother me as much as my gut told me they should but I feel like I'm failing a mom test if I don't say that this is inappropriate.

Maybe I can bare polish for those once in a while occasions, but I'm not ready for 4 to look and act like 12. I'm even not ready for 4 to think it should look and act like 12.

What do you think, is nail polish OK on little kids or does it make you uneasy?

Thanks to everyone who entered this weeks Chanukah Crayon Giveaway. While there were a ton of great ideas that I will save in my crafting bank for later the final project is a variation on an old favorite.



Much like the Dreidel Gelt Bag which can be seen here I stitched up a tinier version that takes up a quarter sheet of pre-cut felt for each student. This is the perfect size for a set of crayons and a Chanukah note from our family to the 31 kids in the preschool class. The tutorial for this simple project can be found in the link above.



What about our prize winners you ask. The random number generator from Random.org has told me the lucky winner is #5 Shalom. Thanks to everyone for entering. Our winner SHALOM should contact me this week to get me details on how to get your prize to you (you never left me an email).

See, I let my kids craft a little too.


I have my happy little Chanukah Goblins hard at work crafting their own Chanukah cards to send to family and friends.

As we all know a well planned for craft can keep little hands busy and out of trouble. Also, it seems that family and friends like the stuff kids make in a few minutes as much as the stuff mom spends hours thinking of how to craft.


These are simple white crayon on card-stock, greeting card messages that have been painted over with watercolors by my children, 4 and nearly 2. I prepared the super-simple designs and let the kids go wild with the paints. A heavy cardstock was perfect for this project because 2 is too little for watercolors and the result is a very damp but still usable card in the end.

REMINDER: There is still time to leave your comments for the Chanukah Giveaway HERE

I typically take steps to keep my personal blogging fairly light hearted and without much intrigue but was tempted today by something larger than a contest. But rather a really on point question raised by said contest. A Tallit up for grabs was posted recently by a blog I've enjoyed reading for some time here.

So I began to think about my own interest in Tallitot. For starters I grew up in an egalitarian community where women did not wear a Tallit, but as I grew the environment began to change rapidly. Although just five years prior my sister was not given a Tallit, by my Bat Mitzvah it was not a question of whether or not a girl would wear a Tallit but which Tallit she would wear.

The options were not plentiful, you could choose between a very plain blue striped pattern or a more elaborate blue striped pattern. All wool, all with machine embroidered Atara and all miniature versions of a full grown man's Tallit, sized to accommodate the petite stature of a girl about to become a tiny woman.

As I had demanded a dark navy blue invitation with the skyline of Jerusalem in a 3 hour negotiation stand-still with my mother, it was my natural choice that I would choose the blue Tallit with the elaborate Jerusalem skyline to match. I was told repeatedly for years to come that this was a pretty "Butch" Tallit for a young lady.

I didn't care.

I loved wearing my Tallit. I loved draping it around my body. I loved being a fully-fledged adult and member of the community and I took this responsibility with all the maturity I could muster. Wearing a Tallit gave me a sense of religious purpose, stepping into my own space to commune with my Maker.

But I do not wear my Tallit anymore. I have become a more observant Jew, as observant as I imagined myself to be as a tween. I am a Jewish wife and mother and woman in Israel and all of these labels give me new limitations and horizons in my development. My chosen community is millions of miles away from the community in which I was born and I can't see myself walking around on Shabbat in a Tallit with all the men of my small city. I can't say that I would care to. As a modern religious woman I've found that can take that sense of my own space with me at all times, I don't need this props and staging.

I could go back and forth on the debate; is it forbidden, no. Does that make it appropriate, perhaps? Can a woman even wear a Tallit? Well, can't she?

I feel very fortunate to have lived to see a point in religious renewal where well educated and well grounded women are able to ask important questions. Questions that are not in defiance of tradition saying boldly that men and women are no different (believe me, we're different) but rather questions that force us to think like our sages. When our world has changed so drastically, are we not at a different point in our religious needs. The Torah is unchanging and society cannot be a measure of how to observe the laws of our Torah but there are questions that simply aren't answered by assuming a woman is not obligated and therefore may... or may not... or should not.

I don't feel that I would ever be comfortable in the community I was raised in. Their observances are now so foreign to me that I am often at a loss of words when I return for brief visits.

Instead of answering important modern Halakhic questions based in law and religious discourse, I often find that the purveyors of religious knowledge are limited in scope and are unable to adequately answer the basics of Religious Law. Instead there is an odd mixture of fear and myth about rituals they have deemed unnecessary such as Kashrut, Taharat Mishpacha and a host of other fundamental issues. This doesn't mean I resent other Jews who choose to live a different path than I choose for myself and my family but rather I am saddened that the outright prevalence of deeming my practices archaic.

I don't flinch at a woman in a Tallit and Kippa who is called Rabbi, but I feel a kindred purpose with those wearing a Tichel or beanie and are as well versed in living Judaism and Halakha as any man who never questioned whether or not he would wear a Tallit.

I hope that somehow my coming from this particular community widens their tolerance and love of other Jews as well as my own Ahavat Yisrael.

I guess I've arrived at a point where I can say a Jew is a Jew is a Jew.

Thanks to A Mother in Israel for the soul search.

I'd love to hear your comments if you've got them.

Although this is a quick holiday craft it began as last year's holiday craft, only to resurface now to be finished and shared.

To be fair, the children in our household have never set their eyes on this little Chanukah treasure. Therefore, it must be new.

Things I like about this project:
It is relatively quick (if you're the sort who finishes projects)
You can use virtually any scraps you have around the house
You don't need to sew if it isn't your cup of tea (Hurray for felt and glue)
I see this as the kind of decoration that's timeless, year after year, for celebrating.
but without further ado...

Craft your own Color and Counting Menorah Play Mat

Materials:
One large square of canvas or solid colored quilt weight fabric (at least 18"x18")
One large square of blue or contrasting felt or other heavy fabric
9 different colored pieces of usable scraps of felt
One square of yellow felt (for flames
Sew-on Hook-and-loop tape (you won't need much)
Basics (needle, thread, scissors, pencil etc...)

General Guidelines:
Prepare the base canvas by pressing and sewing the edges. Cut a rough Menorah shape out of your large piece of felt and sew the menorah flush to the bottom of your canvas. When completely secured, set entire piece aside, go get your felt scraps. Decided on a rough candle size you like, cut doubles for each of your 9 scrap colors, straight stitched around and stuffed each candle. Then cut out 18 tiny flame shapes to be doubled and make one flame per candle.

Take your Hook-and-loop tape and either sew or adhere to your canvas base where you would like your candles spaced.


Stick the play mat in your holiday box with your Dreidels and other Chanukah fixings and move on to your next holiday project. Enjoy!