I'm still here. Exhausted, but here...

So I managed to publish 31 posts in July (remember the Ultimate Blog Challenge?), and I'm about to finish August with 12. Almost half. So on one hand, it's quite a lot for myself. On the other hand, I feel that there are so many things I wanted to write about, and didn't. And remember I said my personal challenge for August is to finally list some items on my Etsy shop? Well, I did, but only three. This isn't exactly what I had in mind...

But along the way we had summer vacation, and then back to school, and next week is Jewish New Year, and I have to make some gifts and cards, and this year I also participated in a local fair, so I have plenty of excuses...

See those beautiful crochet rugs? My talented mom sells them (and baskets and some other items!).

That's it, I'm off to bed, to rest before another exhausting week begins...

Have a great week!

Camp Mom - Me & My Family

I know it's the end of summer vacation for most (I survived! I'm still here!!!), and some of you may have even sent your kids back to school already, but before you know it, the winter holidays will be here, and you better be prepared than sorry, so... What's better than another day of Camp Mom? We already had Nature Day and Art Day, and today I invite you to join us for a family day.

To start the day, we talked about their favorite things. I asked them to take five minutes to walk around the house and collect their favorite things. Then we used some of these items to create a self portrait.

She used hearts, glitters and princesses, of course...

He used a spaceship we made a long time ago, a card of his favorite online game, playmobil images and... Glitters!

Then we created a family board game. We began with planning how the board will look like, then created the spaces, the chance cards and the rules. The idea was that everything should be related to our family (the spaces on the board contain dinosaurs and soccer for him, princesses and fairies for her and glitters for both. The cards require family knowledge like her favorite outfit, his favorite food and Granma's special pancakes recipe). We even used Das to make the small tokens ourselves. 

Then we played a few times, of course, and I'm proud to say that even now, 2 weeks later, it's still one of the favorite games for all the family members.

Then we made secret notebooks. Each got a simple notebook, and I laid on the table lots and lots of scrap goodies, that usually are off limits for them. Half an hour later they each had a notebook decorated exactly like they wanted it to be. Now, the idea of a secret notebook is very simple - they can write (or draw) anything they want. It can be something that is just too difficult to say out loud or just something they want to tell Mom or Dad. Then they place it on Mom or Dad's pillow. Mom or Dad then reply back and place it back on the kid's pillow.

Last thing we made that day was a family phone book for each, with numbers for Mom, Dad, grandmothers, uncles and aunties and some friends as well. 

Have a successful, interesting and pleasant school year!

Now It's Your Turn! Pinterest Group Board Features

Wednesday's here and it's time to see what you've been up to...

Remember? You pin your pictures to the Pinterest Group Board, get views from hundreds of followers and maybe even get to be featured here next week.

How to pin your photos to the group board?

1. Follow me on Pinterest
2. Leave a comment, here or on any of my Pinterest pins, with your Pinterest user name.
3. I'll follow you back
4. I'll send you an invite
5. Accept the invite
6. Start pinning!

Begginers, here's a detailed explanation:
- You have to follow me on Pinterest (and I have to follow you), because these are Pinterest's rules for group boards. If the board admin wants to invite people to the pin to the board, they have to follow each other. You can only follow one of my boards, btw.
- You don't have to be bloggers. As long as your pictures are somewhere around the WWW, you're good. Flickr, Picasaweb, Instagram etc. are all fine.
- Your pin doesn't have to be a tutorial. As long as it can be an inspiration to someone, that's fine.
- If you have a non-English blog, that's OK. These days, with Google Translate, we can just translate the page to another language.



All right then, shall we see today's features?

Stacey from the sweet blog Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy with a super cute jacket. I want to make one exactly like this for each of my kids!

A Super Cute Jacket from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy

Soon will be the best time for some beach time (well, at least here in Israel!). Not too hot, but still hot enough. And if you go to the beach, you've got to have a beach bag, don't you? So take a look at this cool & easy upcycling project by MammaNene from Serger Pepper.

T-shirt to Beach Bag Tutorial @ Serger Pepper

Melissa from Daisy Mae Belle brings us the perfect little gift for the teacher - a DIY burlap apple treat bag.

DIY Burlap Apple Treat Bag @ Daisy Mae Belle

Thanks for sharing ladies, if you were featured, feel free to grab a button!

<a href="http://english.the-crafeteria.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbZd8bBPw_-htQxQXged3zu12v7ZFYjAJ2upIerNkXpGC12C3ver0lx8wDr0uI_nS1qLQxIxtnsEQFrhUA4HeJIwaQKCkuhUXinNKTXy5KUKpfqZVKzM93v34zosGQdQt4ZnRzEQqEdrB/s307/feature%2520button%2520new1.jpg" /></a>

That's it for today, don't forget to pin your best works into the board!

Camp Mom - Summer Activities for Kids. Art Day

Were having another Camp Mom Day today! After playing in the nature, we're moving on to mommy's favorite day - it's art day! I know, The Boy wanted a sport day, The Girl wanted a princess or fairies day (gee, are we gender appropriate or what?...), but mommy wants an art day, so mommy will get an art day.

We opened the day with a book. It's one of my (and their) favorite art books for kids, Picasso's Trousers. We bought it in the amazing shop at the Tate Modern, but you can also get it from Amazon as well. The book not only features Picasso's masterpieces, but also teaches the kids that art is what you want it to be.

Then we decided we also want to be Picasso. So the kids got photos of themselves in size A4, and on the table I placed scissors, glue and some other materials that I've been collecting for our craft table. The instructions were very simple - (1) Create a new self portrait from the photo (2) You can do ANYTHING. In the beginning it was a bit hard for them, but as the scissors were cutting the first line, it all became easy.

Here's his finished one -

And hers...

Then we talked about pointillism and tried it ourselves using Q-tips and gouache paints.

Then we moved on to the kitchen and played with fondant (that's edible art, mind you :) )

With this Boy in the house, not much fondant left to work with...

After washing hands, each child got a shirt and markers for fabric. Confession - this was when they've had it and asked to watch TV instead... The shirts still wait unfinished in my craft room...

While they were having lunch (and getting some TV time…), I drew frames in different sizes and shapes on pieces of paper . When they were ready again, they drew inside the frames whatever they wanted.

Yay! Finally I get to participate as well!...

Then we made a sign for our museum and hung it on the door and hung the art pieces they made around the house. Can you believe that I forgot to take pictures?!

This was the end of the day for us, but you can take this subject to different directions. Want some ideas? The Artful Parent is one of my favorite websites EVER. It has so many ideas, you won't be able to stop browsing... If you know other similar website, please share in the comments :)

* This post contains affiliate links. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

The Sunshine Award

Award season seems to have arrived :) In the last three days I got nominated for The Sunshine Award by two different bloggers, which of course makes me really really happy, especially after a long and hard day of summer vacation, that has left me feeling very exhausted.

Like the Versatile Blogger Award, this is also an award from bloggers to bloggers and there are some rules as well.

First of all, I want to thank the lovely ladies who nominated me for the award - Regina from the blog At the Lake and Stephanie from the blog Bee Tree Studios, you should go and visit them, their blogs are awsome!

Now to the blogs I want to nominate for the award.

1.

Eat Sleep Make

2. 

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

3. 

One Little Project

4. 

The Simple Craftes Diaries

5. 

Daisy Mae Belle

6. 

Projektila

7. 

Lila Lotta

8. 

Sews N Bows

9. 

Theetante San

10. 

Jacks and Kate

And here are the questions I had to answer. I hope you don't mind that I combined the questions from Regina & Stephanie into one list.

1. What is your favorite movie?   Before Sunrise
2. Chocolate or Vanilla?  Chocolate
3. What was your favorite book as a child?   Any book by Enid Blyton
4. If you could be any animal, what would you be?    That's a tough one... The Man always says I'm a bird, so a bird it is :)
5. Gold or Silver?   Silver
6. What was the funniest thing you ever did as a child? I know my mom tells stories about me eating certain weird things...
7. What was the last restaurant you went to?  It's called Klemantina and it's located in a small village in Israel.
8. Do you karaoke?  I love Karaoke (please don't hold it against me...), expecially KTV - those private karaoke rooms
9. What is your favorite board game? Monopoly
10. What’s your favorite meal of the day? Lunch
11. What’s your favorite fruit? Pomelo
12. When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? Actress
13. What quality do you find most attractive in others? Sense of Humor
14. What’s your favorite sport? Does Tai Chi count?...
15. What’s your favorite candy? Snickers
16. What’s your favorite online shopping website? Taobao, of course!
17. What’s your pet peeve? jumping the queue
18. Winter, spring, summer or fall? End of winter, beginning of spring
19. How many pairs of shoes do you have? Do I need to count those I only wore once?...

Now It's Your Turn!

Wednesday's here and it's time to see what you've been up to...

Remember? You pin your pictures to the Pinterest Group Board, get views from hundreds of followers and maybe even get to be featured here next week.

How to pin your photos to the group board?

1. Follow me on Pinterest
2. Leave a comment, here or on any of my Pinterest pins, with your Pinterest user name.
3. I'll follow you back
4. I'll send you an invite
5. Accept the invite
6. Start pinning!

Begginers, here's a detailed explanation:
- You have to follow me on Pinterest (and I have to follow you), because these are Pinterest's rules for group boards. If the board admin wants to invite people to the pin to the board, they have to follow each other. You can only follow one of my boards, btw.
- You don't have to be bloggers. As long as your pictures are somewhere around the WWW, you're good. Flickr, Picasaweb, Instagram etc. are all fine.
- Your pin doesn't have to be a tutorial. As long as it can be an inspiration to someone, that's fine.
- If you have a non-English blog, that's OK. These days, with Google Translate, we can just translate the page to another language.



All right then, shall we see today's features?


With 3 young kids, sometimes I just can't find the time to sit properly and eat, so these days I'm a lot into snacky food. This roasted bell pepper bruschetta by Tazim from Being Tazim looks delicious! A perfect summery evening snack.

Roasted Bell Pepper Bruschetta @ Being Tazim

Look at this perfection! Beautiful polymer clay buttons by Dolly Madison. I've written in the past about my special relationship with polymer clay, but these buttons just blow my mind!

Polymer clay buttons @ Dolly Madison

And Kimberlee from Kimberlee Korner with a cute lace knit sleeveless tunic. Talking about summery night - what would be more perfect that sitting in our backyard, wearing this tunic embellished with polymer clay buttons and eating my delicious roast bell pepper bruschetta?...

Lace knit sleeveless tunic @ Kimberlee Korner

Thanks for sharing ladies, if you were featured, feel free to grab a button!

<a href="http://english.the-crafeteria.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbZd8bBPw_-htQxQXged3zu12v7ZFYjAJ2upIerNkXpGC12C3ver0lx8wDr0uI_nS1qLQxIxtnsEQFrhUA4HeJIwaQKCkuhUXinNKTXy5KUKpfqZVKzM93v34zosGQdQt4ZnRzEQqEdrB/s307/feature%2520button%2520new1.jpg" /></a>

That's it for today, don't forget to pin your best works into the board!

Who's Afraid of HTML?

If you're online on a daily basis, or actually if you just live in the 21st century, you probably heard of HTML.

Let's make it simple - HTML is a language that helps us write and design internet pages. It is THAT simple. An HTML code may look really complicated, but actually, if you know how to look at it, it's really not that bad. I promise!

<div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjioFYNRuWFqZwlngiPelglCnmpNGFJp1I_btOgBkqMOrlB-IyaxRatjSIrloXhIlwK3q-Ds68DK82uCgpOMUtjJYQy6GuKDTR7ZeNk2G7OSfAjZBAlQ3lHcEH2GeqmsNMfaG-qO-A1sTmY/s1600/1.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='7434109613725114446' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='6452333055901131441' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='6452333055901131441'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> קייטנת אמא - פעילויות לילדים לקיץ. יום טבע </h3> <br />

Scary? Just keep on reading!

If you're a blogger or if you have any kind of internet page, a basic understading of HTML can help you A LOT. So I prepared a short tutorial for you, to help you with your first steps.

The basis for HTML is the tags. They look like this < >, and in between we write the commands. These tags mark a beginning and end of something. The opening tag is just written as is in between the angle brackets. The closing tag is written the same way, only with a forward slash ( / ) before the command itself. These tags design our page. Line breaks, links, images, text design – All of these are defined by tags. Anything you don't write between tags will show up as text.

A basic internet page will include these tags - html tag, to mark the beginning and end of the HTML document, head tag, that will be followed by a title tag, which is basically a tag for title, and a body tag - to mark the body of the docuoment.

In most cases it will look like this:

<html> Beginning of the HTML document

<head> Our head section

<title>  Beginning of title

</title> See this forward slash? It means that this is the end of the title tag

</head>  Another slash! So this is the end of the head tag

<body> There's the beginning of the body of our document

</body>  and the end of it

</html> And here's the end of the HTML document

See? It's not that complicated, is it? Once you understand this, it's all a matter of playing with the different tags. Here are some examples for common tags:

<br /> This is a line break tag (same as hitting 'Enter'). This is a special tag, it has no end tag. It is written by itself and the slash will come after the 'br' and not before.

<b> Bold text tag

</b> Don't forget to close it with an end tag.

So if I want to write a bold sentence...

I will write the next code:

So if I want to write a <b> bold sentence </b>...

In the same way, the 'p' tag marks the beginning and end of a paragraph.

<p>  Beginning

</p>  Ending

And what do we do when we want to define an attribute for a tag? For example, what if I want a part of a sentence to show up as a link? Simple as well! We'll begin with < then the 'command' then = , then " (quotation marks), the link itself (don't forget the http://), " again, close with > , write the text for the link and an end tag. Sounds complicated? Not at all! Look how simple it is.

If I want to write:

Welcome to The Crafeteria!

I'll write the code:

Welcome to <a href="http://english.the-crafeteria.com">The Crafeteria</a>!

<a> is a tag for a link. 'href' is the attribute that tells us where to go.

In the same way, if I want to add an image, I'll use the 'img' tag and then 'src' to tell the little man sitting inside the computer where this image is located (it can be a Picasa account, a Flickr one etc.)

See this image?

Here's the code for it ('img' tag has no end tag):

<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk4vpjV_E_UaDKqJyi6w0VlSWkRTgX9Fd1e9AQHpjrJBOkPYvmbgR9ioWyDChon30P9Fa0cE3rs_FfsOsVKm2DBSiOS3415BZ8oPi3FlDjwUpSToHjqDNRFFEJwmcKVgU96jUJXxDM9y5T/s320/hebrew.jpg" />

Everything you see between the quotation marks just defines where the image is located.

If you want to learn more about HTML, a great place to start is w3schools. You can find there all the tags and lots of simple explanations.

This, in a nutshell, is HTML. Of course there's a lot more than that to it, but I hope this will help you next time you'll see a long and scary code. If you have any question about HTML or if you want to learn more, talk to me (either leave me a comment below or email me)!

Making My Girl Happy. A Tutu Skirt

My girl, who can sometimes be a fairytale lady and sometimes a brave knight (with a pink armour, mind you), loves princesses, unicorns, fairies, sequins and tutu skirts. Oh, how she loves tutu skirts! It must be the dreamy/princessy/balerina-like look, don't you think? Luckily, making a tutu skirt isn't compicated, just time-consuming.

So Mommy is cutting and cutting and then tying and tying and sewing (just a tiny bit) and the girl is happy :)
I like the 'wild' tutu skirts more than the old-fashioned straight ones. Luckily so does she.

For a nice finish we choose a large fabric flower and it's ready!

Soon on my Etsy shop too (only the skirt, without the girl...)!