24 Hours in Haifa

Haifa is Israel's 3rd largest city. It is situated in the north of Israel and has beautiful beaches. So right before Christmas I took the husband for his birthday to spend 24 hours in this amazing city. What can you do in 24 hours? Come and see for yourself!

We opened the trip with a nice picnic right on the beach. Since it was December, the beach was almost deserted and we had it all to ourselves. The weather, by the way, was great! After the picnic we drove to the hotel we chose, Templers Boutique Hotel, which was absolutely superb. Even though we only had 24 hours in the city, we just couldn't resist a loooong nap. Oh, how I miss these kind of naps! After we managed to wake up, we enjoyed the balcony with the amazing view of the Bahai Gardens.

A nice evening stroll brought us to the lovely Wadi Nisnas neighborhood (we'll get back to it later). Most of the restaurants and shops were already closed, but we still enjoyed the great atmosphere.

For dinner we chose Xin Xin restaurant, to remind the Man of our days in China (we lived there for several years and loved the food there). We never heard of this restaurant before, but we read good reviews, and the fact that it is owned by a Chinese family caused us to have high expectations. Too high... The food wasn't good, the service was slow and all in all it was a disappointment. Anyhow, we were'nt going to let some Chinese food to ruin the evening for us, as we only had 18 more hours or so in the city. We walked around the harbour and passed by cute pubs and bars, but since we were tired (from the long nap, of course), we decided to return to the hotel. Right next to the hotel, we stopped for a night snack and beer in the lovely restaurant Fattoush.

Day 2 was very busy. We opened it with a guided tour in the impressive Bahai Gardens. It's a short tour, less than an hour, it's free and no reservations needed.

When the tour was over, we continued again to Wadi Nisnas (I promised you we'll be back, right?). It's an amazing neighborhood, with lovely people, narrow alleys and fantastic food all around (just walk around the market and try everything!).

A smiling face in Wadi Nisnas

After a falafel lunch, we went back to the German Colony, that stood deserted for decades, until it was restored in the 90', and since then became a center of the city's nightlife. We took another guided tour here as well, which was really interesting,

That's it, 24 hours in Haifa are over, we had a great time and we'll be definitely back soon!

Upgrading Pillowcase Tutorial

The Beatles were my first musical love. When I was 14, my dad decided it was about time I listen to some real music. So he put some records on and introduced me to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and The Beatels. Oh, The Beatles. The first Beatles album he chose for me was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A terrific choice, if you ask me. When he saw that I actually liked it, he went on and bought me my first Beatled cassette. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship :) 

So when Michal, an Israeli blogger, decided to do a Beatles project, I just knew I had to be a part of it. The idea for the project, as Michal said it, was very simple - choose a favorite Beatles song and write a post about it. It can be anything this song makes you feel. Use it as an inspiration. Hmmm. OK... A favorite Beatles song, right? That's like asking me which kid of mine is cuter when asleep. There's no answer to this question. It's impossible to choose! So I can try eliminate songs, but I'll still have a lot of songs to choose from, and anyhow, in different times in my life, I have different favorite Beatles songs. Don't you?

So I started with my list...

And pretty much all of Abbey Rd...

And yes, there are many other songs, but I had to stop somewhere. And then I began searching Pinterest. Check out my inspiration board:

Follow The Crafeteria's board Beatles on Pinterest.

And somehow I managed to choose a song. I chose Come Together, from Abbey Rd., that Lennon started writing as a campaign song for Timothy Leary, a campaign that ended when Leary was sent to prison.

So what do we do?

We upgrade a pillowcase.

You'll need:

A pillowcase (duh...)

Freezer paper (you can get it easily here)
Exacto knife
Fabric paint
A piece of foam or foam brush
A piece of cardboard
iron

Start by printing or drawing your design. Copy it to the non shiny side of the freezer paper.

Use an exacto knife to cut your design, save the inner parts of the letters! Cut around and place with shiny side down on the pillowcase (don't forget to place the saved inner parts as well!). Iron the design onto the fabric.

That's how it should look:

Prepare your paint...

Insert the piece of cardboard inside the pillowcase (we don't want the paint to bleed through to the other side) and start painting. Wait a few minutes, and if needed, paint another coat.

Wait for it to completely dry and peel off the paper. Done!

Here are the other post from the other bloggers on the project (all are in Hebrew, but use your Google Translator!)

Ro'a Olam

Colourful Way

Tamari & Me

Hug Hakotev Hatsfoni

Regaim Ktanim

Orot Verazim

Fashion Tails

Sukkot Decorations

I have a confession to make - I don't really like holidays. That is the Jewish holidays that we usually celebrate. The only one I really like is Purim, which is similar to Halloween, but I'll talk about that in another post. My no. 2 fave is Sukkot. It's quite a simple, easy-peasy holiday. Not too many holiday dinners and all I have to do is decorate the sukkah with the kids. Piece of cake. We already have a box full of decorations from past years. We only open it on Sukkot and sometimes on birthday parties, and each year we add some more decorations.

Here are some of the ideas from our magic box:

Take fabric leftovers, cut to strips 3 cm (1.2") wide and in different lengths. Tie each piece to a long piece of ribbon, and that's all. Then you can hang it above the entrance to the Sukkah or on one of the walls.

String lights are always a huge success. You can always use a store-bought one, but it's more fun to make one yourself. So how can you make it?

Prepare in advance a few cups (paper ones or regular) wrapped in plastic wrap and place them upside down. Take a few small crochet doilies that you don't need anymore, dip them in a mix of 2/3 Elmer's glue and 1/3 water. Put on cups and wait for them to dry and harden (24-48 hours). Now you can just attach them to a set of regulat string lights.

OK, this one is a cheat :) Do you know these paper balls? You can get them in many colors and different sizes and they're super cheap. Just buy 20 or so and hang around your Sukkah. Pretty and useful - by the end of the holiday you can just fold them back and store them for next year.

This tissue paper pom poms are a must in our Sukkah. There's a great tutorial by Martha Stewart here.

And this is a miniature Sukkah that we made last year. It actually had more details to it, but for some reason I only found this picture. After it was ready, the kids used little Playmobil people and accessories to play with it, until it just collapsed... Well, that's a great excuse to make another one this year.

And last thing - I prepared a Pinterest board all about Sukkot. I'll keep on pinning to it in the coming days, so make sure you follow.

Follow The Crafeteria's board סוכות - Sukkot on Pinterest.

I really want to see your amazing Sukkas! Please send links in the comments section or post pictures on The Crafeteria FB page.

Happy Sukkot!

Tutorial - Toilet Paper Roll Gift Box

Hold on a sec! This empty toilet paper roll that you just threw away? Take it out!

I love recycling and empty toilet paper rolls are a great source for me. You won't believe some of the amazing stuff that you can make from empty toilet paper rolls. Just search it on Pinterest and you'll be amazed, guaranteed!

So today I'm going to show you how to make an adorable gift box from empty toilet paper rolls.

You'll need - 

empty toilet paper rools (Duh!)

decorative paper (I used old newspapers, magazines and books)

gluestick

ribbon
scissors

Use the gluestick to glue the paper around the toilet paper roll.

Leave 0.5" (1.3 cm) of paper on each end.

Add some glue on the inside edge as well and fold the paper inside.

Now comes the tricky part -  press the toilet paper roll in the middle of one end to create a curved crease.

Repeat through all.

Insert your gift, then wrap with ribbon.

This is addictive, folks, I'm warning you. Once you make one, you feel the need to make hundreds more.

So enjoy and don't forget to show me your boxes on The Crafeteria FB page or tag me on Instagram (@thecrafeteria)!

Heart Wand Tutorial - My Post for Plucky's Second Thought

Things have been quiet here lately...

I'm not really complaining, but lately I feel like I'm missing 5-6 hours a day. Although I really do my best to manage my time and although I promise myself every evening that I won't go to sleep past 10 pm, somehow when the clock strikes midnight, I'm still up and awake.

Here's what happens -

One baby still at home with mommy +
Product design studies, I just started 2 months ago +
New part time job
2 kids that still supply their share of work for mommy +

Home stuff, you know... +

Articles I started writing for an Israeli lifestyle website +

The man also needs some attention =

Thank god we decided to wait with the dog we wanted to take...

Anyhow, I'm still Plucky's Second Thought's DIY contributor, and this time I made a heart wand for Valentine's Day. My girl loves it, I hope you'll love it too. See the full tutorial here.