Gifts for Rosh Hashana

I'm not a big fan of the Jewish holidays. Not very politically correct, I know, but I'm trying to be honest. The only Jewish holiday I really like is Purim, which is kind of like a Jewish Halloween. Other than that, well... Not for me. And I feel the same also about Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year. The biggest downside of Rosh Hashana, by the way, is the fact that it usually comes a couple of weeks after school year starts. This year it was even worse - only a week after the kids went back to school, they had 4 days off AGAIN.
There are also 2 things I do like about Rosh Hashana - we traditionally give gifts to our loved ones and we also send or give greeting cards.

This year we celebrated Rosh Hashana Eve at my mother in law's. A couple of months ago she asked me to sew her a beach bag similar to the one I sewed for us 2 years ago.

That's our old beach bag

Well, Rosh Hashana seemed like a great timing to make one for her. So I did, but I added some extra features, like lining, inner pockets, water bottle pocket, key holder and Velcro. I love it so much, that it was really hard to give it away. Luckily it was given to a loving home :). And... I also prepared a tutorial for this bag, which you'll be able to enjoy very soon!

That's the new one, the one my mother-in-law got from us

My sister in law was also with us for the dinner, so I made her a necklace and a ring. These fabric necklaces are oh-so-trendy these days. They're cheap and easy to make, and although it takes some time to make one, they're so pretty and attractive, so I think it's worthwhile.

And another one... 

Soon you'll be able to find them also on my Etsy shop.

It was also hard to say goodbye to this ring that I made her...

To friends and other family members, I made honey cookies, then we packed and wrapped them nicely and added a Shana Tova (Happy Jewish New Year card) which is actually a refrigirator magnet. Did you know you can buy magnet "paper" and just print on it in your home printer?!?!? I love the 21th century!!!

Shana Tova! Happy Jewish New Year!

My Soon To Be Etsy Shop...

I know, blogging is nice and fun (and time consuming!), but what I really really like to do is crafting. And when I finally find the time for crafting, I sometimes just make a lot of the same item. If I wanted a headband for my daughter, I'll just make 10 of them... So now I have a box full of goodies (that I enjoy giving away to friends and family), but it's time to set them free :)
I decided that next month I'm going to finally upload items on that Etsy shop that I opened something like two years ago (and still standing there empty and lonely). If I managed to write a post a day (well, almost...), I can do that as well!
And since you guys are so nice to me, I'm going to give you a preview of some of the items. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments about items, pricing, photos etc.

Thanks! :)

Polymer Clay Retro

I really love polymer clay (aka Fimo). It's polymer clay that made me start crafting, around 4 years ago. Since then I've worked with many other materials, but polymer clay was definitely my first. So it's time to give polymer clay the respect it deserves, and to dedicate a first post to it (and I promise it's only the first of many).

As I already wrote, I just love love love retro. So I'm here's to retro in polymer clay.
Unfortunately, the crazy mess on my work desk (it's so messy, I'm too embarrassed to even upload a picture of it...) is preventing me to open my polymer clay boxes and to shoot a nice tutorial for a retro cane, but I promise to do it sometime soon, when I find the time to take care of the mess. In the meanwhile, here's a written explanation on how to do it.

For this cane, you'll need polymer clay in 3-4 colors and a clay extruder. I highly recommend the one from Makin's, that unlike other clay extruders, doesn't require you to build your muscles before use...

Roll  a snake, the same width as the clay extruder's,  from each of the colors you chose.

Cut slices 1 cm each (0.4 inch).

Alternately join slices to create a new snake (i.e if you had 3 colors - red, blue, green - you'll want to make 3 snakes, one red, one blue, one green. Each snake you then cut into 1 cm slices, then make a new snake from one red slice, then one blue slice, then one green slice, then again one red slice and so on) same length as the clay extruder.

Load the snake into the clay extruder, choose a circle or square disk and turn. You'll get a long snake, that changes colors along the way.

Cut the snake into 9 equal parts and create a square out of the 9 parts (3X3 square). That's it - a retro cane.

From here you can take it to million different places - sheets, beads, jewelry and basically - whatever you want.

Here are some examples that I made -

stroller charm pin with Hamsa

retro cane ring

and another ring

and a hair clip

A pendant

picture frame