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!

Guest Post. Shay Jordan - Blogging for You

Today I'm happy to have Shay Jordan on The Crafeteria. Shay has a fantastic blog about social media, motivation, blogging and more. Her posts always make me think and she has so many great ideas. Go ahead and check her blog out!

If you also want to guest post or get featured on The Crafeteria, email me at: tal@the-crafeteria.com.
And now, to Shay!

You’ve reached that moment, where you realized that you have barely had time pee and now its bedtime. The kids are sleeping, the dishes are done (okay, sometimes) and you just want to crawl up with a glass of wine and watch one of your favorite shows. Ahhh…… doesn’t that sound lovely?

Usually that moment comes and while I do watch a show 75% of the time, I also just enjoy writing to clear my mind. When I blog, it is helping me get closer to “shutting down” my brain. On the days I don’t blog or write in my journal, you can tell because I’m much more high strung. Chad says I’m too snappy and irritable, unless you feed me chocolate, then I will love you forever.

How Does Blogging Help?

Putting Yourself Out There - I have never met anyone, whether it be a writer, author, blogger, etc that doesn’t put themselves out there, even in the smallest way. Writing allows a sneak peek in to thoughts and feelings. How cool is it to see someone’s thought process as they blog and completely relate to them? Not only does it make them real, it makes you feel more real too. Could be weird or totally awesome...I’d go with awesome!

Experience - If you’re like me and you love to profit off of your work, it helps you fine tune what you’re going to say and learn your writing style. You can play around with it, find what works and what doesn’t work for you and/or your target market. Finding different tones, learning from other writer’s tones and taking it all in helps you to be a better writer, it is the coolest thing.

Networking - I have met so many amazing people with blog hopping and creating relationships with others. It is amazing how reading other’s blogs, you get to feel like you’re a part of their life and I really enjoy that. I love that I am able to come to Tal’s blog and see what she did with her kids or go to a business blog and see what kind of marketing tip they used to gain 10 new likes. You feel like you’re right there and I really appreciate that.

These are just a few of the many benefits I think that I get from blogging. Share! What do you get from blogging? What are your favorite aspects?

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I asked Shay to pick three of her favorite posts. Here they are -

1. Are You Vulnerable In Your Business

2. Ways To Change Your Mindset

3. 7 Days Of Gratitude

Now It's Your Turn - The Crafeteria's Weekly Pinterest Party

Well, that was a crazy week! We went back to school, then a few days later came Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year, and we're on holiday again. In between, I also took part in a local craft fair... I am EXHAUSTED!
Anyway, I know it's Thursday and I'm a day late, but with everything going around, I really thought today was Wednesday until 5 minutes ago when I checked my calendar, so sorry about that!...
Now, to the party!

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?

A simple and yummy recipe for tahini at Being Tazim. She also has other vegan recipes on her blog. Look at these garlic curry potatoes for example, don't they look great?

Me, My Scraps and I is a scrapbooking Israeli blog. Look at this beautiful card, it reminds me a lot of the crazy washi tape trend. I can't wait for my brother to come visit us from China with my huge order from Taobao!

And last one for today, tissue paper flower window treatment by Melissa from Daisy Mae Belle, that each and every post of hers just WOWs me. Seriously, have you seen her house???

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!

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!