Birthday Picnic

Amalia turned 3, unbelievable as it may seem to us and to anyone that knows her.

We organized a little picnic for our friends in an oak forest nearby. Simple and quickly made food (humous, pitas and some salads along with nuts, crackers, strawberries and a chocolate cake) and very few plans - I thought of a treasure hunt for the kids, where the treasure would be a big bag of papers, scissors, paint and glue, but eventually it wasn't necessary. they ran up and down the hills and into the "flour cave" which was a soft limestone wall where they could get really dirty, put on the costumes I brought with us, and finally did get into some origami and paper cut outs, making airplanes and flying them. I love watching a group of children play, when they all get along and just so creatively and freely dive in and out of games. I love it when there are smaller and bigger kids and still they manage to play together. I love how they exist in their world, right next to us yet so far away in their stories.

*they're all somehow taken from the back... I'm so aware of some friends not wanting their children to appear on the internet, that I got used to taking pictures from behind.

Amalia is the one wearing the white princess costume. The monkey is Hilel.

in production

 

hey hey, I finished 2 shirts today! two!! in one day! it makes me so proud.

I'm only showing teasers (of only one, the other was finished too late for picture taking), as I want it to be a surprise for some friends who's daughters may be wearing them sometime soon.

37

It was my birthday today.

I'm not a big birthday fan, it's always a day of tears and regrets, so I didn't do much celebrating. But I did manage not to sink into self-pity Lucy-Jordan-singing mode. instead I tried to keep it just another normal Saturday.

The children made me some birthday drawings, Here they are on the fridge:

(bottom left by Hilel, other three by Amalia, they are whales with legs)

and Amalia kept picking flowers in the garden and giving them to me. They definitely sweetened the bitterness of getting so... grown up.

Instead of baking a cake I wanted to try some savory muffins for breakfast, so I dug up a banana muffin recipe and improvised on it. Turned out delicious and even half healthy!!

here's a sort of a recipe:

Sweet potato spelt flour muffins

2 sweet potatoes - cook until tender and leave to cool in a sieve.

in a bowl mix:

1.5 cups spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

salt

mash the sweet potatoes with a fork and add to the bowl, as well as:

2 eggs

some cream (I'd rather have used yoghurt but we ran out)

and quiet a bit of olive oil

-until it all resembles a muffin mixture texture in it's fluidity.

1 purple onion - chop and fry and add to the bowl.

add some grated kashkaval cheese and some grated nutmeg.

pour into a well oiled muffin baking pan and sprinkle with some more grated kashkaval.

bake in preheated oven at 180 C (mid temperature) for 15 minutes.

This is from a few days ago, our super nice neighbors took us to this little creek nearby where the water pour into a little swimmable pool. It was even warm enough, but I only packed the kid's bathing suits, so we only dipped our feet. Hilel was very busy trying to catch frog tadpoles and Amalia was just enjoying the water.

And from another weekend walks spot: Ramat Hanadiv park, just outside our home town.

a wolf loves pork

An amazing stop-frame animation short by Takeuchi Taijin.

sewing and messing

When Amalia was born I "inherited" some clothes from some friends with older girls (we still  get a big bag of clothes every now and then, so much quicker and cheaper than sewing ;-)). There was this one very sweet apron shirt that's made in one piece. I love it when something seems very simple but the making of it is clever, especially clothes that are made in one piece - when they work and look good they are even more beautiful for this elegant solution in their making.

Anyhow I worked out the pattern more or less and since then made a few sizes. But being the chaotic crafter that I am, there seems to be no real connection between the patterns of the different sizes, god knows why. I found that out only recently and kind of late in the season for making anything to sell...

I realized that I had sort of missed the summer season about 2 month ago, when everybody started to show off their summer collections and I had done nothing all winter (but watch lots of downloaded films and TV series - hey, it was cold where my sewing machine stands).

A friend phoned me and asked to buy some summer clothes for her daughter, and then added that some friends of hers would also be interested, and should we organize a home-sale at her place before Passover. so I thought, OK, no big plans, I won't even phone my seamstress, I'll just dig up the few pieces which patterns are finished and checked, make 3-4 sizes of each, and make very few pieces to sell. and then start immediately working on winter, since I'm soooo sloooww. I started with this shirt, and drowned in this pattern mess, had to draw it all over again and try on my house model to check it works fine. so much work! I might have some things finished for the girls to buy around September... luckily, Israeli summer runs until about late November.

*It's not so well photographed, it was windy.

+

here's a cool video clip of Israeli musician Oren Lavie.

Happy Passover.

spring swap

While wandering through Flickr, as I often do, I stumbled upon the beautiful clothes by Amanda of Mannagryn . I asked if she sells, she offered a swap. I'm still waiting for the little note from the post office, she already got my package, and so I can share what I had made for her son.

edited: I'm kept waiting because of the Israeli post services, not because of Amanda of Mannagryn.

Not only does Amanda make beautiful clothes and uses the most gorgeous vintage fabrics, but it seems from her photos that her sewing is impeccable. Naturally I became very concerned with the quality of my sewing and of the patterns and fitting. I found myself making the trousers twice, as I did the light grey shirt - only to decide that the fabric doesn't fit the pattern. and so I embroidered it and made the darker grey version with a much finer fabric. only the red Tshirt was already made in advance, luckily... so there you go, a confession of a neurotic crafter.

Amanda has posted photos of her son wearing his new clothes on her stream.

I'll post about my half of the deal as soon as it arrives.