Babyccino!

We've landed! Calling all babymamas of the greater Los Angeles area: join us on Mondays for a morning of baby-style rock 'n roll, super sensory explorations, and physical interactive activities and play. Meet and chat with other modern mamas, share a parenting tip or two over a steamy cappuccino, and relish in watching your little tykes explore and discover the world around them.

Come and check out what's about to go down at our free/trial session this Monday, November 21 at Shaarei Tefila - 7269 Beverly blvd! Come for the kids; stay for the fun!!

Feel free to contact me with questions or for more information: babyccino@shaareitefila.org

Flower Press

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this lovely idea for a DIY flower press, and thought it was a fabulous way to take a bit of the summer buds with us deep into the fall!

While I wasn't exactly up for the entailed carpentry, I really wanted to press some last-of-summer flowers in order for them to be dried, pressed and ready to deck out a Sukkah! I simply resorted to the old-school method of pressing flowers: a heavy book. :)

Freida was happily interested in joining in the activity and exploring the cut flowers (we simply used our almost-wilted ones from the previous Shabbos). All you need to get pressing is a very heavy book or two, some sheets of tissue paper, and stemless flowers. Layer the tissue paper in between the flower layers and pages so as not to mar the book's print. Close the book when finished and set aside out of little hand's reach. Mark your calendar for 2 week's time (so you don't forget your drying florals!), ans stay tuned for some Sukkah-decor crafts involving already-pressed flowers!

This batch of daisies were surprisingly fragrant (I've noticed most florists seem to nuke the flowers natural scents. For allergie reasons, perhaps?), and so I gave Freida a hammer to muck around with and release the flowery fumes.

Let's just say she rather enjoyed this form of destructive play. :)

Happy pressing!

Painting with Pomegranates

Last week Freida and I cut open some pomegranates we picked up at the local Farmer's Market, took out some seeds to munch on, squeezed out some juice to taste, and went on to break out the paintbrushes and water color paper and surprisingly created some of the most beautiful red-tinged magenta strokes of color. The juice paintings dried so wonderfully - leaving behind a sheer glossy laquer (likely due to the fruit juice's sugar content), and Freida was totally blown away by the concept of painting with juice. Her vocalized amazement went like this, "I can't wait to show this art to Daddy! He won't believe we didn't use ANY paint to make it!".

Apple Stamping

We had a little lesson on apple exploration, and whilst cutting open apples of different shapes and sizes I decides to whip out the paint and let her do some apple stamping.

Once there, I cut up some white cardstock and figured she could create some Shana Tova cards. All you need for these cute and colorful litte cards is an apple, paint, cardstock, do-a-dot stampers, and a black marker.

The apple we used was cut lengthwise, and Freida stamped it once on the front of each card. After they dried I let her mess around with dot stampers on the front and back. I then simply outlined the initial apple stamp and wrote some new year's wishes on the front. You can then do whatever you'd like inside the card (I stuck a printed photo of her doing the apple stamping), and give to family and friends (I don't know any Bubby who wouldn't appreciate this sort of crafted nachas!). :)

Fish Hotel

How modularly awesome is this Fish Hotel??

I'm totally smitten by the simplicity of taking something as common as the concept of a goldfish bowl and turning it into modern interior art! What a great way to liven up a dead corner - plant life or aquatic life; we now have options. :)

Also, seeing this made me think that this would be such a fun and hands-on way to teach children about the Jewish custom of "tashlich". Not necessarily through this particular fish residence, but just by buying a goldfish/beta fish or two and letting the kids explore the science and nature of these simple water creatures (they don't close their eyes when they sleep, for instance etc.). Viewing things first hand makes each custom much more personal and memorable. Just a thought...