Day 6. Play with Clay

First week of Ultimate Blog Challenge is almost over, and here's another great outcome of it - since I have to write a post a day, it makes me look through really old folders on my computer, and find things I created two years ago.
I've already written about the ceramic course I once took. Almost two years ago, when I was pregnant with The Baby, I left it after feeling too tired to continue, and haven't gotten back to it since (I will, one day, though!). So meanwhile, here are some sculptures I've created. The first are two elephants, that didn't want to be elephants anymore. One became a cow and the other a giraffe.

This sculpture, of a Lady in Red, is my favorite ceramic creation. The process of making it involved lots and lots of caressing of this soft clay, and the outcome is exactly what I wanted. Originally it was a stand for necklaces and bracelets (do you see the holes she has instead of arms? This is where she had a rod that I hung the jewelry on), but at some point I took the rod out and moved the sculture to the living room, where I thought she fits better. I apologize in advance for the many-many pictures, I really had a hard time choosing only a few... :)

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Day 2 - Let's Talk About Me For a Minute

Second Day to the Ultimate Blog Challenge. What was I thinking when I signed up?... Argggg... Take a deep breath... OK, let's continue.
I've been wanting to write an "About Me" section for a while now, but other things kept on coming up instead. So a-post-a-day challenge is definitely a good excuse for that.

I'm Tal, 30+ years old if you check my ID, a lot less if you ask me. A mother to three little (and cute!) ones, ages 1-7. We live in a small village not far from Tel Aviv, Israel's cultural capital (and one of my favorite cities in the world!). We moved here about 3 years ago, after 8 years in the Far East (Taiwan & China).

I always loved art and crafts, but never tried to do anything related, and to be honest, I never thought I was good at it.
Things started to change 7 years ago, when The Boy was born and I found myself spending hours at home, getting BORED. Somehow, I'm still not sure exactly how, I began working with polymer clay (aka Fimo). I wrote a post about it a couple of years ago, when I was writing a post a month and not a post a day...

That was also when I realized that I can make some money out of it, when I participated in a charity fair and to my surprise sold most of the items I brought with me.
Fast forward a few years, I just love all kind of crafts. The Man can't look anymore at the piles of cardboard boxes / two-legs-tables / old and torn t-shirts and other things that I hoard almost obsessively. But ever since I started, I just can't stop...

Old cupboard turns play kitchen

A big cardboard box turns puppet theater

Or a castle for princes and princesses birthday party

And a plastic bag upcycles a simple tank top

Except that, I also enjoy sewing, crocheting, working with clay, cooking, felting and have some fun with the kids, of course.

So I'd love you to join me on this one month challenge (I'd be happy if you stick around after that as well, of course!). Comments, notes, suggestions etc. are always greatly appreciated. You can also join me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest (don't forget to pin your images to the group board!), Google+, Instagram, Bloglovin' and soon on Etsy as well.

From Old IKEA Cupboard to Children Play Kitchen

I've been wanting a children play kitchen for a very long time. I think I wanted one even before I had kids. But not a lame, plastic one, but a nice wooden one. One that looks almost like the real thing.
When my mother in law says she dismantles the top part of her old wooden cupboard (that was bought, mind you, some 40 years ago, in a store you might have heard its name before - IKEA - when it was still something only known in Scandinavia), I knew I'm going to use it to finally build my kitchen.

This is the Before picture, Obviously...

I thought A LOT about how exactly to do it, drew a few sketches and even made a small ceramic model for inspiration.

And after I had the sketches and the model, and I knew what I wanted more or less, and decided on the colors (suitable for him and for her), it was time to start building it.

I found a piece of plywood on the street and used it for the back of the kitchen. I sawed the the original shelves and sides, to make the shape more convenient for play, I dismantled one door and sawed a window for the oven on the other and my husband helped saw a round hole for the sink, that is actually a metal bowl. Then I sanded and painted and got this...

The stove is made of old CDs covered with black tape...

To hide the mess, that I knew we're going to have, I sewed a cute little curtain for the lower shelves.

On the side I screwed together a cute knob, on which we hang the kids' aprons.

And of course, since I am me, after all, it's been over a year since I finished most of the work on this kitchen, and there are still some things to do:

The window of the oven is still open. It's time to buy Plexiglas...

The oven still needs a handle. Luckily I still didn't fix the Plexiglas, so the kids can open the oven at the opened window...

It still needs knobs for stove and oven.

And a tap...

A rod to hang above the stove / sink, for the kids to hang their kitchenware.

I already bought chalk paint, but still haven't painted the side of the kitchen, like I wanted to, for shopping list and messages.

In spite of all these unfinished parts, the kids love to play in this kitchen and even let mommy play along...

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Those That Broke and Those That Haven't (Yet)

During the last year I've been taking ceramic classes and I just love it! The best part is to arrive to class after I already forgot what I made last week, just to find out that another bowl is ready. Unfortunately, there's also a down side to ceramic - it breaks.
Now, just to help you understand the situation, a short explanation: In our house live under one roof: one real man, one clumsy woman (calling myself 'a woman'... Now that's funny!), 2 kiddos under 5 years old and 2 cats that enter the house even when they're not invited. This combination sometimes causes my precious ceramic items to break, and somehow it's almost always those bowls it took me hours to make, not the simple, 10-minutes bowls.
So here are a few of my ceramic items. Some are still with us, some are not (some broke before I even managed to take pictures of them, like one of my favorite bowls, that I worked on for 10 hours or so).

This is the first bowl I've ever made. Surprisingly, it's still sitting proudly on our countertop.

 A "snails" bowl that took me hours to make. It has tragically perished when the cat (the dumber of the two) jumped on the countertop in a very un-cattish manner, causing it to meet the floor in a speed and an angle that smashed it to pieces.

A Chinese style bowl (still with us, thanks for asking)

Flowers for the garden. They actually stood in the garden for a while. At some point they just dissapeared one after the other and yesterday, when we weeded our garden, we found two of them hiding underneath the piles of weeds.

And my favorite, a tea pot. One is still sitting on a shelf in our kitchen and one has found a good home at my sister in law's.