In just 75 days, the Camp Canadensis Arts & Crafts Complex will be alive and buzzing with camper creativity, but Cara and I just couldn’t wait, so we did some crafting during lunch in the winter office today.  Cara taught me how to do her new obsession…embossing!  It’s a way of taking paper crafting to a whole new level, and you can easily make some professional looking stuff with a few supplies.

1.  A Watermark Stamp Pad (the black pad above)

2.  A Heat Gun (the pink item above)

3.  Embossing powder in the color of your choice

4.  Assorted rubber stamps

5.  Card stock paper is preffered, but you can use any paper you have on hand!

Embossing paper through this method allows you to take a stamp image you like, and by applying heat, you can actually raise it off the paper and have a 3D look.  Many cards, stationery and invitations use this technique.  Here’s what you have to do…

1.  Push the stamp into the watermark pad, and then press it onto your paper in the location you want to emboss.

2.  When you remove the stamp, you will have a wet mark.  Generously cover the area with embossing powder, and then shake it off onto scrap paper so you can collect what is unused (this is a similar process to using glitter).

3.  With the help of a parent, use the heat gun and watch as the embossing power melts together and rises off the page.  It’s like magic, and very addicting!My friend Caroline loves stationery, so I made my first project for her.  You can see that some of the letters I stamped up top were a bit messy, but using the clear embossing powder made them rise off the page.  I think the flowers at the bottom came out great, but I’m most proud of the gold flower I embossed at the bottom left!Once the envelope was sealed, I did one more embossing over the flap.  It’s a bouquet of flowers embossed with white powder.  This was such a fun activity, we will definitely be teaching it during camp…possibly at an iCan Night when our Senior Campers get to choose their evening activity.

In addition to crafting with Cara, I’ve also been doing some urban gardening.  I live in the city of Philadelphia, and I have a front yard that is about the size of a car, but in the past few weeks I’ve been loading it up with plants!  I have never gardened or taken care of plant before, but this has become a new passion of mine over the last few months (mostly because of this amazing garden store called Terrain at Styers that is owned by Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters).   I’ve got a big project I’m going to share with you next week, but right now I wanted to show you some of the veggies I’ve been growing…I’ve been growing two different kinds of lettuce…mesclun and buttercrunch.  I planted them as tiny seedlings a few weeks ago, and they have already grown into the huge plants you see above!  These lettuces are considered “pick and come again” which means I can pluck off enough leaves for a salad, and in a few weeks the plant will grow back again.So, all I have to do it take my bowl outside, and for the buttercrunch, I pluck the outer leaves off.  For the mesclun, I just chop all but the bottom two inches down.  Everything needs to be washed really well, but it’s worth it!  This salad is so fresh and delicious, it’s totally different than when you pick it up at a grocery store!The first time I served it, I added shaved onions, parmesan cheese and cannelloni beans.  It was so good that Dave and I almost finished the whole thing before I remembered to take a photo!  I snapped the picture above just before our final bites.   I’ve named my crops “Levi Lettuce” and I’m looking forward to a lot more salads from the yard before I head up to camp in May!Although I didn’t grow the salad you see above, it was my contribution to the amazing Seder Dave’s family put together this weekend.  As you can see, it was large enough to feed the whole group, and it was a combination of tomatoes, asparagus, avocado, red onions, quinoa and feta cheese.  If you are looking for a good Kosher for Passover recipe, I recommend whipping up this filling salad!  Hope everyone who observes Passover is having a great holiday!

I had a great time today with Lily, a current 2nd grader that is coming to Canadensis for the first time this summer as a Lower Junior Girl! She lives in Maple Glen, PA and I got to meet her for the first time last summer when she came up and did the Tour & More Weekend.  I’m so excited for her to spend the full summer at camp…her father grew up at Canadensis – and now it’s her turn!

Lily has an older brother, and a younger sister.  She loves to “play teacher” and sometimes her sister Madison will be the student.  Little sister Madison also inspired a school report this year, when she had to pick a President to learn about, she chose the 4th President (James Madison) to write her report about.  Lily is a great student, who used to say gym was her favorite subject, but these days she is really loving math.  She was recently learning about math probabilities, which came in handy while playing the Mega Millions Lotto last week…she understood the probability of winning was really small!

She also loves to dance!  She goes to Hip Hop Dance class every week, and she’s working on a routine to the Britney Spears & Madonna song “Me Against The Music“.  Her dance recital is on the same day as Open House (up at camp on June 3rd) but luckily she is going to be able to do both!  She is going to perform on stage, and then rush up to camp in time to enjoy meeting new camp friends, and eating some Corman!  Some of her other favorite after school activities include gymnastics, and playing field hockey.

We talked about what to pack for camp, and she will definitely be packing some books!  She recently read a celebrity biography about Selena Gomez.  We looked through the camp photo album, and she is totally pumped to try all the activities – especially the arts.  She was also excited to hear about the Canadensis Outdoors program that will take her on an overnight, and the cooking program that she didn’t even know we had!  Lily will definitely have a ton of fun at camp this summer, and maybe she’ll even learn some good recipes that can accompany the Italian Wedding soup that her mom makes and is her favorite!

I wanted to share one other thing with you on this beautiful Thursday evening…  The word art above was created by two new Canadensis Campers, Anna & Sophie.  They are both in 3rd grade and will be Junior Girls this summer, and if you read back through my older blog posts, you’ll get to read more about each of them.  They were super sweet to write me an email during a recent sleepover – it had TONS of smiley faces in it, and it said how much they can’t wait for their first summer at camp to start!  They attached the awesome word art that you see above.  It absolutely made my day, and I wanted to share it with all of you!

I love all the words that they picked to describe Canadensis, and it makes me want camp to come even quicker.  Only 80 days left to go!

I have a few crafty friends, but Sara takes the cake!  She is constantly inspiring me with her crochet creations, and she knows her way around an art supply store, as you will see in this blog entry!  She recently threw a birthday party for her amazing son Sammy (you might remember from a prior blog when he met Double Dare host Marc Summers!!), and I asked permission to show photos of how everything turned out.  She gets full credit for all the things you are about to see!

The theme was “Sam I Am”, based on the Dr. Seuss book (get it…her son’s name is Sam!).  Before you arrived, you already knew you were in store for a fun afternoon!

The day was all about celebrating Sam, and his first year!  Photos were on display in frames and on the walls (using a “clothes line” with tiny clothes pins).  Sara took a photo in the same place every month since Sam was born, so you could see how he changed month by month!

The color scheme of Orange and Green carried through every detail, even the food!

1. Sara’s husband Shawn displaying an awesome array of orange & green veggies

2. Orange and green cupcakes (with cupcake toppers that feature Sam’s face on the “Sam I Am” character)

3. A delicious and healthy rainbow fruit tray

4. Adorable “Green Eggs & Ham” made by using pretzel sticks, white chocolate and a green M&M…these were so perfect, and totally kosher!

Finally, every great party has great entertainment!

1. Guests could have their voices heard and cast a vote on which parent Sam looks most like!  I think he looks more like Sara, but you’ve seen both parents in this blog…what do you think?

2. There was also a “Sam I Am” book where guests could sign in and add a poem.  Sara is great with rhymes (this has come in handy when I’ve been a bridesmaid with her!).  Below is the sign that invited people to write something…guests got really into it!

But without a doubt, the best entertainment is an adorable kid, and Sammy’s got that covered!  He is also the happiest kid I know…so when you add a giant cupcake in the mix, you are going to get some memorable photos!

Thank you to Sara for letting me post these photos, and I hope they inspired some party planning ideas for you at home!

Avery, Haley, Brittney and Ruby – all Lower Junior Girls

What a fun day!  On Sunday, we welcomed many of our super fabulous and awesome new campers at a bowling party in North Jersey!  The New Camper Bowling event is a great chance for campers to get to know each other, and we had families attend from states as far away as Maryland and Connecticut…we have the most dedicated Canadensis Parents ever!  I wanted to upload a few photos from the event so you could get an idea of what we did, and you can see more photos by liking us on Facebook here. 

I love a good game!  I’m helping 2nd year Junior Girl, Jordan

After putting on our name tags on, we started playing “New Camper Bingo” which is a great ice breaker that helps campers meet each other.  Each paper has a grid with 25 boxes that says things like…”Find a camper who…can do a cartwheel…has been to the top of the Empire State Building…has been in a show…can touch their tongue to their nose…etc”.  The campers race to meet new kids and find people who fit the description so they can write them in the box.

We end New Camper Bingo with the campers showing off their skills

When the game wraps up, we all come together and have a good laugh.  Then we break up into bowling lanes, and get to know even more campers!  Between all the great people to meet and delicious pizza to eat, we actually don’t do that much bowling!!  However, I did see a bunch of great strikes and spares on the lanes…

The last thing we do is take a group photo, so check out the great photos we took with our incoming campers!A HUGE thank to to all our staff & staff parents that were there for the day!  We’ll be formally introducing you to our Canadensis family soon.  An extra big thank you to Pete Tarnoff for always being willing to help!

I hope you have been enjoying the amazing weather we are having on the East Coast!  Today is another beautiful day (I can see it from my office window) and it reminds me how quickly camp is coming!  During the summer, one of my favorite afternoon snacks is to drink a Fresca, with a special straw…I actually use a Red Vine!  Red Vines are a much better version of the popular twizzler candy.  I know some people who don’t love the taste, but I think it’s a far superior candy, and it works really well as a straw!  When you drink it with the Fresca soda, it starts to melt and you get an extra burst of “fruitiness” with your drink!

I mentioned that this was one of my favorite snacks to Ilana and Alexis while I was giving them a tour of camp last summer, and they actually remembered!!  When I went to visit them this winter in NY, they gave me a parting gift with Red Vines and Fresca, and today was the perfect day to start enjoying them!  Thanks girls!

(Alexis and Ilana)

I’m excited to see you, and many more of our new campers at our New Camper Bowling Event this Sunday…it’s going to be so much fun!

Some of our Canadensis families met us yesterday at the Jewish Relief Agency warehouse, which meets once a month to pack up food items, and then delivers it to households in need.   I know I usually blog on Monday’s about crafts…but I’m so impressed with the boxes of food we made and delivered yesterday, so I wanted to show you pictures from our awesome families that volunteered their Sunday morning!  Many people in the Philadelphia community come together each month to make JRA happen – and we like going in March to help with the Passover deliveries.  You can see how busy the warehouse was in the photo above!The first step of the process is that our volunteers grab an empty box, and walk down the line as other volunteers load it up with food.  It gets very heavy by the end of the line, but Rachel (a Junior Girl, shown above) was eager to do more heavy lifting!  Noah (a Upper Inter Boy) and Josh (a Lower Senior boy, both shown below), made many trips through the “conveyor belt” style line, loading up on things like matzah, carrots, gefilte fish, tomato sauce, crushed pineapple, potatoes and grape juice.The second step of the process is actually getting to deliver the boxes of food.  When we deliver as a group, they give us an apartment building where a lot of people are waiting for these boxes of food, so we can all be together.  When we got there, we unloaded all 60 of our boxes, and then we need to make sure each of them are going to the right place!  Valerie (a Upper Inter Girl, shown below) labeled each one with big, clear numbers.It was a really great event, and we definitely appreciate everyone who came out to help!  We have been helping JRA make deliveries for 4 years!  During the summer, we do it with our CIT’s, and we will plan to do it again next March…hope you will join us!

Some of our campers call today “Double Digit Day” because it is the day when we go from hundreds of days until camp, down to less than 100 days…hence, we are in the double digit figures!!  Can’t wait for summer 2012 at Camp Canadensis!!

My parents came to visit me in Philly this weekend, and it was so much fun!  We went to tour some of the historical sights…like the Constitution Center (which had an amazing Bruce Springsteen exhibit!), Independence Hall (where the Constitution was signed) and the Italian Market (a fresh air market, and my favorite place to stock up on veggies).  We also spent some time at the Philadelphia Flower Show, which was amazing!  The theme was Hawaii, and the florists created amazing displays with waterfalls, volcanoes, etc.   We were there on the last day of the 9 day show…so all the vendors were trying to get rid of their stock of flowers.  In the few hours we were there, we saw the price of a dozen roses go from $10 each, to 3 dozen for $10!!

So, of course I bought three dozen roses, and when I got home, I tried to get creative with my flower arrangements…I don’t know a ton about flowers – but plants in general has become a recent hobby for me.  I do know that you are suppose to cut the stems of your freshly bought flowers on a slant, under water.  In the photo above, I’m adding baby’s breath – a filler flower – to round out my arrangement of white roses.This is how it turned out…probably my favorite overall!  I had some clementines that weren’t tasting very good anymore, so I put them in the bottom of the glass vase, and I think it brought some fun color to the arrangement.I spread the three different bouquets around my house, and they make me smile every time I walk by.

I’ve been planting a bunch in my tiny city yard as well, when things start to bloom this Spring, I’ll post photos here.  I can’t believe it’s almost spring…that means camp is around the corner, only 103 days to go!

It’s a warm Friday afternoon in the camp winter office, and we have a special visitor today…my mom!!  My parents live in Arizona, but they are visiting me in Philadelphia for the weekend, and while my Dad is off doing consulting work, my Mom is hanging out with us here in the office!  As you can see, no one gets to just sit around when they are at work…we actually have a lot of stuff to do each day!  She’s putting together a mailing right now, and next she’ll be organizing some of our camp t-shirts.  It might not be tons of fun for her, but I’m loving having her here!

Now, for many of you campers out there, you may not have ever attended a wedding (I went to my first one at age 24!) but it’s a really fun celebration.  It has some similiaries to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, but it’s for two people who are in love.  It’s a really great time to get creative and crafty, and make something either as a gift or as something that might be helpful to the celebration.

Wedding Craft #1: (pictured above) is from Robin & Eric Forti’s wedding at Camp Canadensis in 2010.  It was a really fun celebration and many people decided to stay at camp, but some guests stayed at a big hotel down the road.  The couple provided bus transportation for the guests who weren’t at camp, but they wanted to have a sign on the bus so everyone knew it was for the wedding.  Eric’s mom and I had a great time painting the banner you see above.  Eric’s mom does great bubble letters, and we had fun picking out paint colors.  We put a lace border on the banner, and we used A LOT of tape to attach it to the bus because we didn’t want it to fly off while driving down the road!

Wedding Craft #2: From time to time, guests are asked to make a scrapbook page that is presented before the wedding at a bridal shower, and when the pages of all the guests come together, the bride & groom have a great book full of pictures and memories.   I definitely do not consider myself a great scrapbooker, but I like the way this page turned out for my cousin Mandy and her husband Phil.  Mandy and I grew up at camp together, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a good photo from those days…however, I did have some great pictures from our family reunion at camp, so you can see them playing softball and working in the camp woodshop in the top right corner.

Wedding Craft #3: Whenever I’ve been asked to be in a bridal party (it’s one of my favorite things to do for my close friends!) I’ve always asked if I can help with any of the “crafty” things leading up to the wedding.  I’ve made the baskets of “necessities” that go in the bathrooms during the event, I’ve made the bags that guests get when they check into their hotel, I’ve done table numbers and place cards, and even helped with programs.  But my all time favorite craft to make is a “bridal hoodie” – something the bride can wear on the morning of their wedding as they get prepped and gorgeous for the big event.  Below is my friend Julie, who married her husband Josh…hence the “J+J” on the front with their wedding date.

On the back, I put a mixture of their two last names (because she kept her maiden name) and most importantly, I attached a “bridal veil” into the hood!  No one could mistake that she was the bride, and she got all the special pampering a bride deserves.  It was easy to cut the veil out when it was time to wash the hoodie, and I know she enjoyed wearing it throughout the honeymoon…

I hope you enjoyed seeing these crafts – I have a bunch more, so maybe I’ll do a part two in the future.  Looking at my tan in the photo above make me excited for the warm summer days we’ll all get to enjoy at Camp Canadensis soon!