Category: Home and Decor
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Plating Lesson: Leah’s Birthday Dessert
Today was Leah’s birthday and we celebrated the special day by going out as a family to Leah’s favorite restaurant in Manhattan, Noi Due. Don and I had never been to Noi Due and we were delighted with the food selection, presentation and taste. Although we were all too full to have dessert, we felt…
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Upcycled Chalkboard Chargers: Simple Placecard Alternative
I love the way chargers dress up a table. It adds that extra flair to the table setting and makes the table look dressed even after the meal has begun. It is one of the wonderful tools I implement in keeping my Pesach (Passover) seder table elegant and neat (see Seder Table Ideas and Inspirations).…
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Salad Appetizer in a Flower Pot
A plated appetizer should be pleasing to the palate and pleasing to the eye. Very often, the difference between an ordinary appetizer and an extraordinary appetizer is in the plating. This one is the perfect example. I have taken a small terra cotta flowerpot and fitted it with a plastic cup. I filled the cup…
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Sweet Potato Roses in Salad Box
Who said that salads have to be tossed in a salad bowl? I love the idea of individual salads and especially individual layered salads. There is something wonderful about being served an individual salad, especially when there is a beautiful and delicious garnish to top it off. Here is one sensational salad appetizer that I…
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An arrangement of Single Roses: Simple, Upcycled and Breathtaking
Last week, I hosted Sheva Brochos (one of seven wedding after-parties, each with seven blessings) for the children of my dear friends, Andrea and Michael. The chosson (groom) and kallah (bride), Davidi and Efrat, are a gorgeous and young couple. The Sheva Brochos was hosted together with five other couples, all close friends of Andrea and Michael. Since this…
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Simple Coffee Spice Rub
I am not a coffee drinker. I just never developed a taste for coffee. To me, it tastes bitter and unpleasant. Thankfully, I wake up with enough energy that I don’t need the boost that coffee provides. Interestingly, though, I love the aroma of coffee. While the taste does not please me, the aroma of…
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A Homemade Warm Compress
I woke up earlier this week with a stiff neck that just seems to get achier. Today, the pain radiated to my shoulder and down my arm. It seems like I may have pinched a nerve. The pain and stiffness really needs some warm relief. My husband, Don, suggested that I design a microwavable compress to ease…
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It’s All About Plating: Simple Baked Apple Dressed Up
I love simple things done right. Delicious and beautiful does not need to go hand in hand with complicated and time-consuming. It can certainly be something simple just presented in a unique way. I love plated appetizers and desserts. It dresses up the meal and makes each guest feel pampered. It also allows for the simple…
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Salmon Terrarium Appetizer
We were fortunate to have spend the past Sukkos (Fall Jewish Holiday celebrated in temporary huts covered in natural materials) in Israel. We always marvel at how our Jerusalem sukka is so much larger than our doll-size apartment living space. Our sukka is tucked into one of those beautiful, dusty and wonderful corners of Jerusalem. It is surrounded…
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Bobby’s Homemade Bubbles and Wands
Avigail and Juju are attending “Bobby Camp” and one of the favorite morning activities is playing with the water table on my front porch. After breakfast and our morning walk, when the two of them are still in pajamas, we fill up the water table and have a good and messy time playing with all the…
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DIY Nightstand Play Kitchen for JuJu
Seventeen month old Judah (or JuJu as he is sometimes called) loves to play in our play cupcake kitchen when he comes to visit us. He doesn’t have a play kitchen at home, so I decided to surprise him with his own one. My mother-in-law a’H was fond of repurposing cast-off items, so she would…
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A Dozen Roses Stretched to Fill the Shabbos Table
Don brings home roses every Friday in honor of Shabbos. The roses are always of wonderful quality and it a surprise to discover what color roses will adorn our Shabbos table. Most Fridays, we enjoy all twelve roses in one traditional arrangement. This week, Don brought home peach color roses, one of my favorites. Our home…
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A Dozen Red Roses Split Up: Contemporary Arrangements
Don brings home roses most every Erev Shabbos (Shabbos eve). I try to find different ways to arrange the roses every Friday so that the Shabbos table setup is unique. As you know, most recently, I have begun to break the dozen roses up into several arrangements. I love the flexibility of moving the arrangements into…
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Oil in Squirt Bottles with Free Printable Labels
For most recipes, I use one of two types of oil: extra virgin olive oil and/or canola oil. I like to buy these oils in large quantities and the containers tends to be large and unwieldy with a way-too-large pouring spout. I find it easiest to decant the oil into a small squirt bottle for easy…
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Roses and Lanterns: A Simple and Stunning Centerpiece
It all started with It’s all about the arrangement (psst….even with last week’s roses), my first blog post. This original blog post was one of those ideas born out of an upcycling strategy and week-old roses. The idea was to take last week’s open but slightly wilted roses and enjoy the blossoms in another arrangement, floating…
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Magic Tip: Keeping the Lid on a Pot of Chicken Soup
Leah decided to spend Shabbos at Kaitlyn’s. Avigail was barely able to contain her excitement, telling everyone that “Tante Reah” was coming to visit her and would be sleeping in the bed right next to hers. Don and I were empty-nesters for Shabbos. Although it is not the first time this summer that Don and I…
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A Trio of Magenta Flowers in Vintage Silver Vases
My local supermarket had some beautiful magenta peonies for sale. I thought that the vintage quality of these fluffy peonies would look gorgeous in series with some other magenta flowers arranged in different types of silver vases. I used the same inspiration that I described in Three’s a Crowd? A Trio of Floral Arrangements by arranging three…
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Growing Lettuce in TopSoil Bags
When Aaron was a little boy, he loved to join me in shopping for our summer annuals and vegetable plants. We would peruse the aisles of the local garden center, looking for unusual plants and interesting planting combinations and techniques. We discovered that our local nursery started some of their lettuce and leafy vegetables right…
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A Simple Fluffy Arrangement of Peonies and Hyndrangea
For Shavuos, Davida’s friend, Chava, brought us a gorgeous new vase. It is rectangular with a narrow opening, perfect for arranging so many different types of flowers. It is unique in its narrow but long shape, and it is stunning with a floral motif designed into the glass. Since Shavuos, I have tried so many types of…
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A Gallery Wall of Playgroup Art
Kaitlyn created a gallery wall for Avigail’s art. Two-year old Avigail is a budding artist with so many art projects and pictures to display. The gallery wall allows Kaitlyn a way to rotate all the different playgroup art that Avigail brings home from playgroup. Kaitlyn used empty old frames and sprayed them all the same color…
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At War with Weeds: A Homemade Non-Toxic Weed-Killer
Our nineteen year old son, Aaron, is our resident landscaper. Aaron has always been a budding entrepreneur and handy around the house and yard. When he was thirteen years old, he took some of the monetary gifts that he had received for his Bar Mitzvah celebration and purchased a bright red lawn tractor. He convinced…
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Wow Uses for a Simple Dish Detergent Bottle
My mother has always been the ultimate recycler, decades before recycling and upcycling became fashionable. My mother still decants oil from a large container into a clean dish detergent squirt bottle. The squirt nozzle is perfect for squirting oil onto salads, roasted vegetables and a saute pan. It keeps the oil contained and helps place the oil exactly where you…
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Three’s a Crowd? A Trio of Floral Arrangements
I love to arrange flowers of the same color and my favorite floral centerpieces are white. Often, I can find beautiful flowers at my local supermarket that are sold as three bunches for a single price. When that happens, I usually pick all white flowers and I arrange them as a trio of floral arrangements. When time…
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A Few Good Blossoms: Floating Arrangements
I began this SimpletoWow blog in January with an original post, It’s all about the arrangement (psst….even with last week’s roses), on arranging last week’s open and just-wilting roses. It was intended to showcase simple and wow ways to use what you have in surprising and unexpected ways. As the Jewish holiday of Shavuos approaches (see Countdown…
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Upcycled Glass Jar Floral Arrangement: Simply Stunning
My friend Marilyn, and her family joined us for a meal over Pesach (Passover). Since we were in a small apartment in Jerusalem with our extended family, we did not have enough room to host everyone in the dining room. Instead, we set up tables and ate in the courtyard. Marilyn sent flowers before Yom Tov…
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A Salad Bar for the Entire Week
Our family loves salads and we try to spread the love to the rest of the world. From the time that the kids were eating solids, salads became a mainstay in the Respler home. It is rare that we make the same salad twice because there are SO many options. Most recently, when I entertain,…
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Seder Table Ideas and Inspirations
Every year, I try to set a majestic and unique seder table. There is something magical about that first Pesach (Passover) meal: the anticipation, the new dishes and the silver wine goblets. Over the years, I have tried all types of tablecloths and seder themes. There are a few helpful tips that I have incorporated into…
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Edible Ginger Candy Spoons
I love ginger in all shapes and forms. I use ginger as a spice in many dishes. I love ginger ale, candied ginger and pickled sushi ginger. Whenever we eat sushi, I become the lucky recipient of everyone’s pickled sushi ginger and I love it. I especially love ginger with my tea. For a recent…
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BowTie Napkins: Folded with DIY Napkin Rings
Our grandson, Yehuda, also known as JuJu, just celebrated his first birthday. Whenever family members would meet him, they would remark that he looks like a “little man.” Those that knew his namesake, Yehuda (Leo) Schlusselberg a’H, would consider JuJu a pint-size clone of him. For his birthday, therefore, we chose a vintage Little Man theme. For…
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Daffodils: Simply and Artfully Arranged
Daffodils are in season and they are inexpensive and beautiful. I like to buy bunches with blossoms that are mostly closed, so that they will last the longest. I usually look for bunches that have only one or two blossoms showing and the rest are still tight buds. My favorite arrangements are ones where…
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Simple Forsythia Arrangement: Bringing the Outside Inside
Our forsythia hedges are blossoming. Their yellow flowers are a burst of sunshine to announce the coming of spring. The forsythia hedges are rather ordinary in the summer, but create gorgeous, showy yellow blossoms on bare branches in early spring. To decorate our Shabbos table last week, I snipped a few branches and arranged them in a simple silver vase.…