Pre-Shabbat Mini DIY

B”H

I have a thing for flowers. I try to always have some in my home, even if it’s something small. When I was fresh out of college and living in NYC, I would gift myself flowers every Friday on my way back from work (in honor of Shabbat?). I don’t think honoring Shabbat was necessarily my intention, but hey now it is! ;-) And just like before, I get to enjoy the flowers too!

I have a cute story with Shabbat flowers. Not long ago, on a Friday afternoon I realized that we had forgotten to pick up the flowers. I told my husband that I’d go get flowers. I took one of my boys. The lady at the flower counter of our local grocery store, must have noticed his kippah and as I was about to pay for my flowers, said, “Is Friday a special day for you? I’ve noticed that a lot of you (she meant Jews) come on Fridays to buy flowers.” I had a big smile. “Yes! Indeed it is! We buy flowers on Friday in honor of the Sabbath (it was kind of weird to say that word). It’s our special holy day and we honor it with flowers.” Nice, right?

So last Friday morning I went to Target to get who knows what – but, you know how you always enter Target looking for one thing and come out with three others?. I walked down the arts and crafts aisle and I spotted this adorable faceted vase/planter (not available online, but form the Hand Made Modern craft collection reminiscent of this Land of Nod lamp that I always thought is so pretty.

I nearly gasped when I saw the little vase sitting there in raw unpainted ceramic, for $4.99! Oh the possibilities! I grabbed it and ran home determined to spray paint this lovely vase and add fresh flowers to it in honor of Shabbat.

That same week, Jenny had posted about carnations – oh my who would have known carnations could look so pretty. Perfect! I had enough time to run to the store and grab two shades of mini carnations. I dropped them off at home inside a vase with water, and ran off to do more errands.

By around 4:30 pm when everything was ready for Shabbat I finally had a chance to pull out a can of glossy white spray paint and start painting. (Shabbat candle lighting time was before or by 5:15 pm.)

Patience is not one of my virtues when it cakes to any craft/DIY thing. I want results. But this time, I was feeling totally calm after working on those carnations as per Jenny’s tips, that I decided I would get too annoyed if I ruined my pretty little vase by rushing to grab it and using it before Shabbat.

So no, my little vase did not make it to Shabbat – he stayed outside overnight drying properly.

But once Shabbat was out, I repotted the carnations in it and have been enjoying them in my living room ever since. Isn’t it pretty!?

Now, I seriously want to go and buy a bunch of these and go paint them in different colors and pull them out whenever. Oh the possibilities… gold, black, or mint… Yes! Plus, wouldn’t this make an adorable, semi-personalized, little gift to a beloved friend?

Do you try to get flowers in honor of Shabbat or for yourself often?

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom!