Garage Mitzvah (photo Sarah Merians)

From the Artist: While our daughter Abigael never wanted a giant Bat Mitzvah party, she certainly
never imagined a legal maximum of ten people could be gathered for her big day – or that her venue would be our garage!

With immuno-compromised parents, we made safety the top priority. With that, the biggest open-air space we could think of that made sense was our garage. Our contractor painted the garage a bright white and my husband hung white outdoor curtains and lit the space with colorful up-lights. Tables were dressed in lilac organza and topped with handmade pottery vases created by Abigael’s Great Aunt Denise. The textured vases were the perfect vessels for the clustered purple, white, silver and green floral centerpieces.

Abigael asked me to knit something she could wear on her big day, and we chose yarn at our favorite shop, The Observatory, in Hastings-on-Hudson. I determined I had enough time to knit my own sweater for the big day in a bright pink Breast Cancer Survivor colorway and I knit a cabled cape for Abigael in yarn that she chose.

Craft made the milestone special for my young potter and knitter. My aunt made the vases, I knit our sweaters, and even those who couldn’t attend hand wrote letters our daughter will have forever. Our daughter read from the Torah and my parents joined in person to celebrate the milestone. While nothing was typical, it was uniquely Abigael -- beautiful, crafty and very special.