Happy New Year

The day is finally here! Good bye 2009! I wish you all a very happy New Year, year of the Tiger (you hear that, cats?)

Here is my New Year photo that I'd love to share with you all.
Let 2010 be sweet and beautiful like this raspberry tarte photographed in a dainty shop in Sceaux (not far from Paris)!

Have a great night everybody!!!

See you next year.

My First Award!

Huge thanks to Sheila for including me in her Major Awards list. I got a "kamikaze" award which makes me feel all James Bond-like! And it's OK that the truth is much less exciting. I take my pictures in all those shops and offices because they have good lighting and my house doesn't. We live in a permanent twilight zone. The sunlight in this country gets to you after a while, and soft lights are a must for us.

Plus my walk-in closet looks like a hot mess most of the time.

I don't have any surreptitious photos today. I'm at home, getting ready to translate a 1200 subtitle movie in my house (read - roomy) jeans and a hoodie. No make up of course. I want to finish all the work today so I can have a nice New Year's Eve.

I'm leaving you with Snooker trying to eat my Christmas lights. See the lack of decorations on the bottom half of the tree? And the barbells that we put in hopes to anchor down the tree? And the towel that is supposed to cover them up?

Yes, it looks like the dog's breakfast. But the kitteh is having a good time.

Blue Spots

I fixed the glitch in the comments (almost wrote "in the Matrix"). That was unfortunate.
Thanks to everyone for your good wishes. The virus is almost gone, I feel much better.

Yesterday was a day of blue and brown (sounds like a bruise). I wore my fave suede brown coat. Don't know if I can call it a trench, but I really want to. It's more of a show-off coat, it doesn't provide much warmth, but it has the most fab feel to it.

So here I am, all prim and proper...

And these are my craziest boots!

Who knows what posessed me to buy them. Probably everything. They are soooo long, with "golden" tips. I've had them for 3 years now and I don't wear them often. You really need to be in the mood.

So this is the overall look. Zara shot again. Weird face, I really don't want to get caught!

I'm now looking for a pair of jeans in lighter blue wash than these, and straight-leg. I think that'll go with the boots a bit better.

I decided not to write the labels of my stuff. It's mostly local, and nobody knows any of these companies. Unless it's Nine West or something, of course. Or Cavalli, in which case I'll just have to brag.

Hungarian Dancing

To celebrate my return to the blogging world, I decided to wear some gold. Gold and black. Isn't it fabulous!!!

I got this cardi from a friend via some kind of swap last year. It had huge pearl and gold buttons on it and snap-buttons. I think it was meant to be worn with a glam long skirt, buttoned up. First thing I did - cut of the pearls (trust me, they were so over the top!) Then I got rid of the snaps and here you see the result. I usually pair it with black top and jeans, to tone it down. New fave boots of course.

My Dad said that I was dressed for dancing csardas. Why not!

Tel Aviv

Hi everyone. I haven't posted for a whole week. Got sick again. But in between there was a couple of decent days, and we even managed to go on a half-day trip to Tel Aviv. The main reason for the trip was my son, who asked to get a pair of boots for Christmas. Not ordinary boots either. He wanted steel-toes, like Daddy. The problem was that steel-toe work boots are normally worn by grown-up men. And my kid wears size 6 - 6.5 (my size). The only place where we hoped to find the boots was the Old bus station district in Tel Aviv. They even have a shoe-street.
When I met my husband, we lived in that area. Full of dilapidated buildings, full of foreign workers and illegals. Our neighbors were from Nigeria, girls wore colorful dresses and elaborate headgear. Coolest place, full of character (and criminals and junkies and and...) There is the most amazing street-market there on Levinsky St., all kinds of spices, cheap CD's, clothes, tools, knick-knacks, you name it.

Now the city is trying to upgrade this area. Here is a picture. This is where the bus terminal used to be. Now it's falling apart, and in the background you can see the fancy towers of the "new Tel Aviv". Kid went in there to try out his new boots and kick some rocks around.



This is him, sun is in his face, by the shop where we got the boots. He put them on right away.

Us together. Hot day, I was boiling in my leather jacket.

My husband said: "Let me take a picture for your blog". Funny, he hasn't read it even once.
I'm wearing my new boots too. The only ones in the entire world that I could tuck my pants into! They have elastic in the back. I love them, so comfy!

Kid on Levinsky Street. This is not the market area. That place was too packed to even try and take pictures. Apart from his new boots, he is wearing the new sunnies bought for 5 bucks three minutes before.

The only decent outfit I wore during this week. To work of course. Rest of the week I was busy cleaning the house, grocery shopping, cooking and being ill.

I felt oh so French with my stripes!

No, there won't be any pictures of my Christmas tree. Poor thing! Snooker gets up on the couch and DIVES IN! He regularly beats it up. It fell twice just this morning... I think next year I'll be buying a new one.

Chef in trouble

I haven't posted anything in a few days. Felt a bit under the weather, probably some kind of flu. Plus life has been giving me "one lemon after another". Almost no work this month, plus this morning I got into a minor car accident, my fault totally (backed into a woman's car and broke her lights, luckily not the big one but two little ones). Not quite the Christmas I was hoping for.
Was going to buy a new range-top, I've been cooking on 3 burners out of 4 for too long. Guess I'll have to use the old one for a while longer.

On a happier note, my Christmas decorations are up and the house looks festive. Snooker is happy attacking it. I'll post pictures later, the tree has no decorations in the lower part. Looks a bit weird.

I've been trying out recipes from the cooking show "Chef at home". So far tried couple of his salads. I like Michael's style, it's "no nonsense, whatever you have in the fridge" kind of cooking. Provided, of course, that your fridge and pantry are well stocked. I love what he says on the Canadian foodnetwork site:
"A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don’t like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!"
Cool, eh?
I've tried his tuna avocado salad and cucumber-carrot salad number 1 (there are 2 of them). Printed out a bunch more to try.

Long time ago, in Vancouver, I used to love watching "The Urban Peasant" with James Barber. His recipes are original and easy to follow. Not too many ingredients. For me it's a big plus. As soon as I see a recipe with a long list of stuff I put it away. Forget about it, who has time nowadays? (Or attention span, to be exact).

So I made this tuna avocado salad last night, packed it in a nice little container, added a nice dinner roll and... this morning left it in the fridge! Life can get only better from now on!

Nine West Boots Week - sort of

Nine West boots week is still here. These are the beauties I put on yesterday. Got them last year at the end of season sale. Leather with pony-hair-like and snake-like inserts.



I had to go half-size up just to zip them up. I would like to ask Nine West and lots of other boot manufacturers: What kind of a leg do you think women have? A leg is not a broom-stick, it has meat, muscle and fat attached to it! My calves are not even that "athletic" as some magazines call them. So why do I have a problem zipping up or pulling up all these beautiful boots? I am average in size (let's say 10-12 depending on a company).

At least Nine West puts an elastic insert on most of their boots. Other companies don't.

Anyway, we went to the mall with my Mom and the Kid who is on Hanukkah holiday.
This is what I wore:


Fuzzy photo again. I can't seem to master it at home. I need the boost of the retail energy to take a good picture.


Sweater argyle dress: Danza
Silver "plastic" coat: Dolce and Gabbana - ha-ha-ha! Why would they even bother putting that on the label? I bought it not for the label but for the color last year, when metallics came back into fashion. It matches my pewter booties from Monday post.

But in the end I changed into my flat boots. Didn't want to tower over my family.

Nine West Boots Week plus Fur Vest

The Nine West boots week continues. Next in line were these pewter booties that I got last year with a good discount (25%). They are very comfortable due to hidden platform. It seems a shame to hide them under longer pants, so I wore my jeans usually reserved for flats. These boots would look great with skinnies but I don't own any of them because they make me look like an icecream cone.

Today I start with the full-length Zara shot. By the way, they were getting ready for the end of season sale. Reorganizing the shelves, moving stuff around. Can you believe it?

Boots: Nine West

Jeans: DJ

Faux fur vest: Zara

Gray turtleneck: Marco Polo

Sitting on the kiddies' table again. Tyra would have said: Where is your neck, girl?

It's hiding in the soft fur! The nicest feeling with the airconditioning blasting (we use it on cold setting only).

Here is a close up of my flower jewelry, a birthday gift from hubby 3 years ago. My bling! It looks great under the sun, all sparkly and stuff.

And now for the boots. Had to hike my jeans up for this photo.

I love the stitching details!

So what did I do after work? Right, I went boot-hunting. I'm looking for some black riding-style boots, tall, rounded toe, that I could tuck my jeans in. I saw some good ideas and maybe even found the perfect pair. Just have to budget them in somehow...

I need therapy!

Nine West boots week

Monday turned out to be gray and black. I was dying to finally wear my new dress, purchased at my friend's shop in the last days of hot autumn. It's a thin sweater dress in the shades of black and gray, so I paired it with my dark gray suede boots.

I'm wearing my "Eiffel tower" pendant as well.


Zara was so full of people that I couldn't really take pictures there. So I went to the Nine West store. I fugured that I was "entitled" because I was wearing Nine West boots. In fact, it's going to be a Nine West boots week, I'm already planning tomorrow's look.

Black coat, dark boots, dark dress, black bag. My favorite colors.

Another shot of the dress with the boots that I took at home.

Everything is so dark! The boots are mix of gray suede and patent. I had to take a separate photo just to show the details. Nine West had a matching purse last year, but I couldn't find it anywhere, the girls from the shop called all the branches - nothing. And nothing on ebay. Oh well, not like I need more purses. Mind you, I don't have any gray ones...

Happy Hanukka

Christmas Spirit

Every year, when Christmas is near, I get a little bit antsy. You see, I live in a country without Christmas! Officially that is. And when I came here in 1990, Israelis pretended not to celebrate New Year's either. They didn't even call it New Year's Eve. They call it Sylvester - who was a saint and Roman Pope and apparently hated Jews.
I came to Israel from Russia (St.Petersburg) where I lived for 23 years. The New Year's Eve was the best holiday for us. First of all, it was not political. And it was a comeback to childhood, Santa (Grandfather Frost for us), tree, gifts galore on morning, January 1st. School winter holidays (2 weeks). What else... usually hot water pipes burst from the plunging temps around that time... not a good memory, moving on.
First thing I did, after coming to Israel, was go to Bethlehem with some friends on Dec 24th to attend a Catholic mass. Of course, they didn't let us into the church (invitation only or tickets, I don't remember). We had to peek through the bars separating Catholic and Orthodox sections just to see what was going on. I remember seeing the monks in jeans and sneakers under the long robes.
You understand, I couldn't let go of Christmas and New Year's! So next year I asked my friends to get me a tree. And they did. A cypress tree that I decorated with my jewelry and some colorful ribbons. That was in 1991.
Since then a lot of things changed here. Nowadays you can buy trees, lights, decorations and everything else Christmas, and not only in the "Russian" shops. It has become a business here, though not like in Canada where I lived for almost 4 years. But still, it's in the air. And I wanted to share with you my Christmas photos. Contrary to what the date says, I took the pictures in 2007.

Here is my little tree.

They even sell the poinsettia plants! And of course, it's not Christmas without an issue of In Style and some candles.

Apartment has changed a bit since then. The TV got a bit bigger. And I moved the furniture around. But the dog is still as lazy as he was then.

Another shot of the living room.

And another one. Boomer is on the rug now, looking all picturesque.

I am posting photos from 2007 because I'm not sure if the tree survives this year. The main threat - Snooker the snowcat. We'll see what he'll do to the Spirit of Christmas.

Boots

This post was an experiment. I posted this picture straight from the new cellphone. I didn't write anything because a) I didn't know if it'd work and b) it's a pain to type more than a word or two.

I got these boots on ebay couple of years ago after seeing them on The Fashionable Housewife blog. Long story, the seller didn't want to ship overseas and she refused to sell them to me, even if I gave her USA shipping address. I asked my friend to help me out, there was a bit of correspondence going back and forth, but I got them in the end. Opened the box and realised that I have a matching purse!

Now women in the street ask me where I got this stuff. They don't want to believe it was a total accident with the bag.

I took two more pictures but lost one of them in the process of transfering from phone to computer. Of course, it was the full lengh shot.

Boots: Aerosoles

Bag: ??? from my friend's shop

Aubergine jersey dress: Zara

Scarf: Lancetti

Burberry craze

Seeing Sher's Burberry dress, I decided to wear my fave top Sunday morning. Kept everything else black and simple.

I'm still playing with the new phone camera. Here I found a new spot to take pictures. I had to sit on the table because the mirror is hanging really-really low. You can probably tell that it's a room for kids just looking at the furniture.

Traditional Zara shot with all the accessories.

black jeans: DJ

booties: Episode

bag: Tignanello

swing-ish jacket: present from Hong Kong

Went to a consignment store with my friend after work. I came in with a bag of stuff to sell and went out with a vintage coat. Slim, black, cost me about 30 bucks, the label says "Blin Blin France". I wanted to wear it today but the weather is not that cold yet. It's in great condition, even the lining is perfect. I'll try to take a good picture of it in the daylight. I'm happy... But you wouldn't believe my friend's luck. I found a perfect, classic, camel, double-breasted, belted long coat in mint condition! But it was too big for me! Only 50 bucks too! It fit her perfectly... Ah, the lottery that is second-hand shopping...

Parisian nights

Matisse had a painting caled "Blue window" with a portrait of a violonist or something like that. This painting is in New-York art gallery. Yesterday night I was going back home , it was raining cats and dogs and there was no one in the streets. Just this blue window and an enigmatic building all yellow because of the lanterns' light. Whas there any violonist inside? What was this deep blue light? Any Marquis with his servants? Witches shabbath? Magic experiences? Or just a blue screen of a huge TV (how prosaic) ? Well, the next three days I'll have a night photo stage. If there are some news from the bridges of Seine , I'll let you know.

Have you seen this cartoon?

It's called "Pigeon: Impossible" and you can watch in on You Tube right here.
"Get Smart", cartoon version!

Here is what the Pigeon website says:

"The film took nearly 5 years to complete and is the first attempt at animation by writer/director Lucas Martell: "When the project started, it was mostly an excuse to learn 3D animation, but by the end of the project I had spent so much time reworking and polishing the story that I just wanted people to laugh."
The end-result is a hilarious 6-minute romp through the streets of Washington D.C. as our hero fights to save himself, and the world from the chaos reigned down by a hungry pigeon. Breathtaking visuals and a sweeping soundtrack showcase the work of nearly one-hundred talented artists and musicians, and the film stands as a testament to what can be accomplished by a team of dedicated volunteers working for the love of their craft".

Well done, Lucas Martell!!!

The woman's life was easy

-until she made it busy and bought herself a pig!

Well, not exactly a pig, and no money exchange was involved. I went to the cell-phone company to repair my trusted 3 year old Nokia 6280. The young pretty girl told me that just to send the phone to the lab for a check-up will cost me NIS 99, plus the cost of repairs. Or I could get a new phone for free (provided I sign up for a fixed fee service plan. Now, NIS 99 is about 20-something bucks, it's not much, but we're having a "poor" month and... hang on a minute! Did she say FREE?

I'm a sucker for a good deal. Yes, I'll have to pay NIS 109 ($ 27) a month but I pay that anyway on the old plan!

So I've "upgraded" to Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot with a better camera, better internet access, all singing and dancing. It's not the i-phone, but the cost of those over here is unthinkable.

I've spent all day yesterday learning to use the bloody thing! I played with it till the battery died, took pictures of my most willing model (the dog), watched videos on You Tube, set up the email and went on Facebook. It's exhausting! I'm still not sure how to transfer pictures from the phone to the PC, but I have the weekend for that.

Comparing the phones I can say that Nokia's software is the most user-friendly in the world. But the SonyEricsson is the runner up. If you're willing to sacrifice time of course.

By the way, I've read on the internet (where else) that Israelis speak on mobile phones more that any other nation in the world. Mind you, when we were in China 15 years ago, everybody there was on a cellphone! Everyone!

I cannot imagine life without my phone and hate it at the same time.

I'll torture the dog for a little longer and then try and post pics with different effects.

A point of view from Paris

Well, it's not really a parisian view. But it's just the exact translation of what I thought yesterday looking in the blue arrogant eyes of one of my students who thinks that if he is not God, he is something between the Saint Spirit and Nietzche. I was politely answering his stupid questions asked only in order to attract the attention of the public while of a sudden I saw myself slowly cutting his veins... I tried to do the same with words, such a pleasure, you wouldn't imagine!!!!!! but the image is still here. I always thought judaism hasn't given anything useful to the world. But this commandment is not that bad: Thou shalt not kill. How many times a day we have this desire? This commandment protect us from our deep self!

Gorgeous giveaway

Biscuits are never boring has a fantastic giveaway. Check it out here.
I already left my comment :)

My Butterfly

Sheila posted a picture of her new tattoo and invited us to do the same. I'd like to apologize for the quality of the photos, it's quite awkward to try and take a good pic while twisting and turning, because my tat is on the back of my shoulder, and my hubby wasn't home to help and and and...

But here is my butterfly. I got it in Tel Aviv some time in 1998 at the mature age of 32. I thought about getting a tattoo ever since meeting my husband - he has a cool parrot on a flower on his arm, got it in the Navy. We were in Hong Kong in 1994 and I saw the work of the famous Pinky. I was tempted but too scared to go plus I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't want to end up like that American sailor we met while working in a bar. He wanted a tat but couldn't decide... So what did he get? His own initials on the tip of his thingy. He offered to show it to me but I declined... His buddy was smarter, he had an anchor tattoed on the same spot. To show that he dropped anchor in every port... And that guy was married!

But I digress. I finally decided to get a blue butterfly. So we went to different tattoo parlours and looked at their catalogues, but all those places were packed with teenagers and the catalogues were too standard. In the end we found this place on Allenby St. and they were willing to listen to what I wanted done. Which was - no harsh outline on the wings. The guy did it, and I went home and realised that we forgot the antennae. I had to go back to complete my butterfly.

Trying to get a halfway decent picture...

I think it's a good spot to have your tattoo because it's not in your face all the time. Plus that area has no bones and it didn't hurt at all.

Sunday and Monday

This time I post two days of outfits in one post. I had to work evenings on Sunday and Monday till about 11 o'clock. Even though I worked at home, I couldn't blog because I had a deadline to meet.

This was my Sunday work get-up. I have this coat in cream with brown stitching and black with cream stitching. It's very lightweight, perfect for the weather (still no rain).


Coat: Crazy Line
Jeans: DJ Mode
Old brown t-shirt
Shoes: Paola Caniglia
Bag: Nine West

I stuck with the same bag for over a week.

Monday was not the best for me. Crappy day at work. Some people were late for appointments, others showed up way too early, strange phonecalls, you name it. I was sooo happy to get out of the office!

It was a black and gray day.

Tank: Mango

Long cardi: Zara

Checkered pants: BCBGirls

Silver cuff and chain plus watch pendant

Shoes: Caligula

Wallet: Tignanello

Lunch: Cafe Aroma

I finally changed my bag to this black patent thing without a label.

Here you can see the bag much better. I love it, it goes with everything.

But...

My little kitty Snooker peed on it sometime ago! I washed it, aired it out, sprayed it with cat-pee-killing spray - but the smell is so stubborn, and this cat is still a baby! I'm definitely taking him to the vet for a ship when the time comes.

Weekend

Another hot winter day here. The weather people have been threatening us with rain but no such luck. All my coats and jackets still hanging in the closet. But at least I can wear my cardigans. Here is what I wore today.


Wide-leg jeans: Cavalli
Black hooded top: from Corfu, Greece
Leopard cardi: Mango
Boots: Antelope
Huge tiger-pattern ring: purchased for 25 shekels (about 6 bucks) some 15 years ago
Sunglasses: Aldo

Now that I look at it, not the best choice of top with these jeans. Too tight, too short.

Our "village" in the background. And a bunch of broken breeze blocks.