My Iguana Christmas

We always clean Norman's terrarium on Saturdays. He gets a fresh rug and clean glass walls. Fun fact: iguanas sneeze more than any other animal on Earth (it's from the internet, I cannot vouch for it being 100% true, but if you look at the terrarium walls at the end of the week you'll believe it).

 

Today before returning Norman from his little cage to the newly cleaned house we decided to let him walk around the house for the first time. We closed all the doors and windows making sure that Snooker was asleep in the bedroom and put Norman down on the rug. First he tentatively walked around checking the rug with his tongue. Then he walked over to the Christmas tree and without any visible effort he jumped up onto the lower branch.

 

Now see a bunch of pictures of the iguana in the tree.

 

He had some help getting onto Santa's head.

I am the king of the castle!

Good night, everybody!

Weight Loss Progress Report

Just a quick post to show off. These are my leather trousers that I haven't been able to wear for at least three years. They wouldn't button at the waist (what waist?). I tried them on last night and they fit. Imagine my joy!

 

I've changed my diet 10 weeks ago and since then lost 8 kilograms, that's 17.6 lbs. My goal was not to get supermodel skinny (as if!), it was to feel better and wear the same clothes as before, only they would fit me better. After losing 8 kg I feel lighter, my jeans are not digging into my flesh, and the muffin top has become visibly diminished. My goal is to lose 2 more kilograms (4.5 lbs). After that if I lose more, I'll be happy. If I don't lose anymore but manage to keep off what I already lost, I'll be just as happy.

 

These are my el-cheapo diamonds that I bought specifically for my gray sweaters (fashion blog copy-catting).

If anybody curious, I've started my diet with Dr. Phil's "Rapid Start Plan" (here is the link for the menu - pdf file). This plan fits my requirements perfectly. I completed the 14 days (with substitutions, I didn't follow the instructions to the "t" because some products just don't exist in Israel, so I had to look for similar foodstuffs). After that I continued eating 5 times a day, approximately at the same time, following the principles of the plan but allowing myself some pasta, potatoes, rice (in moderation of course). The main thing that I noticed is that I stopped overeating. I used to get seconds and thirds. I don't do that anymore.

I really hope that I can keep this up forever. I like being lighter too much, I feel and move differently, I can run up the stairs without getting winded. By the way, I don't exercise, apart from short dog-walks. Yes, I know, it's bad. But this is who I am. I guess if I exercised, I'd be 10 more pounds lighter by now. But I'm not after speedy weightloss, I'd rather do it slow and steady.

So tonight we're eating fish (sole fillets baked in 10% cream), green beans (a bit of butter in them) and nuked green peas with salt and pepper. Luckily the Husband loves vegetables and happily eats what I eat. Of course, I prepared a tub of pasta with vegetables that he can dip into whenever he wants. That would be off limits for me (unnecessary calories, who needs them). But next week on December 31st I'm going to pig out. Which is totally all right with me.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Quilted Love



Oh yes, I got to get out of the house today and do some chores! A reason to dress in something other than knock-off Uggs and buy a decent cup of coffee!

 

My chores were not that interesting, but what a pleasant surprise - I got to take my own pictures in Zara again! By the way, the Zara seasonal sale has started a month early. Either that or they're just trying to get rid of some stock before the year's end, I don't know.

 

Anyway, here I am in my lovely lilac quilted jacket. I was so glad I wore something light, it was hot today. I put a scarf on in the morning butI had to rip it off my neck and stuff it in the bag. Luckily the bag was large enough.



 

Didn't buy anything at Zara, I prefer to wait and see, it usually pays off.

But H&M was a totally different story. Half of the merchandize was 50% off. I grabbed two items and went to the dressing rooms. And both items ended up going home with me. But first I had to take a picture of my outfit. Here is the jacket. Again.

These yellow pants have been on my radar for quite some time. They are much brighter in real life, more mustardy than here. And they went perfectly with my red and black houndstooth socks.

And this is item number two. So often I drooled onto my keyboard looking at bloggers in perfect leopard print coats. I have two almost good-enough leopard print coats already, but somehow I was still on the lookout for something better. Well, I found it today, at 50% off. Yes, I know, it's H&M, it's cheap, blah-blah-blah. But it fits me like a dream and the color is just right.

Trying to capture black stripes on the backs of the sleeves.

I'm happy.

And today's booties are courtesy of my Mom's. She said that they became uncomfortable for her to wear and offered them to me. I put them on with jeans, they looked all right. And then I rolled the jeans up and the booties "woke up". Not the usual silhouette for me but I found it interesting.

This is it, a whole post on clothes and shopping. Now I'm planning an outfit around those yellow pants using this as inspiration.

This is Veronica from Bittersweet Colors blog. She sure knows how to put colors together, go check her out.
I have a brown sweater but it's deep chocolate brown. Still, the idea is there, I just have to wait for another chance to go places.

Happy Holidays!!! (and last minute shopping)

Merry Christmas, everyone who celebrates it! (Jeez, we have to be so politically correct! But I prefer Merry Christmas to Season's Greetings!)

 

I give you an old picture of my tree, trust me, it looks the same this year. And the dog looks the same too :)

 

 

 

Today my friend and I met at the mall and had a nice breakfast together. And after that we went shopping. This is what I wore. My leopard trench (that coordinated with V's leopard blouse), H&M burgundy jeans and my fave sweater with chains.

 

I was buying presents for the Kid but couldn't resist a little something for myself at Zara.

Here it is, the "bowling bag with handles" in black. Actually I didn't know it existed in khaki, they only had it in black.

Other than the bag I got a cellphone for the Kid and this sweatshirt. Yes, I know it's women's shirt. But it has dinosaurs on it!!! I got the biggest size and I'm sure he can pull it off.

Pre-Christmas Days

Hard to believe that Christmas is two days away. I thought this year I'd be totally ready for it, but what do you know. I'm not. You see, in this household there is a fun tradition for the Kid. He gets presents twice - on Christmas day (Canadian heritage) and on New Year's Day (Russian heritage). When he was little, buying presents was easy. But now he only wants certain things. Like there are two computer games on his wishlist this year. I found one of them on ebay (and it hasn't arrived yet!!!!!) but the other one is not available. So I'm stuck with getting him some clothes (not a real gift by any stretch). Maybe I'll just get him a cellphone, I don't know.

 

Anyway, mental anguish aside, Kid and I went to see a play the other day, and it was a perfect chance to wear another one of my consignment shop finds. This burgundy thing by Elie Tahari. Since I bought it I lost some more weight (about 17 lbs weight loss in total, yeah!) and it fits a bit looser in the waist than I'd like to. But I love it just the same.

 

You cannot wear it as a dress on it's own, there are three snaps under those buttons and that's it, so you definitely need pants. I just went with the easiest all-black version. Big-ass earrings and bracelets, that was it for jewelry.

Looking at the pictures I see that the "dress" is a bit wide in the shoulders as well. I'll have to think what I can do about it. Maybe I'll just pin the sleeves up a bit myself.

Talking about sewing at home, I came up with new half-covers for the sofas. I bought a huge tablecloth, cut and hemmed it, and this is the result. The tablecloth came with six napkins which I successfully (in my opinion) turned into three cushion covers.

I've had the white cusions before. You can't use them on their own, the dog would turn them into "dog's breakfast" within a minute.

Apart from the usual tree (under usual constant attack from the cat) I decorated with fruit. There, bananas and mandarin oranges.

And now for my Christmas gift to myself. I finally bought some "grown up" cups. Got tired of the mismatched kiddy mugs that filled my cupboard. For some reason my family elected me the dumping ground for odd cups. I still keep those for the Kid and his friends, but these real porcelain cups are what I use now. Like a grown up. Yes.

The shop had only pink and blue ones, so we now have a his and hers version.

And the main event this season is the new TV. Our Christmas present to each other. Snooker gave it his stamp of approval.

And this is it, 32" screen, not huge but enough for our living-room size. HDMI and all. I used to laugh that with the old TV we were forever missing what was happening on the sides. Well, we're on it now.

Just noticed that the plastic cover is still on the frame. We're so classy!

Shocked

Talk about bad luck, just as I fixed my photo uploading problems, I got hit with a stomach virus that left me 2 kilograms lighter but totally worn out.

And just as I got better, the TV news hit me even harder. What happened in Connecticut is incomprehensible. I can't wrap my mind around it, I watched the news and couldn't breathe.

My prayers are with the parents of the murdered kids. God help us to never know what it's like!

Fuchsia Rules

During my involuntary break I realised that I missed my blog and taking my own pictures. And I felt weird leaving comments on the other blogs with that black "stop sign" instead of my profile photo.

 

I'm not sure if I fixed everything yet but I'm hopeful.

 

Anyway, in honor of the third anniversary of the Faux Fuchsia blog I'm wearing my new-to-me fuchsia coat that I "sourced" at my favorite second-hand store. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it.

 

I looked it up on the internet. Claude Havrey have a lovely selection of trench coats. Looks like they've been around for a while, I found lots of ebay listings for "vintage havrey". So I consider it a real score (even with the price tag of NIS 250 which is US 73-ish, not your normal thrift store price. Good thing I had some store credit).

The coat is spotless and in perfect condition.

And in the spirit of mixing high and low, I'm wearing my Dexter booties from Payless. I was looking for a comfy wedge bootie for rainy weather and I found it.

Second-hand finds that day included two other items that will appear on this blog eventually. In the meantime, I'm so happy to be back and I hope that it lasts.

Happy Friday, everybody.

Full Storage

Just went to post the photos from today's trip to Monkey Park with the Kid, and Blogger said that I have reached the free storage capacity in Picasa. Could someone please tell me what to do next? Can I just delete my old stuff from Picasa? To tell you the truth, I didn't even know about this "product" as the Blogger calls it...

I can't upload even a single picture.

Help!!!

Just Before the Ceasefire

Just wrote the word "ceasefire" that we're supposed to be having since 9 p.m. And the siren went off. And it's 10:39 p.m. Ceasefire - shmeasefire!!!!

 

Anyway, this is Boomer in the bomb room, waiting for the siren to stop. The picture was taken before 9 p.m.

 

The name of this post should be "Ceasefire My Ass".
We'll see what happens overnight.

45 Seconds to Hide

So it's day seven of the "Pillar of Defence" and we're still waiting to see what's going to happen. The sirens have been blaring everyday, though less often now. I'll try and show you what we do.

First of all, we hear the siren. A very soothing pleasant sound. Since I came to Israel, this is war number four. The Gulf war, the Lebanon 2, operation "Cast Lead" and now "Pillar of Defence". Well, Lebanon 2 was up North and we didn't get the sirens in the South, but still, it was nerve racking.

 

So, we hear the siren (hope the video works. I believe the lines that you see in the sky are trails of Iron Dome rockets).

 

 

 The siren means that we have 45 seconds to go and hide in the shelter. We are lucky that "the bomb room" is inside the apartment. We are on the top floor, my parents downstairs. So we have to go down these stairs.

From the bottom of the stairs we go across to my parents' bedroom.

This is the reinforced room with a heavy door that is our bomb shelter.

 

Of course, my parents turned that room into a walk-in closet.

So we don't have much room in there. The Kid, my Mom, myself and the dog - and it's crowded. My Dad doesn't hide. He is a fatalist I guess.

The door locks from the inside with these latches. There is an old-style (not cordless) phone on the wall that always works.

Even when it's quiet you're always listening for that siren. And if it's been quiet for too long, you feel like "I wish it came and gone already". I'm not the sort of person to panic, I don't get hysterical and start flapping about all over the place. But there is always a feeling in your gut "what if".

Anyway, they say it's going to be a decisive day today whether they agree on ceasefire or not. We'll see. In the meantime the Ki

Sorry, we just had another one. I'm not being dramatic, I really stopped typing and didn't finish the word. I was going to say that the Kid is at home, not doing much, and it's a pain for him, and I can't really concentrate on my translations either.

Read one of my fave blogs last night. The latest post ended with a question: And how was your weekend? I thought of writing a comment but then decided not to spoil  the mood.

Again

Here I was, organizing my winter booties, boots and shoes, lining them up in my eternally unfinished shoe-closet. Hey, at least I have a shoe-closet as opposed to stacking boxes wherever I can. Now I can stack them in the shoe-closet.

 

Anyway, here is the shoe and bootie wall.

 



And some of my tall boots came out of storage as well.

Out came the trenches, the blazers, the long-sleeved shirts and dresses and my faux fur Zara vest.

And then the operation in Gaza began. No school for the Kid, air-raid sirens pretty much every hour or so, non-stop news on TV. That's how we spent the last two days. I tried to upload a little video of certain bright flashes in the sky that I filmed while walking the dog, but it didn't work (the Blogger froze). Not much of a movie, just two flashes and then two loud "booms" sometime later. Oh well, anyone can see and hear this stuff on TV.

You can kind of get used to the sirens during daytime, but when they wake you up in the middle of the night it's usually a shocker. I jump up and run to the Kid even before I wake up.

So I might have slightly OD'd on ice-cream tonight. I got on my scale this morning and saw that I've lost 5 kg since I started my "healthy eating plan" that is low-everything diet. I still have quite a way to go but I already feel better and I'm determined to go on. So tonight's ice-cream was my once-a-week indulgence. I'm hoping to lose another
5 kg and then work on maintaining my lower weight. Otherwise I'll have to buy a whole new wardrobe, and who's got money for that in this economy? Happened to be at H&M yesterday, the whole store was 50% off the second item, and what did I buy? A thin light brown belt, leather but cheap. That's all.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Hope there'll be no sirens at night and we all can sleep like normal people.

Thank You, Rain

Rainy weather continued until yesterday and I was finally able to wear stuff I never wore before. Well, some of it. Like this dress and blazer.

 

I wore this for my cousin's birthday dinner. My shoes matched the dress and I added the blazer for "the pop of color" as they say. And I wore my newly found skin tone fishnet tights that I found at the Accessorize shop (Amber, thank you for the tip). Amber said that she always buys the single pack but they didn't have the single and I got the double. I'd like the tights to be a little lighter but hey, I'm grateful for what I could find.

My horse necklace made another appearance and everybody liked it.

Next day the rain continued and I could finally wear these H&M pants that every fashion blogger out there seems to have as well. No fancy footwear (dry feet somehow felt more important).

Went with all black and an orange purse.

And this Zara scratchy heavy necklace that I love anyway.

This has been my big clothing adventure.
The weather has warmed up since then but it's definitely jeans temperature. I'm happy!

Dream Come True

Ever since I read the Brooklyn Blonde's post "A Camel and Red Roundup" all I could think about was wearing my camel Mango blazer with a red top. But it was too hot for a blazer, so I had to be patient and wait. And then, today, at 7 a.m. the skies finally opened and it rained. And the heat was gone, just like that. See, the autumn here in Israel is extremely short, almost non-existent, the summer pretty much turns into winter. It's raining right now, the wind is howling, and I had to pull my winter tracksuit bottoms out of storage to walk the dog.

 

Anyway, today I finally wore my camel blazer with my ancient but still vibrant red top (sleeveless, it's not that cold yet) with boyfriend jeans and suede booties (from Mango as well).

 

Had to return iguana dry food that I bought for Norman, but he refused to even look at it. He loves his salad. So I drove to the mall, got my money back, picked up my gray Nine West pumps from the cobblers (toe-box stretching) and drove back home. Told my husband that for the first time in my life I left the mall with more money in the wallet than what I had coming in.

I love the booties, they are comfortable and stylish, I appreciate them not looking like cowboy boots (been there done that). And I dared to wear them with the boyfriend jeans, skin above the boots showing and all. Not exactly your best leg-lengthening technique.

Going to my cousin's birthday dinner tomorrow. Maybe I'll wear a dress that I bought in September but haven't worn yet. Maybe I'll pair it with my fuchsia H&M blazer that I haven't worn yet. We'll see if the weather keeps cool.

Have a great weekend, everybody!