Turquoise

At the moment my life is quite boring and predictable. Get up, walk the dog, work, have lunch, go for power walk in the evening. That's it. Going grocery shopping on Friday seemed like good reason to put on something nice. I pulled out this top which is a nightmare to iron, but what the hell, right?

I almost always wear it with these ballet slippers and some kind of white pants. Mind you, in the past I paired it with mint jeans and orange shorts. But it really pops with something white in my opinion.

The slippers are nice but not as comfortable as one might think. Definitely not a 12-hour shoe.

I wanted to take a picture of Norman in his summer house on the balcony but he wasn't too cooperative, so here's a shot of his stomach. He has grown so much, I don't think he'll fit in his winter terrarium anymore.

Lulu is chillin' alone.

Or with Boomer, like this.

Such is life at the moment. Last night I walked just over 6 km (about 4 miles). Power walking is one of the few things that keep me sane at the moment.

Bright and Cheerful

Yesterday we had some chores to do and it seemed like a good reason to wear a dress instead of traditional shorts and a tank top. A bright and cheerful dress, as you can see. I bought it a couple of months ago at my friend's shop. At first I had some doubts, is it too tight, is it too short? But when I put it on, it made me feel so happy that I took the plunge and brought it home with me.

This is definitely the most visible dress that I own. I couldn't get hit by a car even if I wanted to.

The sandals are by far the best shoe purchase of the season. They are by Moretti (do we see a pattern over here?). These go with almost everything, even with dresses. I was afraid they would visually shorten my legs but I don't think they do. On the contrary, the stripe has an elongating effect.

I was told that they flew off the shelves and my local branch of Moretti had to restock them. And yet, I haven't seen a single person wearing them, which is great.

The jewelry was simple. No big necklace as it was too hot. But I wore a bigass bracelet instead. It was the first of chunky bracelets in my "collection". It's too big to wear with anything else. I wore the ring on the other hand. I love the blue stone. It catches and reflects light just like a swimming-pool.

And this picture made it on Instagram as my "car selfie". Yes, it's a baseball cap worn backwards. The windows were rolled all the way down and I didn't want my hair to fly away.

By the way, I'm wearing Clinique CC Cream in Light. This is my face after three or four sweaty hours in hot and humid weather. I think it held up very nicely. It's a much lighter coverage than a BB Cream I was using before (by Sebocalm - it's a local company that makes skincare for sensitive skin). It's perfect for me in this climate. And the lipstick is MAC Creme Cup or what's left of it.

Went for my power walk in the evening and after that... Pigged out on pizza! I do this roughly once every 6 months or so. I'm not even going to admit how many slices I had! It's a shame really. So today I'm back to my "usual programming" and will have a tall glass of yogurt for dinner after another walk.

That's it, folks!

Feel Good Stripes

Happy Saturday! It was a quiet night and I'm grateful for that.

I'm glad to report that my weight has shifted slightly down which makes me feel even better. I've tweaked my eating habits a little bit. I eat my major meal in the middle of the day and try to limit supper to a large glass of 1.5% fat drinking yogurt. That plus some exercise (my power walks in the evening) produced some results. I was finally able to wear this dress I bought last year in a secondhand store. It still had the tags on, it's size XL (seriously?) and it used to be a little tight in the middle.

Well, here I am wearing it yesterday to the local grocery store. I look pregnant for some reason but it's just shadows. Honestly.

Here is a slightly better shot. The stomach doesn't look as huge. The face though...

These Zara sandals turned out to be a great buy. Comfortable and go with everything. I hope they live long enough and I won't be sorry to see them go.

This is my new Pastel Ombre bracelet from HRH Collection. Two weeks ago Alex announced a special Instagram sale of these bracelets and I was lucky to grab one. It's chunky, lightweight and it goes perfectly with all the summer outfits.

A week ago I promised to write my opinion on L'Oreal Miss Manga mascara. Well, I didn't wear any makeup for a week but the other day we did a supermarket run and I decided to give it a try.

There will be no pictures of me wearing it. I looked in the mirror, liked what I saw, took photos and had to delete them all. I'm not the greatest master of close-up face selfies. Let's leave it at that. But in a nutshell, I like this mascara. It goes on well, you have to put on a couple of layers to achieve a bolder look. The brush is good (I'm used to Cover Girl Lash Blast huge brushes so it took a bit of getting used to). The mascara is relatively easy to remove, it didn't leave any residue. All in all, it's a good budget mascara. Too bad they don't sell it here yet, but there is always ebay.

I leave you with Lulu. Doesn't she look happy and not harassed at all?

Have a great weekend. everybody!

Stuff

We are still mostly sitting at home. Of course, we go out with the dog and for groceries and I still go for my power walk every evening. When I'm out there between the fields I can't hear the siren. So if I don't hear it, it doesn't exist, am I right?

Last Friday I went out with Boomer. We were in the middle of the field when we heard a siren. We couldn't really go anywhere to hide so I just grabbed my Iphone and waited. Sure enough, the Iron Dome intercepted a rocket pretty much above my head. It was a bit scary but cool watching it in action. Boomer answered the attack in his own way - he had a massive poop (sorry for TMI but it seemed so appropriate).

The larger "popcorn" is the one that intercepted the rocket

Last week my kitty Lulu gave us a huge scare. She disappeared. She was missing all day and in the evening my neighbor found here in a state of shock on her porch. Using my detective skills, I came to a conclusion that Lulu fell either from a window or a balcony. Which is not surprising because she keeps falling asleep like this:

Or like this. The little window behind her is always open. And she is not the most agile cat in the world.

When we found her, she was scared, pissed on by street cats, scratched on the nose and favoring her front left paw as she walked. I bathed her, gave her some water and food. And an hour later I found her on the balcony couch in this position. Someone is glad to be home.

Next morning we went to the vet and Lulu got a shot of antibiotics just in case. She is fine now. The sirens don't seem to affect her too much.

But Boomer hates them. Here we are just after one of those "red alerts". I calmed my nerves with white wine mixed with a bit of Creme de Cassis. You know, even after hearing those sirens for so many times, the first howl of it hits you in the guts every time.

I hope it will be over soon and I'll be able to go back to work in the store as well as do my translations.

Cosmetics Run

I went out today for a couple of hours with a clear thought in mind - need some Clarins skincare.

I wore the only jumpsuit that I have - it's sleeveless and easily slips on and off in case I have to use a bathroom somewhere. I had to cut off my makeup-free face in order not to scare anyone who might stumble upon it on the internet...

Maybe this jumpsuit is not quite age appropriate but it is definitely weather appropriate. The temperatures have reached the "I don't care" stage.

My sliders have become more comfortable after the third or fourth wear.

I bought Clarins purifying mask, hydrating mask, day cream and the very much hyped double serum. I'm going to finish all the creams that I have left and then start my new regimen. But I can say that after all the stuff the SA put on my face today at the shop, my skin feels very nice.

And I just got a message that there is more translation work coming my way. That's great news!

Normal Life

Life in Israel is never boring. I returned home from Turkey and started a new job. Plus-size ladies' fashion. Worked there for 5 days and boom - literally. The rockets started falling again. I'm not going to discuss politics here, it's not that kind of a blog. But I was told not to come back until further notice. And the girls who worked there had their hours cut back. Of course, people don't want to go shopping in a situation like this, especially in the evening. They want to be home with their kids.

My Kid is home too. He started going to summer camp organized by his school but now it's been suspended. So I took him to the movies yesterday. We watched How To Train Your Dragon 2 in 3-D. We both loved it. There were 5 people in the theater - us and another family. That's it.

I wore my maxi dress which is great for the hot weather we're having.

My comfy Max Moretti sandals.

And I felt oh so French carrying my straw basket. It fits a lot and it's lightweight. And it's not your traditional handbag. Nice to wear something different for a change.

I heard good things about the new Loreal Miss Manga mascara and decided to try it out. We don't have it here yet and I ordered it on ebay. It finally arrived yesterday but I haven't used it yet. Hope I like it - I'll tell you about it later.

Of course, I can't go to the mall (that's where the movie theater is) and leave empty handed. Especially when I walked into the Moretti shop to say hello to my friend. These beauties were on sale plus I had some bonus points. Real suede sandals for about 35 bucks? Yes, please.

And I might have ordered something last night from the Asos site. I've been on the lookout for this style of espadrilles for quite some time and then I saw them on Susie So So and Style At Every Age blogs. Here they are:

You can get them here in black/off white or here in taupe/black. The stock is low and not all sizes are available. Good luck!

Turkey

We are back from our Marmaris holiday. Actually, we returned a week ago but I had so much to do and organize that only got to downloading my photos now. 

The trip started with a hiccup and it was extremely annoying. First of all, we had to fly via Istanbul as there are no direct flights. So instead of flying once for 40 min we had to fly for 2 hours and then another hour flight which was delayed. We got to the Dalaman airport and found out that my suitcase didn't make it to destination. While sorting out the lost luggage business, we missed our bus to Marmaris and had to wait for the next one scheduled for 2 am. Here is a very blurry image that I posted on Instagram. My exhausted son and husband. I was no better.

My suitcase was delivered in the evening of the second day. Good thing that the husband could wear my Kid's clothes. But I was stuck with jeans and one tank top in over 40 C degree heat. 

Actually, I could have packed half of what I took with me. I didn't wear my pretty dresses as it was way too hot. Denim shorts and sleeveless tops is all I could weather.

The main reason for our visit was my FIL's 80 birthday party. But before that we celebrated my Kid's 15th birthday. This is the view from the Pineapple restaurant in the marina.

And this is the birthday boy's dinner. This plus a tub of french fries of course.

We stayed at our friend's house that had a nice and cool swimming pool. Here it is, all decorated for the party.

M has lots of cats and a dog. This is his favorite spot - he can listen in on the conversations and stay out of the way.

This is Toppy, my very good friend. He looks vaguely diabolical, all black, even his nose. But he is extremely friendly.

You can see that Toppy was quite interested in my food. What you can't see is that two minutes after that he was ears deep in my tuna salad. Unfortunately I was too slow to take a picture.

Lovely and delicious birthday cake.

The next morning we went out for a Turkish breakfast. Very nice and right on the beach.

We are sitting on a wooden deck millimeters away from the water.

On the last day we went to the market to buy some fruits and veggies. I was surprised to see lots of strawberries - their season in Israel is already over. But then, their grapes season hadn't started yet while back home we already have plenty.

Being a huge "Fast and Loud" fan, I was lucky to spot this beauty. Chevrolet Impala, my guess around 1965 model, four door (sorry, Richard, I prefer four door!) In need of a paint job and some missing trim but otherwise perfect.

Such was our trip. Too short, as usual.
Now I'm back to my two jobs, I started working at the store, but we'll talk about it later. And in my translations, I'm just about to start the second episode of a certain Steven King-based TV show. All is far from well in Chester's Mill.