Another Purple Day

In the yesterday's post I wrote about blogs inspiration. I posted some pictures of my purple shoes... which inspired today's outfit. Mind you, I just wore the same purple dress. And purple trench. And the amethyst ring.

I got this trench couple of weeks ago and it's my third time wearing it. It was 70% off which was more than nice. It's quite thin even for Israeli winter, but the day was warm and sunny. This is my morning shot in the elevator, they finally reinstalled the mirror, thank you very much.


After work I went to Zara to check out their end of season stuff. I tried on a dress but didn't buy it. Instead I tried to take my photos which was a bit awkward. This is me trying to look nonchalant. Oh, I'm just checking my messages!

Then the corner cleared up and I took this one. Check out the party dresses on the left! I touched the fabric - they are so stiff they could probably walk on their own!

At work it's the usual mess. Our server gave up the ghost, it's in the lab since yesterday, and we couldn't open the programs we work on. No access to the customers files, no necessary forms, nothing. So all the stuff had to be done manually which means we'll have to key it in later. And the pile is growing... So it was a stupid day. But it's over now, at least for me, and I don't have to go back till Thursday noon.

Tomorrow I'll be working at home, translating a cool police show. It has a great opening song by the Blind Boys of Alabama. I even downloaded it on my cell as a ringtone. I especially like the words "you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole". Everyone has their own devil that has to be kept in the hole. Good luck to us all with that.

I Got an Award!!!

Stylish Lotus from Red Phoenix Emporium nominated me for an award!!
Thank you so much, Lotus.

I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about me. Let's see...

1. I'm a shopaholic and I'm constantly trying to kick the habit. It doesn't help that my office happens to be located at the shopping mall. It takes me ages to get to the car after work. Right now hubby's been out of work for a long time and money's tight. So I close my eyes and run for it... Remember that movie "Confessions of a shopaholic"? It made me want to shop like crazy.



2. I used to smoke but I quit. Apparently it was much easier to quit smoking than buying stuff.



3. I love animal prints! I have 3 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of boots - leopard, snake you name it. And a bag. When I heard that leopard print was "the new black" I was happy. Look, that's what I'm wearing today!

4. I love winter and really dislike summer. It used to be the other way around, but living in Israel killed the summers for me. Give me boots, jackets, trench coats any day. Summer here lasts pretty much 9 months. Funny, in Russia I dreamt of moving to the warmer climate, live by the sea, enjoy the weather. Now I live 20 min away from the sea (by car) and I go maybe twice a year.

Here is a photo of a boot. I wore them yesterday with fishnets. It's been ages since I wore fishnets!

5. I traveled quite a bit and lived all over the globe (I call it living even if it's for a couple of months. You have your routine, your habits, your hangouts - local way of life). Which city would I pick?

Paris is my favourite. I grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia and Paris reminded me of my hometown. Only much better. Runner up - Berlin. And Vancouver BC just because it's so beautiful.

This is moi in Paris in 2008. Photographed by my lovely cousin. Love all that hustle and bustle (and the pic is taken on a Sunday!)

6. I'm very easily influenced by other people fashionwise. Bloggers' world has been a huge inspiration for me. I look at your photos and suddenly it hits me - I have this! I can wear it like that! Or the worst case scenario - I see something in a shop that reminds me of a blogger's outfit and... See number 1.

Best example - these shoes by Carlos Santana.


I saw them on BudgetChic blog and just had to have them!!! It was probably 2 years ago or more. I wore them once to a wedding. OK, they were 25 bucks plus shipping (ebay). Cost per wear? Astronomical. Still love them though. Mmmmm, purple!
Another photo from that wedding outfit, just to see the color.

7. I love my TV. What are my faves at the moment? The Mentalist, Castle, White Collar (waiting for 2nd season here), True Blood, Supernatural. I used to watch CSI a lot but then we changed the cable company and I lost it. I also watch Covert Affairs, Lie to Me, Closer. I loved Dexter.

My second job is directly connected to the TV shows. I translate films and series from English to Russian, working mostly with subtitles now. I watched and translated so many of the crime shows. The other day we watched "Law Abiding Citizen" and I could predict almost everything that happened in the movie.

I would do translations only if they paid better. This job is the best for me. You work from home, no phones, no clients, just deadlines that I can almost always handle. I think this job gives me a lot and teaches me lots of things. You can't have it all I guess.

Well, these are my "secrets". Thanks for listening.

Time is really flying! I decided to take some time off for the holidays and it seems to have expanded.
New Year's was fun especially as it happened on the weekend. We had a quiet celebration at home, my aunt and uncle came over, some food, some champagne - and 12:30 I was in bed!
Here is my dress. I bought it for the last New Year's but got sick and ended up wearing something comfy and snuggly. This year I gave it a go. It's a perfect length and the sleeves are it's special feature. They are a bit wide to be doing anything useful in the kitchen, for example. But otherwise the dress is flattering and I think even this photo confirms it. Of course it would look better with heels but who wears heels in their own home? Especially if you keep running up and down the stairs.


This year we didn't go nuts with gifts, but I did receive something nice and even wore it to work for my 11-hour day. Guess what it is!

The UGG-like boots! Yes, I committed the ultimate crime of wearing them in the first place and for wearing them to work... But they are so warm and fuzzy!

The best thing about them is their price. Get ready... 50 shekels!!! It's about 13 bucks. I wear them in "the village" shopping or walking the dog. I wear them at home as slippers. My feet are happy and toasty. Thank you, Chinese people, for making this possible!

It's been a while since I posted my "Cat of the day" photo. Today it's a small series of pictures. First of all, let me show you the drinking rules of the house. Of course, dog and cat have their respective water bowls. But one of them decided to change the rules.

Look, this is how it's supposed to be.

Now, what's wrong with this picture?

Oh well, at least they have the same germs now.

Here is Snooker the Great.

Remarkable athlete and a basketball star wannabe.

With X-ray vision.

He must have eaten a Christmas light or two that day.

How Was Your Christmas?

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful time.

We had our own little celebration at home. The Kid "ordered" Christmas dinner - roast chicken and rice. He is lucky, he gets presents twice - for Christmas and for New Year's. He is always waiting for the holidays with great anticipation. Too bad Christmas day and January 1st are normal working days. This year holidays are on the weekends which is an added bonus.

My pre-Christmas week was not what I expected. I was going to go shopping, prepare all kinds of tasty treats, blah-blah-blah. Didn't happen. My work mate's son got really sick, pneumonia and some stomach virus. So she didn't come to work all week. Guess who had to work for two! Eight till seven 3 days in a row and then 2 normal days till five. Non-stop phone calls, customer service, paperwork, nightmare.

Anyway, her kid is fine now, and we're back to normal. But now my husband lost his job. Good thing this year is almost over and I'll drink copious amounts on the 31st just to say "good riddance".

I'm posting 2 outfits just to brighten up this post.

This one is from last Thursday. Turquoise jumper and some pearls to mark the end of the working week.


The jumper has puffy shoulders and small buttons running down the sleeves.


And this is what I wore yesterday. Not as colorful but with stripes. I've had this Zara dress for a couple of years. Wore a trench over it outside and a work shirt indoors.

Close up of my stripey scarf and a coral "stick" necklace.

Here's dreaming about better life :)

Christmas Less Than a Week Away

This year holidays snuck up on me. I've been working a bit more than usual and suddenly realized that I haven't completed my Christmas shopping! Oh horror!

At least we decorated the house (finally). I didn't put up the tree before as I was afraid that someone white and fuzzy could kill it before the official festivities. There he is, pretending to be asleep. Part of the decor.


Because of Snooker the bottom of the tree is pretty bare. Why can't he be as well behaved as the Dog?

My tree-topper, Santa's head. A gift from a dear friend in Canada. Thank you, Val!

Some more special ornaments. The angel.

And Santa with reindeer on a hot-air balloon.

The stairs to the office and the bedroom. I bought this thing (what is it? A garland?) for my Kid's very first Christmas, he was 6 months old. So the garland is 11 years old and still looks good.

As we don't have a fireplace, this is the next best place for Christmas stocking. In the meantime it's stuffed with paper, but it's going to change next weekend.

This house is also gift from Husband's friend in Canada. Thank you, Dave! He made it himself. WeI brought it to Israel and enjoy it every year.

Here is Snooker again. I couldn't help it, he looks so cute. Especially in this setting.

Around this time of year I especially miss Canada. I loved all the Christmas craze, the music at the malls, the mad rush of the Boxing day sales. Oh well, at least I have my own little Christmas in this country.

Staying Pointy

In my previous post I mentioned pointy and round-toe boots. So to prove my point (ha-ha) I wore these booties the very next day. They are really pointy. The heel is not too high, so I could walk to the bus in them after 6 hour day (mind you, mostly sitting at the desk).

The rhinestone thingy is shiny and pretty, too bad it's always hiding under pants.

The total look was black and dark grey. Straight pants, simple turtleneck, grey jacket that flairs out a bit on the bottom.

I felt really slim and elegant. Heels helped of course.

That day I painted my lips with bright red lipstick. It's Christian Dior "Celebrity red". Nice name for it. It's really strong and glossy, I love it but don't use it too often. I'm more used to dark pinks (like Chanel "Mademoiselle") or corals (MAC Cindy). Or beige. Or something. But not red. So this was a brave day for me.

This is my necklace. It's actually kind of a rope, you just wrap it around your neck like a scarf.

This is what it looks like. I like it, the only drawback is that it catches individual hairs and pulls them. Putting it over a turtleneck helped a bit.

So you might have noticed that I've started taking the bus to work. Hubby got a new job and needs the car now. It's not so bad when I work in Rehovot, but if I have to go to Ashdod office, the bus ride is 45 min one way. I have to take something with me to munch on because I get car-sick, I usually take a banana, it has the most lasting positive effect (i.e. no queasy feeling). But now I get to walk around a bit more. With the car you just drive to your building, park it and you're done. This way I get to see the people and "air myself out" so to speak. Which is nice. I might even break out my leather gloves for the evening bus-wait, and I haven't worn gloves in 10 years! Yeah for gloves!

Is It Camel?

On Tuesday there was no chance to go into the kiddie room and take my own pictures. So I went back to Zara and snapped a couple.

Tuesday was "camel day" to celebrate the head-to-toe camel trend. This is the best I could do, meaning blue jeans and pewter boots. Actually I bought this sweater under the influence of internet - someone posted a Chloe's all beige ensemble on her blog. Result - money spent. I'm so easily manipulated.


Beige sweater with brown suede - what is it? A trench? I'll call it a trench. It has a great leopard lining but it doesn't show... Next time.

See my bag? It's almost the same shape as LV Speedy and judging by the photos I saw, it doesn't keep it's shape just as Speedy doesn't...

This is me posing at home. Sideways, to look slimmer. I think it worked.

The sweater has some "ropes" attached to it. Not a good idea to get hooked on something while wearing it.

Looking at my winter shoes and boots I realized that almost all of them are pointy-toed. Two pairs of my boots are round-toed and this is one of them.

But I'm not about to run to the stores and overload my credit cards. I'm going to wear pointy-toes as if nothing happened! Maybe I didn't get the memo. Did you?