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 :)

Ruffles Here I Come

Don't you just love it when people compliment you on your dress! It's always nice to hear.
So I took a bunch of photos yesterday, in the mirror and with self-timer. And... I had to delete most of them.

Anyway, here is the dress, I already posted my photo wearing it last year. Different heels this time plus my red purse, pearls and a brooch.

I broke my self-imposed shopping ban yesterday and bought my first ruffle cardigan. It's a pretty purple color and it has a belt that I'll either tie in the back or replace with a belt of my own. It was 30% off so I'm not that upset.

I also got this tartan scarf. I'll wear it with jeans if this winter ever comes our way. I'm telling you it's ridiculous! Almost end of November and 30 degree heat! That's 86 F!!! We are exhausted. Anyway, the scarf.

I pulled out of the storage some of my booties, but the tall boots are still sitting in boxes. No need for them to get dusty. My shoe closet is not that large so twice a year I switch my winter and summer "collections". Same with clothes.

And now for the Cat of the Day.

This is the empty toilet tissue packaging, I put it down by the stairs, went to put some shoes on, came back and... the packaging wasn't empty anymore. So instead of going to the bins I went around the house asking who wants a bag of cat. Snooker was rather amused, he loved the ride.

Have a great weekend everyone!

What to Wear

This week has been a little annoying at work. A managerial visit, hysterical people on the phone and an inept branch manager will do that to you.

And this Sunday outfit was a total failure. The top is clinging in all the wrong places, good thing I had to wear a shirt over it. Well, at least the color of the clogs matched the shirt perfectly.


Monday was a bit more successful (but no less annoying). I wore a dress by Jonathan Martin. It's so comfy, I felt like I was in my nightie. The only issue was the length. When I sit down in this dress it creeps up too high. I just had to hide my legs inder the desk.

Gray faux pearls and some silver bracelets finished the look.

This bag is quite old and it's not leather, I got rid of almost all non-leather bags as the quality was not so good. But I kept some of them including this one. It's roomy and handy and it traipsed all over Paris with me 2 years ago.

The weather still is not cool enough for a jacket or a cardigan. Even in the evening when I had to catch a bus home.

The only thing I took with me is a pair of flats. Good thing I did. I had to run a little bit to catch my bus and I couldn't have done it wearing these heels.

And now for the Cat of the Day shot.

It's Snooker in my kitchen. He was totally asleep until I pulled out my camera. He looked up but didn't move the hanging leg.

The dog is driving me crazy this week. He obviously ate something he shouldn't have and now his stomach is upset, he drags me outside at odd hours. Yesterday he woke me up at 5 a.m. Gotta go boil a ton of rice and feed him.

Romancing the Red

Forgetting your disk on key with photos at home results in serious lapses in blogging. It's Wednesday and I'm just getting around to post last Thursday outfit! I must admit, I wasn't feeling 100% with coughing and all, and laziness kicked in as well.

I'll start with the shoes close-up. These are Aldos, not quite my usual style, and I'm still not sure what to wear them with. So I decided to wear them with rolled up pants. The shoes are very comfortable in spite of the heel.


I rolled up the pants to show off the white straps. Wasn't sure about it but Husband said it looked good. He has a good eye for proportions and I trust his judgement. Hey, after 16 years of marriage he deserves it.

I saw this t-shirt in a shop paired with a black cropped tuxedo jacket. It had a rock-n-roll vibe and I grabbed it (I already had the tux from another shop). But even though it's November, the weather is too hot for a jacket. At least I could wear long pants again.

And now for the Sunday outfit. My beloved dress that I wore last on my birthday.

Fashion stylists say that you should wear color accessories "in threes", so here I've got red shoes, read bag and red watch. And the heart pendant necklace that I've had for years. I saw "Romancing the Stone" again, and in it Michael Douglas character gives Kathleen Turner a similar necklace. So I dusted it off and wore it for 3 days straight. Felt nostalgic and all.

I used to love that movie and still do. Not because I'm such a hopeless romantic, but because I loved backpacking in the jungle.

Here are my shoes (hardly suitable for backpacking).

And the watch. The strap is reversible, it's navy on the other side, but I prefer red. Another thing I like about it is not too much bling. I don't like too many diamonds on a watch. This one has just the right amount. It's a classic "sport elegant" style watch - an Israeli term. Would you call it preppy? Maybe.

There we go. Caught up a little.

.44 Magnum

This is how Mr. Tanya called me yesterday. My .44 Magnum. Because yesterday I turned 44. So strange. I often read in Russian novels: "middle aged woman in her late thirties" and so on. But I don't feel middle-aged (and what is middle-aged anyway?).

Mind you, after such a crazy day I had at work, anybody can age in minutes. Non-stop phone calls can do this to you. Plus hot dry wind, humidity below 50 (we're used to 70) and sand in the air, everything was yellow. But we had a nice evening at home and celebrated with my parents.

Here you can see what my hubby gave me. Sometime ago I told him that I'd like a new camera and gave him some options. I showed him what the other bloggers use. And received this cute pink Canon IXUS 95 IS. I love it.

This is my "particuliere" dress, because it matches the nail polish. Even more than on the photo. And my fingers are red for some reason. Must be the fluorescent lighting. Yuck.

This is my balcony again. Boomer is yawning, he's bored. See the dusty air? People with asthma were advised not to go outside.

Another look at the necklace... And what is that white dot on my eye?

No Russian celebration is complete without caviar. And for my husband it's not a meal without Tabasco sauce. Here they are together, and Tabasco is extra hot!

While I was going nuts at work, my Mom cooked wonderful spaghetti sauce.
And these lovely roses were from my son.

I haven't worn the other gifts yet (clothes of course). That's later.

Quartet in Context

I've had a really lazy weekend. Horseriding got cancelled because of the rain. I cooked one lazy dinner and baked a really lazy cake. That's it. Plus Summer Savings Time finally happened in Israel, and we got all confused. Somehow even the dog slept in today for which I'm eternally grateful.

The weekend was spent in comfy clothing, not worthy of photography. But on Thursday night my Mom and I went to the theater. We saw the first production of a Russian theater "Context" from Ashdod, "Quartet" is a play by Ron Harwood about ageing opera singers. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much! Brilliant acting, great atmosphere. One thing I noticed, the audience was predominantly elderly. I saw one really young girl (maybe 19), couple of women my age and the rest were pretty much pensioners. The fate of immigrants' culture I guess.

So I got a chance to wear my favorite zippered dress. I love it to bits but don't get to wear it much. Cost per wear so far has been astronomical. Who cares.

Turned out that my light grey coat is just the right length for the dress. Pardon the fuzzy picture.

Just added black Nine West oxfords with the brass thingies that go with the zippers, a muted gold bag, a large ring and plain gold hoops, and I was good to go. Fat birdie had to stay home.

A close up of the bag, the ring and my MAC Rich, dark, delicious nail polish.

The bag is by Kathy Van Zeeland, so naturally it has a huge crown logo on the pocket. I just wear it with the crown facing my body, so nobody can see it. It's too much.

Next week is Passover. I get to work less than usual and get paid normal. Gotta love the holidays.

Financials

Such an exciting day! First I had to go to the bank and after that pleasant experience I drove to the income tax place and sorted out my income tax coordination?? It's when you have more than one job and they decide how much you can earn before they rob you blind. If I'm calling it wrong, somebody please tell me the correct term. I do this every year and it usually takes a couple of hours waiting in line. But this year I showed up in March instead of January and guess what! It pays to be late! Took me about 20 minutes. Thank you, tax people!

This is what I wore to work yesterday. Nothing interesting, plus I went matchy-matchy with the shoes, bag (forgot to take a picture) and the pashmina.


The shoes were the best part of the outfit. All the rest got wrinkled really fast. Including my hair. I'm not really happy with the way it's looking now. But I'll have to suffer and wait for it to grow longer, then I'll see what can be done. Here are the shoes.

And this is my fave citrine ring. I love it to bits. And a strange reflection in my Particuliere covered nail...

That was yesterday. Today I parked at the mall in order to go to the tax people. Of course, I couldn't just come back to the car and drive off home. I had to do a mall-sweep. I exercised restraint and only bought one thing from Zara. Can you tell that I like horses?

It's like that dress with a huge gorilla face on it, only looser, cheaper and the picture is not 3D. A totally different dress, I mean. Look what's on the back of the dress. A bigger horse.

I looked at some ballet flats as well, but to my bank account's delight I didn't find any that I absolutely loved. The search continues...

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

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...

Retro dress

Is it cheating if I post my yesterday outfit today? I had to work last night till late and actually fell asleep at the computer. Luckily it happened at home! Anyway, yesterday I decided to wear this dress that reminds me of the Mad Men style. I always get a lot of compliments (from women) when I wear it.

Matt jersey dress: don't know, I cut the label off

Mustard bag and scarf

Black woven heels: BCBGirls

Here is a close-up of the shoes and of the dress built-in belt. Sorry the belt picture is so dark.

I got the shoes off ebay. They are a bit funny to wear, the heel is tilted and seems like it cannot support too much weight. So I feel like I have to balance on my toes a lot. But the shoes are still extremely comfortable.

Couple of months ago I bid on exactly the same pair in brown, but I didn't win. Part of the problem with ebay is that when I go to sleep, the buyers in the US are just warming up.

I've had some hits and misses with ebay shoes, mostly hits. I also bid and got some purses, I should do a post on them one day.

We are tigers!

At least my dress had stripes on it.

Dress: Airport
Heels: Predictions
Gold hoops that you can't see

You can see that Snooker helped me pick the dress today. He is checking out the jewelry box in the background. He had his shots and worming pill last week, he's growing like the garbage cat that he is. Every night I wake up because something or other fell down in the house. Or he jumps on me at three in the morning and gnaws on my arm. Last night he knocked over a fan in the Kid's room.

As you have guessed already, I love him to bits.

Perfect pumps

This is my first ever attempt to photograph myself. Luckily I was alone at the office. As soon as I was done, two guys walked by behind a huge glass door... Good thing they didn't see me.

What I'm wearing:

Dress: Airport

Cardigan: Zara

Faux pearls: Carolee

Heels: Clarks

Bag: Makowsky

I forgot to put on a ring and my left hand feels naked. Usually I wear big rings. And the day I had today... Wendy B's swear rings would be just perfect!


Here is the bag and the shoe close-up. I've spent over a year searching for perfect skintone pumps that are supposed to elongate your leg and so on. I got some BCBGirls on ebay and still have them, but they're really uncomfortable. I got the Goya wedges I wore couple of days ago but they still didn't give me what I wanted. So when I spotted these Clarks at 30% off I was really happy. Now I can check that off my list.