celebrate good times

Happy New Year, lovlies! Dekel and I have decided to go to a local pub here in Tel Adashim, the village in which we live, literally within walking distance, so we can party it up and not worrying about driving home. We are lucky enough to even have this option because I know I am going to drink and would feel bad having Dekel as designated driver, not that he cares, but at least tonight we can both relax and have fun. What are your plans?

The photo below is from New Year's Eve 2008 when my sister, Mirelle, was with me here in Israel. We were going out with some girlfriends to celebrate at this crazy huge club called Ultrasound. It was there that I kissed Dekel for the first time, awwwww!

This photo is New Year's Eve 2007. We all gathered at my friend Dandi's house and brought a dish. I remember I brought sweet, lemon ricotta pudding =) We ate great food, shared many laughs, had a dance party to Britney Spears, drank bottles & bottles of champagne and made the night memorable.

 

Wish you all a wonderful 2011! And happy birthday, mom (on New Year's Day)!!! I love and miss you.

uncomplicate me

i have been rockin' the side braid for the past two weeks, i was stoked after i learned how to create it, see this post. it really is the most simple way to deal with my hair after the shower and it creates naturally cute waves, especially after sleeping on it, but this style does not look so simple...

can someone please tell me how i can make my hair look like this?

via

Christmas & couscous

I had a really hard time this weekend, especially yesterday, missing my family when I imagined them all together, laughing, eating, telling stories and jokes. I broke down..multiple times. I woke up sad yesterday and put on Christmas songs and just could not hold the tears back. Of course, Dekel was there for me, but there is not much he can do when I'm missing my family, but listen and hug me. I tried staying busy to occupy my thoughts so I wouldn't keep realizing it was Christmas Day and I was not with my family & friends, but it was not easy. Not that every single day isn't hard without them, but I get emotional esp during the holidays. We thoroughly cleaned the house & even sat and had to concentrate for 2 hours to do a practice timed GMAT test online. (we began a 10-week GMAT prep course on Friday)

All in all it was a tough weekend, but I made it.

For the past couple days I have had a sore throat, and just kept taking medicine, using throat lozenges and drinking mint tea to sooth the pain and was really hoping it would pass. I even tried letting a shot of vodka slide down my throat to numb the pain, Dekel's idea. Didn't work. I woke up at least 3 times in the middle of the night last night not even able to swallow and went to the doctor this morning to hear that I have tonsillitis. Ouch. I made the mistake of looking up tonsillitis and it made me want to run to stick my face in the toilet to throw up, but I knew that would be painful, so I withheld my disgust. My advice, don't look up what tonsillitis looks like.

I read on Vicky's blog the other day that she was going to go into surgery within the next couple of months to get those suckers removed. I'm jealous?

Anyways, so this whole tonsillitis thing is making eating a challenge. I decided to create the most amazing lunch ever. Prepare yourselves to drool =) I whipped up couscous, a traditional Israeli side dish, but I didn't leave it at that. After cooking the couscous (which is seriously the easiest thing in the world to cook), I added tomatoes, green onion, avacado, dried cranberries, lemon juice, salt pepper and a dash of olive oil. oh em gee, amazingness. There are many more ways to make this dish, think feta cheese, balsamic vinegrette, chicken, etc. In addition to the couscous, my throat was begging for something warm, so I created soup. Well, I didn't create soup, but made it differently than I usually do. I peeled and cut potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, cut up purple onion and added these veggies to a boiling pot of water seasoned with chicked flavored soup powder. Simple, but delish and just what the doctor ordered.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go attempt to forget that my throat feels like its on fire and watch some reality tv.

click here

i want to bake gingerbreak cookies wearing this and only that. ok- maybe with some gold pumps..

love on your wrist

would you ladies like one of these as a bridesmaid gift when i get married?

my friend chelsey has one in her wardrobe, now only if they weren't so expensive...

loving lavender. what color makes you feel sexy?

wow. fashion statement to the max. these scream attention, in a good way :)

would you sport 'em?

pretty damn awesome, i would rock it.

definetly a conversational piece, so beautiful...

this would make a stunning NYE dress (i would go with the option to lenghten it, of course)

*all links taken from etsy.com, i can't tear myself away from that website lately!
** i have joined the bandwagon, visit my shop. i will be adding more pieces soon :) !!

have a fantastic weekend everyone. and happy holidays!!!!

the amazon jungle

Living overseas obviously means my birthdays are celebrated differently than how they were celebrated back home in Dallas. Every year my mom would order my favorite ice cream cake (snickerdoodle) and all the fam & friends gather at my grandparents house to relax on their patio and have fun. My family and friends always wrap the best gifts and my grandparents shower me with silly things and inside jokes like White Cheddar Cheeze Its, tootsie rolls, socks, kitchenware, etc.. 

My aunt Carol was always the one to give me the coolest gift, a piece of funky vintage clothing, nice bunch of candles and incenses, jewelry I wanted, etc...This year I had asked that she e-mail me an Amazon.com giftcard for my birthday. I had originally planned to save up for a "professional" camera, but that idea flopped never came to fruition for many reasons. So...... the giftcard just sat in my inbox. My boyfriend has a birthday coming up so I did what I have to consider one of the most selfless acts I have done in a while.. I told him to pick out the running shoes he has been wanting and ordered them for him. I could have very easily made him something sweet, like I did last year, or taken him out to a fantastic steak house, but I think I will do that in addition. He is very deserving. He picked out some way cool Nike running shoes---> I'm thinking I could spruce them up for him with some fun yellow laces?

I have a bit of the Amazon.com giftcard left and all of this shoe ordering got me in the  shoe spirit :) I decided to create a collage of the pumps I am tempted to "add to my cart." I am leaning toward purchasing #'s 2 & 5. Which are your favorites? Something seems to pull me toward that electric blue though....as previously posted in this collage.

1. Jessica Simpson Women's Kingsly Mary Jane Pump, $99

2. Steve Madden Women's Caryssal Platform Pump, $67.65

3. Steve Madden Women's Brigitt Wedge Pump, $67.30

4. Steve Madden Women's Tobbi Platform Pump, $43.40

5. GUESS Women's Seeri Platform Pump, $65.56

6. Jessica Simpson Women's Waleo Platform Pump, $89
7. Dolce Vita Women's Tavi Platform Pump, $168.95
8. Steve Madden Women's Caryssa Platform Pump, $129.95

splash of fashion inspiration

a cold saturday afternoon sure can provide me with some time to dig around for some fashion inspiration. i wish i would dress more boldly here in israel, but my blonde hair and blue eyes already screams for attention =)  but it's always fun to blog hop to add photos to my inspiration file..

 

  

 

 

photos via, via & via

girlfriends

I know most women will claim they have the best girlfriends in the world, but i really do. i have a close circle of about 6 girls that i do not only consider girlfriends, but best friends (including my sister, Mirelle). they know all about me and i can go to each and every one of them for advice or to spill my inner-most secrets. i know that when i travel home everything is as it was before i left, just with updates. our closeness remains the same and can never be broken. these girls are my heros. each and every one of them has a different story and a different reason for why i look up to them.

girls, you know who you are, thank you for being my best friends. the best friends in the world.

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following family tradition

so my mom used to bake the most amazing carmel popcorn known to man. i remember when we lived in israel together she wanted to bake & sell and start a small business- and she very well could/ should have! i've never tried making it, but today decided to do so. it was the easiest tasty treat i have ever whipped up and i know my family will love it when i bring it to dinner tonight. i have the recipe written in herbrew from my grandparents, who got it from my momma, and i searched for a matching one online to share with you but failed to find one, so i will happily spill the family secret =)

step one: pop 2 bags of popcorn because you will need 12-14 cups of popped popcorn (i only had lowfat butter flavor, but regular popcorn would definetly work too), then set aside. turn the oven on to 100 degrees and let it heat up.

step two: bring 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of maple syrup, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 cup butter to a boil on the stove, let it boil for 5 minutes unstirred, removed from the fire and added 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and stir

 

 step three: pour the mixture over the 12-14 cups of popped popcorn and stir. warning: its very sticky

 YUM!

step four: put all of the carmel covered popcorn into a oven friendly pan and bake for about an hour, stirring at the 30 minute mark, then remove let cool and enjoy.

then you are done and you have the most delishious snack ever! seriously, i have to bring this treat with me tonight and i am finding myself sneaking into the kitchen for a little handful every 10 minutes....

the last week of my life in photos

unfortunatly i can not say i own a fancy camera with an amazing lens and cool features. i love photography and hope to realize my dream of purchasing a "nice" camera sooner than later, but, in the meantime, my cell phone photos will have to do. here are some photos from the last week of my life, enjoy.

this is the scene i came across when trying to find a packing space sunday morning for work. the guy that owns the white car is shit outta luck...

the beautiful pink sky after the rain

i wandered around the shopping center in Nazareth today after work and was so excited to see Christmas decorations & hear Christmas music.....even if it was in Arabic..

 santa balloon

 my guess is that this sign says Merry Christmas in Arabic, what do you think? there were so many beautifully lit trees all around, it was so pretty & festive

 blow up santa

 i would tell you what this says if i knew..

 there was a guy making all sorts of goodies with printed pictures for Christmas, i picked Dekel and myself up a cute tree shaped key holder as a little fun suprise, im a sucker for these kinds of silly things

new purchases from Pull & Bear and Golf

 picked up this sweet button-up that is casual, yet professional. i bought a L to fit loosly and it's so comfy. looks great tucked in or left out. esp loving the gray elbow patches - first fell in love after seeing this

 olive green leopard print scarf to add to my overwhelming scarf collection

 sweating these dark wash skinnies. they look super cute my colorful flats, can't wait to wear 'em in

weekend time! i plan on making some sort of pastry tomorrow afternoon for our shabbat dinner at my aunt's house. check back in for how it turns out :)

posting in sweatpants

dreaming i was temporarily relocated in paris with a black visa card to shop guilt-free & to roam around town looking like any of these women:

inspired by this post over at my friend marli's blog

photos via

happy hanukkah

this weekend has flown by! we cleaned our flat friday morning, cuddled up on the couch to watch last week's episode of Dexter, then enjoyed a wonderfully cooked shabbat dinner at Dekel's parents house consisting of meatballs & green beans, rice, honey roasted  baked chicken, guacamole and salad. after dinner we went to download a movie and 2 seconds after my head hit the pillow of his little brothers bed, i was out like a light bulb! just needed to catch up on some zzzz's. we woke up this beautiful saturday morning to study, yet again, for the dreaded GMAT. the mathematics section is killing me. and the funny part is, it's the easy stuff that's the hardest for me. anyways, we took a little study break to enjoy some fresh fruit and watch the news because a terrible fire broke out thursday afternoon on the carmel mountains in haifa and it's simply tragic.

tonight is the lighting of the 4th candle during the holiday of hanukkah. don't ask me what it's all about or why we don't get off work for this celebration..i'm already bitter. but! dekel and i decided to create our own hanukiah (menorah). we are the last couple to be considered religious, but we enjoy a fun project.

step one: find a log

step two: have the bf cut the log down to desired size

 step three: admire your way cool, lounge-around-the-house outfit (boots bought in Eilat last weekend, loving them!)

step four: sand down the parts of the wood that were cut to avoid splinters

 step five: drill holes where the bottle caps will be screwed in

 step six: screw the bottle caps in where you want them on the log, the bottle caps will catch wax from the candles and hopefully prevent your house from burning down

step seven: light the candles & say the prayer!(see video below, sorry for the crappy quality-- i need to work on video uploads)