back to reality

we arrived home last night from our beautiful, relaxing vacation in Eilat and I wanted to share a few photos from the last few days. Unfortunatly, the windy weather did not permit to be beach-side, but that didn't stop us from walking around the market, shopping, finding cute little restaurants in which to dine and sleeping-in in the king size hotel bed. It was so nice to get away and I returned home to realize that I love my boyfriend even more after this trip than I did before, if that's even possible.

the drive to Eilat is so scenic, mountains, palm trees, oasis's, little villages in the distance...camels...

 beautiful Eilat marina

  lounging huts pool side that we enjoyed fully clothed because it was too chilly to be in a bikini

we discovered the cutest little restaurant to have lunch, and a few too many passionfruit margaritas

dekel and i heart frozen yogurt. i prefer sweet, chocolatey toppings with gummi bears, while he chooses to be healthier with melon and pomegranate toppings

out shopping. wearing gifted handmade fring tank with zara trousers

beautiful desert sunset on the drive back home 

OOO

Dekel & I will be vacationing in beautiful Eilat this weekend, I am so happy to say that I will be Out Of Office and Out Of Touch with the world for one whole weekend.

Eilat is located at the southern most tip of Israel and it is about a 5 or 6 hour drive (depending on which one of us drives) from where we live. It is a tourist magnet especially in the summertime because of its hot climate. It's known for its clear water, beautiful coral reefs, dolphin sightseeing and nightlife. You can easily access Egypt, Jordan and Syudia Arabia from Eilat and one day I hope to make the trip past Eilat and into one of the seven wonders of the world: Petra, Jordan.

But....while in Eilat, I plan to relax, lounge by the hotel pool with my book in one hand and a cocktail in the other, visit a few cute cafes & restaurants in town, snorkel lay by the Red Sea because unfortunatly the water will be too freezing to swim in and shop. Eilat residents and visitors benefit from the no VAT (Value Added Tax) law, meaning it's about a 16% discount on everything, all the time. yes!

photo from a trip to Eilat last summer

amazingness

is amazingness a word?


anyways- so i am a loyal religious follower of Andy's Style Scrapbook blog & wanted to share this amazing video she posted of the grand opening of the flagship H&M store in Amsterdam. It is uh-mazing. Andy was lucky enough to attend the event, experience this lightshow in person and shop the amaziness of Lanvin H&M. I reek of jealousy!

badass

it was saturday night and we had been studying for the GMAT all day long. 8:30 pm comes around and i realize i have nothing to wear i want to wear to work the next day. zara is dangerously only 10 minutes away at a cute, little outlet mall in nazareth so i drove there and spent about 2 hours trying possible outfits on. the newest israeli trend is trousers and i have been wanting a pair for some time (esp after reading Emily's posts here and here). i picked up these in black and lead and they are so lightweight and comfortable. and they came with skinny belts; love that! i can already imagine them looking amazing with oversized sweaters, tucked-in button ups or my new black leather jacket. the weather is still warm-ish, but my office is freezing so it's justified. also, it makes me look like a badass. even putting it on makes me feel powerful. i like it.


what piece in your wardrobe makes you feel powerful?

a little taste

i am really going to miss thanksgiving next week and everything that goes along with that holiday. family gatherings, over-eating, football games all afternoon, lounging, laughing with friends...

my favotire food related directly to thanksgiving must be the honey glazed turkey and ham- my family always has both- plus homemade creamy mashed potatos that all the grandkids usually pitch in to make.

i just might have to whip these up and serve some sliced turkey on the side to give dekel a little taste of thanksgiving.

what is your favorite holdiay food?

amazing race

so...dekel and i applied to compete in the Israeli version of the Amazing Race for a chance to win 1 million shekels. we first thought of applying after watching the American version here at home and thinking "we could do this, and win." so we went online and signed up for season 2, beginning sometime next year. it took us a good 2 hours to answer all of the questions and find pictures of ourselves to meet the requirements. ex. a face shot of both candidates, a photo of both candidates from the hips up, a full-body photo of both candidates, etc...

i got a call on monday asking if we could make it to ramat hahiyal (near tel aviv) on thursday at 5:30 and i didnt even hesitate to say yes. tel aviv is about 2 hours away so we planned to leave work early and catch the train and welcome this adventure. it started out stressful to say the least. we had a train to catch at promptly 2:53 and we left work at 2. dekel picked me up and of course i was late by 7 minuts, it never fails- i am always late by a few minutes (not a good start for the amazing race!!)- but i hopped in the car and we were on the way to the train station. we ran into traffic after about 15 minuts of driving which put us into road rage mode. we still had about 20 minutes to go to get to the train station and we had not anticipated traffic. shit. we waited it out and broke through the traffic jam and sped on our way. at one of the traffic lights we even had to switch seats to save time so dekel could change from his work clothes to his casual outfit for the interview. anyways, we made it to the train station at 2:48, parked, and RAN all the way to the gate. bought our tickets and made it just in time to board. great start to the amazing race i kept thinking to myself.

we had an hour and 50 minutes till we made it to tel aviv so i dove into LA Candy, I'm on chapter 7 and its just now getting juicy...?

we had to switch trains and i thought it a great chance for a little photo shoot :)

i wore a fun patterened zip-up-the-front dress that i bought back in Dallas, Steve Madden boots that my sister so generously gave me because i didn't take them off when i visited in june, belt from twentyfour seven and my favorite pair of tights from H&O

the joke of the day was that i could not find ANYTHING in my purse, we were in such a rush before getting to the train that i just dumped my make up in there for touch ups on the train, we had paperwork in there, my book, our phones, wallets, i even stuffed my little jacket in there!


we made it to tel aviv and need to jump on a bus to get to our destination, which was the Reshet building, which is the television channel that the amazing race is broadcasted on. we picked up some salt bagels on the way to the bus stop and of course, got silly.



beautiful tel aviv sky, it felt really good to be in a big city again


so we made it to the Reshet building at 5:29, a minute early! and ended up waiting to audition for 2 hours. there were so many people there, it was insane, we finally got in at around 8 and were taken to a room with a really nice lady who just asked us some questions about what we did, why we wanted to be on the show, what makes us special as a couple, etc...i think we sold ourselves pretty well, and to be honest it really would be so entertaining to see me and dekel together for a couple of weeks, especially working together under stress! ha! so that was it, they are conducting interviews until february so i don't expect to hear back anytime soon, but we left with a good feeling and went out to cheers with a beer after our interview. wish us luck!

sexy & silly

You don't have to remind me that it's the middle of November and that it is chilly out. I know. But I couldn't help myself when I saw this hot little number at twentyfourseven, the pink is so vibrant and I can totally pair it with my black skinny jeans for a night out, with a sweater of course. Isn't it sexy?



It's almost as sexy as reading. I picked up a couple of books because I have been craving to get lost in a story, I can't wait to start LC's 'LA Candy,' it will be what I begin with..



Last but not least, when Dekel and I were at the mall, we hopped in the photobooth and this is the end result. Mounted on our fridge to remind us to be silly.

click here

what a cute way to show off dr.pepper love!

you can ship every article of clothing in this lookbook to me, please

the title of this post is a trend that is really catching my eye. loving it. (another example here)

obsessed with everything M, especially this

pure jealousy

proves i'm wrong that this trend is reserved for summers. how 'bout that...

what do you this about this treatment? is this normal these days?

Texan inspired fashion, hell ya! Shout out to Austin.

i love her blog & how cute is her headband??

after seeing it performed on glee (yes, i watch glee.), i can not get this song out of my head.

i found this blog via this blog and love the imaginable stories behind the photography

taste the rainbow

a while back my friend marli posted about this uh-mazing looking recipe for a rainbow cake from omnomicon here and i just never found the opportunity to get around to it- but how fun does this look?? what occasion would you bake this for??

most of the ingredients in the photo below are "american," so i will have to improvise. i will post an update on how it turns out...








photos via

ps. rubi over at 'keeping up with los jones' made her own version here

chocolate balls & pink skies

this weekend has flown by and my work week will begin tomorrow at 7:15 when i roll out of bed and complain that i am tired until at least 9 AM- but this weekend has been great!

i kicked it off, thursday night, by visiting a longtime friend of the family in haifa, it was so nice to meet up and reminisce about memories when my parents were together, i found this picture of them in an old photo album she had: (how cute are they enjoying margaritas??)



after a couple of hours down memory lane, i scooped up dekel and we went to his brothers house for a bbq. we grilled chicken wings, steaks and kababs. we made salads, dished out pickles and sipped on vodka/ red bulls (which is such a common drink when dining at home). after the meal i crashed due to a food overload and slept until like noon the next day! our friday consisted of cleaning the car and the house and then of course, we went to his parents house for our weekly friday evening meal. that night we went on a little double date with my friend elysha and her b/f to this cute pub in a village called ein hod. its a nice atmosphere because its outside seating- which i love- and the weather was perfect,i wore short sleeves and was not the slightest bit chilly (which i usually am!).

we woke up this saturday and lazied around until we decided we needed to get a few groceries and until i decided i wanted to make a sweet treat. i went for chocolate balls, recipe in hebrew here. (ha! sorry i couldn't find one that was similar in english)

first step: load cookies in a bag and crush


step two: dump the cookie crumbs in a big bowl


step three: boil milk, butter, cocoa, sugar & vanilla extract in a pot, then cool


step four: using a teaspoon form chocolate balls and place on cookie sheet




warning: it gets sticky =)


step five: sprinkle coconut flakes on the chocolate balls if you would like


step six: chill in the fridge, then enjoy!


after our chocolate ball experience, we decided to take full advantage of the amazing fall, evening weather. i was in shorts and a tank top and the skies were so beautiful!