this red monday: hai pendant

chai/hai (חי) means "living" in hebrew. it's related to the word chaya which refers to a living thing or an animal. both are related to the word chaim, meaning life. the jewish (hebrew) toast on happy occasions "lachaim" means "to life".

among jewish scholars there is a system of assigning numerical value to the hebrew alphabet called gematria. gematria is not only found in the "mainstream" rabbinical literature, but also playes a great role in the more mystical jewish kabbalah practice (yeah, that thing that gets madge groovin').

the letters spelling chai in hebrew is ח and י. according to gematria they make up the number 18, which has made it a spriritual number in judaism. i'm not exactly sure what you are to do with a spiritual number, but i guess you might feel you are about to have a lucky day, if you, say, dreamt you had 18 cupcakes for breakfast.

i know that i would feel like one lucky cupcake myself if i had the necklace pictured above from israeli designer anssi on sense of fashion. this red hai is made of perspex and she's got a red star of david too. but i like the chai - or hai - better.

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other shades of red this monday are also to be found on sense of fashion, like this tribute to the ramones, handpainted red chucks from brazilian artist bruneca aka bruna veloso. she's got a lot more coolness going on, so check her chucks out. also awesome, but obviously not red at all, is the bang! necklace from british designer hoolala.

one happy weekend coming up

thank you so much for all your thoughts and comforting words in the comments to my previous post. it meant a lot to me.

everything went fine. N was a trooper and took the whole thing very well. in fact yesterday in the afternoon it was hard to tell that he had been going through dental surgery under full anesthesia the same morning. when he was playing in the garden, eating ice cream and when we had french fries for dinner (because that was what he ordered, and then i of course had to make it).

we have known for a while that he had to go through this. D had been much more worried than me. at least on the surface. i was pretty calm. until the days just before the procedure. then i started to get nervous. and feel bad about it. but i put on a good face like "nothing to worry about, they do it all the time". but at night when the rational mind is not there to keep guard, my mind would be full of all these terrifying scenarios and "what ifs". needless to say, i didn't sleep well for the last week.

yesterday around noon when we got back and the first yihaaa-rush of "it's done" had passed, i was overwhelmed with extreme fatigue. i had no power left in my entire body. i was empty. my eyes would literally close whenever i sat down and i'd drift away. it was almost scary, very surreal, and it made me realize how much my body has been filled with stress and anxiety the past few weeks.

today my boy is fine. we're all fine and back in summer mode. all three kids are in kindergarten this morning, D is off to his yearly beach volley tournament, and i need to catch up with work. and then we're off to the beach in the afternoon. like last week (where these photos were taken). summer business as usual.

this will be a happy weekend, i believe.

corner view: music

life is in the way right now. i have a lot of work and a not-so-fun appointment coming up that includes a kid under full anesthesia. it's not serious, but requires that he'll be put to sleep during the process. after we realized there's no - responsible - way to avoid it, i have tried not to think about it. it scares the hell out of me. it's tomorrow.

so, i couldn't really wrap my mind around a subject, only managed to capture a few random thoughts going through my head, when thinking about music:

:: i grew up with a piano and many many string instruments, yet i don't play any myself. i wish i did, though, and i'm happy that D plays the guitar, so he can play music to the kids. i'll do the dancing then.

:: one of my boys has a thing with music. he remembers songs and melodies extremely well. he's been able to sing entire songs long before he knew how to actually talk. the other day there was someone playing music outside. he stopped, sat down and listened for a while and said "mom, i just love music". so adorable. i hope he would like to learn to play an instrument when he gets older.

:: i love the old blue note record covers from the 50's and 60's. my first serious boyfriend was a jazz musician. the avantgarde kind. i didn't like his music that much, but i loved to look through his record collection.

:: all three kids have gotten crazy with this one particular song. i put on an old cd in the car, a cd i made last year. the song "relax" by mika completely stole their hearts. that's the only thing they want to hear in the car these days while they all scream "relaaaaaaax, take it eeeeeeaaaaasyyy" (i know they don't know what it means, but i still have a feeling they're singing it to me these days :). even though it's a nice song, it's starting to drive me and D crazy.

:: this year the artist tal r made the poster for copenhagen jazz festival. i adore tal r, but i was kind of disappointed about the poster.

:: we live close to cesarea, which is the ruins of a 2000 year old roman city. i love to go snorkeling there, as the ruins are partly inside the water. there's a huge outdoor theatre that was reconstructed and is now used for concerts. you sit above the stage and have a spectacular view to the mediterranean ocean in the background. i would love to go to a concert there.

don't stop moving - the music is still playing here:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, guusje, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, jeanette, athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, satsuki

this red monday: paper cut girl

the cute white dog that appeared in a couple of posts (here and here), well, she has left the building. she went back home to the city. but we got this one from her people when they returned from traveling in china.

it's a chinese paper cut out. and i love it. it's extremely detailed and absolutely gorgeous. our friends told us they watched the old man who made this as he cut it out. he was working in the street, incredibly fast and almost instinctive in his movements.

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today's red monday will be dedicated to paper cut outs. and if any one masters that, it's heather moore of skinny laminx. seriously, take a look at this "cut tut" and give it a go if you feel your hands are steady enough. or these absolutely stunning news paper cut outs. if i could get a news paper like that every morning, i would totally sign up for it. and there's more, like her cut out for the latest lunchbox cowboys release, so if you're ready to be amazed, go visit now.

and the best part: many of her cut outs are used to create prints on items that can be yours. just take a look at her shop and see if you can make up your mind between all this goodness of tea towels, bags, pillows and more.

tel aviv street art: wall men

today i spent a couple of hours in tel aviv. i didn't have much time, but i found a few pieces of cool wall paintings. tel aviv never fails when it comes to interesting street art.

for some reason the once i stumbled upon were men: violin player on rotschild, do not disturb on hayarkon and hoover guy on small street coming off hayarkon. enjoy.

that means i also managed to take a few photos of the city. some tlv cityscapes coming up...

romantic summer selfportrait

i took these photos a couple of weeks back for a non-blog purpose. and i like them, so i had to post them here too. the light is so soft and warm. i even like the fact that they are a little blurry.

the last photo i also added to the braid wednesday flickr group. there are some seriously awesome braids in there.

here's to a romantic weekend.

days of early summer

june is heating up, but it's still not too much as july and august tend to be. so we are out. in the garden, or at the beach.


the afternoon sun shines through the windows into an empty living room. we did not eat here much lately. instead we are...


...making more space to grow vegetables,


...or cooling off with the sprinklers,


...and buckets of water by the sea,


...sometimes we practice "swimming" in the waves.


...and other times we even put on the gear and go underwater,


...or stay dry and build sculptures in the sand,


...or we stay home. and while the kids play with trains in the shade,


...i can walk around the garden and admire all the green. like the small pommes granates that we'll be able to enjoy in a couple of month.

i hope you're enjoying the summer too.

corner view: street fashion

i live far out and away. so my streets are more like dirt roads, and the fashion of the crowd i hang with is ... well, not really fashion, but more like really colorful lycra shorts and crocs (if they actually wear anything at all).

despite the fact that i understand some of the 80's fashion coming back (except a lot of things. like stone washed jeans and neon colors), then colored lycra... right, it's not really cool. and crocs.... i don't want to offend anyone, because i know they are popular, and i have heard they are really comfortable and practical too. but fashion... nope, don't even try and tell me so. i still have to break those news to these three guys, though. they seem to believe they are really really cool in their thomas the tank engine crocs with little spiderman badges attached in the holes. and that the world might actually stop spinning the day i win the morning argument and have them wear their cute leather sandals to kindergarten instead of these.

so, when i go to the city i love to put on some of the clothes that i don't get to flash on my dirt roads. then i can feel like i'm a hipster, at least for a couple of hours. tel aviv is a great city in many ways, and when it comes to street style, it's awesome.

so, just like i did in corner view: cityscapes, i'll tell you that i will show you a bit of the tlv street fashion soon. but since i seem to have a hard time actually keeping those promises, i'll send you to tlv/ilook for some great and fun photos.

and then of course there are the facehunter and the sartorialist. this is where i get my dosis of street style when the dirt roads get just a bit too dusty. and when i want to pretend i'm hanging out with the cool crowd back home, i'll visit copenhagen street style.

but today i'll go here for a world wide tour of street style:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, guusje, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, jeanette, athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, satsuki

see ya later, alligators :)

this red monday: typesetter tray

i know. i'm repeating myself. but i really like this typesetter tray, so indulge me. think of me as this old woman who wants to tell you this amazing story from years ago. the story you've heard 128 times before, but it makes her so happy that you will sit through it again. please.

this typesetter tray was hanging in my childhood home. it was my mom's. at some point she decided to paint it red, but something got in the way (probably us kids - having kids myself have made me realize how tasks that seem so small and easy can become an impossible project. a project you think about at night, really want to finish, but somehow it just can't be squeezed in between all the rest).

alas, today the 2/3 of the typesetter tray is red, the rest is old wood. and i like it like that. D still looks at it sometimes and asks if i really don't think it would be the best to paint it all. but no, i don't think so. and to his credit he has learned not to argue about these things. or maybe he just doesn't care. which is ok.

inside the typesetter tray is my collection of shells and stones. it's growing and has spread to many other parts of the house and garden. i just can't help pick them up at the beach. and i know pretty much where in the world i picked every stone or shell.

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other shades of red: the red lips of these vamps and innocents by annie kevans (via fab). don't you just feel like reaching out and touch those lips? this amazing dress from heidi merrick (via 2 or 3 things i know). i think i would feel so pretty and girly in this. and finally, the video to soon we'll be found by the lovely sia. i know it's not exactly new, but since i first saw it in the fall, it's been haunting me (in the good way). it's amazing, beautiful and just plain awesome. if you didn't watch it before, go watch. now. it's not especially red, but it's colorful. and that will do.

family

the beach. again. this is where we hang out these days. it's just as if you feel more alive, in your body and mind. and as a family. (and the fact that i couldn't get everyone to stand still at the same time to take these photos as i had imagined, well, that's just my family).

esti chose this week's word, family. for more family time, see:
cecilia, anairam, nathalie et cetera, alexandra, fruenswerk, aris, aimee, jenna, and kristi.

nothing like a good bread

a while back i saw this amazing no knead bread on flickr.

i've been baking it quite a lot as it is easy to make and customize depending on what you have in the house in the house (nuts, flour, dried fruits etc.). and because it's delicious with a crust you just cannot believe, while soft and moist on the inside.

yesterday i made it with dried dates cut into small pieces and sunflower seeds. the flour was 3/4 all purpose flour and 1/4 rye. this morning i baked it and it was oh so good! i also strongly recommend the date/walnut combo. extremely yummy.

D and the kids love raisins in the bread. i'm not such a fan. but dates, that's another story! love it! here we can compromise.

if you want to do this bread, check out this article that includes the basic recipe. and if you feel like it, watch this video to see how simple it really is.


just out of the oven:



and on my plate:


as my weekend just began, here's to a wonderful end of the week.

corner view: from my backdoor

this is it. the glory of my back porch, and some of the garden. the messy part of the garden where we spent most days. i was planning to make it look a bit more calm, but organizing with three little boys around is a bit like a sisyfos task. i also wanted to take a photo in the soft, golden light that streams into the porch in the late afternoon and as the sun sets. but i wasn't home yesterday afternoon, so this is the morning view.

anyway, why so much explaining, this is the true story of my backdoor view, and after years in the city i cannot even begin to describe the happiness and joy it brings me to be able to just open my backdoor and enter this garden.

the shadow from the palm tree is the thing i love the most. it's moving around the garden and we follow it, with table and chairs and toys. and it looks like this giant shadow painting on the lawn. love it!

the view from my back windows - just because i love these windows:


for more backdoor - or window - views, take a look here:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana,denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa,britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama amanda, ali, jenell, guusje, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, jillian, doobleh-vay

have a great day :)

this red monday: playful creation

most days we're outdoors. with a break here and there to be cooled off inside the house. the summer is hot and humid in israel. but a little shade and a little water makes it perfect. and it's a lot easier to be creative - kids' style - outdoors.

the kids are painting. on wood scraps, themselves and each other. then they jump into the little pool. i watch from the shade. assist a bit. what i'm not doing so much these days, is browsing the internet. so no other shades of red today. just more colors...


and thank you so much for all your lovely comments to last weeks cornerview. on a little side note i wanted to let you know that i myself love the fact that my kids enjoy being naked. they are little hippies, i tell you. most days they run around the garden naked too. and they don't seem to bother if everyone else are dressed :) my concern is more to put photos of naked children online. i had a bad experience with that some years ago.

wishing you a colorful week.

weekword: scale

scale down, 1:100. dream away.

other weekword participants: cecilia, esti, anairam, nathalie et cetera, alexandra, fruenswerk, aris, aimee, jenna, tiny red, kristi, sandra , julia, valentina and marie-louise.

have a magic weekend everyone.