this weekend...

... on friday early sunny morning I went to yoga (for the first time in my life) and I loved it. On the way back home I stopped by at the gardencenter to pick up some seeds (arugula, mixed baby leaves, spinach), some seedlings (lettuce, tomato, radish and spinach) some spices (rosemary, oregano). Came home and did some order and cleaning and planted the things on the balcony under the roof in pouring rain. We had a special lunch of malawa (kind of yemenite pancakes) with fresh crushed tomatoes and hard boiled egg prepaired by Sh. I felt like going to sleep after - so we actually did. Later I prepaired a big pot of the chunky cellery soup and lemon poppyseed cookies. I also made daw for tahini bread rolls, which didn't rise and I had to throw it away... I think I must learn how to knead breaddaw properly... The evening was spent with the latest chapter of himym and some sesame coated kabukim...

Saturday was even better: I woke up and realized that Sh. is not in the bed, he surprised me with an amazing breakfast (salad, thina, fresh kalacs and freshly squeezed orange juice) - what a dream to wake up to! Later my sister in law and her family (they have two lil girls) came over after they returned from their Thailand vacation two days ago. We spent some time together and left to check out an area of new building projects not so far from us. It was quiet interesting to walk between these huge building and share our thoughts on them. We both actually would prefare smaller houses with max. 6 floors... but in Israel they build so high lately - since the place is limited... the weather was amazing and we had a great time walking around. We went to another area in our city, which we liked much more... we are trying to save like crazy in order to get closer to our goal to buy an apartment at the end of this year. In the evening we went to run together - Sh. turned back at 6 (so he did 12 kms) and I continued (with music) and finished 21.3 kms (an actual half marathon). I spent the evening talking to my family on skype - it is so good to hear them!

Hope you had a great weekend too!!!

Fun day

The day before yesterday was our yearly fun day with work. You might remember the last one, which was legendary! :)

This year we went to visit a very special permanent exhibition the Childrens' Museum in Holon, which is called: Dialog in the dark. It was so moving and made such a strong impression on me. We (a group of 10 people) went into complete darkness for an hour, to be guided by a blind lady thru 7 different rooms (park, house, sea with a boat, street, market, music hall and cafeteria). We got a completely new experience of our world and could feel so desperate and lost walking with the white stick and tapping around in the dark. We talked to Meirav (our guide) at the end in the cafeteria - still in complete darkness - and it was such a mind changing conversation about things that are really important.

Dialog in the dark

Later we drove to the Tel Aviv Port and had an amazing time at Boya - a great resturant by the sea.Food til you drop, great conversations and a lot of fun.

my salad - after eating the half

my veggie noodles

dessert 1: knaffe - I ate the threads :)

dessert 2: Halva parfe - I ate the halva top

Unfortunatelly all the amazing desserts were not vegan friendly (cheese cake, and the two above) but I was already so full by then that I didn't mind it so much. What a great day! :

this week...

... was a bit of overwhelming. I decided to quit facebook - it is a process, which I hopefully can finish soon. I had two big presentations at work, where I prooved myself as a 3d designer. Sh. surprised me with a Valentine's day date. (we talked about birth and other topics) I took a week of rest from running (it was hard - more on that later). I finished the Happiness project book. (It won't change my life, but I can learn some things from it). I got a haircut (it feels so good!). I finished a few projects for friends. I had a blood check. I went to Sh's swimming group two times. (I am constantly practising the flip turn) I so much wanted to buy some new Toms on sale, but could say no. I found the best and cheapest way to wash my hair (it is sooo shiny! would you guess that I only use apple cider vinegar and water?). I didn't sleep enough. I looked for costume ideas.

So you can think, how happy I am, that it is weekend already! I am going to meet a my cute hungarian-israeli friend tonight at my favorite vegan restaurant in Tel Aviv and also have some great plans for the weekend: tomorrow morning I am going to the garden center to get some seeds and seedlings, cleaning the house, gardening, going to swim, bake some bread, cookies, have a big saturday brunch, go to run with Sh., read and rest.

Have a relaxing weekend!!!

My favorites from this week:
- favorite song
- favorite food
- favorite blogpost (i think i read it last week)
- something to laugh at

more favorites here

Why am I quitting facebook...

... it was a sudden realization last week, that hit me: why do I behave like a different person glued to the screen when my husband talks to me and why am I ignoring him? Is it because of the status update of that high-school classmate, I didn´t see for 10 years or the comment I just received a few minutes ago from a friend, which I mus read immediately?

Yes, I do have a lot of real friends on facebook and a lot of people who I met at one point in my life, but still... do I really want to be part of their daily life and share mine with them? Is it really the only way to communicate? The status updates of a moment and pictures of our life which we can chose, manipulate and share with everyone? really? I hate it, that I just want to check the messages and I didn´t even realize that I was glued to the computer scrolling down and watching on the wall for half an hour... it steals my time permanently... how did that happen?! Facebook is addictive, it is a time thief and source of a lot of jealousy and insecurities... so I made my decision: I quit. I am closing my account permanently.

To all of my real friends all over the world: you can follow me here , on the juli&johi blog, write me emails (and I will answer - promise!), talk to me on skype or come and visit (let us know before) and stay in touch!

news...

from here

... it has been a lil quiet over here, but I promise you won't be bored in the next months... I am going to share with you the process of starting my own business as a graphic designer. I hope you will motivate me to work toward this big goal of mine and I can update you with my progress. The blog will get a facelift for spring and I am going to have some giveaways too, so stay tuned... I hope that the freshness wind of spring will give me tons of great ideas and endurance to stick to fullfilling them. You will be a part of this!

RainBoots

I wish I would have on a pair of these today...

Folding Rain Boot (Folding Welly) - Granite Grey