A very sweet photo shoot

A few days ago I had the privilege of photographing some works of art. Delicate packages of all sorts of sweets that were carefully selected and packaged. The owners of Mashoo Matok (means "something sweet" in Hebrew) asked me to photograph some of their latest collections including a few holiday pieces. You'll see for yourselves and agree that these are two talented ladies. I am lucky enough to call myself "related" to one of them as we are kinda' step-sisters (her dad is my mom's partner)
For more info, and to see their beautiful products, visit their website or be a friend on Facebook

Fried Bananas Midnight Snack

The other night my someone and myself were a bit of a munch for something sweet. It was about 10 PM and we had nothing in the house. Lucky for us there's an AM/PM (that's the Israeli version for 7-Eleven...) just around the corner. Don't you just love 24-hours grocery shops??
Well, we wanted to create something, and not just get something that we'd open up and eat it straight off. We wanted to be creative. At first we were looking for strawberries, but I guess their time hasn't come yet (since summer hasn't left yet, and winter is VERY late). Then I grabbed out of the freezers two pints of Ben & Jerry's icecreams, and continued to the waffle section and grabbed a box of some yummy crispy ones, and last I grabbed a couple of ripen bananas. The idea was to make some sort of Banana Split extravaganza!
Here's what I did...

the ingredients 

 I sliced the bananas and the covered them in sugar

 Frying up the bananas (when done put on a glass surface so it won't stick)

 and ta-dah :)

32 Things to do before I'm 33

In exactly six months from today I'll be 33 years old. Yikes, that feels so old to write that number in association to my age. I don't feel that old. I keep thinking of how I use to look upon grown-ups (meaning people over 20) when I was a wee kid, and they seemed so old, so mature, so grounded. Now that I am "them" it feels different. Yes I have grown a lot, and yes, I am much more mature and wise, but I still have much of that kid I was. Turns out even though the years pass, we can still maintain the feeling of being young. So let me rephrase my first sentence- In exactly six months from now I'll be 33 years young!
Now back to the point of this post... Remember this post from last year? I didn't prepare it enough in advance and therefor there were still quite a few items undone on that list. This time I am giving myself six whole months. Anything unaccomplished from last years list will roll over to this years' and I am adding a few new ones. Hope you'll be following along to see what I get to accomplish now

Remains from last list:
1. FINALLY go sky-diving
2. Write up a proper business plan Done!
3. Finish the work station of my dreams Done!

4. Finish those 4 books I've started but never finished

5. Fly to London (or Paris...)

6. Buy another lens

7. Visit my uncle in San Francisco

8. Get my taxes/business properly sorted and registered Done!

New stuff:

9. Register at a gym of some sort

10. Finish the You See i See project

11. Buy a built-in oven

12. Have friends over for dinner

13. Get a second tattoo

14. Have more sales at my Etsy shop

15. Finally get side tables for our bedroom

16. Photograph at least 10 more weddings Nine more to go...

17. Do the Wine Trail of the Judean Hills and complete it without getting drunk at the first winery...

18. See a play at the Noga Theater around the corner

19. Visit my friends in Vancouver (and take my someone with me)

20. Do a cleanse

21. Win a photo contest (Hopefully this one Done! I didn't win that one... but I did win the Wix Was Here contest- got third place :) )

22. Find the perfect Little Black Dress Done! And I even found the perfect little black skirt!

23. Organize and catalog ALL my photos

24. Scan all the good film & slides in that big box...

25. Spend a weekend away with my someone doing NOTHING! It was a mid-week weekend, but it still counts... Done!

26. Get a cool carpet for the livingroom

27. Re-plant our Greenbo pots with something that won't die

28. Have a complete physical check (haven't done that in years!) Done!

29. Stop biting my nails (for good this time!)

30. Find more DIY crafts to do

31. Take a class of something (baking / sewing / purse-making)

32. Smile for at least 60% of the time in the next 6 months :)

One Life Competition

Have you heard of the One Life photo competition? I hadn't until this morning.
Artists Wanted and PDN have partnered to bring photographers together to share images illustrating their lives, loves and passions. So basically, any photographer around the globe can submit entries for this competition.
I decided to give it a go!
Why am I telling you this? Well, I need a bit of your assistance. Apart from the judges decisions there is also public voting that is only open until Oct. 29th. All you have to do is click here and vote for me (you need to scroll on how many stars you'd like, up to 5 and click on the last one to cast your vote). You can vote as many times as you'd like, as long as you wait 24 hours between votes.
Your votes will be greatly appreciated :)
Final results will be announced in December (crossing my fingers until then!)


Much love
Tali

Coming Soon...

2011 Calendars soon now listed at my Etsy shop!

Home Work - The living-room

When we first moved in to our apartment, about six months ago, we each brought our furniture from our previous apartments. It was a mish-mash of furniture (mostly Ikea stuff) that sort of worked together, but was awfully boring. Since we're both pretty busy, and since it looked somewhat complete, we didn't really tackle the living-room area, but somewhere in the back of our minds we knew we'd like to change it some day... Well, that "some day" has come!
It started a couple of months ago when my someone decided to invest in a brand new LCD television to replace his old 29" box of a TV. My favorite part about it, is that I could finally hang the TV on the wall and not have it stand on some sort of a counter. Then last month, as we were coming back home from our Yom Kippur ride, we stumbled upon a bunch of old doors that were thrown outside of an old building that's undergone some reconstruction. That meant Free-For-All :) So we grabbed one of those doors and took it home with us. We cleaned it up and put it aside until we figured out what to do with it. We knew we wanted to use it as a Media bench underneath the TV, instead of the unit we had, but the question was what kind of legs to put underneath it so it could stand higher than the ground. I found the answer last week as I was headed to the framing shop around the corner. Next to the frame shop is a carpenter's shop, and as I was passing by I noticed this cubed boxes, with no back or front (like a cubed shelf). I thought three of those would be just perfect, and so that's exactly what I got.
This last weekend my someone and I got right in to it and rearranged the furniture, getting rid of what we did not like any more, and moved around some stuff to make the living-room look roomier. The last thing we added was a little collage of old record covers, to add some interest to the room.
We love it! Hope you like it too :)

This is how it was before

And this is how it is now!

Rolled Recycled Magazine Box - DIY

First off, I'd like to thank you all for your comments and support on my last post. It really did make me feel a lot better!

So while my someone has been away on Reserves, I had some extra free time on my hands, which I thought I'd use for some crafts... There has been one specific craft I've been wanting to try for quite some time, and I finally got the chance to do it.
Many years back, I stumbled upon a garbage bin at Urban Outfitters, that was made out of "sticks" of magazines. It was the coolest ever. They also had picture frames, and place mats made with the same concept. I don't remember why I decided not to buy it then (perhaps it was a bit too pricey...), and I completely forgot about it. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a bin just like it at a local craft fair. All hand made. This time I realized I could actually do it myself!
So I grabbed a bunch of old magazines, a box I had no use for any more, and got busy :)

I cut off the top flaps.

Then with Japanese tape I covered the top part of my box

I measured the hight of my boxes and cut out the magazine pages to fit.

Using a thin brush I rolled out each sheet.

 

I left about an inch at the end, then brushed it with glue and finished rolling

I created a whole pile of these rolled magazine sticks

 

Once I had the desired amount of sticks, I brushed one side of my box with glue, and then attached the sticks nice and tight. I then completed all 4 sides

And this is what came out :)