The Art of Domesticity

Today I put on my domestic goddess shoes. They have been gathering dust for quite a while- as apparantly has the general dust been gathering when these shoes are packed away. Too many other things have been far more interesting than the mundane tasks of this goddess. My jewelry workbench has been seeing far too many hours and today i said there would be no jewelry creating (well, in the end I had to make 2 things- my fingers started to itch).

Anyway, the whole thing began when Tamir came home with a crate of figs from Daddy in law- and they were taking up space on my counter- low and behold, jam was born. And nothing is better when everything is just mixed and the sugar crystals are not quite melted but mixed with fruit and you lick it off the wooden spoon- so hot it almost blisters, but the end result is worth the risk...

The jam and its original components

From there, my kitchen got into full swing- felt the need for chocolate and cupcakes- not that I would ecer eat them, but I do force them on my son- and I watch vicariously through his every bite. Then I thought, why not combine the cupcakes with the jewelry making... two birds with one stone

The cupcake with Chinese Turquoise

And this my friends, is more than enough domesticity for a day...

What's wrong with my cat Santa? Cats should not sleep this way!!!

Lila Tov le cu-lam!!!!!

The fruits of my labors...

I spent the better part of today trying to draw a mermaid! Sounds like I need to prioritize, right? Well, needless (maybe need-ful actually) to say, she needed to be drawn first before I could make her out of silver.

As it turns out, I can draw about as well as my cat. You would think that a few lines and squiggles should not be so hard- but yikes! I definatly will not pursue any career options that involve a pen or pencil. But in the end she turned out lovely in silver:

And now that I spent about 22 hours on various stages of mermaid-ing... i have hungry kids, hungry cats, an upside down house, laundry oozing out of every crack, dishes scattered all around the garden- not sure why- hopefully nothing to do with the cats...

speaking of which, the obnoxious overly large kitten, Santa, who likes to sit on top of the fridge, fell off between the fridge and wall and got stuck- 7:30 am and in my little nightly yanking out the fridge to save a ridiculously clumsey say- I thought they were supposed to be graceful!!

Things that made me smile today

Sometimes all it takes are a few little insignificant things to make me smile. Things that come out of no where, and for no particularly good reason, they give me a brief moment of entertainment... respite from the norm.

Today was a boring errand day. Wandering through the scorching hot and humid streets of Tel Aviv- buying silver and stones... looking in windows... people watching.

In Tel Aviv, that area is called Allenby Street. This is the melting pot of the down trodden... foriegn workers... drug addicts and working girls... mixed in with the shop owners that have been there forever. It happens to be where the jewelry supply shops are located! it is tel Aviv's equilavent to 42nd street in New York.

So wandering there I happened upon a kiosk- a health food store, as it called itself.

There next to the enormous carrots waiting for juicing and fresh mangos and kiwis- is also the large display stand of cigarettes and rolling papers. Small bottles of cheap vodka rests next to beets and celery. The proprieter stands at the entrance smoking and simultaneously hacking up some frightening substance and spitting it onto the curb. Now, doesnt that whet your appetite?

Needless to say, I passed on a peach smoothie.

By the time I got home.. covered in a city's worth of sweat and grime with fading visions of the slightly sad and dirty and forgotten, I went upstairs to change and found my cat once again sleeping "downhill"- which for some reason is the position of choice for the past 2 weeks.

And these were the two things that made me smile in my completely ordinary day.