Sunshine

After nearly a full week of rain, thank G-d, today is the first day we've seen the sun for more than a few minutes at a time and we are promised warmer than normal temps this week. Maybe I will be able to catch up on the laundry and not have to use the dryer so much. The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is filling up nicely after being at dangerously low levels for years. We still have a long way to go before we can say it's full but still. We're headed in the right direction.

DH and Y got back from the UK about 2 weeks ago. 2 days after they got back, S and I agreed on my going to see MY family (and meet the sister who I've never met) in October for two weeks BY MYSELF. Hurrah! So I have that to look forward to. I also want to see my Dad while I'm there and am trying to decide whether to drive or fly down to CA to see him or have him come up to WA where I'll be which probably makes more sense.

Work is still deathly quiet and boring for me. If they don't mind, I don't mind. I can keep myself occupied. There are just so many more productive things I could be doing at home.

Speaking of which, I finished this bracelet last night which I am giving to my Mom as today is her birthday and we are going to her place tonight with pizza for a small party.

Loooooooooooong skinnnnnnnnnnny picture!

And I've branched out and last night tried my hand at these glass tile necklaces which I am sending to my two neices for their birthdays.

I would like to try to sell some of the jewelry I'm making and have opened a Facebook page where I post pics and details about every piece I've made: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Avigayils-Baubles/185513491557176. I have lots of ideas for more designs that I want to try so keep checking back.

Purim starts this week on Wednesday night. There has been a lot of lead-up to it in the kids' schools and E's gan. One day E came home like this:

I think the gannenet (daycare teacher) used green permanent marker to make those green circles around his eyes. It didn't really come off completely in the bath that night and the next morning he woke up with a green, shmeary face. 

Another day he came home like this:



I plan to come to work on Wednesday with some sort of silly hat or something to get people into the spirit. E had a penguin costume already that DH's older son had bought for him last year and which was miles too big so E is wearing it this year.

I took the girls last night to buy costumes. Y is going as Minnie Mouse and T as a Hawaiian girl. Pics will follow. I spent 130 NIS ($34) for both girls and count myself lucky that I got off so cheaply. What they charge for costumes is shocking!

Purim being upon us means that Pesach is around the corner and at lunch today we were talking about it and it was pointed out to me that Pesach begins in exactly a month and that it starts on a Friday night. O joy! Extra complicated from a family point of view for us.......

The Last Few Days.....

Last week at work was horrifically boring. Absolutely NOTHING to do. And I hate that feeling of having to invent things to look busy. I can easily amuse myself all day long every day on the internet but feel guilty doing that when they're paying me.

Anyway.

Since DH and Y have been away, E has been sleeping with me in our bed. I love it but I know as soon as DH gets back (he doesn't love it when the kids sleep with us) I'm going to regret letting E sleep with me and having to retrain him back to his bed. It's just so much easier with him sleeping with me. He wakes up for a drink or whatever and getting him whatever he needs is so much less daunting than having to traipse all the way (Listen to me! I make it sound like I live in an 18,000 sq. ft. mansion!) across the apartment in this cold to get him what he needs or see what's wrong. But whatever.

So Tuesday night I thought he had a fever all night. I could feel his body heat radiating all the way across to my side of the bed. In the morning, his cheeks were bright pink and his eyes didn't look so good but I sent him to gan anyway (bad, bad Ima!). Wishful thinking. Around 13:30 Wednesday afternoon his gannenet (daycare carer) called me and said she thought he had a fever and he wasn't acting like himself. He'd fallen asleep even before noon which isn't like him. I wasn't happy he was sick, poor baby, but I was THRILLED to have a legitimate excuse to leave work. (It's definitely the first time I've had to take time off for a sick kid in the nearly two years since I've been in this job.) Silly, me sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Just dumb. When I'm busy I don't mind but when I'm not.....o man! I dashed to the gan and took him home.

He ended up having a high fever for three days! Apart from taking him to the doctor on Friday and the fastest IKEA run you've ever seen in your life on Thursday, we've been home in our pajamas watching a lot of movies and having a slow-mo Shabbat. I kept giving him Acamol to bring the fever down and when he was under the influence of that he was fine. Jumping around and playing and singing and playing games on the computer, etc. But when the Acamol wore off and the fever came back. O my! Horrible.

Friday night we all went to sleep pretty early. Then at 5:30 am yesterday morning E woke up because his nose was stuffy and he couldn't breathe. I put some salt water drops in his nose and we got up, had some petit ber buscuits dipped in coffee (our Shabbat morning treat). I was up with him until 6:30 then we went back to bed and we both slept until 10:45!!!!! I can't remember the last time that happened. Especially on Shabbat.

The carpet that I had wanted to buy for E's room had been out of stock at IKEA for a while and on Thursday I checked their site again and it said they'd gotten it in. So I grabbed E and we ran to IKEA to pick it up. Got the rug and a new shade for the little lamp in his room too.

The robin's egg blue in the rug exactly matches the new color we recently had the walls painted.

The base of the lamp is a deep, rich blue. Isn't the shade cute?

I had gone a week ago Friday to the bead shop in Rishon and stocked up. I had a bunch of jewelry projects that I wanted to get done while DH and Y were away and thanks to being home with E sick for three days I had even more time than I'd expected to work on my projects. In all I've made a pair of earrings and matching pendant (a gift for someone), a bracelet (also a gift), a necklace and matching earring set for me and last night started another necklace which I should be able to finish within the next day or two.


Here's the pendant. Still need to add the ring at the top and a chain or ribbon to hang it from.



Here's the necklace I made for myself. I'm stuck on this pattern. It's so me! I think this is the 4th necklace using this pattern that I've made and I've got a 5th in the works.



The weather forecast for the weekend was supposed to bring the mother of all storms, with snow in Jerusalem (very rare) all but a surety. No such luck. It didn't rain at all in Rehovot yesterday but today is a COLD, black, wet, wet day! I was reading on one of the English news sites that over Shabbat the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) which has been at record low drought levels for at least 7 years rose by over 4 inches! That is a LOT of water. The snow that has fallen on Mt. Hermon and northern areas will melt and provide even more water. Hurrah! Great news! What a blessing! We're not out of the woods yet as far as our water levels go but we're headed in the right direction. May it only continue!

Things

We were walking home yesterday from Shabbat lunch at friends'. DH and Y were walking hand in hand ahead of me. I was a little bit behind them pushing E in the stroller. I tuned into their conversation when I heard Y saying, ".....but they're ALL my friends - Benny and Itamar and Gavriel - how do I decide which one to marry????" DH told her that she doesn't have to decide now and right now they're all special because they're JUST friends and because it's nice to have a lot of friends.

Here are two more jewelry projects I completed last week. This short necklace - out of buttons of course. I made matching dangly earrings to go with it. I love how it turned out although I can't decide if it looks like I'm wearing some sort of dog collar or not. As the buttons are metal, the necklace is pretty heavy too but I don't mind. I even got a compliment on this one at shul yesterday.

And these made out of these clear plexiglass "tags" with scrapbooking paper glued to the backs of them. So simple and relatively inexpensive! Y made the pink set for herself.



Yes, Your Craftiness!

A few posts back I mentioned that I'd bought 3 packs of scrapbooking paper. Here's what it looks like:

Aren't the patterns beautiful? They sort of satisfy my longing for wallpaper.

I have also been finding a lot of web sites from which you can download scrapbooking paper for free (if you have a color printer). The only color printer I have is the one at work so I would only do this in a pinch and not huge quantities either.

I also posted a clip of a custom button making tool from Epiphany Crafts. I've ordered it in the 20mm flower button shape from eBay and am eagerly awaiting its arrival so I can make custom buttons and with them make more necklaces and rings in combination with the regular buttons I already have in my collection.

Now here's the next type of jewelry I want to try making with the scrapbooking paper: http://www.theidearoom.net/2009/04/glass-tile-pendants.html What a simple, classy, neat idea! This would be a great gift for my 2 neices. The only problem is that 2 nights ago I ran around to four places in Rehovot that might possibly have these clear glass tiles and no one has seen or heard of them! SO frustrating!

However, yesterday, after a lot of asking around and looking online, someone referred me to this site http://www.netanella.com/. The web site is amazing AND the owner of the web site also has a store in Rehovot!!!!! How lucky is THAT? And how come no one in Rehovot knows about this place???? I think I see on the web site what I'm looking for and hope to go check this place out tonight.

Ideas

I'm still on a crafting "shvuuuuung". I have selectively been buying some basic craft supplies here and there that I'm sure I will use with the kids.

Last week I discovered this nifty little gadget made by Epiphany Crafts in the U.S.:

And now I am BADLY wanting one of these little button tools so I can make my own custom buttons to make jewelry out of.

On Friday I went to Ra'anana to a store there called Big Deal that carries a lot of overstock items from the US. They have really good English children's books, games, workbooks and toys as well as stationary, kitchenware, pillows, luggage, candy, and art and craft supplies including scrapbooking supplies. I bought three huge packages of GORGEOUS scrapbooking paper to use with this button making tool which I have ordered from eBay. I think it will greatly expand my jewelry making possibilities.

I can't wait to receive it and get to work!

A New Week

We had a very nice Shabbat considering we were pretty much cooped up in the house due to the nasty wonderful rain which basically didn't let up all day. (The country has been drought-ridden for the past 7 years I recently heard, so you can't say anything negative about the rain lest the natives hurt you.)

I sent DH and the kids to shul yesterday but they were back within 3 seconds because it had started to rain. I got everyone changed into rain coats and boots and sent them off again. I took my time getting dressed and ready, including rain boots, and took myself off to shul as well. It was COLD! By the time the service and kiddush (refreshments afterwards) were over, I couldn't even feel my feet. We were home by 11:30. I got E changed into dry clothes and he fell asleep at noon which is NOT like him to nap so early. He napped for 3 hours, I napped for FOUR! Woooohooooo!

DH has booked a two week trip to England with Y in February. I'm staying behind with T and E. I am glad he's going. He needs the break and to see his family (uncle and cousins) even though he won't admit that it's a "need" as much as a "want" for him.

A friend of ours said she had a lot of spare buttons that she'd collected over the years - some had belonged to her grandmother. She said I could have what I wanted so Friday morning I went over to her house and sorted through them and took quite a lot. I came home and made this ring by layering three buttons and gluing them together.

Cute, right? I made another beautiful one also but the pictures I took of it didn't come out very clearly.

And a couple of nights ago I made this necklace entirely out of buttons of varying shade of white, cream and pearl. It took me about an hour. Not the clearest of pictures but you get the idea. It came out SO well. I just love it. It goes with everything.

 

Bitter-Sweet

So there's a store here that T likes to shop at. She's bought quite a bit of stuff there. They sell cheap jewelry, makeup, scarves, hair accessories, etc. On Sunday she went and bought a hoop bracelet there for 60 shekels (~$17). She wore it half a day and it broke. Snapped in two and she said she wasn't being unreasonably hard on it. It was on her arm. She still had the receipt and tried to take it back yesterday. They wouldn't give her her money back (not unusual for Israel - stores here do not have a money back policy) nor would they give her a credit slip.


So after work yesterday I went back with T. We had the receipt and the broken bracelet. There was a man and woman behind the counter. The woman was a real mailto:%21@#$%25, the guy was a bit softer but they both still refused. Accused T of breaking it on purpose. WHY would she do that? She WANTED that bracelet! Then I tried nasty. I screamed at them both, the woman was ready to climb over the counter and tackle me. I shouted at all the other customers not to buy because whatever they buy will break within a day and the shop owners won't make it right. The woman behind the counter called the police at that point - or at least pretended to. I don't know if she really dialed. I told them my daughter earned the money babysitting, money doesn't grow on trees and that they're taking advantage of the young girls who shop there. I told them my daughter would not be shopping there any more and she would be telling all her friends not to shop there any more. They didn't care. It was really nasty. I told the woman, "If YOU bought something - anything - and it broke within half a day, you'd scream too!" There is a new law that came out in December that says stores HAVE to give you your money back for most things if you return it within 14 days and if the value is over 50 shekels. I had a copy of this law with me and pulled it out to show them. They also had it posted up behind the counter. But it does say that you get your money back IF the item is unused/unopened.  How on earth are you supposed to prove that a bracelet is "unused"?! It wasn't packaged in any way. And shouldn't you even MORE so get your money back if the item is defective??  I was PISSED. Still am. I feel like going back in the middle of the night and spray painting the shop windows with some warning to other customers or something! I feel like going back and saying to the man, "You know, I gave up my culture, my language, my family and friends for what? For this kind of crappy treatment?" I feel SO frustrated and helpless. It's just that here there is no such concept of "the customer is always right".


I have to say though that this sort of thing hasn't happened to me very often.

DH set up a yahoo group for our city. You subscribe to the message board for free and it's a good way to find out about stores that give exceptional customer service, you can post there and ask for recommendations say, if you need an electrician or plumber or whatever, or to find out about lectures, day trips, private people selling stuff, if you're hankering after a food item from the old country you can post and ask if anyone knows where to get it, etc.  It's a really useful tool and keeps the Anglos here connected. Anyway, I posted the whole bracelet story to the list and asked people NOT to buy there. There is also a complaints forum in Hebrew that I found where you can post complaints about a particular business in a whole long list of categories so I did that too. To warn people not to buy there.....Nothing will change unless the owners of the store feel it where it hurts.


Today is Memorial Day which is followed immediately by Independence Day. When I first moved here it was SO hard to go from a day of such quiet, sober mourning where everyone is walking on eggshells and close to tears to such euphoric joy and elation on Independence Day. How do you make that emotional switch so abruptly?? But the longer I'm here, the more appropriate it seems. I mean, it's still really hard but it only drives home the fact that we wouldn't have the independence if our military personnel hadn't given their lives so we could have a country. It's almost 11 am here when all the air raid sirens in the country will sound for 2 minutes and the whole country will come to a halt as people stand to remember the fallen. You know, after that experience in the store yesterday I was just so disgusted and felt like throwing in the towel and whining "I wanna go hooooooome!" And yet, at times like this when the whole country is unified during the siren, it's one of those electrifying moments that remind me why I'm here and make me feel that I AM home. There was a siren for 1 minute at 8 pm last night as well with a torch lighting ceremony at the Western Wall with the top government officials, speeches, prayers, families of the fallen and military personnel. We had the TV on and when the siren went off we stood. Which is exactly when E decided to throw a tantrum in front of me because he wanted to watch Baby Einstein and I wasn't putting it on for him! Real hard to enter into the spirit of the day with a kid having a hissy fit in front of you! Geesh!

This past week at her school, T said she had a lot of pre-Memorial Day activities and ceremonies and skits and such. Here, boys are required to serve in the army for 3 years. Religious girls can, but aren't required to. There is another option for them called National Service where they volunteer their time for 2 years doing things like working in hospitals, old age homes, as teacher's helpers in schools, teaching new immigrants Hebrew, working with underprivileged youth, working with special needs kids, etc. That's just for starters. I'm not even up on what the possibilities for them are. So yesterday T tells me that she's decided she does want to serve in the army. Why? Because she wants to wear an army uniform! Talk about lump in the throat time. I don't blame her one bit. It remains to be seen whether that will still be her deicison when the time comes but if it is, I will support it.

I didn't have to serve in the army when I came because at 22 I was "too old". Ha!