Tiny Windows

.

Click to enlarge

.
Actually, I'm not even sure the little holes on this old stone building across the peninsula from Howth (yes, Howth again, what can I say, it was incredibly photogenic) can be called windows, they're more like little air vents, but I figured they'd work in a pinch.
.
And if this isn't enough for you, I'm also over here today, and was interviewed here a good while back but completely forgot to post the link. It's all Robin all the time around here folks. You never know quite how or where I'm going to pop up, and of course if there's any doubt you can always find me over at the shop.
.
PS We're halfway to the weekend already - have you thought about your Summer Stock shots for this week yet?
.

Elixir of Life

.

Breaking news, this just in! Look where else I am today!

.
.

Click to enlarge

.

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what else people aren't saying this week.

.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

My Supermodel

.

Click to enlarge

.
Maya's kindergarten class had a big end of the year event on Friday complete with face painting and lots of crap put in their hair fancy hairstyles, cookie ice cream cones to decorate (and eat!), clay mobiles to paint (or turn into a necklace if that's the way you flow), sparkly mommy and me tattoos (we got matching shooting stars) and a lot of other pint-sized fun.
.
Once she was all dolled up Maya asked to pose for a marathon photo shoot. She was having a ball, every time I thought we were done she had me get the camera back out again - she posed alone, with friends, in the sun, in the shade, on the slide, in a tunnel... A real supermodel in training (or, heaven help me, a diva). We had a ball together and for the next three days she showed everyone we met our matching tattoos.
.
Two more days of school and then summer starts in earnest, and WE CAN'T WAIT!
.
More Ruby Tuesday goodness can be found here.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Ooh, look what I just did!

.
Just listed in my etsy shop and customized to match your decor!
.
Cool, huh?
.

Summer Stock Sunday - Sally Sells Seashells

.

(How's that for wild out of control alliteration?)

.

.

Click to enlarge

.
Sally would have to use up some serious frequent flyer miles to sell this particular collection though - these shells represent some serious gathering efforts on several continents (mostly Maya's, but her parents helped her out a bit when they (we) were in Ireland, so that we could show her that the shells on that beach were a bit different than the ones she collects here on the beaches of the Mediterranean). They're tiny, too (I'm no fool, if I'm filling my pockets on a long hike they're going to be small and easy to carry), many quite a bit smaller than the nail on my pinkie. It took quite a while playing around with my closeup filters to get a shot crisp enough for me (and yes, I was using a tripod - my kingdom for a real macro lens...).
.

We won't be heading back to the beach for more that soon though, the jellyfish are out in force right now. We'll avoid their painful stings and hang out at the pool instead, the beach can wait until we get back from the States at the end of the summer. Luckily, with Israeli weather being what it is, we'll still have several more months of beach weather after the end of jellyfish season.

.

Israeli kids finish up school this coming Wednesday and then summer will finally begin in earnest around here, and I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that the chaos meter is off the charts as end of the year frenzy sets in.

.

So what are you all up to this fine summer week? Sign the linkie and let us know.
.

.

Jerusalem of Gold

.

Click to enlarge

.
Jerusalem skies were hazy and dull (unlike the spectacular flowers) the day of a recent visit, and regular readers here know how much I loathe horrible, white, dust-filled skies (and how far I'll go to avoid them), but the amazing view from the hall did make a valiant effort at distracting me from the gray and the dust.
.
Of course I could have simply photoshopped in a bright blue sky but I really suck at that I prefer the more artistic approach. After a bit of tweaking to and fro I processed this image with the Pioneer Woman's Seventies action to give it a vintage feel more in keeping with the fabled Jerusalem of Gold (since I couldn't convince my family to wait around for hours to go to the Light exhibit until the setting sun shone golden on the city's ancient stones.
.
I quite like how it turned out, it reminds me of an old postcard.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Sarona Window, Tel Aviv 2010

.

Click to enlarge

.
Another window from a Sarona building awaiting renovation. Have no fear, unlike last week's this one is in fact real.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Dust Storm, June 2010

.

Click to enlarge, if you dare

.
Straight out of the camera just a few minutes ago, no processing of any kind. It is utterly revolting out today (and hotter than a furnace, too)! Yuck *cough* yuck YUCK *cough cough cough*!
.
Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what other people aren't saying this week.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Colorblock Door

.

Click to enlarge

.
Another Jaffa door, a modern red one this time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Miscellany, and I'm elsewhere today

.

Click to enlarge (this shot may look slightly familiar - it's a different version of one I posted a while back, reprocessed with a few new tricks)

.
(If you're looking for Summer Stock Sunday it's the post below this one. What can I say, I had a lot to say today.)
.
I'm over at Ilana-Davita's today. She's been interviewing a series of Anglo-Israeli bloggers and today is my day in the hot seat. If you've been wondering about my back story and how I ended up in Israel this is your chance.
.
On the home front, Itai got his cast off today (and did quite the boisterous happy dance around the hallway on our way out). It wasn't broken, just a bad sprain so a week's immobilization and rest did the trick and now he's good to go. His mother though is a teeny bit sorry that he wasn't given any restrictions on his sporting activity (and yes, I asked), I'd have thought that easing into things a bit might have been a smart idea...
.
Maya is chugging right along with a social calendar to rival a supermodel's , complete with kindergarten level jockeying about who is and isn't one's friend (today that is, tomorrow it will all have changed seventeen times over). (I know, I can hardly believe it myself, my veteran readers will remember a time in the not so distant past where even a playdate was beyond contemplation.) She has her kindergarten graduation party Wednesday evening and I am SO bummed that I can't be there. Jay has had to miss the last few events and she has her heart set on having her daddy there. Fair enough. I was planning on attending too though, but Itai has an end of the year pool party of his own that night that I need to go to (to chaperone, I don't expect any of the kids to actually pay any attention to their parents that night). At least I'll get to Maya's afternoon program end of the year party the following week - they do a whole dog and pony show there too, so I'll have to get my fill of kvelling (and photos) in then.
.
I think I'm finally coming out of my creative slump a bit too, I got a few very cool shots today that I'll be sharing later on. It feels good to be getting back to it. I don't always realize to what extent but I really do depend on my creative side to keep me sane.
.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Summer Stock Sunday - Lost in Thought

.

. Click to enlarge

.
I love the soft, dreamy feel that Coffeeshop's Butterscotch action gives this shot of a pensieve looking Itai (and it's one of Rita's freebies too - double win!). Lying on an air mattress in the shade at our favorite music festival - what a perfect way to spend a summer afternoon.
.
So how's your summer going so far? Mine's keeping me on my toes, that's for sure. Hopefully I'll get it together enough for regular blogging to resume this week. I really need to get out shooting, too, my shutter finger is going through withdrawal already!
.

.

Too tired to blog

.
I'm bailing on most of my normal weekly posts this week. Between a probable broken arm (Itai's. Again. Playing soccer. Again. It's in a cast but it might be just a bad sprain, we go to the orthopedist on Sunday and if there's still no sign of a break the cast can come off.), a flooded bathroom (the hot water hose to the sink self-destructed, leaving a very soggy mess in its wake. I was able to get a plumber quickly and it's fixed now, but ugh.), the ups and downs of joblessness and potential freelance-hood (I think I've got my first project lined up, but it's not a done deal yet), a friend's very bad (and then somewhat less bad) news and the general craziness that is the life of a mom whose kids end their school year in just two weeks (with a plethora of end of the year and graduation activities) I am just plain wiped out. I'm here, I'm reading, I'm just feeling stretched too thin to be very creative. Nothing's particularly wrong, I'm just exhausted.

Oh, but I did finally get my spiffy new laptop, and I am loving life in the zippy HD lane. Yay!(Now if I could just figure out why the hell my old e-mails won't transfer over to the new computer I'd be all set...)

No fear, I'll be back at full speed again soon enough.
.

Why don't my flowers look like this?

.

Click to enlarge

.
Aren't they stunning? They were growing in a planter outside a function hall in Jerusalem where we attended a friend's son's Bar Mitzvah this past weekend. And some of them are even red, too. Very convenient that.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Summer Stock Sunday - Go Fly a Kite

.

Click to enlarge
.

Or perhaps not... We watched this giant (as in taller than I am) kite get well stuck in the tree when we were camping a few weeks ago. About three minutes after this shot was taken the kite's owner had to climb halfway to the clouds to retrieve it. I noticed they didn't try very hard to fly it again once they finally got it down.
.
So what are you getting up to so far this summer?
.
Put up your Summer Stock post and then come here and post your permalink (the link to the individual post, rather than to your blog's main page - this makes it much easier for everyone to follow along - you can get the permalink by clicking on your post's title). Your Summer Stock images can be anything at all that says summer to you, but please tag the post as Summer Stock and link back to Around the Island so that we can all find you. Most importantly, have fun with it, and do take the time to visit your fellow participants - it's great fun to see what summer looks like all over the world.
.

.

Is it real, or is it Memorex?

.

Click to enlarge

.
Window of a Sarona building awaiting renovation. Look closely, do you see what I see? Amazing, isn't it? And each one is unique, too.

Edited to give the answer since no one, including my own family, figured it out: The window is NOT REAL - it's a vinyl photograph covering up the gaping hole where the window used to be. Most of the windows on the buildings slated for renovation have them, but the cool thing is that they're all amazingly realistic, and they're all different from each other, just like they'd be if they were real.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Queen Anne's Lace

.

Central Israel, Spring 2010 (click to enlarge)

.

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what else people aren't saying this week.

.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

In case of emergency - peel paint?

.

Click to enlarge

.
Not sure I'd want to rely on anything marked like this in a real emergency...
.
And if you'd like more of me I'm guest blogging today too. Pop over to Style Key West for a discussion on using photography to add color (red and otherwise) to your home.
.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Welcome to Summer Stock Sunday 2010!

.

.
After 9 lonnnng months on hiatus it's finally time - summer is here again and with it the long-awaited return of Summer Stock Sunday!

.
Each week, beginning RIGHT NOW, 9pm Saturday night Israel time, 2pm EST, we'll all be sharing our quintessential summertime photos. So what says summer to you? Is it the pool? The beach? A backyard barbecue? A comfy old pair of flip-flops? Whatever summertime looks like in your corner of the world this is the place to come share it - put up your post and then come add your link to Mr. Linky. Visiting other participants is encouraged, after all, sharing is what blogging is all about.

.
Don't worry about whether your photos are museum-quality or not - Summer Stock isn't about perfection or the pursuit of Serious Art. It's about summer - about kicking back and having fun, in whatever form that takes for you.

.
To show you that I'm serious I'll get the ball rolling with these - none of them are great photos in the technical sense of the word but they all show the true joy of summertime as well as an Israeli right of passage - the end of the year kindergarten class trip. Maya's class went yesterday to Shvil Hatapuzim, a (not so) nearby water/activity park geared at younger kids and had a blast.

.
There was a pool to splash in, a water slide to come down, two HUGE water towers set up for the largest water fight you can imagine, cars to drive, boats to paddle, and so much more.

.

Here's Maya and a friend soaking a classmate's father - who very much deserved it after he doused everyone within a three-mile radius, no mercy for grownups or camera equipment (yikes, you'd better believe I jumped back pretty quickly).

.

There was a mini rollercoaster track to ride over and over and over again
.

.
And electric cars to race your best friend
.

.
And of course there was ice cream to eat and games to play and a whole lot of fooling around. .
.
Ahh, summer. There's really nothing better, is there? So, how is your summer shaping up?
.

.

Looking up and looking forward

.

Click to enlarge

.
This old roof frame is part of a 19th century stone building in Sarona, a Tel Aviv neighborhood founded in 1871 by a group of German Templers. These old, dilapidated buildings in the heart of the city were marked for preservation in 2003. The preservation effort involved no less than picking up and moving a number of the crumbling old structures further back from a major arterial street as well as restoring both them and others. A friend and I spent a few hours this morning wandering around the renovations (under construction and not at all pedestrian-friendly, let alone open to tourists, but this is Israel so there was no fence or guard keeping us out. To the contrary, the guard we did see agreed to let me inside one of the sites to photograph as long as I promised to do it safely and quickly without bothering the workers.).
.
The wider angle shots of Sarona included far too much modernity, construction equipment and dust for my taste so most of my shoot consists of small details. (So much dust in fact that I ended up processing this image with a nostalgic type texture to compensate for the fact that the sky was dead white - thank you very much North Africa, you can have your dust back now.) I can't wait to go back once it's all renovated though, what a gem this is going to be.

.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

Turquoise Shutters

.

Click to enlarge

.

Another one from Old Jaffa, you really can't go wrong there, wherever you point your camera. I love the way the turquoise pops against the stone, and the contrast between the rectangular stones and the angled lines of the shutters.

.

More windows and doors from around the world can be found here.

.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.

If Batman were a padlock...

.

Click to enlarge

.

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what other people aren't saying this week.

.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My photography is now available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!
.
If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.
.