What do cocktails, Chihuly and hotels have in common?

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One of Dale Chihuly's stunning Ikebana, on exhibit at Tel Aviv's Litvak Gallery

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What a fantastic weekend! Thursday morning I ran off to Tel Aviv with 8 of my very best friends for our annual girlfriends getaway - 2 days and a night in the big city doing Grownup Stuff - art museums, art galleries, trendy restaurants, cocktails, shopping, and lots and LOTS of laughter. We didn't even let the weekend's truly atrocious weather slow us down much (though it did keep me from breaking out the camera as often as I'd hoped).

We set the tone for the weekend during a visit to a photography exhibit at the Tel Aviv Art Museum when we started making up pseudo-intellectual commentary on the Very Important (but oh so uninteresting) Photographs. By the time we were done there was nothing to do but order fancy cocktails with lunch and laugh ourselves silly.

On the better received end of the artsy part of our weekend, the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Litvak Gallery next door to the museum was every bit as spectacular as anticipated, and the artist feature at the restaurant we chose for lunch turned out to be the very current and oh so fun David Gertstein - the whole restaurant was full of his colorful and whimsical pieces.

That pretty much concluded the high culture portion of the getaway, after that it was pure silliness, just the thing for letting go of all the strife and stress of day to day life.

We had such a great time at this year's getaway in fact that we've already started planning next year's - Zichron Yaakov, here we come!

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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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.

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Chihuly redux

Anyone who's been coming around here for a while knows that I just can't get enough of Dale Chihuly's magnificent work, so what a treat to find that a number of his pieces were still on permanent display at Tel Aviv's Litvak Gallery even after the close of last winter's spectacular solo show.

Here's one of my favorites - a black and yellow basket with just enough of a red (ok, orangey-red, but definitely still in the red family) tinge around the top to sneak it in for this week's Ruby Tuesday ;).

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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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.

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Chihuly's Persian Window

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Another stunning installation from the Chihuly exhibit (here's the first one I shared, in case you missed it), this time of his Persians. Aren't they incredible? I could have stood there looking at them all day. The rich reds and yellows were particularly spectacular - and of course an excellent fit for this week's Ruby Tuesday.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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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.

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Lips of Glass

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I hope you're not tired of the Chihuly's yet, I could look at his incredible work all day...

The title of this one is mine, these "lips" are actually a small section of one of Chihuly's much larger "basket" pieces.

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what else people aren't saying this week, and Wordful Wednesday to see what they are.

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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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.

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Sunday Snippets with a side of Chihuly

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Just because I get twitchy if I go too long without posting a photo...

Closeup of one of the Chihuly ikebanas on permanent display at the Litvak Gallery in Tel Aviv.

• Just in case they couldn't here me scream all the way in Outer Mongolia - I passed! I passed!
• It's NOT snowing here, and I'm barefoot and wearing a tank top. Sorry East Coasters.
• Seriously easy and seriously impressive appetizer, a real crowd-pleaser (made even better with my own homemade fig-balsamic jam). The downside - no leftovers ;).
• I have had a headache which veers between incapacitating migraine and just painful and annoying more days than not in past week. It is getting REALLY old. (Yes, I'm taking all the appropriate medications, they're not helping. I'm thinking it's the winning combination of stress and the changing seasons.)
• The 45 minutes I did on the elliptical machine made me really hungry. I should probably go eat something sensible before it gets worse and I go binge on crap.
• Anyone out there interested in sociology? This is a long but fascinating article on regional cultural divisions in the US.
• And this is pretty much the coolest landscaping project I've ever seen.

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So what's on your snippet list this week?

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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.

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Life upon the larger scale

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Closeup of one of Chihuly's Persians

"What is art but life upon the larger scale, the higher. When, graduating up in a spiral line of still expanding and ascending gyres, it pushes toward the intense significance of all things, hungry for the infinite?"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more reds from around the world.

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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.

.