Purple Rain

God, it was raining so hard Saturday morning, and it's almost June. Thank god that it did cause otherwise our neighbours impossible kids would keep on screeming all morning long (it was f#$#@ing 8:30am).
I think Israel is slowly turning tropical...

Floating on the memories of a strawberry cloud

 Nowdays it’s common knowledge that smells and tastes play a crucial role as memory stimulator, helping you remember and even sometimes re-experience past occurrences or feelings. 

Tthis "strawberry cloud", or strawberry fluff has this effect on me: the test instantly brings me back to my grandmothers back yard, its spring time, the swing squeaks and her warm, tender hands stroke my cheek and hand me over a glass bowl filled with this delightful sweet bliss. 

how wonderful that this things making is so darn easy.

Ingredients:

1 cup cut strawberries, without the leaves

Juice from one lemon

1 egg white

Method:

Mix it all together with a mixer, max speed (takes about 10 min with a stand mixer) until you get a steady foam. Mix right before serving, as the foam tends to separate to strawberry juice and foamed egg white. You can freeze up the leftovers though, and get a refreshing strawberry icecream!

A spice shelf in 2 seconds: DIY

when I installed this thing on Thursday, I though: "what an idiot! how come I didn't think of this sooner?"
well, the important thing is that I finally did.
for those of you who are not familiar with our apartment, let me just say that we have a slight storage problem: we live in 38squer meters. we have very high walls, so they somewhat compensate for the lack of cabinets floor-height. 
this is how my spice-shelf corner used to look like (there's another window above the higher one that you see, and the spices are about hip high)

and then I remembered that I had old pot hangers lying with all my plant thingies. and that I might have a white board the right size to fit the exact width of those pot hangers.

 and it all fit perfectly to my window, and now everything is roomy and easier to handle (:
I might re-paint the rusty hangers, though I kind of like the rusty look...

DIY tutorial: Recycled Orbit gum pack planters

In my weekly routine I drive a lot. Every day. 50km there and back again.

 The Orbit gum big packs are a necessity to me, and sometimes the only thing that keeps me from falling half asleep during morning traffic. As it happens, I started gathering quite a bit of empty packs- they were in such a cute little shape, they had to be good for something. And because I'm a planting person (I guess at some point a post about my plants will follow), I've decided to turn it into a nice little planter. very easy, and a perfect gift.
you will need:

• empty Orbit gum pack
• scissors
• acrylic paint (or anything else that will stay on plastic)
• a nail and a source of heat (lighter, home stove)
• some planting compost and a plant

 what you do:

1. screw off the cover of the pack. 
2. cut off the part that the cover was attached to (see picture).
3. paint the pack. I did about 4 layers to have a semi-uniform paint, you can adjust this to your liking. let dry between layers.
4. when painting finished, make hole to allow water draining: heat up a nail (don't do this in bare hands, use something!) and while hot, make holes at the bottom of the container. make at least 5 holes (or your plant will rot from the inside).
5. fill up with dirt, plant something and water. place in a place that will please the plant you just planted.

Enjoy!

Magnetized! part I: re-designing your fridge magnets, DIY reusing ideas

at my latest shopping round I went into a crafts store and apart from buying the clock mechanism previously mentioned, I also bough some magnets.
you see, our fridge's door is a big mess filled with 'happy new years' cards, bills to pay and a lot of shitty, commercialized magnets (especially pizza magnets) to hold it all together.

Ist project: re-design existing magnets
for this I used things I had lying around the house:

• magnets
• rubber glue (won't cause wrinkles when you glue paper to something, unlike plastic glue)
• scissors
• ruler
• transparent wallpaper
• old tickets, maps, pictures

 take the magnets you want to change and place them on a map, picture or whatever you want to have on your fridge from now on. cut out a piece that will cover the magnet, glue and cover with the plastic wallpaper for protection, and you're done! It's also a nice way to use old museum cards and other trip memories  (: