Arabic typography

I love the Middle East. I spend a lot of time in Israel (not lately, but hoping to go again in November), am almost fluent in Hebrew and starting to learn Arabic. I also love Middle Eastern style. In addition to possibly a post on Haifa later, I LOVE Arabic lettering. Especially now that I'm hitting the Arabic books in earnest.

Most of it is usually done for the Qura'an and Qura'an verses, but I'd like to get some just by itself because of the way it flows. You will soon discover that I am obsessed with posters and the visual possibilities they present. So here is one I would love to have in our apartment:



See how the letters bend to become people or real expressions of movement?
Here is another one, from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema. Like Hollywood, only more distinct.
And below isn't a poster, but only the MOST AWESOME shirt I have ever seen :

Table Arrangements

If there's one thing I love more than life itself, it's cute table centerpieces. Since my old ones were from the winter, I decided to pick up some new ones at Target the other week. I may be dying of how cute they are. Don't even need water.

Ode to a bedside table

When I lived alone, I had a bedside table. Now that I'm married and have Old People furniture (aka, mostly Ikea,) I had to get rid of my table because it didn't match the height of the bed at all. Now, as an avid reader, I am sorely missing one and constantly having to put books, glasses, cell phone alarm, etc on the floor or on a makeshift one. I am also obsessive-compulsive so am missing one on the other side of the bed for my husband, as well.

I've been hunting bedside tables for some time. Unfortunately, the one I LOVE isn't cheap:

Holy crap. $179 for what can essentially be stolen from a preschool? No, thanks. CB2, I love you, but not that much. So, my second option was to go to Ikea. Natch, they have some pretty good stuff:

This actually reminds me of the dining room table from The Duchess (it was much more gorgeous when they had a full-screen pan of it):
















But, it doesn't match our modern furniture. So, it was a no-go. Finally, I saw this one:


















and loved it. But, $825. So, back to the drawing table for me for now.

Refrigerator Issues: Organizing that sucka

So, I always have a love/hate relationship with our refrigerator. Granted, it is very pretty and stainless steel (thanks, condo owners!)

However, the inside is something that guilt trips me on a weekly basis, much like a Brooklyn-based Jewish mother would if her son were marrying a Catholic girl. The reason is, that it is ALWAYS messy inside, and I never know what kind of food I have available on-hand, and whether my tomatoes are going bad (they almost always are, and I am forced to throw them away, all while feeling the more guilty.)























Oh, dear God this looks awful. There are some leftover turnips from when I made borsh. And there are some eggs, some cheese, who knows what. So, I finally bucked down and cleaned everything out.





















Much better. See what I did there?

A. Moved all the beverages to one, easy-to-access location, along with the soup, so they could be easily reached at any time.
B. Moved all the leftovers to the second shelf so we could see what we have for the second meal.
C. All fruits and veggies, except onions, are on the third shelf, where it is easy to see what we have so they don't spoil.

Hopefully this system works out for a while.