Designers fair at the historic Station complex

Last week I was invited to a tour of the new designers fair at the historic Station complex in Tel Aviv. 

The Station (or Hatachana, in Hebrew) is located between the Neveh Zedek neighborhood and the Mediterranean Sea and was the first train station built in old Jaffa in the 19th century. It was recently reopened to the public as a beautifully restored culture and shopping center.

On top of the beautiful luxurious Israeli designer (home and fashion) shops, the designers fair is home to several up and coming young designers and is open every Thursday night during the summer. On my tour, I met talented jewelry, textile, and bag designers as well as soap makers and other craftspeople who will make your living space a more colorful soulful place. I definitely fell in love with some of these people and their work.

If you live in Israel and haven't been to the Station yet, I urge you to go (you will find some of my favorite shops there), and if not - I hope these photos inspired you to think of Israel differently than the news channels portray us.

I wish you all a beautiful, colorful and wonderfully scented week!

Sparkle galore

This Friday I participated in a blogger event at Michal Negrin's visitors center in Bat Yam. The place is target of visits from all over the world, where people can enter the world of this super sparkly designer and witness her creation process as well as the inside of her factory - manufacturing jewelry, fashion, and home wear that is sold around the world. 

We started by having a nice breakfast, then headed to a tour of the factory and finally had a wonderful workshop where each of us got to create her very own She Shy doll. That part was simply heaven for me, and ended up in me bagging Michal to let me live in the puppeteer's studio filled with every embellishment I ever dreamed of working with. It was such a fun day!

I took about a gazillion photo to share with you, hope you will enjoy them.

Doll house on the visitor's center hall

Breakfast awaits!

Even the water cooler is fully Negrined!

Tour of the factory

I met this little guy on my way to the ladies room

Inside the puppeteer's studio

Sigma makeup brush international blog giveaway!

Hello boys and girls, and happy Passover for those celebrating it and happy Easter too!

Some of you may know I also have a (plus size) fashion blog in Hebrew, which you can read using Google Translate or other translation tools.

Well, I recently got one of Sigma's excellent flat top kabuki makeup brushes (F80) to review. The brush turned out to be an excellent alternative to the almost three time more expensive Mac kabuki brush. It's soft, dense and smooth and requires half the amount of liquid foundation my other foundation brush does.  An altogether thumbs up (and my Hebrew blog readers know I am not quick to pass a positive judgment on products I receive for review, not automatically anyway).

The company Also suggested I hold a giveaway where one of my readers will win one of these brushes, which they will ship free of charge no matter what country the winner lives in. So, for the first time on my fashion blog history (it just turned a year old last month) I am able to host an international blog giveaway and invite you, the readers of Puppeteer on the Roof to join, yay!

Wanna know how to join the giveaway? Head over to my fashion blog and follow the instructions and may the best reader win!

I love pantyhose!

I love We Love Colors - a US based online pantyhose shop with a great plus size pantyhose line.

They sell opaque plus size pantyhose in 51 colors for either 9$ or 15$, as well as fishnet plus size, and printed ones (black or white stripes and colorful batik patterns).

I already shopped there several times, due to an unbelievable shortage of plus size pantyhose in Israel (it is incredibly hard to find any that suit a fat and tall woman, like myself, not to mention colorful ones, that are no where to be found). I bought several colorful ones and am very happy with them, as you can see.

Fuchsia, brown and blue

So I was very happy to be offered to get a few pairs to review on my Hebrew fashion blog. I received 3 pairs of the more expensive variety (they have a type that costs 15$ and a type that costs 9$, which is the type I bought for myself so far). I received 3 of the 51 colors they sell - rust, spruce green, and black (the only color I specifically requested). I got my size, which is C\D. The largest size is EE (fitting a 1.82 meter tall woman who weighs up to 170kg).

Rust

Spruce green

The pantyhose are very soft and silky, and lovely to wear. They are large and long (fitting almost up to my bra line) so they actually serve as a loose body shaper.

There is only one problem with them - Unlike the cheaper variation I already have and washed many times in the laundry machine, these need to be hand washed and hanged separately. I did think of washing them separately by hand (cause I was told they just arrived from dyeing by the website manager) but I did carry them upstairs in the same basket as my ordinary laundry, and the rusty colored ones bled color all over my laundry, resulting in many stains and one shirt that went to the garbage.

So in short - this is a great place to buy cheerful plus size pantyhose, but you have to take extra care is washing and drying the pantyhose. I would stick with the 9$ variety, if you are looking for a low maintenance product.

Experimenting in a new field

My devoted readers probably noticed I have been complaining about lack of inspiration, or more accurately - a lack of drive to create (though I have several ideas for projects, and received some wonderful ideas from you, my dear readers). This, combined with a phenomena I recently got aware of, drove me to get my hands on a new endeavor - earrings making!

There are several jewelry makers on Etsy I follow and admire who I found out are not goldsmiths or silversmiths, but actually are buying ready made jewelry parts and putting them all togeather, while charging high prices. That annoyed the hell out of me, especially since I just spent a large amount of money on one of these shops. I decided I am going to make myself the earrings I like from now on, and then decided to also sell them - at a much better price than the wannabe jewelry smiths I previously looked up to.

So, I am proud to present the first of my new earrings collection! I am selling them on SharonArt, since they do not fit on Raisinlike, which is a much sillier shop.

Humming bird in a hoop earrings in matte gold and aqua

Lovey dovey skulls

Red Babushka earrings

Sweet humming bird earrings in matte gold and pale pink

Flower tear drop earrings in matte gold and blue

 I hope you like them as much as I do. I am not used to such delicate work but I am quite pleased with how they turned out!

Fraggle Rock'n'Roll

Yesterday stumbled into a must addition for my wardrobe. Actually it's more of a uniform, being a puppeteer, so I had to buy one (okay, a couple) of the Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock collection for Zara! Look how nice it looks, and soft too not to mention fairly priced.

T-shirt Zara, trousers - Evans, shoes - Fly London, monster necklace - Shay Aaron

Go to this website the Henson company setup - they actually have remixes of the Fraggle Rock themes. So cool!

Here's a little reminder for you guys, enjoy!

The many bags of Mini Me

Just like her mommy, my Mini Me has a many shoes, bags and accessories to choose from. Someways it takes her half an hour to decide which bag fits her outfit best.

Someways she just grabs the closest one, throws her keys and wallet in and runs out the door.

It is pretty annoying to get home from a long day at work and find your doggy spooning with your new sneakers.

When she goes out, she likes wearing her high heeled boots with a little sequined evening bag.

When it's her turn to take the doggy out, she usually wear sneakers and a large messenger bag, with enough room for plastic bags (for doggy) and magazines (for her).

Doggy is always cheerful after a nice walk.

My Flutterbutts usually get tired after a long shoot, but sometimes I find them sleeping in piles. When did Pinky get in there? I honestly have no idea, but sssshhhh!!! Don't wake them up.

If you want a mini me of your own, click here

Custom made sister

Thanks for being in the Gift Guides, I got some last minute custom orders for Christmas.

One wonderful lady asked for a look alike Flutterbutt of her sister who turns 30 on Christmas. I have to say I was very excited when I heard her description - professional dancer with long legs, short dark hair, big blue eyes and a huge smile who loves mini dresses, Converse shoes, and long dangle earrings. Is that a dream Flutterbutt to make or what?

Since the last thing I watched on TV before starting to work was an old Project Runway rerun, I was very excited to start working on her dress already. Though I have to admit, that it was fun making her nose.

I made her a double layered mini skirt, reminiscent of the dress she wears in the photo her sister sent me. I used an under layer of black satin with a lace trim. On top of that I added a golden sheer organza bustier with gold trimmings and a thin black satin belt. It was designed to mix well with the colorful Converse All Stars I had for her, to help her stand up (she is not a Puppet Mobile). The final touch was adding long dangley emerald colored rhinestone earrings.

So here she is, waiting to meet mer mommy. I hope mommy will love her Mini Me, as I love mine!

Merry Christmas to both sisters!