Food, glorious food...

In the UAE, as in most other Muslim countries, the weekend differs from the rest of the world. We have our weekend on a Friday and Saturday and the working/school week from Sunday to Thursday. Friday is the holy day in the Muslim religion and are treated the way a Sunday would be treated in the Christian religion.



We as Christians in a Muslim country had to adapt and we do all our usual "Sunday-things" on a Friday. This includes going to church and spending the rest of the day with friends and family.


This past Friday I decided to do the traditional thing and cook a big "sunday meal", including roast leg of lamb, baked potatoes, veg, pudding, etc. I bought a butternut squash earlier this week and was looking forward to oven roasted pumpkin. As most fresh stuff is imported, butternut costs an absolute fortune and does not feature on our plates nearly as frequently as it did back in South Africa.



So maybe it was just because I haven't seen it in such a long time, that this orange pumpkin in this beautiful blue enamel oven dish looked so utterly delicious that I couldn't help photographing it like it was a piece of art...

I made a paste of garlic, honey, olive oil, some herbs and salt and coated the pumpkin in it. I then roasted it in the oven for about 45 minutes until soft and golden brown. Mmmmmmmm delicious!

(O, by the way, the table cloth is one that I bought years ago at Africa Nova, in Hout Bay, Cape Town. It is still one of my favourites.)

Reversable baby bibs

As I was sorting through the children's clothes this past week, in preparation for our yearly holidays to South Africa, I realised that Baby doesn't have one proper bib left. The ones that we acquired when she was born has all done their bit of mopping up drool and is not fit for use any longer. Now, as we are living in a place where a child can go without a shirt for most of the day, it didn't really bother me. But now we are going to mid-winter where she will be wearing several layers of clothing AND we will not do washing everyday as we do at home - so we need new bibs.



A while ago when we moved Baby into her own room I threw out the hooded baby towels and the receiving blankets which she wasn't using anymore. I knew at the time it can be recycled into something else, but didn't know exactly what. Now, I had the perfect project for it.



I found a pattern for reversible bibs (via Craftzine) on Made by Petchy's blog. (Check it out, she is very creative!). I had to make it a bit bigger as Baby is not so small anymore, but otherwise it worked perfectly. It has towelling on one side and fleece on the other side. It will hopefully be absorbent enough to keep the holiday clothes clean and dry.

Give-away!

If you are into vintage jewellery and other stuff, rush over to Ponder and Stitch and enter her first give-away! Now!

Colour inspiration

Summer in Dubai is dreary and dull. Unlike just about everywhere else on the planet, this is not the season to be outside. It is 40+C (104+ F) degrees outside, so inside (near the AC) is the place to be. Feeling a bit depressed by the bleak landscape and the heat, I decided to find something inspiring and colourful in my stash of craft goodies.

I don't usually buy fat quarters of other pieces of fabric without a specific project in mind, but this year I fell for the temptation of the fabric sales. (Must be the heat...) I still don't know what I am going to make with all of these, but in the meantime I will just enjoy planning all sorts of projects...

Here are some more colour inspiration from my floss boxes:

I wind the floss around paint swatch cards collected from the hardware store. It adds a bit more colour (and it's free.)

These are still waiting for my next trip to the hardware store...

And while we are on the colour theme, here is a sneak peek at a work in progress:

And another WIP:

I hope you enjoy your summer, wherever you are!

Saying goodbye

There are many wonderful reasons why Dubai is a great place to live. All year sunshine is one of the better ones. But unfortunately living in an expat community also has its drawbacks. The saddest one is always having to say goodbye to friends. No expat stays in Dubai for ever, and this time of year when the school year ends is usually the time when people move on.

I had to say goodbye to a friend and her family who are moving back to their hometown, London, after 3 years in Dubai. Our sons were very good friends and it is sad to see them go.

It is always difficult to decide on an appropriate farewell gift. After all, how do you say "thank you for your friendship and may God bless you" with an object?

In the end I decided to make something for them. I hope that the time and effort and love I have put into it will somehow show how much their friendship meant to me and my son.

Ebi, Rozie, Matin and Ramtin, may your life in London be filled with God's blessings and grace. Go well, my friends.

Craftster Featured Projects

My Tin Can Stars was chosen as one of the fifteen Featured Projects on Craftster. Thank you so much to everyone for your very nice comments and for voting for this project with the "this rocks!" button. Check it out here.

Watch this space for the tutorial...

Images from Afghanistan

While I was writing the post about the embroidery from Afghanistan a while ago. I browsed through my photos I took on the trip and realised again what a wonderful experience it was. Today I want to share a few of the images from this beautiful and sad country with you.


This is a view of the Hindu Kush mountain range. It is the 'foot hills' of the Himalayas and quite an awesome site. I had the privilege to travel over this mountain range to the north of the country... in a minibus taxi. Not for the faint hearted. Really.

For those of you who has read the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, here are the kite flying boys. They make the kites and sell them next to the road. A rare splash of colour in an otherwise colourless country.

These photos I took at the market in Mazar-i-Sharif. These men were very friendly but obviously not used to be addressed by a western woman.




At the "Blue Mosque" in Mazar-i-Sharif. A truly beautiful building. The tile work is exquisite! Even the women in the burqa's seems to be part of the design.

A pillar at the ancient city of Balkh

. Unfortunately not everything in Afghanistan is beautiful. There are some very sad reminders of the different wars that has torn this country apart for the past 30+ years. I didn't feel comfortably adding pictures where people's faces are recognisable, so here are just a few photos to give an idea of the how much pain there still is and of the long road to peace and prosperity that still lies ahead.

Remnants of tanks that still date from the Russian invasion

Although new buildings go up, the woman are still not free.

A 'suburb' of Kabul, the capital city.

The majesty of what was can still be seen through all the bullet holes...

At least they have wheel chairs in the hospital

Tin Can Stars

I had the idea of making something out of recycled soft drink cans for a long time but I never could decide what to do. Then once I realized how easy it is to cut the aluminium with normal scissors I just fell into it and played around with a few different star shapes. Eventually I decided on this 6 point star because it is easy to cut and easy to manipulate.

This is the finished project, hanging on the porch outside the front door. It is made up of stars from different kinds of soft drinks (and a few beers).

I connected them with beads and fishing line.

I didn't realise it at the time of making it, but now that it is finished I like the fact that there are a combination of English logos and Arabic logos. All the cans here in Dubai has the English logo on one side of the can and the Arabic logo on the other side. As I could get two stars out of each can I have a good mix of the two languages. This will be a nice memento of our time in Dubai for the years to come when we don't live here anymore...

I added a few beads and bells to the bottom to finish it off.
The 'blank' stars are made by using the inside of the can as the front. The printed side is on the back.

As usual, I had this very professional plan to work from! :-)

I gave it to my husband as a birthday gift and he is very happy with it. I am also quite satisfied with the way it came out in the end, although in retrospect, I would make a few changes to it if I do it again. (not soon - it is quite labour intensive!) I would make the beaded connections a bit shorter to give it a more dense appearance. As you can see from the 'plan' the different colour stars are suppose to be in the shape of a star. This is not very obvious in the finished product because the stars are to far apart. I would also use either stronger fishing line or proper beading wire. I had to redo a few connections because the fishing line broke.

I am thinking about making a tutorial for this one. It will be my first tutorial so it will be a good challenge. If anyone is interested in a tutorial, can you please let me know in the comments, please.

Embroidery from Afghanistan

I had the privilege to visit Afghanistan in October 2006. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I will treasure it as one of the highlights of my life. Not only for the opportunity to see and experience this wonderful and at the same time painful country, but also for the absolutely amazing people I have met there.
Before I went a friend gave me this piece of embroidery as a gift. She has lived in Pakistan before and has visited Afghanistan on several occasions. This is hand embroidered with silk tread on a cotton background. It has been done by Afghan women in their traditional designs.

Afghanistan was part of the Silk Route years ago. As a result these women are used to working with silk tread that they obtained from China.

While I was in Kabul I bought this runner from people working for a NGO. They provide the local woman with linen and cotton sheets. The local women then hand embroiders the pieces with silk thread, in their traditional designs. The people from the NGO then sells it on their behalf. In this way the women, who are all uneducated and in many cases confined to their homes, gain a bit of independence.

This long red cloth I bought from a carpet shop in Mazar-i-Sharif, a town in the northern part of the country. These kind of cloths are usually used in a horizontal position to cover the space under a shelf or bench as can be seen in the photo of the carpet shop. I use it to cover the window on the landing of our staircase. I have lined it with some cotton to protect it from the sun.

It is all hand embroidered:

The shop where I bought this red cloth: