Christmas Cards

So Odelia and I have been making Christmas cards... this joint venture is a mix of my stash and her expertise at making cards!! LOL Sooooo, if you get a hand made card from me this year, you may be lucky enough to get one of Odelia's beauties.... then again you could end up with one of mine!! But its the thought that counts, right? Right? You know.... made with love etc? LOL I promise to buy them next year....

Abayas R Us Photos!

Odelia, my next door neighbour that scraps, and I are getting really adventerous now and we took ourselves off to Fanateer Mall in Jubail yesterday morning. I had bought a new abayah last week and it was too long so I wanted the wee mannie with his sewing machine in the corner of the shop to take it up for me. Its a very pretty one with silver and aqua embroidery on the sleeves and because I was also buying some other abayahs for some expat women who are due to arrive soon... they gave me a discount and a free hijab (scarf that matches the abayah). Now... you don't get that sort of service in Marks and Sparks do you? "Oh Madam, you have bought three dresses; here, this shawl matches beautifully, we will throw it in for free! You need them taken up you say? No problem... can you wait five minutes and we will have that done for you....no charge" Do you think I should email M&S and suggest it? It might help in the Christmas slump!Here is Odelia and little Merrick in the shop - see.... I told you, you can have any colour you like as long as its black!! :)

Here is the wee mannie who takes the hems up and in a couple of minutes he had my abaya sorted and back in its bag - all for free!! :)

This is the owner, he was a little camera shy but didn't mind me taking pictures - more abayahs behind him.... yep, all black.

Here I am in front of Mr Chocolate - the sweet stores here are beautiful - the chocolates are in these arrangement of baskets with all this decoration. And yes, I need to get my hair done but there aren't any hairdressers shops! :( Men aren't allowed to touch a woman to whom they aren't married, women aren't allowed to work.... so that's a difficult one!! Chris did offer to cut mine for me but I passed on that... there must be an expat hairdresser here somewhere, I just need to find her!!

We went shopping...

So everyone who knows what it was like when my shipment came back from South Africa will be saying 'does the woman learn nothing through experience'? But I think I have an idea where most of the new purchases will go... so I shouldn't have to build another extension this time!

and I did not buy this screen... Chris did, he says it is for our master bedroom - think the man has ideas of me being behind it throwing clothes over like in some '50's movie... he's better be using a lot of imagination, let me tell you!!

Found this beautiful Persian rug in the garden design, it will look beautiful on Chris' study floor.

This Nain Persian rug is very similar to one we already have at home except this has red in the centre instead of deep blue - and its beautiful, I had to take this photo from up the stairs to fit it in... its also signed which is a bonus and it took me three days to actually walk on it with slippers instead of going round it... yep, it cost that much!! LOL

Got two of these, they are for my lounge in Scotland and will have large masks on stands on them instead of a brass tea pot.

No, we didn't buy her at the bazaar, just thought I'd update you on her... after asking around it appears she is called Gypsy and she is homeless, her territory includes my house so she is quite happy to visit, eat and sleep on my dining chair all day...

So this is how we ladies go shopping. Because we aren't allowed to drive, the village puts on buses for us to go to the various malls - so this a group of us on the way to Al Khobar, which is a one and half hour trip there, shop for a couple of hours and one and half hours back again... now don't we just look fetching in our Abayahs?

Oh and look at the fridge magnets I found!! I love them... in fact, I should have bought heaps because everyone that sees them wants them!

Another Butterfly

Thought this one was appropriate for Remembrance Sunday - can't find a poppy anywhere here so a red and black butterfly will have to do.... the reason for the butterfly is explained in this post so if you feel like joining in, then that would be lovely.

The Milky Bars are on him!!

Christopher passed his driving test yesterday!! Yahooooo....

(and yes, he is going to kill me when he sees this)....

I was out shopping this morning...

and bought these beautifully beaded table runners... the red one is for Christmas, its prettier in real life.

and where ever we go I always pick up tree decs as a souvinir of the foreign Christmas and I love these with their camels.

and would you believe these little guys? Santa on a camel? LOL I am aiming to do Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas again this year and was hoping to find stuff to make the book uniquely Saudi Arabian... well, these will be on the front cover!!

Today I'm going to make a butterfly...

I read about it here and thought what a brilliant idea and imagine what the collection will look like when it reaches 1.5 million butterflies!!

So first I will bake the cakes for the cake sale and then I am going to get all the shiniest, blingy-est stash out and make a butterfly in memory of all those little people who never got to see one again - and in memory of my Grandad who spent WWII in a Polish prison of war camp... can't think of a better reason to play!!

And wouldn't it be brilliant if everyone put the link on their blog? I can imagine the array of beautiful butterflies we scrappers could create...

Dan has made a template you can download to make butterflies which you can find here. Thanks Dan!