Hi!

Hi to all! I was just looking at who comes to visit and it is so very cool to see so many people from around the world! It is very exciting for me! So, THANKS! and keep coming back!

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Xmas night fun!!

Yep, this is a regular sighting in our neck of the woods. I just did not expect to find it on the bathroom floor! I have been seeing this little guy on the wall high above my head; but he made it down to the floor! He is so cute!

I guess Ali was just plain pooped playing all day and took a little 'siesta'! We found these really adorable 'coats' for wine but we don't do wine so I bought some nice red grape juice and put it on that. You should have seen Amal and I, we were like the Bobsie Twins trying to get it on the bottle! Good times!

Here is our dessert. French Silk Pie and a glass of lovely bubbly red grape juice.

Uki got a new bed! So did Peaches but she is not cooperating and posing for me! Uki could not take the excitement of something new! She inspected it on and off all day and finally....

she got in!!! It's a bit small for my hairy big girl! Amal was taking pictures and I was taking pictures and this is what we got with this very entertaining kitty!

She caught glimpse of a light on the ceiling and spoke! So darn cute and I got an action shot!!

Oh, this was before she got in and Amal's pics. She was inspecting and checking it out.

This is another good one that Amal took of her in it.

Thanks for your patience on reading about my kitties. Have a lovely day/night wherever you might be!

It's Christmas today; but do YOU know how to get your husband OUT of the house?

First of all, just had to share the further trauma of my decorating Ali's birthday cake. It scared me with a loud POP that I screamed in the midst of my stress on this little project. Oh well, cake was baked, iced, eaten, photographed, shared with friends, eaten and then thrown out! If I had a bigger freezer; I might have considered keeping it but I don't so I didn't. I have been baking lots of cakes and throwing lots of cakes away too, well, parts of them! Hmmm....

Now, the reason for this post...my dear husband. He HATES turkey. The smell of it alone gets him out of the house. He was such a sport today and 'posed' for me even with a smile! I swear, in years past, he has run out the door! So, here he is, albeit with a smile! So, I have discovered a very powerful tool to get this man out of the house!

Oh, what velocity! He was smokin'!

In the car and out of the property!

I got a wave as he drove off to go and play golf! In the background you can see a huge house being built. My husband referred to it as a palace for HM's uncle. Cool.

All because of this beauty!! ?????

So here is my gorgeously delicious turkey! It is resting on my gorgeous gift from my daughter! She painted this plate with great patience! I wanted to put cookies on it but she insisted the turkey go on it!

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri in America and I loved watching the male cardinals in our garden. They are beautiful birds so when I saw this little plate in Dubai at a Canadian store called Stokes, I had to have not one but two!! So, these are the cookies that I baked. Chocolate Chip Crunchers!

Cafe Ceramique has gotten a lot of business from us as of late! This gorgeous little plate was painted for me by Ali. He made these Snickerdoodles from Martha Stewart's Cookie book. Poor guy was so hot and sweaty in that kitchen that I had to keep on him to wash his hands and finally made him strip down to his undershirt and shorts. Hmm.....???

So, now you know my secret on how to get my hubby out of the house!!

Ali's 11th Birthday

Here is Ali's 11th birthday cake. A disaster for me but he was thrilled until he tasted it and did not like the strawberry jelly in between the layers. It was all last minute. I did not plan or execute with enough time. I used strawberry jam, which for us Americans, means there is fruit inside. So, a day later and he won't have any cake. I managed to give some to my friend but have 1/2 of it left.

Here he is cutting it. He was so excited. The lucky boy got an iPhone and the new iPod and slept with them! Before his birthday that is!

Here is my big girl home and rested some. She is doing something there; hmmm...

Here is Paulina. She was fun to have around. Come again sweetie! She was so good and did not chuck on me after Ali threw up all over the floor. Thank goodness he missed the carpets!! Still, it took me forever to get it clean and I even got on all fours to survey the bathroom floor and walls and door and walls and toilet and floor and walls, get it?? ugh!! By the by, I NEVER get on all four in the bathroom, hell no!

Right, on to better and sweeter things! Here is the cake. I screwed it up. Where there is yellow, there should be chocolate, and vise versa. The kids were so sweet and praised it anyway. I think the checkerboard cake pans I bought when I was 15 for 50 cents has more than paid for itself! Time to get a new one!!

Here he is digging in and getting surprised by that dreaded poor little strawberry! Who knew?

Last but not least; here is the plate that he made last week for his party. Isn't is great!!?? He used a stamp for the first time with me and used my idea of having all the guests at the party dip their finger in a color and use their finger as the spikes! Then, we got one of the very talented dudes to write all the kids names. The only thing he regrets is that he had the man write 'Alia' instead of 'Mami'. That is ok. I know who I am! At least for a few more years!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cool Giveaway! Go check it out!

Hi! Wouldn't it be the coolest thing to enter a giveaway and actually win??!! All the way over here in Muscat?? How very cool! So, there is a cool book on how to take what you love doing as far as whatever you like doing and turning it into a money maker. Go on over to this blog, Prudent Baby, and enter to win. Hurry up now!!

Good luck!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

These were taken with my iPhone yesterday after I picked the kids up from school. We went to the Crepe Cafe in Shatti for lunch and then shopping a bit before we went home to pack and get to the airport!

How quickly the tide changes! Amal is being dramatic and Ali is upset about something; can't remember. He is pouting.

Amal is like whatever and Ali is pouting harder....

I wanted to get a picture of Amal's purple nails but got this instead! Still cute!

Then, as we were leaving; I saw this pretty tree and shot this. Gosh, I did not realize that Ali is getting so tall! He will pass Amal and I both in no time!!

Merry Christmas to all of you whom read my blog. Happy Holidays and all that comes with it. Tomorrow Ali and I will start baking cookies! Stay tuned for the pictures! Then, I have to make a cake for Tuesday as it will be his 11th birthday!

Christmas Presents made and delivered to Jordan!

These are a set of six coasters (first ever attempt) for Talla; Amal's friend's mom. I learned a lot from these and made a second set of six for my girlfriend for last night's party. We do a gift exchange. I forgot to take pics of those!

These are the back and how I quilted them. With the second set, I just sewed the seam around the edge and left them at that.

This book cover was for Karmah's sister, Zeyna. Apparently, she LOVES it! I'm so happy! I ended up using a red grosgrain ribbon and am thinking of that being my 'thing'. The red does match the red beaks of the flamingos.

I'm still unsure of the best way to do my labels. I get so confused on positioning but will sort that out soon! Notice the 'New Moon' mug that KARMAH gave me? Yep, using it and lovin' it!

This one is another one for Karmah. It looks a lot of one I made for Ali but the inside black fabric is different. Amal chose the fabrics to represent New Moon of course! ??

The inside of this book cover. The label is different than the previous cover.

We also sent a box of Bateel dates in a gorgeous Christmas tree box.

I think Ali is coming down with something. He is coughing and that is never good with this child. I need to figure out what to do now.

Amal is happy and doing well in Jordan. Oh, FORGOT TO TELL YOU ALL! My baby girl went to Jordan (hence all the gifts) to visit her friend that she made here in Muscat last year. After seven years in Muscat, the McIlvain's got transfered to Amman, Jordan. She left yesterday afternoon and will be gone a week. I was a nervous wreck until she landed! She keeps sending me little SMS messages all day long, bless her.

Thanks for having a look.

Ali's 11th Birthday Party

Ali's 11th birthday is not until Tuesday, December 22nd; but we had his party last Thursday as yesterday was the kid's last day before the Winter Break of three weeks!

He decided he wanted to go to his favorite place, Cafe Ceramique!! So, he invited a few friends and Amal and I just chilled. Amal was doing homework but couldn't concentrate and then decided she wanted to paint so she joined us.

From left front to other side: Tanya, Evelyn, Matthew, Jonathan, ALI, Sofia and my AMAL!

From left front to right: ALI, Sofia, AMAL, moi, Tanya, Evelyn, Matthew and Jonathan.

Jonathan, Tanya and Ali in action! We chose plates for all the kids and Ali chose a slightly larger one. It was really sweet as this was the first time that Ali used stencils and he chose a dinosaur. He chose a green for the background and then a darker green for the dinosaur. It was a stegosaurus and I suggested that the kids use their fingers for the spikes. It turned out really sweet. We had an artist write all the kids names around the plate. We pick it up tonight and we can't wait!!

We then went next door to Baskin Robbins and everyone got an ice cream and we put candles in them! No cake, no lunch! I will make a cake for him on his birthday itself!

We then handed out the party bags and the kids raked in! I bought some really good stuff and in the end, Ali put a lot of Halloween candies in there!!! I was like, hey!! I like my milk duds and stuff! We ended up walking around the mall as we finished a lot earlier than expected! They seemed to have fun but poor Amal (Ali kicked her out of the photo!) was bored to tears! It was good for her to have to do something she was not so keen on. We had masks in the party bags so Ali had them put it on and pose in front of the Christmas tree!

Thanks for stopping by!

Spiderweb Quilt coming along!

Some progress has been made on this. Actually, I just wanna post something quilty so these are all done; some new measurements have been made, some changes have been made much to my chagrin! and the assembly has started! Whew! I never want to paper piece again man!!