Maya's Birthday is today!

It's my friend Maya's birthday today. Happy Birthday Maya!! I made this cake for her this morning and it was a hit. It is a Lemon Poppyseed Cake. The glaze was very nice. I put chopped up lemon rind and lemon juice in it!

Here we are, my Sunday Hardanger group. That is Supriya, the hostess in the back in blue and white; Maya, the birthday girl in orange in front of the cake. Oh, those are her roses we got her for her new house she is moving into! Then, in the back row we have Sylvie, sorry, we caught you with your eyes closed! In front of her is Megumi in the purple and then that is me on the right. My sheila slipped off my head!

It is a different picture with Anisa there where Supriya was. We dressed in our national dress to commemorate (?) Oman's National Day on the 18th. Anisa is Philipino, married to an Omani so she wore a gelabia (long dress and I know that is not spelled right!) You can see it is colorful and was very pretty. Maya is wearing a shalwar khameez as she is Indian as is Supriya. Sylvie is French but did not dress up! That's ok! Then, Megumi is Japanese so has on her 'summer kimono'. Then, I dressed up as a Baluchi.

I wanted to show you all the center gold bangle. It is so pretty. Solid gold. Waqar picked it up in Dubai for me when he went there and Iran a couple of months ago. The other two I wear on a daily basis. I like the clink.

Well, I have to run now to get the kids! See you all in a bit.

Farewell Lunch for Lynne Copping

Yesterday was such a busy and fun day! I woke up and got the kids up. I did a couple of loads of laundry and got my Perspective quilt out of the dryer to get ready for the monthly Muscat Quilt Guild meeting. I had Ali hold it for me outside in good light. You can refer to my previous post for all that. I then took the kids to school and went grocery shopping. Came home, marinated some chicken and did other stuff around the house and got ready for the meeting. I was late and Alice saved me a seat, thanks Alice! We had the meeting and then we all met up at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel's Beach Pavilion Restaurant to have our farewell lunch for the sweetest woman, Lynne Copping. We will miss you! This group of friends are from my Book Club. I have known most of them in one way or another and it was so very nice to be able to go out and I was facing the beach and the waiter opened the door so it was beautiful. We are:

Left side from back to front: Alice (US); me (US); Jo (UK); Kathy (UK); Judy (OZ);

Right side from back to front: Glynnis (UK); Georgia (RSA); Pam (UK); Lynne (UK); and Lindsay (CANADA).

This is such a lovely group of women and I am new to the Book Club and they have welcomed me so nicely. Oooh, I better make some time to read our next selection. We are meeting on the 1st. If you don't see me for a while, it'll be because of that and Eid al Adha will be on Friday so we will all be busy celebrating and traveling and the like. Thanksgiving is Thursday and New Moon opens on Thursday!! Gosh, I'm soooooooo excited for that! Plus, more beach trips and the kids are off starting Thursday until the 2nd of December! Whew! All this and I have to clean the house and cook and my hubby is coming home from being in Dubai for a few days. Busy days for us all! A big, huge, thank you to my friend Larissa for picking up the kids from school and keeping them until I was able to get them! Muuuaaahhhh!!

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Lynne Edward's Perspective - DONE!!

I finished this binding late last night and by now, 5:49pm, I am dragging but my day is far from over! I took this fresh out of the dryer with Ali holding it for me outside.

Here is the back complete with lint and cat hair and whatever else you might notice!

I tried to get a little creative photography wise and took a slightly angled shot. Click on the picture and you will get a close up and you can see that I stipple quilted all the black. It was fun. Practice is key man!

Binding and Beaches

I'm busy finishing my binding late into the night. I still have a load in the dryer, a load in the washer and two more loads to do and it is 12:50am. Bad management of time!

Earlier tonight, just before sunset, we met up with friends at the beach in Shatti. It was beautiful and amazing and wonderful to see so many people out. Winter is here ladies and gents! Thank God! I have been in the Middle East 15 years and it still tickles me to be at the beach in November where my family is freezing their butts off back home!

This is Amal holding a star fish that she found upside down. It's little legs or tentacles were swaying and it was really cool.

I tried to get a different view of it.

Here all three kids found their own star fish and posed.

I think this is a great shot of the belly of the star fish. It was cool.

Then the kids started finding crabs. All sizes. This one is tiny but of the larger that we found.

Here is my buddy Larissa.

Now, off to finish that binding for Show and Tell tomorrow. Busy day tomorrow!

Oh, in case you are wondering, there is cake left and I will be throwing it away to save my ass from it!!

Busy week, have a look!

SEWING:

As usual, Uki 'helped' me out while I was working HARD on my Spiderweb Quilt. She got a hold (ok, maybe I threw it at her!? ;0) of a long strip of fabric. She is so much fun!

Of course, I took a much needed break to watch and capture her playing. I had to make sure she wouldn't actually eat it, because she would ya know!

We bought this little foofy bed at Build a Bear, now available in Dubai and originally from St. Louis, yeah! We gave it to Uki and she LOVES it!! I put it at the end of my table as she would inadvertently always sit right in the middle of my work. It is working out a charm! She loves it! You can sort a see my SWQ in progress on the right.

She was going to town.

COOKING:

I made Tahari the other day. It took about three hours and it doesn't look so great here with the evening yellow-y cast over it but it is good eatin'! Hear??

KIDS PERFORMING AT SCHOOL FOR UN DAY:

Here is my Lulu in the front with the Omani outfit. Her school put on QUITE a performance for the 3rd Annual UN Day Concert. Her part was at the end for the Parade of Nations, and Ali performed in the themed A Night With The Stars. She looked beautiful with her stuff on and holding the Omani flag. Jill taught me well as I was able to put on her jewelry and veils by myself! The second night, she chose to sit in the audience with me while Ali performed. There are 65 nationalities at the ABA and yesterday, the 18th of November is Oman's National Day and His Majesty's birthday.

Here is a sweet picture of Amal on the right with her two friends; Farah from Malaysia in her national dress and Charlotte from Holland. Aren't they beautiful??!!

The second night's performance, Ali sang backup of a Hindi song for this talented young girl. The song is Taare Zameen Par.

BAKING!:

Ahhh, now, for this beauty! The roses were difficult and frustrating! It took a lot to get my icing just right. Finally, I got it and successfully made these. My friend made the center one.

My two friends Laila from Time for Tea and Isra from Sew 2B Happy could not make it for a tasting today (Thursday, Happy Bday Lulu!!), you can join me for the next one! I then picked up lovely Paulina from school yesterday, with my two, and Larissa, her mom, met us at home with Duncan Donuts! The kids had the donuts and Larissa and I had my cake and a VERY strong cup of coffee! Sorry Papi (my dad), Soy Colombiana y no puedo hacer una taza de cafe! L and I had fun on the computer ;0 and she liked my cake so much she told me that we should open a cafe!!??

Here is Larissa with a piece and very, VERY happy!!

MMMMMMMMmmmmm good!

BACK TO SEWING!:

Then, I took the kids to Cafe Ceramique and froze my butt off man! We had a great time and when we got home and the kids went to bed, Uki was waiting for me to get back to sewing! Where is my hubby in all this? He left for Dubai for a few days for the Dubai Golf Cup.

So, lots more happened this week but I don't have pics so will omit! Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Poor Ali had a fever and a throat infection! But, before all that...

Ali is in 5th grade. He is a cool (and now sick =[) kid. I figured that I could "share" this with his class. Wow! I have new guinea pigs! The teacher was the most excited! Cute!

Here is another view. I need to practice to become better! Anyone want to volunteer to receive my baked beauties!?

Have a great weekend.

Prince Andrew was in town and at our school!

Here is Amal after the first two pieces are put on. The gold you see on her head are real gold.
A scarf is put on and my dear friend, Jill, is putting on for size the piece that goes under the chin. We ended up not putting it on as it would put permanent holes in the delicate fabric and we just could not do that. Then a second scarf is laid on top and hangs over as you see below. It is pinned in!!
My friend Jill is the Julia Al Zadjali, director of the COD (Center for Omani Dress) here in Muscat and she was my expert in dressing my beautiful girl! Thank you Jill!!! muaahhh!!
Here are a bunch of dudes in suits and HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York talking to Mrs. Mona Nashman Smith, the ABA's (America British Academy and the school my kids go to) Superintendent talking at the end of his visit. I do know that the men in the formal Omani attire are Oman's Secret Service. Cool huh??
Here is a closer look.
And here she is. I am such a proud Mama!! You can see just under her green scarf a long necklace. This is also real gold and all thanks to my lovely SIL Hanaa for letting us borrow all the gold.

Here we are in the car and yes, I am taking a picture with my iPhone while driving. Poor thing was so hungry as she did not get the chance to eat lunch so we ran to the grocery store and bought her some Sushi. She LOVES it!! I thought it was such a cool contrast of the Omani girl eating Sushi, so snap!! That would make a nice name for a quilt!! Have a look at the handwork and detail! Beautiful!!

For my family: Ali went home with Jill for the duration of this event! Then, I ran and picked him up after we went to the store.

Celebrity Friends!

My dear friend from high school has become a bit of a celebrity in the last years. He is the character known as DJ Lance Rock from the Yo Gabba Gabba show run on Nickelodeon in the States. He is a busy man indeed and his sister keeps me in touch with what he is up to! He did an extended concert tour in Australia in the summer and then got to go home to where he grew up. His sister Kelly arranged for Lance to bring me two tshirts of the show for my babies.

He is such a doll!
He is perfect I tell ya for this role and I am so happy for him. You know when you 'hit' it big when this happens....

BRAD PITT dressed up as him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my!!! Check out the rest of the pics at this site. Enjoy!!

edited: I started this post early this morning and had to leave it to get on with the day. I am back and lost my patience trying to find pics of the kids with the T-shirts kelly and lance sent so will be posting them again. Perhaps I posted on Facebook instead??