"An Italian Evening"

 There was an Opera at the kid's school on Halloween!  How strange this year we did not get into any of the Holidays.  However, I did whip out all my Halloween quilts and some decorations.  Here it is Christmas Eve and nothing is out!  I called my Mom tonight and she is doing well.  So is my Dad.  So, I'm happy!

This performance was very interesting.  It is featuring:

Wilma Vernocchi, soprano

David Posnett, piano (and the kid's music teacher at the Sultan school)

and

The 'Muscat String Quartet'

The coolest thing, of course, was to meet Ms. Vernocchi!

Thanks for stopping by!

How to Eat a Shwarma!

It's Christmas Eve!!!!  Merry Christmas everyone whom is celebrating it!  My family high tailed it to Orlando, Florida!!  To Disneyland.  How fun!

I took pics a while ago of how to eat a shwarma.

I can eat two with a drink...

This is the bottom

This is the top

You take the top and rip it a few inches...

Uncover the bread..

Once the paper is off, begin to eat...

this pic is blurry...

this pic is better.  you have pickle, chicken (it comes with meat also), fries, garlic sauce, some places have tobasco, which i do not like.

take a drink.

oh, another bite shot...

once down to the paper, unwrap some more...

eat...

unwrap

eat already!!  haha

all done!

eat the next one!! 

You are now a pro at eating what is commonly called THE ARAB TACO!!  

Tasty

Cheap

Fast

I'm back!!!!!.....

Hello Everyone!  How are you?  I've been away for so long!  Thank you to those of you sweet people out there that checked on me.  It was and is very sweet!!

I don't know where to begin to catch you all up!  I guess the best thing is just to follow the pics in my library!  How's that for a timeline!!

I'm sprucing up my Eid dress!

Eid al Adha is coming up around November 6th.  Why don't I know for sure?  Because we go by the Moon and can't quite be exact until closer to the time.

Last Eid, I had two dresses made.  They were fabrics given to me by my bud Isra, but a bit plain.  So, what is a girl to do to embellish fabric?  Go Crystal shopping!

This is the scarf that I will wear on my head.  It is so pretty and simple which is not conducive to Eid.  There should be some major bling!

Here is Uki helping me yet again!  

She should wear this as it looks better on her!  Brings out her eyes! ;-)

I bought light sapphire blue swarovski crystals and larger golden ones.  It looks smashing!  It was a long process though!  Tomorrow I will finish the dress.  I will embellish the neck line and the sleeves!  I think I will wear a mixture of blue and purple eyeshadow which means I have to go shopping for blue! Maybe I'll go with grey???  Hmmm...

I bought this tool a few years ago with my Mom.  I paid 20 OR (Omani Rials) which is a little less than $60.  I finally used it!

Here is the pile of blue...

Here is the pile of the golden or topaz...

I'll show the dress when done.

I am still working on my Peek A Boo quilt.  I did a cool loopy meander but now don't know what to do with the barns....

Learning Tanbura

Here is my daughter learning another song (three in total) called Tanbura for a performance.  The place is buzzing with so many musicians gearing up for that one big night.  This took hours to upload to you tube, don't know why.  It is 4:22 long so this will be the only thing I post.  Let it download and then watch it as it is a 'busy' video.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ok.  So I posted another picture!  This is another day with W the Qanoonist and A with the drums.  I can only see my A but I think another girl is there.  The man standing is the director and he has an ear!!!  OMG!!  Of course, he would HAVE to as a musician and running the place; but he heard everyone's pieces and where they went wrong IF they went wrong!  Anyway, in the end both the two men sitting performed with the girls.  So cool!

My daughter practicing with various people for a performance...

My beautiful daughter A was learning three traditional Omani tunes and with these first three pictures; we were not sure if she would be 'accepted' to perform or not.  She had to prove herself.  That kid learned all three songs (rather short I might add but THREE!) in one night and by three different people.  ONE!

Here we have Khalid, the sweetest man, teaching her a tune.  For two weeks we went up to the Association almost every night.  I felt like I had neglected my Ali and he felt it too but it was all worth it in the end.  She DID get to perform on October 8, 2011.

Meet Rajaa...

Laila....I haven't really dealt with her but she takes pictures and video taped the performance.

These are two of the four girls with A.  J in the middle is a sweetheart.  T on the right is also nice but a bit shy and reserved and doesn't speak much English but I could make her smile, which makes me happy!  J is the strongest or best female Oudist in Oman.

Here is Rajaa with some dude that played the TABLAH or some kind of Arabic drum.  Give me a break people, I am still learning and not just in one language but TWO!!  With my A is S.  She is the last one to make up the four girls that play the Oud in Oman.

They brought in another dude to help the girls with one of the three songs.  He was trying to figure it out as this is a traditional song usually sung by women in female only gatherings as I understand it and he is just remembering it before he taught my A.  I hope you realize that my kids and myself have never listened to any traditional Arab music in their short lives.  So, whereas most of the people that are born into this; they know the tunes but we don't.  I'm terribly impressed by A.  She rocks!

Then, we got a violinist and two other percussionists!  The tall dude on the end closest to me ended up playing the double bass for the performance.  It was so cool.  I have another video but they take for freakin' ever to upload so I will add it later.  It was terribly exciting for both A and myself to hear all this live!

Here is one of the three songs in partial called WAYLIYAH or ويليه .

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll dedicate the next few posts to the process of this experience!  I'm off to hang with myself (heehee) in front of the TV.  I haven't watched TV for such a long time!

I like how Amal rocks back and forth when she plays.  It's cute.  Also, isn't the drum cool?  Listen to that bass!  It is an equally beautiful piece of work!

Misty Mystery Quilt....FINISHED!

A long time ago, I'm thinking almost a YEAR??? I joined in on a Mystery Quilt.  I had done 2 before and knew that I would enjoy this!  As I attempt to fill the house with seasonal and themed quilts; I searched the market and to my surprise found a bunch of American Patriotic fabrics!  I'm a bit particular but these appealed to me.

I first posted about this project and made the first clue here.

The first date I can see is December 13, 2010.  Yikes!  I started late too!

Anyway, about a year I had to make this quilt and save the first clue; I did it all in two weeks!  The last two weeks!  So, get a cup and enjoy the show!!

Here I got into PDO to use the craft room to use their huge tables for easier-on-my-back basting.

I'm just showing you how I used masking tape to tape down the backing.  I pieced it together and am really pleased as I used everything from what I had bought so long ago.

This fabric with the hearts above was given to me generously by Sylvie before summer.  It was'nt quite enough so I had to figure it out!

And here it is!  I took the left part which was the Mystery part and it just screamed AMERICAN FLAG to me so I tried my best to make it so.  The only reservation I have is that the stripes are too short.  They should be wider in my brain.  But, I used what I had and that was not enough to make it longer.  Still, all-in-all, I am very pleased with it!

When I finished and was sitting in my car; after the shock of getting over the fact that I ran out of basting pins and was on my way to Jean's to get more to finish basting at home....I saw this view.

and just sat there watching the little white boat sail right by.

I did not bother taking the masking tape off and inadvertently; sewed some in, while quilting!!!

Uki, of course, had to 'help' me and was checking out those very cool pins!

I pre-wound 5 bobbins and only used 3.5!

I decided that since the quilt in itself was SOOOOOO loud in many ways; I did not need a difficult quilting pattern so also, with the time restriction, I chose to do a large meander!

I also chose blue thread.  I am glad that I did.

I had a little basket I made with leftover French Braid fabric and my Bose with iPod on my iPhone and was jamming along as I quilted.

When I was ready to do the binding; Uki plunked down and scared me so bad I took a photo and yes, before i closed the blade.  Look how cute she spreads out her back legs!

So, as I cut off the raw edge of the red bit; I threw it on her and she eventually started flipping all over the table!

Here is the binding all done.  I used what I had.  What I wanted was to have the binding be all blue with just a strip of red but in the end; used red and blue and a strip of the red/white/blue fabric which worked out so beautifully!  Love it!

As I was putting on the binding; it poked myself!  Ouch!

Uki found the left over batting and made herself at home!

Here it is, all done!  I'm so pleased!

Here is the backing of the quilt.  I did not have enough of the blue heart flag fabric so I used what I had of the other stuff to piece it together.  I like things to be asymmetrical and realized that my husband DOES NOT!  HOW did that man end up with me??  The only thing he said about this quilt is, ok, two things..."Why haven't you made a wall hanging for that spot?" and "What is that on the back?  Is that a design?  Of WHAT?????!!!!" LOL!!

After the kids were done helping me to photograph the quilt; Amal threw herself down on it and proceeded to have a long discussion with me.  I tried to bribe her to measure it for the final measurement and she eventually did so but I forgot to write it down!

All folded up and ready to be taken in, in a few minutes!  It will be displayed with all the other Mystery Quilt participants and then a Viewer's Choice will be done!

As always, thanks for stopping by; it has been a while.  I have been busy with this but I should be getting some professional pictures of my daughter and will post on that.  THAT is what kept me away for so long!  Come back soon for sure!

PS.  I missed linking up to Amanda Jean's over at Crazy Mom Quilts linky party for FINISH IT UP FRIDAY, WEEK 1; so I entered just in time for week 2!!