New craft

New to me, I've seen people doing this craft everywhere on the net for quite some time, but I never had the oppurtunity to try it, since I couldn't find the tools here.

So recently I went on a trip to Dubai ( one of my top favorite cities in the world) and ofcource I had to pay a visit to the scrapbooking shop that I went to before and loved " paper lane" , and next to it there was a crafting shop filled with materials for sewing , embroidering and knitting. And there it was, all I needed to start trying :
NEEDLE FELTING.. sorry I didn't mean to shout , I am just so excited lol

So I got the basic stuff, needles and an assortment of wool in yummy colors.
And today I made my first attempt..

First I did the base.. stabbing the piece of wool repetedly , being carefull not to stab my finger :P

then adding the other colors layer by layer...

till u get the look u want...which , in my case a babushka : D

a tiny little one..

So what do u think?

Playing with barbie

When I was young, I loved Barbie dolls, I got the house of Barbie ( the big three pieces one ) on Eid one year, and I kept growing my collections of dolls, furniture and clothes till I ended up with a box full of them. I enjoyed playing with them, alone or with a friend, I kept making up stories and dressing them up in a way I would love to dress when I get older. I played with my toys till i was around 14 maybe, and then gave them up to my then young cousins to play with when they visited, but unfortunatley they were all ruined.

When my little princess got old enough to hold a barbie doll, she started getting them, and other brands too. she had fulla, brats ,HSM dolls and some un identified dolls. she didn't know how to play yet, but I enjoyed the look of them in her room.

And now since she is nearly 8 , she is starting to really get into Barbie. she didn't really like playing with the other dolls that much.
So I joined in, and in times seem like I took over that project, and made it a mission to collect as many furniture and clothes as we can manage , it seems like they are not the fashion anymore, we can only find limited choices and those we find are very expensive.

I bought original barbie furniture, and ones made cheaply for similar dolls, and mixed and matched. Still planning on making whatever is missing.

The princess loved playing with them, and I join her sometimes. so far we are having the house in the bottom shelves of my living room expidit units. good place, good room-size and cheap rent lol

 she had a ken and toy story Barbie engagement party one day

Then arranged and designed the wedding herself..Mom and I had to sew her the wedding dress and the "Thobe" for ken since it was a saudi wedding ( not cuz it was easier to sew :P ) it was amazing mashallah, but he looked kinda funny lol ( those arm chairs were mine since I was young, I got them from my cousin)

We are still looking for more fun things to buy.. But for now, we are loving what we have.

So do you enjoy playing with Barbie dolls?

pirate party .. Arrrghhh

I had a lot of fun preparing for this party, I honestly have lots of fun preparing for any themed party!

First of all the invitations.. printed mini treasure maps , stained and hand written the invites on the back, scrolled and tied with red embroidery floss, printed skull pirate , punched out and made as stickers , filled a bit of a small glass tube with sand (from the kiddos school art project!) the assembled.

The decorations.. store -bought skeleton pirate, the barrel was made using two plastic waste baskets, taped and painted. I put a white bed sheet on the window to hide as much as possible of the flowery curtains, and cut the black skull from a sheet of cardstock. made the banner using printed images from the net.

The little pirates costumes..they were asked to come wearing only dark pants and striped shirts, I provided the rest for them.. treasure chest, eye patch,scarf and hat, sword, telescope, vest and even a mini parrot.

the food.. we had broasted chicken and coleslaw, and lots of soft drinks and suspicious looking bottles :P ,and I decorated a strange looking cake !

the games.. We had fishing game, sinking ship game , throwing cannonballs on objects game(dunno what u call it) we walked the plank and fired some colorful bombs and gathered treasures , and danced on pirate music all day long

the goody bags....for big and little pirates

Magical day, I just wish I can share the grownup costumes, very creative mashallah ;)

I'm out of excuses..!

I think after a few years of continous posting, I am starting to find it harder to post something new.
Time is really passing so quickly sometimes I mix up dates thinking we r still on sunday when we r on tuesday ! And no this is not a sign of old age lol, even though I am a year older now, I celebrated my 36th Birthday with my family over lunch on April. How do I feel? a year older !
I somehow forgot what happened between the last time I was here and now, but the major thing was throwing a pirate themed party at my place, we are a pirate loving family, and we were somehow celebrating the soon to be out Pirates of the Carribean 4 movie, it was a hit and we had a blast..!

Some pictures:

more on the details in another post inshallah.

We also went to a very nice flower festival in Aramco with my uncle, it was much better than I ever imagined it would be, and the weather was great.. Good memories, of a marvelous time .

I also had a small trip to Cairo where I met friends and enjoyed a nice weekend, joined the gym for the thousand times, got sick then sicker then sick again 7amdillah. The kiddo had chicken pox.. No wonder I didn't post anything lol.

But good things happened all the time mashallah, had a visit from friends, went out and enjoyed ourselves, crafted and decorated and did some baking again.. Life is good 7amdilla.

And now with summer vacation starting, we have plans and projects sure to keep the kids and us moms entertained and busy.. But more on that once we start inshallah.


Till then have a good day :)

Trying my hands at papercutting

I always wanted to try it, it looked very delicate and nice whenever i saw it on someone else's blog.
And for those who don't know what I am talking about, papercutting is an ancient chinese craft, using small scissors or craft knifes to cut a shape in detail, to end up with a lace-looking paper.

I went online and googled it, ended up with a few patterns , printed one out and tried it. I fell in love !
I'm usualy a very nervous, in a hurry kind of crafter, small details get me tenced, but with this craft, I had to slow down and concentrate, to me it felt like fishing.. Slowly and patiently you can get what you are aiming for, and it was soothing.

This is what I worked on ,half way there..

The end result..

Then the end of it...

I bought a laminating machine some time ago, and thought of giving it a try with my masterpiece since |i wanted to preserve it for a long time, in went the paper and never came out.. I waited.. waited...waited...
then i decided to go in, opened up the machine and pulled the paper hard till I could get it out. :(

Lesson learned: never try a machine out for the first time with a precious thing :S
Anyways they all said it looked like a hand fan, and that is after I ironed it so hard..!

So I didn't give up, I looked for more patterns , printed out a few and this time tried cutting them on a piece of cardstock, so this way I will have a more durable verision and I will use them inshallah to decorate the area over the sofa in my living room.. Stay tuned.

Right now I am painting the kiddo's room... Hopefully we will not move houses just after I am done like we usualy do  :P unless it is to be with my husband :P

A day to remember

In the middle of the sadness we were in , we all needed a change, a big one. Something to take our minds off thinking and crying and getting ourselves more sad.

My youngest uncle, and my cousin both bought Harley-Davidson bikes, and they were joining a Harley ralley in Aramco camp, so my other uncle (Bless him) decided to take us ladies with him to watch, and it was amaaaazing .. One of the best days I have evenr lived recently.

All those bikes, in one place, and we can have a good look, take pictures, try riding on them and listen to the musical sound of their engines.. Heaven!

We styaed there for a while, enjoyed the bikes, had lunch and even attended some live music, which was good mashallah, and a new thing to me..

I left the place feeling upset, like a kid being taken away from his favourite toy shop, but I had many great memories in my mind about that day. And inshallah it will be a first of many to come.
Thanks to the guys in my family for making this dream come true :) Love you all

The month with all the sad news..

7amdillah, so far it is a month that had too much sadness, after my uncle's sudden death Allah yir7amu, we received the news my stepfather passing away last week. He was sick with cancer, but it didn't kill him, he died with something else, and suddenly too.. Allah yir7amu, he was a great step dad for me, treated me just like his own and loved me a lot. I loved him too, but after him splitting up with my mom we weren't close to each other, but I am thankful that I talked to him one last time in his final days..


I know too much sadness gets me into depression , and I am struggling with that as it is, but we have a belief that they are all in better place inshallah, and that they would have wanted us to be happy and move on with life.. Life goes on and they will always be in our hearts.


It wasn't all sad news, I did a very interesting thing too , something I always wished for and enjoyed it to the max.. But I feel my stepfather deserves a whole post, so I will talk about that later on inshallah.

May you rest in peace, you will be forever in our hearts.. I love you.