Christmas Swap Owls

I mentioned not too long ago that I am participating in an ornament swap that is being sponsored by Sarah of the blog Small Fox. The thing that drew me into this particular swap was Sarah's pictures of the ornaments she's made for swaps in the past. I loved her style. I also love the idea of receiving ornaments that other's have handmade. Even though this can be a busy time of year, I decided that making ornaments would put me in the mood for other present making. I am trying to have a more "handmade" type of Christmas this year...it turns out that is easier to say than to do. So my contributions to the swap are done now. Clearly from the 7 pictures in this post, I had fun doing a little owl photo shoot even though it was cold outside. So now my little ornaments are all ready to send in the mail. I did make a few extras, 8 extras to be precise. I kept 3 for myself and the other 5 are now at Bungalow Bay where hopefully they will find owners to love them and take them home so they can be a part of an annual Christmas tree just as mine will be. It will be fun to share with you the ornaments I receive in the swap...already there is a flickr group going for swap participants to share photos of their creations, I've just uploaded my pictures. I will be peaking at it every now and again in the next few weeks to see what other people are making, now you can too.

I have a very warm feeling when I think that a year ago I was in a place where I was aching to be a more actively creative person. I had lots of ideas, but I was not acting on them. In the past 11-12 months I have really allowed my creative side to come out. It was a bit intimidating to think of sharing what I was doing on this blog, but it has also been a great source of accountability and inspiration. I think the thing I'm probably the most proud of has been taking the time and effort to learn to sew. I have a long way to go, I'm no where near the seamstress that my Oma was, but I do feel "closer" to her when I sit down at my sewing machine. I wish I could have shared that with her when she was alive, but I think she knows that and is happy for me anyway.

Well, Happy Sunday to you, I hope your weekend was restful and that the week ahead has started well!

Fresh Cut Flower Friday: Barbie Wears a Head Scarf

Okay, so this Friday post has nothing really to do with fresh cut flowers, but it is an interesting story. While in Egypt, we spent an afternoon shopping in Cairo's oldest and most famous bazaar, the Khan Al-Khalili. As we were heading out, I spotted two young Muslim school girls walking arm-in-arm through the market. At that moment my camera was in one of the husband's pockets, so I sort of whisper-yelled for him to quickly get my camera. You see, both of the girls had typical backpacks just like you'd see on any average American school girl, plastic with characters. What caught my eye though was that one of the backpacks was a Barbie backpack and in her headshot on the back of the backpack, Barbie was wearing a head scarf, just like both of the girls. We have all seen Barbie take on many roles over the years, but for me, this was a new one. I didn't know that Barbie had ventured into religion. I thought it was interesting that these two little girls see Barbie as being a Muslim woman who wears a head scarf. Obviously Barbie has been quite controversial at times, the shape of her body and the roles she takes on have been discussed and debated since I was a little girl and I'm sure even before then. If I remember correctly from a special I watched on tv a long time ago, the inspiration for the first Barbie doll even came from a pornographic German doll from the 30's or 40's. I guess for once it's nice to see Barbie decide to take a conservative high road so that she can be a part of the playtime of little girls in the Middle East. It's stuff like this that makes visiting another culture kind of fascinating...I wish I could have seen what Barbie was wearing as an actual doll. Would she take on the more conservative Muslim ideal of a loose, flowing robe, or would she be like the more moderate Muslim girls I saw who wore head scarves with their jeans and tops? Maybe there are different versions...I wasn't in Egypt long enough to find out.

Opposites

It is a windy, rainy, and in general blustery-type of day here today...I woke up with a scratchy throat and I'm starting to have the headache that I went to sleep last night with. Is that enough complaining? Good, because I feel better now that it is out of my system. It's that female I-need-to-vent-not-to-be-fixed thing, I guess. The picture above was taken by the husband when we were in Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. How different that day was than today! It was hot and muggy, but we had a great lunch there and visited some amazing sights!

Egyptian Cotton

I mentioned before I took my trip to Egypt that I wanted to of course get some of their famed cotton while I was there. Well, everyone I talked to informed me that it is really not a good deal there, any where you go to buy it will be overpriced unless you go out into the country and make your purchase at one of the cotton factories. Because it wasn't really an option for us to visit a factory, I decided to look for fabric stores to buy the cotton in, that way the prices would be what a local would pay. I went into fabric stores when we were in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and it was fascinating to me...it's not a normal tourist stop, so the experience of buying fabric gives a bit more of an authentic feel for the culture. The same was true when I found a fabric store in a neighborhood near the Pyramids of Gyza. Just as in Brazil, fabric stores and the garment industry in general are run by men, kind of different from what we are used to here in the states where you typically don't find men in fabric stores unless they are patiently waiting for their wives. (My husband finds himself in this situation pretty frequently, actually!) The two gentlemen who we met in the fabric store pictured below were very friendly, after our purchase, they even asked us to stay for tea...a significant gesture in the Middle East. We of course accepted. Our conversation with them centered on our travels, family - they shared pictures and the husband shared a picture he keeps in his wallet of the stepson, and we even talked a bit about politics (they love Obama, he seems to always get a thumbs up from Egyptians). It was a very neat experience...I went back and forth when deciding whether or not to share the pictures below as part of this post...I don't usuallyshow pictures of myself, or at least not of my face. This blog isn't really about appearances for me, what I look like isn't my focus, I like to talk more about what I do and the things that inspire my creativity. But, in this case, the pictures complete my story and tell about a neat experience I had, one that really shaped the trip for me and made me feel like I had stepped into Egyptian culture. Those two men were fun and even goofy, I was glad that our path crossed their little shop.

Shake Your Booties

First Attempt

Second Attempt

I made these little booties this last weekend from a pattern I found on Heather Bailey's website. They are for a friend's baby that is due this winter. The first pair was my learning curve, they turned out okay, but I was just trying to figure out how to put the pieces together. The second pair is my favorite of the two. They are pretty quick to put together, even with hand stitching. I have thought about sewing them together with my machine and then doing the embellishments by hand, it would make this project even quicker. I want to make more, but right now I am actually trying to make some headway on another project. I am participating in an ornament swap that is being sponsored by Sara at Small Fox. I should have at least a few completed products by the end of the week and I will share photos...until then, here's a little sneak peak at what I'm working on.

Autumn Trip to Leavenworth

dsIt was decided that Friday we would take a day to get out and enjoy the colors of autumn on a day trip to a Bavarian themed village in WA called Leavenworth.
So we set out in the Jeepster for a nice relaxing day.We stocked up on goodies, sweets for the husband and quick-e-mart coffee for me. We made a spur of the moment stop at this farm stand and bought 3 boxes of apples...they were a quite a deal.

It was cold out, a good day for thick tights and cozy Uggs.

When we got to the top of the pass it there was snow on the ground. The trees along the river have changed to rich reds, oranges, and yellows.

The gorgeous color of the trees made up for the grey glumness of the day.

The fog was sitting right on the lower part of the mountains.

We decided on this restaurant for lunch, it was the first time I've been there.German draft beer...don't remember what the name was, Amber something I think.

Beef Rouladin...my Oma used to make this dish when I was a little girl. It was good, but her's was of course better.

Every building in Leavenworth is very much themed out...it all has the look of an old fairy tale.

If you visit during a busy time like Oktoberfest or the Christmas Lightings, there are lots of fun loving Germans that like to wear lederhosen for those special occasions.

Even though the theme of the village is all things Bavarian, there is still a wonderful gelato shop we like to visit when we're there.

One of my favorite things in life is gelato.

After Leavenworth, we make a quick drive over to Cashmere to visit a huge antique and vintage mall there. I think the name of it is Apple Annie's. It is set up to display items from different vendors, so there are lots of interesting specialty "shops" within the mall. The display below was one of my favorites, there was so many great things to look at.

There is something for almost every kind of interest there, I was drawn to the displays of kitchen items, vintage quilts, linens and aprons.

I have a few of these jars in my sewing room for storing little items, I thought about getting a couple more, but in the end I picked out a few other items for the husband to give me for Christmas...obviously I will love my presents that way, even if it's not a big suprise...I picked out a couple of aprons, a delicate hankerchief, and three boards that were part of wooden grape boxes...I think they will look neat hung in my kitchen.

The display below was a set of pews/chairs taken from an old church. They would be neat in an entry way or even in an entertainment room.

I liked checking out the displays of vintage sewing notions and fabrics.

Many of the vendors put obvious effort into making their displays beautiful to look at.

I love the costume jewelry, I can picture my grandmother's wearing pieces like these.

Again, I was drawn in by the beautiful displays.

So some of the things there were a bit too kitschy for my taste, but it was still fun to look!

All in all, it was a very fun day...I made the husband stop the car so I could take a picture of this perfect scene...and to think that there was a time that I didn't find fall to be a beautiful season!

My Little Skeleton

I didn't subject Figaro to a Halloween costume this year, only Bambino. He only wore it for a couple of hours, then the husband noticed he was starting to eat it and it came off...too bad, he looked cute. Isn't it strange how quickly November arrived this year? This autumn has been so pretty, it's hard to believe that winter is right around the corner. Last Friday, we took a day trip out to a town in WA called Leavenworth...the entire town is themed to be a Bavarian village. I like going there to get German food and beer, but the drive over is phenomenal this time of year. I took pictures that I will hopefully share tomorrow! Happy Sunday!