Every Western expat's least favorite word. It means "God willing" and if you're living in the Middle East, you will hear it a lot.
It's definitely an adjustment to hear Insh'Allah in reference to anything future tense. It's like how we'd say "Hopefully" before something we want to happen, except Insh'Allah is all the time. It's especially annoying when you get the impression that it really means, "Yeah yeah, I'll get to it when I get to it." You can let it drive you crazy, or you can add it to your own vocabulary.
In an effort to fully embrace the Insh'Allah expat lifestyle, I embroidered a friend a little bit of Insh'Allah to keep nearby in her kitchen.
I needed some sanity time the other day so I finally started a craft project I meant to start on Day One in Abu Dhabi.
It's a little garland made of tokens... one for each day spent in this new life overseas. Considering that I'm slated for more than 700 days... it's probably going to be quite long. I'll have to figure something out.
The felt is a mix of wool felt and Eco felt I brought from the states. I wish I liked the Eco stuff a bit better... it's difficult to cut crisply without super sharp scissors.
I'm still settling into life in Abu Dhabi. Not much time for crafting yet as I've been living in a hotel for the past month. I'm finding a few supplies around town, but mostly of the glitter and feathers variety. Soon I can dip into the supplies I brought from home. In the meantime, check out this lovely new masthead from Julia.
On my last productive day (crafting wise) in the states I set to work making Julia a tote bag for her piano music. She requested a market bag in gold and showed me a few examples of what she liked. I knew this would be last sewing project for awhile so I wanted it to be simple enough yet challenge my skills. After thinking it through (very informally) for a few days I decided I definitely wanted to use piping on the sides and add a gusset. This was my first attempt at making my own pattern/design and not following anyone’s tutorials (which the exception of this apron which was a combination).
I’m really excited and think it turned out quite well. The bag is reversible with gold and gray stripes on one side and a muted beige and cream on the other. I turned a little mishap into a design feature when I ran out of length for the straps. I pieced the two fabrics together to create the full length and like the way the two patterns blend when the bag is worn.
I think a white “wishing flower” (dandelion) would look lovely fabric painted to the widest gray stripe. Similarly, fabric paint on the more muted fabric would look lovely as well. Knowing my (timid) artistic skills and knowing Julia’s (fabulous) artistic skills… I left that task to her discretion.
In addition to the tote bag, I whipped up a little tiny bonus box bag using the same material. I just love these little things.
A few weeks ago my mom and I headed out to the local peach orchard, picked 20lbs of peaches, and had them canned by noon. I love those kind of mornings.
My scout in Abu Dhabi mentioned she had a hard time finding cloth napkins. When I combined this information with the knowledge that Stitchcraft is selling it's remaining fabric at $5 a yard... I settled on a quick little project to keep myself busy during the Great Wait of '09.
During this project I abandoned the style of corners I had been so excited about this spring. Now, instead of snipping off the raw corners, I just fold the fabric over. This way I don't have exposed raw edges if the sides don't line up correctly. (Except reading the tutorial again, that's pretty much what it's telling you to do... I just didn't follow it from memory very accurately!)
It seems a little silly to pack your own cloth napkins... but they certainly don't weigh much. And you just never know when you might need one...
