Mothers and Olives

Well, since my last post about how much I look like my mother, I have accumulated a few more photos as proof.

This is my Mom, my Grandma and my Aunt Sharon

I look exactly like my Mom and my cousin Laura looks exactly like my Aunt Sharon!  What do you guys think?

On a different note:  I visited Andrew's friend's mom tonight.  We usually get together once a week.  I learned tonight that even though I have been here for almost a year and have gone on many visits in that time, I am still surprised by some of the things that happen on those visits.  This is my surprise from tonight:

That's right, a jinormous jar of olives!  I don't know how I end up bringing things like this home with me, but I do know that Andrew and I will be eating olives everyday for the next month :)

Infinity Scarf

This past week I have been working on some product samples for the co-op here that I lead a sewing training for during Ramadan.  There is a company in the States that is interested in buying large quantities of their sewing line, but they needed to send them some samples.  So, this week I have been busy making some samples for them.  I have found it rather challenging to make cute things out of old clothes.  The guy in charge of the co-op, really likes for the products to still look like clothes, which I am not a huge fan of.  But somehow I made due and I am pretty pleased with the results.  This is not everything, but just a couple of things that I liked.

A headband for a little girl.  Ruffles made from old T-shirts

An owl made from old cashmere sweaters

With all this sewing that I wasn't too big a fan of, I needed to make something I thought was cute.  I have seen a lot online about infinity scarves.  It's hard to find cute fabric here, and it's definitely hard to find long pieces of cute fabric.  So, I decided a patchwork infinity scarf made from pieces of fabric I already had from the States would  be cute.  Finished it up yesterday and I think it turned out pretty cute.

And, here's a bonus picture that needed to be posted because I think I look exactly like my mother in this picture.

Kinda freaky huh?  Like mother like daughter...

Next week, (this Friday) Andrew and I are heading to Kenya!  I'm pretty excited about going, it's going to be a lot cooler there, so my new scarf will be great :)  Also we'll have some good pictures to show when we get back.  We're heading to Kenya on a retreat and then on our way back we're stopping off in another country where we hope to move to next year.  We're going to scout the place out, so keep us in your "thoughts" over the next couple of weeks and keep checking back for new pictures and updates on how things went :)

Craft Time!

Since my sewing class, I have been feeling very craftsy (I'm not sure the right adjective to use, it's not crafty is it...).  I have also newly discovered a great website, Pinterest.  A friend from college told me about it, and I have barely been able to pull myself away from it since.  It's got so many great ideas of how to do things and helps you keep up with all of your craft ideas.  It is especially great since I am living overseas and if I want anything cute, I've got to make it myself.

Enough with all the prelude, here's some of the stuff I've been making lately.

Sorry not the best lighting.  Here are two pillows that I made for our bedroom.  The bigger one was inspired from here.  I really love the ruffles and I think it looks like something you could easily buy in a store somewhere.  The smaller pillow was inspired from here.  The blue fabric I used was extra that I had from our curtains, so the pillow really ties in the whole room.  Not quite as professional looking because you can see some of the hot glue that I used on the flowers, but I still love it! 

I have been on a bit of pillow kick lately because they are just so cute, really make a place homey and yours and most importantly because they are quick to sew so you get immediate results.  I have thoughts for more pillows to come, but I really need to figure out where in town they sell stuffing for pillows.

I finished a project today that I have been excited about for a week or so.  I have been wanting to make a wreath for our door, but, since no one here has ever even heard of a wreath, it's been a bit of a struggle to get the supplies needed.  It has been and adventure, and we've been in stores and in parts of town that we've never been before so that has been a good thing as well :)

Since I can't just run to Hobby Lobby and buy a wreath foam, I had to find another route to go.  Thankfully I found this idea online.  So today Andrew and his local friend headed off to a hardware store to buy some kind of plumbing foam. I cut it to the length I wanted and duck taped the ends together to make a circle.  Worked out pretty good!  But I was just so excited that our small town had this particular plumbing foam.

The inspiration for my wreath came from here.  When I saw it, I fell absolutely in love!  People here don't have wreathes and everyone in my building will probably think I'm the crazy white lady now, but oh well.  I love it and it makes it feel more like home to me :)  There are fabric rosettes on the bottom of my wreath.  Because the plumbing foam is not quite as strong as a Hobby Lobby wreath foam, it was sagging quite a bit. To help with the sagging, I tied a ribbon around the bottom of the circle and the top.  Since the ribbon is behind my bow, it is not so visible.  Either way, it is better than a sagging wreath.

So, here it is!  I love it!

Sorry the last one is on it's side.  Also, there are no door wreath hangers here, so I had to improvise.  I put a nail on the top inside of the door, and ran a ribbon up over the door and tied it to the nail.  I think it works pretty nicely.

So, what do you guys think?  I have the prettiest door in the whole building? :)

Here are just some bonus pictures of Andrew and I: