Hangin' Around.....

So what do you do when it's 50 degrees C. or 120+ F. in the the middle of August?

We go to the pool a lot....for short periods of time.  Today we ran over after work for a 30 minute swim.   It's too hot for me to be out there too long, but a dip feels nice.   Last week, I went with Min and a friend and I decided to try something special for you.

Here I am getting ready.  I'm trying to position myself correctly.  You'll see in just one minute.

 Introducing your Olympic synchronized swimming star.  I finally got one arm in the air. 

That took a lot of work.  

Ummm.....alright, I can do it.  And she gets 2 arms in the air......then she starts to drown.  

Not a good thing when working on being an Olympic star.

I decided that it's best if I stick with these sort of things!

 

Getting my nails done!  We can mostly only do indoor activities right now since it's about 1 bajillion degrees outside.  Trey and I are off on a fun vacation this week (more to come about that) so a trip to the nail salon was definitely needed for my toes and nails.

I decided to get crystal gel on my nails tonight since it is supposed to last for 3 weeks and help them to grow a bit.  I couldn't resist and I must leave you with this video. 

And I look too good to be wearing this.....

I want to introduce you to a friend of ours. His name is Mr. Saleem and he is our tailor here.  We love Mr. Saleem because he makes clothing that we love for about 1/3 of the price that we could buy it.  I had a few dresses made, a skirt and a shirt for my vacation to the States.  If you bring him a picture or something you already have, he can make it so well.  You can even draw him a picture and he'll do it.

So when I was in Lebanon, I found this great store that I loved but every dress was over $200.  I wanted 3 dresses in there.  I took the catalog from the store home with me.  2 weeks ago I went and bough the fabric at our favorite 3-story fabric shop.   You can either show them the picture and they will direct you towards the best fabric or you can search around the store on your own until you find something that you like.  Last week, I brought my handy dandy catalog with me, showed them the dresses and they directed me to the basement where I found the lightweight cotton I needed along with a jersey stretch fabric that was necessary. 

Then I was off to Mr. Saleem with my catalog and new fabric.  I'm always a bit nervous to see how it actually turns out.  One of the dresses needed a crooked pleat across the front but he did it well.  When we have our initial talk about what I want made there are a lot of words flying around like "same-same" (this means that you want it exactly the same) and this last time he kept saying to me "self-same" (he used this word to mean the fabric should all be one color).  Sometimes I get nervous about all the same-same and self-same stuff......I am wondering if the product will come out in any way the SAME-SAME as I have in my head.  Was that the correct usage of the word?!

Then I couldn't find the exact ribbon I needed for around the waist, but he took 2 ribbons and made his own rendition which turned out okay in my mind. Not my favorite, but okay.

Didn't he do well with the ruffles? 

 We've become professionals at changing in the car since he doesn't have a changing room.  He used to --well, that is debatable as it was barely big enough for me to remove a dress over my head without hitting my arms on the ceiling, but it was still a place to change.  It's a good thing we have tinted windows here on the car:)

This is dress #2.  You can't tell but it's a jersey knit at the top with a crooked pleat along the front. It's a cute dress but the ribbon isn't exactly how I wanted it to be. That's not his fault, it just doesn't exist here.  At home it would be super easy to find, but then again we wouldn't be living in the Middle East if EVERYTHING was EASY to find.

Anyway, tonight, I decided to bring my dresses home for the final try-on and I loved them.  My favorite is the navy dress with ruffles.  He did those with flat fabric. It's amazing.  He did such a great job.  Dress number 2 is fine also and if I wear a sweater over it and a scarf around the neck I think I will like it more. 

So, each dress turned out to be roughly $40-$50 for the fabric and the tailor.  Not so bad from $200+ to that.  I'd say I won on this one.  1 point for Jessie.

I'm a chiquita banana......

This weekend, Min made 2 good recipes.  She made a chopped salad that had radish, green onion, cucumber, hot pepper, chickpeas, dill and yogurt. She chopped it all up and then added the yogurt in.  It was really tasty and we ate it with chicken from the grill.

Then we needed a treat.  We always need treats actually.  Min froze banana halves.  Then she melted all natural peanut butter in the microwave and covered the bananas with it.  Then drizzled melted chocolate on top.  Mmm...mmm. Tasty.  They weren't the prettiest looking dessert you ever ate, but they tasted good. I guess that is if you like bananas, peanut butter and chocolate.  If you don't like them, you lose.   And I have one more left in the freezer!

She's like the wind.....

 

 Last night, our hospital Social Activities committee sponsored ice skating at a local rink here.   We had a lot of fun but almost none of us know how to ice skate really well. In the beginning, more than half of the group was holding on to the side wall but eventually everyone let go and were moving right along. 

It's funny that I was trying to help people skate as I can barely stay up myself. I was working on teaching myself how to skate backwards last night.  Not so good at that one.

I need a little help from Nancy Kerrigan. 

Wave Your Flag

Check out this matching bunting for those ball jar lids I put up yesterday.

The craft paper we used for those ball jar lids came in a package and we decided to use the rest of that paper to make some bunting.

To make this you first need to decide how large you want your bunting flags to be. We decided to do small flags because we had small scrap booking paper squares.

First, fold your paper in half and use a ruler to decide how large the flag should be. Cut the flag out and leave the center fold (do not cut on the fold).

Be sure you find paper that you like- if you don't like the paper before you make the bunting you sure won't like it after!

Your flags should look like these- with a fold in the center. 

Using craft string fill the fold of the flags with glue and place the string in the center of the flag. Put just a dab of glue at the tip of the flag to keep the edges closed together. Continue this over and over again alternating your paper colors. Be sure to measure the space between each flag so that your bunting is evenly spaced.

Here is your final product! Let them dry lying flat before you try to hang them.

 Find a place to hang your bunting for your next party!

Rock, Paper, Scissors......

Yesterday when we got home from work, we realized that we forgot the computer in the car. 

A) We love the computer and B) it's too hot to leave things like that in your car here. So one of us had to go get it.  Who would it be?  Remember, it's about 1 bajillion degrees here so nobody likes to go outside more than they have to.  I had taken my sweater off and had a tank top on so I couldn't do it and Trey was wearing his European swim bikini (just kidding but I can't remember what he had on) so both of us were dressed inappropriately for letting the world see us.  Although, it would be funny to have Trey run outside in a European swim bikini and see what passer-by's do.

So do you know what we do when one of us has to go get something but NEITHER of us want to do it?  We play rock, paper, scissors.  It's a fair and easy way to solve the problem.  You really can't complain when you lose.  We have done this since the beginning of our marriage and for some reason I just stink at RPS. I know that you can't really practice but I try:)  I lose almost every time.  But lately I've been on a winning streak. 

Yesterday, I lost AGAIN!  Since I had a tank top on, there was a towel close by and Trey threw it at me to throw over my soldiers. I was laughing.  Back home you would take me to the loony house if I came outside with long pants, a tank top and a towel around my shoulders.  But not here. 

I think all the taxi men still stared at me anyway because my hair was lookin' SOOOO good after sweating all day.

Ball jar idea.......

I was scanning through some websites one day and found this great idea for a party. It's rather simple and inexpensive to create.  You start with different colors/patterns of paper and Ball jars.  

Trace the lid onto the papers. I got 4 out of each paper I was using. I used origami paper. 

We laminated ours so that we can wash them and reuse them for other parties. If you don't care about reusing them, you don't even need to laminate them. 

Punch a hole into them for the straw.  Stick them inside the lid with the patter facing out. 

I think we may add a little ribbon around the jar for an extra touch.

Wa-La!  you have your drink in a Ball jar.  Fun and easy way to decorate a party. 

Try not to let your husband assist in the matter......or you'll end up with pictures like this. 

Real good lookin'.