Mama Mona: May 2010

>> Sunday, May 30, 2010

Here's my son today in what he called his dressy clothes. The boy loves his jeans but I told him these were actually quite casual pants and looked nice for the assembly.

>> Saturday, May 29, 2010

Here she is on her special day. She was so happy to have a reason to wear the skirt my mom got her.

The school has a sort of ceremony/assembly to hand out the last report cards of the year. We went for ice cream after.

Here's the bow in her hair, mashaAllah I thought it looked cute.

>> Thursday, May 27, 2010

I wanted to make Salwa a bow for her hair tomorrow. She has her end of the year assembly thing for school. Last week was Safiyah's and all I could manage was a flimsy little bow from a piece of ribbon that came off of some drawstring pants that you can barely see here.

This week I found some rolls of ribbon at a shop near by and was on a mission. It's not great quality but it's all I have so I made do.

I looked up "how to hair bows" on Youtube and found a lot of videos. In the end I just used a combination of methods. Tying the bows then glue-gunning them together and to the hair clips.

These are pretty amateur so no comments on how bad they look, thanks. The girls like them and they match their outfits. I'll take pics of them with their hair done with them in this week.

See? Amateur. But no one sees the back. Except you guys.

Then I got the idea to make a flower pin. I used this tutorial but tweaked it since I wasn't putting it on a stem.

Then I just sewed it to a pin that I had that broke. Where's a Micheal's when you need one?

I love the pin and can't wait to wear it! People will be like, Oh, nice pin! Where'd you get it? and I'll say I made it with my own two hands!

Oh Yeah

>> Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Ear Piercing

>> Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My girls got their ears pierced the other day!

I'd always wanted to wait until they asked for it and they have been talking about it for a while so we started to look for where to get it done. Well, it wasn't easy. There's no Piercing Pagoda or Claire's where they do it, at least not in my area. We were told that pharmacy's do it so we asked in a few...dozen. Nope. A few said to go to the hospital and other's said that jeweler's do that.

Everyone here pierces their daughter's ears when they are newborns and most people I know go have their kids in Cairo or wherever they're from. That's the kind of town Hurghada is. So no one knew a certain place.

Finally we happened to find a pharmacy that had a sign in their door saying they had a piercing gun. We made 3 trips there in the same day, each time they'd tell us that the guy who does it come's at 3, then at 6 then again he wasn't there. Ugh. SO typical of how businesses are run here. Open whenever, no order or organization.

Later, I was with Dawood exchanging some shoes and E had the girls with him. He tried at a jeweler's and the guy said, yep they do 'em. So they did.

Let me tell you, I'm glad I wasn't there. The guy pierced their ears WITH the earing. BY HAND.

The thing that makes it better is that the girls were fine. They said it barely pinched and it took a second. If I had been with them I would have freaked them out. So they picked out their earrings and were so freaking happy. They have these temporary one's in now that are supposed to stay in a week, then they can wear the real ones. We're doing after care and they keep looking in the mirror. I'm really glad we waited because they really appreciate them now and it's kind of a right of passage, I think.

Shopping Post

>> Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I do love shopping. It's just really hard here to find something I like. Maybe I'm too picky but I don't want to look like I just stepped out of Hijab Fashion Magazine. I walked for hours, 3 out of 4 kids in tow, and finally found stuff I love, Alhamdulillah.

Along the way though, I have to tell you there's so much tacky, gaudy stuff out there, it can be discouraging. But I know from experience that if you look long and hard enough, you can find something non-ugly. This is for me and the kids. The most visually offensive stuff is for young girl's. Trying to find a simple, cute pair of shoes or sandals for Salwa and Safiyah was like searching for a needle in a stack of ugly footwear. We finally found some simple ballet flats that were non-glittery, non-bow covered or bedazzled in any way. Zayneb's in women's sizes now so it's easier. She got a pair of black gladiator sandals and Dawood got 2 pairs of sneakers.(He goes through them so fast. Literally, last pair, he wore a hole right through from playing soccer) He's anti sandals. I don't know why. Whatever, they're happy and I am too. Now for the photos, my stuff anyway.

I found a light linen abaya and I got this scarf to match. Sorry it's so wrinkly. I kept taking it out of the bag to hold it against hijabs and I still hadn't taken it to the tailor (it's super long, shortening the sleeves a bit too) so I wasn't going to iron it just for you guys. Sorry, I love you but I hate ironing more.

I got these at first cause they were just so pretty but on second thought, exchanged them for the black.

I'll get a lot more wear out of the black ones and I don't have to buy a white bag.

Oh yea and I got some new nail polishes. The navy blue is lighter on than it looks in the bottle but it's cute. The two on the right are Avon and they're pretty much the best you can find easily and afford-ably.

All in all we got what we went for, so Alhamdulillah.

Multi-Tasking

>> Thursday, May 13, 2010

I love multi-tasking. Why would anyone do just one thing when they can do 2 or 3? Studies have shown that women multi-task much more effectively than men. Not surprising. I don't often do just one thing. If I'm washing the dishes, or cleaning, I'm also listening to a podcast. When I'm watching a movie, I'll also be online, reading blogs or facebook. I'll be on the phone and cooking or reading a magazine while I watch a show.

Only if I really love a movie or reading a book do I do nothing else. Or watching Lost of course :).

I think this is pretty common behavior. I mean, most people want to get as much as they can done. When it's a mindless task like ironing, or other household drudgery, you can easily talk on the phone or quiz a kid on vocabulary, but If I tried to say, cook dinner and I don't know, give a baby a bath simultaneously, I'd either burn dinner or drown the kid. Both bad. I've felt the burn of multi-tasking before when expecting guests for a Ramadan Iftar and trying to get everything ready last minute, I burned garlic bread under the broiler.

I'll just stick to watching the Wheel Of Fortune While Writing This Post kind of multi-tasking. What do you multi-task?

Hijab Fashion Magazine, And I Use The Word Fashion Loosely

>> Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Yesterday as we passed a news stand and Dawood was buying a Mickey comic, I spotted a Hijab magazine and I love magazines, so I got it. It was in plastic so I couldn't look inside but I thought, how bad could it be? So, later as I'm flipping through it, I find what can only be described as a glossy parade of some of the ugliest ensembles I've ever had the misfortune to witness. 85% of this stuff was just unwearabe-ly fug.

I should say that I rarely see such offenses out and about so this absolutely doesn't represent the majority of the Egyptian population. Just my opinion, so don't anyone go and get offended.

What the hell is going on here? What is that?!

Is the circus in town? And what's with this one hijab wrap that they all have going on in all the pictures? It pretty much looks like a fabric hairstyle and it looks really hot. Since the way they have it wrapped doesn't cover the neck they all have turtlenecks on under their hideous get-ups. Yea, that's just great for hijabi women, in the Middle East. In Summer.

This one seems to have taken the Fraulein Maria route and fashioned her abaya out of curtains. And and old couch.

Really? Denim vest? She's also got that big cowboy belt buckle on to really drive point home: "Look at me! I'm western!"

Now even the model in this one looks disgusted. Crushed velvet over satin pants?

Brides are also a big part of this magazine. Advertisements for make-up artists and "veil designers" are aplenty.

The Arab obsession of being extra white is in full force on a girl's wedding day. Clown-white foundation is caked on in a most ridiculous amount.

I tend to think a more natural look is flattering, more like the one on the lower left here. The head piece on the bottom right appears to be made of bedazzled sea urchins

I'll be damned if that doesn't look like a tranny. She bears a striking resemblance to Sean Wayans in White Chicks.

Now for the not-so-bad.

The Polyvore-like ensembles here are mostly ok.

There are some outfits here that just go a little too far and would be ok if they made a small change.

Take this lass for example. That cropped denim jacket has no place in this outfit and she should have more casual shoes.

Another near miss on this one here. The weird sleeves are too much. Bad shoes and hijab, I say but chin up, girly, you were close.

This, here is cute. Not a fan of that hijab style, but otherwise, cute. Why do all that and have on a turtleneck in this heat when you can wrap your scarf like a normal person and have some air circulating and I don't know, not die of a heat stroke.

This one is almost something I would wear. Not crazy about he patchwork and maybe in a different color.

At least the magazine was good for a laugh and make-fun-ablity, but I won't be wasting any money on this publication again. What do you think of these, erm....costumes?