Mosque Architecture

I love finding exploring new mosques. I love admiring the details put in by the builder and reflecting on the Islamic patterns used in the design that seem to never get old or go out of style. We recently found a new mosque in Dubai. I don't know the official name of it, but it is located in the Jumeirah Beach area near Burj Al Arab. It was simple, but so beautiful I had to share pics that Z1 and i took of it. Since we were there for the Taraweeh prayers, all the pics are taken at night.

How to Water Your Plants While Traveling

Hello folks! Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I've been enjoying Ramadan. Part of the joys of summer and the holiday of Ramadan is visiting family and friends and some times that includes traveling. The life of an ex-pat alone is destined to excessive traveling. While it can be fun, there is definitely a burden that comes with taking care of my plants while I'm gone. I love plants and wish I had half as many plants as I had back home, but I limited myself to a few because I knew keeping them alive in the heat of hell Dubai would be a challenge. 

Shortly after moving to Dubai, I bought three plants and before we knew it, we were on our way back to the USA for our first visit home. I had asked my neighbor if she could take care of my plants while we were gone. Sensing the reluctance in her voice I decided not to take her "help" and knowing that I would be traveling more often than not, I quickly realized I needed a better long term solution to water my plants while away. 

At that time, I hadn't thought of this idea I'm about to share. What I did instead, which also worked great, was slightly over water my plants for roughly ten days before my departure, to insure the soil would be moist enough for the duration of my trip. Everyday for ten days I watered my plants keeping the soil very moist and squishy in texture. I don't know that a true gardener would be happy with that idea, but it worked. The soil was pre saturated with enough water to feed the plants for at least 15 days in my absence. My plants were in tip top shape during the EXTREME summer heat of Dubai. I also had the air-condition, or "air-con" as they say out here, scheduled throughout the trip to keep the plants and house cool. 

I later remembered these watering bulbs and an idea was born! How about using my olive oil and other miscellaneous bottles? The concept is the same, but the "watering bulb" is just in a different shape. Off I went gathering different bottles I collected overtime.

Olive Oil bottles.

Decorative bottle that was filled with dried corn from 99 cent store. You can use any bottle that has a thin neck and small opening. Wide necks and wide openings will let out too much water too fast. The point is to release a little bit of water at a time over the span of your time away. 

Filled up with water...

...and stuck it right in the soil. Make sure it's deep enough or the bottle will fall out. 

Tada! And it's square-ish shape is so cute. 

Because it's clear, it's practically camouflaged by the leaves. 

I use bottles that are in portion to the size of the plant. If the plant is too small and bottle is too big, the bottle will  fall out. If the bottle isn't big enough, there will not be enough water for the duration of the your trip.

Can't even see it. 

I used a bigger bottle at one point for a longer trip, but again you can't even see it. 

 Peek-a-boo! 

This plant is being restored back to life, hence the sparse leave. 

 For my tiniest plant I used a couple medicine droppers for the same effect. 

This plant is very tiny and couldn't take anything bigger. I ended up putting three droppers which I am sure will be enough. 

A few empty olive oil bottles, or any bottle with a thin neck and small mouth, or even medicine droppers for small plants will do the trick. Water is dripped as the plant needs for perfect watering while you are on vacation. Plants are happy, I am happy EVERYONE is (hopefully) happy :o) Hope you liked this post and thanks or stopping by! 

-Debora

Ramadan 2013: Watercolor and Mosque Silhouette Art

Hello my friends! I have a fun art project to share with you today. It's watercolor painting layered with a silhouette of a Masjid/Mosque. It reminds me of my childhood and the joy I had making these very kinds of paintings. The ones I made were with silhouettes of cars, but for my kids I decided to increase the spirit of Ramadan and make Mosque silhouettes.

Water color painting and silhouette art evokes so much nostalgia for me. I love it and love watching my kids take joy in painting and creating them as well. The concept of painting rainbow watercolors and layering over it a silhouette is not a new concept, but the creativity behind it is endless and it's a project that never gets old.

What reminded me of doing this project with my kids was this art piece below that a student at the kids' school had done last term.

Black Arabic calligraphy on a background of multi colored watercolor created by a student. 

It's gorgeous isn't it? I can't even do that. Swooning over that calligraphy masha'allah! Obviously, if I'm not a calligrapher I couldn't teach my kids to do it lol. That is where the idea of doing a masjid/mosque instead came from. 

I made my own watercolor paint. Pink was my first go and as you can see it took a couple tries to get it right. But I got it right! Why go buy when you can just use what you have? 

I got an ice cube tray and filled with water for every color we would use. In each square I started with half a pea size of acrylic/water based paint. For some colors like yellow and orange I had to add more paint to get a good saturation. If you add too much color to the water you'll lose the translucent watercolor effect, and it will just look like plain paint. 

I tested the colors out to make sure they were saturated yet watery enough. 

Mosque art: Top image here and a variation of the bottom image here.

Note that for the top image I cut out more windows to allow more colors to show through. I later did the same for the bottom image.

We traced out the stencils onto black paper to be cut out and glued down onto the watercolor painting. 

Z2's art.

 The extra windows gave the entire art a lot more character. I taught Z2 how to use an X-acto knife and with supervision he was able to cut out majority of the windows by himself.

Z1 insisted on this Istanbul mosque silhouette, but the solid black was too much. We had to cut out some windows for more punch of color.

Z1 was a little overwhelmed by all the cutting so I helped out. 

Z2's art. 

Z1's art (in collaboration with mama ;o)

To make the faux matte, I took a bigger piece of orange construction paper, cut it down with a 2 in. boarder and glued the art on top. A true matte would be thicker and placed above the art. We weren't going for perfection here, just something fun and cool looking.  

We stuck them to the wall near the electrical panel. Maybe in the future I'll get them some proper frames, but in the mean time they are so lovely as they are and we are all enjoying the new art. I can't believe something so simple could turn out so beautiful! With ten days left in Ramadan this would be a perfect craft to celebrate the colorful blessings of this great month! Give it a try and let me know how yours turn out. Thanks again for stopping by. 

-Debora

DIY Zebra Stripe End Table

Hello everyone! Hope you are all in the best health and happiness. I am so happy to finally share this project. It is looooooong over due for a reveal. So long over due we'll just have to stop talking about it. K? K! (o:

This end table was my moms and being that we hate getting rid of stuff that's ugly but still functional and needed, I decided to give it a facelift. I wanted something different, punchy and with animal print, but not crazy and standing out from the rest of my home.

The supplies: 

Medium sanding block

Wood Filler

Ace brand primer spray and white spray paint

Folk Art gold craft paint 

Small paint brush

I removed the hardware and spray painted and let that sit aside. I used Ace brand Gold Spay. I've said this before, and I'll say again, Ace brand spray paints are THE WORST paints I've used in my life. Especially the metallic. I did this project when Ace was the only option I knew, but I've now moved on to Krylon brands.  The problem with their metallics in particular is that they get dull and lose all the metallic sheen. 

Left: The hardware spray painted with Ace brand gold spray paint.

Right: A rock spary painted with Krylon gold spray paint. 

See the difference in shine and shimmer? 

There were some patches in the surfaces from years of wear and tear. I smooth them out with a sanding block. Be carful when sanding furniture made of compressed wood and covered in some sort of vinyl paneling. You don't want to reach the compressed wood. 

I used maybe two or three cans of primer, again Ace brand = lame, because the primer was so thin. I also used a couple cans of white just to get a decent coat on. When painted anything with legs, I usually turn it upside down and paint the legs first. I get better coverage that way and avoid missing "blind spots". Blind spots are those spots you don't notice while spray or brush painting, but you notice you missed when you're sitting on a chair or couch and are at eye level or lower than the furniture you painted. Plus it's easier on my back to paint that way than to try and bend in awkward positions. 

If the piece is small enough, I can flip the table while the legs are still wet and continue with the surface. After I was done painting, I took a yellow color pencil and drew my pattern freehand.

I looked from some true Zebra patterns for inspiration and copied the center pattern on this rug. 

If you look very closely, you'll see a faint outline of the stripes.

My Dad and Brother were visiting at the time and my dad helped by painting the first coat of gold craft paint. The stripes took about three coats because it was very thin and translucent. 

After three coats the gold was still a little patchy and translucent, but it ended up looking good anyway.

The white paint hasn't held up well, it's chipped in many places, but at least there are enough chips to make it look like a rustic piece lol. I might re-due this table with a better paint I have, but in the mean time I'm enjoying it's unique character.  

I've always wanted some sort of animal print in my home without tackily representing the 80's or "New Joy-zy" lol. No offense to New Jersey, but it's the first thing I think of when I think of animal print. Don't ask me why. I also wanted to do something more exciting than the plain beige zebra pattern that's been popular like these...

Do you have any animal print in your home? Would you dare consider it? I am really happy with the way this turned out. It was daring just enough without being obnoxious. If you really want to try this or another animal print, consider a small foot stool, a pillow or if you really don't want to much effort print out a nice zebra print and frame it if you can't stand it's easily removable. So what do you think of my small animal print introduction to my home? Please leave a comment below and thanks again for stopping by! 

-Debora