Crafting at Costa

It's been a month and a half since my last meet-up with Kuwait Crafters.

This morning we had 9 crocheters and 1 stitcher show up for crafting at Costa Coffee.

Two young ladies have been taught to crochet by their mom.  200 feathers are being made for a December wedding.  She also plans to teach them cross-stitch to keep them busy over the hot summer.

Carol Ann is from Texas and a member of the Embroidery Guild.  She's currently working on a challenge project and has made use of some amazing stitches that I've never seen before.

Baby blankets in progress.

Happiness is Handmade!

Enjoy your day!

Drawing Date

My friend, Aruna, and I try to meet once a week to have coffee or breakfast and to draw together.

Because of Ramadan and travel, we haven't seen each other in over a month, but today we were finally able to get together.

To our surprise, the restaurant we planned to go to wound up being completely boarded up which meant we had to choose another spot. Thankfully the complex we were at had many choices so we wandered over to a Kuwaiti restaurant.

It was the beautiful shades of blue and the decor that drew us in.

I had rosewater lemonade and tea and we shared foul and falafel.

By the time we finished eating, the breakfast crowd had cleared so we had a nice, quiet space for drawing.

Aruna took a picture of a lantern to sketch and I just drew what was right in front of me.

How you draw is a reflection of how you feel about the world.  You're not capturing it, you're interpreting it.

(Juliette Aristides)

We always have such an enjoyable and relaxing time.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Day One: Tbilisi

This past Tuesday we were winging our way to Tbilisi, Georgia for the holiday of Eid Al Fitr that marks the end of the month of Ramadan.

The forecast called for rain and a heatwave the 4 days we were there, but fortunately, we only saw rain on the drive from the airport to our hotel; and the heat wasn't really what we would consider overly hot.

Our hotel was right across the street from the Kura River and was an easy walk into Old Tbilisi.

We crossed Baratashvili Bridge where there's a sculptural composition of bronze figures entitled "Youth" by Georgi Japaridze.

And explored a bit before deciding to eat at Stelzen Haus which is a German-Georgian restaurant.

My friend Mini at MinizDiary (who is vegetarian) visited Tbilisi last year and wrote a blog post about the food so I had an idea of some of the traditional dishes I might be able to try.

Badrijani is eggplant and peppers stuffed with walnut pate and Phkali is a spinach mousse with walnut paste and traditional herbs.

My husband had a vegetable soup and I had a salad of cucumber and tomatoes with walnut paste, so by the time the Lobiani arrived (bread stuffed with kidney beans) we were already feeling pretty full.  We only managed to eat a few pieces, but it was so very good and if I had known the portion size, I wouldn't have ordered the starters.

After dinner, I did some wine tasting and bought a bottle to take back to the hotel.

Then we walked across the Bridge of Peace over to Rike Park.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy and starting to get dark so some of my pictures aren't so clear at this point.

Lavender in bloom that smelled so good.

Walking back to our hotel for the night.

Day two included lots more walking, a cable car ride, the botanical garden and Narikala Fortress.

More next time.

Wishing you a great week.