Themealicious Nail It November Check In

This is a belated post, having absent from Themealicious for two months made me forgot that I suppose to make a check in post :)

This is how my Nail It November going so far:

Finished Baby Kitty project and completed Furry Friends by Margaret Sherry (except for the backstitch) during IHSW week:

My Silvermoon Tea is coming beautifully, this was the picture from a couple days to go, now I am very close to finish it :)

Hopefully for the last 5 days I would be able to complete the Silvermoon Tea and Margaret Sherry. Oh my friend Yasmine has finally given birth to a baby boy Mehmet Hakan Gumuş so I should start stitching the backstitch and the name/date for a project that I made for her baby during Obligation October :)

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

Long weekend - IHSW Nov Report

Hello, it's me again with my cross stitch and travelling stories :)

Last weekend was a long weekend in Jordan because we were observing 1st of Muharram (Islamic New Year) on Thursday and as usual the normal weekend in Jordan is Friday and Saturday.
However I couldn't do much stitching. I took Dilara to a friend house for a regular-once a week religion studies. We have decided its time for her to learn some about our religion and last Thursday was her first day. In Indonesia usually the children learn earlier, they go to an Islamic school, Islamic kindergarten, or go to Qur'an school in the afternoon after normal school, or invite a teacher for private lesson at home. Me an another Indonesian arranged for a teacher to come once a week in one of our houses (one day in my house and next week would be in her house, and so forth). Her daughter is attending the same school with Dilara, the same class and in fact Rania is Dilara's BFF so its perfect (except because they are so close so they easily distracted during lesson and couldn't wait for the lesson to finish so they can play). The teacher is the wife of an Indonesian student undertaking his master degree in Amman, we want the lesson to be in Indonesian language to encourage our children to understand and speak more of Indonesian.

On Friday we went to a housewarming party of Indian friends (YUM YUM and SUPER YUMMY food!) and on Saturday we went to Madaba and Mt. Nebo.

About stitching, I finally finished my Baby Kitty project. I hate this project a lot because so many white and white, and the stitch didnt show until I made the backstitch (and LOTS of tiny BACKSTİTCHES!)

Last July IHSW I made them up to this:

now completed:

so cute! my favourite part is the bottle :) I am thinking to make it as a cushion cover but I am not sure if I can sew it. I am planning to buy a sewing machine. I like brother but they are not available in Jordan. I read so many bad reviews about Singer (and many sweing machine sellers in Amman said so even though they are selling them), so I was interested when I see Janome L393. There isn't any particular review about it but in general Janome has a good reputation. I only unsure whether I could operate it or not because I never operate any seweing machine in my life. For singer there are many instruction videos on youtube and some of them come with DVD. What do you think? please help... I really want to turn it int something so Dilara could learn her alphabets from it.

And I also completed the whole part of Margaret Sherry's Furry Friends from Themealicious Jumanji June:

now only backstitch left, finger crossed I could do it before this month ended :)

Some my pics from visiting Madaba and Mount Nebo: (information taken from http://www.visitjordan.com)

Just 30km from Amman, along the 5,000-year-old Kings´ Highway, is one of the most memorable places in the Holy Land. After passing through a string of ancient sites, the first city you reach is Madaba, known as the “City of Mosaics."


Best known for its spectacular Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, Madaba is home to the famous 6th century Mosaic Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. With two million pieces of vividly coloured local stone, it depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta.

The Madaba Mosaic Map covers the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, which is located northwest of the city centre. The church was built in 1896 AD, over the remains of a much earlier 6th century Byzantine church. The mosaic panel enclosing the Map was originally around 15.6 X 6m, 94 sq.m., only about a quarter of which is preserved.

The Shrine of the Beheading of St John the Baptist

We also visited Mount Nebo:

on a clear day you can see Jerusalem from the highest point of the mountain, Syagha. Unfornately the monastery and basilica were closed (under renovation)

According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where the Hebrew prophet Moses was given a view of the Promised Land that God was giving to the Hebrews. "And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho." (Deuteronomy 34:1).

According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Moses was buried on this mountain by God himself, and his final resting place is unknown. Scholars continue to dispute whether the mountain currently known as Nebo is the same as the mountain referred to in the Torah.

Islamic belief holds that Musa (Moses) was buried not on the mountain but a few kilometres to the west, somewhere beyond the River Jordan.

The Serpentine Cross sculpture (the Brazen Serpent Monument) atop Mount Nebo was created by Italian artist, Giovanni Fantoni. It is symbolic of the bronze serpent created by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9) and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified (John 3:14).

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

busy busy week and TUSAL

Its been a busy week for me I feel so exhausted. But now when I am thinking about it, it wasnt that busy, I shouldn't get this worn out because of it but I don't know why, maybe I need to do more exercise. Unfortunately winter is coming I don't know if I am able to walk to the gym in the late afternoon (and back in the evening) for my zumba classes. Late afternoon after serkan is back from work is the only time for me to go to the gym since I still don't feel OK to put Ali in nursery.

Last thursday, there was a Bonfire Night in Dilara's School. I was so excited because the last time I saw fireworks for Guy Hawkes day was in 2007 (in Rolleston and New Brighton pier, Christchurch). Unfortunately to my disappointment there wasnt any fireworks, only a bonfire. Stupid me, it would be too expensive for the school to have fireworks, I thought later on. And maybe it was forbidden by the government for the security reason. There were some halloween related activities, our children didn't participate in any of them but Dilara went trick or treat (sort of) by walking through darkened class room and she got a bag of candy in the end.

On Friday, in the morning we went grocery shopping. We did it in a rush because Serkan had to go to the mosque but the mall and the supermarket was so quiet (Friday is a holiday and all the shops except supermarket open late afternoon after Friday prayer) it reduced my shopping stress. After that all afternoon I was busy cooking for dinner at The Loss family. I think the idea was stolen from 'The biggest dinner in the world', their children who went to ICS (the same school with Dilara) suggested having a fundraising dinner with a group of friends, the idea is that everyone brings their favourite dish and makes a donation as if going out to a restaurant and we donate all proceeds to MSF / Medicins de Frontiers (Doctors without borders), their chosen charity who is currently in Jordan working with Syrian refugees.
I made Turkish havuc pilav (Turkish carrot rice) and Jalangkotek from Indonesia as a starter. Jalangkotek is a particular dish from South Sulawesi, in Indonesia we called it pastel and it looked like empanadas. Many people like my turkish rice and jalangkotek was a huge success, it finished in no time! I dont have any picture but I promise to put a picture when I make it again, maybe with a recipe too :)
Loss family also played some music for us, what a talented family!

Saturday morning at 10 I went to their house today for our weekly private Arabic class, I dragged myself (and the whole family because Serkan had to drive me there and we couldn't leave the kids) out of the bed because I was still so sleepy from yesterday's cooking and dinner (we're back home at midnight) and I had to wake up very early to clean up the kitchen and the house because we will have a guest coming that day. I also ran to the mall nearby their house to buy a present for Dilara's classmate birthday party. After all the hassles, the tutor didn't turn up :( Serkan pick me up at 12 and I was aghast to see Dilara was still in the clothes that she wore from last night dinner and they were very wrinkly because she slept in them (she fell asleep on the way we just carried her to the bed). I have prepared her dress for the party and clearly instructed Serkan to put them on her before pick me up because we are going to the party straightaway. So we had to rush home again, I changed her clothes while Serkan and Ali were waiting in the car. Sigh.
She had a great time at the party though. Ali stayed at home so I kind of relaxed at the party, no need to watch him over as usual.

After party we immediately went to Mecca mall to meet Lizzy. Lizzy is a friend that I know when I was studying in New Zealand. We took the same class for one semester, she was doing the last semester of her bachelor degree and I was doing my first semester of Graduate Diploma.

Lizzy and her gigantic backpack attracted a lot of attention in Mecca Mall

Our kids love her a lot!

She is in her trip (almost) around the world for about 1.5 year and Jordan was one of her destinations. sSe took an Egypt-Jordan tour and after arriving in Aqaba (they took a cruise from Egypt) and touring in Wadi Rum-Petra-Madaba-Dead Sea, and had a 3 days break in Amman. She stayed with us for two nights, unfortunately we couldn't take her anywhere ın Amman because when she was here suddenly the winter finally remember that it needs to arrive in Jordan so weather was so cold, grey and for that 2 days Amman had its very rare rain. The good thing was we could just sit and talk talk talk, I couldn't get enough listening her amazing stories and looking over her pictures from Egypt, Borneo, Europe, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hongkong and many more. She was grateful too she said it was such a nice break, not having to get up very early and be on the way all the time. The night before she flew to Turkey we took her to Al Fuhais just outside Amman to have an Arabic dinner in Al Zuweydeh restaurant. The place was fantastic, the food was delicious. I can still taste them in my tounge when I wrote this. Definitely one of my favourite restaurants in Jordan.

NOW: STİTCHİNG! (I almst forgot what this blog is about :-p)
I finally get back to my Silvermoon Tea. I will go to Turkey next month and I want to give it to my sister in law so I have to make it done by then. I haven't stitched much but getting in to it:

finished the whole top moon

At last, my TUSAL Jar:

I still use the same jar and the one inside the small tiny zip loc bag was my ORTs from Turkey last summer holiday. The book is the one that Lizzy left for me, I really want to read it but I have many stitching projects waiting for me to be done. hmmm...


***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا
 

Little update after almost 2.5 months absence

Hello... hello... hello...
Its been almost 2.5months I didnt post anything on this blog. September when we were back from Turkey  was a busy month for me, helping my daughter to adapt to her new school (she loves the school!), dealing with my son who was cranky now his sister is gone every morning (poor dear Ali) and looking for a house to rent. But in the end we decided to keep staying in the house where we live since we moved in Amman in February, because there wasn't any certain time when our furnitures and personal belonging would arrive from Damascus (hence confusion whether to rent a furnished or unfurnished house) and there was an issue that my husband would be transferred to another country next summer so if we moved to another house and paid annually we would lose some money. Good news fınally our belonging arrived, we now can use some of our furnitures and I still have a lot of boxes to sort out.

October, another busy and fun month for me, particularly in the end of the month. Just before mid term holiday there was a book week in Dilara's school. She had a great time with Gingerbread man theme, having pajamas story at school and in the end there was a costume day where she wore the costume of her favourite bbok character. She wore Tinkerbell costume and had a tea party with her class.

I came to the school and thrilled to meet the author of Married to a Bedouin: Marguerite van Geldermalsen. I read her book a couple months a go, the story was amazing, I was quite taken by her experiences and her courage.

Right after the end of book week, there was an Eid holiday (Eid el Adha or Sacrifice day) combined with mid term Autumn holiday. We all deserved to have a real nice holiday, besides it was my birthday and a friend visited from Netherland so we all went to Petra and Aqaba (the red sea). We went there with another three families, they are originally from Canada-Ghana, Italian Australian and Tunisian and we are Turkish-Indonesian, quite interesting crowd :) 

the Siq, Petra

In front of The Treasury, Petra

The Amazing View of The Rock Camp (our accommodation in Petra)

The Red Sea (behind us is a town in Israel)

Enjoying (Ali not so enjoying!) Aqaba

me and Dilara. In case you were wondering, I wore a full body swim suit called Burqini which I got in Australia

Ali spent most of the time sleeping but he wanted people to think that he was busy snorkling!

the site of Ayla, an old Islamic town in Aqaba. Behind is Giant Flag of Arab  Revolt against Ottoman Empire

I also took my friend for sightseeing around Amman: Amman Citadel, Roman theatre, Jerash, Dead Sea and Hussein Park.

Jerash, Rome far away from Rome

Jerash is the biggest Roman site outside of Rome

my friend floating in the dead sea

float... float away...

me, dilara and sunset in the dead sea

Al Hussein Mosque, Amman

The Children Museum of Jordan, Amman

Jordan Royal Automobile Museum, Amman

My friend Santi posing with King Abdullah in Cultural Village, King Hussein park, Amman

Temple of Hercules, Amman Citadel

Roman Theatre, Amman

It was fun but very tiring indeed. And my boxes are still waiting to be sorted :(

Now... how about cross stitch? I still managed to do some stitching, particularly early October. I wasn't sure why in September when we were back from turkey I didn't feel like doing any stitching. I spent most of my time reading novels. And the internet connection in our building was awful, it made me less motivated :( I think if I had a better connection, all your encouraging posts and events such as IHSW would keep me going. My husband had been promising me to buy our own connection but he was so busy and he was the number 1 procrastinator (tomorrow... tomorrow... next time... next week and hey its been more than 2 months!). Yesterday I dragged him to the mall and half forcing him to buy the router-internet connection deal. So here I am writing my blog again! I will post my stitchworks in different post :) I hope you enjoy my pictures, its so nice to be here again :)

PS: I have changed my blog address from yanahanimstitches to yanakristik.blogspot.com. I think its shorter and easier to remember for my Indonesian fellow. I hope the link to my blog from my follower would be automatically updated. Sorry for inconvenience.

***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا