Skip to main content

Christmas Time in Egypt...

Our Christmas Tree in Egypt
Amid all the chaos here in Egypt right now we have just been trying to make things as normal as possible for the kids: Soccer games, school functions, dinners at Gaya Korean restaurant, and.... Christmas.  With the holiday season coming it has been a bit of a difficult task.  Thankfully many of the local garden shops and stores have trees and decorations for sale.  It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit so far away from family back home and in a land where Christmas is just a holiday celebrated by "others".

We didn't bring our Christmas decorations to Egypt so this year we've had fun making our own. My daughters have interesting senses of humor and so our tree has a bit of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" feel to it. I like it!

We bought our tree down the road at a nearby garden shop and one of the employees followed us back to our apartment, winding thorough nighttime traffic with our tree in a wheelbarrow. My husband played DJ and picked out some really odd Christmas tunes on Youtube while we decorated the tree.

 I made a couple of crocheted toys to hang and my oldest daughter crocheted a chain in Christmas colors to add as a garland. We also added a few Barbie heads, some origami animals, and  a few other homemade goodies... We draped some lights and garlands over it all and now we have a pretty tree to bring a little Christmas spirit into the house.  Now I just need to figure out what to do about our stockings...

Merry Christmas Y'all!
Mummified Snowman

Our Angel at the top of the tree

More fun with Barbie heads.
Crocheted Sugar Skull Ornament



Fun with Origami

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spring Break Frisbee

I created this pattern while sitting next to the campfire during spring break. I made several of them... they didn't take anytime at all. I found that a 100% cotton yarn like Lily's sugar and cream or the Walmart Peaches and Cream yarn worked best. On some attempts I used a slightly higher quality cotton yarn and found that the finished product was not as stiff and therefor didn't fly as well...they still worked great, however, so by all means use what you have. I haven't tried making this pattern with any other type of yarn although I'm sure it would work great. These frisbees are great indoors or out. Size K crochet hook 2 balls of worsted weight yarn (100% cotton dish cloth quality works best) tapestry needle Round 1: Holding 2 strands together and using the K hook use the magic ring method to SC 6 into the ring. Round 2: 2 SC into each of the 6 stitches (12 st) Round 3: *SC into next SC, 2 SC into next SC* repeat around (18 st) Round 4: *SC into next 2 SC, 2 ...

New Pattern: Octopus Finger Puppet

Materials F hook worsted weight yarn (I used cotton) tapestry needle Stitches: Ch - Chain Sl st - slip stitch SC - Single Crochet Inc - Single crochet 2 stitches into one SC 2tog - Single crochet two stitches together Round 1: SC 6 stitches into a magic ring. Pull tight (6) Round 2: *SC, Inc* repeat 3 times to complete round (9) Round 3: *SC, SC, Inc* repeat 3 times to complete round (12) Round 4 and 5: SC in each stitch around (12) Round 6: *SC, SC 2 tog* repeat 4 times to complete round (8) Round 7: *SC into next stitch, ch 8, SC into second stitch from the hook and the remaining 6 stitches* repeat this 8 times to make the legs. Sl st into the first stitch of the first leg and fasten off. Weave in ends and sew two eyes.

Spring Wash Cloth

It's Springtime and as a result I've been experimenting with color. I've decided that I'm going to focus on learning new techniques by writing patterns for wash cloths. Not only do they make practical gifts... but they are easy, inexpensive and portable projects that make a great way to learn new things. Here is the first of many patterns that I plan to write and share here on my new craft blog. Abbreviations and Stitches Used K - knit P - purl Sl wyif - Slip the number of stitches instructed with yarn in front. Sl wyib - Slip the number of stitches instructed with yarn in back. C1 - Color 1 C2 - Color 2 RS - right side Cast on 38 stitches in C1 onto US size 7 needles 1-4 Knit C1 5 Knit C2 (RS) 6 Knit C2 7 C1- K6 *Sl2 wyib, K6; repeat from * 2 times, Sl2, K6 8 C1- K4, P2 * Sl2 wyif, P6; repeat from * 2 times, Sl2, P2, K4 9-12 Repeat rows 7 & 8 2 times 13-16 C2 Knit 17 C1- K10, * Sl 2 wyib, K6; repeat from * 2 times, K4 18 C1 K4, P6, *Sl2 wyif, P6; repeat from * 2 ti...