I'm walking on.. errr.. fluffy pink frosting??

I came upon these photos while searching the blogger world for inspiration for an art project I'm working on.

Not exactly sure how to describe them.. simply magical would do for now!

 

 

Source:{Amy Atlas Events}

On a side note, my DSLR camera is not working, and for that I'm feeling really frustrated. I've had it for almost a year, and I have no idea what went wrong! The shutter button is simply not responding!! For no apparent reason. I called tech support in Toronto, and they said I need to send it back to get serviced. Which means, I'd have to live without my baby for approximately three months, maybe more!

My old Sony compact camera would have to do for now, assuming the battery charger decides to start working properly again ( and it is so not doing that at the moment). Pathetic.. ain't I?

Anyways, I'll have to scavenge my archives for photos for my "color my world" project, so expect a post in a few days (inshallah).

Now.. excuse me while I go and resume my daydreaming... mmmm.. pink.. fluffly.. cupcakes.. marzipan.. sweet.. glittery gold.. bliss!!

Spiderthoughts

I found this not-so-little spider by chance in my backyard this afternoon, and immediately ran back inside to get my camera! I tried getting closer as to capture all of the details on her legs and body, but I was extremely scared! She could be poisonous for all I know! My hands weren't stable as well, hence the shaky, unfocused photos bellow.

  

 While snapping away I started wondering how she would react if she knew I was photographing her! Would she pose for me? Would she shy away? Or maybe run back to her friends and excitedly tell them that her photos are going to be published on the world wide web for all the word to see! "I'm going to be famous!" (From what I know, spiders are usually solitary creatures.. but nevertheless)

But then I thought.. what if (in some way or the other) we (me and the spider) were able to communicate, would she be able to grasp the concept of "photography", or even try to understand, beyond her limited mind, the complexities of such a machine as the camera? How it works, how lenses work, the difference between a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and a 50mm f/2.8 lens? What an aperture is? Or even try to understand who I am!! And why on earth was I looking at her with such interest!

This got me thinking even deeper. What if, there are things in this universe our limited human mind could not possibly, in any way, understand? No matter how much it was explained to us? Simply because our mind is not equipped to process such information..?

People assume they have unlocked the secrets of life, that they have reached a certain level of civilization and knowledge, therefore are able to judge what is right from wrong. And when they're faced with divine rulings from The All Knowing that organize our lives, and shape our personalities to make us better people, they flatly refuse to acknowledge them, call them outdated and oppressive! Why? Because they did not "make sense" to their limited human mind, just like "why that giant creature holding that big black box-like object in her hand is staring at me with such interest" would never make sense to our creepy crawler friend.

Humans can be such strange things...

Now here's a great ad!

Don't you just love this!?

I know I do! ♥

Afternoon Naps and Watermelon Juice

Watermelon juice? It sounded a bit odd when I first heard of it a few years ago, but I like trying new things so I tried it.. it was ok, but it lacked flavor.

So, I woke up from an afternoon nap yesterday, my throat was parched, and I was in desperate need of anything refreshing. I ignored my thirst, and pushed the thoughts of a cold glass of water away. But then I remembered that I was not fasting.. why am I torturing myself!? So I headed straight to the refrigerator, and to my surprise, found and nice big watermelon! And since I was extremely thirsty, I thought, hey.. why not.

Here is the recipe I used:

A few slices of seedless watermelon (depends how much you want to make, and if you couldn't find seedless watermelon, just remove the seeds)

A couple of ice cubes

Three mint leaves

A pinch of salt and pepper (yes I found that weird as well.. but they say it enhances the flavor)

Two tablespoons icing sugar (more or less.. depending on how sweet you want it)

And..a capful of orange blossom water,
I added this myself, it wasn't included in the recipe.
Syrians use orange blossom water with almost everything! Even drinking water! It has such a nice distinctive flavor that I really love..

That's it! Just pop all that in the blender, and give it a nice blend.
This was definitely much better than the one I tired a while ago, I think its because of the orange blossom water and the mint leaves..

One thing I should have done though, is strain the juice. It had so much pulp in it as you can see. But the bottom part was great!

Just use a small strainer, place it on top of the glass and pour the juice in.. enjoy!

Color My World: White

I got the inspiration to do a color themed photography project from the "Little Brown Pen" blog, her photos are really inspirational! I'm thinking maybe.. a weekly project?

Next up.. yellow!! 

P.S. is it just me.. or is this blog slowly (but surely) turning into a photo blog? 

P.SS I cheated this time, used some of my old photos (sue me!)

Eid is All About Baked Goodies!

I know this is a bit late.. but Happy Eid everyone! Hope you had a great time!
This year Eid was a bit different, since my grandmother is here visiting. We spent about four days before Eid baking. She usually makes traditional Syrian Eid pastries every year. They're known as Ma'amoul. They're cookie-like, with pistachio filling. If you haven't tried them before.. I'm telling you, you're missing out!

They're not that hard to make, nor time consuming, but since we made 27 dozens, some for neighbors and some for relatives, it took us about four days! It was fun though! I decided to take photos of the whole process, now that was hard! Keeping your camera away from grease and butter, but at the same time handy for the next shot, not so easy..! and a bit annoying as well.

My grandma making the dough

preparing the pistachio filling... mmmm me loves pistachios!

cutting the dough into equal pieces makes the process much easier

aaaand... the stuffing begins

after the cookie has been stuffed, it gets pressed inside a shaping mold.. this is the fun part!

the cookies are then tapped onto the kitchen table with a sharp hit.. gave me a headache!

onto the baking sheet.. and into the oven.. yay! we're almost done!

icing sugar sprinkled on top! hmmmm.. reminds me of November's first snow fall!!

I knew you would want to see how it looks like from the inside.. so I took a couple of bites! (how very nice of me.. right?)

into the gift box they went.. farewell my lovelies! it was nice knowing you!

wrapped and ready to go!!

don't worry! I saved a couple dozens for myself! (as if you should really worry! lol)

So, as you can see, that is how we spent most of our Eid.

The prayer was lovely, held in the mosque's garden, as usual.

That's about it! And as the Syrians say "kel seneh w ento salmeen!" (translation: may you be blessed with every passing year.. or something like that..)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it.. huh?

We passed by a nice steep hill that overlooks the city of Sheik Zayed while driving to the grocery store this afternoon, and for a split of a second I thought to myself OOOooohh this would be great for tobogganing, I'm so coming here in the winter!!! But then I remembered, I'm in Egypt..

"Cats?! .. EWW!!!"

Is it normal for me to feel offended when someone tells me they don't like cats? Or better yet, they HATE them? (while putting so much emphasis on the H)!
It's just that I'm really sick of people responding with "Uh.. cats?! I hate 'em!" and "Seriously? You have 6 of them?! I can't STAND them!" when they find out I have 6 cats!

You wouldn't go up to a parent and bluntly tell them that you don't like other people's kids! Or that you find their kids really annoying! So why do people think it's OK for them to speak to me about cats in such a manner? A simple "I am not a cat person" would do, if it is of utmost importance to them that I know they don't really like cats!
And I seriously don't understand why they consider it a horrible thing to be living with cats under one roof. I'm sorry but I'm really fed up with getting these same responses with every single person that I meet!!!


We as humans (AND muslims) should have enough room in our hearts for all of God's creatures!
It is your problem (and loss) if you don't like cats, but at least you should not HHATE them.. sorry if I sounded offending with my last sentence, but those people never gave a damn whether their hateful comments were offending or not, so why should I..

I just had to write this post, despite me being VERY busy..