Crochet flower bag and butterfly hair clip.

My sister in law made a red dress with yellow and green butterflies for my daughter and her twins, so I crocheted butterfly hair clips for the girls. I made one flower shaped bag, but did not like how it turned out.

Peaches and cream ruffle skirt and crochet hat.

I was going to make a tank dress with a t-shirt material top with this skirt attached. But later on I decided to make a skirt as my daughter had none.  I think a skirt is a must in any girl's wardrobe, skirts look chic, adorable, cute, girly and....... you get the idea. Alright, I confess, I just can't help changing something in all the crochet patterns I've tried. I don't make what's actually shown in the pattern. I guess I'm a rebel. And enough of my ramblings.

I was going to make two peach rows and two cream rows, but I ran out of cream yarn and ordered some more yarn, but when it arrived instead of cream I got white, grrr. I did not want to wait any longer and finished the skirt with three rows of ruffle.

The pattern was actually for a whole dress, but I crocheted only the skirt.

Link to the skirt pattern

http://www.yarnspirations.com/pattern/crochet/rows-o-ruffles-dress 

Yam and Garudhiya

Assalaam Alaikum,

Yam (raw)

Yam with 'garudhiya and fried fish

"Garudhiya' (Fish soup)

Yam and garudhiya (a clear fish soup) is a favourite of mine. It saved my husband’s family from starvation.

My husband’s great grandfather is from Ha Ihavandhoo, he went to Addu to study and married an Addu lady, and had grandfather.

During those days boats used to stop at different places while travelling between Male’ and islands. During his travels grandfather met grandmother, who was from Ga Kolamafushi and got married, and had father.

During second World War, a great famine hit the country and people starved. At the time Gdh Gadhoo was one of the few agricultural islands in the atoll, so father and later his parents and siblings migrated to Gadhdhoo to avoid starvation and met mother and got married.

The main available food at the time was yam, a root vegetable and fish. Yam is still grown by people of Gadhdhoo. 

Friday's Fragrance

D Sharon Pruitt

Assalaam Alaikum

‘Abdullah bin al-Mubarak recorded in az-Zuhd [p. 51] that al-Hassan al-Basri said, 

"I saw those people [the salaf] and how they were more careful about their time than about their Dirhams and Dinars [i.e. their money].”   

source; http://www.kalamullah.com/misc.html

Malaysia

View from our balcony

Vista Angkasa condominium

We lived in Malaysia from July 2010 to July 2011. This was the only time we lived abroad. We lived in Vista Angkasa, KL, near Midvally Mega-mall. We frequented the mall for shopping and entertainment; it was my favourite hangout as it was just five minutes bus ride away from our apartment.  We used to go to the market in front of our condo. I miss the burgers from the burger stand near our apartment, I  hope the burger stand miss me too ;)

At Midvalley Mega-Mall

At KLCC, I love the park in KLCC.

PatronasTowers

The mosque at KLCC

We stayed in Gombak, with our good friends, Shamila and Hassan,  for one month, until we found an apartment and we visited them time to time. My friend would make traditional Maldivian food when ever I visited, Jazakallah Khair, Shamila. They took us on a visit to Cyber Jaya as well.

Gombak

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What I loved most about Malaysia was prayer rooms were available where ever we went, so we did not have to hurry back home for each prayer when we go out or  worry about missing a prayer.
It was easy for us to live there as my favorite foods were readily available as well and we did not have to worry about finding Halal food either.
 

A Precious baby.

'Baby hand' by Chirastar available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chira/3422718555/under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Assalam Alaikum.

We were married for ten years when I got pregnant with my baby girl. I was just 19 when we got married and 30 when we had our first baby. We spent all our vacations seeing doctors and running tests for five years. It was found that I had a Para-ovarian cyst. I had a laparoscopy to remove the cyst. I got pregnant after three months, but had a miscarriage at six weeks. After that I got pregnant again after two years and Allah blessed me with a baby girl. I had to take bed rest for the first three months even though there weren’t any complications. I had terrible morning sickness; actually I had morning, afternoon and evening sickness for the first five months of my pregnancy, (wonder why it’s called morning sickness?)  After that I had worry about placenta preevia  and at seven months I started having contractions. This meant being admitted to have some injections and bed rest for next one month. 

I gave birth to my baby girl on the due date. My water broke at two in the morning and meconium (poop) was found in the amniotic fluid. I was rushed to the labour room and was given an injection through an IV as my contractions weren’t strong enough. My baby girl was delivered at five in the morning. She wasn’t crying or breathing when she was born. She was admitted in NICU for three days and was found positive for Group B Streptococcus (GBS). We had to stay in the hospital for 18 more days as my girl had to take antibiotic shots twice a day. It was the most painful experience of my life, to watch my baby getting those shots and having her cannula changed almost every other day. I can’t describe how happy I was when it was all over and I was able to bring her home. 

Alhamdulillah, she is a happy and healthy one year old now.

Gadhoo

Assalam Alaikum,

Last week we visited my husband’s family in Gadhoo. We took a flight to Kaadehdhoo Airport and a speed boat to Gadhdhoo, normally it would have taken just one hour in a speedboat but we had to stop at three more islands. Alhamdulillah, weather was nice and the sea was calm until we arrived, but from the very next day onwards it was rainy and windy. We had to cancel our plans to go to the beach and the picnic to a nearby island.  My baby girl really enjoyed the trip. We both enjoyed the fresh air and some open space.

A peek at the sea.

"Toothbrush island"

This used to be a separate island when I visited the first time, 12 years back. There was a shallow lagoon which could be crossed by foot, during low tide, joined with Gadhoo for land expansion. My husband calls it "toothbrush island", but now the toothbrush shape is not as defined as there is no sea between the islands. I have some fond memories of  picnicking in this island with my husband and some friends. We crossed the lagoon on foot and it was a bit frightening for me but we had lots of fun.

The road  near my sister in-law's home

But,I'm glad to be back. Home,sweet home.


Talk to you soon.