Pakistan

Have been digging through some photos from trips and thought I would share these ones from 2007 when we did a trip through the North West Frontier of Pakistan - one of the best trips I have ever done!!!...totally awesome scenery and lovely people!

Above: Passu suspension bridge, Passu village, Hunza...World's most dangerous bridge?... as cited on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DPP3Ei9X_0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Gyl2S6rI8

Above: Beautiful scenery

Above: Men chatting, Chitral

Above: Lowari Pass

Above: Boys leaning out of their car windows in a queue of traffic.

 Kalash women of the village of Balanguru

Above: Dancing at the Kalash festival of Joshi

Above and below: Children enjoying the Kalash festival of Joshi

Above: A Nuristani girl in the village of Shakanande

Above: Boys taking a rest, Shandur Pass

Above and below: Cathedral Mountains, Passu village

Above: Passu suspension bridge!

Above: Stunning mountain view from Eagles Nest, Karimabad, Hunza

Hope you enjoyed!

Christmas

This year's Christmas tree is a bargain from last year's post Christmas sales!!  A lovely silver tree with clear 'jewels' on each stem!  Am really pleased with it!  Sticking with my favourite colours - pink and purple with a bit of silver and white - I have accessorized with a mixture of homemade and shop-bought decorations.

I first started making the silk heart decorations last year before I got a sewing machine for Christmas.  Each heart has sequins and beads sewn on by hand, although the process of sewing round the actual heart is a lot quicker now I have a machine!

Oh and I found some cute wooden robin decorations in John Lewis to sit at the base of my tree...

If I didn't love pink and purple so much, I think I would make my theme red and white like the beautifully festive Christmas created by Country Kitty (http://countrykittyland.blogspot.com/2011/12/elves-at-work.html).  Inspired by Country Kitty's red and white theme I made a garland of red and white hearts to hang from my curtains rails.

I love the fabric which has all the names of Santa's reindeer on it!...I couldn't find it anywhere in the UK so I ended up having it shipped from the States via Etsy!

I also quickly ran up some felt decorations for my two year old niece to decorate with coloured sequins...she loves glueing and sticking!!!

I just must remember to get a photo of the finished artices post glueing and sticking with sequims!!!

We also did some handprint art as a Christmas present for my sister-in-law - my niece's mum - a picture of their black and gold fish!

I was particularly inspired by this picture...(http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/?p=821)

But there's loads of websites out there to get inspiration for handprint art...

http://notsoidlehands.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-mothers-day-gift.html

http://www.meetthedubiens.com/search/label/crafts?updated-max=2010-04-15T17%3A01%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=20

http://funhandprintart.blogspot.com/2010/11/handprint-indians.html

Finally, I managed to get the cushion finished for my niece which along with the chair I bought her made a Christmas present I hope she will enjoy for a long time!

A very Happy New Year to everyone!