Aya Sofia

Built by Emperor Justinian in 1532-1537,


the Aya Sofia was considered the "greatest church in Christendom" for almost a thousand years -


until the Seville Cathedral was built in 1520, that is.


Merry Christmas.

We hope your celebrations were fabulous, wherever you are.

Harem

Inside the Harem


at the Topkapi Palace:


Very cold and wet outside, but definitely worth the wait.

Istanbul Day 1

It is almost 5 pm in Istanbul. The call to prayer echoes outside of our hotel room window as Gioia dozes for her nap. We have been here only 30+ hours, but we are settling in nicely.


This morning, we saw the Blue Mosque - so named for its famous blue tiles adorning the walls and inner domes. We also visited the Islamic art museum, viewing its fabulous antique carpets.


Everything we have eaten here has been delicious. It is kind of like eating fairy food: once you have tasted it, you can never go back to normal food.


More pictures from today are here.

Oops

Apparently Gioia is afraid of animated dolls. We first noticed it when a friend gave us a giggling and shaking Zoe doll (something like this but with animation), whom she did not like at all. Last week, Chris also saw that she was terrified of the dancing and singing animated penguins at the mall.

So the Stitch bubble machine that I got her for Christmas... How do you think that went over? Ummm, not so well.

Not good that I made her cry when opening her presents. Oops.

More Christmas present pictures are here.

Anticipation

The stockings are hung, and the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. We celebrate our Christmas early this year, as we board a plane to Istanbul tomorrow night and will not be taking presents along.

It is a bit odd for us to be celebrating Christmas in such a warm place, but things are feeling rather cozy despite the warm temperatures outside. Even though I felt unprepared for the season a few weeks ago, everything seems to have gotten done. Cards were mailed last Monday. Gift baskets sent to favorite peeps back home have arrived on doorsteps already (according to UPS). We have watched the Grinch (new version) and Polar Express. All we have to do now is open our own gifts and board a plane tomorrow.

Oh and pack. That too.

Gold - Poinsettia

And the final gift was Gold: an oil painting of a poinsettia flower. I think the shimmery gold tinge makes it look like a vintage hallmark card. A little painting for my swap buddy Louise.

This was a really fun swap. It was a lot of work though. After everything was done and mailed off, I almost felt lost. After spending the last six weeks working toward finishing everything, it was hard to not be doing anything - to not have a big project goal.

Frankincense - Advent Calendar

This advent calendar is my Frankincense gift for the Backtack swap. I used some heavy silk upholstery fabric that came from the Jim Thompson outlet in Bangkok. It was perfect for this project: stiff , non-wrinkly, and subtly shiny. I bought a couple of bags full of mother of pearl buttons from the fabric market in Beijing. They worked really well with the fabric.

The pockets' buttons correspond to the day: December 4 = 4 buttons, December 19 = 19 buttons, etc. Inside each pocket is a little Christmas trivia and a handful of Asian candy. Chris helped me cut the wood. Isn't he nice?

300 buttons sewn on by hand. Thank goodness for back episodes of Gossip Girl. I'm just sayin'.

Myrrh - Vintage Velvet

Louise's backtack packages have arrived! I can now tell you about my gifts. The first was Myrrh, a special gift for the recipient. For this one, I knit the Vintage Velvet pattern from Scarf Style. The pattern calls for 5 balls of Muench Touch Me, which had put me off from making it before now - very pricey. The chenille was difficult to work with, especially when a row or two had to be frogged. But it was well worth the effort (and the expense). The finished scarf looks very professional. One cannot even tell it was handknit. Not that looking handknit is bad, but.... I am not sure if any other yarn would yield the same results after felting, so any future versions will have to be made with the same yarn.

The scarf took about three weeks to finish, which kind of put me behind schedule with the other two items. But I was pleased with the end result and think I will make more for future gifts.

Muji House

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I did some Christmas shopping at the Hong Kong airport. Well, not only did I buy presents, but I also bought a gingerbread house in a box. From Muji.*

While it doesn't look as cute as the picture on the package, our little house was quite respectable. It was a pretty simple endeavor. Except for the fact that the sticker on the box which translated the Japanese instructions to English was missing the part for the icing. But we winged it. And it is indeed cute.

Thank goodness for airport shopping.


*Have you read their message?

Gioia's Art

The other day, Gioia walked over to her easel and drew this picture. I was on the office computer, and I looked over to see her with a black crayon in one hand and a gold crayon in the other.

Obviously, her work is a graphical representation of the Georgia Tech vs Georgia Thanksgiving football game. See the overwhelming gold and black with only a faint hint of red? Smart child, that one.

All Decked Out

Thank goodness we have a small apartment.


Decorating for Christmas can be done on a weekend morning.


Leaving plenty of time for lunch with friends.

Backtack Received!

I am a lucky lady. My Backtack partner sent such lovely gifts! I am astounded at her creativity. The stuffed monkey above was her interpretation of Frankincense. In addition to being absolutely adorable in her pink and red tunic, little Miss Monkey jingles as Baby G totes her around the house (the sensory aspect).


Gold was an address book and a calendar, both with custom embroidered covers. The designs wrap around the front and back of each book.


I must admit, the address book is my most favorite item of all. If I *had* to pick a favorite, that is. The little houses with the pink roofs just kill me.



And for Myrrh, this lovely felt flower wreath, which now graces the top of our medicine chest. We did not have a wreath for Christmas. If I had chosen one, it would have been exactly like this.

But that wasn't all. She also included a set of custom beaded buttons, which are inspiring me to get sewing again. Perhaps I can make Miss G a holiday dress with these before we leave for our Christmas holiday. Maybe?


Thank you so very much Louise! I hope you like your items half as much as I like mine!

Backtack is Done and Posted

I am a week behind the deadline for getting my Backtack items in the mail. The whole family caught a nasty cold this week, which slowed me down quite a bit. But I am officially finished and the packages are in capable hands of Federal Express. Louise should get her packages on Tuesday, UK time. Hopefully she will forgive me for being a bit late.

Besides the sickness, I was a little late because hand sewing 300 buttons took longer than I thought. For what you ask? Well, you will just have to wait a bit... Once the packages are delivered safely, I'll show and tell. But Louise gets first peek.

Much To Be Thankful For

Gioia's twelve month post-placement report is due to the China Center for Adoption Affairs very soon. We needed a picture to send of all three of us together, so we used our Thanksgiving event as an excuse to get dressed up and pose. My friend's young son took the photo. I think he did an excellent job.

We had a lovely dinner. The pecan pie was a big hit. I used this recipe out of necessity, as it was the only one I could find which did not call for processed corn syrup (which was MIA from Taipei supermarkets). But I liked the pie better than a Karo pecan pie, actually. This one just may become a holiday staple in our house.

Gioia was adorable in her brown velveteen dress and bloomers. Little girls. So much fun to dress.



November is over, which means that NaBloPoMo is finished and I no longer am trying to post everyday. Yet here I am, still posting on December 1. The exercise of posting daily was a challenge, but in truth, it wasn't as difficult as I feared. My hardest days actually came just this past week, when I had a billion things to do and my body shut down with illness. I am pleased that I made it through the month. Like anything, one becomes a better writer (blogger?) only through practice.