new furniture

Isn't it beautiful? This is the furniture I ordered last month. Came out wonderfully. This first photo is of a quilt display box. There are three panes of beveled glass (which is causing the distortion in the pic) and the rest of it is oak.

Right now it still reeks of stain, but in a couple of weeks I think I will be able to put some of my folded up quilts in there. Right now all my quilts that aren't on display are just heaped in a pile or crammed into pillowcases in the closet.

This cabinet has the most incredible workmanship:

The eleven pointed stars are made out of mother-of-pearl and I'm not sure what (in the old days it would have been ivory) and then individual carved pieces of oak all fitted together to make this gorgeous three-dimensional pattern. I wish I could take a photo that would do it justice, but after many attempts this is the best I could do.

When the furniture maker came to drop it off, he said this cabinet was too much work. (His father is the one who takes the orders.) I'm glad he was willing to do it.

So getting my furniture was a very good thing which happened recently.

On the downside, the car fell apart last night -- and this is after we just had a bunch of work done. The fan belt self-destructed and now it needs to be replaced along with some other gizmo. We either have to order the parts from the states, which takes time, or pay hundreds of dollars more to get them here, if they're even available. Sigh. My husband was lucky enough to get the car to a parking area near a friend's apartment, rather than having it break down completely on the Corniche (the main road which parallels the Nile and is very very busy). That was last night. Now he has to get it safely to Ma'adi with a borrowed fan belt. I'm crossing my fingers...

I got cranky the other day and decided I didn't care if there were workers outside my windows, I wanted some light, goshdarnit. There was no one around and I had them open for a couple of hours before I was asked to close them. I don't know if the closed curtains are for their benefit or mine. Don't know if they're worrying about being exposed to my naked knees and elbows (I'm such a hussy) or just the rampant American consumerism on display.

Thanks for the compliments on my Beady Eye. I have no idea how many beads I used. I think it's one of those questions it's better not to know the answer to. It was a LOT, I know that much. I don't know why I picked an eye as subject matter. In a Halloween context they're kinda creepy, but I'm actually surrounded by eye images on a daily basis, since one of the things I love to collect in Egypt is the tokens to avert the evil eye. Sounds like a topic for me to explore another day...