i.am.now.a.brunette.

Kisses from my desk in the office. I am now a brunette and I am incredibly excited about it! No more bi-monthly highlights, and hair-do bills... just a low maintenance chocolate brown! One thing I will miss is blaming my unintelligent moments on the blond hair - "that was a blond moment"!

my daily blog tour

my daily blog tour is pretty short....but VERY good! so i thought i would share some of my favourites with you...maybe you want to check them out too!!

everyday i visit the following sites...(in no particular order...just whatever tickles my fancy lol)

• http://thepearlcurriculum.blogspot.com/ where my friends lindsay and phil (mostly linds) blog about their adventures in egypt and now in KUWAIT!
• http://www.pattifriday.com/ which is lindsay's mom's website and full of interesting articles and information. she is creative and inspiring!
• http://booshay.blogspot.com i don't know this wonderful lady but i feel like i do. she is an AMAZING photographer and i love to look at her pictures and read about what's new in camera land.
• http://www.thepioneerwoman.com there is nothing this woman doesn't do!! i love the photography section...and cooking...and confessions. oh and all of it!
• http://postsecret.blogspot.com secrets on postcards. displayed via the net. wonderful.

then of course, i check my email, facebook and flickr and my own blog.
i think i'm obsessed. but i'm not ashamed to admit it. i love the internet. it's what i do. to pass time, to avoid, to distract, to let go, to have fun. check out some of these great sights when you have a minute. you'll be happy you did.

Luke.

Egyptian Tattoos

Egyptian tattoos are very beautiful in nature and with such a variety of artwork to choose from, it can be difficult deciding on simply one design.

Some of the most common Egyptian tattoos include, The eye of Horus (sound eye, Wadjet) which is believed by many to possess power, prosperity, protection and wisdom.

Other popular Egyptian god tattoos include, Hathor the Goddess of love, music, dance and is represented by cow horns and a sundisk on the head. Anubis is know as the god of embalming and is represented by the head of a jackal. Ma'at is known as the goddess of justice and is seen with an ostrich feather in her hair along with winged armed.

Enjoy these beautiful pictures of wonderful tattoo ideas.

Cats were highly regarded by many ancient Egyptians and were better known by the name "mau". Its quite common to see Egyptian themed cat tattoos.

These type of tattoos are seen on various locations of the body, with the back and arms being the most common areas.

Other Egyptian tattoo designs that are quite popular is the Scarab Beetle, which is often seen in the form of an amulet. And of course the very common Ankh (Cross) which is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of ancient Egypt, along with the mysteriously intriguing hieroglyphics.

Egyptian Tattoos

Egyptian tattoos are very beautiful in nature and with such a variety of artwork to choose from, it can be difficult deciding on simply one design.

Some of the most common Egyptian tattoos include, The eye of Horus (sound eye, Wadjet) which is believed by many to possess power, prosperity, protection and wisdom.

Other popular Egyptian god tattoos include, Hathor the Goddess of love, music, dance and is represented by cow horns and a sundisk on the head. Anubis is know as the god of embalming and is represented by the head of a jackal. Ma'at is known as the goddess of justice and is seen with an ostrich feather in her hair along with winged armed.

Enjoy these beautiful pictures of wonderful tattoo ideas.

Cats were highly regarded by many ancient Egyptians and were better known by the name "mau". Its quite common to see Egyptian themed cat tattoos.

These type of tattoos are seen on various locations of the body, with the back and arms being the most common areas.

Other Egyptian tattoo designs that are quite popular is the Scarab Beetle, which is often seen in the form of an amulet. And of course the very common Ankh (Cross) which is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of ancient Egypt, along with the mysteriously intriguing hieroglyphics.

day 31! woot.

my last photo a day post.

are you exhausted?

i kind of am.

today's photo comes compliments of the kind contractors i work with.  after a complete crawl-into-the-fetal-position-pull-my-hair-out melt down in front of clients and colleauges at a meeting earlier today {oh, and after 14 calls from the same angry guy between 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.}

i was gifted an ice cold diet coke {a full liter!}, 12 cans to share {whatever.} and chocolate.

the sure fire remedy to a genuine melt down.

it would only be appropriate to round out the photo a day challenge with a picture of diet coke.

eighty something posts this month.

whew.

Cute Hand Tattoos

This collection of hand tattoos is chalked full of fun, silly and cute artwork ideas for both boys and girls of any age. I imagine you'll take an immediate liking to the little hand goblin, and you would be right for doing so, he's a lot of fun!

Hand face tattoo idea.

Four leaf clover tattoo on bottom of thumb idea.

Cute colorful butterfly design picture.

Matching swallow birds.

Cute angry panda bear growl.

Black light small cosmic stars.

Hand Tattoos For Girls

As we mentioned before, hand tattoos are often regrettable because they are not easy to disclose when needed, however it does seem like girls hand tattoos in general are much less subtle and perhaps more appealing to people whose fear the wraith of an inked man or woman.

Rose hand tattoo with ladybug.

Lovely flower on wrist area.

Purple and white flower idea.

Several stars artwork idea.

Picture of three small stars.

Small dotted lizard ink.

Hand Tattoos

Much like facial tattoos, getting a tattoo on your hand is also a rather daring choice of location which is somewhat difficult to hide for those formal occasions. Perhaps not quite as difficult as covering your face, but still its a pretty risky and often regrettable tattoo area.

Checkout these pictures of some real top quality hand artwork ideas below.

Owl hand design photo.

Engine with wings image idea.

Red skull comic book villain artwork.

Spider-Man with web fingers ink.

Single star on top of thumb area.

Matching lotus flowers.

Henna artwork picture.

quote of the day

as mentioned, i wasn't having the greatest day today. when i arrived at school this morning, i saw this quote on tami's facebook name and i felt like it was meant for me. enjoy!

"People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend like fine weather if you're fortunate. But happiness is the result of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly." - Elizabeth Gilbert

deep breath

i had a crappy day. i was in a bad mood. not going to get into all the juicy details but it wasn't great. but anyway, i am writing cause i had a great END to my day! i was sitting here bored after dinner and texted nancy to see if she wanted to have a pedicure and good news SHE DID! so we went to our favourite spa called "happy spa"....how can you not be happy at a place with HAPPY in the title??? anyway, we went, we sat in the lovely spa chairs, and we got wonderful pedicures! and then i chose a really cute purple nail polish....i chose it because of the name...DUSK OVER CAIRO! how fun is that?! but WAIT! it gets better. i was getting a pedicure when the owner of the spa called me on my cell phone and said that she could see me on the video camera as i sat in the pedicure chair (kinda creepy) but she was happy i was there and all that. then she called the spa phone and told them to give us free designs on our toes!! so now i have cute purple toes with super nice HAND DRAWN flowers on them!!


so anyway, that was a GREAT way to end this crazy day and THEN i got to talk to tammy on the phone! and i finally heard that linds and phil are safe and sound in KUWAIT. oh, and my childhood friend steph had a BABY girl today!! welcome baby jada!! and then i had a BRILLIANT idea! and with the help of a friend you will see signs of this BRILLIANT idea very soon! so i guess today turned out to be pretty good after all!

todays.Omani.experience.

When I decided to moved to Oman I was given lots of advice from friends and family; people expressed their concerns about a white woman living in an Arabic country, not only a while woman, but a blond white woman, about how woman need to cover up and be aware that the Arab men will stare at you, don't feel threatened etc etc etc. So far my personal experience hasn't been so bad, I always make a conscious effort to cover my legs and shoulders and never show too much skin when I am in public. The stares from the men aren't that bad at all (that doesn't mean they don't stare) but most of the time its a bashfull look or subtle stare which doesn't really bother me, I barely notice it!
Today is the day I got the BIGGEST stare so far (if you could call a stare big?!), it is definitely number 1 on my top 10 list of stares from Arab men. I was driving in my car, turning the corner onto the road where my office is, and due to a little congestion, driving in the opposite direction was a male Omani in a dark grey Dodge Charger. He is the culprit; his head did a lightning fast turn in my direction and then his head sort of titled backwards in a "OMG" kind of way.
I drove off chuckling to myself, and that was the end of that Omani experience.

money.money.money.

I have been living in Oman for 133 days, 102 days of unemployment!! and 133 days of no income...
My first Omani Pay Cheque is going to enter into my HSBC Bank account tomorrow - that makes me very happy. BUT what makes me very sad is that most of it is going to disappear within days of appearing! I am finally able to contribute (to Luke) to rent, and furniture, and the big flat screen television, and water and electricity and the maid, and for myself, my car. After all those expenses I am left with next to nothing, and that makes me sad!
Reasons for being sad:
1. Walking through the shopping mall with eyes the size of saucers as I gaze at all the stunning shops with the most beautiful clothing and shoes. But with no money, no extra clothes or shoes.
2. My hair needs serious attention, I am thinking a complete make-over, change the colour, change the style. But with no money, no hair-do!
3. With no money, no extravagance or luxurious luxury.

I suppose that is life, and money REALLY shouldn't get me down, there are other important things that will make me happy :)