Some Occupied Land

A Victorian calling card in European aesthetic from the early 1900's in...Arabic. Wow. The seller I bought this from described it as Chinese...man oh man. Since I know about ten things to write in Farsi...all I recognize here is "Allah" (God) and it's a blessing, just like the Easter cards of European/American origin at this time in this style. What a crazy find. Love it.

Lucky Me, Lucky You

Luck...it seems that no matter who, pagans, monotheists, polytheists, all kinds of believers always believe in luck. Through out mankind's history we see evidence of this. Well, I was using the fifteen minutes of free time I have when the boys are eating breakfast (no wonder it's called "break-fast"), and snooped around Flickr to find these Hand of Fatima doors in southern Spain and Portugal where the Moors, Berbers and Arabs ruled for hundreds of years. These exquisite door handles were crafted into "hands of Fatima" as signs of luck to ward off evil and malice from the dwellers of each home. You can see the European spin on the style.

I chose the name The Hand of Fatima for many reasons, one main one being that everything is made by hand, another being I love the name Fatima, and finally, a little luck can't hurt, even when you're not the most superstitious person, why not cover your bases?


Photos from the following AMAZING photographers on Flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54427714@N00/395600505/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lxavian/3010927580/
jsprhmsn:bcn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfonsogamo/3456913496/in/pool-aldabasyaldabones

Maine Is "Wicked"....Eating Lobster and Moth Designs....

There is a picture that basically can sum up what we did this weekend. Arian, the babies and I packed up and headed up north Friday morning to Portland, Maine where two of our best friends call home. Mary Robbins Sibouih of Moth Design and her wonderful husband Nabil were gracious enough to host us for a fabulous time! We were greeted with love, smiles, tea, home baked cookies (like two dozen with lots of chips!) and we feasted on lobster, and home made chowder...or "chowdah". We had never been to Maine before and we have been really wanting to go and get out of the city this year, and it seemed that fall with all the beautiful leaves and change would be opportune.
We had a blast, but let me give you a few details that left me so inspired from the trip.
Mary and Nabil have a real love story. To sum it up, Mary was an art student at NYU and got a chance to travel to India, Senegal and Morocco where she had a host family and taught English, Nabil was part of that host family, and for a long while they equally looked past one another as nothing more then host brother and American sister so to speak...as time progressed something began to bloom and it was their love...anyhow, after living together in Morocco and Turkey, the journey has brought them back to Mary's hometown of S. Portland and to the house that raised her father and his siblings, which she and the Nabster (as I affectionately dub him), now own.


What a house. Built in 1916, it's beautiful, spooky and full of treasures...old fading books, advertisements on chipping wood boxes, her grandmother's costume jewels, creaky wood floors, spirits and hints of Rahbat. We were basically in love with this house, as if its natural way wasn't fantastic enough Mary has added her creativity and splashed it all around, with a retro, mod spin, primary colors and funk all around...this place runnith over with nostalgia. Take a look at a few pics I snapped....


The deer head oversees all the procedures in the moth studio! If you notice all the old cameras, that's from Mar's grandfather who was into film.

How about that sewing machine?? To die for. Alot of the antiques in the house still function.



And at last some of the Moth studio.