Omees Boutique Interview

Tell us a bit about yourself? Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?
I am stay at home mom to an year old beautiful baby girl. Bubu is her pet name. I can't survive without something to keep my hands busy, so I sew when I can, when my baby is napping and my husband is busy at work.

What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?
Since being a mom, I was never able to find anything that worked well for both me and my baby. So I began to make my own handmade products that everyone else also loved. My aim is to provide mothers alike the choice of cute and functional, one a kind accessories both for themselves and their baby.

Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?
My mom is my biggest inspiration. I learnt all my basic skills from her. I wish to become like my mom inshallah.

What other passions do you have in your life?
I love to cook, and also photograph. I am also the author of the food blog 'zaiqa.net'

How do you promote your work?
I have a facebook page where I post about my handmade items - www.facebook.com/OmeesBoutique

In the future I’d like to be…
successful etsy shop owner inshallah. This will give the flexibility to work from my home, at my convenience, being close to my baby all the time inshallah.

Crochet Owly Beanie Ear Flaps

Recently I made a purchase on Zibbet that was so cute that I have to share it with you. Isabelle recently closed her shop doors on Zibbet, but I managed to purchase these adorable Crochet Owly Beanie Ear Flaps, before the closure. I got one for each of my daughters, but had her change the little flower on the Owls to each girls’ favorite colors. Aren't they charming?

If you'd like to see more of Isabelle's adorable creations, please visit her Facebook page!

The Story Spine for Qasim Sabti

If you haven't been reading my blog, then you probably don't know that I am currently a Docent for the Seattle Art Museum.  Docent is a fancy fru-fru word for tour guide.  The only difference is that Docents do a ton of studying and upkeep for that fru-fru title.  I do mean a ton.  I've been doing it for a long time and it's honestly one of my favorite things to do.

So today, I headed down to SAM for a Communication Workshop with Matt Smith.  In the workshop, Matt talked about a Story Spine.  I was mesmerized.  What a great way to break down a story!  Although I've been storytelling for years, and am getting ready to write a children's book myself, I'd never done a story spine before.  While Matt moved on to his closing remarks for the workshop, I couldn't stop writing up a Story Spine for one of my favorite pieces at SAM.  So with no further ado, here is my Story Spine for Qasim Sabti.

Once upon a time...there was a little boy in Baghdad who loved to draw

And every day...he drew for his friends since his polio would not allow him to run with them

 

Until one day...he became a well respected art teacher at the National Academy of Art.

And because of that...he was walking to work one day and realized that books were raining down on him in red tears of ambers

And because of that...he took as many as he could home since they were farmland where his thoughts could be planted

 

Until finally...he created beautiful collages from the pages and spines of those lucky enough to be saved

 

And since that day...his plantings of artwork hang at SAM to remind us that cultural civilizations can rise from ashes.

Shuruq - Olympia's First Arab Festival

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice will host Olympia’s first Arab Festival, Oct. 5-7 to be held at 222 Columbia Street NW, Olympia, Washington. Arab Fest is a full weekend event featuring Arabartists, educational tables, children’s activities, food, music, dance, films and more! This fun-filled family event kicks off Friday, October 5th at 5pm, at the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural, on the corner of Capital St. & State St. downtown, with an Arab Café and Hookah Lounge full-day event at the Olympia Center, Saturday, October 6 th, 11-5 pm.

Admission is FREE to the public. Saturday evening features a lively show of Arab comedy and spoken word performances ($10 students; $15 general admission). On Sunday October 7th, we cap off the event with a film festival at the Capital Theatre ($5.50 OFS member, $8.50 general admission).

We invite our community to celebrate and experience the food, culture, traditions, lifestyles and peoples of the Arab world in a joyous and authentic manner. This event focuses on the diversity and complexity of the Arab peoples by challenging stereotypes, showcasing Arab arts and performance, and celebrating diversity within our community. As stated by Farihan Bushnaq, a local Arab-American community member,

Stopy by and say hi at the A Crafty Arab booth!

A Crafty Arab's new business partner, helping out by holding the cards and singing an Egyptian tune.

From Social Media banners to Eid banners

Last time I was on here, I wrote about branding and having a consistent banner in all my social media outlets. Since I was working on virtual banners, I went ahead and made a few craft banners too. I had listed this HappyEid banner in my Zibbet shop a while ago and it just sold:

So this week, I made more for my shop.

The first one is a horizontal banner just like the previous one.  But the shapes I created this time are very Arabesque.

Eid word detail:

I also created a vertical Eid banner that is in glitter:

Eid word detail:

And now that fall has started, I decided to make a spring banner.  I'm in need of some flowers to get me through the next few months of grey and rain here in the Pacific Northwest:

Eid word detail:

Once I started on the flower banner, it just felt natural to make another, but this time a vertical Eid banner in flowers and ribbons:

Detail of flower on the letter D.

I have one more in the works, but I'm getting ready for a booth at the Olympia Arab Festival this weekend, so it'll have to wait.  Stay tuned!

New day...new banner

I've been doing a bit of reading lately about finding your brand for your business. One of the key components of branding is consistency. There should be consistency in all your social media outlets. But I didn't have that consistency. The problem is that many years ago, I saw a photo of Libyan kids and their parents and fell in love with it. But no one knew the photo was of Libyan kids, or what the photo had to do with my business. The problem was that I didn't care, it was a photo I loved and that was what I felt was important to me. It was my business, after all…right? Here is the photo:

But when I created my created my Arabic Alphabet Animal poster, my new website needed to showcase that poster. So I designed a header for the website that reflected a few animals that I loved. Here is that header:

The animals were fun, bright and colorful, just like the poster. The problem? They weren't in order! Here I am, trying to sell a poster to educate kids about the Arabic language, but the header was a mish-mash of animals, in a random order. It was like having a header that has X, B, D, Q, and K. Very random but fun.

So today I decided was the day to have some consistency. It was time to meld my Facebook, Twitter, main website, Zibbet shop, Etsy shop and this blog into one brand that will be recognized by billions around the globe. Yes, you read billions. I've created a new header logo that will be the same on all my pages. It has the animals, but in the order of A, B, C, D, and F. Otherwise known as Alif, Baa, Ta, Tha, and Jeem. And my business name is in the same colors as the title square in the poster.

I hope now there is no more confusion about what it is that I'm trying to do: Strengthening Arab American heritage and culture by selling Arab, Farsi, and Urdu Handmade Greeting Cards and Crafts.



Quilled Rings & Earrings

I've been making Quilled rings lately.  They are very addicting to make and if I hadn't run out of ring bases, I could have made 30 more.   

 

When I ran out of the ring foams, I started making Quilled earrings.

 

 

I'd love to get some feedback on what you guys think of my quilled jewelry!  I haven't quite decided if I'll sell them online or at one of my B&M stores.