My Marrakesh

Marrakech: and her own Moroccan style decorating

Shhhhh.....she was secretly domestic.  She loved setting the table.  She enjoyed folding the napkins.  She liked arranging the flowers.  (Oh dear, what next...?  wearing aprons? ironing?)

When the darling Peacock Painters were here, the blogging girl wanted the tables to be, well, pretty…………

Take a peek.

 
She had a thing for pink......a girlie girl?

 

The tablecloths were of her own design, edged with handmade passementarie buttons. She didn't want to cover the graceful stems of the Saarinen tables.

She bought the vintage tables from the Italian cultural attache.  The 12 chairs - which she had refinished - were formerly in the garden of the Mamounia hotel; she liked their modern chic.

Little silver decorative animal boxes bought in Cambodia.  Even tables deserve jewelery.....

This was the blogging girl's own seat.......sigh, the one marked compulsive shopper.  Go figure.....

Shoukran from a Marrakech girl in Manama

She had been worried

   but those moments were over.

 She had been sad

                   but those feelings had passed.

Thank you for your sweet words……It made everything so much better:-)

PS the Bahrainis were extra lovely.   Perhaps the universe was paying her back….?

Image by Maryam

Emirates Air: and the case of missing compassion

The blogging girl started off on her journey. In the car she stapled documents, she wrote emails, she made phone calls. But she felt uneasy, somehow. There was a lurking feeling that she had forgotten something, something important.

At the airport, the person behind the Emirates Air counter told her coolly that her flight (EK 0752) was delayed, which would mean that she would miss her ongoing flight and would have to spend six hours in the middle of the night in the Dubai airport. The girl protested but the Emirates Air representative looked past her and called “Next”.

The hours passed at the Casablanca airport. The blogging girl’s Emirates Air meal voucher only entitled her to a drink though her delayed flight didn’t leave until 4 in the afternoon; Emirates Air apparently thought it best to save money at times like this.

Finally on the plane, the girl poured herself a glass of red wine, placing it on the pull down plastic tray before her. It was a few minutes later that the man sitting in front of her jerked his seat forward, spilling the entire bottle of red wine on her lap. She cried out.  The passenger looked back, saw what had happened but said nothing and turned away. The girl mopped herself up as best as she could with wet towels. Wet and cold, she ate her dinner. It was somewhere during the pasta bolognese that the tears began to stream down the girl’s face. The tall, blond air hostess walking down the aisle saw her weeping. Then she looked away and passed her by. And so began the girl’s journey to Bahrain…..

P.S. It turns out that the important thing that the blogging girl had forgotten was her camera battery. Sigh, no pictures of this journey….

P.P.S.  But perhaps you might like to see some of the latest photos of Peacock Pavilions right here at the fabulous blog of Melanie of the amazing Modello Designs. 

Destination: Somewhere

She folded her clothes neatly and put them in the red Samsonite.  She stacked her papers and slid them in a folder.  She set her alarm clock for 6 am. 

She was leaving on assignment. 

First there was the 3 hour car ride to the Casablanca airport.  Then there was a 7.5 hour plane ride.  Then an airport transit.  Then another one hour plane flight.  She would  arrive at 2:45 am in a strange country -- a place she had never been.  She was not sure what awaited her....  But she would open the door, walk down the hall, and find out....

P.S. Psst, beautiful vintage Moroccan wedding blankets (just like the ones found at Peacock Pavilions) on offer right here.....

Marrakech: Melanie and the Peacock Pavilions Fairygod Artists

They had come from far away. 
They had come from across the sea. 
To paint. 
To paint Peacock Pavilions. 
They leapt up ladders.
They scaled up scaffolding.
They mixed, they measured.
They swirled, they stippled.

From dawn to dusk
And back again.
They filled in the plain.
They colored the white.
Until it was shining
                          and new
                                    and special.
 
And for this, the Marrakech blogging girl would be forever grateful....

*
Once blank.........now a painted ceiling based on a Moroccan inlay design...


 
Oooh la la....



Once white....a painted Modello ceiling based on an Ottoman embroidery design...


 
Oh my........ 



Shhh....there's more....but you'll have to come to Peacock Pavilions to see.........!.

Marrakech: and the 7th place beauty pageant contestant

She told herself that the artists wouldn't mind.  Wouldn't mind the rough cement.  Wouldn't mind the unfinished walls.  Wouldn't mind the untiled fireplace. 

She told herself that her home was its own genre: Destroyed Chic. That it was undone but not unlovely.  That it was a pretty girl without makeup -- the kind you might notice once the girls with perfect hair and glossy nails and practiced smiles had passed you by. 

And then the blogging girl filled a drinking glass with water and put a rose in. 

 

 
PS Coming to Marrakech? Kind courriers from the US and the UK needed:

Peacock Pavilions: And please have seconds....

The colors! Incredible!  The patterns! More incredible!  And it's no surprise that all that beauty produced by the artists visiting Peacock Pavilions made them hungry.  The blogging girl did her best to feed them properly.  Perhaps you might like a taste, too?

There is fresh mint tea brewing...


And please, do have some Moroccan couscous, made with seven  vegetables and an onion-cinnamon concoction on top. 


Or perhaps you might like some chicken tagine with artichoke hearts, olives from the garden, and freshly shucked peas? Please don't be shy....


Vegetarian? Don't worry, you won't be forgotten....


Some chilled watermelon?  It came from a field nearby....

 
Could you be cajoled into having some home made biscotti and Moroccan cookies stuffed with almonds and organic honey? The blogging girl arranged them on a vintage Moroccan silvered platter, just so....
 
Oh the mint tea never stops..........You're in Morocco after all. One last glass.....?
 
Thank you so much for dropping by Peacock Pavilions today. Visitors are most welcome - so do come again.....

Marrakech: and the great henna caper

Do you remember? Have you forgotten? About Melanie and the decorative painters?

They are here!  In Marrakech!

The things, oh the things, they are doing.....oh my.....!

But you will have to wait a day or three to see........ 

For now, a painting interlude of another sort.  Because sometimes even painters leave the painting to others......





 

 

Ingrid Pullar: and photographing beauty

It was back in December that she had first heard of her.  Ingrid Pullar.  Ingrid was  photographing a story that the New York Times was running on Marrakech.   No slouch, in addition to the New York Times, she had taken photographs for Time Magazine. 

The blogging girl took one look at Ingrid's portfolio and emailed her.  The email didn't have to go far- - only to Casablanca where the Swedish photographer had lived for years.   Ingrid was friendly, and they exchanged a number of emails and phone calls.

Life hadn't been easy for the blogging girl recently, and so she turned to Ingrid's photos for beauty therapy.  Then she thought that perhaps, just perhaps,  you might be in need of a little beauty therapy, too...

*

Picking Moroccan saffron.  The poetic spice culled from an equally poetic flower.....

A tagine, the ubiquitous Moroccan stew seen bubbling all around the city.  Cooked in a conical dish by the same name.  So delicious.

Moroccan roses in a hammam bowl......... Morocco has valleys filled with roses.  No wonder that Moroccan souks are filled with rose soap, rose cream, and rose oil, made fresh.

Marrakech: and reaching for grace under pressure

When it all goes wrong......When no landscaper can be found...When the counter tops arrive stained....When the olive grove's pump is broken.......When the tile man steals money.......When the doors are put in askew.....When the pool is empty and the credit card full.....

that's when the blogging girl tries to keep some perspective....

when she tells herself that there is magic everywhere....

if she just takes the time to see it....

when she reminds herself that the important things have nothing to do with cement, and bricks, and deadlines....

but are clad in pink and wear high heels....

and just as bad luck blows in with the wind......so too, will it be swept away......

if she is just patient....