I had all my hair cut off today.
I have been trying to grow it long, but the last time I went for a haircut, the polish guy butchered me.

I popped into a local salon and he gave me a really trendy cut, hacked tons off but it has knocked a few years off the face which I could do with after hitting 43 this year.
I am not sure my husband is going to be too pleased, he wants me with long hair again, but recently it looked as though I had a pair of dog ears hanging down my face.
Maybe I will post a pic of it later.
Hubby is at Uni at the moment and comes home tommorow insha allah, so I think he will be shocked lol

Imane my daughter threw a fit after leaving the salon, as she had seen a really spiky boys cut on a pic on the wall and wanted it cut bad. My daughter wants to be a boy at the moment, only wears spiderman socks, boys clothes, refuses to be called Imane and only answers to the name of "HUMF" (dont ask me why) and now she is intent on having her hair cut into a short crop.
So as we were walking up the hill tonight she was lagging behind screaming "Cut my hair NOW". I just about made it home without having a nervous breakdown. She then proceeded to lay on the hall floor kicking her bedroom door screaming "I want a boys cut, its not fair".

Oh the joys of motherhood.

I have been running a business from home for years.
It started in UAE in 2000 and I have been running it on and off since then.

I have just purchased a new website The Fairy Path and am busy re-uploading all my work such as my photo/3d art, websets, 3D tubes and packages etc.
I have had so many clients ask when I am re-opening that I thought it was about time I got my website online again and begin to create.

I made this blog layout tonight, after uploading the background came out a little bigger than it was supposed to but it looks ok I think.
I plan to create lots more using my art work and offer them for free insha allah.

There were two things my ex husband did that truley broke my heart.
One was destroying every single letter and card my mother had written to me throughout my years in UAE.
I found this out the day I came out of Al Corniche Maternity hospital in Abu Dhabi after 4 long months as a patient after delivering my daughter Imane.
My mother died the month before Imane was born so I was dying to get out of hospital and read all the letters she had sent me over the years just to be close to her.

When I went to the box I kept them in, they were all gone, the Morrocan pig had ripped them all up and thrown them away. I was destroyed really, it broke my heart.

Now my photos of UAE were in their hundreds. Remember I lived in total there for 13 years and lived a life most expats dont get to see or experience.
I lived amoungst Emirati's and only had one British friend, I also lived with a local family and had hundreds of photos, some I had taken, some friends had taken and even professional ones by a famous photographer in UAE "Ramesh Shukla", who was a dear friend of "O" and myself.

My ex husband, after getting married, destroyed almost every single photo I had, I was left with just a handful, all my memories, all my history of my life there GONE. Again this broke my heart.
I do know that "O" my late Emirati partner, had copies of most of my photos and if I remember correctly they were stored in suitcases in his uncle Mohammed Al Shamsi's (the well known poet) traditional emirati house in Sharjah, where Mohammed used to sit in the evening talking with local elders and writing more poetry.

I often wonder if they are still all there, "O" died in 2005 so I have noway of knowing, hopefully when I return to UAE I can find that old old house and knock on the door and hope I can get some of my photographic history back insha allah

Since the day I first arrived in UAE all those years ago I have loved Bakhoor and became quite an expert on it.

I burned it everyday until I left in 2004 and still today when I can get hold of it I will use it to scent my home.

One of my favorites was made by some of the women from the Al Shamsi family, I was often given their wonderful homemade bakhoor pastels to burn and the scent was just out of this world. I also used to purchase very good quality Bakhoor in the wood form from Rasasi Perfumes in City Center Mall in Dubai.

To scent my local dresses and abaya's I would place them over a wooden structure and place the Bakhoor burner underneath until all the pungent smoke billowed through the fabric.

My husband just returned from the UAE and bought me Agarwood Coarse Powder from Abdul Samad Al Qurashi and it is beautiful. I just burnt some and my home smells divine.

I blend my own 3D art with clients photos of their children.I have digitally re-dressed every child in these pieces including re-painting the hair of some.
ENJOY

It has been snowing here in Brighton for days, I HATE IT.
We live right up on a hill and to walk anywhere means walking on black ice, its been a nightmare.

I have not been able to go to work since tuesday and its getting boring now.

My husband is due to fly back from Dubai tommorow, his flight is not the worry, its him getting back to Brighton that is the worry. I am constantly checking the weather and it does not look good.
Right now it is snowing again with more forcast all today and tonight and tommorow.

I have to head out down that slippery hill soon to stock up on food, not looking forward to it.
Rayed and I have his appointment at the Home Office in Croydon on tuesday to swap his student visa to a husband one. I just hope we make it and trains are running on the day insha allah.

Sometimes when I walk around Brighton it seems a life time ago I was in UAE.
My life there before I married the nasty ex husband was so totally different to how it is now, sometimes it seems like I dreamt it all.

Some of my fondest memories are of our weekends in Kalba (next to Fujeriah). For years we went every weekend to a large farm our friends owned.
We would leave wednesday evening or thursday morning and drive to the farm, all our friends in their 4x4's tagging along.

We spent the entire weekend driving into the mountains and wadi's playing music at night with loads of people from Fujeriah arrving to join in. Often I was the only female (which was normal as our friends were like my brothers), unless my best friend Fay came too with her local husband.

At night when it was very late, I would like to go drive alone, pop to the gas station to buy cream cheese and fromage frais (got sick of eating and seeing an entire goat on a plate). So to ensure I was safe, our dear friend Sheikh Hamdan Al Sharqi would make me drive his Land Cruiser with the Number 2 plate, so I was 100% safe (in those days the single numbers on a car belonged to Sheikhs only).

It used to amuse me when I pulled up to the gas station in Fujeriah in his 4x4 with the blacked out windows, watching the young guys stand to attention thinking a sheikh was getting out, and then this woman appears in leggings, bumpers and her hair covered. You could see the look on their faces as they wondered who the heck this woman was haha.

I also remember swimming in the pool surrounded by Jasmine bushes with their sweet scent. Sheikh Hamdan always handpicked me Jasmine from his garden each weekend when it was blooming. I miss those days and wonder how everyone is.

No one knew what happened to me once "O" died, only just recently I managed to make contact with the local family I lived with and told them what happened. (My ex husband deleted all phone numbers from my mobile when I was married so I lost touch with everyone).
I hope to return to UAE with my new husband this year and hope to find everyone again as I miss them all so much. They all knew me as LouLou as that was my name before I converted (Louise but nik of LouLou)

In my spare time I create art using Poser
I blend clients photos with my art to create Fantasy Art.
I also just create artwork using 3D models.
Here are a selection that I have done recently.
The first 4 my normal 3D artwork. I hope you enjoy.
The final 3 are of friends children transformed into fairies. I even digitally redressed them, can you believe?