Oman-Inspired Name-Letter-Art!

  This wonderful “Brown” family farewell gift (beautifully framed) was presented to me by my good friend, Geoff!  Thanks, buddy!  This gift shall take a place of honor in our home in the Philippines. 🙂

If you want to order your own family name plate in Omani-Inspired letters, check out the order page from my friend’s blog here.  It’s quite easy: you just order from his website and the picture will be printed and framed for you!  This would make a perfect farewell gift, for yourself or for anyone you know leaving Oman.

 

Totem Boutique, MGM

 Totem Boutique is now open in Muscat Grand Mall!  We were there at 6pm on Thursday for their official opening.

  If you consider yourself a “fashionista”, this is definitely a shop for you.Even their changing rooms are incredibly fashionable!They have all kinds of jewelry at Totem, both on the wall and also laid out among the clothing items.  They have these great one-of-a-kind watch pieces (not pictured) that my wife really liked and so she picked one up for something like 19 OR.My wife loved the items in the store and we ended up staying a lot longer than I expected, haha! She picked up the cute orange handbag pictured at the top of the rack in the picture above for something like 34 OR.That’s Susan (the owner, in the middle!) pictured with her employees, Riazal and May, on opening day.Cupcakes on opening day from Cake Gallery!Totem is a great addition to the Muscat Grand Mall. Tel: (+968) 94101901.  They are into Social Media bigtime! You can find them on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/totemclothing, on instagram @totemclothing, on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/liketotem, and they have their own blog at http://www.cometototem.blogspot.com.  You can also shop online with them at http://www.come-to-totem.com.

Here’s a nice article in Muscat Daily about Totem’s opening published 2 days later.  You can spot me in the pic they used talking to Maurizio, Susan’s husband. 🙂

TOTEM Clothing’s 7 Year Anniversary (& Sale!!!)

  Congratulations to Susan Proctor and her team for their 7th anniversary of being in business!!!     This is a rather late post but today, Feb 7th, for 7 hours (1pm to 8pm), selected items will be offered at the special price of OMR 7! (They are located in Jawharat Shatti mall near the Intercon but will be opening soon in MGM and another branch to open in Salalah, I believe.)     If you’re not familiar with TOTEM, check out their website here and shop online. They have shipped to every continent in the world except Antarctica. (Like Susan explained, “Penguins have no style!” 😉 )        Here’s their facebook page.You can follow TOTEM on twitter (like I do!) at: http://www.twitter.com/totemclothing .  Several photos of items on sale for 7 rials are in their most recent tweets.All these pics are from inside the shop.                  Haha! Love this pic!

Get on down to the shop while you can, ladies. Only a little over 4 hours left of this 7 year anniversary sale. (Tel: Site:  +968 97772400  Shop:  +968 94101901)

Motorshow 2012 Oman (Dec 11th-14th)

Mommy & Me (& Daddy Too!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did any of you here in Oman go to the Mommy & Me exhibition in Noor Plaza yesterday?  We did and we picked up a lot of great stuff, helpful info and most importantly, our son had a fabulous time!  🙂

The organizers were very wise to set up all kinds of play stations for kids to draw, play, think, make music, learn and enjoy their time at the exhibition!

This is an example of one of many tables set up at Mommy & Me.  Zainab, on the left, runs a company called 99% which sells stickers, toys made of paper that kids can color (comes with markers!) and other products.  www.talbatk.com

There are all kinds of educational models at the exhibition like this doll to explain to new mothers how to feed a newborn and the benefits of breastfeeding.

A sad reminder (from BMV) of just how many parents in Oman do not have child seats or insist that their children wear seatbelts.  I hope that such exhibitions as Mommy & Me will slowly educate the population and make them take the safety of their children more seriously.

Bread talk is in full force at the exhibition with a yummy display of some of their fancy cakes.  My wife was sure to buy a few things from this display! 🙂

One example of Breadtalk’s cakes – Circus Train Cake for 36 rials.

For all you coffee lovers out there, Second Cup is at the exhibition.

There is so much to see and do in the exhibition.  It’s not only for parents of newborn babies either.  There are plenty of kindergartens and playgroups that are advertising and available to answer the questions of parents of older kids as well.  You really have to start them young.  Some of these playgroups accept children as young as 14 months old!  If you wait too late to enter your kids in some educational group in Muscat at ages 3 1/2 or 4 they may get left behind!

This is Marianne, the smallprint franchise owner in Oman.  She specializes in the cutest souvenir gifts in which she can place the fingerprint of your baby (or even handprint at 4 months old or less) on silver jewelry as a keepsake. She works out of her home and can even travel to your house anywhere in Muscat to have it done.

Check out the website for more info: www.smallp.com (email: marianne.olsgaard@smallprint.com ) We’re thinking of getting some jewelry with our newborn’s fingerprint on it when she arrives in mid April, God willing.

Expat Woman (www.expatwoman.com ) is a great resource for anyone living in the Middle East.  Check it out for yourself and see why I’ve added it to the blogroll.  Expat Woman is the online partner of Mommy & Me.  A couple of other online resources you may want to check out are: www.MuscatMoms.com and www.pregnantinoman.com .

Well, I’ll end this post back at the beginning – the entrance to the Exhibition in Al Noor Hall.  The gentleman seated there is none other than Oman’s famous blogger/twitterer (what do you call someone who tweets exactly?!), Muscati! His is the twitter account to check out if you want to get an idea of what the tweeting community in Oman is like.  His wife happens to be one of the organizers and Muscati did his part in warmly greeting people as they entered.

If you didn’t go yesterday (Wed. Jan. 25th) I highly recommend you go there today (Thurs. Jan. 26th) and enjoy a few hours supporting local businesses while enjoying some great entertainment and fantastic deals (and plenty of freebies!).  It is well worth the 2 rial entrance fee!  Great job to all the organizers and volunteers of Mommy & Me!  As I mentioned on twitter, our son cried all the way to the car after leaving the exhibition.  He was having such a great time that he just didn’t want it to end!  🙂