Dubai- Henna

Today was my first attempt at using henna.

I have wanted to try it out for years, but was limited by the fact that henna is so hard to come by in the states.

I finally did find some in Boise but couldn't bring myself to pay 13 some dollars for it.

Lucky for me I wound up in a place where henna is an everyday part of life.

I went to the Carrefour a while back with Andy, Tehra and some of the babies to just do a simple shopping.

I went down one of the beauty aisles in the store and found a bunch of henna. Some pre-mixed and in tubes, some in powder form, hair henna, nail henna, you name it and it was probably there and at a great price. (some of the tubes were less than 1 US dollar)

I grabbed a bunch of different packages of it and threw it in the cart.

Today I finally got brave enough to test it out.

I went on-line and looked up a bunch of henna designs and printed off a few just for inspiration.

I sat out on the pack patio in the heat of the day, decked out in my harem pants while sitting on a braided rug. 

I started at the tip of my middle toe and slowly wound my way up the side of my calf letting the henna kind of form its own design. 

That may be a strange concept but I have noticed that some colors and designs kind of make themselves and the artist has no idea what is happening until after it is done.

I used to try to get some of my friends to paint with me, and they would tell me all about how they don't know how or what to paint. I would just tell them to find a color that they love and then use it, and the piece would pull itself together. It worked everytime! :] 

I used the pattern I printed at first to make sure I stuck with a central theme, but didn't actually follow it all the way through. I mostly squeezed the henna directly from a tube but had to use a skewer at times to get thinner lines. 

All in all I am happy with how it turned out.

I feel it is the perfect feminine touch. It is subtle and natural but beautiful!

After the henna all happened My mom, Josiah and I went out for coffee with the neighbor lady and her little girl.

We had a nice time sipping our iced coffee and chatting while seated outside by the pond. We didn't sit outside long because it was terribly hot.

We ate some sandwiches from the cafe and then headed home after.

I feel like some very important things happened after, but aside from an evening swim with Josiah, I cannot think of anything.