just an old-fashioned girl

Hello and welcome. I'm glad you dropped by. If you´re looking for something a little nostalgic of bygone eras with a timeless elegance and a little modern twist – in other words, something slightly “retro” – then you should feel right at home here in my shabby chic room. Month by month, there will always be something new to see so I hope you´ll enjoy your stay and come back again soon.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Tea With The Bedouins

This is another of the photos from our holiday in Tunisia which I converted from a slide. It needed quite a lot of restoration work but it was worth it as I´m unlikely to get another chance to wear a Bedouin wedding costume or to drink tea with these hospitable people, so this will be a memory to cherish. I think the photo still requires a little more editing, especially to bring out the green of the tattoos on the older wife´s face without affecting the rest of the photo. I´ll need to experiment with that as I´ve no idea how to do it.
Tea Tunisian style is unusual to say the least. On this occasion the water was boiled in a can over an open fire - I had to extract the tea set from another photo. A handful of tea is put into the teapot followed by a handful of sugar then the water is added and everything is mixed thoroughly and allowed to infuse for several minutes. The addition of the sugar puzzled me at first until I discovered that no saucers or tea spoons are provided and, since it´s assumed that everyone likes their tea strong and sweet, it seems quite practical to put the sugar directly into the teapot. As you can imagine, the resultant brew is very sweet indeed and an acquired taste for anyone who doesn´t have a sweet tooth! I do, so I enjoyed it and, anyway, making tea this way is no more eccentric than adding milk or lemon to it. I´d say that asking for milk wouldn´t only have been rude but might also have presented a problem since the only animal in sight was Fortuna, the camel we arrived on, and supermarkets are few and far between in the desert...

(click to enlarge)

I used quite a few gold elements from Summer Past to reflect all the gold jewellery adorning the three of us, and I recoloured a floral background to suit. I´ll show a preview of the kit just as soon as I´ve finished converting and editing my slides.
Almost forgot...no prizes for guessing which of the ladies is me.

7 comments:

  1. I love this picture. You might try playing with Photoshop's "selective color" tool under the Image Adjustments menus. That can bring out (or take out) colors pretty specifically. With your artistic eye you could really do some magic with that one. :o)

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  2. Wow...it was worth the wait to get see this photo. What an awesome experience this must have been for you...and now to have the photo displayed so lovely here. Love the elements and papers we've seen so far from "Summer Past"!

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  3. Wowsers! What a fabulous time you must have had! Love your photo and the kit is looking so yummy. Now, this must mean you are the stunning blond in the middle of the seaside photo?

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  4. LOL! No, Jean, I´m the less stunning blonde on the left.

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  5. Well, shoot, your hair was covered and didn't show the blond! Both of you looked wonderful at the beach.

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  6. We're never to old to play dress up at a tea party! What a fun experience for you. I like my tea sweet too! Fun page to show off your wonderful photo. :)

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  7. Jean, don't feel bad... I wasn't sure until I saw the tea party photo and could compare the smiles... then I knew for sure. I should have gotten out the wedding photo to compare... :)

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