Last week I featured some beautiful stands made specifically for reading the Quran (or Koran), the holy book of Islam. Today's photos were taken in the same shop. They are beautiful Korans that come in a variety of colors decorated in intricate gold leaf designs.
Simpler, not so elegant versions of the Quran are also available. They are also available in different sizes as well.
Another enormous chocolate chip cookie decorated for National Day. Shops offered big sales and discounts.
A few days ago was the 90th birthday celebration here in Saudi Arabia. Green and white are the colors of the Saudi flag, so there were green and white decorations everywhere.
Saudi women generally pray at home. Usually they put on a prayer dress on top of what they are wearing. The prayer dress is a loose long simple dress that extends down to the floor, has long sleeves, a high neckline, and may have a hood attached to cover the hair. These prayer outfits are usually made of a soft thin cotton fabric in a variety of colors and prints.
This shop sells women's wear, including prayer dresses, abayas, and scarves. The last photo of this post was taken in the same shopping plaza as the others. I can't imagine ever wearing anything like it, even in my younger days, but maybe there are some women who might wear this in the privacy of their own homes.
A minaret in silhouette. A minaret in a business plaza. And a minaret rising up in the city.
A gigantic sized chocolatel chip cookie decorated in the green and white colors of the Saudi flag will be a nice addition for a Saudi Arabian National Day celebration, Today Saudi Arabia is 90 years old.
Balloons and video graphics adorn a local mall in Jeddah for Saudi National Day
Saudi Arabian National Day is tomorrow, and this first sign in a shop window is in reference to the holiday. Many shops are having big sales to celebrate.
This photo is at an open air mall here in Jeddah and is signage indicating a female changing room.
This last photo display also references Saudi Arabian National Day. Saudi Arabia celebrates its 90th birthday on September 23rd.
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On September 23, 2020, Saudi Arabia celebrates its 90th birthday! For many years there were only two official holidays here in Saudi Arabia - and both of them were religion based. It was only a few short years ago when September 23rd was officially recognized in the Kingdom as Saudi Arabian National Day, as it was on this day in 1932 when the country was unified by King Abdulaziz. Think of it as the 4th of July of Saudi Arabia.
The unification means that all the nomadic tribes and regions finally stopped fighting with each other and came together under one umbrella - the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With each passing year that I have spent here, National Day has of course become more commercialized and with more and more festivities.
The store windows of this little girls' dress shop caught my eye. I liked the colors and the fanciful Asian theme. These dresses might be worn for holidays or weddings or other more formal events.
There is no shortage of shops like these here in Jeddah and the competition is steep. There are always more formal events to attend and little girls here generally have quite an array of formal attire.
A fresh watermelon street vendor finds a little respite from the hot sun by finding a bit of shade while waiting for customers. A cement worker stands out in the heat in a place with no shade. I don't know how they do it. By the time I take the elevator down from our apartment and walk to our nearby car, I am already dripping with sweat.
My husband and I resumed walking laps at the mall a month ago for exercise. Boy, it feels good to be moving again after months of being couch potatoes. But it's amazing how exhausting it is for us!
It's still quite hot and humid here and that contributes to our low stamina. We go in the mornings after breakfast before the mall gets more crowded and we never go on the weekends. It's encouraging to see little signs of life slowly resuming back to normal.
Prada. Chanel. Gucci. And many more. Most world renowned high end designers have outlets in Saudi Arabia. Many Saudi women - and Saudi men too - are extremely fashion forward.
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Ultra modern architecture in Jeddah houses the likes of big name designers like Prada, Gucci, and Chanel.
I saw these Koran stands in a stationary store here in Jeddah. I've seen them before but not such a wonderful selection of them. They come in a variety of sizes. The taller floor stands above are very similar to the music stands I remember using when I was in the band in high school. They also are adjustable to higher or lower heights.
The shorter Koran stands are used while sitting on the floor or can also be used for reading at a table. The small carved wooden stands in the middle photo can be folded up flat. Some stands are quite plain and others are decorated with Arabic script from the Koran or other Middle Eastern designs.
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This highly embellished outfit in a Jeddah shop window caught my eye. There is gold and silver trim on the bodice and hundreds of small gold and silver metal embellishments all over the garment.
The sleeves are belled, the sheer shawl is also trimmed, and the high low hemline reveals matching embellished slacks underneath. Quite an outfit. I wonder how heavy it is with all the trimings on it.
Just a random collection of photos for you today. I thought the first photo looked rather artsy - I like the compostion, the lines, and the traditional menswear.
The second photo is an attractive Asian themed children's clothing shop window with origami birds floating above the display of headless child mannequins and large figures of an Asian girl and a waving kitty cat thrown into the mix.
The last photo is of new construction with a very modern flair. Jeddah is home to many modern architectural styles.
