Presents from Pakistan

My husband returned from Pakistan on Thursday, much to my relief and delight ("Salaam, nice to see you, here are the kid's - I'm off to sleep for the next two weeks" - only joking). I feel like life has found it's balance again and that things are how they should be. He came back bearing gifts as people always do when coming this way from Pakistan and I loved ech of them.

This picture does this suit no justice, it's exactly sky-blue and the material feels very silky. It has a shalwar (Pakistani trousers) with it.

My favourite were the very pretty sleeves. The shawl was embroidered in the same way and would make a nice big hijab.



I thought the red chiffon suit was pretty until my husband told me to turn it around. The back has more work that the front (all down the zip). The pants were a shalwar again made of some funky chinese-print silky material called "Shanghai" in Pakistan.


The neckline from the front.

I love the colour of this midnight blue suit, the embroidery is quite heavy, so I will have to wait for a special occassion to wear this.

I think Long-Suffering Sister has something very similar to this suit (so she has all of the accessories to go with it). Some of the work on the suit:

This suit is also different because it has trousers instead of a shalwar (and very funky they are too).

Littler Lady was overjoyed with her lengha (skirt suit), because she thought the colour was like a mermaid's tail (she has a major thing for mermaids at the moment). She was very happy when I told her the style was called "fishtail" or "mermaid" lengha.

It has a lot of embroidery for a little girl, but it seems they like to cover ever surface in embellishment in Pakistan.

Everyone's favourite though was the food. The tins contain a sweet called "Sohan Halwa" from Multan (which is famous for it) which my husband likes. The yellow box holds small brittle sweets made of ghee and raw sugar called "Raiveri" which my kids adore and the bag is one of two full of fresh roasted peanuts from my husband's Aunty's farm - my favourite. My bestest friend is also going through a peanut farm, so I will be taking her some when I next visit too.