Victory on the carpet front

We hadn't planned to make a purchase. It just came to us slowly. I was wandering the alleys of Essaouira and stopped in a carpet shop.

22 carpets later, I saw a lovely one. But with a starting price of close to $700 and no mood to bargain, I walked away. The next day, I took the family back. Mr M played it cool and took a "I could take it or leave" attitude. Turns out we had to leave it.

But a couple of days later, we spotted a gorgeous (and overly large) piece in Marrakech. Some hard negotiations ensued. But still, it was not to be. Perhaps it was because we had declined the offer of tea.

Finally, on our last full day, I sourced a goodie. By now, I knew that we liked mono-patterned kilims from the High Atlas mountain range: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilim As usual, this one reminded me of a Kaffe Fassett knitting project: http://www.kaffefassett.com/Home.html We set our limit and Mr Mr was pumped up to haggle. And haggle he did. Despite not drinking any tea, he walked out the proud owner of a lovely carpet.

A knowledgeable neighbour instructed us to put in the shed for 72 hours to freeze out any critters. Well, it took us a few weeks to retrieve and a few months to find the right moment to unfurl it. But this weekend, we threw a belated birthday dinner for our neighbour Jenny and decided the moment was nigh.


The colours are spectacular. The room is ablaze as if we have fire roaring in a grate in the front room on a snowy day (and we are getting daily snowfalls here).