Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival at City Walk

Brand Dubai is the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, who have created a platform for some of the world's leading 3D artists who have been showcasing their 3D art at the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival in City Walk.

I visited twice, once as they were setting up and again to see the finished art work.

You can see the size of the canvas if you look carefully at the artists at work.

Let me know which one is your favourite, I'm hard pressed to decide.

Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival at City Walk. Week 114 - My Sunday Photo. A is for Art.

Brand Dubai is the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, who have created a platform for some of the world's leading 3D artists who have been showcasing their 3D art at the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival in City Walk.

Standing at a marked view point to see the full effect of each piece of art.

The paint brush on the child's leg is removable and approximately 3 ft long, she can also see the artist at work in the second photo to get an idea of the scale of the work.

If you want to see the rest of the art work then simply click here.

One Daily Positive 2017 Week 9 - Enjoying the cooler weather in Dubai.

Oh My God, I'm still bored, but I'm going to stop going on about it, I just have to accept this is how things are. I'm not sad, depressed, fed up, just bored and a tad lonely from time to time. But only 3 weeks to go till I'm in the UK for a month, then 6 weeks back in Dubai and then summer in the UK.

I've been applying for jobs, some in Dubai and one in the UK, if I get the UK job, we'll just work the logistics out.

I've spent 25 years struggling to gain some control over my life, some routine to make day to day life with 5 kids a bit easier, but since being child free for the past 2ish years and working full time for one year, it's now just me, 9-5 Sunday to Thursday and guess what? Routine is boring, that's what.

We're in our 3rd week of rain, clouds and grey skies. It's bloody lovely. It's still warm in the mid 20's, but who knew we'd get weather like this in Dubai. For the past two years it's just been a week of sandstorms and torrential rain with localised flooding.

Sunday I took the car to be cleaned, it's been ferrying dogs back and forth to lakes, clinics etc and it stunk and when I dropped Peter off at the metro he spent 10 mins picking dog hairs out of his suit. I then visited the Mall of the Emirates for coffee and window shopping and in the afternoon made a dogs bed. I may have accidentally bought something in Zara and Hollister.

Monday Peter and I went for coffee before work, I then returned home to do some blogging and finish making some dog beds. I called in at City Walk to watch the artists at work with Dubai Canvas. I then headed off to Dubai Mall late afternoon and met some friends for dinner, it was nice to catch up.

Tuesday collected my friends dog and took both dogs into the desert for a run a round and a swim in the lakes, but Bob ran off and refused to come back, he did this on Friday also, so no more trips to the desert for him for a while. Our friends are looking after Bob over Easter while Peter and I are in the UK, but I need a back up plan for our summer trip as they may be travelling so I checked out some kennels for both dogs, should the need arise.

Wednesday I cycled to the Beach Canteen on our local beach, I was manhandled by security as they kept telling me I couldn't ride my bike, I wasn't riding it, I was wheeling it and the sign clearly said 'No Cycling' I spent the afternoon in tears.

Thursday wasn't much better, Rory's adoption trial fell through, she's staying with us for the weekend, but then it's back to kennels for her. I visited City Walk to take photo's of the finished 3D art work, did the food shopping and went out for a meal in the evening with Peter and his colleagues.

Friday I collected Rory and brought her home, I'm devastated, all my hard work was undone in just under a week. She responded well to the crate while we spent a few hours on the beach, almost getting caught by a surging tide.

Saturday morning and Rory was straight outside to pee and poop, she ate her breakfast well and settled on the dog sofa, she doesn't need much encouragement to go back in her cage while we went to JBR for breakfast on the beach, coffee and read our books. A joint of beef is in the slow cooker and we're sitting outside for as long as we can till the hot weather kicks in.

57/365 Move. Part of my #MarkwarnerMum entry

 58/365 The Last Time. Dubai Canvas 3D, in it's new location at City Walk.

 59/365 Secret. So many I hold and so many to share.

60/365 Smile. Lack of happiness today.

61/365 My Joy. Doing things to help others.

62/365 Bricks. Sitting outside enjoying the cooler weather.

63/365 Soft Focus. Enjoying the outdoor life.

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On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - I is for Ikea

Travel - Top 10 travel must haves

Animal Tales - Benefits to fostering a dog

HDYGG - Gardening in the rain

This is a blog hop, why don't you join in here and share your Daily Photo's.

3 reasons why you should foster a dog

There were a few tears a few weeks ago, in fact there were quite a lot of tears.

Rory went on trial in her potential forever home and I was sad to say goodbye, I was sad at home for the rest of the evening especially when her new family kept sending me photo's to show me how well she was settling.

Sadly 6 days later the call came to collect Rory, due to a variety of reasons it just didn't work out.

Rory had the potential to be a foster fail, when you fall in love with a dog and just decide to keep them as part of your family. Rory can't stay with us and will be returned to over full kennels on Sunday.

Rory is only the 3rd dog I've fostered and the agreement with DAWS is that I only have the dogs for short periods of time and I do all I can to help them find their forever home, socialising them with my dog Bob, giving them experience of being around a cat and focusing on toilet and crate training, walking on a lead and learning simple commands such as sit, stay and down.

My only qualification in dog training is having my own rescue dog who was badly treated and mistrusting of humans when we adopted him in South Africa, 4 years ago and trial and error.

Bonnie was an expensive dog to foster after she chewed through my laptop cable as was her brother Clyde chewed our furniture. Both Bonnie and Clyde needed a lot of work around toilet habits and there was quite a lot of unpleasant clearing up to do. Rory destroyed my favourite flip flops and would chance her luck running off with cushions, she was also car sick on longer journeys, but it was worth clearing up the mess in the car seeing how happy she was to walk in the desert and splash in the lakes with Bob.

Bonnie (top) Clyde (below)

All 3 dogs have had me awake at night for the first few nights, barking or not settling and there have been a few food related fights with Bob which have been quite frightening. But all 3 dogs, calmed, settled, learnt to pee and poop outside.

So far it just sounds like a lot of hard work and expense, but as a family there have definatley been great benefits for us all.

1. I've met more people, made friends, gained great satisfaction from seeing the first two dogs going off with their forever humans, there has been great satisfaction through basic training and seeing how quickly these dogs have learnt, there has been lots of love, cuddles and endless kisses. Although I've had to ask my husband to add the word dog to the end of his sentence when we've been in the garden and he's yelled 'stop licking me' I've no idea what our neighbours thought was going on.
2. My husband and I have both gone out for walks with the dogs in the evening, rather than taking it in turns to go on our own with Bob. Our cat has become far more tolerant and is less jumpy around new dogs, but the greatest benefit has been to Bob.
3. Bob, despite his age of 7, is very energetic, he is also very social and is extremely well behaved. I can honestly say in the 4 years he's lived with us, we've never had any problems, but he does have two areas of behaviour that fostering has helped sort out. It's not just the foster dogs that have benefitted from staying with, but our own dog also.

Walking on lead
Bob pulls none stop when walking on a lead, we've tried a harness, choke chain, normal collar and have settled with a martingale collar. Bob has really slowed down walking now and no longer pulls after the first few minutes, unless of course he sees a stray cat.

Eating
Bob doesn't eat his food, he inhales it, he never chews anything and eats it within a few seconds, we've tried special dishes etc and nothing worked. He has been eating much better since Rory has been around, chewing every few mouthfuls and no longer trying to knock the bowl out my hand as I place it on the floor.


Meet Rory.

Urgent Foster home needed for Rory. She is 18 months old, an English Staffordshire Terrier, she must stay somewhere with a garden and with someone who is at home all day and is prepared to use the crate for night times and when left alone.

Rory is energetic, she likes to chew but with supervision and discipline she will drop items and is easily redirected to a ball or a suitable toy.

She gets on well with other dogs, untested with cats, but has been known to jump garden walls to chase after them.

You'll need a lot of patience and time, but within a week of doing the above she was happy to just follow me round the house and garden.

If no home can be found for her, she will end up back in kennels, there is little space available and funds are not available to support her.

Please get in touch with DAWS - Molosser & Bull Breed Rescue UAE or comment below if you are able to help in anyway whatsoever.

Gardening in Dubai in the rain.

3 weeks of rain glorious rain here in Dubai and I'm loving it.

 There was a bit of damage at our local car park after high winds and sadly numerous car accidents

 I've been able to wear my favourite purple croc boots and my supermarket, leopard print boots bought in South Africa.

 I was given some organic seeds to sew a few months back, but I have absolutely no idea what these are, so I've planted them in rows, thinking potatoes?????

 I spent over an hour tying up all the plants after heavy winds, my back was killing me.

 I'm hoping to see a bit more life in the garden over the next few weeks, my tomato plants are producing fruit at 1-2 per week and the strawberries which are growing better are very bitter.

 There has also been some regrowth from last year, plants I thought I'd removed but they'd obviously seeded, I'm happy where they are though.

 The nasturtium is growing well, I managed to get it to flower last year, lets hope it does again this year.

 You've probably worked out by now that my gardening is pot luck, I have no idea what these bulbs are, but they're growing.

 The are more seedlings to be planted out, some are sunflowers, which I put into bigger pots.

 These two seeds trays have yielded nothing for the past few weeks, I moved the trays indoors and seedlings started to sprout within 36 hours. Sweet peas need a constant temperature to germinate, I recall now that last year they did the same thing.