sugar 'n spice

i have a secret:  i like to tell people i hate valentine's day, but the truth is... i don't hate it entirely (shhh... don't tell).

just to get it out of the way, here is what i do hate about valentine's day:

a. hideous floral displays made of the most cliche flowers (e.g. red roses with baby's breath) in the ugliest vases possible.
b.  ridiculous expectations that cause people to get nervous, overplan, and do something cliche, like buy a person the above mentioned item.
c.  prix fixe meals at restaurants that never live up to the food at that same restaurant on any other given day.
d. chocolate in heart shaped boxes.
e. giant stuffed animals holding heart-shaped pillows, cheesetastic!

all of that aside, here is what i do love about valentine's day:  

a.  chocolate (sans heart shaped box. however, i love it as much on february 14th as i do any other day of the year...)
b.  sappy romantic comedies (yes, the ones that ususally cause all of the problems mentioned above).
c.  the hope that one day someone will understand me well enough to know that i dislike all of the above items and would prefer a simple modern flower arrangement without fillers, a meal somewhere far away from a restaurant full of strangers, and even on days that aren't valentine's day... and for no reason at all. 
d.  but most of all, i do love any opportunity to do something nice for my friends and family to let them know that i love them, because the bottom line is that you can't say it enough. 

and since my grandma always told me the way to a person's heart is through their stomach... i decided to bake cookies this year!

depending on who you are, you might think that baking cookies is a pretty easy task, but it turns out that part of the fun of being an expat, is that something that seems easy is always bound to be a challenge...

snickerdoodles, for those of you that don't know... are not only the most delicious cookie ever, but are made of about 7 of the most basic ingredients.  which is why i was surprised when i found myself trekking around abu dhabi to three different grocery stores to find them all! 

here is a little fun fact:  the ingredient commonly known as "baking soda" in the US is actually called "bicarbonate of soda" here... who would have known, i bought it hoping for the best but definitely had to Google when i got home to be sure. 

also, used to having a fully stocked kitchen, i temporarily forgot that i moved here with only three suitcases and all my kitchen gadgets are packed safely away in a storage unit in new jersey (or as my mom likes to joke, sitting in the bottom of the Hudson).  so it was off to the store to buy a mixer,some baking sheets, and a cookie bin.

and lastly, because i can't help but to add a little "valentine's day something" i wanted to find those small jars of colored sugar to sprinkle on top of the cookies (pretty basic in the baking section of any US grocery, oh the things I took for granted!) ... at the third store, after two stores of total strikes, i finally found some pink sugar!

at last i am home and prepared to bake, and i hear my phone chirping from the other room... it is a friend of mine (also an Abu Dhabi expat from the US). i tell her my baking plans, and she says, in a vote of confidence "every time i try to make a US recipe out here it just never goes as planned, but i'm sure your cookies will be great!" 

ha ha.  on that note, i continued on, with caution, but i have to say, the cookies turned out to be fantastic!  my roomie has already had two tonight. 

you can't have just one snickerdoodle...

 

(yes this is a photo of my snickerdoodles... you want one now, don't you?!)

pigskin

i have to take a moment of silence for my most favorite AMERICAN football team...

the indianapolis colts.  

dear colts: you played a good season and win or lose, i will always be your fan.  i'm sorry you lost to the jets on our home turf by one point. i hope this has nothing to do with the fact that my lucky colts-blue headband is sitting in a storage locker in new jersey (dangerously close to the enemy line).  better luck next year guys.  go horse.

i'm dreaming of a....

...white christmas?

hmm, let's take a minute to ponder that one... every year, we take a dozen or so cardboard boxes out of storage and decorate our houses for christmas.  my favorite decoration was always my mothers nativity scene, which is ceramic and handpainted by my mother herself (but if you ask her, she isn't creative or "arty" at all).

i'd take out the statues of mary and joseph, the wise-men, the angel, sheep, and camels and place them all in a perfect arrangement.  the tree, i think i usually got frustrated with about halfway through, but the nativity scene i loved from start to finish.

being in the middle east for christmas this year got me thinking; where does this notion of a white christmas really come from?  really i'm just desperate to find ways to connect with christmas while feeling so far away from my family.  and suddenly that nativity scene, those camels with ornate coverings draped over their backs, and the wise-men in their robes and headdress, came floating across my mind once again. and what i realized is that i'm much closer to the roots of christmas here, geographically anyways, than i ever was in the states.

white christmas, camels trekking across white desert sands perhaps?

home sweet happy

after a long hiatus... too long really (meaning i probably lost any non-family readers at this point)... i am back!

you better bet i wasn't sitting around with my feet up all this time doing nothing.  i should have a better excuse than that, right?! 

here's what has gone down.

sometime in the last month, things have all fallen into place.  first and most significant, is that i found an apartment (finally)!!!  and bonus, it came with an amazing roommate and new friend.    the place is coming along slowly, but nicely. i have a case of something i am deeming the "expat stuff dilemma".  by definition, we expats are a special breed prone to wandering.  we don't know how long we will be in one place therefore investing in a lot of furniture and other stuff you will then have to drag around the world comes at a price, one we aren't usually interested in paying.  the solution for most: ikea.

everything you could possibly need for an apartment at a price that won't leave you cringing... my situation poses a bit of an extra challenge. i am an interior designer. i design luxury hotels. i have expensive taste; i think i was born with it, really.  so i had to do what i do best, get creative. i'm pretty sure i've been to ikea at leat 2 times a week since moving into this place and  i've got a nice share of it coming my way this weekend, so i believe i've fulfilled my portion of the expat quota for their profits this year! 

the great thing about the "expat stuff dilemma"  is that when you live in a community where a large amount of people are expats, people are always coming and going... and therefore purging their barely used items at a fraction of the cost! i was able to score some pretty sweet living room furniture and fit out my spare bedroom in this fashion!  the best and most popular website for this in the UAE is called Dubizzle (yes, that is for real kids!) 

there's also a great thing about being an interior designer.  i know people.... well the right people when it comes to these sort of things anyways. people who will make me custom draperies from their back stock of leftover fabrics.  actually an interesting tidbit about the UAE is that anything that involves tailoring can be done at a very reasonable price here, a fraction of what you would pay in the States!

the bed and the dining table my splurge items. no question about where my priorities rest! for these little gems i will most likely head to Crate and Barrel in Dubai :)  thank god for them, they must have known i was moving here because the dubai location, which only opened earlier this year, just happens to be the one and only C&B outside the US.

more to come soon, maybe even a few snapshots once we get this place up and running!

boo!

signs of fall and US holidays halfway across the world!

i couldn't resist buying a pumpkin for the office when i saw the display at spinney's yesterday.  they had the traditional orange pumpkins and also white "ghost" pumpkins!... so i'm sure you all know which one i went for!!!

...  it reminds me of home, fall holidays, adult apple cider, and sweaters with boots!  a girl can dream can't she?  even when it is 38 degrees Celsius outside!

hiatus

can someone please tell me how on earth we are already a third of the way through october?!

i clearly neglected this blog while i was gone!

my time in arizona felt like someone was holding down the fast forward button.  knowing that i'm not able to go home for a long time after this visit left a bit of a cloud over my head.... a whirlwind of shopping for things i can't get here, various appointments, parties, wedding celebrations, and brunches with family friends and relatives, all the while feeling my way through a mean dose of jet lag and trying to cram in as much QT with everyone as possible.  i love my family and friends there so much.  i needed more time.  i settled down into my seat on the plane back and i felt sad.

then i remembered a tip from a well traveled friend:  always have the next trip planned.  you have to have something to look forward to.

now, this doesn't cure my current homesick blues or negate the fact that i still have to stay out of the states for a while (tax purposes), but it does give me pause to remember that there is a whole world out there to explore.

i guess the only questions left are where? and who's with me?

happy birthday to me.

happy birthday to me.  happy birthday dear... me.  happy birthday to me!

this lovely cupcake is from crumbs bake shops in nyc.  go get one!

yes.  that's right,  today i am another year older, and hopefully that much more the wiser. 

i had an amazing time in nyc... i packed a lot into 24 hours!

i had dinner with friends at wildwood barbecue, i highly recommend the pulled pork sandwich!  and rounded out the night at corner bistro, one of my favorite little joints in the all of manhattan (if i hadn't already downed a pound of pulled pork... i would have enjoyed on of the famous corner bistro burgers, they are delish!)

i got up relatively early after my night out, jet lag aside, and headed out to find a legitimate ny bagel (something you absolutely cannot get in abu dhabi) and some iced coffee.  murray's bagels was my spot of choice!

next i was off for a couple hours of shopping, the only rule was that i had to stick to stores i don't have access to in abu dhabi or phoenix!  so i stopped in tibi, where i usually want one of everything!  and after lunch at macaron cafe with one of my lovely friends from work, i hit up a very new and very stylish boutique in williamsburg that one of my lifelong friends just opened called life:curated.  girl is talented, you must go see!

with not enough time on the clock i headed to the airport, scottsdale bound.  i'm so happy to be here with my family and am looking forward to a day of birthday fun, bachelorette craziness, and a weekend of wedding!

so here is to a great start to a new year of my life!  

who says

you can't go home...

this week my travels take me to a couple of places very close to my heart, starting with new york.

the last few times i flew through JFK, i left myself just enough time to make my connections and type out a few emails in the lounge before boarding. it was painful to sit so close to the city i love and not be able to just go... so this time i planned a little layover. i'll be there just long enough for dinner with friends and a day of shopping!

cinquecento

italian for "500", english for "my new car"!!!

i'm seriously in love with this car.  it is well detailed, efficient, and most importantly... affordable!

those of you who know me probably know i overuse the word cute (especially when it comes to vehicles), but this one is very cute!

you might know this car best for it's role as Luigi in the animated Disney-Pixar film, Cars.  

following the likes of the mini cooper and the vw beetle,the fiat 500 is a modern take on its original vintage version. 

something old... made anew:

 

now for sale in the UAE and coming soon to the US(scheduled for the end of this year)!

this just goes to show that good design is good design folks, it doesn't have to break the bank to be fabulous!

love.love.love.

now i just have to name him... hmmm

i've been sucked in

ok, somehow it is september 5th already...

how is it that i've gone an entire week without blogging?  yikes...

the truth is, i've been sucked in... by this!

getting access to your favorite TV shows in the US when you are in the US is no problem... you've got the TV itself, netflix, Hulu, and even most channels replay current episodes on their websites.  outside of the US you're pretty much cut off, until now!

rent episodes of your favorite TV shows on iTunes for 99 cents a pop! this is genius, i see a bright future between itunes-tv rentals and I.

Fear not though, this week is jam packed with blog worthy material.  I am finally getting my own car this week after months of  what felt like a deranged scavenger hunt to get everything in order.  AND, i am headed to Kazakhstan for some weekend fun!

yum!

one fun thing about moving to a new country is finding new foods that you love. 

thanks to that book i read on the plane, skinny bitch, i have started paying much more attention to what is in the food i am eating.  and i guess not to my surprise, not much is straight from nature anymore unless you go looking for it!

i was perusing the cereal isle at the market here and found the most amazing granola bars ever.  they are so simple (as in when i read the package i knew and could pronounce all of the ingredients) and delicious!

now i don't know what i will do if i can't find them when i go back to the states...

check out the company, called Jordans, out of the UK. 

FRUSLi....  seriously delish and healthy!

calling all creatives

i came across this contest by CB2 in my email today... somehow i think taking a photo of my hotel room at Aloft would be some sort of rule-breaker.  SO, i know all of you creative friends of mine back in the US already have amazing apartments! all you have to do is photograph them and you could win $10,000 to spend at CB2...get out the camera and get shooting!

don't pretend you haven't been dying to move some things around and buy new stuff for the last 2 years.  after the toll this recession has taken on our industry, i don't know who wouldn't want 10k to blow on their home!

BLOCKED

a blog-loving friend of mine often passes along links to me that she finds entertaining. she sent one on to me this weekend classified as a dating blog written by a guy she deemed "so funny". when i clicked the link, this image appeared. 

in the UAE, there are rules about what is and isn't acceptable content on the internet... and let me tell you these rules are much different than what the average American is used to seeing.  most parents in the US fear what their children might stumble upon by accident over the internet.  i'm not sure parents here would share the same fear.

while most of the categories block sites for reasons to do with crime prevention and national security, it turns out the blog i was trying to read fell under the category of "dating internet content".  within the description of this category it states more or less that the concept of dating/matchmaking doesn't really jive with the ethics and morals of the UAE.  most Americans would react wildly to this because it doesn't jive with their own line of thinking.  i am taking a more diplomatic approach: respect the local law and culture.  this is their country, and while i am in it, i will be sticking to this concept: "when you live under my roof, you follow my rules"  and that means no complaining about what can or can't be viewed on the internet for starters...

sunday funday!

back home, my family has a sunday tradition: cocktails by the pool, we all invite our friends, dad makes killer drinks with crazy names, and my bro Egan, the grill-master, cooks up some tasty snacks!

since the work week is sunday through thursday here, i guess we have...sunsaturday funday?!
doesn't have the same ring as sunday funday, but equally as fun i think :)

bringing funday saturday to aloft abu dhabi :)

off to the races

well, not entirely, but off to Louisville, Kentucky, USA for wedding 3 of 4 this year!

this one is my long time friend and swimming buddy from high school. I haven't been to Kentucky in quite some time, but there is an action packed weekend awaiting me there.  As well as of course just a bit of shopping for those items that aren't easy to come by in the UAE.

back home again in Indiana

that's right folks, this native Hoosier is headed back to her home state for the weekend!

reason?  wedding 2 of 4 this summer, this will be one for the books kids. high school friends all in the same room after what feels like another lifetime!

i can't wait to get there so i can see my friends + family, eat some steak 'n shake, get my haircut, and do a slew of shopping for bits and pieces that are hard to find in the UAE.

see you on the flip side!

for better or worse...

i am well on my way to 27 dresses!... at least in my scenario the brides have taste :)

murphy's law has it that the year i decided to move to a foreign country all of my friends would decide this was they year they would tie the knot!

make no mistake friends, i am not complaining, i am really happy for all of you and wouldn't miss your wedding for the world! (in this case that isn't a figure of speech... it's real y'all) 

so needless to say, a lot of my travel this year involves some back and forth to the US.  the especially great thing about this is that i am banking my Etihad miles like i am at a Las Vegas slot machine!  I'll be from coach to business in no time :)




Dress by Priscilla of Boston, check out their site here.