the little things...

ok, i realize i owe you posts about my adventures in jordan and australia, but sometimes it is the little things in life that just steal the spotlight.

myself just off my trip from australia and my flatmate just back from russia decided to have a leisurely saturday of breakfast out and a little bit of home shopping.  a bit blinded and quickly bored by the none too new home decor ideas we were nearly to the exit when we spotted the most genius home accessory i've seen in quite some time!


thank you Umbra for the portable ping pong set, our dining table will never be the same :)

the COOLest thing to do in dubai

found it!  by far the best way to beat the summer heat:  ski dubai.

we humans have come up with some crazy ideas in our time, but this one is pretty up there on the list.  a ski slope in a mall in the middle of one of the hottest places on the planet... why not?! 

i've always wanted to learn to snowboard (admittedly because i love the direction snowboard design has taken, i would buy a snowboard just to hang on my wall)... but every time i go for a ski vacation i always end up deciding against it because who really wants to spend their vacation falling in their butt the whole day when they could be swishing down a mountain?!

so this is perfect.  an hour on the weekend, its blazing hot out, what have i better to do than learn?

there are about 4 levels of lessons at ski dubai.  being a skier first, i wasn't sure what my reaction to snowboarding would be, but i loved it! it is so streamlined, you don't have to deal with 2 skis and 2 poles all wanting to go in separate directions.  it is one board and your balance.  granted this isn't something you can master overnight, i see some good times for snowboarding and i in the future :)

i did my first lesson as a group lesson with a few of my friends that way we could laugh with each other.

maybe one day we will be good enough to take my skills to a real mountain with one of these: 

paul smith and burton = love.

let there be light

as i embrace the emirates and all they have to offer, i am slowly making my way about each of the seven.  the latest was sharjah.

while i didn't fully explore sharjah (i'll save this pleasure for the cooler months) i was on a mission to find one particular jewel, the blue souk.

i have yet to find a souk in the emirates that fulfills my mind's romantic vision about them, but i did quite enjoy this one.

i checked all my preconceived notions at the door in search for some idyllic little metal lanterns that should fill and empty corner in my apartment. 

mission accomplished:

color me clean

i am never one to shy away from color, and just recently i was in Dusseldorf, Germany (reviewing bathroom fixtures for the project i am working on) and happened upon these little gems in the Grohe showroom:

Grohe has been adding color to people's bathrooms for a couple of years now, and they just keeps adding colors (they just released an earthtone range as well) and bonus: they have a handy plus/minus button for water conservation.  pretty + smart = love 

i find myself telling people that i'm not a "pink" person quite often, but for some reason my actions have been to the contrary lately, and i brought home a pink one... 

you know good design when you see it, you know because every time you see it you can't help but smile :)

stylin'

anne hathaway is one of my top my style icons.  she is always dressed to the nines in a perfect feminine yet structured style.

i just love her.  check out her golden globe dress from last night! ahh Armani Prive...

handblown by yours truly

drumroll please...

now.  fair warning, these are no dale chihuly!  glass blowers start with three years of school and many years of apprenticeship to follow.  however, with some major assistance from some brave professionals, i was able to create these masterpieces (which now accessorize my apartment)!

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!

continuing education

you will never know everything there is to know; therefore there is always something to be learned. 

in the professional world, it is easy to get caught up in the day to day or the next deadline, and we often miss opportunities to learn, we often say we don't have the time.  or maybe the last thing we want to do after a long day at work is use our lunch hour to hear about the latest technology, product, or gizmo... even if this knowledge might help us do our jobs more efficiently in the future... or for us designers and creative types to get that warm fuzzy feeling that we get when we see something new something that inspires us. 

lesson:  stop.  listen.  be inspired.  recognize the opportunity to learn.

in italy my job specific mission was to see the facilities where some of our furniture pieces are being manufactured and asses how our pieces are being constructed.   a lot goes into furniture, more than you would think.  wood pieces, foam pieces, metal pieces, fabric pieces... and then there is the hand-craft of assembling all of these made goods into one piece of custom furniture that not only looks good, but is comfortable and functions the way we need it to.  there really should be (if there isn't already) a furniture episode of how it's made!

all of that knowledge can only help you to appreciate beautiful design when you see it off of the paper and in the real world.  designer's get especially hyped about it... which is why i was like a kid at the north pole when our furniture manufacturer took me to Poliform (one of my favorite furniture companies for which they do some of the upholstery work)!
   
here is a glimpse of their showroom in the italian countryside north of milano... drool. 

 

 

 

 

 

just lovely. 

poser

i've been designing hotels for some time now, and in our presentations we always place images of the chic people that we imagine to be the future visitors of our creations.  the happy couple, the model-like business man, the chic single girl with that handbag we dream of but just can't afford.  people have a a way of bringing a space to life. after all, they are the reason we design. 

i find myself thinking of the spaces i've completed and wondering, are there really people there?... sitting in the perfectly positioned chairs covered in the fabric hand-picked by me, or are they just empty, statuesque, as people pass? 

who uses these lobby seats?  today it's me.  i've been living at this hotel for quite some time now and the lobby, over time, stopped being the lobby and became my living room.  why sit in a hotel room when i can be down here? the hotel room is stagnant. this place has energy, with the clanking of pool balls from the billiards tables in the corner, and the bustle of people coming and going. 

i used to think the only people that sat in the lobbies of hotels were those that posed in our renderings, illustrating how we dreamed the space would be used... but now i know them.  they are me, and somehow that makes it all worth while.  

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!  

if it ain't broke...

apple is one smart company.  always coming out with new products and no matter whether or not you need another gadget, their all around ingenuity leaves you desperate for more!

now fortunately for me, i had what my dad calls "good raisins" which taught me to discern between want and need.  do i only buy what i need all the time?  no, that wouldn't be any fun.  but with my technology, i do kind of stick to that rule, if it ain't broke... don't buy a new one. 

so needless to say, i am more than excited at the timely breaking of my 2nd generation i-pod shuffle and its alignment with apple's release of the new nano.  

rip shuffle... we've ran many miles together!

i actually still have an ipod mini that still works! even though this one never officially died, it isn't really functional without being constantly hooked life support... and has been that way for quite some time..  remember these? 

 
is that a black and white screen? this gadget was first released in 2004... check out its modern day equivalent, just a short 6 years later.

less than two inches square, with a color touch screen! perfect for the gym :)

now the only question is... what color?

airplane addict

ok, it is official.  i've got a travel bug and i'm pretty certain it is incurable.

since i've arrived in abu dhabi, i feel like all i have been doing is surviving.  completely focused on getting from one day to the next.  travel time was reserved for prior commitments.

finally, this last weekend i felt free.  being a holiday, the office closed leaving me free from the worries of work.  this trip to Kazakhstan was about building friendships and expanding my world view.

i am inspired by one of my friends traveling with me on this trip who writes a travel journal while she is on the road.  for some reason i only journal when i need to vent about something or think out it on my own.  i started this blog to act  as a travel journal of sorts, but i'm loving the idea of a hand-written log. 

moleskine notebooks are my journal of choice… i swear there is something special about the paper that makes my handwriting look exactly the way i like it best...

and when i jumped on their website today, i found this exciting treat... journals by city!  this is where the "organizer" in me got way too excited.  they have maps at the beginning and pages to jot down experiences, places you go, and anything else your heart desires!  they are limited in cities for the region i am in, but genius nonetheless.

i know you are all dying for Kazakhstan photos, and i'm dragging my a** on photo uploads.  coming tomorrow, promise!