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A Christian Report           Joy is state of mind and being, engrossed in pleasure of the moment.. Joy is walking 75001, the first arrondissement.. Joy is sticking out your tongue to catch that falling snow flake.. Joy is being on 19 rue Jean-Jacques RousseauStepping into Christian Louboutin's workshop was like being taken on a preview of girl-heaven. The welcoming staff and atmosphere made me feel right at home, ..with ballerina's and opera singers rehearsing in the studio next door, a charm of the ordinary filled the place, and before I knew it, real world vanished like phantasmagoria, and story-book world simmered like an animated sea. I was taken on a mini-tour and was introduced to a lovely group of people who output 4 pairs of shoes per day, I was then shown the different kinds, colors, and finishes of leathers -all the possibilities and options, Oh mon dieu! I've had several sûr measure experiences before with shoes, but none were as thorough and detail-oriented as this one. Feet are drawn, molded, and measured up & down, left and right.. diagonal too (seriously) I could hear the fun and satire steps of ballerinas going en pointe on the parquet floor, giggling and singing.. void of cohesion, void of formIt would take several trials (& several months) before my form is ready to be used for shoe making, until then, I'll be waiting in anticipation.. J'adore Christian Louboutin ♥ Labels: Fashion, La Dolce Vita $12 in my moola box | link | email this post Bringing Home the Birkin    Finally, it's here ♥ Can you imagine the flutter-a-skip through out Faubourge St.Honoré? J'adore Paris ♥ for many reasons obviously, but this one is just one more. More eye candy for you:  Chanel dolls  Christmas tree at Gallery Lafayette   Printemps decorations  Le Bristol ♥ +++ +++ +++ +++ In 2009 I.. - Moved to Aerospace Industry - Made a foreign deal - Got a new horse - Loved, beaucoup - Laughed, beaucoup - Gave up on some friends - Made new friends - Tried to learn how to forgive, ..still trying - Completed 1 painting. Seriously. - Won 7 tickets to Egypt. Never went to collect them. - Got a place in France - Slept through new-year's eve In 2010 I wish to.. - Continue loving everything, beaucoup - Laugh more - Teach Rawan that it's okay to hug your friends. In fact, it's okay to hug everything (trees inclusive, watch Avatar & you'll understand lol) - Decorate my place in France, work in progress - Find the perfect Louis XV chairs - Do more for my people - See Lamya, Yosor, & Moza more often (or convince them to move to Abu Dhabi) - Have Noura, Alia, and Reem over for Salama-Sundays ;p *nudge Alia* - Pilates for breakfast - Improve my French - Make up my mind - Execute the 2 plans I have been cooking in my mind, successfully ;p Bonne Année to everyone ♥ Labels: Birkin, Fashion, Hermes, La Dolce Vita, Pony Tales $6 in my moola box | link | email this post R.I.P Repetto   Waking up to the sound of rain in this part of the world has its perks: lovely weather, happy people, & breakfast in bed has a totally different feel to it. I've made peace with the fact that our cities and towns don't have the infrastructure to withstand wet days -after all, why spend billions of dollars on rain-proof roads and buildings when it hardly ever rains here? -- Well, I feel tempted to say "to save them louboutins and Repettos, mais, we both know how much merit this argument would hold lol So, About the rain? It reminds me of when I was little, when we used to go searching for our version of white truffles (عريون - عرايين) -- I can't remember the last time I had them. Yesterday morning I was so pleased with the lovely sunshine and crisp air with a hint of damp & before I knew it, I slipped into a pair of leggings, a velour hooded jacket, & my favorite peach pair of bling Repettos and headed out to the horses - needless to say, that was a big mistake. Watching a 6 year old stallion being trained to do the Capriole there was NO WAY I wouldn't step into the paddock and watch him up close and personal. What I didn't know, of course, is that my feet would sink into 10 inches of mud (eeks!) The damage is of course irreversible, so my dear favorite pair of Repettos, I have had a good time skipping the streets of Paris with you, and when I needed a pair to vamp up a dull pair of tracksuit pants, you always came to the rescue.. under the sunshine, in the rain, you've always been there. R.I.P - You'll always be remembered dearly (until my next favorite pair, at least) Labels: Fashion, Pony Tales $2 in my moola box | link | email this post Parisian Brocantes & Publishing        I did mention earlier my infatuation with parisian brocantes and posted photos of the ones I've been to last May through July I've been to several brocantes in different parts of France, some in the south, south-west, west, and partially north; in which I have come across some of my favorite pieces, but one has to really dig for things as opposed to finding abundance of beauty in the displayed items. In Paris, however, most flea markets have just SO MANY beautiful items that it makes it difficult to choose, let alone worry about packing and shipping back home. This time of the year I found that the Parisian brocante had a completely different flavor; the sounds, the livliness, the smells and even items - fabulous! Here are some of the photos I took on my last hunt ;p Also, I've finally done some house-keeping around here, and put ALL the albums together under the link 'Photos' (high time, non? lol) I love you, I do.. & I love blogging, but time is scarce, and it's become more so by the day. Hopefully having things in order will aid publishing and posting more photos -- and, speaking of publishing, I have a not-so-small piece of news to share with those who enjoy reading my Cookingfessional posts, for now you'll have an opportunity to keep a hard copy of those entries (& more), the first feature goes to publishing on November's issue of Fatafeat food magazine. Seriously. I never wrote for a magazine before, and it was quite odd sitting by my macbook trying to jot down some words on my word processor (major carrie bradshaw flashbacks), finally, I decided the only way to overcome this block is to write my article on my blogger editor as if it was a blog post, ..and that, my friends, worked like a charm. I did fool myself into it ;p Big cheers for the team at Fatafeat ♥ Labels: Cookingfessional, Fashion, Travel $4 in my moola box | link | email this post A Beautiful Peony     Tantra had a blast of failed attempts to scare the lady, but eventually, she gave up & opted to make friends with her lol    I am rarely impressed by abaya designs, mainly because my taste in those tends to be slightly complicated, not to mention how I feel about seeing 1001 instances of the same piece all over. Having said that, I'm thoroughly impressed by a young designer whose work has been a staple of my closet for a while (& will be for a very long time) - the best part? Like any proper fashion designer, her work comes in seasonal collections & is a marriage of fine taste & immaculate stitching -yes, I should know, I'm quite picky when it comes to garment finishing lol The presentation adds another dimension of convenience and personalized service -lovely, absolutely lovely! Peony Abayas Labels: Fashion, La Dolce Vita $6 in my moola box | link | email this post The Gold Hammer I love lol! $3 in my moola box | link | email this post Parisian Flea Market         If you're in Paris, the Bastille Antique Fair is where you want to be, trust me. The market has the most gorgeous -but not necessarily bargain- items. I spent the entire day roaming the area from one stand to another: STUNNING! I've been to a few Sunday brocantes, 2 in Paris and one in Marseille, but nothing compared to the one hosted in Bastille. If you're furnishing a home and you love brocante style make sure you catch one of the twice-yearly fairs of Bastille. I couldn't buy the Louis XVI chairs I loved so much, nor the gorgeous plates & pots, the logistics of transportation (or storage?) would've been impossible. But one someone who lives (or has a house) in France? it's heaven! I'd fill up a truck every single day and send it home. So, what did I end up buying? -- only the really special things that didn't take up so much of my luggage space. Hand embroidered curtains, gorgeous 100+ years old vintage laces, more vintage lace, lace collars, vintage lace baby dresses for baby Salama, a small little gold & turquoise (container?) for my sister's eye-kohl (I thought of her when I laid eyes on it), and my favorite item: a small little painting of a woman clinging to her man which would hang somewhere special, I don't know exactly where now. To find details about the Bastille antique fair, click here. To get there by metro, take either: + line Nº1 (La Défence-Château de Vincennes) in the direction of Bastille. + line Nº8 (Balard-Créteil-Préfecture) in the direction of Bastille. + line Nº5 (Bobigny Pablo Picasso-Place d'Italie) in the direction of Bastille Some of my favorite sellers: Nº1: Mme. Florence Bergé -- Tel. 01.45.99.38.47 Sells gorgeous antique laces in great condition. Laces, dantelles, lace table covers, and lace curtains. She's pricey, ranges between €1000-€7000 per piece. Nº2: Mme. E.Papadopoulos -- Tel. 01.48.45.17.54 Nice laces, bits and pieces and not many complete pieces.. those that are complete are generally in good condition. Medium range prices. €70-€600 per piece. Too see the brocante album, click here -- I have jotted down other names, but I've just arrived from the airport (yes, I'm home - yey!) & I've promised my cousin to call her before going to sleep (knowing her, she's still waiting). So, g'night you gorgeous people.. so glad to be back home x Labels: Deco, Fashion, La Dolce Vita, Travel $9 in my moola box | link | email this post The Designers Behind the Name  Yves andrieux & Vincent Jalbert are two special designers I had the privilege to meet in Paris -- Horses and toile de jouy brought us together for a lovely, tres lovely evening <3 Merci pour une fabuleuse soirée x $5 in my moola box | link | email this post Some More Lemon, s'il vous plait Two years ago, my co-worker R drops by my cubicle and asks if I'd like anything from Monteal, he was going to spend Christmas in Canada, and thought I might want him to bring a Lululemon back with him. Given that I didn't know what it was, I headed straight to my oracle, google, and googled it. Athletic clothing store, specializing mainly on yoga wear, I liked what I saw online, but I wasn't going to ask him to bring anything back with him, after all, he was my co-worker, and some borders must remain untouched in the professional sphere. ..Of course, that was before I really knew what Lululemon was. On my trip to LA last summer, I walked by their store in Beverly Hills, and because I had been carrying so many bags around, and it was near closing time, I grabbed one of their crops and bought it without trying it on and stormed out of the shop, I did however promise myself to return next day for a more thorough look at their collection and items. Needless to say, I never managed to find the time to go back, it wasn't a priority because somewhere in the back of my head there's always been this assumption that I could, still, find anything on the internet, and that when I'm back home, I would be able to place an order online. Little did I know. As it appeared, lululemon doesn't do e-commerce, they think it's too impersonal (says who?), and they prefer personal communication (yeah, what about those who live on the other side of the globe? e'hum, me for instance). Well, for all the other Me's out there, here's a delicious piece of news: WWD published that Lululemon is finally going online with their sales. Yaaaayyyyyyy!! *running around in endless circles* Double Yay! More good news, on the personal side, well, I'm back to my ballet points. I am still unable to stand enpointe though, but that's okay, it's a looooong leap of progress of my Morton's Neuroma rot which has pretty much kept me off of standing on my toes for any reason for the past year. After 2 steroid injections, and plenty of foot-muscle strengthening exercises and pilates, I'm able to now to insert my feet into my ballet points, take a few steps, and plie for a few seconds, which is great for the time being because for a while there, I thought I'd never be able to do that again. To be honest, I still don't know if I'll go enpoint without a surgical intervention, but for the time being, I'm happy with my progress.. As my french dressage trainer would say petit à petit =) Labels: Fashion, Pilates Heroine, Yogafessional $8 in my moola box | link | email this post Vest de Cadre Noir  Cadre Noir jacket with jumping horse embroidery wearing white rosettes and ribbons <3  Blinged spurs before Sultan..  Blinged spurs after Sultan lol   Lunch under the rain with a great company <3  Package delivery <3  I looooove ittttt! <3 <3 <3    Sitting by the fire after dinner..  After spending the weekend at the farm chatting away with French guests, I realized that my French took a long nap and it's time to wake up the dead. Okay, maybe it's not THAT bad, but I still find it difficult to say a full sentence with correct grammar and not take too long to think of the sentence structure in my head. My dad on the other hand seemed to enjoy the goggling of the R's but chose to stay grounded to the occasional "merci beaucoup" every now and then. Highlight of the week: a Cadre Noir riding jacket with horsie embroidery that I got as a gift <3 I love ittttt! Highlight of the day: riding Sultan on shoulder-in against the paddock poles. My true Sultan-related highlight though is that he is now less dramarique when it comes to mounting, and is more attentive during work sessions. Would love to update you with more details (& photos!) but I should be in bed if I have hopes of waking up tomorrow morning fresh, so.. for now, I'll bid you good night, & if my work day isn't too busy in the morning, you'll hear from me again ;p nightie night you gorgeous people *muah x 34 (don't ask why 34, I dunno lol) Labels: Fashion, Pony Tales $1 in my moola box | link | email this post |
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