And the award goes to…

It’s weekend. So I finally have some time to extend what I received from the lovely Sabine from Psynopsis (who I wish a super time during her break from the blogger world!) a couple of days ago: the ‘I ♥ Your Blog’ award. As with every award this comes with a little bit of work, if you accept it (why and what? Read below). But I really think that this is a good thing to do, plus it introduces so many other interesting blogs you may not know, yet. So, this goes to the blogs and bloggers that inspire me, that have an exceptional style, are beautifully layouted, interesting, that strive to collect and combine the most creative stuff from the world of fashion and art, are funny to read and exceptionally talented… Here we go:

Vint Junky

The Divinitus

Decade Diary

Prêt à Porter P

Style Odissey

Souvenirs of a Girl

Curiouser & Curiouser

Marian Kihogo

Ganymede Kids

French Frosting

Valentsine

Tokyo Identity

Ausstyle

Heavy Heels

Absolutely Fabulous

If you are accepting the award please copy the ‘I ♥ Your Blog’ badge below onto your site and pass it on to 15 other bloggers.

There are so many more blogs which deserve an award and which I read almost every day (if I’m not – like now – overloaded with stupid work stuff) – but which I couldn’t mention here. Feel included and keep up the good work!

Have a lovely weekend! xo

The extended version.

I wish I had more to blog about these days, especially now that the gorgeous and creative Sabine from Psynopsis has given me the ‘I ♥ Your Blog’ award. Please bear with me – I will definitely extend or forward the award, all I need is time. 🙂 (Oh, by the way: Sabine and nine other fellow bloggers are working on a really interesting project. Can’t wait for ‘Take 10’ to start! I’m really curious to see the first result. Check the link! Isn’t that a brilliant idea?)

The reason for my current blog absence is – sad but true – work. It’s not that my job didn’t leave enough time for other activities, but it’s very demanding at the moment and sucks out all my energy, nerves and patience. When I’m back home I feel really empty, and even reading my favourite blogs becomes a difficult and exhausting thing to do sometimes. But this is going to change soon, latest when Ramadan (yip, I’m still living in a Muslim country) starts and the life in this city slows down.

So for now my life is rather limited to working, working out, entertaining the cats (while Alex is travelling), and going to beauty salons where I can have myself pampered – and where I don’t need to do anything. 🙂 So, as promised earlier – here comes the result of my latest treatment: lash extensions at Sisters Beauty Salon in Dubai Mall.

The effect is amazing. It’s not that I didn’t have nice long lashes, but I inherited the Japanese ones, which are extremely straight and not that prominent. It’s unbelievable what a difference those extensions make, while still looking very natural. They say that the extensions would last up to three months (with a little maintenance) before the single fake lashes fall off completely. And don’t laugh about me – this is Dubai, everything here is a little fake. 🙂 By the way: You can’t imagine how difficult it is to take a picture of your eyes by yourself.

This. Is red.

I decided to have fire red nail polish one day when I saw this image of Dree Hemingway. She wears a fabulous skirt (I read somewhere that it’s by Helmut Lang), dresses it down with a simple grey T tucked in, literally no hairdo and a barely-there make-up – in a nutshell: she is a beauty with the kind of coolness-factor, the “I don’t take myself too seriously” attitude that made me look twice. And the thing I keep on looking at first? Her super bright red nail varnish. I needed to have it. Not that it turned me into Dree Hemingway, but I figured out something: Screaming bright red varnish is a multi-talent. It gives a laid-back boyfriend jeans/shirt look a more sophisticated touch and a serious low profile outfit that certain something. Old story? Sorry, I’m still a nail varnish beginner. Also sorry for all the nail polish posts recently.

(Chanel. Fire. Gosh, why do my hands look so old?)

(Image by Getty Images via Google.)

My home is my punnet.

Atze fooling around for me and the camera.

Eye candy.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking for a decent dresser and a lamp for the dining room. But it seems to be impossible to find anything suitable. Today I went to explore the furniture stores on Sheikh Zayed Road. Again nothing: Too small, too expensive, too not us. But I literally stumbled upon Candy, a super pretty and super practical stool by Calligaris. You can open them and stuff their hollow with things like cat toys for example. 🙂 And since our place has become very grey, black and white – although we never ever planned it, I actually never ever wanted grey, black and white furniture – the colourful Candys light up our living room. They had them in all kinds of colours and colour combinations. It was really hard for me to pick. And all the other stuff we don’t need: I fell in love with a cuckoo clock, and all those little coffee tables… And the lamps… unfortunately not the kind of lamps we need. OK, if you need a cuckoo clock by any chance – let me know, because I happen to know a store which has the coolest you’ve ever seen.

My next ambitious DIY project.

I saw this pretty bracelet by Giles on farfetch today. But at EUR 849,00 (yeah right) I thought something like this could actually be a nice DIY project. Think I will start working on it as soon as I’ve been to Bur Dubai and Karama (both are part of the old Dubai) to buy the necessary fabric, pearls and crystals, and after I’ve started and finished working on my other 1001 ambitious DIY projects… 🙂

(Image via farfetch.)

Sales Watch.

The last two weeks have been so extremely busy with Alex constantly travelling (which means: me preparing his arrivals and departures like a good housewife), the cats getting sick or just wanting attention and jobs at the agency constantly flying in and going back and forth. I neither had the time to write posts for my own blog nor could I read my favourite blogs. But today is the day for sweet nothingness. So I went virtual-window-shopping (I thought about driving to the Emirates Towers and DIFC for some real (window) shopping first – but no way, it’s far too hot outside) and I collected some nice sales items for you. Most of them are still not really cheap, but maybe worth a thought and a closer look…

Silk Georgette tunic tank – Ann Demeulemester, 50% off, Was EUR 326,00, Now EUR 163,00, Size: 10 UK, Available at Feathers Fashion.

Snake Bracelett – Aurelie Bidermann, 50% off, Was EUR 560,00, Now EUR 280,00, Available at Departement Feminin.

Silk/Cotton bow shirt – Charles Anastase, 50% off, Was EUR 285,00, Now EUR 142,50, Sizes S/L, Available at Ra 13.

A1 Clutch – ACNE, Was EUR 620,00, Now EUR 248,00, Available at ACNE.

Pearl Detail Satin Sandal – Nicholas Kirkwood, Was EUR 769,00, Now EUR 309,00, Sizes 35  38,5  39  39,5  40 40,5, Available at My Theresa.

„Hopi“ Boxy Denim Jacket – ACNE, Was EUR 240,00, Now EUR 96,00, Sizes 34-42, Available at ACNE.

Bag – Vionnet, 50% off, Was EUR 820,00, Now EUR 410,00, Available at Departement Feminin.

(It goes without saying that I can’t be held responsible for the correctness of the details as they may change, and of course I’m not related in any way to any of the stores, neither have I any benefits because I’m writing about them on my blog – unfortunately ;))

Friends of friends.

Oh how good is that?

Not long ago I said that I really needed that hang-it-all coat rack by Eames. And today – while I’m browsing some of my favourite blogs I come across that:

Isn’t that huge sculpture-like version of the hang-it-all beautiful?

I took this photo from another blog – Freunde von Freunden, a German blog, which translates “Friends of friends”. And the name kind of perfectly reflects how I came across this interesting blog – through another interesting blog – Yes Please Mademoiselle by Stefanie from Belgium (thanks again for sharing the link to Freunde von Freunden). I’m still fascinated by how this whole blogger thing works and how many interesting things you get to see and how many nice people you get to “meet”.

My old bag’s cinderella moment.

Since Alex gave me this pretty, pretty Chloe Elsie bag (what a luxurious present – I treat it like my precious) I started to neglect my old bag, my partner in crime for almost 3 years (I told you I have my problems in finding a new perfect bag I like). I only use it, when I know I might walk through the mall for hours and get sweaty or go to a party where I need to be able to throw my bag in a corner. (And now that I write that I find it really sad.)

So yesterday was such a long mall day, so I took my old bag (a Mulberry by the way) – and it turned out to be a lucky day for it: There was that Japanese couple hunting expensive designer stuff throughout the mall. I saw them coming out of Louis Vuitton, running towards Chanel, our ways crossed at Lanvin, they headed to Stella McCartney, Temperley, Tom Ford… and finally all three of us ended up at Chloe. I was there first and had my bag just dropped on a big table full of new Chloe bags in order to have my hands free for glitsy-glamour-fancy necklaces. The sales assistant was just telling me how beauuuutiful  everything was and how many extreeeeemely marked down other stuff they had in store when that Japanese lady appeared next to me in front of the mirror trying on – yes, you guessed it right: my old bag.

The sales assistant overreacted a little by screaming “Nonononononono, this is her bag” (in her rough Eastern European/Russian dialect), and the Japanese – totally baffled – apologized a hundred times and gave the bag back to me with both hands holding it like something very valuable. (I’m sure you’ve seen one of those Japanese movies in which the woman passes a tiny cup of tea in a devoted posture? And her delicate white, thin hands don’t even seem to touch the china?) And she kept on saying “very, very, very nice bag” which made me feel as proud as a mother on her child’s first day at school. 🙂 And so we went back home – my old bag and I, happy. Please listen now to the following song by the super brilliant Jarvis Cocker feat. Ali G. (and turn on the volume really high)…