Danderma's Blog, page 150

No3man the Nomad Dolly Says…

I came home to find my No3man dolly clad in a scarf, Tuareg Nomad style :p When I asked him why he said that since the dust has been away for unusually too long he was not going to take any chances o 'Ga3ed Yezaheb Eldowa Gabel elFal3a'.

Ella 9ej wain el'3bar? Alf el 7md le Allah though

Picture of the Week: Rowdy Teenagers Sign

The last time I was in London I saw this sign in Notting Hill that made me laugh out loud! Its so true! Teenagers -me included when I was at that age- think that they've got the world figured all out. This sign says it all… I love it

My Beautiful Yummy Acrylic Tray

I was in 52 Degrees to check out Ali Al-Mufeedi's exhibit when I saw this pink acrylic serving tray with Arabian style engravings. The moment I saw it I went 'This is Yummy!' I grabbed it and headed to the cashier at once.

I brought it home and it fit right in with my living room. It is beautiful! Simply beautiful!

I keep running my fingers over the Arabian style engravings. When the light reflects through them they glow like little pieces of colored gems. Check out how it lit up when it caught the light and sent colored shades all around the living room. Yummy!

Ee guess what? It goes PERFECTLY with my Lenotre's Condiment Stand!

Also complements my lime green Guzzini tableware nicely.

Price tag for this smashing beauty? 22 KD

I don't know who the designer is, but I would love to purchase more yummy pieces from their designs and collections. Very trendy and beautiful indeed.

Shraykom ib my new tray Etshaweq mo?

Would You Eat This? "Pickled Eggs"

I was in TSC Shaab the other day when I saw these jars of… Pickled Eggs! Urgh! La o free range b3d!

I keep imagine their taste being a cross between a boiled egg and a big fat cucumber pickle. I wonder how they smell also? My god! Would anyone actually choose to eat pickled eggs over real life eggs? What culinary creation calls for pickled eggs ballah?

I wouldn't eat it if you paid me a million KD and told me it will help me go down 10 kilos after eating it. No way! Would you eat an eggs from a jar of pickled eggs?

Help: Where Can I find Acrylic Frames or Acrylic Photo Printing in Kuwait?

When I was London this year I saw big wall mounted clear acrylic frames in MUJI. Stupid me thought that if I buy them and try to ship them to Kuwait they will be broken. Now I am looking everywhere in Kuwait and I cannot find similar ones for big pictures of mine.

Do you have any idea where I can find similar ones? Also, do you know if anyone in Kuwait does printing on Acrylic slabs directly that can be hanged on the wall? In London they print the pictures directly on Acrylic slabs but they take some time and I am afraid if I ship them they will break. Help please.

A New Addiction: Yogen Fruz's Coffee Fro Yo!

Yesterday I was craving some Frozen Yogurt badly. Butootee suggested that instead of trying my usual favorites why not try something new? Say the new place in Jabriya, Yogen Fruz?

Sulkily I agreed. De3la o I like my stable favorites. Anyways I go inside the shop and take a look at their combo's and immediately I am at loss on what to choose!

Now can you guess which one did Danderma go for? The coffee one of course! It was AMAZING! So amazing in fact my Butootee on the way home announced that he feels like he is in a French cafe where a good coffee is being freshly brewed. That's how strong and good it smelled -and tasted-. I would like to try the Chai Lattee too! O the mint chocolate chip insha2 Allah.

I wonder if they open for breakfast tomorrow? Butootee took this smoothie thing which he didn't like but I tasted and it was pure pureed berries. No more, no less, and not bad at all.

The Coffee frozen yogurt is HIGHLY recommended. My current all time favorite Frozen Yogurt

Habba Alert: The Bow Tie

Did you know the bow tie is back?

I read the line above on a website selling ties and bow ties and I snorted. When were they ever fashionable? Apparently I am mistaken for I have been seeing them around K-Town for two days in a row!

Big colorful ridiculous bow tie on an immaculate outfit worn to a place where its guaranteed you will be seen by half the Kuwaiti society. I don't even know the things name in Arabic, aside from what I call wardat fa6oo6a that is. I sincerely hope it won't catch on like Men wearing a head band habba thing but you never know with this society! Now I long for the days when shaved bald heads where in style! At least they were macho, not ridiculously clownish.

Guys, would you wear a Bow Tie in public?

10 Guilty Comfort Food Combinations of Mine

1- A bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk with Walnuts and a bottle of water. I would take a mouthful of chocolate then a swig of water. Its amazing.

2- French fries, fat and homemade. Stuffed inside two pieces of toast and drenched with ketchup. Its the best sandwich ever and I only have it if I am really really sad or really down and need a pick me up cause its dangerously addictive.

3- If I want to pig out I would go and buy my self a falafel sandwich, preferably inside a round white bread, with a cocktail juice. Very 80′s meal, very nostalgic, very fattening!

4- White cheese fatayer with Orange Sunkist juice in the white plastic cup. Just the way we ate it when we were kids at school. Very hard to find good white cheese fatayer now a days though.

5- Americana chocolate Swiss rolls with KDD mango juice. Reminds me of the 80′s Fridays spent watching 7kayat 3alamiya. That was a favorite snack of mine back then .

6- If I'm happy I eat. My best celebratory meal is walking into a Godiva chocolatier and buying my self a big box of carefully selected chocolate pieces. Then I would go home, get some black coffee, wrap up on my couch and savor the box, one piece at a time. Yum!

7- Strawberries with canned whipped cream. Like the ones I have in London every other time I visit. Its just so good!

8- Every once in 3 or 4 years I get a packet of Cream Chantilly, whisk it according to directions, then empty a small can of tinned mixed fruits and eat it. Of course the Cream Chantilly will have leftovers so I would eat that with a spoon

9- There is this drink in Starbucks, the frappucino with chocolate chips inside. I usually order a coffee frappucino or a caramel frappucino with coffee, no whip and tall. But if I want to indulge I would order a tall Chocolate Chip frappucino with whipped cream and extra shot of coffee. Haven't done that in a long time though.

10- Plain Spaghetti!  This is what I allow myself to eat when I am very sick with the flu. Boil PLENTY of Spaghetti, then sprinkle salt on the strands and eat them alone. Believe it or not they taste even better than Spaghetti with sauce.

What are your guilty comfort food combinations?

Dathra's Book is on Kinokuniya's Best 10 Books Chart!

I had received an email yesterday regarding my Dathra book that had immediately reduced me to tears. Big fat tears of happiness. Nora, a Kuwaiti Dathra Fan who was in Dubai and passed by Kinokuniya to get a copy of my book took the pictures above and below for me. Do you notice something? Perhaps a number 2 next to my book? My books is #2 in Kinokuniya's Best 10 books chart? MY BOOK?!

Ee wallah it is! I couldn't believe it! I cried and I cried and I nearly fled the house to go to Dubai at 1 AM Saturday morning just to see this with my own eyes. I can't believe it. Do you think its a mistake? That its #2 as in the 2nd local interest book that had arrived? Mo?

Dathra's book. Written by me. In Kinokuniya Dubai Mall. Is Number 2 in the best ten books chart.

Please pass me a tissue. My tears won't stop falling. For the readers who bought my book in Dubai and -hopefully- liked it, thank you. A million thank you for making a dream of mine come true.

Nora, dear Nora, thank you so much sweetheart. Though I am crying but you truly made me happier than I've ever been in a long time. God bless you :*

Back to Gift Wrapping with New Ideas

Yesterday was the birthday of the fabulous twins Anony & Zowey! Two amazing girls deserve to have beautiful things. So for my birthday gift to them I have decided to try and wrap them up nicely and differently. FourMe also wanted me to gift wrap her present to them so it was time to dust off my gift wrapping station (post).

I had gotten the twins two Ipod Nano's since I love mine so much. Got them both silver colors with slightly different shades. Now I wanted to wrap it in a way that it doesn't show its an Ipod Nano or a box. So I grabbed two colors of tissue paper, brown and beige, one colored sheet per gift.

Layered each two sheets in a cross pattern. One gift had the beige sheet on the bottom and the other had the brown sheet on the bottom.

Gathered up the tissue paper and tied it with a rope to hold it in place. Using that red piece of rope was my big mistake but I had no choice I didn't have any other suitable rope I need supplies!

Then to hide the shape of the bottom I added golden mesh ribbon thing.

I used my trusty glue gun to glue it on. Burned my finger tips several times in the process though.

It now looks like a vase.

I added a brown ribbon on top of the golden mesh ribbon. Partly to hide the red rope.

It didn't do that good a job with hiding the rope o FourMe 3ayebat 3leehom. Oh well it looked pretty.

Then el kesha of tissue paper ele foog I tied It with a sparkly ribbon in the middle.

And I was done! Its like wrapping them in a candy wrapper style only on one side only instead of the other… Good Bad? Shraykom?

Whether they look good or bad it doesn't matter. They are unique and unusual. Now its time to wrap FourMe's gifts.

 One of FourMe's gifts had so many little boxes. The other was a flat thing. The flat thing I wrapped with the boring childish red wrapping paper I had. I must buy myself some stylish new wrapping paper. It looked like a kids gift

I had more mesh golden ribbon lying around so I used that on the side of the gift.

Added some green wire with round balls on top to create a modernistic thing. Like a kisha or somehing. Didn't work well though

Now the many boxes came in two each. I first wrapped each pair of boxes individually in wrapping papers. Then I stacked the different sized wrapped boxes on top of each other with the glue gun.

Then I added ribbons. I need more ribbons!!! Must go shopping for supplies.

Silver Ribbon.

Purple and Green Ribbon.

Added plastic butterflies.

So this is the end result.

and this is how the gifts looked at night during the birthday dinner…

The purple boxes were everyone's favorite. Every one loved it