Stardust September

September, you have come and gone in a blink of an eye. No wonder I keep on lagging behind blog posts, I close my eyes and a whole 2 months has gone by. But alas September, you did good - or better you were great for me, my own special month; we celebrated Ramadan, Eid, and my Birthday! It was a beautiful and blessed month, filled with lots of family gatherings, peace, religion, traditions, and laughs. The night literally was young, curfews were extended, tents were camped, lanterns aglow, cards were decked, and let me not start with the food. This was the time when all the girls worked out their chef hats to master each others delicacies... and of course the traditional sweets and food that has not been good to my waistline. Oh I'm already missing it. September do come back!

recycled candle-lit lanterns {fanoos}

Midnight tent

Second image: via ohhellofriend

Love me if you {dare}

A scene from the magical movie 'Love me if you dare'

Have you ever watched a movie that is truly brilliant and you feel genius for discovering it. Well last weekend, I went over to my cousins house to watch a movie, and little did I know that that night my dreams were going to be filled with the magical romance I witnessed between Sophie (Marion Cottilard) and Julian (Guillame Canet) in the wonderful romantic French movie 'Love me if you dare'. What a fantastic story and movie by Yann Samuel, that enchants, frustrates and ultimately dares you to love it. It has that little bit of French quirkiness that I adore in a contemporary fairy-tale style using such captivating visuals (if you've seen Amelie you'll know what I'm talking about)

I for one don't watch movie trailers, and hate it even more when people spoil parts of it on me. I love to go to a movie blindfolded and watch with no expectations at all, so as to not build up a film too much and then get disappointed afterwards. So all I will say is get your hands on this movie and watch it, meanwhile I will lose myself in the rich colors, romance and mood of these photos inspired by the movie, and fantasize I am the lead star in a French fairy-tale story. Oh Sophie and Julien.. you made my heart beat!

Vibrant hued shots from a recent photoshoot collaboration with Luis Vuitton and Emirati photographer Lamya Gargash

Aqua-toned shots from Forever 21 lookbook

Into the wild

A couple of days ago it was my younger sister's birthday, and as tradition, I conjured up a mini treasure hunt with clues hidden in various places around the house for her to find her presents. Each paper had a riddle for her to locate where the next clue was hidden, until it lead her to her treasure prize. I have no idea when and how it started, but every year I love to think up of crazy places to hide, more complex riddles, or even creating a crazy twist to the game. And the look and huge thrill in her face as she runs from one end of the garden/house to the other, reading out loud the clues to the family, with everyone joining in to help her find it. Or perhaps it's my lust for all things wild... I sometimes dream the possibility of being lost in the great outdoors, making my own treehouse from wooden scraps and findings, and spending my days swinging carelessly on my rope swing.

images via: Tea for Joy , Mimi Charmante , Flufflefritz , Liebemarlene vintage 

Floral Tea's

Nothing gets my heart beating than a lovely arrangement of pastel flowers in tea tins. I'm not a tea person, but pair some sweet florals with vintage cup-ware and I'm in love. Now where did my pruning shears go..

images:: heyzee , bijou kaleidoscope 

Art on wheels

I am a huge fan of skateboarders out there riding the rails and grinding their way over the city. Unfortunately, Dubai is still young and it's street culture of skateboarding is still in its initial stages, with very few skate-parks around the city. Which is why when Wafa Al Maktoum, director of FN Designs, took the next step by curating the first skateboard art exhibition in the region 'Fakie', I was more than thrilled to go and check it out. Too bad there were no skateboarders grinding their stuff during the launch .

{Khalid Mezaina} Bring the sword & axe

Of all the works, I loved his the most, those bold primary colors sure triggers something in me!
 His concept is based on a combination of the urban world of skating and traditional UAE folklore. 

{Janet Belleto} Mille-mare (a million seas)

Janet's designs are inspired by her continued exploration of underwater worlds as well as animal and sea creature illustrations.

{Mohammed Al Shaibani} 

Music doesn't lie. If there's something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music

Admiring the artistic illustration and composition that went into this design. Mohammed pays homage to the 'grooviest' dude out there,  a great man who once spoke through his music - Jimi Hendrix.

{Eyan Lomuntad} Right here. Right Now!

I love the description of this piece. Remember those Fruitella chewy candies? This is how it feels like! Word!

{Lateefa Bint Maktoum Al Maktoum} Lazer Flip

This was by far the most unique and conceptual skate design at the exhibition, the image engraved directly onto the original wooden surface. Of her design, Lateefa related a skater's tricks and movements as birds about to take flight. With that in mind, she wanted it to be playful, yet still referencing the roots of skateboarding, hence a surfer.

{Darwin Guevarra} Face to Face Basis

Drawing straight onto the board, Darwin's freehand quirky illustrations are just too cool.

{noella craves} arabic movie posters

Seeing that it's already the 13th of the month, here comes another {noella craves} post, featuring my latest obsession for this month. I don't know if it's the city girl in me living in modern Dubai lusting for some rustic and vintage-ness, but I have been preoccupied with drooling over these loverly old movie posters. Be it the hand illustrated titles, painted portraits or the bold primary colors, these posters are craving to be framed and hung on my bedroom wall, or in the below case, stuffed with tissues.

Saudi designer Ayman Daydaban creates a collage of tissue boxes adorned with classic Arabic film posters from the 1940s-50s. 

Classic Arabic posters found via thunder-lulled

Clutch me

Look at these lovely arm candies by Sarah's Bag found over on Dia Boutique too bad I'm not a clutch person or else I probably would have stocked my cupboard with one of each design. The graphics and  retro colors makes these clutches one fashionable art piece.. and me super envious.

Egyptian singer 'Umm Kalthoum'

Vintage arabic Pepsi bottles

Lebanese singer and actress 'Sabah' in rainbow

Collage of old Egyptian movie posters

Wrapped, sealed, delivered.. I'm yours!

Oh how I wish all packaging would look as vintage and kitsch as these.. just look at the typography, the images and the colors on these Iranian products (swooon). It would certainly make grocery buying a whole lot easier. I'm definitely one of those people who would pick up any store products just because of how pretty they look, I guess it's the graphic designer in me!

 

(found via n; is for noon)

{noella craves}: Alice in Arabian Wonderland

Every 13th of the month (of course today is supposedly the 13th), I will have a {noella craves} post, which will give you a little peek of my recent obsessions and cravings for the month. And to start it off, it's none other than the lovely 'Alice in Wonderland'. It's been popping around the blog world for months now, and with Tim Burton's new movie, Alice and Tea's have been sweeping us off our hard back chairs and longing for garden tea parties, alice photoshoots and deliciously cute teacup sets.

S*uce, a lovely fashion boutique in Dubai, recently collaborated with Harper's Bazaar Arabia magazine to be part of a photoshoot based on Alice in Wonderland, featuring the region's most quirky creatives as characters in this ultimate fairytale.
(www.shopatsauce.com) (www.harpersbazaararabia.com)

Amanda Gideon of 'Bow' is the doormouse, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting Alice

 Tima Ouzdan, designer of Dju Dju, throws a rocking Mad Hatter's party

 The real Jake & Gigi swap sparkles for stripes as Tweedledum and Tweedledee

 Yes Your Majesty. 'Bil Arabi' jewelery creator, Nadine Kanso, plays a winning hand as the regal White Queen

Using her way with words to lure Alice onto the psychiatrist's couch is the queen of hearts, 'By Sophie's', Joumana Haj Ali

 Who... are... you..? Designer Shrekhanth exhales shisha-smoking caterpillar philosophy

She Draws, an equally lovely blog belonging to Laura, creates the most exquisite and utterly cute illustrations of tea parties and cupcakes into buttons. I can't wait to the day I own a set of her delicious cupcake and tea cups buttons.
(www.drawglueglittermake.blogspot.com)

My Best Friends Wedding

I think it's finally safe to say that spring has arrived (we had a freak 42C last week) the weather seems to be tolerating for once, with cool breezes, chirping birds and everlasting sunshine (though that has never been an issue!).
This post is kind-of late, I was really planning on posting earlier but things have been busy here trying to find a dress for my other cousin's wedding which is next week, I've also resorted to searching online but no luck - does anyone know of any good sites with long evening dresses??

Anyways, so the wedding.. it was a dream, and time just flew by so fast, the whole week was a celebration!

:: Sunday - We threw her a Bachelorette party that was crazy fun.. we started with karaoke, then went on to play such entertaining bachelorette-style games (sorry, can't go into details here :P). We also got her a red lips pinata that took forever to break open, probably because she was blindfolded and we kept on giving her wrong instructions, a themed decorated cake, and lots of gifts. My sister and I put the gifts inside boxes which we decorated with lace, pearls and heart-shaped doilies. Each box was a theme (ie. flirty, wife-y) which we typed out using the label maker.  Here's a sneak peak below of the gift boxes we decorated.

:: Monday - Henna Night, this is a tradition in Dubai where 3 days before the wedding, we gather at the brides house and put henna on our hands. It takes around 15 minutes to dry up, and the longer you leave it on your hand the darker it becomes, and then you peel it off. Of course with my luck, a woman bumped into me and smeared the top part of the henna before it dried! The henna artists were very creative and detailed, I don't think I could ever have the patience or steadiness for that matter! I went with a full paisley/floral design on both my hands and up to my arm, my sister only wanted it on her fingers. Just looking at these photos I want to put henna again, and the smell... aah!

:: Tuesday & Wednesday - Favors, we spend 2 days at her house helping wrapping the favors to be placed on the tables during the wedding party for the guests to take home, we had to make around 800! The gifts were small jars, wrapped with ribbons, a small tag that had a flowery illustration on it, and mini cookies or waffles. They put me in charge of tying the ribbons into bows and I swear they couldn't have chosen a worse bow-tyer than me. I quickly gave up and decided to put the cookies in the jar, ooh they were so yummy!

:: Thursday - the Wedding day!! One minute I was in the salon doing my hair and makeup, and the next the bride and groom were cutting the cake... it went by so fast but everything was just gorgeous. Her theme was pastel colors and flowers so the stage was decked with lovely floral bouquets hanging from white branches, unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the wedding. Though here is a photo of the wedding card which was designed by my talented cousin also a graphic designer KS, I  love the colors and the details are really beautiful and feminine. She created the invitation in both Arabic (pink envelope) and English (green envelope). The type is just perfect! You can also see the favor jar, it used to be filled with cookies but that was eaten a long time ago, so I've filled it with my pearls collection.

I hope this long post makes up for my lack of consistent posting!

Have a lovely cool sunshine-filled day.
:)