Monday, February 28, 2011

A Trip to The Farjam Collection

Today my Islamic Art and Architecture class, went on a trip to visit The Farjam Collection which is an art gallery at DIFC.

DIFC is such an amazing place buzzing with energy. Hopefully that's where my first job will be located!




Anyways!

I was in awe of all the art pieces there. They exhibition the art gallery is currently running is called "Nujoom: Constellations of Arab Art from The Farjam Collection."

Here's my favorites out of the collection (the pictures don't do the  art any justice!):

Adam Henein - Om Kalthoum


Mona Hatoum - Over My Dead Body

Ahmed Moustafa - The Limitlessness of God's Continents

Hassan Hajjaj - Odaldalisque
 I think the green cans give the photo an undefinable edge.

Youssef Nabil - Maelema-Fifi Abdo
 Homage to old Egyptain Cinema.

Lalla Essaydi - Silence of the Thought
 Something about this makes me want to stare at it all day!

Chant Avedissian - Forever Om.

Abdulnasser Gharem - The Path
 I love the symbolic use of the word Serat (path) here.

Lara Baladi - Kaleidoscope
 This is actually a lot bigger and made out of glass. The colors are breathtaking!

Abdul Qader Al Raes - Untitled


Ayman Baalbaki - Destination X
This was the most fun! It was outside so it was the only one I had time to take a real picture of.


DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these images. The pictures belong to The Farjam Collection, the artists, their estates, and the organizations/institutes they belong to.


If you want to see other art pieces included in this exhibition, or you want to know more about the gallery, visit The Farjam Collection's website.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Weekend in Pictures


I fell in love with this building.





Little things like this build a brand.




This was right around Magrib (sunset).  The sight of these birds in Garhoud was breathtaking!

A little treat I got myself.

A very special unexpected gift <3


Saturday, February 26, 2011

Can't stop listening to: لين شافوني





This song is a little old, but for some reason the lyrics played out of nowhere in my head. I can't stop listening to it! It's a beautiful song about: love, goodbyes, distances, and getting back at haters.


I don't like the video though. It's from Abdulmajeed's early Rotana days. I think they were trying to make him appeal to a wider pan-arab audience. He looks so out of place! He's not doing this kind of music videos anymore. I think it's for the best. I think the typical Khaleeji music video style suits him better. Where the singer just sings the song somewhere, and in different shots the "story" of the music video is being played out by actors.



Thursday, February 24, 2011

The weekend is finally here!

After a long week of work, the weekend is finally here! I'm going to spend these few days in the company of my family and friends.


Here's a picture of beautiful peach blossoms. You'd expect a peach blossom to be well... peach. Suprisingly it's pink. It turns from one pretty color into a fruit of another pretty color. I think that's how everything should be especially in human relationship: pretty in the begining but change into something prettier and even sweeter as time passes by.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Small doses of inspiration

I've been so busy with university, classes, and work that I haven't had the time to post anything in the while. Hopefully, I'll post new stuff soon!

In the meantime here's some tiny doses of inspiration in the form of a words and images:




"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." - Malcolm S. Forbes

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

WISE WORDS: Mark Twain



"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain 1835 - 1910 (Humoritst/Author)


I think he's really on to something. No matter how successful, powerful, or accomplished a person is, if he/she belittles other people than he/she is just a small petty person. A truly GREAT person is modest, kind, and inspirational in a way that makes other people have faith in themselves that that could be just as great. 

Sunday, February 13, 2011

I'M LOVING: Stockholm Street Style

Don't you just love the swedish?!! They world owes them a lot for H&M and Ikea! And now comes Stockholm Street Style.


Stockholm Street Style is one of the most popular street fashion photography blogs. I love how everyone's style is different, and how they make mix outfits up!


Here are my recent favorites:












DECORUM: the case of the old acquaintance




I'm so glad I finally "ran into" a new case study for my decorum post series.

Today I was in the same room as an old acquaintance. We were actually friends at one point in time, but that was a very long time ago. I'm going to refer to her as OA (Old Acquaintance).

In the past, whenever I'd run into OA I'd naturally say hi. Sometimes when I'd pass by her somewhere I never get the chance to greet her, because it seems she's not looking in my direction. I never really thought any of it. Well now we're in the same class!  I was there first and she walked in later. She didn't say hi or even look at me!

Hmm... Did she not recognize me or wasn't she paying attention to the people in the room? Or was she ignoring me? I looked over at her direction a few times in an effort to smile at her, but my efforts failed; she didn't even glance at me once!

I won't jump into assumptions, you never know if someone is having a bad day. You never really know what a person is going through, so it's a bad idea to label people instantly!  And anyways, just because people aren't nice doesn't mean thet you should be too!

Plan of action:
Next time I see OA I am going to: 1. Say "Hi OA" ;  2. Give her a compliment  ; 3. Start a converstation (not necessarily the same day). We'll see how it goes from there!



ALWAYS try to greet people you know. At least acknowledge  their presence with a smile. If you ignore people they might think that they are not important enough for you to greet them, or worse they might think that you don't think they might recognize you because you've got 0 self esteem!




"True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can." - Alexander Pope



For the first post of this series including why I started it, click here.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

RECIPE: The Vanilla-Banana Milkshake

This milkshake tastes SO good, plus its very healthy! I might try adding strawberries next time, or other types of fruit. Here's the basic recipe to serve 3-4 persons (there was a little left over; depends on the serving glass).


Ingridients:
- 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream
- 3 bananas
- 1 heaped tablespoon of Horlicks
- a splash or two of milk


Directions:
1. Cut the banana into pieces and add to blender
2. Add a splash of milk and the spoonful of Horlicks then blend a little
3. Add the 1 scoop of ice cream blend a little, then add the other scoop, and so on...
4. Make sure everything is blended well using a spoon
5. Use some banana pieces as garnish for the glasses (I used desert glasses because they look pretty)
6. Enjoy!!



Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I'M LOVING: Mother-of-Pearl Clutches

I love clutches. I also love pearls, and the combination of the two is brilliant!

I think we'll be seeing more of these soon. I officially predict a trend!


Mother-of-pearl - Judith Leiber

Shell and mother-of-pearl - Lanvin

Pearl and resin - Louis Vuitton

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Google Homepage Creativity

I love it when the Google homepage design is based on theme depending on what's happening around the world. Today Google's homepage is celebrating the birthday of French Sci-Fi author Jules Verne. One of his most popular novels is "Around the World in 80 Days."

The Google logo is inspired by submarine windows, probably in refernce to Verne's novel "Twenty Thousand League's Under the Sea."

The cool thing about it is that its INTERACTIVE! On the right there's control stick that you can move with your mouse to go up, down, left or, right.

Look:


submarine is floating; you can see the sky

submarine underwater


OPPOSITES: Blue vs Pink

" The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet." - Andy Warhol


Topshop

Zara

Zara

Chan Luu

Marie Helene de Taillac - Kenneth Jay Lane

YSL Roady - Mulberry Tillie

Jimmy Choo - Christian Louboutin

Notte by Marchesa - Temperley London