The Crazy Pants

My closet contains much more dresses and skirts then pants. The variation was pretty much limited to some black skinny jeans until my sister convinced me to buy this pair of flowery Dorothy Perkins pants. I didnt think they were that crazy to be honest. I just thought they were flowery and a bit out of my comfort zone. I feel like thanks to the fact that the pattern is on a dark background I can get away with pants like this and wearing them makes me happy so why not..

The reason they are called crazy pants is as follows. I met a guy at a work function I had met before. He didn't recall we had met until I mentioned the event and he said..ahh yes you were the girl wearing the crazy pants..not flowery..not colorful..crazy pants! I was not sure how to comment...

The top is one of my favorites. I got this same top in white from Zara few months back and it quickly became one of my favorites. I kept thinking..I wish I had this in black as well. Now this is where Dubai has an amazing advantage- reasonably priced great tailors. I got some lovely black fabric and had this Zara top replica made for less than the top cost originally. I have done the same thing with a few work dresses and I have a fabric waiting to be made into a red version of the below shown Cos midi skirt. 

I never wear these pants without heels. Im not sure why but I just feel like they need a sexy high feel so they dont look too hippy. I love those Zara shoes but they are definitely not something I can spend a standup cocktail party in. But whenever I do wear them I feel kind of invincible so I'm shallow enough to power through the mild discomfort. They just make you strut you know..

Do you have a pair of crazy pants?

Cheesecake

I say we talk about cakes today. 

More specifically baking them. I love baking but the small issue is I dont like eating cake that much. I know its unnatural..almost wrong..but Im more of cheese and salty snacks kind of a girl.

But baking cakes if one of my favorite things to do and time permitted I will always try to bring something homemade when we visit friends. I have a looong list of new recipes I want to try.

I however have that ONE cake that always works. You know the one that you can make eyes closed and is always a crowd pleaser?

Mine is a New York Carnegie Deli Cheesecake. Firstly have you been to Carnegie Deli? If not and you are in NYC please go.. its has delicious and larger than life pastrami sandwiches and amazing cheesecake.

Googling for Carnegie Deli Cheesecake gave me some decent recipes but didnt really recreate the cheesecake of my dreams. What a disappointment when even the recipe on their own webpage wasn't what I wanted- a high, not overly sweet and super creamy classical cheesecake. The kind that dreams are made of.

 Until I found this one.. because this one is perfection!

I honestly think that this cheesecake is better than anything you can get at Cheesecake factory or other such restaurants. And if you do decide to make it let me know how it turned out.

Whats your favorite go to cake recipe? I would love to try it.

From cakes I move swiftly to gifts. It happened to be my husbands birthday a few days ago. Now I really enjoy buying and making gifts. Sometimes I buy Christmas presents months ahead cause I have an idea that Im so excited about. And I suck at patiently waiting for months to give the present..hence husband got his a week before his bday cause I couldnt wait anymore. I have the patience of a 3 year old. Anyway  one of the gifts I got him was my Instagram pictures made into fridge magnets.

 They come in the exact same size you see on your phone screen and looking at them daily makes me smile so I thought I will share the idea with you as well. If you are in need of a cute gift check out Stickygram. They ship worldwide and the quality is great.

I think ending a post with a pet picture could kind of be like "my thing". What do you think? Yes we want to see endless pictures of your dog or cats or..jeez how many pictures can one person take of animals? 

Until the verdict is in I leave you with this dapper guy home from the groomer:

Mid(i)week

Firstly!

Thank you Laura for finally convincing me to start blogging.. and thank you all the lovely people who found their way to my blog..

Now lets talk about Tuesdays! I will never get used to the Middle East working week and the fact that Sunday is workday and Tuesday is midweek. Tuesday just does not feel like a midweek kind of a day.. instead it feels like a day after Monday and should in theory still be in the first half of the week..

But ok midweek it is then. And to celebrate that Im wearing heels and red lippy (Nars Red Square- my favorite color for about a year now!) to work. You will have to bear with me regarding the photo quality please. At this moment the only person to take my outfit photos is my husband and that conversation went a little like this..

Me:"Honey can you come outside before I leave for work and take some photos of me for the blog? It shouldnt take longer than 10min.."

Him:"10 min?? Thats a really long time to take pictures. How many do you need?"

Me:" I dont know the number! Only a few but I need some to choose from.. like close ups and full body and one of only shoes and..maybe I will make weird faces or my hair wount look good on some..or.."

I saw I was losing him already so figured we will have to wing it for the first one and it is what it is. (Morgan I know you will read this so thank you very much for taking my pictures.. I will bake you a cake for it I promise!)

There is a whole lot of my favorite wardrobe staples in here.

Like the basic cotton tshirt from Cos. Cos does the best basic shirts ever! I love the quality and the fit and I keep repurchasing them. Whenever I went to London I almost ran to Cos every time..and stocked up on different color tshirts and more often than not a dress as well. Its a Swedish brand and has that awesome scandi minimal design with funky cuts and good quality fabrics.

I did do a small happy dance when Cos opened in Dubai mall!

And the Cos praise will be followed with some more Cos praise because this midi skirt is also from there. Do you wear midis? I used to be soo worried before that they will make me look like a grandma and that the midi length is unflattering etc. But after I finally bought my first midi a few years back they have become one of the most worn item in my closet.

I mean it shows off your waist and makes you feel ladylike and fashionable at the same time. Whats not to love? Now if im honest there may or may not be a recent ASOS order on the way with one (read: two) new midi skirts!

Ok so..the shoes! (is it normal that a pair of shoes makes you swoon?) These are single handedly the most comfortable heels I have ever owned. I was on a lookout for a perfect classic leopard heel for ages because isnt leopard print the best basic color ever. Winner in my book any day.
Well these Diane von Furstenberg babies just tick all the boxes for me.

✓  heel hight that allows me to wear them day time 

✓  soft padding under the sole for comfort  

✓  great print with right amount of black and beige to go with everything

They are so comfortable that I went ahead and ordered the same style in black patent and I am now on the hunt for a red pair. I have a DVF shoes obsession!

So here we are, my first outfit post all done. 

Lets end this with another pet photo shall we. I thought we don't know each other so well yet so maybe its too soon to show my true colors. But I will just come out and say it- Im a crazy cat lady and its my pleasure to introduce our second rescue cat Zulu!

Hi!

Im Laura.

This is my brand new blog and I am so excited you are here! You are my favorite!

Things I like: cats, dogs, shopping, reading, baking, traveling, eating out, dancing, meeting new people ..etc..

So that is more or less what you can expect from here.
Outfit of the day posts and general shopping chatter.
Plenty of pictures of my nails- I love doing my nails.
An occasional cake or cupcake talk with pictures of my cats stealing the cupcakes I have arranged prettily for a photo.
Probably (read 100% definitely) pictures of my border collie and two cats.. but I promise to try and keep those in moderate portions. I tend to get carried away but a few here and there are ok right? Please say yes..
I will happily write about any travels or places I find fun. I live in Dubai so there is plenty to discover and new places popping up constantly.

There is an outfit post in the making but until then I leave you with my latest and at the moment favorite manicures. I am all about pastels with a bit of gold. I recently purchased the Bourjois- Vampire Vanity which is gold leaf looking glitter polish and I just want to put it on top of everything..if I could I would totally smear it over my eyelids. Talking of which- is there a product that will make your eyelids look like they are gold leafed? I want to buy it!

 So this is what I did last week. A pastel pink with gold tips. The pink color is by a brand called Nailstation but the same effect can be easily created with any good coverage pink polish.

And this week is peachy goodness with an accent nail.

And this is me and Mate and Yalla. Yep..I managed to sneak in a picture of my animals into the first ever blogpost. I told you I just cant help it..

Thanks for stopping by and do stick around. It will be fun I promise!