Kendra's Night Out Challenge

A few days back, I got an email from Kendra Thorton, offering me a chance to participate in her challenge. Kendra is a travel expert, TV spokesperson and a mother of three, and the challenge is to assist her in picking an outfit she could wear to her trip to Disney's Epcot with her family. And I thought it would be fun to help her out in any way that I can.

Here is something to give you all an idea of how the challenge works:

"I am looking forward to a special vacation trip that I am taking with my husband and three children. This year, we decided to go to Epcot, which is in Orlando, Florida. Before we leave for Epcot, I find that there are numerous things that I need to do. One of the biggest things is addressing my current wardrobe situation! Needless to say, I need help. Therefore, I am introducing a special challenge to my favorite fashion bloggers who can help find the perfect look! I reached out to fashionista Nada for some help! After checking out her previous work with fashion looks, I know it is safe to say she can help me out!!

I've created this contest “Kendra’s Fashion Challenge.” to help me find the perfect ensemble for Disney’s Dolphins in Depth! I found out about Dolphins in depth reading reviews on an online website gogobot. I don’t know who is more excited, myself or the kids . It’s a great place for my whole family to get close to dolphins. Spending three hours with this magnificent sea creature is the right amount of time for our young family. When the experience is over, we can get a souvenir photo. I am sure that our children will never forget it. Researchers and trainers will be teaching a class in how dolphins live. It is nice that these individuals have personal experience with the bottlenose dolphins. After our educational class, we will interact with the dolphins by getting into water that comes up to the waist. This experience is 30 minutes. Next, we are going behind the scenes to see how dolphins are trained, and we will be conversing about how to keep the ocean safe. All of this will be thrilling, and our children are looking forward to getting splashed by a dolphin. It will be a fun event for all."

Pondering on the idea of what I would wear to Epcot, and if I were to go I would want to dress comfortable yet stylish. So here is what I came up with for Kendra.

Kendra's Night Out Challenge by anglelight

Unsure whether during the time she would go, it'll be cool or scorching hot, I gave her a choice of shorts or pants, and an option of a cardigan to go with the mint raglan tee. Since Kendra has planned to go for a little dip in the water with the dolphins, I added in a one piece bikini that she could wear underneath and then she could change into her normal undergarments when they're all done and dried up. Touching up the outfit with some comfy converse, classy sunglasses, a dolphin pendant,  and a coral bag to give it some eye catching colors.

And there we have it, simple, comfortable, yet a tad bit stylish.

I hope you like it Kendra :) 

 

Brilliant Earth's Personality Style Challenge

A couple of days back, the Community Outreach Coordinator at Brilliant Earth invited me to take part in their Personality Style Challenge, and I thought, "oooo this sounds fun! I'll do it!" and emailed her right back with no hesitation saying that I was IN!

We were required to choose a couple of Brilliant Earths jewelry and compile an outfit/look based on that, and as well as basing it on our own theme and/or mood.

Picking my three favorite out of the ton I was given to choose from, I went with simple yet elegant. 

18K White Gold Round Diamond Stud Earrings

18K White Gold Vintage Sapphire and Diamond Ring

Silver Leaf Pendant with Ethically Sourced Green Sapphire

A red skater dress paired with a thin brown waist belt and a cornelli cream crop-top that is coated with an anorak jacket to bring out the little green sapphire on the necklace. Black tights along with black combat boots to keep the wearer warm, comfy and free. 

To complete this semi grudgy look, I decided to put in some of the gorgeous sapphire that's radiating off that ring, by adding on a simple navy satchel handbag to really complement that sapphire tone. I added in the earrings to staple in a little bit more femininity into the look. It's casual with the jacket and combat boots, and it's elegant with cornelli lace crop-top and of course the gorgeous Brilliant Earth jewelry. 

For those who are unaware of Brilliant Earth, they are a jewel company that provide gorgeous, fine and clean diamond engagement rings, pendants, earrings and others of the sort. (I am serious, the sapphires and diamonds took my breath away, I want one so badly. I don't care, I'll buy myself a ring). They try their best to ethically produce their diamonds and jewels without harming the jewel production industry by recycling gold and platinum and by giving 5% of their profits to communities that have been harmed by the jewel industry. Check out their website to know more and see more of their products. Brilliant Earth. 

Have a great day everyone! xox

Tribal Duffle Bag - It's like MAGIC!

Don’t you all just love that kind of bag that looks small or medium, and despite it’s size, you are able to fit everything in there.

I got this small duffle handbag from my best friend, who is sadly all the way in the Philippines. We both thought that it would be a fun idea to do a little Christmas gift exchange across the seas. Thanks to my sister’s boyfriend who was traveling to the Philippines at the most convenient time during the month of Christmas. He sort of became our courier.  (If you’re reading this Kal, thank you again for being our mailman xD) I like how the tribal look of it brings out the hippie in me, and I’ve wanted something bohemian for quite some time now. So thank you for that universe, I appreciate it.

I’ll be honest and say that I’m not really sure what type of bag this is. It looks like a small duffle bag to me. But if I’m wrong, please feel free to correct me.

When I got this geometric somewhat tribal looking bag, with its warm earthly colors and dynamic patterns, I didn’t know that it is able to carry so much. I personally think that this type of bag is the perfect ally for when you want to dump everything you think you need for the day in what seems like a small amount of space of a bag, and go.

  

This fabulous bohemian looking bag can be styled with almost anything actually. I use it as an everyday bag, so I wear whatever I want with it and carry it around like nobody’s business. But if you're willing to make a real effort in styling it with the perfect outfit, I suggest either plain solid colors to let your bag be the eye candy or matchy-matchy with the pattern but try not to go overboard with it all. Too much pattern is just, too much.

I love this bag to bits, and I don’t say that about many bags (since I don’t own many bags, my mom probably owns more bags that I) so when I do, I mean it. With all that said, I hope you all enjoyed my little excitement over how much I can fit in a simple bag.

Bag: Hdy Hdy Hdy

I can't seem to find the counterpart of this bag. 

HDY doesn't have an official website, but they have an official facebook page.

Check them out to see more of their great products.

So my dear readers let me know:

What is your favorite type of bag? How many bags do you own?

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored in anyway by Hdy. 

I just find the need to express my excitement over this bag with a blog post

 

Holiday Wish List Hop + Giveaway: Holiday Wish List

Christmas is just around the corner and though I don't really celebrate it, I want to write up a fun Christmas related post.

For me, when I think of Christmas, I think of the colors red and green, candy canes, ginger bread houses, christmas lights, presents and my mums delicious baked macaroni.

What first comes to mind when you think of Christmas?

This post is apart of the Holiday Wish list Hop hosted by Gliterary Girl Media, and they have a GRAND PRIZE at the end.

My Holiday Wish List

1. The recipe to Starbucks' Toffee Nut Latte. They sell it every year here in Bahrain, during the months between November up to January or February. And every year I have to patiently wait for Starbucks to serve this particular drink because it's one my absolute favorites of their annual drinks. I am also really looking forward to trying out their other annual drinks they don't offer within this minuscule country.

2. Perfect Reindeer Sweater. We've had yearly secret santa's for two years with my sister and cousins, and every year I ask for a reindeer sweater. I never got it :(. Though I saw a couple of them at the store during that time, I didn't want to get it because it didn't feel like the right one. Red and white, white and red, or black and white, with multiple reindeers lined up horizontally on the chest of the shirt feels like the perfect reindeer sweater. And maybe a couple of snowflakes here and there.

3. Holiday Mug. I am not particular about mugs, but I've grown to enjoy their company during breakfast and tea time. Drinking from the same cup every single day for the entire year can be a hell of a lot boring. I've grown an interest for changing mugs every year for the holiday. The perfect holiday mug with the Christmas or New Year colors and is able to survive in the microwave is perfect.

4. Plain White Christmas Lights. I bought myself some colorful Christmas lights a year back and when I went to get the plain white ones this year, I wasn't able to find them at the store. "How odd" I thought. "'Tis Christmas time and proper simple Christmas lights are no where to be found! :(" they probably ran out. I want plain white ones that I can decorate my room with. The colorful ones that I got can be a bit overwhelming to the eyes sometimes.

5. Mac Christmas Palette. Every time I pass by the MAC store, there would always be a voice in my head telling me that I should get a Mac x4 Palette. But there is another voice telling me that it's too expensive and to get something cheaper, because the palette alone is quite pricy, then I'll need to buy the eye shadow separately, it's too much. Hence it being on my wish list. A neutral christmas themed mac x4 palette with the colors; Mystery, Beauty Marked, Vanilla, and Plumage. 

And that concludes my short wish list. Time for the giveaway.

I will be giving away one Christmas/Holiday themed book to one winner Make My Wish Come True by Fiona Harper. Though I haven't read the book myself yet, it is definitely the type book I would most definitely enjoy during the winter season!

This giveaway is open internationally, so anyone can partake! ^^,

Doesn't this cover seem to blend in with my blog layout! :D 

Most of us already knows the drill, you just need to fill out the rafflecopter. This giveaway will be open from the 16th of December - 20th of December and I will be announcing the winner of the giveaway on 22nd of December, on this blog post itself and I will also email the winner personally to ask for their address. NOTE: If the winner does not get back to me within 48 hours, I will be picking a new winner. 

Good Luck everyone and Happy Holidays!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to hop on over to the other blogs participating in this HOLIDAY HOP!

      

Third Blogoversary + Small Giveaway: One I didn't miss

Hello there my dear readers!

I bet you're all wondering why the title is titled "One I didn't miss". Well, ever since I officially started blogging about Fashion, Food, Books, and Beauty and not random objects, activities and such, I would miss my blogoversary every year for the past two years. But this time, I kept track of every move my blog has taken.

These past three years have been a journey that; I have to say, happen to mainly focus on Books, rather than the other categories in this blog (^^;). Books are my company. Fashion and Beauty have been my recent interests and pleasures. And Food is my sanctuary.

Oddly enough, it was only this year that I finally understood the meaning of blogging. It is writing about one's life, opinions, advice, and all of the sort into one or multiple posts to put our voice out there. There are some of us who don't expect readers to be interested in what we have to say, but there are some of us who are desperate for the attention. I am somewhere in between. There are times when I would watch how the number of views per post grows everyday and there are times when I would just forget and pour my heart and brains out into what I'm writing.

Though these past few years have given me a few added followers, I am grateful for those who continue to come back. Thank you. :)

In honor of my 3rd Blogoversary, I will be hosting a giveaway, for 3 days. From Dec 12th - Dec 14th.

After multiple indecisive contemplation, I have decided to giveaway a £10 Gift Card from ASOS, which is around $17. AND it is open Internationally. So YAY!

Just fill out the rafflecopter below and Good Luck!
Visit ASOS.com to check out the fabulous clothing they sell!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to all those who enjoy the content of my blog so far. ^^,

      

Graduation Day 2013

Last night was my graduation day. It was the night I officially graduated from university with a Bachelors Degree in Business Informatics and was awarded Magna Cum Laude. I've been waiting since December 2012 for this very night.

I wasn't excited for it at all. I dressed up and did my make up and everything!

Dress | H&M - Similar but in black

Shoes | Forever 21 - Desert Cool Booties

Jacket | Thrifted - Similar

  

These photo's were taken by my mom with her phone. Thanks mom! 

As some of you may know, I've been hunting for my perfect graduation dress, and alas I've found it. I paired this burgundy chiffon dress with dark brown ankle high boots and a dark jacket that I'm holding. I got only one good shot of me and my dress alone :( Oh and please ignore how my feet were positioned in the first photo, I have no idea why I was standing like that.

Standing next to and around me are my sisters and brother. Both my sisters graduated along side me as well! Three siblings graduating on the same day, how cool is that! The photo on the left starts with (left-right) my eldest sister Nasreen, my other older sister Najla and then me. On the far end is my younger brother Naser. We're in order (eldest to youngest)!

Thank you to my cousin Yasmeen for this photo!

(I'm in the front row, the 5th person from the right. Look for the boots!)

The graduation ceremony lasted about 2-3 hours and there were about 700+ students so it took almost an hour and a half to announce them all as well as for them to receive their certificates. 

During our practices, the professors ordered everyone to stay quiet during the ceremony and forbade us all from wooing, booing, laughing, shouting, and basically from catcalling. And during the ceremony, from the very beginning, the students at the back started to WOOOO and whistle for the entire night. The look on the professors faces when they started were priceless. Though it may have slightly ruined the solemnity of ceremony, the catcalling and etc by the random students specifically from my course (Business Informatics) made it a fun and memorable one. Thank you guys. 

From having very average grades in high school to being up front with the honor students as Magna Cum Laude at university. If you told me that I would get Magna Cum Laude when I was in high school, I would have definitely believed you. "Oh waw! Really? I'm going to be that good? Awesome" is what I would say. 

Getting this award, honestly doesn't mean much to me. I'm saying this because I want to be about 80% honest with my readers, if there are any...hello?. Those three and half years attending AMAIUB went by so fast like a race car at the F1, and the memories I had during my time at university are something I will always cherish. Someone once told me "Going to university was one of the best times of my life" and at first I didn't believe nor understood him; I was in my second or third year of high school at the time, until now. Going to university was one of the best times of my life. Thanks to the people of course. xD 

  

By the end of the night, I was exhausted from smiling, my hair was frizzy and I desperately needed to take out my eyes (my contact lenses). So we went home to take some more group family photos, I took off my contacts, put my hair up and blotted my oily face. I felt so much better. The things we go through to look beautiful, I swear! 

The night ended at a restaurant called "Passions Restaurant and Lounge"; which I decided to review and will be up in a couple of days. It was a very simple family dinner; plus my sisters' boyfriends. Quiet, relaxing and eventful. 

It was a night to remember. I received many congratulations and said as many thank you's as possible. I am happy and grateful to finally close this chapter of my life and finally feel free to start a new one without a voice telling me "you didn't officially graduate yet". Thank you to everyone who has helped me get where I am today. 

As it is also thanksgiving to my dear American readers. Happy Thanksgiving to you all! May you all enjoy stuffing your faces with turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy! 

Have a great day everyone!

xoxo

[Fashion] Shopping for summer clothes during the winter

It's finally winter here in Bahrain (after a week of showers and floods) and I get to wear my sweaters and scarves outside without worrying about sweating my arse off now.

I am not sure whether it's the same in other countries but in Bahrain, whenever it's winter, all the summer clothes go on extreme 50% - 75% off sale. Especially in Forever21. And whenever it's summer, all the winter clothing will be on sale. I love how the world ironically works that way.

So I did a little bit of shopping a couple of days back, and by shopping I mean by trying on a bunch of stuff and only walking out of the store with only one item. I asked myself continuously while I was roaming the store "Do I need a new summer dress? Do I need a new bag? Do I need a new skirt? Would I need to wear these things to work?" and while I was looking at the multiple dresses on the corner, I set myself straight and said "I'll buy a simple dress that I can wear for summer and winter. Done" So I tried it on this very simple blue colored dress and instantly decided to purchase it!

The dress looks quite similar to this: 

Forever New Yvette Skater Dress 

I absolutely love dresses like these!

And of course, "when something new comes along, one must think of what to wear with it". Or at least I think it goes that way. So I compiled a very simple outfit for this winter. 

Wearing crop tops on top of dresses like this is a great way to turn it into a whole new dress or just turn the dress into a skirt xD

Winter Blues? Well, singles like ahem me sometimes get the winter blues, having no one to cuddle with, to kiss on new years eve, and other stuff that couples do during the winter. I don't want to dwell on that right now. I'm done brooding over things like that, my time as a love sick junky is over. It's all about my life beyond relationships and men.

I want to take photos of me while wearing the dress, but I honestly don't want to go out and deal with the stares and the catcalls right now. It's been a busy week of doing nothing but everything all at once.

Have a great day everyone! Keep warm! :3 

[Fashion] What to wear for Graduation Day

Hello there dearies! 

I've been waiting a long long time for this day come. Since December 2012 to be somewhat more precise. I officially took all the exams I needed to take to get my Business Degree and waited almost a year for this Graduation Ceremony to arrive. 

How my university infuriates me to hell, I don't know how I've and the entire student body pulled through, but I am happy to be almost done with it once and for all. 

A month ago, when the graduation date was officially announced, I literally freaked out and started thinking of what I can wear. My sister, my good friend Sasha and I, made a date to go dress shopping, and oh boy was it frustrating. All three of us couldn't find the perfect one. 

It's really funny because when we all separately went shopping a few weeks after that day, we all found our ideal graduation dress.  But before that, trust me, I was completely blank and irritated because I had absolutely no idea what type of dress I wanted to get. I spent days thinking about it and I've even had dreams about it because I was so anxious.

So I made it easier for myself and made a pinterest board filled with all university graduation type dresses that I thought suitable for the event. Graduation Dresses

Now before we get into what type of dress to wear, we need to consider a few things:

Location

Where exactly is the ceremony going to be held? 

In a hall at a hotel

In the middle of field

In the school gym

In the school auditorium

It's not only the dress I'm worried about, it's the shoes. If it's a field with grass or sand, expect your stilettos to sink. Try out some flats, a chunky heel, wedges, or heeled boots. Otherwise, any other type of heels/flats will do well on tiled or carpeted floors. :3 

Weather

Is it going to be cold? Is it going to be raining? Is it going to be hot and humid? 

Now we don't want to be sweating inside and probably through our togas for a couple of hours, nor do we want to freeze. Unless there will be proper air conditioning or cool but not freezing weather, then your good. 

Check your weather forecast on the week of your Grad day and hope for the best. Dress your best for yourself and the weather! xD 

Your Purse

Now ladies, the dilemma of leaving your phone, wallet, etc. with your family or keeping them with you for the entire ceremony. 

If you want to bring your things with you, keep them to a minimum - phone, wallet, lip balm, tissue. 

You don't want to be carrying around a huge bag of your things on top of your toga, so just have a clutch with a thin strap or a chain strap to go inside your toga. (sneaky sneaky) Or if you're lucky enough, you'll find your ideal dress with pockets! Don't we all love dresses with pockets, because I know I do! xD

Okay okay, on to the dresses. 

What to wear

So here are a bunch of dresses that I found Graduation Day appropriate. xD

Body-cons

Be them sleeveless, or long sleeved

They are the perfect choice if you want to show off your curvy slender body and give out that intellectual and professional look. It's perfect for the office too.   

Peach Body-con

Now this lacy navy dress with a slight pleated skirt is perfect in my opinion. Basically anything with a slightly pleated or a basic pleated skirt is perfect for a graduation ceremony.

 

Navy Blue

Here we have a whole variety of dresses that can spike up your inspiration. 

Graduation Dresses by anglelight 

A tip: If your toga is black, keep your dress any other color besides black. Imagine you're dress and toga blending in together, if you're alright with that, then go for it!

With the perfect dress, comes the perfect pair of shoes!

High School or College/University graduation day. After this day it's time for you to go out into the real world and be who you've trained to become.

I hope this helped! :3 

Good Luck Ladies!

Blog Bucket List

Bucket lists, goals, dreams, whatever you want to call it, is a list of all the things you hope to do and/or achieve throughout your lifetime. They can be small and simple, and they can be extreme and outrageous! We list it down for the purpose of motivating us into actually going out there and doing every single thing on that list, and it can help us move forward with our career and even our own lives.

A couple of days back, I was searching for random book/fashion/food blog weekly memes and I came across a post called "What's on your Blogger Bucket List" by Jennine Jacob from IFB (Independent Fashion Bloggers). It's a pretty intriguing site, I could just scroll through it for hours upon hours, just reading and learning so many new things about blogging.

Anyways back to the point, I got inspired to write my own Blog Bucket List because we all need to have at least a 5 bullet point bucket list to see how far we can go with our blog. I actually never thought of making a bucket list for my blog, until now xD

Okay here goes, so no judging! I'm new at this.

1. Become a known blogger in the Kingdom (Kingdom of Bahrain)
2. Get front row seats at a Fashion Show 
3. Get invited to go to Fashion Week
4. Get a request to review a restaurant 
5. Go to blog related conventions and/or conferences locally & abroad
6. Make a great friend through blogging
7. Get 100 followers 
8. Get featured in a local magazine
9. Get featured in an international magazine 
10. Have a successful and fun blogging career and lifestyle

That's it for now!
I'll be adding in a couple of new ones every now and than when ideas come to me.

[Fashion] Love for Burgundy

Love for Burgundy by anglelight 

Oh waw.
Two fashion posts in a row! I'm saying this because it doesn't happen too often as it should xD

It's fall in most places of the world, and in the country I'm residing in unfortunately has only two seasons, Summer and Winter, of course it has the occasional rain and sandstorms every so often. Oh how I wish for Bahrain to have Spring and Autumn, but these things are what they are.

Ever since October struck, the colors, red, maroon and burgundy or basically any other shade of dark crimson red, has been catching my eye. And fortunate for me, I was hunting for the perfect graduation dress at the time, so what better way to feed my slight craving to buy something burgundy than a burgundy graduation dress. Oh how I love that dress, though I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet. o.O

Burgundy would look great with warmer tones like beiges and browns, and of course black goes with everything. Also a splash of gold or rose gold will look tremendous for a fancy night time look. Burgundy always seems to look much better during the evening time, don't you all think so?

Hope you're all having a great November so far! xoxo

[Fashion] To Relax, To Convey, To Enjoy + OOTD

My good friend Sasha had this urge to go into a café to blow of some stress, so she called me up and asked if I wanted to come with, and for those of you who know me, you know that I love me my coffee!

It's been quite a while since I did a proper fashion post, It's been all about books these days , and since I've been wanted to really do a proper outfit of the day post, I finally got off my little patuti and went for it! 

I now realize; while carrying around my or my sisters DSLR camera, that it's really uncomfortable when people stare at me with curiosity in their eyes. But of course it's human nature to be curious so I forced myself not to care that people were staring because this was what I wanted to do after all. 

After months and maybe even years of seeing all these famous bloggers around the blogosphere, I've always wondered how they take all of their photos. Who takes it for them? I on the other hand usually have no one to take proper photos of me and/or my outfit. But today, I had Sasha! 

This is Sasha!

And of course, this is me.

The sky earlier today was very gloomy but the weather was nice. It felt so good to walk around with the small swooshes of the wind blowing through you. It felt like an instant stress relief. And when the clouds started to part ways, the sky looked so beautiful. It barely gets cloudy here in Bahrain. 

At first we couldn't decide which café to go to, but we eventually settled with our usual, Starbucks. "When in doubt, go to Starbucks." We were surprised to see that the Starbuck branch we went to was under renovation, and we were forced to sit outside. Thankfully for the great weather, it was all good. We both ordered the same drinks. Hazelnut Latte, it's my new favorite drink and I completely recommend it! 

Spending your afternoon talking and gossiping with one of your best friends over a cup of coffee is always a great stress relief in my opinion. You get to let it all out and enjoy your nice cup for coffee at the same time. 

Don't you just love those times when you get the urge to just get out of the house and do something fun! xD

My Outfit

My entire outfit is basically hand-me-downs (HMD) today. 

Oversized Flannel Shirt - China xD | Half Button Up Shirt - HMD | Black Tights - At a Bazaar | Studded Flats - New Look | Satchel Bag - Charles & Keith 

Sasha's Outfit

Simple, casual and comfortable

Shirt - Aeropostale | Jeans - H&M | Beige ballet flats

Have a great day everyone!