Monthly Archives: September 2014

Sep10

Cafe Bazza

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Cafe Bazza

It’s such a beautiful sunny morning in Kuwait that you can actually walk to your car without feeling scorched today.

A great day like this is a great excuse for a day out for breakfast… As soon as I drop of the girls to school I call my husband and we make a date out of it before we both heads out to work.

Our latest addiction is Café Bazza in Bneid Al-Gar. Close to home & my work that it’s not going to make me late.
bazza-out
A taste of traditional Kuwaiti food in a historical time warp. With the seating like an old “Gahwa” (traditional old coffee shop) with the modern TV playing old Kuwaiti shows and plays on silent while the radio plays old songs that bring butterflies to your stomach remembering the past.

For those that didn’t live that era it’s equally intriguing to see and hear things from a past you haven’t experienced.

Egg
 
 
 
 
A vast selection on the menu our choice was difficult to make.

My choice was the exquisite “Cheesy Omelet” a delicious combination of eggs, Spinach and Kraft cream cheese (Jibin glassat)

OHHH the rich creamy taste of processed cheese I must say was sublime with the healthy twist of spinach was hard to beat!

qima
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My husband was craving the “Qima” a traditional minced meat stir fry (7amsa) with green peas, onion, tomato and what I assume is Indian spices. All on a brick oven bread made like a pizza.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
hummus
 
 
 
 
Off course all this wouldn’t be complete without Hummus for dipping.

 
 
 
 
 
All this accompanied by traditional Tea with milk in a little pot for one.

We truly had a “big feast” of a breakfast as Jennah would say.

So the next time you’re wondering where to go out for breakfast as early as 7am I would highly recommend that Cafe Bazza be your choice.

The amazing thing is that if the Bneid Al-Gar location is not close enough to you they have several other locations like Salmiya, Avenues, Abu Halifa and A2Z.

Off course you are not limited to breakfast their menu has a variety of lunch/Dinner & Dessert. We do intend to take the girls one day for a full blown meal.

Here’s to Making Life Memorable one meal at a time!

Sep9

Polish Galore

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Polish Galore

I am not one for vanity, we will see me in public without makeup, in flats wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but there is one thing that I will say will always be there in the style department and that’s NAIL POLISH!

My nails no matter how short they might end up being will always be polished, and if my nails just have a clear coat my toe nails will ALWAYS be polished. My biggest pet peeve is open toe shoes that reveal unpolished toe nails!!

In my busy schedule I rarely have time to get a professional Manicure and Pedicure so I’ve resorted to doing it myself. Which isn’t hard since I gained lots of experience in college with my Roomie & Bestie!

With doing it myself came the responsibility of having color choices.

The more colors you have the less you use certain colors. The best are the OPI MINI you can have a large range of colors that you use and won’t dry up like the regular 15ml size bottles because you’ve used it up.

opi Mini

 
These little 3.75ml come in sets of 4, 6 or 10. I am in love with them!!! I highly recommend nail polish lovers to get a few sets and keep them stocked up at home. 1

I also love these collections because they have a theme related to it. Makes it easier to choose. The world of nail polish can be very overwhelming at time.

 
 
 
I’m going to sign off to put some nail polish and get busy in Making life Memorable one nail at a time

Sep8

Potato Balls

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Potato Balls

One of the staples I have in my freezer are potato balls. I make a whole bunch for quick dinners, lunchbox food and random no fuss play date food.

It’s a fairly easy recipe just a little time consuming.

Ingredients:

4 Potatoes (boiled & Mashed)
1/4 cup Milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Egg beaten
1/2 tablespoon oregano
Salt, Pepper
Bread crumbs

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together except for the breadcrumbs.

Roll the potato mixture into bite size balls and coat with breadcrumbs.

Place onto a cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. You can then place them in ziplock bags or freezer containers for up to 6 months.

To Cook:
Heat oven to 275 degrees Celsius

Drizzle Baking sheet & potato balls with olive oil.

Bake for 20 minutes.

(alternative cooking method is off course frying but I don’t particularly like fried food)

Sep7

Sleep Deprived

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Sleep Deprived

Today I feel like I’m a walking zombie….. I’m walking around looking like I’m composed and functional yet I’m nothing close to that!

I’m actually surprised that I’m sitting up right looking at the screen and typing…. mind you I’m misspelling every other word (I actually wrote order instead of word, that’s how bad!) Thank God for spell check and that squiggly red line!

I decided to actually Google “Remedies for Sleep Deprivation” and the first on the list was WebMD….ahhh yes the site that make you believe you have a tumor or fatal disease because you complain of a simple head ache… I went to read what it had to say anyway!!!

I start the first few paragraphs and say “Ok….tell me something I don’t know!” and then I get totally insulted when the article starts talking about age!! I mean seriously it’s getting personal here! SO I then decide I need to find another site to get educated…

Most of the sites I read all spoke about ways to avoid sleep deprivation…. I know why I’m sleep deprived “I SLEPT LATE!!” and I need to fix it now so I can function normally….Remedy = Cure why isn’t Google not giving me the cure?? I don’t need preventative measures….

Did I put to many “….” in that last paragraph?? Well I’m probably not going to proof read any way I’m too tired for perfection today:) still misspelling every other word by the way.

GREAT now this other site is starting to talk about how sleep deprivation can cause depression!! This is not looking good, obviously I’m depressed I want to curl into bed and sleep but don’t have that luxury.

Page after page of somewhat useless information at this point I’m feeling like I’m just wasting my time without getting anywhere. Yet I move onto the next website in the hopes that it will have something to wake me up!

That’s IT I’m calling it a post! I’m just going to engross myself with a ton of work, ignore the fact that I feel like I’m jetlagged and hit by a bus at the same time and have a big cup of coffee to give me some false energy.

Turns out I am human after all people!

Here’s to hoping that I get to bed earlier today so that tomorrow I can start Making Life Memorable with all my screws on tight!

Sep6

LadyBug Photo Booth

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LadyBug Photo Booth

One of my favorite parts of planning the girls’ birthdays is getting creative with a photo Booth. The more I do them the more I begin to elaborate.

Last year Zeenah chose to have a Ladybird birthday. I had made everything black and red with whatever I can make. From table cloths to paper pompoms. It also made my life easier in thinking of ideas for the photo props.
PhotoTable-LB
 
 
I made callout signs that said “No bugging allowed” and “Happy Birthday Zeenah!”

I also got red sunglasses from the 100fils store and added googly eyes and antennas using black pipe cleaners.

Conveniently I also found Red Happy Birthday sunglasses and a Glittery red cowboy hat that I didn’t have to add anything too!
 
 

Next came the actual photo Booth. We are very lucky to have a great big olive tree with amazing branches to hang things on. My decorating engineer (AKA my husband) had the task of implementing my visualization.

We had a great red vintage looking frame that we hung on our Olive tree and a collection of home made red pompoms. Off course the first picture to be taken in the booth has to be a CUTE sister picture before we bring out the sillies!!
girls

Zeenah insisted that I buy the same dress for Jennah because according to her she wanted to be “twins”
 

Then off course it was photo time for the kids with the props With friends and family. It was so enjoyable seeing all the kids grabbing props and posing for the camera. It became a form of entertainment for the kids.

JOJO

aya
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I hope this has inspired a few ideas for your net birthday even and helps in Making Life Memorable for you!

Sep5

One week down!!!

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One week down!!!

OOOHHHHHHOOOOOO!!!

We survived the first week of school chaos. Between the traffic, figuring out classes, getting the new uniforms and settling into routine I think we did pretty good.

I’m jumping for joy as to how convenient this year is going to be with both girls having the same schedule and I don’t need to spend 4 hours a day on the road from one location to another.

Off course with that I had to have some sort of celebration at the end of their first week.

The girls decided that they wanted to go out for ice cream after school and that’s exactly what we did.

Dessert

The funny thing is they insisted on having a big dessert.

We therefore went to Chilis (one of our favorite restaurant choices) Conveniently there’s one located at Al-Mohalab Mall next to their school.

They ordered the Chocolate Molten cake with ice cream while I was having the BBQ Chicken Salad. After about 4 bites of their dessert they looked at me and said “Can we share your salad”. I am truly blessed that my children eat healthy and would actually turn their dessert away and devour a salad.

I must have done something right!!

We then walked around the mall, went into makeup stores and put lip gloss on. Went into The body shop and tried almost everything that had a “TRY ME” sticker on it. And just giggled all the time.

Then it was time to head out before the security had enough of us!

Next choice was the infamous “Color Me Mine”

We are addicted to that place and soon will run out of choices of what to paint because we pretty much painted almost every mug, plate, bowl that they have.

The trick about what I do at color Me mine to make my money worth while is that the girls MUST choose something useful.

We used to do the figurines but then I just have a shelf full of “STUFF” and at the rate we go I’m going to run out of space. So it must be something we can use. Therefore we have plates of different sizes, bowls and mugs!

CMM-2

Let me tell you we can spend so much time there it’s crazy.

Now that the girls are older they really take their time and it’s not just about painting with colors over each other.

Trust me we have a bunch of Icky brown bowls from mixing colors. Now the girls chose colors wisely and start to make designs on their ceramics.
CMM-Zee2
 

I was especially impressed with Zeenah on how she was handling her cup and taking her time in making it pretty.

By the end of this day we had a calm ride home, talking about what a wonderful day we had.

I am so privileged to have girls that appreciate me and here’s to “Making Life Memorable” as a family!

Sep4

Class Gifts

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Class Gifts

Like many things that I do to myself I’ve always given teachers “first Day” gifts and something little for the class.

Last year I made the Popcorn Treats for the girls’ classmates and a Teacher’s Survival kit for the Teachers. (Click on link to see last year’s gifts)

This year I stuck with the cookie theme for both the teacher’s gifts (which I posted about yesterday) and the kids gifts.

The girls and I decided that we were going to bake chocolate chip cookies that Jennah said her friends were going to think it was “Choowy Goowy” because they were so tasty.

While the cookies were cooling it was time to make labels…. We went with a basic Polka dot label that I had found for free online on www.teacherspayteachers.com a site that I intend to post about soon!

CookieTags

I downloaded the set, I was so excited to see the selection of colors and sizes this pack had. All for Free!! I love FREEEEEEE!!!

I plugged the best size for our labels into powerpoint and just added the text.

Jennah chose to go with a sophisticated font called Pristina while Zeenah went with a more playful font called Crayon. Both of which I downloaded off of the internet for FREEEEE…

Each Tag had “You’re going to be one smart cookie!! Good Luck in KG1” (or Grade 3 in Jennah’s case) and their name.

The girls insisted on printing the labels on yellow paper. It would have been much easier to print them out on Sticker labels but then that’s just what I get for getting them involved!!

What’s another 20 minutes spent on cutting the labels and putting double sided tape on each and every label 42 to be exact!!
cookieGirls2
 
 
 
By this time the cookies had cooled down and we started to bag them individually.

This was really fun to do because usually I spend most of my time doing it and the girls are now old enough to do it themselves…. So much fun giggling with them. It really brings out the child in me (not that I’ve grown up!)

 
 
 
 

As much as I wanted them to continue helping me I had to stop them because the labels had to be stuck on perfectly and I knew it would be double the work if they participated. That’s when I pulled go play in the playroom because it’s almost dinner card.

cookieJ

So having the girls help me with these just makes the experience even more meaningful.

Here’s for sharing the experience and teaching children ways of Making Life Memorable.

Sep3

Teacher’s Gift

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Teacher’s Gift

I love gifting and this love drove me to going into business of making gifts. I own The original basket boutique which is part of a Canadian franchise. My physical store can be found in Kipco Tower- Kuwait City. We basically specialize in making gift baskets but are not limited to that. We have a huge range of gift items, baby, themed items and gourmet selection.

I almost always have a theme going on every month and with everyone going Back to School it’s only appropriate that September at the store would represent exactly that!

With my own girls going back to school I had them come into work with me and choose what they wanted to give to their teachers.
cup3
 

Jennah chose a Travel Cup and a cookie while Zeenah chose one of the many Teacher’s mugs we have at the store and the same cookie Jennah chose.

I think they really enjoyed walking around and trying to decide what to buy. It’s probably one of the first time they got to do something like that without being guided and controlled by me.

We then wrapped it up in a simple School themed bow and I added a label on it that read “I’m going to be one smart cookie with you as my Teacher”

 
 
 
 
 

Here’s to lasting impressions and Making Life Memorable.

Sep2

First Day of School

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First Day of School

Are your kids already in School??

Well I’m so lucky to announce that today is officially the first day of school for my girls.

Jennah is going to Grade 3 and Zeenah to KG1.

What a milestone in my household to finally have both girls go to the same school where drop off and pick up is at the same place & same time!!!

There are many traditions that we have, most of which happen yearly. (Thank God or else I imagine I would run out of ideas)

One of those traditions is the first day of school picture. It started off very simple. My child with their back pack, smile, click & done…. Somehow along the way it started to get a little bit more than just that.

I started to make print outs with their Grade and what they want to be…. Well I think this year I probably went a little overboard. Probably because I’m so excited that both of them are in the same school.

I not only put a lot more details on what I called “photo sign” I actually went to our local photocopying office and printed them out on A3 paper….

Jennah

Zee

It’s becoming very clear to me that I’m setting the Barr a little high for my girls that these things become expected rather than being “special”.

But to tell you the truth that really doesn’t matter because I truly enjoy what I do for them.

They know the value of what I do and that’s all I care about. In their eyes I do see the excitement and appreciation. For that I am thankful.

ZEE Sign

JENNAH SIGN

So here’s to a great New School Year for all children around the world!

It’s al about Making Life Memorable.

Sep1

Uniform Deals

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Uniform Deals

Everyone has been frantically shopping all over Kuwait for all the requirements of their kids starting school again.

I find it so funny that no matter how well you try to be prepared the final few days before they start is inevitably crazy & hectic.

I have been extremely good about planning and making sure I manage every aspect of the girls back to school routine and needs. From supplies, back packs, labels I’ve even stocked up on items like meatballs, chicken fingers, potato balls and spinach balls in my freezer. Those are staples I have for lunchbox items.

Yet there was one thing that I had to keep lingering not because I didn’t get around to it but because I’ve been waiting to hear what the school policy was on their new uniform.

As may other parents were also heading to every shopping location available in Kuwait to find their last minute pieces here’s a little list of finds, deals and good to know.
deben
The best deal you can find on School uniforms (navy pants/skirts/shorts, white shirts/polos, Navy sweaters & cardigans) is at Debenhams. They have a set of two skirts for KD5 & KD6, Buy 2 get one free. They also had the same deal for shirts & socks. They have 3 main locations Souq Sharq, Avenues and the Gate Mall. They also have the Airport branch but they don’t have the uniforms there)

You can also find the same items at Marks & Spencer, my personal favorite is the new one in Salmiya next to Symphony mall. They also have the gray variety of uniforms if you need them. As for the girls’ school they currently changed their polo color to Light blue which luckily I found at M&S, a Pack of 2 polos for KD 5.500.

You can also find a selection of school uniforms at Baroue. Luckily they also have light blue polos in case anyone’s looking… The quality is not comparable to those of M&S but sometimes we do need those in quantity so our heart doesn’t sink everytime they come back with pen marks that are embedded for life. Each polo was KD1.990.

If you’re looking for just regular white polos and navy pants/shorts I also found a great selection at Centerpoint. Also at extremely reasonable prices.

My last recommendation is a store called Okaidi. It’s at the avenues beside That al Salasil bookstore. I found lovely navy skirts there that fit the girls wonderfully but I found them to be a little pricier than all of my other purchases. Each skirt was around KD8.900. (yes I’m a frugal mom and admit it….probably one of the very few that will be vocal about it in Kuwait!)

So here’s hoping you’re all squared away with your children’s school uniform and I’ve made the journey a little easier for you.

Now I have time for Making Life Memorable. instead of shopping!