For old times sake!

Congratulations!!

Letter from the First Lady

A Letter...

Look what I got...

I came home today from work and this is what I came home to. I know what you're thinking...and no it's not a secret admirer. These were from my mommy. How sweet:)

Support: BIG ARAIA

Life: How it happens...

It's crazy but I'm just now beginning to understand that you can't control everything that happens in life, by "you" I'm obviously referring to myself. Yes, I'm a control freak. I've always been and will most likely always be, can't help it...to be honest I've never really had the need to change. I am however learning that there comes a time when you just have to literally give it to God. You simple have to let go. As I find that to be one of the hardest things to ask of myself...I've decided to try it for a little while and see what happens. I shall keep you posted:)

Speaking of nothing...here is one of my favorite wedding speeches ever...Prince Daniel to HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

A Saturday in my Life!//Pt. 2

For those of you who don't know...I  was born and raised in Sweden to Eritrean parents. I was lucky enough to be born into a family of love and great friendships. My parents were and are very much in love and my siblings are the most wonderful people you'll ever meet....I know, I know...this is where I say "despite the fact that they get on my nerves", but really I think I along with my obsessive/compulsive/controlling/"clean that up right now" personality is the one to get on peoples nerves. What can I say, I get it from my daddy. Either way, I've been lucky.

From the time I can remember I've always had a wonderful Christmas. My mother used to make us all dress up...my sister and I used to get our hair done and my beautiful Mamina (that's what we call her) wore her latest Eritrean dress along with her best gold. She always looked stunning, and every time my father would look at her as if it was the first time he laid eyes on her. I always loved their relationship and felt blessed that they were so open about their love when our culture is far from showing the kind of love that my father showed my mother. I have no idea if my writing is making any sense right now...but wharrreverrr!

Sooo, to my next point. Where I'm from we celebrate Christmas today, the 24th of December. I've spent the entire day moping around, because I've been alone. Yes, yes...I sound pathetic:) It's true though, in America, Christmas is spent on the 25th, hence, I'm alone on the 24th, as this is the day where people spend their time last minute shopping. Anywhooo, here I am being super not grateful.

Today I realized that I need to get over myself and just be thankful for everything and everyone that I have in my life. I'm kind of weirded out by myself that it had to get this dramatic for me to appreciate what I have in my life.

With that said....Merry Christmas beautiful people. Thank you for everything!!!

Inspiration: If I could, I would...

Wouldn't it be nice to travel the world and take pictures? All I would bring is my camera, a suitcase filled with colorful dresses (made by yours truly:) of course), my computer and my love. How amazing. I love telling stories with words, but a great picture leaves so much to the imagination that it makes everything that much more exciting. Good or bad...get it? I'm being super random right now, but it makes perfect sense in my mind, as do most things I say:)

Tough Love...

Meet my friend Pantea! We've known each other for quiet some time now, and one thing that I have always loved about this girl is her brutal honesty. When I say brutal, I mean MURDER! You should never ask this girl for critical feedback unless you're really ready for it. The funny thing is that her comments always make sense. Almost 100% of the time. I love it! I think that's why she is one of my best friends. Seriously!

My Birthday...

So it's my bday on the 7th. What to do, what to do?? Wish my mami & daddy were here with me:( I miss hanging out with them. I should be in New York in a few weeks...with my little brother for a birthday dinner. I asked him what my present was and he told me. He's such a little weirdo!

Who does that? Why would you tell a person what's in the box? Love my little babi, although he doesn't do the whole anticipating/surprise thing. Whatever, I love my present!

Don't know if it's the fact that it's 5 am but...

...here comes the sensitive crap that we all hate, but love when other people gush out. I know, I'm gross!

I have to say that I am really grateful to have the kind of friends that I do. Every person that I consider a friend has really proven to be a really great source of comfort and inspiration to me. For a person like myself who is all about being with my mommy and daddy it has been extra difficult to be so far away from them. But good friends are like a shopping spree without a spending limit, they just bring you joy (yes, Gardy! I took it there).

The most handsome man I know!

Check my daddy out:) Is he not the most stylish Papi you've ever seen? Seriously...

This picture was taken earlier this summer in New York at Lincoln Center. It's so funny how stylish and modern my daddy is. Everywhere we go people compliment him on what he wears and how fashionable he is. What's even funnier is that he doesn't get it. He genuinely does not know how good he looks. Yes, I'm proud! Everything from Nudie Jeans to Tiger of Sweden to Armani...he even wears a bunch of stuff from Japanese designer Uniqlo and let's not forget his little Converse collection:)

@ the Doctor's office with my "children"

I had such a scare about 7am this morning. I opened up my laptop to start working but it wouldn't work. Being the calm and collected and fabulous person that I am I waited for a good 4 minutes before I started freakin' out!! I grabbed my phone to make a phone call to J and scream in her ear, but my iPhone was also acting psycho! If I didn't know better I would think it was a conspiracy.

Vintage without my Mama

Every single time my mother and I walk into a vintage store she starts going off about the whole thing that someone else wore it before. She hates anything vintage. It's to the point where if she sees anything that may look slightly distressed, she flips out and interrogates its vintage status. My mother worked as a nurse for years in Europe and she has a long list of diseases that you may catch from wearing other people's clothing. Not sure if she's being dramatic or if it's for real.

On that note, I found a gorgeous vintage store in Soho, 'Marmalade Vintage' located on 174 mott street...didn't get anything because she was breathing down my situation. It was really pretty though:) Love!!!

For more info, visit marmaladevintage.com

When in New York, Go to Central Park

One thing that New York has that reminds me of life in Europe are the little bakeries and coffee shops. It's such a lovely coffee drinking-MacBook carrying-Central Park loving movement going on over here. So much fun. Timba and Robel took us to this cute little bakery in Harlem, it was like walking into a cookie lovers paradise:) Wall to wall of bread, cookies and cakes...I kind of wish "the kid" was there, he would have gone psycho in there.

We walked from 147th street all the way down to Central Park and around the reservoir. Such a peaceful place. I never realized how many New Yorkers work out. Every single person was out running. Pretty cool!

She called me a GROUPIE

I found the best bookstore in the world! Although I once swore I would never pick up a book in my life (after grad-school) I have this love for small book shops. I'm looking for Diane von Furstenburg's book, A Signature Life but since it's been discontinued it looks as if I have to go to someones house and steal that sucker. More on that later.

After all that running around all day yesterday J and I went back to her place and obviously I passed out on the sofa. This wouldn't have been a big deal had my parents not been waiting for me at Robels house. At 11.30pm I get a text msg from Robel, asking me where the hell I was. No good. I woke up at 2.30 am in fear of being grounded:) I got home this morning and went into my parents room and after a short conversation with my dad, my mother rolls over and calls me a groupie. I taught her that word and she's totally abusing it. You're not a groupie for not wanting to eat breakfast, or for not wanting to go for a walk, or for wanting to shop...and definitely not for falling asleep on your friends sofa. Funny!



Ps. I know the postings look funny sometimes, but bear with me, I shall fix it! 

Dating my Family in NYC!

Ever since I got here (NYC) I've sucked at updating this situation. My brother's graduation was held at the Lincoln Center. I can't believe my youngest is all grown up. After our little dinner party at the house we went to meet up with my friend Jeremy Asgari (socialight entertainment) at 1OAK. Fun times! Today has been a full throttle pavement pounding, blister-izing, errand running, busy day. We started off by walking over to BET (tv) to meet with Dexter for a little pow-wow, followed by lunch at PAM in Hells Kitchen. After lunch J and I met up with my parents and my little brother. bla bla bla...you get the idea, it was a busy day. I love this city!

One of today's highlights was the drive-by we did at Henri Bendel's to visit my good friend Maddy-Russ aka John Madeiros. He is a make-up artist for mac and is currently working on the set of the apprentice. Super happy for him and proud:)

I would totally post more pics of everyone, but since my family is psychotic about privacy, they threatened to beat me upside the head with my computer. I'm too cute to have that happen to moi, so no pics:)

Simon & Hanna: A Love Story

Yesterday afternoon I was on the phone with my lovely mamasita. I was guiding her through a graph that she was trying to create on excel. Somehow our conversation drifted into something completely non-Microsoft related and we started talking about a lady named Hanna. My mother calls her a special woman and probably the most grateful and thankful person in the world. Growing up I remember Hanna as a happy and positive lady, but it wasn't something extraordinary to me. Everyone I knew always seemed happy and excited. My parents were happy, my friends were happy, our pastor was happy, even my neighbors, who seemed slightly on the dodgy side, were always smiling and to me that was HAPPY.  I believe it was the same year I was born that Hanna had a son, Simon. Unfortunately he was born with down syndrome and through the years I’m sure they have both faced challenges that you and I can only imagine. In a society where everything is up for discrimination and scrutiny, being ”different” is hard as is, without adding additional curveballs. Simon has become a wonderful young man who loves music and who is very independent, but what else is there to expect from a person who grew up with nothing but a mothers love and encouragement. If happiness is an emotion, and we all know emotions are never constant, and joy, a state of being then maybe Hanna isn’t just happy, but she feels joy. We all have issues and things that need to be cleared up and solved; no man is free from that. However, when we hear stories such as this one it helps us put things into much needed perspective. What a great example of hope and strength.

Smooch! 

Fit for a Prince!

Yes, I did it, I woke up early to watch this beautiful wedding. I've been looking forward to it all week:) The bride was wearing a dress from the house of the late Alexander McQueen, designed by Sarah Burton. It was slightly inspired by the dress Grace Kelly wore when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Prince William and his bride are know the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, you gotta love the royals. I love weddings, and that fact that it's a prince...makes is somewhat of a modern day fairytale. Beautiful! There is something lovely about the order that is in the British monarchi, some don't like it but I do:)

You can probably catch the reruns, and replays online and on every news channel for the coming days.

Happy Easter my lovely Friends:)

Every time any type of holiday or special occasion comes along I can’t help but to miss my parents. They always celebrated every single birthday, holiday and New Years Eve with a party. No matter what, we always had fun. My mother would wear her traditional Eritrean clothing with her best gold for every one of our events and my father would compliment her several times throughout the night. It was beautiful. She would make everything that we loved and we would spend the entire night laughing, discussing, arguing, and laughing some more. Ever since I moved away from home (to another part of the world) I can’t help but to feel as if I’ve lost some of the traditions that my parents thought me. There are certain things that stuck with me such as; to not eat infront of the tv, to be organized and to keep a clean house, but when it comes to the festive stuff, I totally suck. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t think I can make it as fun as my mamoshka, whatever it is, it’s going to change, starting tomorrow. Sooo, in honor of my new found party-animal side, I have decided to throw an Easter Sunday picnic party for a couple of my friends and my love (if he doesn’t consider the picnic thing to be too annoying/too girly). First we're going to church in the morning (as always) and then we're off to the park, or I'm off to the park. Either way :) I may even wear a traditional dress in order to make it more real.

Very exciting!

What are you guys doing tomorrow? Whatever it is, I hope you have a beautiful day with your loved ones filled with love and laughter.

Identical to the eggs we you used to get:) (sweet memories).