the dainty fawn

I recently got this dress from Topshop, which I have seriously been in love with ever since I got it. Its the perfect everyday dress...Simple, and can be worn so many ways. I've been looking for a simple grey dress for a while and I think this one's perfect. I've been wanting to wear it almost everyday since I got it and have had to take a little real so it can finally get washed... oops 

As a pre-birthday dinner, we went out to the Sanbok Seafood Restaurant in Khobar for dinner. That was my second time going since we arrived here, and each time the food was fabulous. The first time I had a fish called hamour, done italian style. It was quite good but had a charred taste which I'm not into so I did't enjoy it to much. It was just a silly menu choice from my part making it not good, it wasn't the fish itself, it was fresh, and the fish had wonderful flavour. By the time I got my fish, it really didn't matter because I had already eaten my way through almost all the calamari that we got to share as a group as an appi. Also, their corniche sunrise drink is absolutely incredible!

Last night, we went and my parents shared a dish and I just got an appi calamari... it was amazing, and completely enough for a whole meal... I shared with my parents and we still hardly finished it. Also, of coarse, I had a corniche sunrise, and my dad had a pina colada and it was amazing as well.... theres no alcohol in Saudi so I can basically order any drink from the menu... so many amazing mock-tails at every restaurant. Also the staff here were incredible and let me take so many pictures of the food and even the chef's... sadly it was late and dark out so lots of them didn't turn out inside. But a couple did so here they are!

It's the first ever year that my friends haven't waited all summer for my elaborate birthday party, no cake baking in the oven, no running out at 9 pm on the fourth because we have run out of butter for the frosting of my cake, no hardly sleeping that night because I can hardly wait for my party tomorrow. 

August 5th has always been my favourite day of the summer. The first few days of August can never seem to go quick enough. This year is a little different. Having just moved abroad, I don't yet have enough friends to have a party, and we still don't have that kitchen mixer from our shipment to be whipping up a beautiful cake tonight. So we knew we had to make it special somehow.

We ended up finding this cute little bakery called Madeleine French Bakery, and it was soooo nice. They had so many cute treats... ( I even found macarons! ) I thought I'd share some photos of the many nice things they had. Also, the staff were super nice, we told them it was my birthday tomorrow and he slipped me a little " Happy Birthday" macaron... it was amazing. ( I also have 2 more for tonight ) 

Today I decided to take an hour or so and whip up a little inspiration board using a board from the ikea PS 2014 collection.  

All of the photos I used were either from my pinterest or photos that I or my mom have taken. My favourite would have to be the black and white vintage image of Coco Chanel.

Of coarse you can customize this board to however you like, using images that are to your taste and inspire you. I used a lot of images that make me feel inspired to be creative or ones of my family and friends so the board has lots of pieces of me in it.

 Here is the ikea board that I used for my base, but any board you like could be used, cork, a large poster board, or even a chalkboard would be super fun. 

The board was super fun to make and I hope you enjoy making it if you get a chance to try it.