/**/ February 2014 - Travel + Decor + DIY

My Dubai Food Blog: Butter Dubai Salon = Go Nuts With Cronuts

I have blatantly and over confessed my love for the Cronuts ever since I first entered Monseir Dominique Ansel’s  Bakeshop in New York (Food Blog: The Quest For A Cronut).


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Far away from the Big Apple, I have been craving for this sweet creation here in Dubai. Trying to search online, I was very much unsuccessful until one day, in an event project meeting I met this local lady who is a friend of our ‘VIP’ client and out of the nowhere she mentioned that she knows someone who creates ‘this famous desert from New York’ –I jumped immediately and asked—is it the Cronut?


Hearing a big YES, I took the details right away. The name of the bakeshop is Butter Dubai Salon, they have an instagram page (ihttp://instagram.com/butterdubai#) and from there you you’ll be instructed on how to order.


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I love their packaging, the white boxes with black ribbons look so chic and stylish.


They are doing all transactions online. Normally, you will send them an SMS or email and tell them your order and then they will arrange with you the day of the pick up. They have 2 pick-up points, one in Mercato Mall and the other in Century Mall.


This was actually my second order from them (needless to say that I was very much satisfied the first time).


I ordered the caramelia cronuts, vanilla cronuts, nutella cookies and a biscoff crumbs.


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Caramelia Cronuts (my favorite)


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Vanilla Cronuts


In comparison with the original Dominique Ansel Cronuts, this one from Butter Dubai is at par with the original one. It has that interesting merger of a round sweet donut and a layered flaky croissant. I have tasted all their Cronut flavors, saffron, rose, vanilla and caramel. I love the caramel one the most.


Another hit as voted by my taste buds is the Nutella Sea Salt Cookie. This was a complete surprise for me. I was not really a fan of Nutella but this made me join the famous chocolate bandwagon. In every crunchy bite, there is an oozing sweet chocolate waiting for you inside (waaah I want to place my order again!).


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Nutella Sea Salt Cookies


All in all, I was a satisfied dessert eater. With a very affordable price ranges, I would really recommend to all sweet lovers out there or those who are just curious on the Cronuts craze.


I love their motto, “Life is short, eat dessert first”…yey for DESSERTS!


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To contact Butter Dubai, check the information below:


'Butter dessert salon Dubai based Seasonal Desserts Bakery .For orders, call 042038513 ( except Fridays) or e-mail info@butterdubai.com 9am-6pm www.butterdubai.blogspot.ae


You can follow them in their instagram page and twitter account: @butterdubai


Check out their menu for November 2013 to March 2014:


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My Dubai Food Blog: Butter Dubai Salon = Go Nuts With Cronuts

Event Blog: Noon Art Boutique Hotel Apartments and Gallery Launching

Last February 10, I was privileged to be invited to the launching (ribbon cutting) event of a new boutique hotel in Al Barsha, Dubai. The boutique hotel is an ‘art’ inspired hotel apartment, the first of its kind in Dubai.


During my travels, I have seen a lot of boutique hotels, hostels and B&Bs with their dash of artistic touches. So, when I was researching about Noon Art Boutique Hotel Apartments and Gallery, I was really excited. I think it is time for Dubai to invest in such hotels, as tourism booms in this region.


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Noon Boutique Hotel Apartments and Gallery, showcases works and visions from 3 Arabic artists, Dr. Najat Meky (Emirati), Mr. Ali Hassan (Qatari) and Mr. Khaled Ben Simane  (Tunisian). All 45 apartments in the hotel were divided among the 3 artists to design and create.


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Situated just a walk away from The Mall of The Emirates, I easily found the boutique hotel (of course I asked around and the map provided really helped).


The launching event was pretty much very interesting. There were a lot of press and yes, bloggers who were invited. We gathered in the lobby and marveled at artists in action and creating masterpieces in an instant.


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After a few minutes, we were all ushered in groups to have a tour of the hotel. Each artist’s creations can be seen in the room’s lighting design, dining tables, fabrics, cupboard doors, hanging artwork pieces and even the designs of the head boards.


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One particular artist, Mr. Khaled Ben Simane infused the four elements of nature in his designs, according to our guide, he assigned air for the windows, fire for the kitchen, earth for the rug and water for the bathroom.


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(here are headboards from the different rooms designed by the 3 featured artists)


Another interesting part of the hotel is their art gallery, I like that Noon pushes in promoting arts in the region. The gallery caters to veteran artists and even those who are still starting to create their mark.


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It was a nice final stop for our tour, I was able to meet some bloggers and discussed (blogging) stuff. I always love to hear how bloggers came into creating their own blogs and other things under the sun. My friend from www.Bloggersinthecity.com, Rachel (stuffbyrhey) and I enjoyed munching on the canapes as well (I always love this part of every event).


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As someone who is a designer and an artist. I truly appreciate the concept of this hotel. Although, I must say, some people will like the design of the room while others will not, but the fact is you can surely find artistry in each room. I would have loved to see  how the artist can transform the whole room and not be limited to curtains, fabrics, lighting and head boards, that will be very interesting for sure (maybe in their future developments). 


Now we are done with the tour, the true test will be the customer service. I haven’t tried it yet but I will update this blog after spending a night or two here in the future.


You can check out Noon Art Boutique Hotel Apartments and Gallery’s website in www.noonhotel.com and their facebook page in this link.


Have you visited this hotel? Share with us your experience! ^^


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Travel Blog: I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO!!! An Intro to the City!

After Orlando, I jumped westward and flew via Delta to San Francisco! Yey.


Although it was sad to leave my newly found friends from Florida, I must say, I was really excited to come to San Francisco. Here, I will be meeting 2 of my long time friends whom I haven’t seen after our graduation (year will not be mentioned).


We have been exchanging emails for months just to polish our itinerary. (I will be posting our itinerary spreadsheet in my next SF post.)


From the scorching sun of Florida, I was welcomed by a chilling breeze of San Francisco. I wasn’t prepared for this, I was advised that it will be cold, but not freezing.


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After arriving from the airport, my friends Clarie and DF picked me up. Df came from Virginia and she arrived a few hours earlier than me.


They already ate at a nearby Filipino restaurant and they had a ‘sisig’ takeaway for me. YEY.


Our friend Clarie lives in Bay Point California which a bit of a ride from San Francisco, so we thought of using this time to explore a bit of San Francisco before crashing in to her house.




I love San Francisco, did I already mentioned that this is so far my favorite US city? The architecture is beautiful. If New York gave me the architectural wonders, San Francisco provided the panache that I’ve been searching for. They are not overwhelming like here in Dubai, just the right amount of flare and beauty.


The winding and sloping streets of San Francisco gave me a bit of a scare though, you really need a strong break pads to survive driving in this city.


Our first tourist destination stop was the famous Coit Tower. This tower offers a great 360 view of the city and the bay. You can see the famous Golden Gate Bridge and The Bay Bridge from here.


The line was a bit slow moving because we were only served with one (very vintage) elevator. Once, you made it to the top, you will really enjoy the view.


It was nice that this was our first stop. We got a full view of our playground for the next few days.




The Coit Tower




At The Observation Deck






The Bay Bridge








San Francisco City Skyline




We also took this time to visit another famous attraction here in San Francisco. The Victorian Houses! We went to the Alamo Square. Our  initial goal was to look for the house in the TV show ‘Charmed’ but with no luck,we found ourselves standing in front of a more worthy site, the famous, Painted Ladies, or sometimes called as the Six Sisters.


According to http://www.aviewoncities.com


"For Americans over 30, these magnificent Victorian homes are easily recognizable from the opening moments of the 1990s sitcom, Full House. For other visitors, however, they are simply recognized as exquisite homes painted in colorful hues, incredibly well-preserved and a joy to view. You can find the homes facing the park on Steiner Street."




They are indeed exquisite and beautiful. Aside from these, residential architecture in San Francisco in general represents the thriving art scene of this magnificent city.






Our last stop before we head home and rest, was the world famous crooked road ( Lombard Street). It’s amazing how a street can packed a lot of tourist taking photos of cars trying their luck in maneuvering their way out of this road (needless to say that the traffic here is terrible).





All in all our introduction to this artistic city was very promising. I am excited to share where we’ve been and things we’ve discovered. I spent almost 4 days in San Francisco and I can’t wait to go back and explore the city more.


To know more about San Francisco, check out these websites below:


-An all you need to know guide for San Francisco:


www.sanfrancisco.com/:


-Discount vouchers for all your SF attractions:


www.citypass.com/san-francisco


-A quick overview of what this city can offer:


www.aviewoncities.com/sf


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Travel Blog: I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO!!! An Intro to the City!

Yes I Am A Blogger! Blogger 101: Business Cards

Tonight I got an invite (as a blogger) to an event. YEY! So, to prepare for the event, with the help of my blogger friends from www.bloggersinthecity.com, they advised me (us) to bring some blogger business cards in case someone asked for it, or to give away to other bloggers/PR or simply to network with fellow guests.


I created mine, using the same logo I have in this blog. I want it simple with a stamp of #The Traveling Journal Project logo at the back.


All set for tonight! Will be blogging about this event soon.


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Yes I Am A Blogger! Blogger 101: Business Cards

Our Future Ancestral Home! All For My Beautiful Lola

There is a saying in our field (architecture), that the worst client you’ll ever encounter is your family. Well, I surely had a taste of that.


Clients in general are a bit of a handful, but when they are family, there is a bigger push. Creating a design for my grandma’s house that can fit the whole ‘Bonuan’ clan (if we thought of going for a vacation at once) was a bit stressful, with my full time job, my business and activities on the side, it was hard to have it squeezed in from the beginning. 


The beauty about this project though, is that I know that I am doing it for the person (people) I love. In fact, the enthusiasm of the whole family was contagious, and to see them happy makes me happy also (naks!).


This house is a project of the whole clan, we decided to buy the lots around our ancestral house and build a huge house that can fit all of us. Most of us are outside the Philippines and we though it will be nice to have a place to stay whenever we thought of going back for a vacation.


Also, my lola (grandma) being the queen of the family (hihi) can’t stay in a small shack, it should fit such royalty.


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With three architects in the family, we have came up with a good plan (basically it was really my uncle who did all the work, he is really good). With inputs coming from my aunts in Canada and Australia, I think we managed to achieve our dream ancestral house.


I am excited for this project to be finished and see everyone again back in the Philippines.


I have finished a draft of the exterior, and I must say, I am liking it!


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Next stop, I will do a design for the interiors. I’ll post them soon…first I need to find a day to squeeze it! ^^



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Travel Blog: The Wizarding World of Universal Studios Orlando Florida

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As a continuation of my biggest playground in the world escapade (Travel Blog: Walt Disney World Orlando Florida- Let The Magic Begin), let us jump to the next theme park.


Deciding on going to Universal Studios divided our group. Some wanted to explore other Disney parks (mainly Epcot) while some (us) wanted to go to Universal Studios and visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. In my part, this was really a no brainer decision, I came to Orlando putting this in my top list (wink*). Although we are all planning to visit Universal Studios in Los Angeles, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is only available in Orlando


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Universal Studios is divided into 2 Parks, The Main Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure. They do offer a 2 theme park access package for those who wanted to get the most of their stay. For us, with the limited time that we have, we decided to just visit one park, which is the Islands of Adventure (yes Harry Potter World is here).


Check out this link to book a ticket to Universal Studios Orlando Florida


It breaks my heart to mention this, but I enjoyed Universal Studios more that Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The vibe was more young adult friendly compared to the very young crowd that Disney caters.


The rides that I truly enjoyed was The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man® and ofcourse Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey™!!!


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The moment I stepped inside the gates of Hogsmeade, I became like a kid dreaming. You will really be transported to  the world of Harry Potter.  I went from store to store, browsing through shelves of magic wands and every flavored beans. I had a big mug of butter beer costing around 10 dollars if you want a souvenir plastic mug (I took one of course).


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It was a fun filled day! It was scorching hot and found that my shoulder got a bit of a sun burn, but it was worth it. As I arrived in our hotel, I did rest a bit before going to our last World Conference Program for the year!


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Travel Blog: The Wizarding World of Universal Studios Orlando Florida