ARchicTECT

Just before I leave for my Christmas holiday.. let me share my latest project. It is a retail shop for swimsuit and Knick Knacks. 10m x 10m size.  Client wanted something rustic and modern and this is my interpretation. Here are the views.. a more close up view.. the whole store view.. My two bosses loved it.. and again for their high standard, that makes me happy and proud. Let's hope the client loves it too. I enjoyed making this shop.. It was a 3-day concept including design, 3d modelling and rendering.. This is one of those small projects that makes me love being a designer. Let me know your thoughts... CIAO! -CARMI

Christmas Season last year is when Chief suggested that we start collecting these miniature Christmas Town Structures. The whole month of December, we would go to Ace Harware of Dubai Festival City to buy one structure per week.  You should've seen me giggling with excitement on which of which to buy every week.  This year, we have started again to add more to our growing collection. Hopefully we'd get to  collect as much and create our little Christmas town. Right now we placed them on top of the bookshelf in our library/study.. so far we have 7! Let me show you each of what we got.. Shoppes..unlit and here it is when lit.. Some require a couple of AA batteries to have the light function or some are connected with an adapter to a power outlet.. Hardware unlit.. and here it is when lit.. see those little dioramas inside?? so cute! then we also have the clock tower which gives variety to your little structure for your little town.. again unlit.. ...

It's been almost a year now since we've been to Italy. Chief and I are craving for the Sicilian Arancini. It is a local food originated from Palermo, Italy (where he is from.. and yeah yeah I know.. where the mafia started!!lol). I remember that I was with his mom when we bought the arancini from a local store and we all shared it for lunch. Since then, we hadn't had a decent arancini. You can actually order it from Italian restaurants but of course nothing compared to the original we had in Palermo. Aranci or Aranca pronounced as "aranchi or arancha" in Italian means oranges. This recipe is called Arancini because they look like oranges. In english, they are called rice croquettes or rice balls.  Today, I decided to put an end to the craving. I watched a few videos on  youtube  and I checked our fridge and made my own version of Arancini. This is the risotto. Riso is the italian term for rice. Cooking the risotto is a bit tricky and should be watched well. ...

A long overdue continuation post from our August Sri Lanka Trip.  We went on a Safari!!! Chief was so excited about this activity. I don't know if I mentioned before about Chief's fascination with animals, from primates, to lions, to tigers, crocodiles, komodo dragon, leopards.. etc! So imagine his excitement for this Safari. Originally we planned to go to Madagascar or Serengeti in Tanzania instead of Sri Lanka. But the problem was trips to those countries require a lot of preparations. We need to do a lot of research, take some precautionary shots for illness, research on insurance etc..etc..  Due to this, we ended up deciding on Sri Lanka. It was near, less than 5 hours on the plane and we'd still get to do the Safari that Chief wanted. With a very minimal research, we went for it. In the end, it was a very good trip. Enough of talk, let me share the photos of our adventure..  This is the drive to go inside the park.. This is the transportation for the Safar...