Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ditch the Sheep and Embrace the Dreams

I have insomnia, no not really, but I think I do. I'm having trouble sleeping sometimes, a condition I like to call (Safe Bed Syndrome) but I need to sleep just like all human beings so I found a way to avoid this and I thought I'd share it with the rest of the world, it's promised to help.

When we were little we were told to count sheep when we couldn't fall asleep, I remember actually doing it once when I was eight or nine and counted all the way to 900 before it actually worked so a couple of nights ago I remembered this incident while having trouble sleeping and remembered an article I once read that suggests you take a mental vacation, meaning think of your next vacation destination and imagine what it would be like so I started thinking about all the places and the things I want to do before I die and decided to write a list and keep it somewhere to remind and motivate myself to do those things while Ali and I still have the energy, and what better place to save something for eternity than the one and only the glorious World Wide Web! I'm smart, I know.

Trying to write my list I realized that I didn't really have as many dreams as I thought, my list has a very reasonable length, which lead me to the belief that the length of your list has an inversely proportional relation with your overall life stability for instance in my case having the ultimate spouse that always makes sure to assure me that all of our dreams will come true gives me a fuzzy sense of stability that generates a state of peace of mind that makes me feel extremely content about where the path has lead us and as a result a shorter list of dreams.

My list has two sections: things I want to do and places I want to see while I'm still alive some of them might never happen but if as much as 50% comes true I will be satisfied.

Places I want to see before I die:


 1. Central Park- New York
 

2. Rome- Italy

 3. Cape Town - South Africa

 4. Tokyo - Japan

 5. Charlestown - Nevis


Things I want to do before I die:

1. Sky dive
2. Read 100 books and hopefully write one.
3. Learn Italian.
4. Teach Ali to ride a bicycle and learn to drive a motorcycle together.
5. Own and fit into a size two designer jeans.
6. Shout at the top of my voice at the grand canyon.
7. Learn to swim
8. Sleep under the stars.
9. Have a baby girl (She must inherit her dads brain and my sense of humor)

Try this and you'll fall asleep in no time you'll have wonderful dreams as well, I did!

Have a good one.

Pictures from : Central Park, Rome, CapeTown, Tokyo, Charlestown

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Matthew Williamson Spring/Summer 2012

First I just need to say this blog have officially established the fact that I will never be a fashion critic, I can only express my thoughts and feelings with facial expressions, ohhhs and ahhhhs, which reminds me of Homer Simpson trying to become a food critic lol. With that being said, this is my first time writing a review and I never had the intention to, but when I saw Matthew Williamson's SS2012 collection I just fell in love with every single look.  All the fashion bloggers do the "My favorite looks" thing, but I found it extremely hard to choose. The colors were so captivating and I simply found my self completely speechless, all I can say is that ever since fashion week I must have seen the collection pictures a hundred times.
Here are my favorite looks:


Gorgeous Floral Dresses <3


If I had to choose one look as my favorite it would be the opening look, especially the jacket:



Thanks Cristina for encouraging me.

Pictures from Vogue.

Monday, September 26, 2011

"It is the summer's great last heat, It is the fall's first chill: They meet"

To me fall is the most peaceful season of all, it's as if the busy streets become less noisy and all the colors start to pop and everything is suddenly so beautiful, school has started and now I see the kids from the school in front of my parents house gathering around the ice cream car trying to get as many snow cones into their system as  possible before winter knocks the door. I can see the bougainvillea leaves that miraculously appear on my parents' front yard every year at this time of the year despite the fact that none of the surrounding houses have one. The other day Ali and I went out for lunch and decided to walk home since the weather was nice and warm and as we walked I noticed how the long curved street leading to our house had gorgeous foliage along it's sides, I was so excited, it's official Fall is here.

One rather sad fact is that we don't really get to have proper seasons here, it's either screaming hot summer or bone freezing winter while spring and summer last for what feels like a second, so if you live in Iraq you have to make your best out this very short period of time. Basically we get three to four weeks during which we can enjoy the sun without getting a sun burn after five seconds.

It also tends to remind me of my childhood,I remember when mom and dad would take me school supply shopping and buy me lots and lots of copybooks and pencils and crayons and then the shopkeeper would give me a sticker's sheet which I always thought of as the ultimate gift, for some reason, I would keep it safe for months before I decide to use it. Then school starts and we don't get that much homework at the beginning, all of our bicycles and barbie dolls are still within reach and we're all acting as if the world will end next week and we must enjoy our selves to the maximum before then.

Soon enough winter will arrive and I will be buried under seven layers of clothes hugging the Kerosen heater with my colorful socks and chest nut :) so I might as well make the most out of those precious days. Here's a list of my favorite fall things:

1. Books
2. Hot Cocoa
3. New York Fashion Week
4. The Sun
5. Foliage

I hope you have a wonderful, sensational and romantic season, I know I will sense my anniversary is coming up soon :)


Mindy Gledhill is great for any season:



Have a good one.



Picture from Philidelphia Fall Festival

Monday, September 19, 2011

Bumble Bee

I've been staying at my parents for a while now since Ali is on a business trip. Last night, or morning I guess, well it was 4 in the morning, I woke up for a sip of water, I always wake up with a horrible muscle spasm, believe me sleeping on the floor is not easy so I dragged my self to the kitchen and back to the bath room to find a BEE standing at the bath room door!! I remembered mom's words the night before "Girls, We have a bee hive outside the bathroom so be careful, I've been killing at least one every time I go there", Killing?? no wonder why that bee stood there and stared at me as if it knew who I was. I just stood there and tried to wake myself up a bit, I moved to the left and it moved with me, I moved to the right and it moved with me, it had it's wings tightly straight as if it was waiting for me to do one stupid thing, an excuse if you may, to attack! I stood there for a moment and then realized that I was trapped between the bathroom door and the bee and if I moved it might be threatened and attack me.

Finally, after I was sort of awake, I decided to grab the hose and turn the water on to scare it away and I did, but the water hit it, it fell on the floor and started crawling in my direction I freaked out and grabbed the hose again gave it another good splash and fled back to my mattress.


At this point I was wide awake and I just couldn't go back to sleep and for a moment there I thought, what if Bugs and AntZ were real?? Man what if Toy story was real then the Bees and my nephew's toys are going to gang against me and I will never wake up to see the light!! What have I done!! I covered my head with my blanket and hoped to God that it won't call it's friends and crawl under the door and come for revenge.

You can guess what the theme of my dreams was. I woke up around seven extremely glad that all the stinging, fighting, screaming and the Bee gangsters were only bad dreams. I walked to the bathroom to see if it's still there to find that mom has killed it!

You know how in movies when some one wants to really hurt a person they kidnap their kid? I have quite an imagination, let's just hope there won't be a second episode.

After I wrote the title I remembered Aqua's song Bumble Bee :) Check it out and have a sting free day:




Saturday, September 17, 2011

I'm a Rainbow


I'm purple today bright and happy like a butterfly in the air :)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

I Have a Passion for Fiction

Ever since I can remember, I have been a sucker for a good romantic movie, I would sit there and cry my heart out when I watch movies, and Ali always makes fun of me, but it all started when I was 5.

Summer of 1993, Everyone went to bed except me, mom and dad and back then we only had two TV channels so imagine the variety of shows! any how, that night an old Egyptian movie was on called Ayamna Al-Hilwa (our beautiful days) starring Fatin Hamam, Omer al Sherif and Ahmed Ramzi, I remember lifting my head somewhere near the end of the movie and noticing that it was three in the morning, turned around to find mom and dad sleeping, that was the first time in my life staying up late. So back to the movie it's a very sad movie, extremely dramatic just like all Egyptian movies at that time, it tells a story of a poor girl who lives with three brothers and they all fall in love with her but she loves only one of them, gets sick and of course dies at the end. My god did I cry at the end, I cried my heart out and that was when I fell in love with sad romantic cheesy movies.

As time passed my taste in movies changed often, I was addicted to old movies almost all of my childhood and then I was really into thrillers and horror for a very long time. For the last couple of years I have settled for Romantic Comedy, but the problem is I still cry all the time over everything! I mean everything, it's really sever the other day Ali and I were watching Australian Master Chef and I was rooting for one girls and she lost I little tear fell and Ali cracked, Yes he thinks it's funny!!

Another annoying habit I have is that when I like a movie I can watch it a million time but still laugh at every funny bit and cry over any thing sad or touching, but doesn't that mean it's a really good film?? I'd like to think so. Any how the reason why I wrote this was because I wanted to share some of my all times favourate movie quotes with you, here it comes:

1. "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms." - You've Got Mail (My favourite)

2. "It's a wonderful thing, as time goes by, to be with someone who looks into your face, when you've gotten old, and still sees what you think you look like" The bachelor

3. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" - Moulin Rouge

4. "Hello... I live here" - SATC1

5." it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic"
- Sleepless In Seattle.

6. " Find out who you are, and do it on purpose, that's Dolly Parton" - A walk to remember.

7. "I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the only one for me." - Runaway Bride

8. And my all times favorite, "It's to tell you how much you move me, how you changed me. You made me a man, by loving me Holly. And for that, I am eternally grateful... literally. If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you're sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you'll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I'm a man with no regrets. How lucky am I. You made my life, Holly. But I'm just one chapter in yours" - P.S I love you.

I'm quite passionate about movies as you can see and I'm really grateful for Mom and Dad for letting me see that movie that night, because if it wasn't for Fatin Hamama's death that night I never would have become the crying over movies person I am today and I never would have wondered how great life would be if there was a sound track in the background!! If only that was possible...

Have a nice day