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Go confidently
In the direction of your Dreams.
Live the life
you’ve imagined!

~ Henry David Thoreau

Living your dreams. What are your dreams? Are you confident to say that you’re living your dreams or at least on your way to reaching them?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my dreams lately. It’s weird, but I don’t have one BIG dreams like a single package wrapped nicely with a bow. My dreams are more like small clear bottles with cork stoppers each filled with glitter, stardust, and all things pretty.

I love reading about how people reach their dreams and are really living their dreams. No matter what field they are in, whether they dream of painting, owning their own cafe, being a successful entrepreneur, a teacher that moulds lives of the next generation, or being a good entertainer, I believe that we should jealously guard our dreams.

This year has been a great blessing to me, and also a surprise.  I was forced into a not just a deep soul-searching but soul-excavating, for lost dreams, forgotten dreams and even resuscitate dead ones. There’s always a reason why we’re alive, and why we’re living in this time  .

Keep dreaming

A Full Plate

I AM OVERWHELMED.

I have lots of things to do that would take up more time away from going online. Oh, but I’m not really complaining, I’m just staring at my Cher planner being all crammed and I’m like, “When did this happen?”.  I’m being pulled in all directions, which I know sounds painful but I feel that it’s going to be good for me. Lots of creating and collaborating…so excited!

Updates will continue because I have written a few posts in advance. However, please forgive me for not being able to comment so much on your wonderful blogs, I am trying to make up for it.

Sending all my love and warm wishes to everyone!

Things I Love Tuesday //11-04

♥ Fresh flowers, lots and lots of them, I am not the roses type of girl but lately, I have been lingering in flower shops and am reminiscing of the time I had to go to the flower market with one purpose in mind – to win a flower arrangement contest (both of my designs won ).  I love the burst of color and their fresh scents. I love gardenias, poppies, stargazer lilies and gerberas the best!

♥ Being soul-starved, I headed off to the library and borrowed two poetry books, nothing like good poetry to uplift my tired soul – picked out WH Auden (love, love) and Wendy Cope (adore her). I would want to own this W.H. Auden anthology from Faber, and Sara Teasdale too *Christmas present hint!*.

♥ Necklaces! I want this ribbon necklace from Atelier Crochet and another necklace, this time from Emy’s shop:

♥ Breakfast! I love breakfast so much, I imagine myself owning my own bed & breakfast or maybe an inn where we serve breakfast ALL DAY! Check out these flickr groups that specialise in breakfast photos, here, here and here.

♥ This cute wooden tool box from Couturier! I love their catalogue so much!

♥DIY Wedding Headbands Tutorial. OK, I know it said “Wedding”, still this tutorial is extremely helpful when you want to make your own headbands instead of buying them off the rack. A reason why I like DIY stuff so much is that because you can express your own style! And not be like everybody else

♥ Yvette Inuffio’s Flickr Photostream, I love her style, so it stirs up a nostalgic pining for something in me that I never thought I had.

♥ This messy hair bun tutorial via Jackie’s blog. A chic messed-up ‘do in just six easy steps!

♥ True Colors, originally song by Cyndi Lauper. I love this song so much, the message is so postivie and it never fails to bring a smile on my face. Plus I think I haven’t heard a version that I didn’t like, I even liked the Dove version. This is the Glee Cast version – specifically the lovely Jenna Ushkowitz

You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged
Oh, I realize
It’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small

♥ A little reminder from Mr. Rocky Balboa (sidenote: I love the Rocky movies, something about them makes me feel good!) via Pushbuttonalpha:

Have a happy week! An long weekend is waiting for me!

Visual Journal // 010

It Comes with the Rain

“Cor te reducit. It means ‘the heart leads you back.’
It means no matter where you go after you leave this place
your heart will always lead you back here.
It means there’s always a place for you here.
And it means I’ll always be here for you, too.”

-The Lake of Dead languages by Carol Goodman

I am working on a story that came to me at an unusual place and time – at the lift going up to my place. This story is full of nostalgic melancholy, and I’m beginning to wonder if it has begun affecting my moods of late, plus the crazy weather of afternoon downpours has not only dampened my mood but also my body. Went to see the doctor yesterday, apparently I’m developing asthmatic cough, not a good sign, since none of us in the family have asthma.

Speaking of nostalgic melancholy, this feeling has been hanging over me like a cloud. It’s like I’m being haunted by something that I have neglected for so long. Do you ever get that feeling? That even if everything is all right there’s this tiny tugging at your heart that says you’ve forgot something? Or has the story completely taken over my life that I seem to find happy moments fleeting. If I don’t think of the story I don’t get wistful, when I’m working or with friends or watching TV (which is a rare occurence nowadays), being preoccupied with other things will provide a nice distraction. But when I’m about to go to sleep or when I’m unguarded, slam! It just hits me in waves. Maybe it’s time to face this unshakable gnawing at my heart head-on?

Now, it seems that I am drawn to everything with the nostalgic melancholy vibe. Like this beautiful song from Big Bang, which is a departure from their hiphop, club music. Koe Wo Kikasete (Let Me Hear Your Voice) speaks about having lost someone but still loving the person. Normally, my jaded, pragmatic self would scoff at these type of expressions but this song really touched my heart and the video is just beautiful too. You can listen to the whole song here.

Let me hear you voice
If we become more kind
We’ll be able to love each other
Don’t avert my eyes
Let me hear your voice
Let’s get over those entwined anxieties and loneliness
The feelings of this moment become our bond

Koe Wo Kikasete (Let Me Hear Your Voice)

translated lyrics source

I really don’t think I’m missing a person specifically, maybe I’m missing a place or a moment that meant a lot to me. Maybe I haven’t come around to letting it go. This is why I hate to feel so much sometimes, because when I do feel, I do so in overwhelming volumes. Does this  post make sense? If I commit to this story, a story of someone waiting for the person they love to come back to her, would this feeling go away? Am I asking questions that are too difficult to answer?

sigh

I’ll find out soon enough!

Quoted: Maya Angelou

I have been exremely busy, but I will be reading blogs and commenting very, very soon, have a lovely weekend!

A Few Good Books

Spending  my daily commute to work either nodding off or reading books. I’ve read good ones lately but I haven’t found the time to type up a book rec , so to remind myself I’m gonna list them all down along with a short description. You might also want to check them out:

1. Hunting and Gathering (Anna Gavalda) – originally in French this book is more character-driven, I love the quirky characters and how from the most unlikely situations a deep friendship and love blossoms. It’s quite thick though, and you wouldn’t want to rush through it.

2. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) – Need I say more? This is the first time I’ve ever read this classic, and it reminds me of Dickens’ David Copperfield for some reason.Even if it was written in old Enlgish I managed to read it in a day. I read the version that was illustrated by Dame Darcy.

3.  My Soul to Save (Rachel Vincent) – It’s in the Twilight genre, and as it is targeted for teens, I couldn’t help but squirm at the love angle. I liked how it was different from all the other stories in that instead of vampires and werewolves she writes about bean sidhes (banshees) and modern day grim reapers, or angels of death. It’s quite an interesting twist to your urban fantasy teen novel.

4. Simple Genius (David Baldacci) – My fave genre of all time murder mystery! I have to say that this would make a great movie, in fact when I was reading it I felt like I was in the cinema watching events unfold. I even have the actors down to pat

5. The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides) – I love this novel, because it speaks to my heart. Though the story is tragic it doesn’t make me want to kill myself, it’s the type of novel that makes you ask questions.

And I’m now reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Goodbye Tsugumi, I love her writing style! It’s so poetic

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source

hello.goodbye

After four months of drought I’m finally back in the workforce, albeit temporarily only. The first week was a really tiring week of adjustment to a routine and I think I suffered a case of soul starvation, because I couldn’t go online that often to read all your pretty blogs and look through my tumblr. Plus I am so behind with the new releases for my favourite music that I really felt my soul collapsing from lack of inspiration. And I haven’t been able to craft as much as I want or even write.

The thing that I don’t like about the line of work I’m in is the unbelievably rude people that I come across with on a daily basis. I know that they’re probably having a bad day and I may have caught them at the worst possible time, but I just can’t believe that courtesy isn’t the norm these days. I think it unnerved me that the fact is there are people who can be terribly rude and who lack manners. Because I still believe that people are generally nice, and to be placed in situations where I am proved wrong can really do damage to me. Oh well…

On the plus side though, my workplace is near Arab Street! So I spend my lunch hour prowling through the different shops selling curious, beads, fabrics, sequins and souvenirs! I love how every time I go exploring I always discover something new and interesting!

I’m still adjusting to my new working schedule and I apologise for the lack of comments coming from my side. I usually come home dead tired and all I want to do is just sleep. But I promise I will make up for it on the weekends

Have a happy mid-week!

Things I Love Tuesday // 11-03

It’s amazing to think that almost a year has gone by! I think that we never realise how time flies by so fast! I went through my first Things I Love Tuesday post, and I can pretty much sum up that although I have changed a little bit in my likes and loves, I still have the same love for short hair, and Edie Sedgwick On to the post!

♥ My genes, I’ve started a temp job recently and people there think that I’ve just finished taking my O-levels. Which is a good six to seven years off my real age! I guess I have to thank my parents for that

♥ The festive season is approaching, and what am I thinking of?… PRESENTS…GIFTS…and all the wonderful wrapping involved! I like a beautifully wrapped present, and I think that an exquisitely wrapped present is just awesome, it makes the receiver feel extra special:

an alternative to stockings

you can't go wrong with pastels

♥ This Monjack Gion pouch from Toco just freakishly adorable, it makes you want to take care of it and feed it, right?

♥Illustrations by Cécile Mancion, if only I could draw like her!

♥ For the past two weeks I have this insatiable craving for egg tarts!

♥ Garfield! I was drenched in the rain for two consecutive days which left me feeling ill and having a sore throat. Feeling a bit low, I found myself cracking up at Garfield comics! I think he’s the only feline that I love!

♥ Chouchous! Found these pretty scrunchies and my mind just went into hyperdrive… I so want to make a few of these when I get the time.

♥ Listening to That Thing You Do! This song is highly addictive and easy to sing along to and it helps that I’ve probably watched the movie so many times than normal.

It’s 4am and I’m writing this post, I hope you guys are having a lovely week so far!