Dreams into Reality

A person has their own wants, their own dreams, and their own goals. They do what they can, to achieve them, and when they do, happiness follows. There are some of us who use a tool to get what we want, be them material or a form of idealism. Vision Boards.

Ever since my house has been renovated, I've prolonged redoing my vision board for months, and finally, a few weeks ago, I made one and I thought I'd share it with you, with the hopes of maybe inspiring you to make one yourselves.

My vision board has always had these three main sections; Dream Job, Husband/Boyfriend, Health.

Though, at the time, and perhaps right now, I have been unsure of my dream job, so I focused on manifesting the office of my dream job and how I would feel walking to work instead of focusing on the actual industry I want to work under.

Having a happy ending with my one and true love has always stuck with me, and like every single woman out there, I wish for a man to love me and complete my life. I want a hot smexy man, and now.
My weight loss journey is almost at an end, losing almost 18kg in over 3 years, I now plan to live a healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life. This doesn't mean depriving myself of food I don't want to eat, it just means doing some physical activity and consuming the nutrients my body needs to survive.

Vision boards are created by those who want a glimpse into how they want their future to look like. They are created to help the creators overcome their gigantic bubble of fear and doubt and turn it into a rage, and pure eagerness to achieve the greatness of turning their dreams into reality.

Why don't you guys try making your own vision board? 

What's stopping you?

What is Considered a Classic in Terms of Books

The term classic is defined in the dictionary as judged over time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.
There are multiple books around the world that have been published through time. Books that have been bought, read and reread, books that have been loved and cared for, and books that have been burned and thrown across the room for its contents.

Most of the world enjoys the company of books and about 40% of those enjoy stating their opinions about the books they've read. I am one of those 40%.

Writing book reviews had taken over my blog for a little bit of time before I brought that usurper down to its rightful place. The reason, I cannot say, but during the reign of "book reviews" on my blog, I would review books every time I shut the last page and lay it beside my laptop to begin writing. There were times when I would stare at the book I just finished and at the blank blog post screen thinking "how am I going to write a review for this". Sometimes I feel as if the book I just finished, isn't worth my opinions because it was that good on its own without my adding to it.

When I consecutively read the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings series, I did not feel I deserved to review it. Books like these are what I considered my classics. Except for that one time when I reviewed Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, back in 2011. It is not my proudest review.

Classics can also be known as "books to read before you die" because they give out a message that may mean something or teach you something new at the end of that last chapter. It may help you in life, or it may just be one of your daily pleasures after a long day.

What do you, my readers, consider a classic? Do you think these classics deserve more than your straight forward opinion?

~~

This blogpost has been proof read by Grammarly

For those of my readers who are unfamiliar with Grammarly, it is an online proofreader that detect grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and etc. that we all subconsciously make whenever we write.

This has been a great tool for me so far. When I tried it out on this blogpost, you have no idea how many errors there were and I'm pretty excited to use more of it on my future blogpost! :3

Accomplishments 2013 and Resolutions 2014

I snatched this idea of a post up from Eileen from Singing and Reading in the Rain. Hope you don't mind! xD

2014 is literary next door and I thought I'd list down my Accomplishments for 2013 as well as my 2014 Resolutions. Here goes:

2013 Accomplishments

- Successfully lost a whole lot of weight - I've lost more than 10kg this year - Yay!
- Graduated from University - Finally!
- Blogged about something else besides books.
- Gained new followers - Hello all!! *waves*
- Officially celebrated my Blogoversary (after three years of forgetting)
- Hosted my own giveaway - Yay!
- Finished 48 books.

The majority of people who list down their resolutions don't attain even half of the list, and completely forget about it as the year passes. Guilty here! I lost my 2013 Resolutions. I blame it on the house renovation that happened earlier in the year.
Anyways, here are my resolutions for 2014:

2014 Resolutions

- Build my virtual community
- Have a penpal
- Write something that gets noticed
- Cook more
- Stay fit and healthy
- Expand my wardrobe
- Inspire someone

- Find a source of secure income
- Save double the amount I have in the bank.

I honestly have no particular road that I want to take for this coming year, as of yet. I can't seem to see where I'm going, but wherever this year plans on taking me, I hope that it's going to be a good place, with warm blankets and a fire, and maybe some milk and cookies.

The number 4 has always been one of my lucky numbers; being born on the 4th of April 1994, and April being the 4th month of the year, I've always considered this particular number to be a lucky one. Since 2014 obviously has a "4" in it, I am hoping that this coming year will be one of my best. *fingers crossed* But honestly, no one can purposefully predict our future, and all we are left to do is hope. Hope for the best of things to come, and also to enjoy the things we have while waiting for this "hope" to fill the rest of our lives.

And that's that. I encourage you all scribbled down your own 2014 Resolutions before the year ends, or maybe after, if you haven't already. Just to help you move forward to a fresh new year.

Have a great New Year everyone! 

credits for fireworks textures 

trapne.livejournal.com / trapunta.deviantart.com

Holiday Wish List Hop + Giveaway: Holiday Wish List

Christmas is just around the corner and though I don't really celebrate it, I want to write up a fun Christmas related post.

For me, when I think of Christmas, I think of the colors red and green, candy canes, ginger bread houses, christmas lights, presents and my mums delicious baked macaroni.

What first comes to mind when you think of Christmas?

This post is apart of the Holiday Wish list Hop hosted by Gliterary Girl Media, and they have a GRAND PRIZE at the end.

My Holiday Wish List

1. The recipe to Starbucks' Toffee Nut Latte. They sell it every year here in Bahrain, during the months between November up to January or February. And every year I have to patiently wait for Starbucks to serve this particular drink because it's one my absolute favorites of their annual drinks. I am also really looking forward to trying out their other annual drinks they don't offer within this minuscule country.

2. Perfect Reindeer Sweater. We've had yearly secret santa's for two years with my sister and cousins, and every year I ask for a reindeer sweater. I never got it :(. Though I saw a couple of them at the store during that time, I didn't want to get it because it didn't feel like the right one. Red and white, white and red, or black and white, with multiple reindeers lined up horizontally on the chest of the shirt feels like the perfect reindeer sweater. And maybe a couple of snowflakes here and there.

3. Holiday Mug. I am not particular about mugs, but I've grown to enjoy their company during breakfast and tea time. Drinking from the same cup every single day for the entire year can be a hell of a lot boring. I've grown an interest for changing mugs every year for the holiday. The perfect holiday mug with the Christmas or New Year colors and is able to survive in the microwave is perfect.

4. Plain White Christmas Lights. I bought myself some colorful Christmas lights a year back and when I went to get the plain white ones this year, I wasn't able to find them at the store. "How odd" I thought. "'Tis Christmas time and proper simple Christmas lights are no where to be found! :(" they probably ran out. I want plain white ones that I can decorate my room with. The colorful ones that I got can be a bit overwhelming to the eyes sometimes.

5. Mac Christmas Palette. Every time I pass by the MAC store, there would always be a voice in my head telling me that I should get a Mac x4 Palette. But there is another voice telling me that it's too expensive and to get something cheaper, because the palette alone is quite pricy, then I'll need to buy the eye shadow separately, it's too much. Hence it being on my wish list. A neutral christmas themed mac x4 palette with the colors; Mystery, Beauty Marked, Vanilla, and Plumage. 

And that concludes my short wish list. Time for the giveaway.

I will be giving away one Christmas/Holiday themed book to one winner Make My Wish Come True by Fiona Harper. Though I haven't read the book myself yet, it is definitely the type book I would most definitely enjoy during the winter season!

This giveaway is open internationally, so anyone can partake! ^^,

Doesn't this cover seem to blend in with my blog layout! :D 

Most of us already knows the drill, you just need to fill out the rafflecopter. This giveaway will be open from the 16th of December - 20th of December and I will be announcing the winner of the giveaway on 22nd of December, on this blog post itself and I will also email the winner personally to ask for their address. NOTE: If the winner does not get back to me within 48 hours, I will be picking a new winner. 

Good Luck everyone and Happy Holidays!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to hop on over to the other blogs participating in this HOLIDAY HOP!

      

Third Blogoversary + Small Giveaway: One I didn't miss

Hello there my dear readers!

I bet you're all wondering why the title is titled "One I didn't miss". Well, ever since I officially started blogging about Fashion, Food, Books, and Beauty and not random objects, activities and such, I would miss my blogoversary every year for the past two years. But this time, I kept track of every move my blog has taken.

These past three years have been a journey that; I have to say, happen to mainly focus on Books, rather than the other categories in this blog (^^;). Books are my company. Fashion and Beauty have been my recent interests and pleasures. And Food is my sanctuary.

Oddly enough, it was only this year that I finally understood the meaning of blogging. It is writing about one's life, opinions, advice, and all of the sort into one or multiple posts to put our voice out there. There are some of us who don't expect readers to be interested in what we have to say, but there are some of us who are desperate for the attention. I am somewhere in between. There are times when I would watch how the number of views per post grows everyday and there are times when I would just forget and pour my heart and brains out into what I'm writing.

Though these past few years have given me a few added followers, I am grateful for those who continue to come back. Thank you. :)

In honor of my 3rd Blogoversary, I will be hosting a giveaway, for 3 days. From Dec 12th - Dec 14th.

After multiple indecisive contemplation, I have decided to giveaway a £10 Gift Card from ASOS, which is around $17. AND it is open Internationally. So YAY!

Just fill out the rafflecopter below and Good Luck!
Visit ASOS.com to check out the fabulous clothing they sell!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to all those who enjoy the content of my blog so far. ^^,

      

Graduation Day 2013

Last night was my graduation day. It was the night I officially graduated from university with a Bachelors Degree in Business Informatics and was awarded Magna Cum Laude. I've been waiting since December 2012 for this very night.

I wasn't excited for it at all. I dressed up and did my make up and everything!

Dress | H&M - Similar but in black

Shoes | Forever 21 - Desert Cool Booties

Jacket | Thrifted - Similar

  

These photo's were taken by my mom with her phone. Thanks mom! 

As some of you may know, I've been hunting for my perfect graduation dress, and alas I've found it. I paired this burgundy chiffon dress with dark brown ankle high boots and a dark jacket that I'm holding. I got only one good shot of me and my dress alone :( Oh and please ignore how my feet were positioned in the first photo, I have no idea why I was standing like that.

Standing next to and around me are my sisters and brother. Both my sisters graduated along side me as well! Three siblings graduating on the same day, how cool is that! The photo on the left starts with (left-right) my eldest sister Nasreen, my other older sister Najla and then me. On the far end is my younger brother Naser. We're in order (eldest to youngest)!

Thank you to my cousin Yasmeen for this photo!

(I'm in the front row, the 5th person from the right. Look for the boots!)

The graduation ceremony lasted about 2-3 hours and there were about 700+ students so it took almost an hour and a half to announce them all as well as for them to receive their certificates. 

During our practices, the professors ordered everyone to stay quiet during the ceremony and forbade us all from wooing, booing, laughing, shouting, and basically from catcalling. And during the ceremony, from the very beginning, the students at the back started to WOOOO and whistle for the entire night. The look on the professors faces when they started were priceless. Though it may have slightly ruined the solemnity of ceremony, the catcalling and etc by the random students specifically from my course (Business Informatics) made it a fun and memorable one. Thank you guys. 

From having very average grades in high school to being up front with the honor students as Magna Cum Laude at university. If you told me that I would get Magna Cum Laude when I was in high school, I would have definitely believed you. "Oh waw! Really? I'm going to be that good? Awesome" is what I would say. 

Getting this award, honestly doesn't mean much to me. I'm saying this because I want to be about 80% honest with my readers, if there are any...hello?. Those three and half years attending AMAIUB went by so fast like a race car at the F1, and the memories I had during my time at university are something I will always cherish. Someone once told me "Going to university was one of the best times of my life" and at first I didn't believe nor understood him; I was in my second or third year of high school at the time, until now. Going to university was one of the best times of my life. Thanks to the people of course. xD 

  

By the end of the night, I was exhausted from smiling, my hair was frizzy and I desperately needed to take out my eyes (my contact lenses). So we went home to take some more group family photos, I took off my contacts, put my hair up and blotted my oily face. I felt so much better. The things we go through to look beautiful, I swear! 

The night ended at a restaurant called "Passions Restaurant and Lounge"; which I decided to review and will be up in a couple of days. It was a very simple family dinner; plus my sisters' boyfriends. Quiet, relaxing and eventful. 

It was a night to remember. I received many congratulations and said as many thank you's as possible. I am happy and grateful to finally close this chapter of my life and finally feel free to start a new one without a voice telling me "you didn't officially graduate yet". Thank you to everyone who has helped me get where I am today. 

As it is also thanksgiving to my dear American readers. Happy Thanksgiving to you all! May you all enjoy stuffing your faces with turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy! 

Have a great day everyone!

xoxo

[Fashion] Shopping for summer clothes during the winter

It's finally winter here in Bahrain (after a week of showers and floods) and I get to wear my sweaters and scarves outside without worrying about sweating my arse off now.

I am not sure whether it's the same in other countries but in Bahrain, whenever it's winter, all the summer clothes go on extreme 50% - 75% off sale. Especially in Forever21. And whenever it's summer, all the winter clothing will be on sale. I love how the world ironically works that way.

So I did a little bit of shopping a couple of days back, and by shopping I mean by trying on a bunch of stuff and only walking out of the store with only one item. I asked myself continuously while I was roaming the store "Do I need a new summer dress? Do I need a new bag? Do I need a new skirt? Would I need to wear these things to work?" and while I was looking at the multiple dresses on the corner, I set myself straight and said "I'll buy a simple dress that I can wear for summer and winter. Done" So I tried it on this very simple blue colored dress and instantly decided to purchase it!

The dress looks quite similar to this: 

Forever New Yvette Skater Dress 

I absolutely love dresses like these!

And of course, "when something new comes along, one must think of what to wear with it". Or at least I think it goes that way. So I compiled a very simple outfit for this winter. 

Wearing crop tops on top of dresses like this is a great way to turn it into a whole new dress or just turn the dress into a skirt xD

Winter Blues? Well, singles like ahem me sometimes get the winter blues, having no one to cuddle with, to kiss on new years eve, and other stuff that couples do during the winter. I don't want to dwell on that right now. I'm done brooding over things like that, my time as a love sick junky is over. It's all about my life beyond relationships and men.

I want to take photos of me while wearing the dress, but I honestly don't want to go out and deal with the stares and the catcalls right now. It's been a busy week of doing nothing but everything all at once.

Have a great day everyone! Keep warm! :3 

Blog Bucket List

Bucket lists, goals, dreams, whatever you want to call it, is a list of all the things you hope to do and/or achieve throughout your lifetime. They can be small and simple, and they can be extreme and outrageous! We list it down for the purpose of motivating us into actually going out there and doing every single thing on that list, and it can help us move forward with our career and even our own lives.

A couple of days back, I was searching for random book/fashion/food blog weekly memes and I came across a post called "What's on your Blogger Bucket List" by Jennine Jacob from IFB (Independent Fashion Bloggers). It's a pretty intriguing site, I could just scroll through it for hours upon hours, just reading and learning so many new things about blogging.

Anyways back to the point, I got inspired to write my own Blog Bucket List because we all need to have at least a 5 bullet point bucket list to see how far we can go with our blog. I actually never thought of making a bucket list for my blog, until now xD

Okay here goes, so no judging! I'm new at this.

1. Become a known blogger in the Kingdom (Kingdom of Bahrain)
2. Get front row seats at a Fashion Show 
3. Get invited to go to Fashion Week
4. Get a request to review a restaurant 
5. Go to blog related conventions and/or conferences locally & abroad
6. Make a great friend through blogging
7. Get 100 followers 
8. Get featured in a local magazine
9. Get featured in an international magazine 
10. Have a successful and fun blogging career and lifestyle

That's it for now!
I'll be adding in a couple of new ones every now and than when ideas come to me.

[Fashion] To Relax, To Convey, To Enjoy + OOTD

My good friend Sasha had this urge to go into a café to blow of some stress, so she called me up and asked if I wanted to come with, and for those of you who know me, you know that I love me my coffee!

It's been quite a while since I did a proper fashion post, It's been all about books these days , and since I've been wanted to really do a proper outfit of the day post, I finally got off my little patuti and went for it! 

I now realize; while carrying around my or my sisters DSLR camera, that it's really uncomfortable when people stare at me with curiosity in their eyes. But of course it's human nature to be curious so I forced myself not to care that people were staring because this was what I wanted to do after all. 

After months and maybe even years of seeing all these famous bloggers around the blogosphere, I've always wondered how they take all of their photos. Who takes it for them? I on the other hand usually have no one to take proper photos of me and/or my outfit. But today, I had Sasha! 

This is Sasha!

And of course, this is me.

The sky earlier today was very gloomy but the weather was nice. It felt so good to walk around with the small swooshes of the wind blowing through you. It felt like an instant stress relief. And when the clouds started to part ways, the sky looked so beautiful. It barely gets cloudy here in Bahrain. 

At first we couldn't decide which café to go to, but we eventually settled with our usual, Starbucks. "When in doubt, go to Starbucks." We were surprised to see that the Starbuck branch we went to was under renovation, and we were forced to sit outside. Thankfully for the great weather, it was all good. We both ordered the same drinks. Hazelnut Latte, it's my new favorite drink and I completely recommend it! 

Spending your afternoon talking and gossiping with one of your best friends over a cup of coffee is always a great stress relief in my opinion. You get to let it all out and enjoy your nice cup for coffee at the same time. 

Don't you just love those times when you get the urge to just get out of the house and do something fun! xD

My Outfit

My entire outfit is basically hand-me-downs (HMD) today. 

Oversized Flannel Shirt - China xD | Half Button Up Shirt - HMD | Black Tights - At a Bazaar | Studded Flats - New Look | Satchel Bag - Charles & Keith 

Sasha's Outfit

Simple, casual and comfortable

Shirt - Aeropostale | Jeans - H&M | Beige ballet flats

Have a great day everyone!

Candles anyone?

Hello Hello!

Candles anyone?

I bought these candles at the mall last night.

I gasped when I saw it and said "I MUST GET!" 

They were cheap too.

$5

Sea Side Collection

Their just too pretty! 

And they make me feel so relaxed! 

Note: To those waiting for my review, I'm so sorry that it's late. I had exams. They'll be up by throughout this week.

Blog for all, that's why Interested in ALL

Alright.
I have decided......*imitates Tree bread from LOTR2*
Yes, I have decided to turn my blog; not that it kind of already is, into a Blog when I post all types for things. They will be categorizes into:

• Drama/Series (New release of Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese drama, and TV Series, my certain views on the series, etc)
• Books (New release of books, Books I would like to read, Challenges, my reviews)
• Fashion (I think I'm just going to be posting the Outfit of the day, and the clothes I buy)
• Food (Dishes that I make, Reviews on dishes that i taste, new dishes, Food shows, recipes)
• Music (mostly Japanese pop and sometimes rock, reviews, updates)

As you notice, I have already been posting up my Outfits of the day. They aren't as good, but, I'm still working on it. Winter ain't my season to dress up. 

Note the name of the blog; "Interested in ALL". I just realized what that really meant and what I can really do with that name. Awesome. 

I'm thinking of posting videos as well...hmm.. still thinking. 

Also thinking of doing a separate food blog, but I guess this will do. 
This will still remain as my personal blog. I think...we'll see. xD

That's it. I'll be looking forward to the recent changes on my blog
Love all everyone. 

xoxo