!nkspiration: Two

AMI SIOUX

I came across her work via one of my favourite blogs A Cup of Jo. Her latest book is inspirational-y brilliant, Sioux asked 50 people to draw an area of Paris that they love. She then sketched maps of those areas and photographed each destination. It makes me want to re-visit Paris and use the book as a tour guide. Wouldn't you want to?

!nkspiration: One

PAPER

A week before Eid, I go in search of paper (even though I have a stock at home), I always buy some new paper on Eid. It's a traditional to give Eidhi (money, instead of a gift) to family and children and each year, I get all excited about creating a new way to present the Eidhi. It has to be pretty ofcourse and childproof.

Here's the paper I purchased for this Eid. I didn't have a chance to get a pic of the envelopes but they did look oh so pretty!

eid '09

I love Eid - the traditions, the customs, the family, the friends, the food, the eidhi, the gifts. A and I have always celebrated it with passion, trying to create an atmosphere our parents created for us when we were children. It is very different and to a degree, difficult, given that we grew up in Karachi and Dubai.

Since Z was born last year, A and I have tried to create our own family traditions and so Eid this year was ever more exciting. We started the day by going for prayers at the mosque, followed by breakfast with our friends, lunch with my family and dinner with A's family. A and i both have our families here and we're so blessed that Z can spend her holidays with her loved ones.

EId is also about renewal and rejuvenation of the spirit, a time of reflection and resolution. A and I make a list of resolutions every Eid.

This year, we have promised to:
- to make the most of our time
- to cherish each other
- to celebrate each day with Z
- to pursue our dreams; every moment, each day (if it's not something you love, it's not worth doing)
- to not cancel date night and put our relationship first
- to paint silver lines in the clouds
- to smell the flowers
- to go backpacking this year
- to make things happen
- to see the positive, even in the negative
- to find inspiration in simply living
- to make the ordinary, extraordinary...

                                                 our extraordinary, ordinary walk
 

I hope you had a memorable eid....

a perfect afternoon

a child's imagination

 

magic

 

bubbles

result in an afternoon of bliss...

09.09.09 - happy 9 + 9 my baby z..

dearest z,

i’ve been meaning to blog since the day i felt i had a little baby growing inside me. it was a momentous moment. my body clock changed and i would wake up at 6AM every morning despite the late nights that accompanied us that summer. it was a busy summer; we had just bought a house, gutted the interiors and were working within tight budgets to get it complete. and it was FUN but it was hard, between work, house guests and family. i was consuming 6 cups of coffee on average a day, eating poorly and inhaling all sorts of unhealthy fumes. i was paranoid that i had permanently damaged you.

but you were beautiful and healthy and.. the epitome of perfection. i was not very maternal during my pregnancy and i was worried that those were signs of lack of interest in motherhood, but i promise you, from the moment i lay eyes on you, when i felt you in my arms, i just wanted to mother you forever. and ever. and ever. and nothing else in between.

and today, i celebrate spending the best 18 months of my life. with you. because of you.

i want to thank you for giving my life meaning. for making it real.
you make me want to strive to be the best, in every facet of life
you make my every day worthwhile
you are my sunshine

i love the way you say things – amma, abba, purple, blue, green, dada, dadi, nana, nani, mamo, mimi, wawa, chachi, chacha, apa, aamena, elmo (all one after the other in one breath)..
you try to repeat everything i say and i love the way you pick up atleast 3 new words a day.

what’s this? you want to know what everything is. your curiosity with even the smallest of things fascinates me.

i am so amazed that you are so sensitive and so loving and incredibly thoughtful…
and so to celebrate our 18 months, below are 18 things i absolutely adore about you:

i love your eyes, your cheeks, your hair, your hands, the smell of you, especially when you’ve just woken up…

i love that you love to read

i love that you say hi to every living and non-living thing. hevo flowver, hi jus.

i love that you love animals - that you refer to each animal by the sound they make. for you cow is moo moo, sheep is baa baa and horse is neigh neigh. that you squeal with excitement every time you see the animal, whether it be a picture in the book, at the zoo or on tv.

i love that you are happier outdoors

i love the way you kiss me, hug me and love me – if i could spend each moment of my life just holding you, i would…

i love that you love to get your hands dirty

i love that you like to draw

i love the way way you walk – waddle.

i love your love for music and dance

i love how you, being with you, reminds me of my childhood

i love how you love being with me and at times with no one else (yes, i admit, i am an attached parent!)

i love how you run to me when i come home

i love waking up each day next to you

i love the twinkle in your eye when you are sitting on the swing

i love our everyday walks

i love our silent conversations

i love the person i’ve become because of you

i cannot wait for tomorrow. and the day after. with you
life with you is an adventure. fun. laughter. giggles. love. smiles. excitement. surprise.

i love you. please don't grow up too soon.

yours eternally,
amma

Perfection

"Chiang, this world isn't heaven at all, is it?"

The Elder smiled in the moonlight. "You are learning again, Jonathan Seagull," he said.
"Well, what happens from here? Where are we going? Is there no such place as heaven!"
"No, Jonathan, there is no such place. Heaven is not a place, an it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect." He was silent for a moment. "You are a very fast flier, aren't you?"

"I . . .I enjoy speed," Jonathan said, taken aback but proud that the Elder had noticed.

"Your will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there."

~ Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a story - by Ricard Bach

book-self

dreams are..
illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you
martha norman

the magic of i

'What lies before us and
what lies behind us
are small matters
compared to what lies
within us...'
~ u n k n o w n

365

Every woman should develop the kinds of bonds that will allow her to know she has someone she can count on. Someone who will give her the best advice, even if it is unpleasant. Someone who will expect the most from her...and someone with whom she can celebrate life.

Maya Angelou

We celebrated our '365' together a month ago, and since then i've been trying to decide how to share my thoughts. As a partner, I thought that words could not justify what we shared. As a wife, I thought the feelings were personal and best left between him and i. As a blogger, I felt I must share the beauty of my life with everyone. As a writer, I felt frustated that I could not describe what was on my mind. Even though I feel as I've been suffering from a writer's bloc for while now, I've also come to the realisation that the best times of your life do not necessarily need to be documented by words or photographs or gifts or celebrations; it is about the 'aha' moments that you share everyday that you both will always treasure for life - etched on your hearts, imprinted in your minds.

7 days to go...

My last monday in a & my first apartment....I'm already missing our place...
- the sunlight reflecting off my plants.
- the horrible view from my window, but which i love because my friends knock on my window to gain back-door entry.
- our dining table with its director chairs.
- our comfy futon
- our kitchen, so small, that a & i cannot cook in it together
- our small home office which is still finding it way to perfection
- a's home office which he's done up in a way that has his signature all over it :)
- the books and magazines scattered in every empty space they can find for themselves
- my bamboo plant

even though i'll take all these things to our new home, it's how they found their place in our first apt. that makes it special. it was ours, mine and his...and it will never be the same..

Spaces...

Dead Space: where we forget
Empty Space: where possibilities emerge
My Space: where escape is everpresent
Shared Space: you know you it must be love
Wild Space: where i am constantly reborn
Doomspace: slug-a-chug-chug

Reshaping the box

"The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships."
~ Leo Burnett

typography tricks

how easy was this for you to read? excuse what it says, i stumbled across it.

Lovemarks...

"Think outside the box" is a cliche most heard by designers, writers, architects, entrepreneurs, marketers and all other personas involved in the creation of new ideas or of re-inventing of the old. Every once in a while your ideas dry up and you find yourself looking at a blank slate. You reach out in different directions, looking under rocks, in an old musty corner, behind our pile of papers, underwater; looking for something different, something out of the ordinary to light the spark...last year, i went through this phase - it lasted a really long time. my bookshelf grew, i sipped on the most extreme types of chai, i rearranged my furniture a zillion times, i thought it was the lack of feng shui in my life, you name it, i tried it...it didn't work..

Then one day, my typical day, chai in one hand, morning paper in the other, i was hit with the simple realization that i was looking in the wrong places...the spark that i was trying to hard to find was already burning inside myself. i just had to discover how i was going to use my spark to light my creativity candle...and with each discovery came a different idea..and it was in the process of lighting my creativity candle that re-invented the old and shaped the new... it was about 'looking inside the box', the box called you, that is sometimes the most inspiring, the most creative and the most fun...

when you buy a really good book, watch an inspiring movie, buy flowers, handbags, shoes, how you share your excitement with someone. you go on about how they look, feel, taste, inspire you....isn't that the making of really good idea? we tend to overlook this mini-bits of inspirations that are a part of our every day.

if you love something, it'll leave a mark in your life and it can help you leave you mark with your latest project. happy lovemarking everyone!

a new minority..

i went to vote, for the first time ever on Monday Jan 23rd. I voted for a party that I didn't want to vote for, just so another party I didn't like wouldn't come into power. Democracy at it's best. Since I've just gotten married, well 5 months back, and changing your name is a crazy process out here, I received two voter cards, both with different last names, hence totally different identities. I was so tempted to cheat. I should have, if only one vote would have made the different.
So, the party I didn't like (to put it politely- I'm not one for politeness in politics, but I guess if I'm going to have to live with them, I might as well spend all my efforts praying that we don't become the 52nd state) was voted into power. And since then, the only thing different between what the Canadian PM and the American President says, is the time difference; ofcourse, our PM says it a day later... *sigh* i'm suffering from post-election blues..

on a better note, i was really excited to vote. when i walked in, card in one hand, ID in the other, all pumped up and with hope still lingering on the fringes of my very scattered emotions, I noticed that at every polling booth, the volunteer was from a different ethnic background. And for the first time, I really understood the meaning of 'the land of immigrants'...and that, my fellow Canadians, is the only thing that's keeping me going.

the time-life spiral

as we say goodbye to yet another year and as a new year awaits, ready to envelope us in its mystical fantasies: i resolve to see the world with another set of eyes; smell its beauty, taking in its alien scents; touch similar textures and patterns with a different feel ; taste new projects and sample the unknown and hear, what is unsaid...
this year is about learning about my world and my loved ones from a different point of view, their point of view and in doing so, learning more about myself.

a hippy happy new year to everyone; to more smiles and laughters, to happiness and peace...

my muse patterns

it's been a crazy crazy couple of days; between being ill, working ridiculous hours and trying to get everything done in time; my muse has been around real often and i have this long list of ideas i need to get down. i cannot wait...why is it that when i have a couple of hours to spare, my muse is always on vacation?

Post Earthquake Pakistan: An Insider's Perspective

A lot of us abroad have tried, in our best capacity, to participate in helping our country and its people move on after the earthquake. We have collected funds, both in cash and in kind, written articles, made the world aware of our country's loss and the lives destroyed. Whatever we do, I don't think we'll ever have done enough.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy held a vigil in downtown Toronto for our Pakistani kinsmen: everyone in the city talked about the devastation. They tried to understand our pain. She took it a step further; she is currently volunteering as a translator in the earthquake affected areas and is keeping a day-to-day journal on her take of events. It's a definite must-read.

the fabric of life

yesterday, a strange thing happened. for the first time in my life, i was very close to giving up; giving up on something that was most important to me. at the time, i didn't think much about it; i just felt like walking out, like letting go, like moving on.
i don't know why i didnt, but i didn't give up. i decided to hang on to the very last thread and giving it another shot. they say life is a fabric composed of different threads we sew together. well, if i said i, as a person was a fabric, then this was the needle i had chosen to help sew my life. i'm glad i didn't discard the needle, even though it was close to being blunt. perhaps, you need the needle to become blunt to shake your life into perspective. maybe it's god's way of jolting you back into reality, of re-examining your decisions and yourself. it's really hard to come to the realisation that one of the threads in the fabric called you, needs to be pulled out, or, sewn in a different colour. sometimes, it's not even about the threads, but about allowing the fabric to be draped on differently.

today, i realised, it's not about my threads; the colours are great and the design, in its absurd fashion, works just the way it is. ..sometimes it doesn't have to be about my fabric, or my threads... it's just about not giving up...just for now...

dubai - i miss:

- the sun, sand, sea, shawarmahs & shopping
- the white sand beaches
- the hatta caves
- sitting on the rocks beyond the pier at the jumeirah beach and bonding with my best friends (s, a & z)
- celebrating birthdays at johnny rockets
- spending nyeve on the beach reflecting on our year's ups and downs
- walking in the heat to get a shawarmah
- the spice souq in deira
- taking a dhow ride on the dubai creek
- walking home from school on sunday after math
- a saturday morning spent at the dubai arts centre
- a book reading at the british council
- a cup of chai, turkey sandwich and a relaxing evening spent with the doc at shakespeare cafe
- exercising my car's need for speed on sh. zayed road
- our annual beach camp on jebel ali beach (even when i got stung by a jelly fish)
- sharing those 10 mins with my dad on my way to school
- my organ
- the dubai ballet centre
- the cheesecake factory
- creative-storming with a & s
- being understood
- missisippi mud at baskins
- mango, riverisland & assecorize at the deira city centre
- our annual trips to the hatta resort
- biking with s
- the sun, the sun, did i mention, the sun?