I believe in looking at the best traits every person has to offer for me to learn from and to incorporate in my own life. More often than not, it’s film stars, authors and other such people. This list keeps on changing from time to time. However, here’s a list of those women who I think have been a great influence on me. These are the women I wish to be like:

First up has to be the one and only Audrey Hepburn

Not only is she the most talented and graceful actress ever, her biggest appeal lies in her face which is both cute and sensual at the same time. It is this delicate balance that I am looking for…that balance between being a woman without losing the innocence of a girl.

The second woman on my list is Frida Kahlo.

I fell in love with Frida Kahlo after I once read a book on her life that I happened to find in the library. Following that, I fell in love with the movie made on her life by Salma Hayek. I have to admit, she was one of the strongest women I have had the fortune to learn about.

The next woman on the list is Coco Chanel.

Oh high goddess of fashion, I worship thee!

The next woman on my list is Garance Dore.

The foremost personality on fashion today, according to me, Garance Dore, gave fashion blogging a new dimension altogher with her meticulous analysis of street fashion. I love her and her blog!

The next woman on my list is none other than the fabulous and deliciously sexy domestic diva Nigella Lawson!

That is one woman I absolutely love…because she takes two of my most favourite things – food and sex – and marries them together beautifully! I want to be able to cook like her and sport delicious curves like she does!!! She’s my kinda sexy!

And finally, Marge Simpson!

I know this might sound weird but honestly, one has to be really brave to be able to take care of the likes of family members Marge has to deal with! And after being the perfect wife, a mother of three and a great woman, she then makes an appearance on the cover of Playboy! Now that is really the kinda woman I’d love to be!

I know this list covers some very different women but each with some phenomenal qualities. I plan to incorporate those qualities in me on my quest to awesomeness. I know it will work!

However, my mother has a keen eye for detail and the hands of a craftsman. She has always been phenomenal at all things involving the use of hands. Be it cooking, crafts, making organza flowers, embroidery or knitting. Needless to say, she’s been an excellent crochet artist. Finally after all these years I decided to learn how to crochet thanks to a beautiful image I came across the other day and the colours just vowed me! I knew I had to at least try it out…

How gorgeous is this?

I know It’s a bit too ambitious…but what is ambition if it isn’t difficult to achieve? So anyway, I got all the raw material required and two crochet needles for my mom and me. My first day turned out to be interesting, long and pretty tough.

The first thing I learnt about crocheting was that you have to be patient. It is not for someone who wants to do things in a jiffy. It needs minute attention, a steady hand and no distractions – something people of my age and time have major issues with. So I decided this could really be a good way for me to learn focus and patience.

The moment I decided this, things started working out. I learnt the basic step one and could pretty much effortlessly do it…I’m still struggling with step two, but that’s ok. I am in no hurry.

This little exercise however reminded me of my first knitting assignment. I was taught to knit in school and I couldn’t get it for the life of me! I remember messing it up every single time. There was frustration, anger and also tears. But then one day I just decided to relax and tka emy time, observing everything I did carefully…and before I knew it my first ever knitted hairband was ready in less than a day!

Now I know crocheting an entire bedsheet will take a loooooooooong time, but I am willing to wait. I want to be patient…just go a stitch at a time…

I work with a news channel and in my office we have TV sets showing various channels so that we can monitor news from around the world. My favourite is Australia Network maybe because the channel does not just focus on news. They have some pretty awesome shows. Like for example their shows for children are outstanding. One really fun show is:

Needless to say, it is super cute and super fun. As the name suggests it’s about two banana’s wearing pyjamas and having fun with their friends.

The other shows on the channel that I enjoy are:

Which talks about the Australian wilderness. Then I enjoy:

Which tells you everything about  the finest Australian wines…(this is an awesoem show!)

And then of course the fun footy games:

Now you might be tempted to think that all I do ehre is watch TV. But really it’s good fun and the channel is bang in front of me! And with content so good, it’s kinda difficult not to watch!

Come to think of it, my dance isn’t going that well. Considering that I hurt my knee right after I started dancing is not really helping my case. So I’ve been on medicines for a week now and had to miss one class of western freestyle. It was either that or missing Salsa…and I definitely wasn’t going to miss Salsa.

My first class went great except for the fact that I broke the heel of my brand new dancing shoes with the first step I took! So anyway for now I’m wearing my old black and white polka dotted peep toe kitten heels. They look something like that:

Only mine are black with white dots and mine are sandals not pumps…but you get the drift.

So anyway Salsa is great, in fact I even love practicing at home all by myself. I was going through my stash of Spanish music to see which tracks I could use. Unfortunately, for my level and speed I found only one song that could fit the bill:

It’s a gorgeous song. Anyway I downloaded a few more songs and I love practicing to them. It’s a nice thing that I made friends with one of my instructors. I told her I knew Spanish and translated a song for her. She loves me now .

Yesterday’s class was fun, dancing with partners in a closed position. Made me feel very ladylike and well taken care of…was cute. So yeah, I can’t wait till next Sunday for the next class. I just might go there during the week for a practice session though. Am loving it!

But what I’m really looking forward to is the Salsa class on Sunday!!! And although I told myself I won’t be buying dancing shoes…who was I kidding?! Here are my new shoes:

Only mine have a slightly shorter heel. But yes, they do make my feet and legs look oh-so-sexy. I could wear these to bed!!!

And while I was shopping for these shoes, I saw a pair of red patent leather pointy toed pumps which I had been lusting after ever since I saw Sarah Palin wear a pair (she was crap but ehr shoes and clothes were fab!). Here’s what I’m talking about:

But they didn’t have these in my size since my feet are tres tiny!

Anyway! Today was good and I’m hoping Saturday and Sunday are equally exciting!

I mean if I have to work out, it has to be fun. I remember the last tiem when I really enjoyed exercising was when I had joined Talwalkar’s at Mahim…and that too because I had good friends and we used to keep dancing. But in Thane since everything is far from my house and gym these days equals boring…I thought, well why not try and learn a dance form…

So I’m joining not one but two different dance styles…one is freestyle hip-hop and the other one…well..salsa! Woohoo!!!

But what am I most excited about? Wearing new shoes!!!

I am yet to buy good dancing shoes…

But till then I can wear my sexy new pumps…I’d been waiting for a reason to wear them. They look something like this:

Only mine are brown-n-dull gold

Yeah well I know I should be more excited about the dance and believe me I am…but then I am obsessed with shoes so I can’t help it!

While I’m still talking about shoes, here’s a couple of beauties I’ve fallen in love with:

and here’s the killer that I would kill to lay my toes on:

These gorgeous beauties are by designer Giuseppe Zanotti and I’ve been loving most of his collection. Here’s another one that I’d love to have:

Anyway, for now I’ll stick to my cute pumps and try to perfect my dance moves….maybe someday I’ll be trotting around in one of these geauties.

Favourite accessory for the day:

Bag love:

Weekend mega desire:

• Arrange books in new bookshelf – DONE!!!
• Work on new inspiration board – DONE!!!
• Make regular blog entries – FAILED MISERABLY!
• Revisit my book and add chapters to it! – FAILED MISERABLY!
• Try and have more ‘me’ time – FELL SICK SO KINDA WORKED OUT!
• Study – CAT is just 3 months away :O – NOT EVEN GONNA GIVE AN UPDATE ON THIS ONE!
• Schedule at least one creative activity on every Saturday – YESSSS!
• Sleep more! – YESSSS!
• Drink less coffee – WHO WAS I KIDDING? FAILED!
• Finish old books before buying new ones (This is going to be a tough one) – FAILED!
• Buy new movies (Ah Benicio…I want all your movies!) – DONE!!!
• Figure out SIPs and stop/reinvest wherever need be – DONE AND I’M ALSO DEBT FREE!!!

Now for my September Goals:

Read more

Stick to new diet regime

Stick to No-CreditCard rule!!!

Show more enthusiasm while dressing up for work

Stop whining and sulking!

Paint some more

Work on unfinished August goals!!!

In case you’re wondering what has suddenly happened to me, well there’s nothing wrong with me. I’ve been crazy about the Twilight series ever since I first read the books over a year ago.

It’s just that I’ve been sick this past one week…so while I was at home I decided to re-read Twilight and New Moon – Twilight because – well Edward’s in it and it’s the most perfect love story and New Moon because that’s a movie on my to watch list.

Although all that could have been said about Edward has been said, sung, written, cried out etc etc etc…let me add my two bits worth. Edward Cullen is WOW!

He’s so effortlessly charming and unbelievably amazing that it’s probably a good thing that he’s just a fictional character. I mean after reading about Edward Cullen, young girls have started dreaming about riding piggy back with a vampire instead of riding on horseback with thier prince charming.

Well, in the whole deal let’s not forget Jacob the cuddly-wuddly gigantic and dangerous wolf. I mean, he’s a dufus but a sweetheart all the same and yeah Bella is cruel to have played with his little heart in New Moon…

While I totally adore all the four Twilight books and have also read the unfinished version of Midnight Sun, Breaking Dawn kinda made me go WTF…I mean the entire Jacob imprinting was a bit too much for me to handle. Even in a fictional book filled with mythical creatures with strange powers, that particular bit felt oddly wrong…it still feels all weird…

But anyway…I love those books…they’re wow. The best love story I’ve read in a long long time for sure.

On saturday, I took my mom shopping for sarees. Ganesh Chaturthi is coming up and she needed some new sarees, so i decided to gift her some. We went all around Thane and then finally found three sarees…surprisingly, we both picked out the same three sarees. They’re lovely!

After the shopping was done, I had to take off to go and meet a friend for coffee. But on my way there, I happened to drop into Planet M at Eternity Mall in Thane where I happened to pick up a few movies. I instantly knew my mom was going to love the movies I’d picked up. So, later that night, we had a nice movie marathon, where we watched two lovely movies. The first one we watched was:

Mamma Mia is such a great movie to watch with your mom! And my mom loves Meryl Streep…and with such a fun movie the evening was even better. Love ABBA and love the music and love the movie! This was just perfect.

However, for the second movie, we were joined by my papa as well. Now all those who know me and my dad, know that this is a rare occurence! Actually, the movie that I had put on happened to be one of his favourites too:

Absolutely loved Come September!!! It was so much fun…and Italy was so beautiful! And Rock Hudson…oh my god! Why don’t they make such men these days! The man was better than a greek god…the perfect prototype of the Mills n Boon man:

The movie was sweet, fresh – even after all these years and really really funny! Apparently it was released three times in India during the 60s! I can imagine why!

So eyah my weekend was amazing…it was as good as going on a lovely Europe tour… first to Greece and then to Italy! And yes, my mom enjoyed it too!