I have always been fascinated by fabrics and intricate weaves. Yes, what truly astonishes me is the delicacy of knitted and chrocheted pieces. There’s a lot of hard work that goes int here to produce a simple pattern. I should know, I had once tried my hand at knitting…never really made it beyond hairbands, scarves and purses though…

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…

While going through some of my recent posts I realised that I’ve been obsessively writing only about shoes. I mean, yes I love shoes but there are other things I love too. For example, this morning I am loving Australia Network…

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!

It’s been quite a while since i updated my blog. Not that I’ve been that busy…jut have had too much on my mind. But, now am back and hoping to keep this thing updated more often. So anyway, my Salsa classes have started and I’m loving them.

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!

Ok so I’m super excited today! Today was my first Western – Freestyle dance class…it was a hell lot of fun!!! I didn’t really do much today…more of warm up and a few easy baby steps…but still it was good! Next class on Saturday. Till then I need to keep practicing little of what I’ve learnt today.

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!

There has been an interesting development in my life. In my quest to lose weight and become fit I have finally decided to join dance classes in Thane!

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.

Friday morning shoe love:

Favourite accessory for the day:

Bag love:

Weekend mega desire:

Hmmm so here’s an update on my August goals and a list of my September goals as well:

• 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!!!

Yes I am a young girl and yes I love the Twilight series and yes I want Edward Cullen too!

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.

I have already defaulted on my August goal to post more often on the blog. However, my other goals are going just fine. This past weekend was brilliant. I got to spend some quality time with my mom. Even though I was working on Sunday, it was all good.

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!

I had been to the library yesterday to return the books that were due, borrow new books and to meet my friend who works there. While going through shelf after shelf of neatly stacked books with yellowed pages…I chanced upon a book that could only be called…quirky…

Bernadine Avaristo’s The Emperor’s Babe was an astonishing find! The book tells the story of Zuleika, a spunky Sudanese immigrant girl about town in Londinium, AD 211 who was married off as a child to a old, rich, fat Roman who lavishes all the riches on her but is mostly absent from her life. Her fortunes, however, turn when the new emperoro of Rome coems to town and brings with him love and danger…

The book takes you on a fun filled journey through Zuleika’s despicible marriage, her encounter with sex with the fat ugly Roman, her friends who include a transvestite whore, her elevation from the level of a slave to that of the ‘It’ girl about town to The Emperor’s Babe!

So what makes this book even more exciting? It’s the way it is written. In a word…the book is…SASSY! In a style that combines classical and contemporary street lingo, Avaristo creates a unique reality…a look at a modern woman in ancient times. The book, written entirely in verse is full of witty retorts, detailed observations that make the ordinary look extraordinary and oodles of attitude.And each character is etched out so perfectly that you literally start living his/her life. Zuleika is probably now my newest favourite heroine!

A must read…this book is entertaining, engaging and totally exciting!