December Favourites

Hello last month of the year! Finally. I am a bit sad it's the end of the year, but I am so glad my degree is finally over and I have a lot of free time to invest in some stuff I've keeping off for later. :D Here are some of my favourite things right now.

1. Butterfly Kisses Lantern from Pretty Little Things - Isn't this the cutest thing? It would look amazing next to my dream catcher. Also this shop makes the cutest dream catchers and other things that I absolutely love.

2. Snowed in House Ring from Me and Zena - I like how completely cute and quirky this ring is. Perfect accessory to any button down, day or night. 

3. Mean Girls tote bag from Etsy - One main rule of plastics is that they wear pink on Wednesdays, and they make fetch happen. Love the movie!

4. Lobster bracelet from Etsy - I am a huge fan of friends, especially Pheebs. This is one of her classic lines and it is so romantic in a weird way, haha.

5. Watch from Gift-box - This watch describes me, everyday. 

6. Zoku's Quick Pop Maker - I freaking love Popsicles and these are just the more sophisticated healthier versions. This thing has been in my wishlist for years!

7. Platform 9 3/4 necklace from Etsy - One of the most magical things that has ever happened to me was going to the Platform 9 3/4 last March and it was so so cool! I loved it. This necklace is just perfect. 

What are your favourite things right now?

Organizing: Filofax

I have been a fan of Filofax since I saw one in a MK and Ashley movie some years ago. I've always been an organizing kind of person. I love lists and routines and making goals and all that, and I've been craving a Filofax for ages, and just a few weeks ago I got my dream Filofax from my very good friend M, who is absolutely wonderful person. It's a Filofax Metropol personal organizer in Raspberry and it is just perfect.

Here's my Filo in all its glory. Ever since receiving it, I've kept my nifty Personal Organizer, Drew that was my best friend before safely. I decided not to name the Filo and call it Filo/Metropol.

 

I love the two pen flaps, and that is part of the reason I've always wanted this. I use one for a highlighter, which is an absolute necessary for me, and then there's for the ballpoint pen. I decided to go all pink on this.

I'm quite happy with how I'm managing the tabs and everything. I wish the card holders were a bit bigger, because I can't seem to fit my Uni ID. I have yet to register this. So this is how the first page looks like. In the card holders I have my address cards, blog card, Uni ID, and little bits of paper (for writing little notes). In the big pocket (which I love!), I keep my map. Yes, I am horrible with directions and I get lost even in Male'. -.- Story of my life! I made the rainbow coloured tabs out of cardboard and the 6 tabs are Blog, Daily, DYM (Dhi Youth Movement, which is our NGO), Goals, Expenses, and Others.

I have two pages per day, which I'm still trying to work with. Drew had two days per page so it was really easy since I do have a lot to do each day. So now I try to keep the daily things in separate post its so I don't forget. 

A random page from the goals tab. This is what I'm doing this month, learning a new word a day which is pretty fun. After the tab, I have a set of tabs for my University work, which at the moment is only my thesis, so I have separate tabs for my portfolio, timeline, presentation, etc. They are rather boring so I'll skip that part.

I haven't decorated my Filo as per se, but I did put some inspiring song lyrics between tabs. I like it being simple and not too flamboyant and I love how easy it is to work with. 

At the end, I have this little pocket, which is absolutely handy. I keep post-its here and a list of my 101 Things. There is also another pocket, which you can see beneath the transparent one; I keep my University contacts and assignment chits there. 

So, basically that is the whole set up of my Filofax and I'm just so so glad I have it. It has made my life so much easier while looking stylish at the same time. 

How do you keep your Filofax? I love seeing how other people keep their Filofaxes. 

PS, I'm sorry for the low quality pics. I took them from my phone which is not known for great picture quality.

365 Ways to Change the World and Maximizing Me

I love self help books and books with great titles (and greater content). It's been almost months since I last read a good book, yes I have been a disaster (according to certain friends) the last few months. We first went to see Jaadhulla at his place with DYM a few months back and since then he has become a great friend and an inspiration for me. He seriously has a great collection of books and was nice enough to lend us any book we wanted from his collection. The 365 days title caught my eye and I wanted to read it so bad I took it and started reading it right there. Best decision ever.

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This is an absolutely wonderful, marvelous book that restores your faith in humanity and makes you want to do so much more. It has 365 different ideas to make a change, some them require absolutely nothing but your time while others are a bit difficult but do-able. What I loved most was it was neatly put into chapters and every page had so much information and little tips and bits of fun stuff as well and was a lovely read. I made lots of notes of things I could do and learned so many new things from this book. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Maximizing me was just another self help book, but I felt like I had already read all of hat it has to offer from various other books and online. However  I love the writing style and how it was related to management and the summaries at the end of each chapter. It was a light, simple read and definitely had some good tips. Good book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

and here are two books I wish I were reading

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The title is very intriguing and the reviews make me want to read it even more. 

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Anyone who knows me knows that I happen to be a big fan of both Barack and Michelle. They just seem like such wonderful people, and Michelle is really fun and I love watching her on Ellen. 

What are you reading right now? 

Monday Playlist

This week is going incredibly well. I had my last class tonight and things are alright. I feel like a happy song. Except a happy song that is about to have to present her thesis. *sigh* Meanwhile, here's what I've been listening to;
Live While We're Young by One Direction
Yes, you can officially count me as not a hater of 1D. Niall is adorable and I just love this song. The message is very true as well. No, I'm not a super fan, I just like it a lot OK. Whatever.

Skyfall by Adele
There are just really no words to describe this song. It's perfect  it's everything that all other songs are not. Yes, we'll stand tall and face it all.

Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys ft Nicki Minaj
So there has been this trend where there's just one or two lines in a song, and the rest is unrelated/mildly related rapping either by Nicki Minaj or B.o.B. (Both of Us, Beauty and a Beat and Airplanes anyone?). I think this song is really cool, and the lyrics are in a way very very deep but also bizarre, if it makes any sense. Also check out the version by Sophia Grace and Rosie, too cute.

Crazy Love by Mindy Gledhill
I heard this on a Youtube video the other day and just had to find it because it was so so pretty. You know, those songs when you first hear it you love it so much you need it in your life because it would complete your life. Yes, this song is just like that.

Aashiyan from Barfi
A really beautiful and heartwarming song from Barfi. I just ah, this is just, so so great. You have to listen to it, because it will make you fall in love with Barfi and Jhilmil.
What are you listening to this week?

Inspirational Women: Shea Rasol

I have been a follower of Shea's blog, My Amethyst for years now, and she keeps getting better and better. Her style has been a big inspiration for me throughout the years and my sister often accuses me of copying her hijab style. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, eh. I do sometimes try her hijab style because it is so easy and comfortable.

She is not just a pretty face, but a very talented stylist, designer and from the videos I've seen, she seems very friendly and such a fun person to hang out with. I'm such a big fan of her that I have a separate folder for her in my Inspiration folder so I can always look at her pictures for inspiration. This girl can wear a maxi skirt a thousand ways.

Her outfits are just so adorable and cute and modest at the same time, and she seems so so nice, I wish I knew her in real life. She makes me want to dress better and she gives me hope in Muslim girls and that is why I love her and her blog. Also, we share the same birth month, and therefore the same birth stone. I love Amethyst too. :)

If you haven't checked her blog out yet, I recommend you to. Be warned though: Lots of inspiration and fun stuff there so you're going to have a great time looking through all of her posts. Here are some of my favourite outfits of hers.

Love the use of a scarf as coverage material like that. It looks so adorable, and I love the colour. 

This is my all time favourite outfit of her. Those two colours are just so good together and I love the top. 

All images from Shea's blog

Do you know her?

Survey Saturday: My Band

So, I saw this really fun thing my friend did on Facebook, where using Wikipedia, Flickr and random quotations, an album art was created, and I thought it was the coolest thing to bring back Survey Saturday. So here's how it works.

1. Go to Wikipedia and hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to “Random Quotations” (link: http://www.quotationspage.com) Click Random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page will be the title of your new album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days”. The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

It was so much fun to do this and I did not cheat at all; and this is what I ended up with.

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Journey to the West is my band name, which is kind of cool but also very related to Journey. I think it's an old Korean movie or something, and also name of a book. Pretty cool! The last quote was by Susan J.Bissonette which goes like "An optimist is the human personification of Spring" which is so fun because I am an optimist and I love spring. Then, coincidentally, in Flickr the picture I got was of flowers which suited the album name. So, if I ever have a band, you know what I'm going to call it. We are going to be country band that sings about flowers and optimists. Our first album obviously will be self titled, so this has to be the second album. I've also got the song list for the album;

1. Florals for Spring? Groundbreaking - a song about bad fashion sense and cliche's and how flowers are not always the answer. Also a bit of a love between a florist and a fashion designer, and rapping about how people who wear floral are not always hippies.

2. If We Had No Winter - a sad song about all the things we can't do because we always have summer. Lots of references to snowballs, snow cones, and generally snow.

3. Full of Delight - Death metal song about random babble. This song is there because of my band mate's girlfriend who just turned goth.

4. A Kind Word is Like a Spring Day - a song about being kind to people. This has to be the nicest song in the album, so we will also release a music video, and release this as a single. The music video will show a parallel world where people who date Taylor Swift write songs about her and make millions.

5. Sweet Lovers Love the Spring - song about candy, sung by a guy who is lactose intolerant.

6. The Violets in the Mountain have Broken the Rocks - This song has just one line, the name of the song and follows music, much like Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce. The music's not that good either. It's also sung in a chipmunk voice to make it less mediocre.

7. Apothegms to Thinking Minds - song about mathematics and how much we love it. Also includes a story-line between Economics and Mathematics and its relations.

Bonus Track: We Can Complain Because Rose Bushes Have Thorn - song of complaints, and bad metaphors.

Tell me what's your band name and album name? I'd love to see.

A to Z: Life these days

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A is for Amazing Spiderman, which I can't seem to stop talking about as it is AH-MAZING! duh!

B is for blog. :) I'm sorry I've been TMI lately. I have some really good posts lined up.

C is for Chilly, this absolutely wonderful image from alan1828. I love the mystery in her eyes.

D is for Dream journals. I recently started one, because I'm very interested in the concept of lucid dreaming.

E is for ELLEN! I can't stop watching her show, it is hilarious. 

F is for favourite, which is my new favourite word, haha

G is for Gan, which is so so huge, they should have made it the capital. 

H is for Himmafushi, which is where I celebrated Eid this year. So much fun

I is for I Knew You Were Trouble, my current favourite song from Red. It is so catchy.

J is for Juice. =/

K is for KK.

L is for Last Man Standing, which has been one of my favourite TV shows for some time now.

M is for Metropol Raspberry Filofax, which is my favourite, mostly because I now own it. 

N is for Neeko, who's birthday is coming soon.

O is for Oyster cards. Suddenly, we are reminiscing over using them in London. 

P is for Postcard from Paris, a really cool song by The Band Perry. They are my favourite trio after Harry, Hermione and Ron.

R is for Rings and Things, which is this pretty little online shop by Shums who makes such whimsical and cute stuff. 

S is for Sophia Grace and Rosie, two of my favourite people from Ellen. Sophia is just so adorable with her out of the box personality. 

T is for Teens React! Seriously, hilarious. The funniest one is teens react to Gangnam Style. 

U is for Umbridge. No post is complete without a HP reference.

V is for Vintage. These days I'm very much into vintage patterns and movies and style. 

W is for Willy Wonka. 

X is for X-factor. The video where a guy says that Demi uses autotune is so hilarious.

Y is for Yuna, who is an amazing Malaysian singer/songwriter.

Z is for Zachary Levi.

What's in your alphabet this week?

November Favourites

For some weird reason, I never really liked November. Maybe because it's always exams this month. But when I am not in a mood to hate November, I end up looking at some really cool stuff online and adding them to my wishlists everywhere.

Internet meme lover bracelet from Etsy - How cute is this? I love internet memes, especially the problem guy. This is just adorable for the 9GAG fans like myself.

Native American dream catcher from Etsy - I've always been fascinated by dream catchers, and few days ago my neighbor made one and since then there has been a dream catcher craze. I made one too some days ago and it now hangs right above my bed and looks good. Mine doesn't have feathers though, which is a bit sad. 

Sweet Lips Clutch from Fredflare - Fredflare has such adorable stuff, and I've been eyeing this one for some days now. Perfect for carrying stuff when going out with the girls.

TuneTube earbud organizer from Etsy - Do you hate tangled ear-buds as much as I do? I had to get rid of one because it was too tangled for use, and this would solve that problem. Plus how cute is the pattern. I can totally see myself using this. 

Hermione's Wand from Noble Collection - I have always wanted this and the other day, a friend of mine got me this and its is so so freaking amazing. Seriously. I always felt that Hermione's wand would suit me the most as it is made of dragon heart-string  which is my favourite element for core. It feels great and it comes in a beautiful box. It has to be one of my favourite things I own now. 

Pandora Sailor Wedges from Up - I have been following Diana for some years now, and Up is such a pretty shoe line. This has been my favourite from all of her shoes since it came out. It's simple but cute and looks very comfortable. 

Capri Mini Padfolio from See Jane Work - I am a huge fan of stationary, any kind of. This padfolio is just too adorable and I don't even have a use for it, but I want it. ha. Plus it comes in so many cute patterns, how can you say no to that?

What are you coveting this month?

The meanest thing you ever did is come around

Hi there. I have been all over the place travelling around and having a great time, and procrastinating on my thesis as usual. The LTLT at L.Gan was really great and we had a good time there. The main difficulty was managing 40 people, and getting them to stop talking and also talking in Dhivehi was a bit of a challenge which is such a shame since we're all Maldivians. I feel so sad that my Dhivehi is so bad, when did this even happen? I do talk in Dhivehi a lot, but I talk in English a lot more I guess. *sigh* Does this ever happen to you? I even think in English, which is a bit bizarre I guess, but it's normal to me. I once even asked a classmate if he thinks in English or Dhivehi and he said it was a weird question. O.O 

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Last week, and most of this week I was at Himmafushi celebrating Eid with some relatives. We went there for A's birthday party but I stayed over because I wanted to see the Eid celebrations. I was there last Eid too, and I has lots of fun. They play Eid very differently than the people at my mom's island. But mostly, we spent a lot of time watching movies. I watched The Amazing Spider-man  which was so so good, and I even watched The Spider-man 3 which was not that bad, and Jaws and some Hindi movies. Barfi was one of them which I absolutely love. Ranbir and Priyanka are so good in it, and I love the story. Ek Tha Tiger and Housefull 2 were not bad, I didn't enjoy them a lot though. 

Now that I'm back, I'm trying to concentrate on my thesis, but I keep keeping it off which is really annoying. I am also thankful to my friend M who got me a lot of stuff I had wanted for the longest time and I was so excited all day. Seriously, you are just so great and I'm glad to have known you.

I hope you guys had a great Eid. Leave me a comment telling me what you did over the Eid. :)

Monday Playlist

It's Monday again, and I have been extremely busy the last few days. So busy I couldn't even spare time for people. I am leaving to Laamu for a workshop this week and I have an assignment due on Thursday which I need to finish and submit on Wednesday since I leave that day and on top of that I have my thesis and a farewell party to get ready to. SO MUCH WORK! 

I also haven't been able to listen to much music, and so here's what I've got so far

I'll Be There For You by The Rembrandts

The FRIENDS theme song. This is my current ringtone and I love it. It is such a fun, upbeat cool song that you just cannot hate. I also love the version of this where the cast of FRIENDS invade which The Rembrandts are singing and make funny faces and have an awesome time. Gotta love Pheebs, Rach, Mon, Ross, Chandler and Joey!

Good Time by Owl City ft Carly

Another great song by Owl City. I love the video and I love how the song always makes me feel good. So whenever I hear this, no matter how bad it is, until the song ends it is such a good time.

Wide Awake by Katy Perry

Usually Katy's songs are rather fun and this one's no exception. I love how she incorporated refernces to all her other videos in this song's video. Also whenever this song comes up, I suddenly feel very at alert. ha

Mr.Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan

THIS is so so amazing and makes me want to dance whenever I hear it. Just love it.

No Name by Ryan O'Shoughnessy

Nawaf introduced this song to me just yesterday and since then I've been listening to it every now and then throughout the day. The lyrics are just so good. I love a song that is so simple and romantic and just makes you feel all good inside. You gotta hear this, and watch the video while you're at it.

When She Was Mine by Lawson

It is a sad song, but there's just something to it that makes you feel that life is just, ah. Well, I don't know. I just like it a lot.

Dil Sambhal Ja Zara from Murder 2

LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. Great song, and it is my number one song to sing in my head while I'm walking down the road. It's my personal walking anthem. It is very interesting and makes me feel like I'm the only on on the road which helps. :P All this time I thought the video would be something very sad and nice, but it turns out to be a seduction song. O.o

Have an awesome time guys. :)

Late Monday Playlist

I was going to upload this yesterday, but I got extremely busy and forgot. So here goes;

50 Ways to Say Goodbye by Train

Train has become a personal favorite with songs like Hey Soul Sister and Drive By (I mean seriously, I could just sing THIS IS NOT A DRIVE BY all day long and not get bored of it) and this song is no exception. I absolutely love how he used so many interesting (and some quite horrific) ways to die and made it into a great song. My favorite way to die in the song is danced to death at an east side night club. haha! I also love the video and that guy holding the Rack City Bitch board.

Starships by Nicki Minaj

I'm not exactly a fan of Nicki but I know a few people who are. I do like chorus of this song. In fact, I like it so much that I often yell it while having conversations with my sister much to the horror of poor little girl. I mean, how can one not yell, "starships were meant to fly, hands up and touch the sky". It's just so yell-able.

Hello by Karmin

Thanks to my good friend Arky, I found this song and I absolutely adore it. Karmin is just adorable. However  in the list of my favorite songs named Hello, this would come 3rd; the first being the Lionel Ritchie song (Why yes, I am looking for you Lionel) and the second being the Martin Solveig song (oh, you just came to say hello? HOW NICE!)

Airplanes by Bob ft Hayley

I remember when I was in HFM and when this song was da bomb. I actually got bored of it. But then, I somehow found the love back. It is also the only song that I can attempt to rap to. I also found out that I'm horrible at rapping. True Story. Not that I ever thought I'd be good at. I just wanted to give it a try. WHAT? DON'T JUDGE ME. IF YOU HAVE NEVER RAPPED IN YOUR LIFE, then good for you I guess.

 

Runaway by Kanye West

This is the first Kanye song that I actually like enough to play it more than once. I guess being a fan of Tay automatically makes me not like him. (the BUT IMMA episode?) I like this song because it is very very cool. It gives toasts to people like douchebags, assholes and all other random people and also asks them to runaway. That has to be the best advice Kanye has ever given.

Ulhe Jab Jab Zulfe from Naya Daur

Dad and I have a shared love for old Hindi songs and Urdu Ghazals and lately we have been watching them during nights when I don't have class. I almost forgot how much I loved these songs. The lyrics are beautiful, the music is heartwarming and the people are so elegant and the posse just makes you want to go there and nod your head to the tune.

Dil Mera Churaya Kyun from Akele Hum Akele Tum

This song is so so sad it makes me want to cry. I mean, really. Why did she had to steal his heart only to break it, that is just plain mean. Who does that?

Anyhow, have a wonderful day everyone. 

Runaway as fast as you can

Sometime I don't feel like blogging. Sometimes I do. For me, this blog is a personal adventure, somewhere I write things that are not too embarrasing (those are better left for my journals) so that I can check back on it time to time and see how much I've grown. Every now and then, I take time to read some old posts and get to re live that life which is pretty exciting in my books.

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This week has been not too shabby. Mostly, I had classes and walked a lot to and from FMC. I like walking. In fact, I'd choose it over petrol burning devices that run any day  unless the distance is too long or its raining and I don't want to get wet or if my feet hurts (which happens a LOT since I'm always wearing different shoes). It's the too much staring that I have a hard time with and most Maldivians seem to be infected with that disease. I try not to look at people when I walk which has its own advantages and disadvantages (people seem to think I ignore them on the road and I've often been accused of being "foni") but every now and then I will get insecure when I walk no matter how much positive energy I carry around. I could be looking like the most basic bitch and blending in like a chameleon, but people will stare like it's some sort of a contest or like I'm some weird monster from a video game that they're trying to kill with laser vision. Honestly. If you're from Maldives you know what I'm talking about. I mean it's OK, and probably very normal to look at people, even a bit longer if they have something cute on, or have nice booty but staring is just awful. 

Classes have been so much fun because I actually pay attention and because I study very cool subjects it becomes so much more interesting  The girls and I have been going shopping and taking pictures at the most random-est places. I mean, we were at a shop checking out some fabric and then suddenly  it was click click click. I also saw a random men's tee with a pic of Justin Bieber *OH THE HORROR* on it so I took it and hid it in the shop under a gigantic pile of random stuff that looked like garbage. Yes humanity, you're welcome.

Image from Rings and Things Facebook

My friend Shums has this awesome business called Rings & Things (she is super woman I think cos she is so creative and does so many things) and she makes the cutest rings like these. I bought some from her called Now Panic and Freak Out, and Keep Calm and Have Tea. It was so hard to choose cos all of them are so FREAKING CUTE! 

It is definitely time to freak out because my thesis is due next month and it's a mess. My Literature review is incomplete, the theories are not grounded, I still need to find 300 more photos for the plan, most of the website analysis hardly makes sense, the model equation has too many variables and is too complex that it makes no sense and on top of that I don't know all of the things that I need to include in the report. But it's gonna be fine cos I read a really good book yesterday and now I'm all about being calm and going over the mistakes.