Friday’s Five | Chocolate Mints In a Jar

Friday’s Five: My wishlist

There are people out there with huge wishlists on Amazon (yes, you know who you are) and even though I don’t have a wishlist on Amazon I thought I might share. I am actually jealous of people who can make wishlists, I always want something really particular that it takes forever to find it and by the time I do find it, I have either lost interest or bought something that does the job.

A wallet. Yes I already own one, a few actually, but I’ve been looking for the perfect one for years. Big enough to hold everything, not bulky and very funky and colorful.
The perfect pair of jeans. I actually don’t really believe they exist, but there is that tiny bit of hope. Jeans that don’t sag, make you look thin and are made of a comfortable easy to wear and care for fabric.
A craft room. I would love to have my own private sanctuary for doing the things I do, I even don’t mind sharing it with the little person as a craft/play room, see how nice I am? I can imagine it so clearly. I can daydream about this for hours. Lots of shelves full of books and colorful supplies. A desk and a sewing machine and a small sofa and an ottoman. Lots of sunshine, bright curtains, a slightly cold breeze blowing through the windows. I think I got a little carried away there.
A huge lending library near by. I also dream about living near a public library. The thought of having access to so many different books just makes me extremely happy, not to mention being able to spend time in a library. I love libraries.
An extra 2 hours every day. Unrealistic? But it’s my wishlist and a girl can dream can’t she?

Friday’s Five: Obsessions

It has been a long time, hasn’t it?

I am currently obsessed with finding the cutest bookmark. I have already found the Chick Chic ones but I am pretty sure I can find more, a girl can never have enough bookmarks.
Hand cream. I want a hand cream that makes your hands super soft, gets absorbed quickly, smells nice and isn’t greasy. Am I dreaming?
Getting a Joojoo, but who am I kidding, I could never make the switch to 100% ebooks, I still love paper books and bookmarks. Of course it is not just an ebook reader it is an iPad alternative with USB ports and without the Apple App store and its limitations.
Stationary. With back to school season in its fullest, everywhere I go I can find cool stationary.
Understanding color. I wouldn’t say I am color challenged but I am not as brave as I’d like to be. ColorLovers has some awesome combinations that are so pretty and interesting to look at as well as lovely color related articles.

Peace out.

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الله يرحمك يا بابايا

Today marks 11 years since he passed away.

He was a very very remarkable man. I wish I had more time with him. A few years back I felt that I missed him now I feel I am missing out on learning from him and being with him.

Think for yourself, do it yourself and then to hell with everyone else.
The strongest are not those who are louder but those who have more patience to get through adversity.
Forgive and forget. He was one of the most forgiving people I ever new.
If you are going to give to charity, make sure no one finds out about it.
You might think you are a great driver, but just remember that everyone else on the road might be an idiot so drive carefully and drive safely.

Number five was the only one he actually said out loud the others were things I learned from observation

Friday’s Five: Random things I love

Flooring the gas pedal
Getting surprise gifts
Finding money i had forgotten about in my pockets when i am broke
Finding peace in the simplest places
Going home on a really hot day to find that the apartment is really nice and cool

Friday's Five: Things I wanted to learn when I was 10 (and would still love to)

Juggling
Solving the rubik’s cube
Yoyo like a pro
Draw cartoons
Mountain climbing

I was a weird 10 year old

What did you want to learn as a child?

Friday's : Origami Microwave Popcorn

Where is the five? They are coming right after this.

My daughter asked for popcorn this morning.

We had a bag of microwave popcorn.

Only problem was that no one else wanted pop corn and like every smart mom I don’t like wasting good popcorn.

Fortunately we had regular pop corn.

How do you pop pop corn without a bag and without using a pan/pot or whatever.

Yes I am that lazy, I don’t like washing pots or pans.

I know how to use paper bags to make popcorn in the microwave but didn’t have any.

Then I had this incredibly awesome idea of making my own bag using origami.

I learned making this bag when I was 9.

Which means it took more than a decade to find a use for this otherwise useless piece of knowledge in my head.

You will need wax paper, parchment paper, oven proof paper or whatever kind of paper you feel would be safe in the microwave. I had wax paper and it said on the box that it was microwave safe.

Cut out a square peice of paper.

Fold it in half.

Then in half again to get a square.

Fold diagonally.

Unfold the diagonal fold.

You should have a square with 4 layers of paper.

Put your finger in between the top layer and the bottom 3 layers and pull it out creating triangle.

Flip it over keeping the closed edge at the top and put your finger between the bottom two layers and pull the top one creating a second triangle.

* Fold the bottom corners of the triangles into the middle center corner. You should now have a square on top of a triangle

Fold the outer corners of the square into the center and then insert the free corners into the smallish center triangle you just created.* (last picture in the second row)

Turn it over and add your popcorn

The kernels should be able to lay flat in one layer. If you add more the bag will burst open.

Repeat the steps between the * … *

Your origami ball is ready to go into the microwave.

Set the microwave to 2 minutes on high. And blast those kernels into popcorn.

Enjoy

You can click on the image for a larger version.

Oh about those five:

Everything you learn in life will someday, somehow become useful even if you don’t believe it right now.
You should not waste food if you can. Always make food in portions you know you can consume. If you are still hungry you can always make more.
When you learn something, share it. If everyone kept their knowledge to themselves we would still be in the dark ages.
It is always fun to experiment.
Popcorn is a healthy low calorie snack.

Friday's Five : لو لم أكن مصريا

كنت برضو حعوز أكون مصريا

و عندي أسباب كتييييييييره

١- على رأي نانسي عجرم أنا مصري و أبويا مصري و غسب عن عيني مصري

٢ – بأمشي زي المصري

٣- ويكيبيديا مصري

٤- مصر هي أمي (بصوت فؤاد المهندس) و ساعات بتكون مرات أبويا

٥- جواز السفر الداهيه المعروف بالشبشب الأخضر اللي بيبان من على بعد و بيعرف كل الناس إن أنا مصري بس للأسف خلاص عملو واحد صغير. كنت خايفه لولو ما تلحقش تعرفو بس الحمد الله عملتلها واحد أول ما إتولدت فممكن تشيلو للذكرى.

جواز السفر المصري اﻷصلي

أنا إكتشفت إني فخورة بهويتي المصريه

Friday's Five: Everyday ...

I am going to conquer the world

In an effort to make life more interesting I am going to try and do one or all of these things everyday.

Take more pictures to improve my photography.
Think of a new positive affirmation for the day. I like my affirmations funny and fresh.
Spritz on some “fancy” perfume that I don’t use unless I am going out somewhere fancy. Since going out to someplace fancy is a rarity I have decided to consider staying at home a “fancy” thing.
Say a little prayer for the loved ones who have left us. Parents or loved ones who have passed away need every prayer. It is also a reminder of our own mortality.
Learn something new. It does not matter if it is just a new piece of information, a word or how to make cookies, anything new learned is good stimulation for the brain.

What are five things you want to or already do every day?

Friday’s Five: I confess to being afraid of these things

The truth
is:
If you
knew you could
handle anything
that came your
way, what would you
have to fear? The answer is: NOTHING!~ Susan Jeffers quotes from Feel The Fear… And Do it Anyway Apparently it turns out there are more things I am afraid of than I’d like to admit. I finally started reading Feel the fear and do it anyway by Susan Jeffers. Before my vacation I had an opportunity to delve deeper into my soul and think about lots of things. I did lots more soul searching while I was in Egypt and realized that I had lots of fears that were holding me back from doing stuff I wanted to do.

I am afraid people might not like me.
I am afraid of being a bad mother. Unfortunately bad sometimes means too tough and sometimes means too soft. Contradictory I know.
I am afraid of making phone calls. I have no idea why, but I hate having to call people other than my close friends or family members.
I am afraid of letting go of things sometimes. I recently went through my clothes in a purge session and found a pair of trousers that I remember buying 3 years before my dad passed away while on a family trip all of us together, that is like around 13 years ago maybe more. Every time I tried giving them away I’d get all sentimental. After a lot of thinking I realized they were more than just a pair of trousers that don’t fit me anymore. They were all these happy memories that I was scared of giving away if I let go of the trousers.
I am afraid of hurting the people I love so I end up in a state of guilt, stress or unhappiness and sometimes all three together.

It is not that I am crazy or need therapy, not that I’d mind finding someone I could complain to without feeling bad about making them feel bad .

I just think that I could be a much more balanced and happier individual if I dealt with them. Realizing that fear was the underlying motivator in so many of my actions was an eye opener. It feels liberating that now I know why, and that I can deal with each one of these fears. It seems weird that I had never realized it before.

I am loving the book.

Friday’s Five: Five reasons living in Kuwait is a good thing

My extended relatives don’t see me that often to tell me that I’ve gained weight.
Things cost almost exactly the same, but it feel better to pay 5 KD in Starbucks than it is to shell out a 100 LE bill. The value is the same but the number is annoying. Oh and the 1 pound coins are heavier than I remember. I read an article a few weeks back about Egyptians hating the coins and thought that the Egyptians are just complainers, but I do see their point. I always have around 10 LE in coins and they are quite heavy and have lots of volume. I think they should make them smaller and lighter which would also mean they should be cheaper. But maybe they won’t be as durable. Someone should explain why they chose that design.
Beep Beep Honk Honk, eley7eb el nabi yedrab kalaks.
WHO ON EARTH REDESIGNED THE ALEXANDRIA SMOUHA TRAFFIC MAP/PLAN? Yes I am shouting. Apparently that person was smoking pot or something because they just decided to transform two way streets into one way ones. Theoretically that is not a problem but the signs are not really clear, so you take a right and suddenly find yourself face to face with incoming traffic and thousands of people cursing you and your family right up to your seventh grandfather. They also didn’t bother to remove the roundabouts so it becomes really confusing. But then again driving in Egypt is either in your blood or not. Complaining about driving and traffic in Egypt is in all Egyptian’s blood.
But probably the most important reason is that it is where my home is.