Pinterest

I have discovered this absolutely lovely website called Pinterest. It's an online pinboard where you can "pin" images you like all in one place. I so totally love it. It's all I've been doing this past hour.I love stuff like this - it's alike a list but in photos! I wish I had thought of it!

Adopting Abroad and Edhi

I just finished watching Saira's Story about adopting a baby girl who was abandoned outside the Edhi orphanage in Karachi. Some people at work were talking about it at the lunch table and I had seen it on the tv guide last night but had just missed it. BBC's iplayer is just brilliant for instances like that.

It was such a touching story and I'm so happy that after everything she went through, Saira finally managed to adopt a baby girl. There was something at the end that she said which she articulated so much better than I could have. And it's something I feel when I'm in either Pakistan or the Philippines. Like Saira, I struggle with my conscience. I'm from a working class family but compared to the majority if the population in Pakistan I live a life many privileges. And she was right, if you are poor here you have the welfare service and benefits system. Yes, the government is changing it and making cuts but we're still so much better off. If you experience domestic violence, you have somewhere to go. Thank God for people like Abdul Sattar Edhi.

The world needs more people like him. He started off by picking up dead bodies in the streets of Karachi and burying them and has gone on to having the largest voluntary ambulance service as well as looking after abandoned children. May Allah bless
him. After hearing about all the evil that goes on in the world, it's knowing about people like Edhi that soothes my soul. I haven't been able to completely express what I've been feeling since I finished watching the programme but I needed to write about it. I've been through choking back the tears to smiling like a crazy woman in that past hour. And I swear, after becoming a mother I seem to feel everything so much more intensely.

More information about Edhi can be found at www.edhi.org.

Another craft blog...

...I found this blog, Craftaholics Anonymous, via the Mollie Makes website and it came with some warnings i.e that it would leave you in total awe, would result in blog envy and want to start crafting. So true...

I want to make this:

Check the website above for the tutorial or click here.

Creative Juices

The creative bug has bitten yet again and I'm on a bit of a creative frenzy - not that i've had much time to make anything. I'm almost finished with a granny square baby blanket I started making back in July. I haven't even finished that and my eyes are on this one by Nicki Trench. I worked out the cost to make it in using the same yarn and I use can't afford it.

Other things that have made my creative juices flowing are two magazines I have come across. The first is Mollie Makes which caught my eye when I was leaving Asda one day.

Each magazine comes with a little gift that you can make. I have yet to make any of mine but am really looking forward to it. I love flipping through the pages and looking at all the pretty pretty things. You can check out their website here. The other is called Making. I just want to make everything that is featured in it too, the origami light shade in particular which can be found in Issue 4. The magazine itself is divided into different sections: Making for Living, for the bathroom, for the kitchen, fort the wardrobe and for the garden. Both are definitely worth having a look at it. You'll find yourself struck with craft envy and a very strong desire to try your hand at crafting.

Blog After My Heart

I thought that being on holiday for the summer would mean that I'd have lots of time to clear up my bedroom, my bookshelves and my cupboard. Who was I kidding? I have no idea where the time has gone but it hasn't gone into clearing anything up. And so imagine my delight at finding this blog called Perfectly Pretty...it's a blog after my own heart. It's all the inspiration I need to get myself organised. Go take a look.

Anti-Kindle?

Being a book-lover, I have always been very anti-e-readers. Nothing, for me, could ever replace the weight and feel of a book in my hands. Plus, I'm one of those readers who likes to flick to the end before she's finished reading just to make sure all ends well. And so I found myself making my whole "nothing can ever replace a book" spiel when I found myself chatting to a friend of a friend while waiting for said friend to arrive at her own birthday dinner. The friend of my friend, L, was adamant she has also been anti-Kindle until she actually tried one. We talked about Kindle vs. the Kindle app on the iPad, discussing important issues such a the back-light on the iPad not allowing for proper reading in daylight etc. All the while, I still maintained my anti-e-readerness. Don't get me wrong, I love my gadgets. But for me, a book is a book.

Three weeks later, I was still thinking about my conversation with L. I did my research. I went to look at demos of the Kindle in my local Curry's store. I caved. I bought one. I love my new Kindle.

No, it doesn't replace a book. I will still buy books. However, I am now a Kindle convert and currently reading a teen book called Portal on it. Now I'm looking for crochet patterns to make myself a cover for my beloved Kindle. I have totally taken myself by surprise. Who would have thought? Me and my Kindle.

Markets

A few weeks ago, I finally got to go to Broadway Market with F and S, some family friends. I had always wanted to go when S first told me about it but never got around to asking her what it was called or where it was. I just knew it was a food market and that you could get samosa chaat from there. Now having been there, I keep berating myself for not finding out sooner.

The very first stall we came across was a smoked sun-dried tomato one. I happen to love sun-dried tomatoes and these ones tasted not dissimilar to smoked mackerel. Of course, I bought myself a pot. Not too long after the tomato stall, came the churros and hot chocolate stall. After seeing churros at the Columbia Flower Market and not being able to have any because they ran out just as I got to the front of the queue, I had been craving them. F and S were both so good in that they were going to go past all the stalls before deciding on what they were going to get. I, on the other hand, was like a child let loose in a sweet shop with a fistful of pocket money. I had to get some there and then in case, like last time, they would run out. The three of us found a bit of kerb to sit on as we ate our churros dipped into hot chocolate, watching the world go by. I love the hustle and bustle of markets and there's so much you miss if you don't stop to actually look.

With my tummy reasonably satisfied, we ambled on. Our thirst was quenched by freshly pressed apple juice and then after the rounds of the stalls had been made and some brinjal pickle taste-tested and bought, we finally settled on getting some food for our little picnic in the park from the Russian food stall. I'm not entirely sure if all the food sold at that stall was indeed Russian but the Salad Olivier definitely was. And if you have never tried aubergine with pomegranate before, then you really must.

With our food safely tucked under our arms and another bottle of freshly squeezed apple juice bought, we made our way to London Fields across the road. We sat, munched, talked, people watched and read the paper. It was an absolutely lovely morning.

Greenwich Market tomorrow, I hope. I planned to go the last two Saturdays but I ended up catching a cold and not being able to go. Can't wait to see what it's like. It's an arts and crafts market and food market all rolled into one, I hear.