How to celebrate being 33

1. Wake up and do a thorough calculation if the years add up. Give up, pretend it’s any other day and sleep for 15 more minutes.

2. Eat a cupcake for breakfast. Down it with a strong cup of coffee, preferably with Americano. If you feel like spending dough, follow the sirens’ song and grab them from your local coffee shop.

3. Go see your eye doctor. Eyes are precious. Now that you’re over the hill (there…there) you need to take care of them even more. While you’re at it, make it a yearly thing. This way you won’t forget about at least one appointment in the coming years.

4. If you wanna do something special for yourself, buy some books. Books are excellent gifts for anyone! Even for a special snowflake like you.

5. Go on with your life.

6. Eat tacos for dinner. They are freaking delicious! And you don’t necessarily need a ton of toppings. Bonus points if it’s on a Tuesday.

7. Ponder about life and write a poignant journal/blog entry about your birthday. This may or may not turn into a feeble attempt in satire. If people argue on the topic, declare that you just made a list. Everyone loves list.

8. Scratch that, do whatever you wish- IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!

9. Eat another cupcake as post dinner snack. Do not let its size frighten or deter you from your mission.

10. Call it a day.

Currently I am...

...eating Questbars!! I am not a person who is into hypes, specially hyped foods. But I was looking for something to satisfy my sweet tooth, and that did not taste chemically. I finally found them at our local Hyvee (grocery store). These are ridiculously expensive but freaking delicious. Right now I only buy them once or twice a week.

...drinking loads of homemade lattes and cappuccinos, as I practice frothing milk with our new espresso maker. So far I’ve demolished 3 gallons of milk in the process. They say it takes about 5 gallons of milk to master the perfect froth. I am half way there!

...reading 'Divergent', which is taking me ages to finish. Obviously this is not something I am enjoying very much. I’m still trying to stick to it to give it couple more chances to redeem itself before the ending; so that I can finally say ‘yeah, I gave it a try till the end, but it still sucked’. Yes, I have issues.

...listening to comedy channels on Spotify. Sometimes music bores me. I tend to listen to the same thing over and over. So it was kind of refreshing to stumble upon the ‘word’ section on Spotify.

...watching nothing is particular. I’m eagerly waiting for Fall TV to start. Although I’ve been eyeing the final season of 'The Killing' on Netflix. OMG, that show it soooo good‼ If you have Netflix, go watch it now.

...wearing my Sketchers Go Walk shoes everywhere. They look a bit dorky. But they are great for walking (duh). And I am finding myself making excuses to run around the block randomly.

...enjoying our new apartment, specially its proximity to so many fun places. I am thoroughly enjoying walks on the trail that is nearby. It’s quite pretty with a creek and everything.

Being Nostalgic

Hello there! I am back on the blog!!(I hope).

We have moved 2000 miles from the PNW. It was quite hard to leave such a beautiful place and tons of friends. Although the new place offers a lot of possibilities, it will never be the same. I find myself nostalgic frequently. Before I left, I took some snapshots of the old place. Here are some of my favorites.

In the meantime, I'm getting settled in. I have loads of fun ideas brewing in my head for the new place. I'll be back with some new patterns and projects soon.

Currently I am...

• reading some of my favorite blogs, Oh Mishka and Your Wishcake in particular, for more blogging ideas. I love these girls! They are so inspirational and creative!

• obsessed with Once Upon a Time. Who doesn't love fairytales with a twist?  And I've always been a Jennifer Morrison fan; so it was quite inevitable that I'd get sucked into this. And the stories are fascinating! Every week I try to guess which fairytale they are referring to. Speaking of fairy tales, have you watched Grimm? It's like a cross between fairy tales and Buffy. Also fascinating.

• also in love with Revenge. (Yes, I watch way too much TV these days).

• listening to more soft melodies. New favorites,  A Thousand Years (I know, I'm late to the party) and I Won't Give Up.

• enjoying my e-magazine subscriptions. I love me some Real Simple!

• resting  more to fight the whirlwind of vertigo attacks. All the dizziness and nausea is kinda gross.

• having yogurts again. I missed it so much! I've always been a fan but stop eating because of the cold.

• a little on the edge about job search. Most of the jobs want some sort of technical experience, which I don't have. *sigh*

• content with my body and weight loss. I wasn't trying much lately, so I didn't lose much. But I didn't gain any weight either. Yay!

• falling in love with Twitter again. And connecting with people, in general. People are awesome!

Random Thoughts : On Colors

•  My natural hair color is darkest brown/almost black. I say almost black because it has reddish undertones.I have chocolate brown highlights.
• I am yet to find out what my skin tone is called. I think I am a light tan. In my country I’m considered fair. :P
• On bad days I wear Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation in Shell Beige. That’s the closest color that matches my skin tone (that I have found so far).
• My current favorite colors are plum, wine red and grey.
• People find it odd that I don’t like the color green. I think to belongs to plants, not in my closet.
• After studying two years in atmospheric science, now I cannot give a straightforward answer of why is sky blue? It is all because something called Rayleigh Scattering which is a fancy term to describe how the shortest wavelength (color) of light is scattered the most. Then the question remains, why is it not violet?

10 Things About Me

I just realized, I’ve written couple of posts already but didn’t tell much about myself. Silly me! Let me introduce myself properly. My name is Farah. I’m a Bangladeshi living in Washington state. Oops! You know that already! Here are a few random things.

1. I am proud to be an engineer. I have a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Environmental Engineering. Engineering taught to me embrace my inner bad ass.
2. I have been practicing yoga on and off since I was 13. I am a home practitioner; still headstands are a long way to go.
3. I love the taste/smell of coffee but gave it up because of its acidity. Now I’m addicted to green tea. I love it both ways – iced and hot. Tip: do not brew green tea with boiling water; it will turn bitter. Instead cool the boiling water a little (5-7 mins) before pouring over your tea.
4. I cook with way too much garlic, cumin and cilantro.
5. I love polka dots. ‘Nuf said.
6. I am a PC girl. Although I want to switch to Mac sometimes, I don’t think I’ll ever do it.
7. I am very law-abiding almost to the point of annoying. Although I’ll break social norms whenever I can.
8. I can't stand the smell of clementine. It drives me nuts.
9. I have a soft spot for anything sci-fi (specially TV shows). My favorites are Star Trek : TNG, Enterprise, and Eureka.
10. If I could I would eat Nutella or Haleem (a traditional bengali spicy food made with pulses, grains and meat) for the rest of my life.

My Crochet Love

The first time I ever picked up a crochet hook was when I was about 14. You see, I come from a family with a love for crafts. I have/had grand mothers, aunts who had practiced a ton of stuffs. Crochet, knitting , needlepoint... you name it, they've done it. So, the first time I saw my aunt doing crochet (she was making a lace doily with a steel hook), I was really intrigued. I urged her to teach me. She was quite diligent teaching me few basic stitches. My first few times were not so good. My stitches were loose, my finishing was sloppy. May be because of the steel hook (I still dread them). Or may be because I was just starting out.

Anyways, first forward 14 more years. I was searching for an easy craft to do. And I thought I could start doing crochet again. And I fell in love with it! My problem is I cannot focus on large projects. So I do a lot of small projects. Hats, gloves...something that takes couple of hours to finish. Last Christmas I made a bunch of hats for gifts. I was thrilled when they really liked them. It's such a great feeling!