1 From the other Blog: March Photo Challenge

February is almost ending and it's time to post the photo challenge for March. (YEAYYY)

I tell you, making monthly photo challenges is harder than I thought!!! WAAAYY HARDER!! But I'm keeping up...(Yeah babeh!!!!)

The theme for March is FRIENDSHIP.

No unknown teritory for any of us I suppose. :p We all have/had friendships (of some kind)!

Some would make new friends easily, while others don't. Some are overprotective friends and others give their friends as much space as needed to be themselves and express themselves freely.
And to each of us the word friendship brings up different mental pictures and different feelings.
In the end...that's what makes life (and friendship) so exciting...the different point of views!
And THAT'S what it's all about in March. Share with us your two cents on friendship. Take us on a Tour through your point of view on this topic. :)

So here it is:

The rules are the same:

1. Take a pictue a day that you think fits the daily description
   (Remember, it doesn't need to be generic and people don't necessarily need to agree with you. It's how YOU see it!)
2. You can use any photo taking device you want
3. Share your pics with the rest of us.
   (If you're using Twitter, use the hashtag #TourDeFriends)
4. Don't forget to have loads of fun while at it.

Am already excited to see what you will come up with this month. In the past month I've seen some pretty interesting interpretations...LOVED IT.
You can tell your friends to join the challenge too, of course.

Wouldn't it be interesting to see the Tour of Friendship through the eyes of your friends?

If you have any suggestions (maybe for upcoming themes or daily words) or questions you can always mail me at hellodazzlingblog@gmail.com and let me know. Or leave your comments below of course...

Bueno lovebugs,

See you guys around.

X's n' O's

Sy

0 I am but a child

Many a times the most precious gifts come in "packages" we weren't expecting. We always want more...no matter how much we have. And there’s nothing wrong with having more, as long as you don’t harm others in your pursuit.

But how about appreciating the silly little gifts life has given us?

Call me a hoarder if you want, I have a big plastic box filled with the silliest things.

All gotten from people with huge loving hearts...young and old.

I got engaged, ladies and gentlemen. And of course I added the ring to the collection. It is the most beautiful ring someone has ever given to me. I mean, really, you should see the stone in it...it's simply breathtaking...

Words are not enough to tell you...I'm one of the most blessed women of the earth!

(p.s the stone blinks with a red light when you bend your finger. Sorry I couldn't catch that on camera). Don't be jealous ladies...don’t be jealous!

Hahaha, FINE! it's just a ring I got from my niece and nephew the other day. And my heart really smiles every time I remember the excitement in their voices when asking me to guess what my gift was.

Nope, it wasn't my birthday, it wasn't any special occasion, i just got home from work...tired as ever and I got a pink plastic ring with a flashing red light... JUST BECAUSE...

And this is not the first time... I have all the silliest gifts from my babies;

·         a handmade get well soon card from Nhomies,

·          a drawing of a Sunday school (and also an I love you written on the whiteboard in my room) by Giliani,

·         Genesis' name handwritten by himself with colorful pencils and also a person he drew on a big sheet and

·         "money" from Nheiyo (don't tell anybody it's nothing but two mud covered stones).

I also have handwritten letters from the little bro, asking me to come sleep in his room...from waaaayy back...complete with a drawing of our family and his 'signature' on the bottom.

I have empty candy wraps...which were supposed to symbolize a beautiful picture of me, I have leaves, a 'curious George' bandage ...you name the silly gift and I probably have it (and love it).

Perhaps you laughed, or maybe this reminds you of silly gifts you might have gotten as well.

One thing is true...if we could only see the world through a child's eyes again...we'd see that living shouldn't necessarily be as complicated as we make it sometimes.

Yes, we grownups have responsibilities a child doesn't even dream of. We don't have time for silly things you might say. Or, that it's all a waste of time and energy.

On the other hand, take life too serious and you might realize right at the end of your days that you haven't enjoyed the drops of happiness life has served you in the silly. So why don't we loosen up a little? Have a little fun, enjoy the silly (sometimes even nonsensical) things in life.

There's so much we can learn from life if we'd see the world through a child's eyes, thou (of course) with the knowledge we have today.

·    Be Creative!  Children are mega creative. They can create a whole world while playing...merely in their little heads. To the childrens'creativity, there is no boundaries, no impossibilities. They believe just anything is possible...an in the end, who says it isn't so.

·    Have Fun! I've played an unknown board game with my nephew of three the other day. Only (and I mean only) using stones. No rules, no board, no nothing...even the dice was a stone. And we had FUN. Sit down and watch children at play sometime...it is a moment of supreme joy. The child within wants to play a little...let it out!

·    Love HUGE! A child's love is the most beautiful and pure kind of love out there. Even when you get mad at them this minute...and the next thing you know, you get one of the cutest handwritten apologies or a simple hug that melts your anger away.

·    Over think?? NAAAHH!!; Children believe in the impossible, they don't attach any boundaries to their dreams, and they are willing to travel wherever their imagination wants to take them.

·    Playtime!! Do you remember how mad you could get when you were in the middle of a fun game and your parents called you?  (AAARGH MOM..Not now). What if I tell you, you can get playful as much as you want now? Yup...LIFE, LAUGH...ENJOY

You know? Age doesn't really define how old we truly are... And I'm not talking about the physical of course. But WE decide the ultimate age of our souls!!!

Our attitude, our approach to life, our thoughts, our heart and spirits...such things determine much more than our age. They determine what we do and don't achieve. They determine whether we dare to take risks or not. They determine the way we approach relationships and even the way we perceive ourselves.

Age is just a number, if somewhere in your heart you're holding on to that silly little child inside.

The child that gets a giggling attack for the most unexplained reasons. The child that can invent the most delicious cakes with mud, that child that sees the world through a glass of immeasurable possibilities. The child that is willing to take on any adventure at all. The child that dreams... and believes. Yes believes that

·         “superheroes” exist in real life (aha, they do. They just don’t wear super suits. My mom for instance is an awesome one. And I know a few more),

·         love can conquer,

·         there is still good in the world (starting in YOUR heart),

·         you can be anything you set their minds to be (yup...ANYTHING) and...

·         anything is possible.

Hold on...Hold on tight to that playful, beautiful, awesome child within.

I'm not asking you to go through your everyday activities leaping like a little child, I’m just asking you to not lose contact with the little child in you.

The plea is to believe immeasurably, to dream big, to pursue without getting tired, to love more, to do without over thinking...to live your life fully

It's one of the most rejuvenating experiences ever; to get in touch with that inner child every now and then. C'mon...there's nothing shameful about that! You have nothing to lose...

You know, Just saying...

1 From my other Blog: The February Photo Challenge

I am a woman with perfectly crazy friends. And among the things I love about them, I adore that pinch of craziness as well...

A couple of days ago one of them friends messaged me asking if the Resolute January Photo Challenge counts only for January...

"uhhhh...obviously...(raised eyebrow)...why?"

Well he wants to do a picture a day for the whole YEAR (yup, you read that right!). But as he says, the daily "guideline"helps him achieve this.
So we decided that he'll choose a theme for each month and I'll try and help him with the guidelines.

For the simple heck of it,
for if you feel crazy enough to go on another photochallenge or
if you missed the january one and wanted to embark in the true challenge of taking a photo a day...here's the February one.

The theme he chose was "THE WORLD". And after pondering for quite a while I came up with these pin points. How do you see the world? The World through your eyes...

So here it goes.
Take a picture a day of something that you think fits to the daily description. It doesn't need to be generic and people don't necessarily need to agree with you. It's how YOU see it!
Share your pics with the rest of us. If you're using Twitter, use the hashtag #TrueMyEyes .

I don't yet know if I'll do February... I might or I might not.
For as long as I can endure the challenge to make a monthly photochallenge...you'll receive one of these monthly hihihi. I might have to discuss some of the upcoming themes LOL

p.s. It's no mistake that February starts and ends with the same words. :P

Have fun while at it!!! :)

If you have any suggestions (maybe for upcoming themes or daily words) or questions you can always mail me at hellodazzlingblog@gmail.com and let me know. Or leave your comments below of course...

Bueno lovebugs,

See you guys around.

X's n' O's

Sy

0 My mother, the matchmaker

I know, I know...I have not been taking proper care of this blog. And no I'm not going to give you a whole sermon about being too busy to post and all the usual stuff.
I have been paying more attention to my other blog... hellodazzling.blogspot.com. Other than that I have been too lazy to elaborate on topics that DID matter of fact go through my head. I have posts in draft here which still await to be re-read, finished and posted...and blah and blah and blah...

Happy 2013 to you by the way...it's good to know I still have you...
Here's wishing you the very best and much love and happiness!

Now without any further a due...our first topic of 2013...

Mothers!!!!

Mothers are quite predictable. Especially if you know yours well. I can still recall the countless times I battled with mine because she's say "Saidiri, that guy is not for you."

Most of te times they were just male friends thou. And there were no ulterior intentions whatsoever. But my problem with the statement always was "How do you know who's for me?" And yes, at some point the strong character in me sarcastically added "come on mom, you've already chosen your man. Can I now at least have the space to choose mine myself?"
But I know now where I got that strong character from; she wouldn't lay it down a bit. The very next friend she thought I was getting to close to, she'd repeat the same sentence she always did. "I tell you Saidiri...that man...he's not for you."

Things escalated to the point where, I'd barely introduce my mother to my male friends and I try as much as possible not to mention names when I talk about them. Hahaha
'Cause as soon as a name is mentioned too much...you know what comes next.

But little did I know that her constant hum-drum got stuck in my head so intensely, that I choose possible partners through her eyes. No seriously...once things get over the normal friendship barrier I unconciously find myself asking "Would mom accept you?" Hahahahaha as if mom was to have a relationship with them.

Today another male friend sent his greetings to my mom. And mind you, yes, he's just a friend. At first I was going to do nothing about the greeting. But in an act of total madness (and I believe it might have been the flu), I gave my mom the greetings.
And she replied "He seems like a very serious guy to me."
Immediately my brow went up in surprise..."Where is my mom and what have you don to her????"

Those of you, male friends of mine, know what I'm talking about. Some of you have even been THROUGH embarrassing moments when my mom "tried-to-make-her-point"

How surprising, how surprising....
Anyways...happy birthday to her!!! All by all...she's the best I could have ever asked for. Stubborn, old-fashioned, silly at times, hard working and a bunch of other things that would take up a lifetime to mention.
She is, by all means, my very own (matchmaking) mom.
Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel

0 The art of....sleeping!

Anyone who knows me personally is aware of how much I love my 2 nieces and 3 nephews. I mean, what's there not to love about these schnuklepums of mine?
Each one with their very own unique character and traits, and each one so beautifully made... It's love at first sight.

Two of them just LOVE to sleep over at my place any time I can. There are weekends when I'll have to give them a full report of where I'll be going and whether I'll be late...in order for them to calculate if they can come over or not.
And it's very cool to have them over. Until it's time to sleep...then, my love, you'd come to realize how sleeping becomes a total work of art.
My niece ( 9) and my nephew (3) slept over the other night. And nope, I haven't had another sleepless night (technically speaking). They share my bed when they come sleep over...and THAT'S the artistic part of it all.

First, there's the preparations. They want to play, they want to drink, they need to pee, they feel like singing and making music, they want to talk and tell, they want to watch tv, they want to play silly games ( and I need to participate)...and so on.
The last time they slept over, the preparation part went pretty easy. Some music, a silly tickling monster game and as a movie played on my laptop, they both fell asleep around 21:00.
Ant then...ART ACTIVATED!!!

• My niece slept on my nephews' arm and when I finally got up and rolled her over, my nephew climbed right on her back.
• Again I sat straight to get him off her back.
• In just a while he crawls to the end of the bed and places his head on her feet.
• Sat up again and pulled him up, putting his head to rest on the pillow between me and my niece.
• But then it was my niece's turn to turn around and sleep with her legs on the wall and her head on my nephews stomach.

(sigh)

• Got up to put her as she should be...
•  But not long thereafter my nephew decides to sleep horizontally between us. Leaving me sleeping half off the bed and my niece all the way against the wall.

Somehow...somewhere in the middle of the night I managed to fall asleep. Only to wake up to the small hand of my nephew at 7 am, patting me on my face...claiming that it's time to wake up, 'cause it's no longer dark outside.
With my eyes still shut I answered : "No honey, come...sleep a while longer." But there was no way convincing him...he was sure...it was time to wake up. And after fighting the circumstances for about 10 more minutes I sat up straight in bed yawning like a hungry lion. Still very sleepy and majorly exhausted from the whole 'wrestling match'I endured the night before.
As thou it wasn't enough, he randomly jumped back on the bed and straigth on his sisters' back to wake her up. This boy is a tornado...full of energy!

My niece took it differently thou...
She furiously got up and jumped out of the bed; and with a whiny", high pitched voice she stormed out  of the bedroomsaying "...and I didn't EVEN get the chance to sleep!!!


How ironic!

2 That's rather...inappropriate

Everybody has inappropriate stuff right?

RIGHT?

Of course I mean that kind of stuff that is not exactly prohibited but yeah, you prefer not to broadcast their existence.

FINE!!! I’m the only one who has them. Now sit down and let me do my whole talk-of-shame.
Well I have this…this…inappropriate THING. And up until now it’s been perfectly fine to have it. No worries!!! It does its job excellently and I never had to explain its existence…ever!

My days have been pretty long lately. So much to do, so little time. One of the consequences of this schedule is that when I reach home at the end of the day…my physical battery is drained and my internal system is hibernating. EXACTLY what came over me the other day!!!
I’m also house-sitting these days, so I almost only go home to pick up clothes and do the basics. And in my trip home the other night I’ve left the inappropriate object…well…I’ve left it in QUITE an inappropriate place!

And it wasn’t until the next morning when I reached home to pick up some stuff before leaving for work…..that. I. noticed. OMG!!!! I’m deliciously caramelized by nature (speaking of my skin tone of course), but I think I went death pale. This could simply NOT be happening to me…
In a quick maneuver to try and avoid any possible interrogations and mentally remediate the mistake I picked it up and put it in the pocket of the working pants I was wearing. With the intention to put it away as soon as I walk by the… (Cough cough) place I normally keep it. (Read: hide it). It’s been just one night...Just a couple of hours…maybe no one saw it, so I should be fine. Finish this, put it away and close the chapter...

At work later that morning, as I was thinking about what to get for lunch, I reached in my pocket and O to the MG… I never remembered to put the object away. Now I have it in my pocket…AT WORK!
I’m not going to lie to you thou, as uncomfortable as the thought was, I inwardly laughed my butt off. Silly inappropriate object…slept in a visible place and now traveled to work with me…just how COOL is that! What’s next??

In that one second with my hand in my pocket feeling up something that should definitely not be there at THAT moment, I felt like when something randomly bleeps on your body when going through the metal detector machine. But I had no choice; I had to carry my ‘metal’ with me the whole day. The WHOLE day… But every single time I reached down my pocket, it made me secretly smile.

HOW INAPPRPRIATE…

That night I reached home around 21:30pm… Inappropriate thingy went straight to the place where I had to put it since the morning. But undoubtedly, every time I reach for it now…I remember…I remember…

0 Feather-weight...kind of...

I have some amazing colleague-friends!!! Truly...wouldn't trade them for no other...
Why colleague-friends?? Well they're both colleagues and friends of mine...the kind of woman you can vent, cry, smile, laugh, joke and discuss with. But also the kind of women you can go out with in your free time and have one heck of a good time.
Right after my birthday we went for a Sushi night (Thou only two of us really eat sushi hihihi). And while enjoying the night...the waiter brought me this wonderful gift with my drink... in the name of my colleague-friends. My reaction? Mega silly!!! But THIS gift right here, was heaven-sent...

(the card with the 2 beautiful balloons...)

Would you tell..
Fifty minutes of deep-tissue massage at the Hotel Kura Hulanda to a woman that had several nerves and sinews tied in pretty complicated knots!!

These ladies know me well, the gift came right in time. (sigh) Really, could there be a better gift?
Just the thought of it sent a glorious feeling all through my body... Fifty minutes straight of pure relaxation and getting pampered! AAAAHH!!!

That very night when driving home, I looked around to see if I didn't have an audience from any of the cars that rode beside me and screamed several times in my car...purely out of excitement!! (clears throat) I'd appreciate if you don't tell them that... hahahaha! (Just kidding...they read my blogs)

But...well..today was THE day...
I had my appointment this morning at nine! Could hardly wait...

Right after arriving, the lady led me to a dark and cozy room with a soft, relaxing aroma and lit only by small candles. Whispered the instructions kindly, to undress and lie down on the bed and start relaxing...she's be right back!
As soon as she came back and started massaging, my senses danced of pleasure..releasing all the built-up tension. And I felt right how the knots were all letting go...  At some places the masseuse simply pressed harder, but I couldn't even move a finger in protest. It was such a pleasurable pain...breaking down the walls of stress.
I lied there with a silly gigawatt smile on my face drifting away; simply indulging in every minute of such a fascinating moment  So, from my neck right down to every single toe I thoroughly enjoyed of a mind-blowing massage this morning.

But the inevitable moment... right in the middle of my enjoyment...in the blinking of an eye...time ran out. "Nooooooo!!!", I wanted to scream in protest, "you just CAN'T be done yet! I want moooreee..Go on please, go one."
But I just lied there....and smiled as the lady bent down and whispered quick instructions as to how to get up when I was ready to leave so I won't feel dizzy and to drink plenty of water during the day so to get rid of the toxins that where released during the massage, otherwise I might have gotten a headache at the end of the day.
When I got out of the room it was already 10:30am and I fell totally alive, light, new....relieved! A good massage can be oh-so magical.

Even when I left the Spa and drove away to my next stop I felt so relaxed it was scary...hahaha...really! Even thought I had to pay extra attention in traffic, cause my body felt so well I think I might have drifted away...

PRICELESS!!!
The lady taught me of some tricks to see if I can persuade more people into giving me monthly massage coupons or so...I might consider to put them to the test and see if they work hahaha

To my colleague-friend... (Shuki, Claudje, SONbody and Johanna)
Ladies you are THE best! Once more..THANK YOU...for this well-chosen gift. I appreciate you guys so much...

And to you...tense reader...go get yourself massaged for a change...NOW!!
You'll thank me for the tip...really...GO!

Relaxed and happy,

Sy