big shoes to fill

sanjay trying to wear ryan's big flip flops

i will pass the gmat

i decided to start making little signs to put in my apartment reminding me that i will pass the gmat. it is roughly two weeks away, gah!!

here are some of my signs:

today i wander in wonder

i found this over at the zen in you and it just really resonated with me.

july is a month of independence

in my last post i was going to talk about july being a month of celebration (aka me passing the gmat). i was going to write about the 4th of july - independence day. it was then that i realized just how many independence days all over the world are celebrated in july:

july 1st: - burundi - independence from belgium in 1962

- canada - independence from united kingdom in 1867

- rwanda - independence from belgium in 1962

july 3rd: - belarus - liberation from minsk from german occupation by soviet troops in 1944

july 4th: - united states of america - independence from kingdom of great britain in 1776

july 5th: - venezuela - independence from spain in 1811

- algeria - independence from france in 1962

- cape verde islands - independence from portugal in 1975

july 6th: - malawi - independence from united kingdom in 1964

july 7th: - solomon islands - independence from united kingdom in 1978

july 9th: - argentina - independence from spain in 1816

july 10th: - bahamas - independence from united kingdom in 1973

july 12th: - sao tome and principe - independence from portugal in 1975

july 20th: - columbia - independence from spain in 1810 (and also august 7th as well)

july 21st: - belgium - belgian revolution- leopold of saxe-coburg-saalfeld takes the oath as
first king of the belgians in 1831

july 26th: - liberia -independence from united states in 1847

- maldives - independence from united kingdom in 1965

- peru - independence from spain in 1821

july 30th: - vanuatu - indpendence from united kingdom and france in 1980

all of these dates (and many, many more independence dates) can be found here.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

photo credit ici

july goals

while i have lots of little goals set for july the main two i am going to focus on will be:


1. finalizing my statement of purpose

2. taking and PASSING the GMAT.

these goals are to be accomplished by the middle of july.

photo credit ici

july already?

well since it is july already, let's review those june goals shall we?!

• FINISH my statement of purpose - didn't FINISH it but got to draft # 3
  

• study for the GMAT - completed exactly 38 hours and 24 minutes of this monotonous goal
  

• complete Yoga Diva's sun salutation & meditation challenge, details are on the right hand side of her blog - ah, got a little behind on some of the days but did pretty well overall
  

• do yoga every day (and with the above challenge this one should be a no brainer!!) - i did some form of yoga every day (even if that was just one or two poses)

and with that i say this to june:
photo credit ici

8 petals of shining w/ summer solstice

as many of you know, last night was kimberly wilson's "shine with summer solstice" tranquilology teleclass. i wanted to share my 8 petals with all of you. here is the link to her next teleclass. you definitely don't want to miss out on all of the fun!

artist's date

sweet carolyn from hang on little tomato sent me an adorable package of artist's date goodies. i used them to pimp up my copy of wreck this journal. it included a funky piece of fabric that i cute up and made a cat-nip cigar for my kitties. (now, i'm not the best seamstress by any stretch, but if it works for the kitties, it works for me.)

sanjay laying on the bed w/ "cat-nip cigar"

sanjay taking a "nip nap" love that >^..^<

i coupled what carolyn had sent me with my left over goodies i collected from my recent trip to dc and made a folder similar to the one i did at kimberly's staycation.
photos by moi

wreck this journal - week 4

wow, i can't believe it's week 4 already!! i'm having such a great time letting go of any inhibitions i had about wrecking a book. ok, ok, sometimes i still get a little nervous but i'm getting better. for example, i find myself setting my coffee cup on my journal rather than the table when i'm sitting at the table studying. that way in case there is any coffee drippings the journal will catch it and not my precious table! :)

without further ado, here is my week amidst the wreckage:

carolyn from hang on little tomato sent me a package earlier this week so i used some of the stickers to put on the front cover of the journal to spice it up a bit.

hey, i did pretty good, 5 for 6 anyways!

these are good thoughts indeed and i truly believe them!oh my god, it's sew wrecked!! tee hee

me and the journal call it a night. for the "wreckord" i do sleep with my head under the pillow more than on it.

stay tuned because the wreckage will continue. and be sure to see more wreckage by checking out jamie ridler's the next chapter.

photos by ryan and moi

cute stuff from dc

here is a quick look at some cute things i bought while in dc. all of these were purchased while running around with city girl.

vision board a la staycation

i decided to post the vision board that i made during my summer solstice staycation w/ kimberly wilson. the idea was given to me by sarah over at the analyst. thanks for the idea sarah.

my vision board was focused on "zen & beauty."

those glossies really make for some major glare, :(
photos by moi

feelin' the love

i am honored to receive the "love ya" blog award from sarah at the analyst. thank you sarah, you are too kind!


About the award: "Apparently this award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

i would like to pass on this award to fabulous 8 bloggers below:

tulips and tea

life breathing

i go right for the blogular

the cooking accountant

the gnome home

a little dash of this a little dash of that

eco yogini

the everything yoga blog

wreck this journal - week 3

previously on "wreck this journal" after doing yoga w/ the journal, inking it up, and throwing it down the streets of philadelphia, melita just couldn't stop herself.

the first task was to "glue these pages together" and that is exactly what she did!! she glued those pages together and for extra measure, taped them, ya know, just in case...
she then found the "place sticky things here" page and gave it the works!! agave nectar, honey, glue & gum. those pages are sure to be a sticky mess...
"lose this page" could this be a metaphor for letting somethings in her life go.... mmeehhh, could be...
stay tuned for next weeks episode of "wreck this journal."

check out more of the wrecking fun by visiting jamie ridler's 'the next chapter.'
photos by ryan

summer solstice staycation

all of you that read kimberly wilson's & city girl's blog know that i attended the summer solstice staycation in dc. i had the most awesome time!!

i've been blogger buddies with the darling city girl for several months now but this was the first time we got to meet in person. we had a fabulous time. i visited a few of the places that she has blogged about such as sweet green (which i had visited before but always a treat to return), hana the japanese grocery store and the wonderful biagio fine chocolates.

this was the third time i had met the ever lovely kimberly. the first time i drove 3 hours to a get your yoga on workshop with her in leesburg, va and the second time was when i was in dc for the cherry blossom festival and went to tranquilspace to take a yoga class.

the 6-hour staycation was a combination of journal writing, yoga, making a vision board, and a presentation by a hilary wentz, a holistic health counselor. hilary also prepared us a wonderful vegetarian lunch with tea sandwiches, fruits, veggies, lots of tea, dark chocolate and cheese.

photo credit: kimberly wilson

photo credit: city girl

i took my camera with me, however i left the battery at home. i know, major bummer since i'm such a shutterbug. to see more of the pics from retreat please visit kimberly's and citygirl's blogs. so, i had city girl to take some pics for me & used her camera a couple of times to take a few pics while in the meridian hill park.
photos of park by moi using city girl's camera

philadelphia

ah me, i am getting so far behind in posting. here are some photos from our philadelphia trip, last weekend.

we ate at a place called a full plate. the food there was absolutely delicious (it truly was a full plate!!) and the atmosphere was great.
when we were driving to terrain at styers we passed by the franklin mint.
i loved all the murals around the city. here are just a few:
here are a few shots of the city:
and of course, no trip would be complete without a pic of a cute city dwelling kitty:
photos by moi