Worry

I woke up this morning, turn on the computer...browse a bit about some stuffs and came across a quote that can somehow be a guideline when I worry about something. Often we came across something accidentally but then that little something can be meaningful for us. Just like the quote below, it's one of those quote I will always look up when I started to worry about something in the future =) It's a quote of Francis Chan, an American preacher. Hope you like it..

“Worry implies that we don’t quite trust God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives. Stress says the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace towards others, or our tight grip of control. Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it’s okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we’ve been forgiven, that our lives are brief … and that in the context of God’s strength, our problems are small, indeed.”

- Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God - (image via favim)

Simple Pasta

I think today is the right time for recipe sharing...the simple one of course =) Most of us can get really busy in the middle of the week that sometimes we don't have enough time to prepare ourselves a decent meal. But I found this meal that we can prepare in only 10 minutes. It's Baby Spinach, Tomato and Basil Pasta made by Veggieful. Below is the recipe. 

Baby Spinach, Tomato and Basil Pasta

Ingredients:

•  300g angel hair pasta
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup basil, chopped
• 3-4 cups baby spinach
• 4 cups tomato, diced
• 1 red chilli, de-seeded and minced (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon wedges to serve

Directions:

1. Cook angel hair pasta according to package instructions.
2. Toss garlic, basil, baby spinach, tomato and chilli in a large bowl.
3. Add a little drizzle of olive oil.
4. Take pasta off heat and drain once ready.
5. Add to the bowl with the fresh yum yums.
6. Drizzle olive oil in to coat. Toss carefully to combine.
7. Serve with salt and pepper and squeeze on the lemon wedges.

Tips

• Don't forget that angel hair cooks very quickly.
• You can substitute red chilli for dried red chilli flakes if needed.

(recipe and images by Veggieful.com)

Questions..

I found all the images below from thoughtquestions. Every question requires an answer, an answer that's not hard, not easy but full of thoughts. Maybe we can easily answer the questions below but when we think about it more and more, we can spend time to re-think about the answer...

(all images via thoughtquestions)

Organize Your Things..

Thinking about doing some cleaning of the messy stuff? I love cleaning up and organizing messy things. It's one of my satisfaction if I can get all those messy things become neat. Do you know how Monica from Friends TV series loves to clean up all the messy things? That's exactly how I feel when I got a chance to clean the clean out the clutter =) Here are some ideas to clean the clutter in your house, your room or maybe your office. Simple but clever ideas. 

(Keep Matching Sheets Together in the Closet)

(Desk organizer)

(Button as earring holder)

                               

(Fold a fitted sheet)

(Shoe box as drawer divider)

(image source: marthastewart, marthastewart, realsimple, stephmodo, realsimple)

Grow Better..

Hi everyone, I'm back from my holiday. This last week was a Ramadan holiday here in my country. So I was enjoying myself and try to stay away from the computer =p It was a holiday full of family gathering, for the last four days I was busy going here and there visiting all the other families. It was tiring but it was fun knowing that you still have families that care for you and those that you care also. So, here I am back on my blog. I think it would be nice to start the new days after holiday by reading some stuff that can make us grow even better as a human. Here is an article called "12 Tough Truths that Help You Grow" via Marc and Angel.

12 Tough Truths that Help You Grow

1. Everything is as it should be. It’s crazy how you always end up where you’re meant to be – how even the most tragic and stressful situations eventually teach you important lessons that you never dreamed you were going to learn. Remember, oftentimes when things are falling apart, they are actually falling into place.
2. Not until you are lost in this world can you begin to find your true self. Realizing you are lost is the first step to living the life you want. The second step is leaving the life you don’t want. Making a big life change is pretty scary. But you know what’s even scarier? Regret. Vision without action is a daydream, and action without vision is a nightmare. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it. Read Awaken the Giant Within.
3. It’s usually the deepest pain which empowers you to grow to your full potential. It’s the scary, stressful choices that end up being the most worthwhile. Without pain, there would be no change. But remember, pain, just like everything in life, is meant to be learned from and then released.
4. One of the hardest decisions you will ever face in life is choosing whether to walk away or take another step forward. If you catch yourself in a cycle of trying to change someone, or defending yourself again someone who is trying to change you, walk away. But if you are pursuing a dream, take another step. And don’t forget that sometimes this step will involve modifying your dream, or planning a new one – it’s OK to change your mind or have more than one dream.
5. You have to take care of yourself first. Before befriending others, you have to be your own friend. Before correcting others, you have to correct yourself. Before making others happy, you have to make yourself happy. It’s not called selfishness, it’s called personal development. Once you balance yourself, only then can you balance the world around you.
6. One of the greatest freedoms is truly not caring what everyone else thinks of you. As long as you are worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them. Only when you require no approval from outside yourself, can you own yourself.
7. You may need to be single for awhile before you realize that, although the co-owned belongings from your failed relationships might not have been divided equally, the issues that destroyed the relationships likely were. For how can you stand confidently alone, or see the same issues arising in your newest relationship, and not realize which broken pieces belong to you? Owning your issues, and dealing with them, will make you far happier in the long run, than owning anything else in this world.
8. The only thing you can absolutely control is how you react to things out of your control. The more you can adapt to the situations in life, the more powerful your highs will be, and the more quickly you’ll be able to bounce back from the lows in your life. Put most simply: being at peace means being in a state of complete acceptance of all that is, right here, right now.
9. Some people will lie to you. Remember, an honest enemy is better than a friend who lies. Pay less attention to what people say, and more attention to what they do. Their actions will show you the truth, which will help you measure the true quality of your relationship in the long-term.
10. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never have enough. If you are thankful for what you do have, you will end up having even more. Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold; happiness dwells in the soul. Abundance is not about how much you have, it’s how you feel about what you have. When you take things for granted, your happiness gets taken away.
11. Yes, you have failed in the past. But don’t judge yourself by your past, you don’t live there anymore. Just because you’re not where you want to be today doesn’t mean you won’t be there someday. You can turn it all around in the blink of an eye by making a simple choice to stand back up – to try again, to love again, to live again, and to dream again.
12. Everything is going to be alright; maybe not today, but eventually. There will be times when it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong. And you might feel like you will be stuck in this rut forever, but you won’t. Sure the sun stops shining sometimes, and you may get a huge thunderstorm or two, but eventually the sun will come out to shine. Sometimes it’s just a matter of us staying as positive as possible in order to make it to see the sunshine break through the clouds again.

(article via marcandangel.com - image via weheartit.com)

Be Open...

I am completely in love with this Buddha quote. Sometimes we don't have to worry about things that bother us too much. All we can do is just let ourselves to be open with things and telling ourselves that not all things are suitable for our mind and all we can do perhaps it to let go of those things. Let our mind be at ease...

Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed.

- Buddha - 

(image via favim)

Fun House

Living a colorful life surely is the best feeling for us. We won't be bothered to feel bored and we'll always feel fresh to do anything we want to do. Living in a colorful home I think will also bring the same feeling. Can you imagine everyday waking up in a house that's so refreshing, bright and fun? I would think it will be able to give us the best mood to start the day. The house below is one of the examples. The decor is so colorful, it's colorful in a good way and also fun to live. I found the house via eclecticlivinghome. It's a house located in NY. Check it out...

(all images via eclecticlivinghome)

Enhance Your Life...

Hi Monday..Hi everyone. Hope you had a great weekend. So, what's your plan for this week, any new plan? Maybe before you do something new or something big, you can do this simple joy to make your life a bit more meaningful. I found this article called "10 Life-Enhancing Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less" by Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D (via). It's something that can enhance your life. What makes it good is that you can do it in ten minutes or even less My favorite are point 3, 5 and 7. How about you?

10 Life-Enhancing Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less

It usually takes us much longer to change our moods than we’d like it to take. Here are ten things you can do in ten minutes or less that will have a positive emotional effect on you and those you love.

1. Watch "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. See it online at Oprah.com. This is a deeply moving segment that may be the best ten minutes you've ever invested in front of a computer.
2. Spend a little while watching the sunset with your mate. Nothing extra is necessary. Just sit and take in the natural beauty of the sky and appreciate being able to share it with the one you love.
3. Sit quietly by yourself. It doesn't really matter where or when. Just let your feelings bubble up and then experience the thoughts flowing out of your mind. Clearing your head and heart will give you extra energy to get through the rest of the day.
4. Write a thank you note to your mate. When was the last time you thanked your partner for just being who he or she is and being with you? Doing this in writing will give your partner something to cherish for the rest of his or her life.
5. Take out your oldest family photo album and look through it. The experience will fill you with fond memories and perhaps make you a bit wistful for days gone by.
6. Play with a child. Most kids have short attention spans; ten minutes of quality time from a loving adult can make their day. It will also help you stay in touch with the child inside of you.
7. Visualize or imagine a positive outcome for any issue. Medical doctors recommend visualization to patients with chronic and potentially fatal illnesses. If it can help them, it can do the same for you.
8. Go to bed with the one you love ten minutes earlier than usual. Then spend that time just holding each other. Let the feeling of warmth from your mate move through you.
9. Hang out by some water. Studies show that hospital patients who can see a natural body of water from their beds get better at a 30 percent faster rate. If you're not near the coast or a lake, try taking a bath. Doing so is also healing.
10. Get your body moving. Shake, twist, and jump around. Let yourself feel the joy of moving to your favorite music, or just the sounds in your head. Run, walk, and bike to your hearts content. You will live longer and love it more.

(article source: psychologytoday.com - image source: bota-fe.tumblr.com)

Recipe Images..

I came across this cooking site called Behind The Bites. It's not like any other cooking sites where you can only see recipes and pictures. This site offers you more than that, I love how the owner of the site put the recipe and the picture in one image. It's so easy to see and of course won't make you bored. Here are some of the images from the site.

(all images by Behind The Bites)

Kimo's Hawaiian Rules

I found this Hawaiian Rules on sparkpeople. It's a simple 10 points of life that I found very interesting. Simple yet thoughtful. Why bother searching for difficult life rules when you can easily dig down the simple things. So, here are the rules.

Kimo's Hawaiian Rules:

1) Never judge a day by the weather.

2) The best things in life aren't things.

3) Tell the truth - there's less to remember.

4) Speak softly and wear a loud shirt.

5) Goals are deceptive - the unaimed arrow never misses.

6) He who dies with the most toys - still dies.

7) Age is relative - when you're over the hill, you pick up speed.

8) There are 2 ways to be rich - make more or desire less.

9) Beauty is internal - looks mean nothing.

10) No Rain - No Rainbows.

(images via lost--in--memories.tumblr.com)

Roof Top Coffee Spot

I don't know what you think but I'm sure I'm not brave enough to have this so-called dare breakfast spot. Look at the images below, it's so unique I don't think I'm going to climb up the roof and have a breakfast there. But surely the weather will be nicer and the view of course will be nicer up there. The designer of the design is Aine Bunikyte. (via)

(images via designrulz)

Sugar Lips..

I found these images of lips below on Behance. It was like falling in love at the first sight. I love seeing the art of make up. Love seeing the make up artists works their magic. It's as if people's faces are dolls or mannequin...spotless and perfect!

(image source: behance.net)

Open Mind

I always thought that being an open minded person is good. You don't have to follow things that you don't like by being an open minded person but at least by having an open minded thoughts, we will be able to know what's going on in this world. When we are able to know things people do and thoughts that people have, I think we will have some kind of senses to know what's good and what's bad for us. Therefore, we'll be able to know the things that's suitable for us by not always wanting to do what other people always do. Below is a quote that out it all together about open minded. And also, I've found the benefits of being an open minded via Positively Present.

The 7 Benefits of Being Open-Minded

1. Letting go of control. When you open your mind, you free yourself from having to be in complete control of your thoughts. You allow yourself to experience new ideas and thoughts and you challenge the beliefs you currently have. It can be very liberating to look at the world through an open mind. 
2. Experiencing changes. Opening up your mind to new ideas allows you to the opportunity to change what you think and how you view the world. Now, this doesn't mean you necessarily will change your beliefs, but you have the option to when you think with an open mind. 
3. Making yourself vulnerable. One of the scariest (and greatest) things about seeing the world through an open mind is making yourself vulnerable. In agreeing to have an open-minded view of the world, you're admitting you don't know everything and that there are possibilities you may not have considered. This vulnerability can be both terrifying and exhilarating. 
4. Making mistakes. Making mistakes doesn't seem like it would be much of a benefit, but it truly is. When you open your mind and allow yourself to see things from others' perspectives, you allow yourself not only to recognize potential mistakes you've made, but also to make new mistakes. Doesn't sound like much fun, but it's a great thing to fall and get back up again. 
5. Strengthening yourself. Open-mindedness provides a platform on which you can build, piling one idea on top of another. With an open mind you can learn about new things and you can use the new ideas to build on the old ideas. Everything you experience can add up, strengthening who you are and what you believe in. It's very hard to build on experiences without an open mind. 
6. Gaining confidence. When you live with an open mind, you have a strong sense of self. You are not confined by your own beliefs, nor are you confined by the beliefs of others. For that reason, you are able to have and gain confidence as you learn more and more about the world around you. Open-mindedness helps you to learn and grow, strengthening your belief in yourself.  
7. Being honest. There is an honesty that comes with an open mind because being open-minded means admitting that you aren't all-knowing. It means believing that whatever truth you find might always have more to it than you realize. This understanding creates an underlying sense of honesty that permeates the character of anyone who lives with an open mind. 

(article source: positivelypresent.com- image source: ffffound.com)

Harsh Truths...

I found this great article from Dumb Little Man (Tips For Life). The title of the article is called "8 Harsh Truths that Will Improve Your Life". I guess it's true that once in our life we need to be able to deal with something that's harsh, something that can really hurt our feelings. I think it's a normal thing in life, and I also think that those harsh moments can actually or eventually bring us strength if we are able to know the real meaning of the moments. Our feelings need to be trained to be strong so that we won't always be weak when we're facing such a hard time. Don't you think so? So, here are 8 points of the harsh truths the will improve your life =)

"8 Harsh Truths that Will Improve Your Life"

• Friends Come and Go

When I was in high school, I always imagined spending most of my life with the same people. Then when I realized I had to move to college, that all changed. Once again, I made some close college friends but left them all behind when I moved from the UK to South Africa.

Friends will always come and go in your life; even though I'm back in the UK now, all my friends are in university around the country and not exactly in meeting distance. It can be a hard thing to accept, but many of the friends you spend time with now, might not be around in the next few years.

Important Lesson: There are an abundance of amazing people out there for you to meet and build relationships with. If you don't have many friends, don't stress, there are literally billions of friendship possibilities.

• You Won't Always Get What You Want

I remember one Christmas when the only thing I had asked for was some second hand turntables for DJ'ing. I didn't ask for anything else so I was pretty sure I would get them. However, they didn't come and I ended up having to save for 10 months on my own in order to purchase them.

You won't always get what you want in life: people are going to be late, people will let you down, items you want won't always be available.

Important Lesson: Don't look for happiness in material possessions and if things don't go your way, learn to accept them. Life's too short to stay miserable.

• Many People Will Love You, but Many Will Not

Whether you are a celebrity, a charity worker or just a normal guy, there are going to be people that love you and what you do, but there's also going to be plenty people that don't like you. There are many possible reasons such as jealousy, similarities to them, or just not being someone's 'type'.

Important Lesson: Not everyone is always going to like you, and that's fine. If people want to spend time talking about you then that is their problem. You are perfect as you are. You shouldn't need everyone to like you to have some form of self-esteem.

• Nobody Can Transform Your Life Like You Can

Wouldn't it be lovely if we didn't have to go up on stage, but we could just read a paragraph of a blog post and become a perfect public speaker? Or, wouldn't it be nice if our friends could do daring things, and we would benefit from them as well?

The support and help of others can only take you so far, you're going to have to do your own thing to make big changes in your life situation.

Important Lesson: Do things for yourself and learn to stand on your own two feet. People you rely on won't be around forever, and you don't want to have to use others as a crutch to get anywhere in life.

• You Are Going to Fail

I built more than 7 websites before I created one that actually started making me any money. I even put hundreds of hours into my own company that I actually closed down last month. Whether it is exams, projects, companies, or even the odd pub quiz, there are times when you will fail to meet your goals.

As the saying goes - "Only those who are asleep make no mistakes".

Important Lesson: You can learn a lot from others, but it is your own failures that are going to teach you the most valuable lessons in life. Learn from your failures, embrace them, and use them to drive you on to success.

• Rain Will Sometimes Cancel Play

On some occasions when you have your shorts on and you're ready for the beach, it's going to rain. Or, when you get to that first hole and you're ready to tee off - the clouds will open. Things aren't always going to go how you would like them to.

Important Lesson: Don't stress about the things that you can't control. Learn to live with things that happen. You can't change the past, but you can change how you react to things.

• There May Be No Tomorrow

At least, not for you anyway. We never know what is around the corner, a car crash, a heart attack; heck...even the end of the world is possible. Let's face it, although we would all like to live till we are 70 years old, that's certainly not always the case. There will be one day that is our last.

Important Lesson: Make the most of each day. Make sure the people you care about actually know it, don't worry about little matters, just make sure you spend time doing the things you love.

• Someone Else Will Always Have More

Whether it is money, partners, friends or even blog subscribers, there will always be areas where other people have more than you. That isn't to say you can't become abundant in whatever you want (i.e. someone always had more money than Warren Buffett until 2008 when he was noted to be the richest man in the world).

The wanting of more actually holds a very important lesson...

Important Lesson: Just because someone has 'more', that doesn't mean they are happy. Read the biography of any celebrity and they will tell you they enjoy their process of earning money, rather than what money can do to make them happy. In other words, focus on what you love, not what the thing you love can get you.

(article source: dumblittleman.com - image source: weheartit)