Stylish Spaces

Sometimes I think talk is so overrated. Talk is the key to all chaos we see in the world around us. The religious and political divides; the socialists and the communists; the left wings and the right wings; the anarchists and the pacifists; all spew ‘talks’ to discredit and belittle others and make themselves believe in their petty causes, which to be honest are not that inherently different in that they serve them and no one else. Wouldn't the world be a peaceful place if we could silence the constant spew of talk and instead listened or read. Listened to ourselves for starters. Listened keenly to little voices of reason and intuition and conscience we are all born with but that we learn to so affectively drown as we grow older and join self-serving causes; in hopes of worldly redemption from people like us - which we don't need to begin with. The only redemption we need is from the higher power that created us with a clear purpose or in our own eyes.  I am not a big be...

If anything can give us solace in times of grief or any hardship, its these words ' and   this too shall pass' . For these words give us hope and a glimpse of a time beyond now; when all this we are going through right now will not be anymore. These words are the balm that ease the sting of now and thicken our resolve to get through now as little scathed as possible. And what about when times are good and happy and exciting? These very words heighten our senses and make us appreciate and experience now with abandon, so when now and all its happy tidings do pass, we have sweet memories strongly imprinted in our mind, heart and soul! That's the beauty of time, it keeps on moving.

I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that despite lofty advertising laced with celebrity endorsments, luxury brands and brands loyalty is on a rapid decline around the  world - and the reasons are simple and make a lot of logical sense. They are too accessible and have lost their niche. Most are 'meh' and fail to inspire us to objects of desire we can aspire to. Gone are the days when flagship brand stores were limited to exclusive addresses in a select few cities around the world. People had to plan exclusive trips to those cities, book an appointment at the store and be treated like royalty to shop for a coveted handbag or wrap. Nowadays go to any decent sized city anywhere around the world and lo and behold, there staring you in the face is a famous fashion retail brand with foot traffic rivaling the theme parks. Corporate greed and globality has diminished the exclusivity of brands to the extent that there is nothing covetable about them anymore. Hence more and more peop...

I lost my mother a little over a year ago to a multitude of escalating health issues in a relatively short span of time at the age of 76. In the last few months of her life, she displayed all the classic signs of mental withdrawal and rapid physical decline; gently preparing us, her children, for her departure. But despite best prep, you can never fathom what it would be like to live without your mom. And sadly now I do - and this worries me no end for my own kids. It's not the grief of losing a parent I am worried about. Even though I miss my mother terribly, I do understand it was her time to go, she was ready to as well. Barely able to, she whispered  'let me go' to my sister who was attending to her the day before she died. No, death and the cascading grief that follows does not worry me as much as the loss of the voice of reason.  Because that's what I lost with my mothers demise. The voice of reason and sanity in my life. The bandaid to all my scrapes a...

Blue has always been my all time favourite colour.  My wardrobe for the most part (two-thirds) is blue. Blue jeans and a navy jumper is my staple wear most days. But somehow when it comes to home furnishings, I have always shied away from blue - simply because for maximum impact blue colour requires total commitment. Moreover it  takes you down a decorating path where your complementing and contrasting colour choices become a tad restrictive -and for a non-commitment decorator like me, that is, someone who periodically likes to move things around a bit in the house for a fresher look (not to mention on the cheap!) - being committed to blue colour scheme just never made much financial sense. Also, fairly frequent house moves and and living in rented houses meant I had to stick with colours that I could  throw together with ease. So I stayed away from blue.  But that does not mean I don't like blue colour schemes. On the contrary, I think blue colour makes one of ...

My son turns 21 tomorrow. He is my first born and as first borns do, I learnt far more about myself from having and raising him than I imagine he ever did from me. Every milestone with him was more exciting, exhilarating and sometimes nerve-racking because it was my first as well. First tooth, first hospital visits, first spoken word, first baby steps, first long-haul air travel, first nursery, first school play, first playdate, first parent's evening, first SATs, first GCSEs, and the list goes on and on.  Being a first born also meant I made all my never-to-be-repeated classic parenting mistakes on him. In that he certainly got a raw deal. It also meant I burdened him at times with being more responsible, or setting an example for his younger sisters where he could have certainly done with being more carefree. I have unashamedly over the years relied on him to validate myself as a mom, but both of us have fooled each other not one bit. I am his mom or 'mumma' as he ca...

I really can't speak for anyone else here, but in my moments of solace, every introspection or retrospection I have given myself the luxury to indulge in regarding what I have deemed my many 'failures'  in life have all led me to one very uncomfortable realization - that most often than not I was the one standing in the way of my success and happiness. Yep! No one else. For all my subconscious strategies of blaming x, y or z for my unhappiness; all the while it was me sabotaging my own success and holding me back from reaching my full potential. We really are more in control of our destiny than we think. But... herein lies the very problem - control -  and our desire to have too much of it. We are so conditioned to take control, act now, grip things by the horn, be in the forefront and try our hardest to make a success out of every situation - that sometimes we forget to relinquish it; which we absolutely must do if w...