April's Book Review by Layal Twal: The Secret

I want chocolate, I want a brand new car, I want to lose weight. We want a lot of things in life. What if you can have whatever you want if you want it badly enough. “The Secret” isn’t an ordinary book. Everybody likes to know secrets. What if this book holds in it the greatest secret?

“The Secret”, written by Rhonda Byrne, describes in a very special way how everything works around us and within our lives. After introducing “the Secret”, the author dedicates individual chapters to specific topics in our lives and explains how the secret applies in each one of them: the secret to money, to relationships, to health and many more. 

What will surprise you the most while reading the book is that you will realize how the secret has always been in your life, it’s just that you weren’t aware of it.

There is this supreme power. It isn’t God, nor Zeus. It’s a law that was taught in school. Back there, it seemed to us like a simple physic law. Truth is it controls all what revolves around us: it is the law of attraction. It is this natural power that makes us who we are today and that controls the lives we are living.

Don’t be so surprised. A few days ago, I was watching the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.  The kid wanted so bad to go visit this factory that he build a mini-factory out of toothpaste caps. He wanted it so bad that he got a first chocolate bar and a second one before he randomly got the third one after finding money on the sidewalk. He wanted it bad enough that he got it. He attracted what he wanted for himself. For those who don’t know the movie you can think of a example from your own life. If you wake up in the morning and hit your toe in the bed’s wood, it will hurt you, you will get angry and you will be asking yourself a similar question: “Why does my life suck so bad that first thing in the morning I hurt myself with the bed?”  Those are bad thoughts and, when you apply the law of attraction (“Like attracts like”) to them, the rest of your day will be just like your morning.

“The Secret” reveals that the thoughts we send out to the universe will come right back to us. Think good thoughts and it will provoke other good thoughts.

“As you learn The Secret, you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want. You will come to know the true magnificence that awaits you in life”.

This might just be the book you need to change your life.

Enjoy reading it, learn from it and apply it. 

DIY Floral Headband

Spring is already here, summer is close and I am enjoying my 5-day Easter vacation. I can’t wait for summer vacation to start but before that, I still have one month and a half before the semester is over. So, meanwhile, I am trying to fulfill my desire of flowers, beach, sun, fun, and travel with a few easy DIY ideas, before the “real deal” is here.

My first DIY is a floral headband. I actually came up with this idea when I was searching for a button to replace one that I had lost. So I started digging in my mom’s sewing box, and to my surprise, I found some really interesting things: Margaret flowers, a white piece of ribbon, and double sided tape. So the idea of a flower headband immediately came to my mind and I thought to myself, “why not!”

So I took the ribbon and wrapped it around my head to get the length needed ( I kept a little more than needed just in case I needed to shorten the ribbon). Then, using a small pair of scissors (you can use nail scissors for example) I made small holes in the middle of the ribbon and I tried to make them equally separated. Then I got some white glue and put some of it on the receptacle of the flower (the part that joins between the upper and lower parts of the flower) and then I pressed. After I had glued all the flowers, I cut a small piece of double sided tape and I linked the two ends of the ribbon.

After a few hours, the headband was dry and ready to wear!! I paired it with a pink neon dress and some flowery flats for a spring-afternoon out!

-          Xoxo,

                                                                                                                                                                T 

5 Minute Snack, Extremely Parfait

Wednesday afternoon. My childhood friend and I haven’t seen each other in a long time. We decide to hang out for a while, and catch up on everything. Both of us are fed up with malls and restaurants and so, for our afternoon reunion, we decide to prepare a little snack together. I immediately think of parfaits: easy, fast, and delicious. At 4, I take the car and pick up my friend. We go grocery shopping, a first for her. We get a basket of fresh strawberries, 2 small boxes of corn flakes, 2 small bags of mini-marshmallows, and jelly beans. We also add a passion fruit/ peach yoghurt for me and a chocolate crème for her. Then, we get back to her house and start layering all the ingredients. That’s how I made mine: crushed corn flakes, yoghurt, strawberry and banana slices, corn flakes again, and finally jelly beans plus marshmallows. As for her, she put some corn flakes, chocolate crème, marshmallows and jelly beans, chocolate crème, and finally jelly beans again… They both turned out well, sufficient for a last minute snack that will surely satisfy your sugary desire. I definitely invite you to try this dessert. Anyone can do it, even a debutant, and it can have any kind of fruit, corn flakes, toppings or yoghurt that you might want.
 

Enjoy :D

                                                                                                            -Xoxo,

                                                                                                                T

Feminist-at-heart: Chantalle Azzi, couture designer

I have been a feminist my whole life. As a woman, I have always wanted to be independent, especially from men, and to be successful and happy on my own. One day, I may consider changing my lifestyle. But for now, I am sticking to who I am. That’s why I went to meet some other women who, like me, struggle to achieve their dreams and to be on their own in this male-dominated society.

Every once in a while, I will try to bring you, readers, the profile of a women activist/writer/stylist/nutritionist etc. who was brave enough to go after her dreams and to realize her vision in a country where she barely has some rights, where she can be beaten to death with no law to protect her, where she can give birth to many children without being able to give them her own nationality.

 

Chantalle Azzi – Owner of “Chantalle Azzi Haute Couture” and “The Little Designer”

 

When I decided to work on this post, I thought that I wanted to meet women who live in my local community and who make a difference in my region. I didn’t want to go down to the capital city, where it’s more likely to find a woman who has her own shop of handmade bags, shoes, or clothes. I wanted to portray the women next door, the lady from the small Man’ouché shop, the girl behind the new concept store, the teacher who works at the public school, etc. and so, I did. I went and met all these beautiful, charming, warrior women who, on a daily basis, get closer and closer to becoming the next “women entrepreneur”.

Today, I bring you the story of a very talented couture designer named Chantalle Azzi who was “stubborn” enough to go after her dreams and to launch her own fashion line at a very young age (She is just 20-years-old!).

As her mother and brother told me when I sat down with them, Chantalle has loved arts since she was a teenager. In grade 8, during math hours, she used to scratch some designs on her notebooks. Seeing that, her mother encouraged her and made her take painting and private fashion design lessons every day of the week during her last 3 years at school. When she graduated, Chantalle chose fashion design as a major and was accepted in a Parisian university to pursue her career.

Almost a year ago, she came back to Lebanon and she recently opened her own shops: “Chantalle Azzi Couture Designer” and “The Little Designer”. Two different shops, two different concepts. The first one carries her name and is mainly the “fashion atelier” where she unleashes her imagination and creates on-demand evening gowns. The second one is totally different. It’s home for her own casual designs and for other designers’ collections as well. “I introduced a new concept when I opened “The Little Designer” shop”, she says. “People are usually used to customizing their eveningwear, but not the outfits they wear on a daily basis. What makes my shop different is that customers come in during the week and ask me to customize the outfits they’re going to wear on the weekend”.

When asked about what her future plans for the brands are, Chantalle said: “I want to have a boutique in every region of Lebanon. More importantly, I always dream of having a charity work where I can join power with other local Lebanese designers to do something good for our community, something good in a fashionable way”.

 

Well, I wish you the best of luck Ms. Azzi and I hope that you will spread your beautiful spirit wherever you can!

 

That’s it for today, my dear readers. Stay tuned for more “feminist-at-heart” profiles.

-Xoxo,

Tala