This is a video of storyteller and slam poet Rives at the TED 2006 conference (the same conference that gave us Sir Ken Robinson’s speech about Creativity & Education), talking about language and communication.

Plus, he’s hot… 6 minutes of hotness… and God, that voice! :p

I love hip hop. & I love violins. Anything live, really.. So put those two together, what do you get?

Paul Dateh… Hip Hop Violinist…

He’s like the male version of Miri Ben Ari, but has vocals (pretty good, check his version of Amel Larrieux’s “Get Up”) and writing under his belt, other than the violin… Quite multi-talented… and cute :p

This is the video that got me hooked (Thanks, Aunt M):

And here’s his Youtube Channel, just in case you want to check out his other hot clips, and here’s his MySpace page so you can hear and download some tracks ;D

Yes, ladies & gentleman… I’m turning into an old old lady.. I’m sewing and baking… *sighs* Boredom does wonders :p

As all of you know from my “Quick Updates” post, I’m getting back into sewing…

And as most of you know, I love working if it involves working with my hands…

What none of you know is that i love ties.. I love them on men, i love their texture and their creative potential…

Since my sewing addiction is starting up again, and I happen to have ties to work on now… Well, this is what I got:

The Buttoned-Up Tie

You wear it over your head as if you’re wearing a necklace, the knot’s sewn into place so you don’t even have to know how to tie a tie… and the loop’s wide enough… even a mit7ajba can wear it and the knot would show..

The Mobile Tie

Not just for the mobile, it can fit anything as wide as an iPod video or a Sony Ericsson P1i :p
It doesn’t dig into the back of your neck like those strings that come with the phone and it looks nice…

The Brooch Tie

Very girly accessory.. worn vertically so the buttons fall down.. I sorta stole/got/adapted this idea from my aunt’s friend.. she uses ties are brooches too, but here’s the catch, she makes them puffy and bigger than this one here.. uses Swarvoski crystals and the whole thing is very eye-catching and.. well, very Kuwaiti.. so this is my Swairified Simplified approach to her idea..

Any orders? :p

Then we move on to my baking lol I’ve always been into making cakes.. so i once went to this exhibition with my mom and bought this…

These qawaleb are so much fun.. When the cakes are done, they look like flowers.. i made small chocolate, vanilla and orange-flavored cakes.. I couldn’t take a pic of the chocolate and vanilla ones, but here are the orange cakes..

Yes, I sorta burned some.. but just the edges! They were very very tasty in general…

Any orders? lol

Here’s Stevie Ann’s version of “Toxic”. Yes, Britney’s “Toxic”.

Stop! Don’t close this window! Believe me, this sounds so much better. I promise, you will NOT want to rip your ears off!

I first found her through her “Toxic” cover on youtube (same as the audio clip), thanks to my cousin iZu….. So I started to research her and look for her songs. Stevie Ann, not my cousin.. and I’m starting to enjoy her work..

Stevie Ann is a Dutch singer/song-writer… Her real name is Anna Stephanie Struijk… she has two albums, “Away from Here” and “Closer To The Heart”.. I’m still trying to get used to her songs.. I still don’t know if she’s pop, country, blues-y or something else completely…

Anyway, here’s another gem that I like from her second album… Give it a listen, this is “As Cold As You”…

Enjoy!

I know I know, I’ve disappeared off the face of the earth… but here I am with a quick update…

• RS and I have reached a weird truce where we try to like each other, and at the same time avoid being anywhere near each other (at least i’m trying).

• RS is part of the Student Council and as one of their activities, they’re having little video-taped interviews with teachers..

She chose to have an interview with me. Zebdat el salfa, it was a “9adoh” prank, but thankfully I kinda sensed something was wrong when she started asking questions that I don’t think the ekh9a’aiya would’ve approved of.

Apparently, the ekh9a’iya thought it’d be a fun idea to allow students to pull pranks like that on the teachers and allowing questions like “We’ve made a survey and found out that 99 *boin6* 9 percent of the students hate you. Will you please just quit your job?” and “Egool el mathal “Anam mathloom wela anam thalem”.. cham marra nayma thalma?”

• The people who live upstairs are having loud sex every night. How do I know? Well, they’re newly-weds and when the apartments were built, the master bedroom was right on top of my bedroom.

The people who lived up there first had young sons and I knew the isolation sucked because the were loud, rowdy and just normal plain boy-ish… I told my parents and they said that I should just try to get used to it cos i’m already living with brothers who’re loud and rowdy…

But now there are newly-weds up there… What am I supposed to tell my parents? “Mom.. Dad.. if the lady upstairs gets pregnant any time soon, I’d have most likely heard the conception.”? How awkward.

• I’m back into sewing again… I went through many steps (I didn’t make the basic bag -it was one of TopShop’s promotion bags-, I just attached the squares -from some extra fabric I had-)… and the result is this:

I’m very proud :p

• I love Gene Kelly… I’m getting into an oldies mood and I tried looking for as many torrents as possible, but all I could find and download is “Singin’ In The Rain“, “An American In Paris” and “The Pirate“…

His being hot and the way he dances helps a LOT! I love the classics (remember this?) :p

• I need some sort of make-over.. and I want to try something new.. The other day some of my mom’s friends mentioned a building in salmiya that had a salon and spa (seperate places but equally good)..

They say the spa -called “MySpa“- has some pretty cool Ayurveda treatments as well as yoga therapy… I might try the hair treatments at the “5 Stones Salon” too…

• I HATE ELECTIONS!! Banners and ads covering the U-Turns, stupid stupid smses, repeated speeches over and over and over again, even teachers are dropping hints and suggesting people to vote for!! AAHH! MABI!

• I’m really into this Flyleaf song, “All Around Me”… Can’t stop listening to it…

And I don’t know what to think of the new Maroon 5 & Rihanna song… I think I like it but i never really liked the original to begin with.. I think Rihanna adds some spice to it…

• Join Swair and Sou’s fan page on Facebook!

That’s all for now…