One rainy afternoon on Queensboro Plaza

I said I couldn't pay attention to the blog, but never that I stopped taking pictures. Even when my Sony Cybershot broke down I continued snapping with my trusty camera phone.

So, waiting for the 7 train I find myself staring at this new glass building and the interesting reflection on the panes. I was mesmerized.

The time is nearly here

For the last month I couldn't pay too much attention to anything besides my daily routine of classes classes and more classes.

It has paid off however, and I am days away from becoming a certified Yoga instructor! In the meantime, I even utilized my luck that Wizard has been working from home to enroll in a prenatal yoga course (since I was already in a training program, it was easy to get in). I am currently a certified PRENATAL yoga instructor as well!

Woah...a month ago, I had not foreseen this turn of events. Had you?

With my guru Janic Clarfield.

And that is not all! There is more news to come in a few days. Hang on to something.

Cookie test subject

It's not really a confession, everyone knows my baking is even worse than my cooking. I've been trying to make Turkish cookies for an eternity and haven't yet impressed Wizard or anyone for that matter. Something is always off.

So with great trepidation, I figured it's the quickest thing to make for a July 4th party so I went through a few internet recipes and churned these out.

The first signs of "maybe I made it this time" came in the form of repeat requests for more from Monster who was the first to taste them. She continued to steal them occasionally from the cookie basket at my uncles' home.

I am one proud cookie-baking-mommy!

Beautiful Amber

I wish I could just gird my bank and hit BUY on my cart at Inspired By Finn.

Hopefully maybe she can make it a bit easier for me through this new discount offer of hers. I have a total of like $38 on her website. What's 40% off on $38?

*Calculating....*

40% Off Children's Items. ANYONE can participate

This promotion is only for:

THE PURCHASE OF YOUTH AMBER NECKLACES size 11” TO 16”, THE BALTIC AMBER NECKLACE ALTERNATIVE, LEG WARMERS or TIGHTS. All other items (including hazelwood jewelry and adult amber are not eligible).

BEFORE YOU ARE ABLE TO USE THE DISCOUNT CODE we need your help advertising this sale! We need you to post about this sale somewhere online and post a link back to this page. You can post your link on any online board(s) where you are active. Once you have posted link(s) to help us advertise our sale, post to this thread with links to the posts you’ve created. The more places you post, the greater discount you earn!

Here is the discount code to use once you’ve done this. If you create:

ONE link online to advertise our sale, the code for you to save 20% is: onelink
TWO links online to advertise our sale, the code for you to save 30% is: 2links
THREE links online to advertise our sale, the code for you to save 40% is: 3links

This code can be entered during the checkout process.

This offer is good through July 5. Our round-bead styles are our best-stocked items.

Be our guest to share this post with friends and family who might like participate.

Our youth jewelry
Legwarmers
Tights
Footless Tights

(photo Inspired By Finn)

The Ayurvedic explanation of my cough

I started coughing a week ago.

Mr. Oz thinks it's because I've been drinking cold water.

Mother Anchari Devdasi (yoga philosophy teacher) thinks I may be holding my words back.

I think I need to speak up about the similarities between Yoga and Islam I've been discovering.

Mr. Oz thinks I'll get killed if I do.

*cough cough cough Cough*

Where was this place?

Our friends Seyhan and Oguz met up with us in Madison Square Park this past Thursday to share a bit of halal gyro and get the kids to hang out in the playground.

They mentioned this place in Soho that had great rice pudding so we thought, Hmmm....new place! Let's try it out.

It was amazing! The first flavor I tested was Man-Made Mascerpone and it was exactly what I loved in the itty bowls we used to get in Lahore, Pakistan. The rice pudding in those clay bowls would be so thick that it wouldn't detach itself even with the bowls all stacked upside down!

As we were enjoying the gumpy goodness, Oguz breaks the news that he knew about this place since 5 years ago.

Screeech...wait a minute.

It's been here for 5 years?

Where was I?

Worst of all, I've known you guys a total of 22 months and you've brought me here NOW?

What? I wasn't GOOD ENOUGH to share this with?

(photo credit: Kean Soo keaner.net)

I think they owe me a bunch of treats at Rice to Riches. Which would be a good thing, because I'm hooked and they're kinda on the expensive side.

Make some money Oguz!

Dana's ridiculous picture

Well, technically MY ridiculous picture, but Dana took it!

This is what you would have seen when you entered Atmananda Saturday morning: Me brandishing power tools.

I should never again pose for people with iPhones.