Want To See a Plane Go Down Your Street?

Asalam waliykum sisters,

This is just a quick and FUN post. Everyone I know, including myself have been suffering from the dreaded flue/cold for the last 2-3 weeks. I thought this would be a nice way to cheer everyone up.

Apparently a while ago, think back in the summer. BA had an advert on TV of a plane going through the streets of London.
Pretty cool eh?! Well if you go to the BA website HERE! you type in your postcode, and you can actually see the plane go down your street.
However, it's literally towards the end of the video for about 2-3 seconds. I tried it on my parents street and that didn't work too well. But when I tried it on my street in London it showed my flat completely and looked really good.

Give it a go, it's a bit of fun to cheer everyone up!

Jazakallah khier


Wasalam -x- 

Hijab Pin Storage

Asalam waliykum sisters, 

If you are a muslimah who wears hijab, I am sure you have experimented with different ways to store your pins. There are so many ways to store your pins and I wanted to share with you how I store mine and the most practical way for me. 

I am totally organised with everything in my home, and everything has its own place. My hijabs are organised and live in a specified place and the same with my pins. I had great difficulty at the start and just kept my pins in little a jewellery box. It was a total pain in the neck, and I had many injuries this way. 

I had a look online and came across different ways to store pins, and the best solution was using some sort of pin cushion. Below are photos of my pin storage methods:

I love henna!

Asalam waliykum sisters,

I want to do a post on one of my most love hobbies!! Apart from cooking, sewing, quilling, painting and photography I also love to henna!!! Firstly who loves henna? Who doesnt? Some dislike the smell, the texture, even the designs are not appealing to some. However, for me, I love everything about henna. I remember from a very young age I always loved henna, and associated it with Weddings, and Eids. Silly as it sounds I remember one Eid not having any henna on my hands and for me it ruined the Eid, I must of been 7-8 years old at the time.

Homemade Washing Powder

Asalam Waliykum, 

Really wanted to share this with you guys. I just watched a programme called Superscrimpers on Channel 4. You can watch the show online on 4OD. Well the one thing that got me excited was being shown how to make an effective homemade laundry detergent. 

I have super sensitive skin, and a few years back my Mama decided to use Daz detergent and 24 hours later I turned into the Michelin Man, for those who do not know who he is, look it up on Google and have a good old laugh. Just shows us how dangerous and toxic washing detergent can be with all those chemicals. And in light of my recent change trying to be more natural and environment friendly with cleaning products, and beauty products this is something I will defiantly try and use from now on.  

What you need: 

- 1 100% vegetable oil unscented soap bar

- 250 mls worth Washing Soda Crystals

- Essential Oil of your choice

- A large pan

What to do:

Bring 1 pint of water to the boil in a large pan.

Whilst the water is being brought to the boil, completely grate the bar of soap add this to the boiled water.

You must make sure that all the soap has been completely dissolved before taking off the heat.

Then add 250 mls of the washing soda crystals, and around 20 drops of your chosen essential oil. Lavender oil is a good option, however, you could use lemon oil, tea tree oil etc. 

This will be more of a gloppy detergent. If you have an old detergent cap fill it with your handmade detergent mixture and place into the drum with your clothes. Store the detergent in an air tight container to prevent it from drying out. Be sure to shake the container before use. 

As far as I am aware you can get these products from many shops in the UK. I hope you guys try this, and do share with everyone and anyone! It is better for the environment, safer to use and also a lot cheaper then shop detergents. 

Jazakallah khier

Wasalam -x- 

Food I make and eat, Home made Pasties

Asalam waliykum all,

I have not done a "Food I make and eat" for a while, so here you go. I actually made this in November! So sorry for the extremely long delay.

I got this recipe for Pasties from Mama, so not sure if you can find the same recipe online or in books. I have not looked up any recipes myself, Mamas one works really well and is quick and easy, if its not broken why fix it. My version will be curry veg pastie, my favorite and the below recipe will give you 11/12 pasties. 

First, you will need the following ingredients:

- 250g Plain/Bread Flour

- 150g Butter 

- One egg

- Pinch of salt

- Tsp of cumin

- 500 ml water

Book Review: Don't Be Sad

Asalam waliykum all, 

Apologies for the delayed review! Lots happening in my hayat/life at the moment. Any-who, lets get into the review!

Don't Be Sad is a book by Dr. A'id Ibn 'Abdullah al-Qarni. For those who do not know him, you can Google him. He is a 'famous' and well respected Sheikh from Saudi Arabia. Mashallah I respect this Sheikh a lot. He speaks with knowledge, experience and sincerity and is very committed to helping Muslims all around the globe. (Dr Al-Qarni Below)

I'm Back!

Asalam waliykum sisters,

How are you all? I hope you are all in the best of health and iman. Some of you may wonder what happened to me.... some probably don't care. I thought I would explain as I miss blogging and have missed out on loads of posts and now I am very very behind with it all.

MIA: missing in action

Asalam waliykum sisters,


Firstly i hope you are all well and in the best of health and iman.
Secondly my apologies for the lack of posts. Basically my laptop stopped working a few months ago and i was using Zawjis, but now his has stopped working... due to an accident i had with it.

Until they are fixed there will not be as many posts as its hard to do them with my phone. It is very tedious to type and transfer photos. Sorry guys, inshallah i will be back soon. :(


jazakallah khier

Wasalam -x-

Product Review: El Hajj Skin Care Range

Asalam waliykum sisters,

I do not know if you remember, at the start of August I wrote a post on 'El hajj skin care range'? This is the link if you want to have a look at it again, click Here! This is going to be a review of the tried and tested products, so please read on to find out how I got on with them.

Firstly I would like to start on the pricing, if you have a look on the websites full range prices are all listed. I think that it is worth it, for this bag I paid £24. Some may think that is a lot, I did think the same at first. However, after much use of the products I changed my mind. I managed to use most of the products on a daily basis and still had some left over at the end of the 3 weeks. So I was impressed they lasted that long.

Farewell Mekkah and Hello UK!

Asalam waliykum Sisters,

Alhamdulillah I am back in the UK and have had a few days of rest. I hope you are all well, in the best of health and iman inshallah. I would just like to mention that all the sisters who contacted me with Duas, they safely reached Mecca and Medina, may Allah accept them from me and may they be answered, ameen.

Here I come Mecca!!

Asalam waliykum sister,

Firstly, So sorry I have not been very successful in getting up the posts I had planned. Preparation for Umrah and Ramadan have really taken over, and I have had little time to do much else such as cooking, painting, and forget the cards. I did not make anything this Ramadan. I promised so many, that I would be sending out cards, so sorry to disappoint you all, I will make it up to you!!

I will be away for over 3 weeks and will be back towards the end of August inshallah. I ask you all to  make dua for my safe journey. Inshallah khier, I am super uber excited to go tomorrow. I have decided to fast tomorrow even though I will be travelling for 16+ hours , the flight from Turkey; where we are stopping over, will offer iftar so Inshallah khier, we will be able to continue fasting.

Please remember me in your duas and inshallah I will keep all my readers from across the world in my duas. Jazakallah khier for your support.

Wasalam -x-

No alcohol and No perfume!!

Asalam waliykum sisters,

As you are all aware of by now, I am off on Umrah. One thing we Muslims know is that while in the state of Ihram/purity that are many do's and Don'ts which I have addressed briefly in a previous post Here!!

One thing that is not permissible while in ihram is to wear perfume, that goes for both men and women. Some may think I only mean perfume that you spray on. Actually I mean any product that contains perfume and scents. Yes, you read correctly no perfume at all.

So from when I do the ritual bath/ghusul I should not use scented products, on my journey also I should not use scented products until I complete all the rights of Umrah. Even after this, women should not use perfume while going to the Masjid Harram the same as visiting any mosque or going outside. However, you can resume to use your normal products such as shampoo, hand wash, etc etc.

That is super tricky for me and for others too, because all the products I use have natural scents. In my old posts I talked about my love of Lush, Well all their products are full of natural scents and guess what I can not use them while in the state of Ihram. That includes my moisturisers, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, cleanser and even deodorant! Now, I am not saying that while in Ihram you have to be stinky and unclean, not at all! But you need to use products which are completely scent free, nada, no scents even artificial perfumes.

Perhaps 10-20 years ago this could of caused a lot of difficulties as brands did not cater to people who required products scent free. So I can imagine many people only able to wash with water. If you are lucky you may of had access to products from Arab countries that are scent free. However, if not that may of meant only washing with water and being unable to control body odour, with no fault of your own.

When I realised the restriction of scents, I to had a moment of horror thinking about not being able to moisturise, smell fresh and wash my hair etc. Alhamdulillah I came across, by total accident, a company that cater to Muslims going on Hajj/umrah. I also tried Google to find other products but usually only one or two items I could find.

El-hajj is the first of its kind, to cater to Muslims making this spiritual journey. You can check out their site Here. Alhamdulillah they have an online store to provide for Muslims all around the world. They are based in Malaysia, Mashallah they have everything there!

Inshallah I hope to do a full review once I have used all the products, so you should expect to see that start of September, Inshallah. They sell everything you need, for a man, I can assure you zawji would get by with shampoo and shower gel and be quiet happy. Me on the other hand is a different story, so Alhamdulillah El-Hajj provide lots of products.

Food, Glorious Food!

Asalam waliykum sisters

Subhanallah already day 15, which means we only have 15 days left. The last 10 days are fast approaching, which are the most blessed in this month of Ramadan.

What is Ramadan for you? Is it the month of Fasting, or the month of Feasting?

Alhamdulillah, we all love food, and we all love to eat. I can say on behalf of most women we all love sweet treats like chocolate. But really is this the right attitude to have? Specifically, is this the right attitude to have in this month, Ramadan? Yes, food is a blessing from Allah and it tastes wonderfully and there is so much variety, but Allah makes it clear in the Quran he dislikes those who are excessive, and that goes for us being excessive with food consumption. This makes me remember the man, from USA years back who won the lottery... with his winnings he bought the comfortable life he always dreamed of. So he sat at home eating, eating and eating and he died of obesity... he was excessive and Allah hates this, it does not benefit you or anyone else.

Umrah

Asalam waliykum my dear sisters,

Sorry that the good news is rather late, I was meant to inform everyone last week. Anyway, as you can tell by the title, I am off on Umrah soon!! we just got our visas so I did not want to say anything until we got the go ahead.

Ramadan Do's and Don'ts

Asalam waliykum Sisters,

Another post related to Ramadan on the "Do's and Don'ts" Inshallah you will find it beneficial and a source of encouragement. Firstly I would like to say that we are all at different stages with our deen, some very practicing  some not so much. Inshallah we are all on the path to Allah but each of our paths are different due to the tests Allah bestows upon us. Some people have a straight path to Allah others find their paths to be a series of winding roads that branch off, filled with obstacles and that does not make them any less of a Muslim or a bad Muslim.

Hijab storage

Asalam waaliykum sisters,

Alhamdulillah Day 5 of Ramadan. Hope you are all doing well, inshallah.

I thought I would share how I store my hijabs with you guys. I was asked by a couple of sisters I know who are struggling due to limitation in space; what is the best way to store hijabs.
If you are looking for a new way to store your hijabs i have one idea. I have tried everything, I used to roll them and store them in my chest of draws, but that took up so much space and by the next day they were a total mess. Plus chest of draws are for my normal clothes.

Tried the hijab hangers, worked well for a while until they broke and snapped. I have a lot of hijabs 3 huge bags worth. So they weighed a lot,  when I hung them the hangers that are made for hijabs could not cope with the weight. I tried using skirt/trouser hangers and clip on a 2-3 per hanger again that took up my whole wardrobe. Not practical especially as I share my wardrobe with zawji.

I know this works well if you have less then 10 hijabs. I must have around 50-60 now so the hangers was no longer practical.

When I was at university 3 years ago now!! subhanllah. The landlord left two wardrobes in my room. So as you can imagine I used one for clothes and the other for hijabs. I just hung the hijab straight onto the poll and this was the tidiest way to store them.

Blessed Ramadan

Asalam waliykum sisters,

I hope you are having a wonderful and fulfilling Ramadan. It is already day 4 subhanallah the month will fly by as usual. I just wanted to take the time to share my love of Ramadan with everyone and inshallah you can tell me how your Ramadan is going too!!

Last Thursday when they announced that Ramadan would begin on Friday the first thing I did was get the Bukhour out! This is something mama always did at home to mark the start of Ramadan and again on the last night of Ramadan. I can not imagine not doing it, just feels the house with a lovely Arabian fragrance and gets me in the Ramadan spirit.

We have this bukhour burner also called a Mabkhara/Majmor, from Saudi Arabia and with it a box of Yemeni Bukhour. Have had this for 3 years and never once used it. I bought some charcoal disks and have been using it for a couple of months. You can get all types of bukhour, resin, wood chippings powdered. I prefer the Yemeni  which is resin formed into small cubes, find they last the longest and the smell is more pleasant when burning.

Naima B Roberts, book review

Asalam waliykum sisters,

I was meant to do this review last week but due to preparation for Ramadan I had no time. Alhamdulillah it is the perfect time now, and the books I will review are in keeping with this month!

A little bit about the author, Naima B roberts a sister, who reverted to Islam in her early 20's. She is an author of many books, runs Sisters Magazine, and has her own blog. I read all about her in one of her first books, From my sisters lips. This book is sort of like an autobiography with other reverts journeys to Islam. I recommend it to every sister, not just those new to the deen.

I think I have read all her books now. You can find out more about her online, just google her name, she has a FB page and her books sell on most online stores like ebay, amazon etc.

The two books I am reviewing are her first books aimed at small children, 3-9. I am an adult, 25 and i loved the book! so use that age range as a rough guide :D

She collaborated with others on these books, as with most children books you can expect lots of colours and pictures to keep your eyes busy, and keep kids engaged.

I originally bought these books for my younger cousins, after reading the content myself (could not help myself). I realised that perhaps they are little too old and would not enjoy it as the reading level is also for younger children. My two cousins are 10 and 13. Therefore, I have decided to keep the books for myself, well not really, but keep them until I can find a good home for them and in that time I will enjoy them!!

Ramadan Kareem 1433

Asalam waliykum sisters!!!

Just a quick post to welcome in the new blessed month. May we all make use of these 30 days. May we all increase our good deeds, our actions so we can reap the rewards. Please make plenty of dua for those who are less fortunate then us, those who have no food, shelter, not free to practise their deen, oppressed and who may not make it through this month. May Allah help those in need.

We should be thankful we have peace, and we are free to fast and pray and that we have the ability to help others. So this month we need to really help those suffering, inshallah. Do the best we can to help others as well as our own families and our self.

Inshallah I will post more on this blessed month in the coming weeks.

Food I make and eat! Mafrouk, Moroccan flat bread

Asalam waliykum sisters,

Alhamdulillah many of you enjoyed the last "Food i make and eat" Chicken and Mushroom pie!

And some of you sisters been interested in how to make authentic mafrouk, flat Moroccan bread. So Alhamdulillah i have been able to make it a few times last week and while at home visiting the famo (Family).

I really wanted to make a post on this as i have seen a few people online and on youtube make this the wrong way and use completely different ingrediants. So i wanted to put up the authentic way.

Really easy to make, not time consuming and quick to cook too enjoy!

This is what mafrouk looks like, its savoury flat bread. With the recipe and quantities I have used you will make 7 medium sized mafrouks. you can make them bigger or smaller, upto you guys :D