One of my friends, who is a colleague at work, is very entrepreneurial and always buzzing with great ideas. Last week she suggested to a few different people that we bring in things that we make one lunchtime and try to sell them. As we hadn’t gained permission, we had to do this quietly and […]

I haven’t got long to go with this pregnancy insh’Allah, with my due date at the end of the month and I don’t like to leave the house too much.  I thought I’d make a short trip into town and get everything we need while I am holed up. I needed to get the kids some scrap […]

In the past I have crafted my Eid decorations by hand, this year I have been enjoying creating digital decorations that I can print off and put up. This year I went for a bright summery colour scheme.  In the past I have avoided this type of colour scheme because it doesn’t feel very Eid-like. […]

This weekend we were invited to Fashionista’s home for lunch.  I spotted this tree full of blossoms outside her house.  After so many months of cold and snow right into April, the blossoms just lifted my heart and made me smile.

I love all things creative, be it paper-crafts, jewellery making or handmade gifts.  I have been so busy and exhausted this Ramadan that I haven’t been able to attend to my creative side very much at all.  During previous Ramadan in previous years I have made Ramadan greeting cards, banners for the house and gift […]

I made a banner for my little sisters party, however I left it quite late minute andrealised I didn’t have many alphabet chipboard shapes left.  I salvaged the letters of her name from a few different sets iI had random letters left from (I always run our of A, E, N and H’s) and found some […]

I often come across projects, campaigns and businesses that really capture my imagination with the amazing work they are doing to support and empower communities alhamdulillah. Every now and again something comes along that make you want to contribute in some way and share so that others can too. Sometimes people will get in touch […]

I received two interesting comments yesterday that made me think. The first was from one of my husband’s “auntie” – a lady who calls him her son and who he helps out on occasion with chores and DIY. She sees me as her daughter-in-law; because we all need more than one mum-in-law…. She came to […]

I recently said I was going to have a go at creating something pretty and useful out of my garden insh’Allah. Accordingly I have spent the last week digging, weeding and doing more digging. . We are still in April so they should get plenty of rain, I’m just worried we have another cold snap […]

I am missing the boot sales we get to go to in summer, so made a trip to the charity shop to pick up some books for myself and the boys. Someone had given away shelves of sci-fi classics and I picked a few. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes has been on my reading […]

Most people in my parent’s generation seemed to have a fairly traditional approach to parenting.  It was the same as their parents and the many generations that came before them.  It generally consisted of “do what I tell you, listen to what I say, my word is law”.  The consequences for breaking that law were […]

At the beginning of the children’s school holidays I came to the conclusion that the internet was having a negative affect on my children.  I could see it in the Kardashian culture seeping into my daughters thinking.  I could hear it in the language they were using.  It was becoming visible through their behaviour when […]

My office marked International Women’s Day 2018 with a series of talks by women discussing success, how they got to where they are today and how they balance the different parts of their life.  The conversations I am hearing around me are about gender parity, career progressions, self-belief and equal pay.  As a believer in […]

The kids had a charity bake sale at school that they wanted to contribute to and I thought that this would be something nice to do together.I whizzed up some fairy cakes whilst they were finihsing off their homework with the promise they could decorate them once their homework was done (no nagging required at […]