The first of the two biomes we visited was the Rainforest biomes.  If you have ever been to a hot country, you get the feeling when you walk off the plane of a wall of heat hitting youand immediately drenching you.  This was a bit like that.  The temperature went up to 35 degrees but […]

Little Lady packed away her doll and baby pram some time ago, too old to play, but not quite ready to let go.  Her little sister turned out to be the perfect excuse  to unpack her doll again today.  At 14 months she is still a little young, but her sisters toys certainly piqued her […]

The bank holiday meant that I had an extra day off and some extra time and head space to do something a bit more relaxing.  I took my box of beads out from under my bed where it has (literally) been gathering dust for some time and slowly unpacked what I had.  I always find […]

While the rest of us have been lumbering from work to home to iftar to taraweeh prayer to sehri in a blink of an eye again, Shutterbug Sister has been at work taking pictures and adding new items to our online shop.  Hope you like insh’Allah. This necklace was inspired by the gorgeous graded ombre […]

Have spent yesterday evening cleaning and cooking and continue this morning, but there is work done begrudgingly and work done with a song in your heart and cooking for Eid definitely falls into the latter. I finally got out this bedspread which I bought when I was in Pakistan, it looks lovely but Little Man […]

My better half came home the night before Eid (Chand raat) after six weeks of doing dawah work in California.  As always there was relief and tears on my part and the sweetness of coming home to your loved ones on his.  But always as always there were the small recriminations tucked away in my […]

I’m just counting the things that are keeping me sane. Defo writing for this blog, my children, Mr Removal Man (aka Hubby) and his offerings of free furniture we don’t need, my reading books, reading the Quran and salah though not in any order. After the last but one post complaining of boredom, Allah gave […]

I turn 30 this month which is really no big deal for me, but I have been promising myself for a long time that 30 would be my cut-off point for failing to take proper care of myself. I look at my mum and mother-in-law in their 50’s with their health issues and although no-one […]

We had an extra day off work last week with the May bank holiday, so I thought I would put the time to good use and invest it in the kitchen.  I say invest because it was time spent in the hope of saving time in the near future. I chopped and froze green beans […]

 I decided at the beginning of Ramadan that I didn’t want to make massive shopping trips, or smaller ones every single day or spend hours in the kitchen cooking big, elaborate meals. I realised fairly quickly though that if I could be organised about my shopping it would make my life easier. Otherwise, I’d be heading to […]

For day 6 of my first 40 day challenge, this scene caught my eye.  The kids go off to madrassah after school and Gorgeous gets left behind.  Usually we keep each other company or he goes off to bother his grandmother, but o this occasion when he realised I wasn’t going to let him on the computer or […]

Being always up for fun, the four of us sisters thought what better idea than to fill the week between the henna and wedding reception with a party – four nights in a row!! Duly, a marquee was set up in mum’s back garden and we all pitched in with decorating it.  Kooks got hold […]

There is so much to be grateful for at the moment – my faith, my family, my home, work, my health, the more you think about it, the more you realise that you cannot even begin to understand how much you have to be grateful to Allah (SWT) for, every small and big thing and […]

I have long been attracted by minimalism. It is one of my life goals to give away what I have and have next to nothing by the time I die. A nice thought, but in reality I find myself collecting all sorts of things: gifts, stationary, jewellery, craft supplies. Five children bring their own wealth […]