I love making my own jewellery and these are some of the things I have made. I tend to take apart old jewellery and spent a few Sundays last summer hunting for glass and metal jewellery at boot fairs where it usually costs a few pence (I’m not a fan of plastic as it doesn’t […]

I have been toying with my Word of the Year for 2021 for the last few day and struggling to settle on one word. My word for 2020 was belief – I wrote here about recognising the need to have greater self-belief in myself: “Belief in my good intentions, in my capability, in my competence. […]

A while back I was talking with my best friend about improving my iman (faith) and mash’Allah she gave me a really good suggestion. She told me about a question and answer session she had watched on the Islam Channel with a scholar called Abu Hanifah. The caller-in asked about what she could do to […]

I enjoy designing and making my own Eid printables and last year I shared them in PDF format so that people could print off and make their own.  This year I created the decorations in two colour schemes: blues-green and pink. Simply click on the link below each image to get to the PDF which you can […]

Met with Sister Sumaiyah this week and some other lovely sisters (including Sister Lubna whose artiness I was very impressed by) who were getting together to set up an new online magazine for Muslimah mothers and those Muslimah’s who are interested in all issues pertaining to pregnancy and motherhood. I thought this was a wonderful […]

Even as I write the question in the title I have to admit that I am a little biased. I was born and raised in London and I am trying to raise my children here. So what prompted the question? I went to pick up Darling from nursery this morning and said hello to some […]

I have had some hard and very heartfelt conversations with my husband in recent times, about trying to do the right thing, trying to raise your children in what seems to be the right way and still seeming to get it wrong. Like the following: We have never had a TV, for reasons explained here. […]

After two weeks, I felt like a human being again today, so decided to get going. We have all been eating junk and left-overs so I made some steaming hot and very spicy chickpea curry and mince kebabs for my sisters. After feeding the kids all sorts for the last few days, I decided to […]

As I looked out from the rooftop of my grandfather’s house, I could see that others from surrounding houses had also climbed up onto their rooftops to watch. We all looked down to the main road and the jeep with the five straight-backed old men sitting in the back facing each other. All dressed in […]

I have been learning to make a few new things from the Aunty who is staying with us. I really appreciate her willingness to pass on her tips and echniques alhamdulillah.This is a dish called khatta tinda or sour gourd and tastes delicious – lots of flavour and very tangy. I have got the hang […]

When I first got my bookshelves I loved them because they could house all my beloved books and more. Over the years thought they have gotten messier and messier with everyone using them as a place to dump just about everything: So I hankered to replace them, but never actually did anything about it. That […]

I’m having an interesting and busy few days at the moment. I often start my posts that way – with I had an interesting day, or something interesting happened, or something caught my interest. I’m not sure if interesting things happen to me, or if I just find everything interesting.Anyway, there seems to be a lot happening right […]

I posted recently about how I felt as if the children were running rings around me and trying to get all sorts of mischief past me and how hard I had to take firms steps to take back some control. I also mentioned how exhausting I found it to continuously keep my focus on them. […]

I caught myself recently repeatedly trying to get rid of the children – to the garden, downstairs, upstairs, to their dad, to their gran, to pester their uncles. I stopped to reflect what I was doing that could be so important that I was avoiding their perfectly good-natured chatter and the things they keep bringing […]