Belated eid mubarak lovies! and AH it's been so long!!!!! X.x
Hope you're all doing okay :3

For this post, imma show you the three outfits I wore on Eid <3 Tell me what you think and tweet me your outfits for eid! ;)


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DAY NUMERO: ONE!

I invited my in-laws and my husband's family for lunch on the first day of eid, and so in between cooking and making the house look neat, I barely had time to choose an outfit! So I went with this dress which I have featured in this post on eid long ago - I actually bought it a couple of years ago but barely wore.. and so I threw on this ensemble as I had to keep it modest:

Dress - Splash White Shirt - Burberry (I just went for the first white shirt I could find!)  Hot pink chiffon scarf

Alhamdulillah, the lunch went good as planned :') and we had a great time..


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DAY NUMERO: TWO!


We spent this day with my family who came from Abu Dhabi to see us and my aunt. We all had lunch in a Syrian restaurant (hehe), we then visited my aunt's house, and finally we invited them over to celebrate my dad's birthday.. and this was my outfit for the day:

White skirt - a Syrian store that was named 'Elle' Blue Shirt - Bursa Turkish store, Sharjah Floral jacket - a replica of an apparently very expensive brand :$ Shoes - Shoe Mart

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DAY NUMERO: THREE!


The final day I spent with both my in-laws and my parents, as my in-laws visited my folks in Abu Dhabi.. It was an evening visit, so this is what I wore:

Black skirt - Marks and Spencer Black twins - hand embroided from Lebanon Scarf - handmade in Syria Shoes - Milano

For that visit I wore an all black outfit which made me look thinner (yay!), and the shoes were so high I had to take a picture of them like this!

Overall, my eid was amazing, Alhamdulillah.. I spent it with all my family members, to whom I thank Allah for allowing us all to be together, safe, and happy..


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How did your eid go? Tell me all about it in the comments below <3


Until the next blogpost! Salam! <3

Subhanallah, how time flies! Ramadan is once again nearby, exactly when we, I especially, are in need; for its blessings in time and actions, as well as its spiritual flows and energy.
As the days until we meet our beloved month become less, I decided to plan my month ahead as I usually end up coming up with my own schedules and plans spontaneously but run out of time to actually accomplish my goals. Therefore, I wrote down seven things I want to focus on or start doing this Ramadan. Of course accidental changes of plans may occur, but never the less, planning how I want to fill my days beforehand gives me a clear view of where I'm standing now and how I want to become 30 days later.

Also, I chose these focal points based on things I have started but stopped doing, as well as wish to start doing to improve my health, both spiritually, and physically..



1. As I usually focus on reading Quraan and finish the biggest number of khitmas I can do, I decided to focus on memorizing Quraan as well.
In fact, I have already started memorizing the Holy Book, but sadly, my enthusiasm and will slowly started to diminish, until I eventually stopped. That's why, inshallah, I'm planning to start memorizing again this month and finish memorizing at least 3 parts!

2. Other than improving my five daily prayers and taraweeh at the end of the day, Inshallah, I'm willing to pray an 'extra day' every day; meaning that I would pray Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Ishaa every day instead of those that I previously prayed incomplete, like if I wasn't focused well, and so on.

3. Not only does paying 'sadaqah' improves and purifies ones physical well-being, it also improves their gifts and blessing from Allah, as the Prophet PBUH has taught us. In fact, I strongly believe in improving bad situations and good ones by paying even a very small amount of money. And so, I decided, to train myself on paying daily, especially during Fajr for its many blessings.

4. The number 400 just jumped to my mind and so I thought, why not!  Zikr, or the mentioning of Allah's name as well as praying upon the Prophet PBUH are also my focal points this Ramadan, and inshallah I'll try to do as many as I can..

5. Inshallah, I will start watching less Youtube, and therefore reducing my addiction to it. However, that doesn't include watching beautiful series and videos such as the ones I previously mentioned here, as well as a new set of episodes set to be released in Ramadan like the ones of Alhabib Ali Al Jifri and Ahmad AlShugairi.

6. Praying with the same terms and for the same intentions may lead to feeling bored or unenthusiastic about praying anymore and asking God for His blessings. Therefore, Inshallah, I'm intending to start changing my prayers, phrases, and intentions every night to increase my 'dictionary', and prabably find more beautiful ways to praise God and ask Him, Al Mighty, for His blessings.

7. Lastly, but probably most importantly, repentance. Ramadan always leaves its impact on me by reconnecting me to my beautiful religion and Merciful God, and inshallah this Ramadan I am planning to do the same, by repenting from what I have done before and starting a new chapter..

I guess this will become a checklist and a continuous reminder of what I want to change and accomplish this Ramadan, so.. may Allah help me and you by using every second of this holy month to please Him and improve our lives to the better, inshallah..

Salam lovelies! and happy mothers day to all of you mothers and mothers-to-be <3
Today's blogpost is about the four dresses I recently bought from Annah Hariri's online store ... Thankfully, they also had a branch here in Dubai which made it so much easier for me to edit the dresses to fit me perfectly!


~(˘▾˘~) The first dress is the beautiful White Tobe Abaya which I instantly fell in love with!
It has a black fabric belt which you can choose to wear or not, and it zips from the back... It fits like a dress eventhough it's an abaya, which makes it very light to wear and go out with.. I'd usually wear this with a black scarf, a black bag, and black shoes - However, it would also look beautiful with red accessories and detailing.


However, with the advantage of it fitting like a dress, what you should wear underneath it should be somewhat light and thin so that it doesn't show under the white, nor does it puff your chest up...



~(˘▾˘~) The second dress is the Dark Blue Aka Dress, which is super elegant, super comfy, and even has pockets!!
I wore this dress to events like my sister-in-law's graduation and it looked amazing as I styled it with the Beige Jersey Scarf I bought from the same store, a beige clutch, and beige/brown shoes.


I also wore my gold watch, and put on very simple bronze makeup to match the whole scheme.
As much as I love this dress, the only 'disadvantage' is its cut which makes it look like a maternity dress eventhough it's not - I guess that means I'll get to wear it when I'm pregnant inshallah, but for now, it does give me a puff in my belly area...



~(˘▾˘~) Because I loved the previous dress, I got the exact same one but with a different color: the Red Aka Dress.
It has the exact same cut which means I have the pockets (yay!), but also a small 'pregnancy puff'. I would wear this dress with either white accessories, such as a white scarf etc., or black with touches of gold, which gives it more glamour.


Because of the bright color, I can't really wear this dress outdoors by its own, so I'd usually wear a black abaya over it just to draw less attention to myself and the dress...



~(˘▾˘~) The last addition to my wardrobe is the Aksel Dress which my husband actually picked out for me!
I  was a bit hesitant to wear it at first because I thought it would make me look plumper, but it - thankfully - didn't... We added a belt of the same print as a statement peice, and I'd match the dress with a blue silk scarf, blue shoes, and a white clutch whcih I got from Nine West.


The dress fits beautifully and - I know it's weird - but I love it's sleeves (hehe). I also like how wide it is from the bottom, and the colors really look lively, especially that it's almost Spring and afterward Summer.


Hope you guys liked my choices, and make sure you check Annah Hariri's amazing creations and collections, as they represent modesty, as well as beauty and elegance <3

Assalamualaikom everybody and I hope you're all having a great day/evening/night! This is a new series I decided to start as I am getting used to cooking now - or so I like to believe - and therefore I can share with you some yummy recipes I am cooking at home.

For this blogpost, i'll share with you the simplest and easiest salad you can make, as well as the delicious 'Greek' chicken platter I made yesterday ~


(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ Green Salad :


This salad is the easiest to make - seriously. All you need is your favorite vegetables, chooped and tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and salt! The portion and dressing depends on how much you eat and how you like it.. My husband and I usually have one tomato, one cucumber, and about five leaves of lettuce, with the juice of half a lemon.



(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ Greek Chicken Platter:


I found this dish online and instantly wanted to make it as it looked so delicious! All you need is:
❃ Chicken - I had 7 skinless chicken drumsticks.
❀ Potatoes - I cut two big potatoes into quarters and smaller pieces.
✿ Garlic - for the seasoning, I used about 6 cloves which I cut very small
❁ Olive Oil - for the seasoning, just to mix everything well.
✾ Lemon juice - for the seasoning, I squeezed half a cup of lemon juice which was about two and a half lemons.

Salam peeps! I'm back with another DIY project, one in which I really love and wanted to share with you <3
Melting crayons has been a trend for quite some time on the net, and my friend, Jana, and I once created beautiful canvas using the technique of sticking bare crayons on the top of our canvas and a quote of our choice using foam core board the way we wanted, and melted the crayons vertically using the blow dryer... Mine's on the left, and Jana's on the right:




The end result was quite adorable, not so perfect though, but it doesn't matter! It was so much fun to make that I decided to create another canvas using a different technique, and this is how I did it ~







The things I used were:

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ A background to work on as this project is a bit - very - messy. I first used a black A2 paper, later to find out that I needed more coverage of the floor as the crayons splashed everywhere!
☜(⌒▽⌒)☞ A canvas, of course.
☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜) Crayons, and I used the colors green of different shades, same with the red, and white.
☜(⌒▽⌒)☞ A plastic knife to hold the crayons in place as I heated them.
(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ I chose to have the word 'DREAM' on my canvas, and so I traced and cut it from a foam core board. I also doodled a little bit on the letters, but you'll see how I changed that later on.
☜(⌒▽⌒)☞ Finally, of course, a blow hair dryer..








☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜) It truly looked beautiful especially as I tried to blend in the colors together, but I then decided to use the previous method as well to add more color and direction to the canvas. So I placed the colors in the direction I wanted and heated them up, later to remove the pieces and place the letters in their positions to hide the traces.
















☜(⌒▽⌒)☞ At first I was happy with how the letters looked, but then I decided to carry on with the flowing concept I had created and drew dripping shapes on the letters.

I then filled the shapes with glue using a hot glue gun to create a 3D effect and painted the letters in white acrylic paint.

Alhamdulillah, it turned out beautiful as I set it near my bed on a wooden holder I got from from a cheap Japanese store called Daiso.





If you liked this DIY make sure to try it yourself and tweet me your creations! Until the next blogpost, keep dreaming x

The start is always the hardest part, they say. Whether it was fear holding us back or uncertainty, taking the first step into the unknown becomes a challenge that holds us back... or maybe it is the past and old memories that haunt us and generates our hesitant steps? Either way, once the first step is taken, there is no going back.



I got married and moved to Dubai, moving by that to another university to study in. I won't be talking about the beginning of marriage life and its responsibilities, nor the beginning of a whole social life which I have to create for myself as I moved to another emirate, but the beginning of a new university life, and let me tell you this - it was terrifying.
Other than the uncertainty on my behalf of whether i'll be capable enough to balance my wifey-responsibilities, studying journey, and social activities, I entered a new atmosphere which I have never experienced before, and for the first time in a very long time: I felt lonely. The whole atmosphere was different, and being new made it all harder to adapt to...

I have already experienced new starts; once when I moved with my family to Syria for five years when I was 10 years old, and another time when I entered my old university at the age of 17, but never previously have I felt this nostalgia and loneliness! I guess the only reason for that is because I grew older, and as I did, I became more attached to my surroundings... Which apparently is bad.
I have also experienced being in friendships that came to an end, ones which included me getting very attached to others, as well as getting attached to places as I felt I simply found myself in, and then traveling to some other place or country. Therefore, I should - by now - be able to control my emotions and attachment to my surroundings! But I guess things are easier said than done.

I know I'm harming myself by being an introvert in this new environment, but I just can't help it! I can't help missing my friends whenever I'm in the bus alone, or the library, or even the classrooms. I keep telling everyone of how important it is for yourself to let go in order to move on, but why aren't I doing that?!

....

Writing this has taken me a week. I've given myself 7 days to put my feelings to the test and see whether they have changed - and they have, very slightly, become more positive.
Yes, I still do feel alone, and I miss my friends TERRIBLY! But I have somehow came out of my shell and made some new friends... I've also decided on how I want to spend the rest of this year here; I will try my best to adapt and move on, but stay focused on what's already in my hands: my house and amazing husband, my duties as a young Muslimah growing up and is ready to learn and give back to her religion and community, and most importantly, focus on my studies. I'm actually looking forward to this semester and year, hoping massively that I'd one day look back at this post and find it weird and amusing how I could actually think of such thoughts and be negative.

I mean, t's just the first week that's hard and terrible.. right?

A new chapter of your life begins as you enter the university campus in awe.. You start thinking to yourself and wondering how you'll manage to prove yourself in classes full of strangers and whether you'll be able to familiarize yourself with your surroundings and make friends - you start scaring yourself before you even start! However, once you actually start attending classes and getting to know the people, you realize how your fears and concerns shouldn't have been there in the first place; slowly you'll grow to like the major you have chosen and become more confident, and whether you liked it or not, you'll make a group of friends that you'll hang out with whenever you're free.

In the previous blogposts, I have spoken about choosing your major and university, however, in this blogpost, I shall hopefully help you, beautiful people, to meet the right type of people and make the right type of friendships as who you will meet in university will be of every type and background, of good and bad qualities and intentions..

First, be welcoming and pleasant.. Introduce yourself to the student sitting next to you or the one that attends many of your classes so you'd have something in common to talk about and start a conversation; slowly, you will make friends with everyone in your classroom and be able to tell apart hard-working students from lazy ones and who you should stay friends with and who you shouldn't.

However, keep in mind that not everyone around you may be as welcoming as you, and they either need time to familiarize themselves with their surroundings or are very introverted. Personally, on my first day of university I met a girl and started talking to her. but she was so quiet that I thought she didn't like me or didn't want to make friends at all! Sure enough, she started opening up and we became very good friends.

Second, make friends with those that will benefit you as you will benefit them. Such friends will be willing to help you whenever you're unsure about something or you needed help, and you in return will help them whenever they may need your help.. Such friends were very important to me in my studio and drawing courses; my friends and I would lend each other an pen, an eraser... but most importantly, an opinion. Hearing different points of view really helps in polishing your ideas, and hearing them from those that share your same set of rules but different imagination is absolutely wonderful!

Third, assume the best about people, but beware of the worst. The people you will encounter on a daily basis are from different natures and personalities; some are nice, while others are mean.. Some are selfless, while others are needy and greedy... etc.
Therefore, try to be as nice as you can to everyone and offer your help as long as it doesn't become a standard or unappreciated by the other, and hold yourself from becoming too attached fast as it may hurt you.

Fourth, have your limits and learn to say no.. Don't get carried away helping people who are unappreciative, but also don't be too greedy to offer any help. Don't count too much on people and depend mostly on yourself because if you're too dependent, people will get sick eventually and probably start avoiding you or making excuses to helping you! Which is a feeling I personally have personally developed towards a friend of mine, and it hurts to think that I wouldn't offer her help or even sit around and talk to her, but I just can't! ><'

Last but not least.. Most importantly.. BE YOURSELF. I don't really have any explanation to this as it is self-explanatory, but always keep that in mind as start applying that from day one ;)

Also, a very important word to put out there is that friends make your days at uni much happier and easier, and I'm saying that because not everyone is actually willing to put themselves out there and make new friends.. Sure, your old friends mean everything to you but it doesn't always happen that you're all together at the same place and time. They might be in a different university in your country or even abroad! So don't limit yourself to having only them, but meet new people, and enjoy everyday as if it's your last day, as well as staying in touch with your old peeps. Be ready to take chances and explore, make new memories with new people and be kind to everyone around you <3