What's In Your Purse?

It's been over a year since I did this one.

1. Mirror and bandaids, just in case
   
2. Blistex Lip Medex, my favorite lip balm ever, eye drops and inhaler for allergies.
   
3. Vaseline, good for many uses
   
4. Shiseido Blotting papers, hotel sewing kit and soap papers
   
5. Burt's Bees Nail Butter, 2 nail files and an orange wood stick
6. Burt's Bees beeswax lip balm and cotton candy Lip Smacker, and some Panadol
   
7. Clinique Almost Lipstick in black honey and Shu Uemura eyebrow brush
8. Ear pods and memory stick
9. Tissues and wipes are a must
10. Anti bacterial Gel
11. Essence of Beauty Pomegranate Apple hand cream and body mist
12. Phone, Nokia N95, Love it wouldn't trade it for any other. Well, maybe an IPhone. It takes good pictures, (except this one!) and video, has all my mp3's and podcasts. Love it.
    
13. Wallet
14. Sunglasses, by WileyX
15. Keys and gum
    
16. Notebooks, pens, pencils and a HK stamp. For list making, note taking and occasionally to entertain Safiyah.
    

Somehow, it all fits in my bag. This post is fun, I highly recommend doing it! You'll end up cleaning out your bag too.

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It's The Little Things

I love a bit of shopping. Just little trinkets and things. You don't have to spend a lot to get the shopping ♥ happies. The stickers are just too cute. The flowers have little faces. When I saw the Hello Kitty tape, with stars and stripes, it spoke to me! I got a double ended eye pencil and I'm pretty sure the rainbow bead thing is a choker but I'm gonna make it a zipper pull. I do love rainbows.

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Hijab... When?

So for the last few days, Zayneb has been talking about wanting to wear hijab. Now mind you, she's not yet 10 (next month).

Now ever since my girls were little, I wanted to raise them to eventually want to wear the hijab. That it would be something they aspire to do when they came of age. Alhamdulillah it seems that is the case here, but I feel she is too young and doesn't really understand the hijab. We had a talk about it.

She thinks of it as a cool accessory. She doesn't get that it's permanent. When I reminder her that, come summer, she won't wear short sleeves or a bathing suit. She said, Summer is months away! It's clear she doesn't understand the reasons or importance of it.

I asked her what her reasons for wanting to wear it were. She said so she could be "kebeera" (Grown up) I told her she has the rest of her life to be grown up. That childhood is a limited time offer and that she should enjoy being a kid because she's not yet a young lady.

While trying to convince her that she's not yet obligated nor ready to wear the hijab I worried about going too far in the other direction. I know that her wanting to is a good sign, but I didn't want to go too heavy into how it's hot at times and a responsibility. I didn't want to make her hate it, you know?

Anyway she asked to wear it just for today. I figured it would be a good way for her to try it out and see how she feels about it. I told her, OK, but if you want to wear it tonight, you have to wear it for the whole time. So I helped her with her scarf and she was really happy.



So we went out to Mcd's to meet Asiya after about 15 minutes she complained it was hot. Naturally, she played on the play structure there and it kept shifting and falling. We kept pinning and re-pinning it. She wanted to take it off. I asked her, Zayneb, Who begged and cried to wear it? You did. Stick to your decision for today. Eventually she was down to the Amira underscarf and that was more comfortable.



She's still asking to wear the Amira style all the time but I still don't feel she's ready. I think hijab is something you do once and for all. When she's old enough and ready to accept all the requirements and responsibilities of wearing it, I'll be happy to go hijab shopping with her and help her match scarves to her outfits and all that. For now, I think she's still a little girl.

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Blogger Meet Up

Tonight, The kids and I met another blogger, Asiya, and her beautiful kids, who are in town visiting from Cairo.

We met up at Mcdonald's for ice cream. She's really cool! I felt like we were on the same page. We talked about raising kids here vs America and the ups and downs of living in Egypt. The kids made all kinds of ruckus on the play structure and had a good time. It was really great to meet you Asiya, I hope we can meet up again sometime, inshaAllah!

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Hijabs & Pins

I keep my hijabs in a drawer, like so. I guess I have about 25, alhamdulillah and this drawer is just enough room. Most of the time they get all jumbled, but I'm trying to keep them neat. I organize them by size and fabric and keep the under scarves to one side.

I'd love to hang them on something like these, but I don't have the space right now.



I think the circles one would be the most slip proof, but the other two could keep them less wrinkled. I usually have to iron my hijabs before wearing them, depending on the fabric of course. Some are great and never wrinkle but pashminas and other ones wrinkle just by looking at them. Then there are the ones that are meant to look wrinkly!

These are a few of my favorites.


Let's talk pins. I recently started using hijab safety pins. I'd always used regular safety pins cause I thought the plastic part would show on hijab pins. Naseem told me you just cover it with your scarf! Duh, so they are much, much better than safety pins. More secure and most importantly don't snag on your hijab fabric.

As for straight pins, I'm a fan of the little diamond looking ones and the roses, as you can see. I saw on one blog, it's escaping me now, which, but there were bow hijab pins. Adorable.

The snowflake looking ones in the front there, I made those today! Jujey gave me the idea. I used a pair of earings, broke off the back and hot glue gunned the sparkly bit on the top of a pin! I didn't have any plain pins so I took a couple of the ones that have the little rhinestones on them, removed the stone and flattened the back part using needle nose pliers. This way there's more surface area for the glue to stick to.



How do you store your hijabs/scarfs? What about pins?

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Carrot Cake

So today I made Jujey's awesome carrot cake. It was easier than I thought, but I had her on msn asking questions all along.

I was worried about the icing part because I've never piped anything before but I just kinda winged it. I had a little extra green so Dawood suggested I write something. I thought Yum was appropriate. Next time, I think I will follow the recommendation and double the icing recipe.It wasn't enough to cover the sides and fill with plenty. I used toasted, chopped walnuts around the sides.


It was hard trying to do it with the kids hovering over me trying to get a lick of icing every 5 minutes. E loved it too.





I will definitely be making this again!

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How Could I Not?

A note left by Salwa after not listening or cleaning their room last night:

Dear Mum,

I am so so so sorry about I do today. Do you سمحىنى (Forgive me)?

(Yes-No)
Choose.

She peeked from her bedroom door to watch me read it. I looked at her and said, yes, of course I forgive you, and got a big hug. :)

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Be Careful What You Wish For...

Because you just might get it.

I have been missing rain, and kept wishing it would rain here. Give the city a good washing. In the 6 years I've lived in Hurghada it's rained about 3 times, and barely a drizzle. Well last night we had a bit of a storm. Thunder, Lightning and heavy rain. At first it was cool, I got all excited and went out in the balcony to see/feel the rain.



I watched as electric boxes started popping and sparking. Stray dogs and cats ran in zigzag formation freaking out, like What do I do? Where do I go? Then the power went out. It went pitch black. That was around 3 am.The kids woke up and we lit candles and made shadow puppets. It was kinda fun. Here's how it looked outside at 6 am.




Can you see the swimming pool that is the street below? This place is just not prepared for any major rain fall. The school bus didn't come. There's no gutters and people don't expect things to get wet. E got held up for several hours on his way back from Cairo because roads were closed. Because of some rain. The power finally came back at around 9 am. The streets are still flooded in parts but as soon as the sun comes out, it'll dry up sooner. So I guess it's a good thing it doesn't rain much in Hurghada, huh?

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5 Years!

I just realized it's 5 years to the day since my first post! Yay for me! I love blogging and blogs and bloggers! I feel like I just posted that it was 4 years, like a month ago.

This means nothing really, I just really like pictures of cupcakes. And actual cupcakes.

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Yeah

Like my new template? I can't seem to keep the same one for more than a few months. I think it's cute and fun!

Yesterday was cool. We made a spontaneous trip to Jujey's and had a really nice day there. The weather was so nice, the kids wore their bathing suits and played in the sea. This has to be one of the best things about living here, mashaAllah. It's January and we can go swimming! Alhamdulillah. I shamelessly use her for her cat and beach privileges. I would have taken pics, and now I wish I did but I left my phone inside.

After we all got changed and cleaned up we had lunch. Jujey made me some yummy food. I was the sous chef and dish washer while she was the head chef. I had the distinct pleasure of eating her amazing carrot cake. It tasted so good and looked so pretty, just like the pictures. Thanks Juj!

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Chocolate Cake

Last night, I couldn't sleep. So I did what any normal person would do. Bake a cake. It's just a Betty Crocker box mix but it's reliably good. I made buttercream frosting for the first time and this recipe is so easy and it came out great.

I tried to frost the cake as smoothly as possible but I still wasn't happy so I covered the sides with chocolate shavings and drizzled the top with melted chocolate and topped it off with some sliced strawberries.

I shared it four ways with 3 neighbors and they loved it. I had to say "Betty Crocker" with an Egyptian accent so they'd know what I was saying.



Next, Jujey's carrot cake! E loves carrot cake so InshaAllah I'll make that sooon.

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Toilet Paper, Bathrooms, All that Good Stuff.

TP or not TP...That is the Question.


I was reading a post on Sabrina's Slice of Lemon about toilet paper, over vs under. (It should be over by the way) I started to think about how most homes I go to here, don't have toilet paper. It's sold in supermarkets. Most public bathrooms in restaurant chains and Malls do but not in people's homes.

All toilets here have a built in bidet type deal called a shatafa, or the hose spray beside the toilet. It's far superior that a watering can or water bottle. This is what people in the Middle East use to wash. I'm sure there are lots of people who do used toilet paper but most use just this. See pics below, for those of you who've never seen it.



Hey look they have TP in both pics! I suspect that this is because these photos were taken by expats living or staying abroad. Most Arabs don't photograph toilets.

I'm not judging at all here, but what I don't get is, how do I put this gently? I mean, there are times when I think water alone isn't enough to do the job. Unless it was like high pressure car wash sprayer. Even if it is enough. You just air dry? Or don't dry? Doesn't that make for some...wetness? Help me out here people. How does that work? Can't that lead to infections or something?

The combination of water and toilet paper is best but I don't get how people use water alone.

Another thing is squatting toilets. On our trip around Egypt, there were some places where these were the only toilets available, so we had to use them. It was weird and worrysome but we got through it. I understand that the squatting position is best, but it could be messy if you're not dressed right or know exactly how to sit/squat. I'll take a commode over this any day of the week, but hey, that's just me.

Picture this but grosser.

Lastly, what is up with swampy bathrooms in the Mid East? Yes, we make wadu/ablution but the bathroom mirror doesn't need wadu, and neither does the floor. Most places here also don't have tubs. It's stand up showers with or without a curtain and with or without an actual square where you stand. So I guess you can see how the whole room can get wet. That's why you always need flip flops.

The good part is cleaning is easier. You just wash everything down and squeegee it towards the handy drain in the floor. I always thought those bath mat/rugs and toilet set covers were gross anyway so there's a lot to be said for water park bathrooms.



What's your take? Is toilet paper your friend? Ever squatted over a hole in the ground? Wet n' Wild bathrooms, yay or nay?

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15% off MyUmmah Sale Prices

Just passing on this coupon my brother sent me.

We're one year old and we at My Ummah want to thank you for shopping with us! Enjoy our 40- 70-% off sale and as a special gift to you as a My Ummah member, you can save an additional 15% on any order over $100. That's up to 85% off! Just use the coupon code on the right during check out.

We are happy to serve you and offer quality Islamic clothing for less!

Save 15%

on orders over $100*
until 1/16/2010.

Use coupon code: thankyou15

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LOOKLET

Looklet is kinda like polyvore, but more fun. They have less options and variety but I like that the stuff is on a model and you can choose the background as well. Of course the models are all, well, models and not average sized women, but it's fun mixing new looks. They do seem to have a bug when saving which has been frustrating but they save the items you've used to make it easy if you need to re-do it. Be warned though, It can get addictive.

I'm doing some hijab-able looks and while they don't have real hijabs, you can use your imagination and get the idea, right?

Here's my page. So what do you think?

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My Ummah Sale!

My brother's company My Ummah Clothing is having a huge sale. Everything is $39.99 or less! Including abayas. My favorite is called Khadija.

Isn't it gorgeous?

I love the cuffs.



All abayas come with a free matching shayla/scarf. Click here to see the rest of the collection including womens' tops and mens' shirts and galabayas.

$19.99 each

$39.99 each...more

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Relaxing Pics

I find coloring so therapeutic. It's so soothing and relaxing. Strange how a simple thing can clear your head and be so enjoyable. Call me immature, but I love to color.

Aren' they Gorgeous?


Trying out he B&W, Safiyah.

Power was out, peace, quiet and this great smelling candle.

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